BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 44 - 'No Excuses': Lessons from the Farm to Instagram with @Bushel_Billy
BeTempered hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr sit down with Bill Bowers, better known as @Bushel_Billy on Instagram, for an unfiltered conversation about grit, family, and refusing to make excuses.
Growing up on a western Ohio farm in the 1980s, Bill developed a relentless work ethic where tasks weren’t considered chores—they were simply "what the family did." His journey from an awkward kid who “couldn’t run” to a college football captain proves his core philosophy: success is about determination, not natural talent.
Bill’s career path is just as unconventional—he’s been a farm kid, MBA graduate (while working as a bouncer), international consultant, and agricultural specialist focused on the top 20% of customers driving 80% of business. His leadership lessons are equally compelling, especially the moment when he learned firsthand that barking orders isn’t leadership—it’s earned through action and respect.
Beyond business, Bill shares his philosophy on family leadership, describing his three-part role as “priest, prophet, and king” of his household. His parenting approach—giving his kids tasks with clear outcomes but no instructions—challenges modern micromanagement. And when discussing faith through adversity, his reminder that “the most common thing stolen is what could have been” is a powerful warning against letting fear hold us back.
Whether you’re in agriculture or just looking for a no-nonsense take on resilience and purpose, this conversation will challenge your excuses and inspire action. Follow Bill’s agricultural journey on Instagram: @Bushel_Billy.
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Speaker 2:Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 3:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 2:We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives.
Speaker 3:This is Be Tempered.
Speaker 2:What's up everybody? Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast, episode number 44.
Speaker 3:You sure, 100% positive.
Speaker 2:Today I have the privilege, or we have the privilege of sitting down with someone I've known most of my life A lifelong friend, a high school classmate and a one-of-a-kind individual. Bill Bauer is known to many on Instagram as Bushel. Billy has built a massive following on Instagram with his unique perspective, his humor his authenticity mostly based around agriculture perspective his humor his authenticity mostly based around agriculture. But beyond social media, bill has lived a life full of experiences, lessons, stories that have shaped him into who he is today. We're going to dive into his journey, his outlook on life and what keeps him pushing forward. Bill, welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast.
Speaker 4:Hey fellas, I'm excited to be here on the Lose your Tempered Podcast. Let's go. It's a small kind of small room, but we're going to make it work.
Speaker 2:And cut Way to come out of the gate man I like it.
Speaker 4:I don't even know what Be Tempered means, so I figured it was a typo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is it. It is some days, it is oh, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2:I would expect nothing less from you. We were talking, uh, the other day on the phone and we were talking about high school memories and, and you were two years older than me, yes, in high school and, and we played some football together and you talked about my first football game.
Speaker 3:And how impactful it was.
Speaker 2:What an impact. I happened to be a freshman and I was kind of forced into the Got caught off the bench. Starting lineup, first game against northridge and, uh, the very first play. Yes, sir, I was supposed to pull and I thought I pulled. Well, the way I remember it was, I was a pulling guard and I pulled, but you seemed to remember it different.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure you got out of your stance. That middle linebacker blitzed with all the force of a freight train Aimed right at center mass at you.
Speaker 2:I do remember the hit. I remember laying on the ground and I think you stood over me and said welcome to high school football. I did, I did.
Speaker 4:I peeled you up. Fun fact, it took the ground crew eight hours to get the indent of your back out of the turf. The next, next day to get it all leveled out again.
Speaker 3:So he pulled, he just pulled his back or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, never a dull moment with you. All right, bill. So how we start these podcasts is we like to hear your story growing up, so let's talk about childhood for bill bowers okay, uh, I'm a young gen xer.
Speaker 4:How's that for a twist? Yeah, that's a twist. So I I was born in the. The late 70s, um got to work and here I am. That's kind of the cliff now.
Speaker 4:So um grew up in western ohio, uh, on a family farm, rural community, rural school, um, and just thought the men in my family farm, the women, were nurses and and we just worked. That was, that was just kind of the way it was and it it wasn't a chore, it wasn't a task, it's just kind of what the family activity was and didn't didn't begrudge it, didn't mind chore, it wasn't a task, it was just kind of what the family activity was and didn't begrudge it, didn't mind it. In fact we learned to kind of enjoy it. So came up through the 80s, not old enough to understand what the farm crisis was in the 80s, but old enough to realize that things weren't necessarily rosy, that things were tight. But we made it through okay and came out the other end, did all the things that normal kids do in junior high and high school Did football, the FFA, the 4-H, all those things.
Speaker 4:I was actually told not to play football. I was not allowed to play football and when they had sign-ups in eighth grade I just didn't get on the bus. I went to football practice.
Speaker 2:Who told you not to?
Speaker 4:My mother.
Speaker 2:No Claudia.
Speaker 4:You are not allowed to play football. That would hurt my baby boy and the football sign-ups. I would go down and I signed up and I said go report to the field next day. So the next day I didn't get on the bus, I went to football practice and, uh, ended up, got played through high school three varsity letters, went on, played division three college ball, earned three letters and was captain my senior year up there still the tide for the best team in campus history.
Speaker 4:For what school was it? Wilmington college. So nice, um, but anyways, um, grew up, work some for your dad, um, we were in the same church together, worked in the community, the community festivals, like I said, the ffa and the fourH and all those things, all the rowdy stuff that board rule kids do on the weekends. Went to Wilmington, squeezed four years of college into five and walked out of there with a bachelor's in animal science and a bachelor's in sports administration. So, and played football all five years. And my plan was the big idea was I was going to graduate and be an athletic director and raise mama cows on the farm. But I didn't think it through real well. When I was nine years old I borrowed five hundred dollars from my dad. I went over to my uncle and I bought a heifer female cow from my uncle. For those that don't know, five hundred dollars. By the time I was a senior in high school I had 15 head of cattle did you really, yeah that I.
Speaker 4:I started with that one and just snowballed it 15 head of cattle. I sold half of them to pay for my freshman year of college, sold the other half to pay for my sophomore year of college. So I come out of college going to raise cattle and be an athletic director, but I don't have any cows.
Speaker 4:I sold them all for that, Okay, okay, regroup, I think. So I went down to our local high school and I got hired on to be the defensive coordinator for the football team and I said I know the athletic director is retiring soon. I'd like to become the athletic director. And they said, well, do you have a teaching degree? I said, no, I've got a sports administration degree. I can be your athletic director. They said, well, the athletic director is just a supplemental position. It's not a full-time job. It pays $3,000 a year.
Speaker 4:I'm like so quick, Matt, I'm making $2,400 a year as a defensive coordinator, another $3,000 a year as an AD.
Speaker 4:You made it. We're winning big time here. So all the plans that I had the delusional plans that I had made that were poorly thought out and came out of college with two very good degrees but a poor plan of execution for full-time employment, ended up doing nutrition research for a local feed mill, which was fine, saved a ton of money. When you work 12 days straight and get two days off and then 12 days straight you don't have time to spend your money. I don't know that the wage was all that good, but the bank account grew fast because I didn't have time to spend your money. I don't know that the wage was all that good, but the bank account grew fast because I didn't have time to spend it.
Speaker 4:And a buddy of mine said hey, that um from college, he says. He says why don't you try to get your mba? I said what do I need one in for? He says you're a smart guy, you know business, just just give it a shot. So I took the exam, the interest exam, and I sent it down to miami university of ohio and they called me and they said hey, um, you scored well enough on that exam. If you agree to teach an undergraduate course we'll waive tuition and fees.
Speaker 2:All you got to pay for is books you go from wanting to be an athletic director to teaching being a professor, essentially well and kind of a grad student, right and so.
Speaker 4:But you know that didn't take me long to figure out. I was able to get my master's in business administration, concentrated in finance, for $400. That's a good deal, $400, hands down the best investment I've ever made. That two years and that experience and the people that I met through that program just paid enormous dividends on that $400 investment. Enormous dividends on that that 400 investment. Um. So I went to miami university to to get my master's degree but, uh, paid off the 400 being a bouncer downtown on on friday and saturday. Still to this day the best job that I've ever held um was was bouncing in ox oxford ohio, your son's sitting on the other side of the glass watching.
Speaker 2:We probably won't tell any of those.
Speaker 3:Where'd you bounce that?
Speaker 4:was it? Brick street, um, right across the road, right across the, the guy the guy's brother, on the bar across the road, and and that's, that's where where I worked. And then I only wanted to work friday and saturday nights because I needed to study. I was weighing over my head, so I went to the guy and said I only want to work Fridays and Saturdays. He says no one wants to work Friday and Saturdays. I'm like, well, I need to work Friday and Saturdays, otherwise I'll get in trouble.
Speaker 4:Because I had classes Monday through Thursday. I'd go back down Friday camp out in the library, try to learn something, go to work that night. Go back down Saturdayurday afternoon camp out in the library. Go to work saturday night, keep out of trouble, make a little money and and finish the degree. And while I was there, I got an opportunity to spend six months in germany working, doing consulting work in a automotive factory that made windshields and backlights for glasses guardian automotive, yeah, which, which was really cool. Um, finished up my master's degree, was hired on to do loan underwriting at a small bank here in town, moved over into the farm credit system and loan origination and did that for six years. And then, in spite of all my degrees, I jumped into agronomy. So, like most animal science majors, you eventually wind up in agronomy.
Speaker 4:It's just it just took me a little longer to get there so I started out managing the business for for a large agricultural company originating sales, and managing the logistics and the budgets, and and all that through through some retail partners, and then recently they've moved me into more of an agronomy position where what what's really cool about what I do now is I only focus on the 20% of the customer base. That equals 80% of our business.
Speaker 4:Okay, that old 80, 20 rule that 20% of your customers is 80% of your business, but you end up spending 80% of your time with yeah, with the 80% that only make up 20% of your business. So my job is just to focus on those large cherry accounts and make up 80% of our business and I got rid of all the administrative, all the logistics and business. I got a team that helps me with that and I just focus on those account relationships with agronomic and product support at the farm gate. So that is 40 years in a great big hurry. And somewhere along the way I tricked a beautiful young woman into marrying me 20 years ago and we we have three kids and house picket, fence, a dog, the whole, the whole deal you know. So, donkeys, I don't have any donkeys.
Speaker 2:What's those? What's the videos from?
Speaker 4:Those aren't your donkeys, those aren't my dog.
Speaker 3:He just went by somebody's house. I was like I'm gonna film with them.
Speaker 4:There there are days my neighbors chaff me enough. I'm like okay, fine, you want to be rowdy neighbors, we're going to put donkeys in the backyard and up the ante a little bit nobody sings like a lonely donkey at 3 am I can promise you that.
Speaker 2:Well, Bill, you've always been a guy that doesn't waste any time with excuses. I think back to high school. Do you remember when Coach Kemper would have came in your senior?
Speaker 4:year, senior year, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you remember where we worked out at the old middle school in the bus barn? Do you remember that?
Speaker 4:That was the nice facility that was I mean. Well, let's tell the story. We started off with a machine that had four stations on it in the ticket booth Just enough room for four guys to chase each other around this stupid machine to pretend we were lifting something. Then we scabbed together enough weights and we set up a weight room in your dad's barn. Yeah, yeah, kerosene heater, and we wore gloves because the bars were frosted. And, as a living gentleman at work, you were sweating and if you grabbed the weights with your bare hands, it stuck to the weight because it was frosted. And you know there's straw drifting down from the straw mile. And you know we tried to cover all the cracks with motivational posters. We'll call them.
Speaker 2:They're still up.
Speaker 1:They're still there.
Speaker 4:And so, finally, they lit us the old VOAG room at the school that they were getting ready to decommission. Yeah, which?
Speaker 2:was our middle school our middle school.
Speaker 4:Yeah, coach, got the call late in the evening. Um, lucasville prison had a riot and they're getting away of all the rid of all their weight equipment. And we hooked the livestock trailer to the truck like a bunch of hillbillies and we headed to lucasville prison and threw as many weights in the back of that thing as as they they would let us. Then we then we set up in the shop with scrap metal and welders and we made benches and we made racks and we were and, uh, we, we built the whole thing and they let us move it into the old shop.
Speaker 4:And uh, that's that's where I still got a key to that shop. Is it still standing? It's still standing. You probably don still got a key to that shop. Is it still standing? It's still standing. You probably don't need a key. Probably not. I don't think the windows are intact.
Speaker 2:There's not much intact.
Speaker 4:But that summer me and one other fellow had decided to go on and play college ball and Coach gave us a key to the weight room so that we could train in the mornings before school and prep for for our college careers, I guess. So yeah, that was.
Speaker 2:That was quite the time. I I mean, I have fond memories of, of all those things. I didn't know if you remembered being in the barn at the house, um, oh yeah and and I remember that actually I don't know there was a kerosene heater.
Speaker 2:I think it was a nipco, probably, and you'd fire that thing up and catch yourself out. I don't know if it was a kerosene heater. I think it was a Nipco, probably, and you'd fire that thing up and catch yourself out. I don't know if anybody listening knows what a Nipco heater is, but it's basically like a flamethrower.
Speaker 4:Kerosene or diesel either You're a small jet engine on wheels that runs on kerosene, but the backdraft is pointed at you.
Speaker 2:And when that thing fires up, it doesn't initially just, you know, light.
Speaker 4:There's usually a little bit of smoke, which is, uh, I'm sure, toxic, and then and then it lights up and it sounds like it, just like yeah it's very much a a movie scene where they're running from the bad guys and they get in there and they're trying to start the engine and it's, and puffs of smoke are coming out.
Speaker 2:You're high as a kite like okay let's lift something heavy oh, that's good man. Those are.
Speaker 3:Those are some memories, so going to the jail that's a real story or going to the prison, yeah, getting the weights, yeah with livestock trailers yeah where the heck's lucasville?
Speaker 4:southern ohio way down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you probably well, you were probably too young, but yeah, they were. They had the lucasville prison riots and and I actually forgot all about that until you said that yeah, that is amazing yeah, that's how we got our way to that national trail back in probably 1992, 91, I don't know what the years we brought home what?
Speaker 4:2,500 pounds of steel. Yeah, Just pitching out the back and like yeah.
Speaker 2:When you went from a universal machine the size of this table and you got all this weight equipment. I mean, it was like and then welding your own benches. Oh yeah, we did all that. I remember that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm sure there's still some around, because I I'm sure sure we use quarter inch tube steel, and yeah, I mean heavy, heavy stuff and then chuck thomas doesn't mean anybody, anybody listening, but you and I remember, chuck, we whoever welded it up we braised our initials on the bottom of the bench. I'd always wanted to go up there and flip some of them over to see if our initials are still underneath maybe we'll have to do that.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll record an intemperate episode in there. All right, bill, so you've always my memories of you and even now you've had a no excuses mindset. Mm-hmm, was there a specific moment or lesson in life that helped to shape that for you?
Speaker 4:I didn't really know it was an option and I've got a photo on my desk. I hadn't looked at in a long time until we talked the other day. And in college the defensive line we come up with, the team motto for the year was no excuses, and we had camp T-shirts and it says no excuses across the front of them. At the same time my grandfather was going through chemotherapy Felt awful and bad. I stopped to see him before I left for school and I've got a photo on my desk with me and Grandpa staying in his kitchen. I'm wearing that no excuses t-shirt because Mom and I went out there to give him a pep talk to make it through his chemotherapy. Give him a pep talk to make it through his chemotherapy. But thinking about that mindset, the primary thing that jumps out to me is my parents and the folks around me never once blamed the referee, the teacher, the judge blamed the referee, the teacher, the judge. It was all you. You achieved what you put in the work to do and if there happened to be a controversial call, then you cut it too close. If whatever it was was so close that in a split second there had to have been a judgment call. That could arguably go either way. Then you cut it too close and it was never that conversation on the way home. Well, that referee or that judge was blind or that, you know, he just hates our guts and the teacher doesn't like you and the coach wouldn't play me, and da-da, that was never the conversation on the way home.
Speaker 4:And so that kind of built the foundation and really, for me, I still don't have any athletic talent. I didn't have any athletic talent as a kid or a teenager. My mother's going to kill me for this, but she used to chase me with syringes, trying to teach me how to run, because I as a kid I couldn't run. I didn't know how to run. The junior, the middle school gym teacher, kept me after class to try to teach me to run. I was that awkward and and clumsy, I just zero athletic talent.
Speaker 4:And I've always had the mindset if I am here and I've made the team and I'm surrounded by all you guys with natural athletic ability, then I don't want to hear you crying, I don't want to hear you whimpering. If I can make this happen, if I can earn that varsity letter, if I can earn that spot, then there's no reason you guys can't either. So it just wasn't. No one ever showed me a way to blame shortcomings off of somebody else, and then I would look around and see all these perfectly capable people and it's like you owe it to yourself to do better to get there to fill your potential. I mean, you should not be outperformed by me.
Speaker 4:I couldn't run, couldn't catch, couldn't throw. I was strong and mean as a snake. Those were the only two things that that made me successful on what was wrestling or football or anything else. It wasn't athletic ability, and so, um, it was just that mindset that if I can do this, then if you, if you can get past whatever mental roadblock, whatever emotional roadblock is holding you back, you can do so much more. And if we're on a team together, I need you to do better, I need you to do more.
Speaker 2:Great answer and truth and man, that's got to hit some people in the mouth in today's society, right? Yep, I mean, because it's about the opposite of what, what we see and what we hear. You know, we're finishing up basketball season with our, our fourth grade boys and man coaching some of these games and hearing, you know, parents in the stands opposing team. I mean it's brutal it's brutal. I mean in basketball everybody's on top of each other.
Speaker 3:So you know it's man, especially the elementary gyms we play in literally on top of each other, right.
Speaker 2:I mean, I just shake my head sometimes, just like really, I mean, let's put this in perspective. You know these are 9, 10, 11-year-old kids and you're out here cussing out a referee.
Speaker 4:I mean it's just amazing how people look for excuses instead of pointing the finger at themselves, sure account, zero accountability and that's the whole point of u-sports is let's teach accountability, let's teach responsibility, let's have a little fun along the way, and if someone gets upset and lose their temper, that it just ruins the whole experience, right for sure.
Speaker 2:A lot of people talk about what they want to do, but few put in the work. Why do you think so many people get stuck talking and not doing?
Speaker 4:that that can be deep, but at the root of it it's a fear of failure, and that that fear looks different for different people. You know, if we paint with a broad brush I mean broad we all have bugaboos that we carry up from our childhood. Right, we all have an individual experience, but from from a broad perspective, you know, typically the number one need of women is security and the number one need for men is honor and taking a risk. Doing something different, doing more than what you've achieved, is either a risky and insecure position or it's a place where I could fail and and damage my honor. Right, and you know my wife and I will that fear manifests in perfectionism.
Speaker 4:Right, instead of moving and figuring out and get going, it's grinding through the details, it's preparation. I'm making progress, I'm being smart about this, I'm being a good steward. Really, it's just a cycle to put off that first step into getting something accomplished. We can come up with all the excuses and all the reasons and accomplished. So we can come up with all the excuses and all all the reasons, and a quick Google search can show you a thousand examples of why people that have overcome the same things, that have have made it happen that have made it work and really nullify your excuses and it all comes back to. That's a little bit scary, that a little bit new, and I'm I'm afraid of failure, I'm afraid to screw this up yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:What's one of the hardest lessons you've learned about work ethic and perseverance?
Speaker 4:um, um one. We talked we were talking earlier about childhood memories and all that and and work ethic. And you know there's there's a meme that's been been broadly shared about leadership and you know there's the the first image of a guy standing on like a block of marble yelling at a team of other guys to pull it, versus the next image of the guys in front of the team helping pull and lead the way. And one of the first instances I've had of that is when I was elected president of the FFA and we had a community volunteer event. You know we're going to go down to Fairgrounds, pick up garbage, do our community thing. And I'm in charge of this group, I'm the president, I'm in charge and I just start barking orders let's go, let's go, move it faster, faster, faster. Get the bags, move this. You missed a piece Over there. How about this corner?
Speaker 4:And Joe Salone grabbed me by the back of the neck and says what are you doing? I said I'm being a leader. He says You're pissing people off. He says you're pissing people off. He says that barking orders is not leadership.
Speaker 4:You know, building your team around you, getting by and being an example, putting in the work, that's leadership and you know it just hit me and it's always stuck with me that you can bark and scream and carry orders and people may even do what you say, but they're going to resent it. And it's that buy-in, it's that collaboration that I'm here with you. We're going to do this together. This is not just being dictated down to you. This is a team effort dictated down to you. This is, this is a team effort that that type of leadership is just so powerful and can move, move away so many objects and kind of go along with that. You know, I was as a younger man, I was a pretty rammy, jammy kind of guy. You know that there's only one way to do it okay, I never heard of rammy jammy definition is just just full throttle, just force it through.
Speaker 4:Whatever needs done, we're just just go at it, right. And um, there were so many examples of the men in my family using finesse to accomplish things without the screaming, without the curse words, without the stress and and all those, all those things I can remember, uh, second second cousin of mine, jim, um, I went over to help him work pigs and growing up and if you don't understand about working pigs, that's fine my mentality of chasing pigs through a barn was like taking the battlefield in a Scottish kilt and a broadsword and going oh it's coming to me, you know, and I go over to Cousin Jim's to help him out and he opens the gate and just kind of pats the pig on the back and the pig goes over here and he opens another gate and the pig walks out and I looked at him and said how'd you do that?
Speaker 4:He says it's simple, we do it every day and you know, I thought you had to scream and beat and roar yeah, absolutely and absolutely. And he didn't even have to say a word. He just a stick here and a gate there and they went all over. And my uncles and my dad were the same way when we were doing farm work. And you get it exercised, you get your blood pressure up and it's real easy to just start trying to slam things through.
Speaker 4:Things are going to slam things through, things are going to break, bad words are going to be said and you know it's it's going to be bad and and to watch these, these strong, capable men in my family use finesse and gentleness to move, to move through and navigate obstacles was just so impactful because it was. It was completely opposite of my mindset, right to just jump in and and and do it, and to slow down long enough to think through it, to give people time to process and digest and and to work with you instead of instead of against you, and um, it was interesting. One thing I always carry with me is about my father. As his faith deepened and his Bible study deepened, he became I don't want to say tolerant, but it was a much gentler approach and a much more understanding approach, much more forgiving of shortcomings and mistakes.
Speaker 4:And you know, as a kid, in rough budgetary times and things are tight, you remember your dad being big and scary and iron-fisted and damn it, everything counts and don't screw this up. And you know, as we came out of that and and he, he developed deeper in his faith and and just the kindness that he would show and the understanding and not compromising, not getting walked on or taken advantage of, but how much more we could accomplish with a more finessed, softer approach. Um, you know, from from the time I was 17 years old and and joe salone called me out on on bad behavior all the way up until until adulthood, watching, um, watching this from the men around me. That just just spoke volumes yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:That's. That's great. Leading into that, who who's made the biggest influence on your life and how have they shaped who you are today?
Speaker 4:Again, it, it'll, it's. It's those, those strong, capable role models that I had, the men in my family, the men that I worked alongside with, that were strong enough to be kind. You know that I probably carried with me more than anything how to set your boundaries, to be firm, not to compromise, but also they're strong enough to be kind and tolerant and accepting the shortcomings, and so I can't really point to well, you know, this one conversation or this one individual. It was all their influence. You know the Bible says, in the words of two or three men, a thing is established. Well, as a young man and there's three or four or five role models in my life that are exhibiting this it becomes established as a way for a grown man and an adult to conduct himself.
Speaker 2:And now you do that as a father, I try.
Speaker 3:You do, and now you do that as a father, I try, you do, you do.
Speaker 2:Can you share a challenge or an obstacle you faced in your life and how it's impacted you?
Speaker 4:algebra two lane mosaic tile. That's hard. Have you ever tried that you did something?
Speaker 2:what'd you do on your back porch? Didn't you have to string all that wire? Was that you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh, what a nightmare that was.
Speaker 2:Because of you, we did not do that. On our back porch, it looks beautiful.
Speaker 4:But there's times like if I don't put this up, I can just jump, you know. But the cool thing is, for those that don't know, the we don't have railing around our deck. It's a. It's a series of high tension wires um to increase the view of the beautiful backyard um the the side.
Speaker 4:The bonus is if you electrify wires three and five, that keeps the kids from climbing on we need video of that yeah, well, because the worry is, you know the kids will climb up and they'll fall off off the deck, and it's just 20 feet in the air. So by electrifying every other wire they learn real quick not to climb on on the railing you're gonna get notified by child protection services it's not worth the cattle.
Speaker 4:all the time it's low voltage, low voltage, okay, something hard, okay. So you and I spoke last week that my goal for this podcast is not to sit here and sound like I got it all figured out right. My goal for this podcast is someone listening to go damn, if he's still in the game, then there's a chance for me. Um, so something that I that I'm struggling with now we'll we'll talk present day um, and and I'll go ahead and share this with your listeners is is being the executive of your household. Right, and and you know, I run a business, I've got a full-time job and you're making executive decisions and there's co-workers and employers and customers and you have to manage that all day.
Speaker 4:The last thing you want to do when you go home is manage your family. You just want to be with your, your family, but it's incumbent upon you, as the head of your household, to exhibit that executive leadership and to make sure that everybody's moving in in a positive direction. You don't want your kids to go, go dumb on you, especially you. You've got way too many kids 17 to Five Come on To afford.
Speaker 4:If two or three of them go dumb on him, he's underwater, he'll go bankrupt, that's right. Dumb kids are expensive, it's true. So you know, as a husband and a father, you've got three roles right Priest, prophet and king. So now, before the emails start flying, don't hang with me.
Speaker 4:Don't get upset. So, as the priest, you're supposed to bring God into your household, right? Introduce your family to God. As the priest of your household, as the prophet, you uplift your family to God, right? You pray over your budget. You pray over your needs. You pray over your kids overnight.
Speaker 4:The best way to keep your kids from going dumb is pray scripture over them every night. If you don't stop before you go to bed and pray over your kids, I'd firmly believe in it and do it. And then the last thing is king, and that's the one that gets people's blood pressure up. But king does not mean I am the ruler and I set the way, and I do think what king means is you're responsible. Everything that happens in that household, everything that happens in your family unit, you're responsible for, whether you did it or not. One of your kids get, go dumb and break, get brought home by the sheriff you're responsible. It's not that kid's fault, it's your fault. Your marriage gets stressed. You're responsible for that. Your finances get out of whack. You're responsible, um, for for all that. So you know one.
Speaker 4:One of the things we try to do weekly is is to sit down and have a meeting um, just to make sure everybody's coordinated and all the schedules are worked out and all that. And what I would like to do is expand that, then, and the difference between running a business and running your household is I don't have to come up with a specific task, right, my job is to help my wife and my kids develop a vision for their life and where they want to go, especially the kids. Help them develop a vision and then, okay, so what steps are we going to take towards that vision and facilitate the conversation that, as a family, want to look this way? We want to head in this direction. As a young man and a young woman, uh, coming up to the teenage years, this is the vision for my life and it's going to change and you'll get halfway down the road, well, and they'll be like this is kind of boring. I want to do something, okay, so we pitched the last 24 months over the work and we just started on something else, and that that's fine, that that that's all part of it, but it's. It's helping them articulate a vision for themselves, and then let's take steps forward and and bringing the accountability and the responsibility for for those steps.
Speaker 4:It's not for me, as the head of the household to say you're going to go do these things. It means like, okay, what, where do you see yourself going? And help them facilitate that conversation, okay. So what steps are we taking to get there? What are you going to do in the next 30, 60, 90 days to bring you closer to where you want to be? And that as as my kids are moving into those teenage years and we're getting closer to launching them into and I've made no bones about it that my job is to launch you in the world right?
Speaker 4:your mom and I are forever. You three are just passing through, okay we're going to launch you into the world.
Speaker 4:But in order for me to do that, I need to help them envision where they're going to go and how, and how they're going to get there. So we're going to spend those teenage years, um, experimenting and doing tasks, and I'm going to challenge you and then follow up with you to do something that brings you closer to to your life's vision. And you know that all sounds well and good while we're we're sitting here around the table, but in practice it is so hard. Oh yeah, it is. I mean it, but and it's, it's the love of family and the kindness and you want to protect and you want to hug them. And I don't want to have a business conversation with you. I mean you're, you're my family. I just want to be and enjoy and laugh together. But it is my responsibility, everything in this household is my responsibility, and sooner or later you're going to leave and you need to be equipped to leave. So once a week we're going to have this conversation of where you're going and what steps you're going to take to get there yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great advice, I think, for anybody, any parent out there with you know kids that get into you know those teenage years and those formative years where, especially in today's age, where they can be swayed in so many different directions with social media and all this. You know fake life that a lot of these people are showing and living um, you know getting down, down and dirty and saying, all right, what do you want to do? How are we going to get there? Those are important conversations. All right, what motivates?
Speaker 4:you to get out of bed in the morning. It's not motivation, it's discipline. Motivation comes and goes. There's highs and lows. It's a discipline to a routine.
Speaker 4:There's been times in my life that I've been very disciplined and very routine and then your little snow globe that you live in gets shook up and everything goes, goes haywire and and you got to rebuild that, that discipline again. But, um, motivation comes and go. But especially if you're, if you're married or you have a family and I know not everybody listening does but if you've got that vision of where you're going right and we're building this thing as a family my wife and I are building this as spousal units then it's a discipline to those details and those routines that are going to get us there. And there's days you wake up and like, hot damn, let's get something done, let's go do it. And then there's days the alarm clock goes off and not again. So you can't really rely on the motivation. It's 5 am this is what we do at 5 am. It's Sunday afternoon this is what we do on Sunday afternoon. It's just that discipline and that routine that's all built around a common vision and a common destination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great answer. Discipline is where it's at, for sure. How do you envision your life in the future, 20 years from now? Where are you at? Hopefully on this side of the ground, yeah.
Speaker 4:Sliding into the grave with nothing left but strawberries and a half bottle of champagne. Woo, I'm out. Here's one thing that an old fellow told me several years ago and I've witnessed it. An old fellow told me several years ago and I've witnessed it. Once you learn to recognize it, it's heartbreaking to watch.
Speaker 4:But once you run out of goals and your goals for yourself are replaced by memories, and that's all you have left are your memories, you run out of hope. There's no hope for the future. There's no hope, um, for you know what, what tomorrow brings right. And so I've got goals and visions where I'd like my business to be, where I'd like to be professionally and and all those things. And I've got timelines that I've communicated to my wife like my business to be where I'd like to be professionally and all those things. And I've got timelines that I've communicated to my wife and my business partners and my employer of places I want to go. But so who knows which one of those pays off? Who knows which one of them we take and we take off. But no matter how old I get, it will be my intention to set a goal and it may not be much you know when my grandfather was 100 years old, how much more could you want to?
Speaker 4:accomplish right but he would say I'm going to trim hedges today. And he lived in his house until he was nearly 102 when he passed away in his own house. But he's 9,900 years old. My goal I'm going to trim the hedges. It may take me three days, but I'm going to trim the hedges and I stopped in.
Speaker 4:He was 99 years old and I stopped in and he edged the sidewalks leading up to his house. I brought the loader up and I scooped a two yard bucket full of sod that he had had trimmed off his sidewalks and and so if you don't have some sort of goal or something, you just sit there and reflect on your memories. Hope vanishes, despair, despair sits in, and that's not a whole lot of fun. So, for as long as I'm able to articulate it, I hope that my wife and I can set goals every year and be moving towards something, and that's going to change with seasons. Right now, with kids and college and all that, that's a very specific season.
Speaker 4:I was talking to a classmate of ours uh saturday and he said one of two kids is out of the house. Enormous dynamic change in the house is like it's really been an eye-opener where, where we're going in in our relationship. So whatever that season brings is fine, we'll face it when we get there, but we're going to set goals and accomplishments along the way, um, because if you don't, then things get ugly for sure, any regrets in life so far selling the cattle yeah, that was dumb, but I didn't have as much college debt either.
Speaker 4:It all worked out, um. So, you know, we've talked just about youthful ignorance and the opportunities that you miss because you just didn't know any better, and and I don't know that it's necessarily regrets, because your experiences make you who you are and all that. But I wish I'd been more serious in my 20s and more productive in my 20s. I had a great time, y'all, it was a blast, but there were certainly missed opportunities and um and things that that I would do do different. So, uh, with, with that in the back of my mind, a couple things, um that I'm trying to do with with my kids, just to set them up differently, with maybe a different mindset as we spend um. Once they get into high school, we start talking in terms of of net margin and volume, which is really weird, it is, but, but I want them to understand how, how to recognize opportunities and that that everything around us we're sitting here in downtown, every building here is running on net margin, times, volume, yeah Right. And so we take an example.
Speaker 4:You look at a social media star and she and her husband lived in a janitor's closet. She put in the work won Miss Olympia. Now they own seven businesses and and they they took that, that notoriety and turned it into to a fortune. She's got four million million with an m. Four million followers on social media. She has a merchandise line sells 60 t-shirts. It's got a 40. She jumps on the internet and says, hey, for Friday, only 30% off these t-shirts. Go out and buy them. Still got a $27 margin in those t-shirts. If she can get 1% of the 4 million followers, that's $88,000 on a Friday afternoon. That's pretty cool. Yeah, right.
Speaker 4:And so you know, my oldest is sitting over here in the engineering room and he told me one day he's like I want to own a guitar shop. Okay, how much is an average guitar? $400. Assume a 30% margin. How many guitars would we have to sell to make $80,000 a year to pay rent? And we sat down, we started penciling. One it makes it feasible. Two, it helps raise awareness and understanding of how things are going.
Speaker 4:We were filling up with gas the other day. I said what if I bought this gas station and had you manage it for me? He looks around and says well, the signs are all wrong. All the stuff in the windows has got to go, we've got to do this and you know we've got gas stations up the road. We can't do much with the price of gas, but it's got the largest beer cave in the county In the neighborhood we're in in. That's probably a pretty big selling point. So we need to redo all this to highlight the largest bear cave in in the county. Right and just spitballing those conversations just to try to think of the world a little differently. So you can. It's like reading the matrix, right you?
Speaker 4:gotta see see what's going on behind it. And um, a tip that I picked up from somebody else and I've been trying to implement with my teenagers, which is really cool, is to give them a task without instructions but only results. So here's something I want you to go do Go out into the barn and do this and if you're successful, you'll recognize these three things. These three things will happen to you. Well, how do I do it? Figure it out. And the challenge there's just that different form of education and problem solving and working through things versus memorization and regurgitation. That here's the task, here's the desired results. You've got an hour. Go and just screw it up. There been something up. It's gonna cost me some money, but it's going through that process of seeing the start and the finish and filling in the task on their own, and it annoys the kids to death. Just tell me what to do. No, go figure it out. Go figure it out.
Speaker 4:And I gave my oldest a tip. I was like whatever you do, do not do this step first. This is the last step. 90 minutes later I go out. He's sweated through his shirt, he's mad, and the step I told him not to do was completed. I said that's the last step. You did it first. He was like, yeah, that was, that was a bunch of hooey. I was like, okay, okay, so we're learning schools, schools in session, so anyways, I what that means for my kids is as they launch into adulthood. I don't know, but I'm I'm just trying to frame reality a little different for them so maybe they could recognize some of the opportunities that came my way as a young adult, that I was enjoying life too too much to recognize, and just just help launch them with a little bit more of a headstart than than what I had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, that's great. All right, bushel Billy, that is your Instagram handle. Yeah, over what? 12,000 followers or something, something like that? Yeah, how did that start?
Speaker 4:and how did you get that many followers? It's a mystery. It's a mystery Working for a large company in the agricultural space, and there's a lot of disconnect between consumers and agriculture. There's a lot of unknowns. So we're always encouraged to share your stories, share your agriculture story, all this stuff.
Speaker 4:It was 2017. We had just sold our house and was living in a rental, shopping for our next home, and, um, my wife and I were spitballing some handles and we we came up with bushel billy and I threw, threw a couple videos out there and and they caught traction and, um, I immediately networked with farmers and industry professionals around the world. Then the world got shut down. No one had anything better to do than to stay at home and go through their phones. Pardon me, we were still working every day. It was just the right place at the right time to have some momentum and to network with some great people in the industry.
Speaker 4:I've made friends in Australia, brazil, austria, canada and all across the US, and it's just been for me. It it's just been a fan. For me, it's always just been about networking and a lot like this podcast is just learning other people's story right and just how different. Going from state to state, geography to geography. This industry is, and so I don't know that I ever set out with a goal or a target, or it was just a very natural progression of interacting with folks across the industry, sharing, sharing insight that I thought was interesting, that other people might, might, take along too, and it just kind of snowballed from there yeah, and I would encourage everybody to get on there and and check them out, and check out those videos, because you know whether you're videos, because you know whether you're in agriculture or you're not.
Speaker 2:If you're in agriculture, there's a lot of educational things you know that happened throughout the growing season. You know, in our, our neck of the woods, we're planting soybeans and corn and wheat, uh, some alfalfa and and other things. You know it's it's kind of a unique perspective from our geographic area. But then you know whether you're trying to be funny or not, and I know a lot of times you are. There's a lot of good comedy in there. So I would encourage all of our listeners to go check that out.
Speaker 4:I'm going to have to up my game now, you did good with the intro, yeah you did, yeah, made me want to shut it off.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just kidding, all right, as we land this plane. Last two questions. If you could have a conversation with someone, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Speaker 4:that's a dumb question. Thanks, what you're reading that off of chat GBT? Maybe Chat GBT what are interviews? No, that question's weird because the pressure is oh, it's got to be somebody that was so brilliant or influential and you know you got to make it count. This is your one job. That's baloney.
Speaker 4:I want to have lunch with. I want to sit down with and talk to the people who are where I want to be, and the really cool thing about my job my nine to five is I work with those operators in our industry that have accomplished what I want to accomplish three days a week. I get paid to take those folks out to lunch and pick their brain and that is pretty fantastic, and so that is what I enjoy most about my 9 to 5. It's exciting to me as a business owner to sit down and work and you know there's sales and product support and education, all that goes with it. But the my boss thinks I'm building rapport. I'm not building rapport. I'm taking notes of how they did that, right, yeah, how they got to where they are and everyone's got such a unique, a unique approach and a unique launching point and we were in different positions when that opportunity broke, when the opportunity came to them. At one time, I was working with 460 different farmers.
Speaker 1:None of them farmed the same way.
Speaker 4:They all approached the business differently. Now I work with 35 of the best operators in southern Ohio. I just concentrate on those 35 people. Those are my 20%, that are 80% of my business and you know we service them. We give them the support they need to be successful and the products they need to be successful and in return, I get to hang out with them and see how they do it and that they don't understand. They're mentoring me as a small business operator in that industry. But that is really a sweet, sweet kickback from my point of view.
Speaker 2:That's a great answer. And you know you talk about. You know when opportunity knocks and you know most people you go back to talking about that fear of failure and, um, you know a lot of times when opportunity knocks, I think and maybe I'm wrong, but maybe the difference between you know those 400 farmers you used to work with and those 35 you work with now, or when, when opportunity knocked for those 35, they took it. Yeah, right, no matter what the risk looked like, it was like okay, yeah, there, there's risk here, there's risk in everything, right, but there's risk here. But boy, the reward on the end could be huge. Yes, and, and maybe that's the difference between those 35 and those other 400. Is it that when that opportunity presented itself, they took it? That's a great point.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right. Last question You're a man of faith and you've. We talked about goals and aspirations in life. When things get tough, you know when it's a bad day, or when you know when you, when you've lost a loved one or business, has been bad. It's just been tough. Is there a Bible verse? Is there a quote that you lean on?
Speaker 4:There are two, and I'm blanking on the citation for the second one, but, um, and in my mind, there are two verses that illustrate the good and the good and the bad right. So, um, philippians, um, I believe the scripture is, for I know the plans that I've made for you, plans for success and not failure. And then then on, um, it may be james, um, for the evil, one stalks the earth thinking of things that he can kill, steal and destroy. And what I've come to learn is the most common thing, stolen is what could have been, is when opportunity knocks right.
Speaker 4:So on this side, as someone of faith, we believe that God has a plan for us and we'll be successful and good and not harm and all those, if we have the faith to chase it, if we take the risk, if you go out there and do it. And on the other side of that is a force that's looking to steal it and that could show up in so many different ways. It could be self-doubt, it could be setback, it could be a neighbor that that lost it all and say geez, and and put the brakes on, but but the goal is to steal what was promised to you, promise to you. And so when, when things, when things get rough and, um, you know, there's there's days that you feel like king of the world I finally got this figured out and there's days you just get the snot whooped out of you and you're like that can all be in the same day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's, it's a difference between noon and the phone call you get at 1 o'clock, but those two tend to circulate in the back of my head. That don't let what was promised to you be stolen by fear of moving forward or by fear of failure. We started off the episode of that, but the self-doubt and the obstacles that come your way is all in an effort to steal prosperity and success from your household. I'm confident in chasing that because it was promised to me. It's in the scripture. It's promised to me if I just go get it.
Speaker 2:I think that's great. I think about that every day. Like you said, there's days where I feel like man, I must be the smartest guy in the room, and then it could be 30 minutes later where it's like you are the biggest idiot I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean it's, it's amazing, but but I think the critical thing in life and what I've learned at 47 years old is that you just keep going right, you just keep taking that step forward. It's just like whether you're in football. You know we relate everything to sports, because sports was a big part of my life, a big part of your life. And you know the old analogy in football is you're going to get knocked down, right, but you got to get back up. You know you got to get back up and you got to keep going and you got to take that step every day. And, um, you know one thing I looked up a couple of quotes.
Speaker 2:I was, I did use Chad GTP and I did because what I, what I typed in, was when I think of of you and I think back on our experiences as kids growing up and in high school, and then you going off to college, and you know I I think of you as a hard worker, I think of you as enthusiastic, which has come out today. Uh, I think of you as you know, whether you do or you don't, not really caring what other people think about you, you know you are who you are and you're going to be who you're going to be. I found a quote nobody cares, work harder. Right, and that's you in a nutshell. Right, nobody cares, work harder. I don't need your excuses, I don't need to hear that this happened or that heart happened. You know it happens. It's life. Keep going. So that would hit me for you, good or bad, ben. You got anything to to add, mr bushel bill?
Speaker 3:Well, obviously the same thing that Dan kind of went to about the fear of failure. So, my favorite athlete well, one of my favorite athletes is Kobe. That's one of my favorites, and he has two of them that I was thinking of because you know I have kids in sports and it's like you know, they're always I don't want to say scared to push themselves, but when they get like like the pressure on them, what can you go back to? And there's two of them. One says uh, you know, kobe says my brain it cannot process failure, it will not process failure, because if I sit here or sit there and have to face and tell myself you're a failure, I think that's almost worse than death. And later on he would talk about failure and he would say um, you, you fail. When you lose, what do you feel? And he said I feel excited, like I just learned something, and that's the most exciting thing is because I got a chance to get better.
Speaker 3:Then the second one was um, kind of has the same thing. It says I have self-doubt, I have insecurity, I fear failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I'm like my back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don't have it, I just want to chill. We all have self-doubt. You don't deny it, but you also don't capitulate it. You embrace it.
Speaker 3:I mean that's what his mama mentality type thing is. That's what I always tell the boys. And then you talk about the two verses that you talked about. It's the same thing that I always go to whenever I'm scared to do something. Right, it's like I'll pray about it and it's like I still don't know. If I still don't know, and it's like what if I don't do that Right? Am I going to let fear take over my faith? And it's like if I feel like if I going at it with faith, I don't think god's gonna let you fall right on your face with it. You know what I mean, right? So it's like the big thing that everybody always talks about fear, or faith over fear. Don't let fear overcome your faith. You always got to have your faith over the fear. So that was the two things that I kind of took away. Yeah, that's great and we've never had a better intro that was pretty good.
Speaker 2:I knew you'd come out with something, any anything else good, it's your show boss man, I appreciate you. I appreciate our friendship. It's been fun watching your, your kids grow. It's hard to believe that, uh, they're as old as they are, because that means we're old yeah, but you're older.
Speaker 3:Thank you for that. I just still don't believe that he's younger. You look older than I mean.
Speaker 4:I just don't Ew, come on I look older because I have all the gray hair. But all his gray hair fell out, but you have hair right. He's actually got more gray hair than me, it just all fell out oh.
Speaker 2:All right. So everybody knows where they can find you at Bushel Billy, right On Instagram. Go follow, go watch those videos and have a good laugh and learn some things about agriculture. Appreciate you, man.
Speaker 4:Yeah, appreciate you coming, appreciate the opportunity, guys, good conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, coming and telling your story. So everybody go out like share, follow all those good things, go out and be tempered.
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