EPISODE 100: The Other Side of the Patio

For 99 episodes, I've been the one asking the questions.

For Episode 100, I switched chairs.

When I started planning this episode, I knew I didn't want to do the typical retrospective of favorite guests, favorite moments, or lessons learned. I wanted to do something different.

So I invited three previous Patio Pondering guests back to the patio and asked them to interview me.

Grant Hood, Andy Vance, and Amber Hoopengardner Foote each came with their own questions. Just like my typical guests, I didn't know what they were going to ask.

And they took the conversations in three very different directions.

We talked about how Patio Pondering has changed over 100 episodes, what I've learned about asking questions and listening to the answers, agriculture, careers, opportunities, relationships, and how some of my own thinking has changed along the way.

This isn't really a retrospective of the first 100 episodes.

It's three conversations about what happened along the way.

Welcome to Episode 100 and The Other Side of the Patio.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Welcome to the Patio Partner Podcast. This one is a little different. For the last 99 episodes, I've been the one asking the questions. For number 100, I decided to switch chairs. When I was planning this celebratory episode, I knew I didn't want to do the typical host review and the highlights of the past 100 episodes. I wanted something better. Something that would let you hear how the past 100 episodes have changed me and maybe helped me understand myself a little bit better. I asked three of my previous guests to turn the microphone away from them and on to me. Brent Hood, Andy Vance, and Amber Hooping Gardner Foot all enthusiastically agreed to interview me. And they did a wonderful job of asking ProV and doing to me what I've learned to do to my guests here in the patio. Just like my typical guests, I didn't know their questions beforehand, and I think you'll hear three very different conversations. So for episode 100, welcome to the other side of the patio. Here's Grant. Well, Grant, thank you for accepting my invitation to turn the tables on me and for me to be the one interviewed for my 100th episode. A lot of people do a expose where they talk about what they learned over a hundred episodes. I chose to have you interview me. So I'm looking forward to questions you have, and as I treat all my guests, I don't know what questions you're going to ask me. So I'm looking forward to how you're going to stump me on my own patio.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Well, thank you for uh the invitation to have me here today, Jim. Um really is a pleasure. Um yeah, so I guess we can get right into it. Um, you know, this is pretty cool to be sitting in the terror level suite down here with the cameras rolling and the and the headsets on. Um so yeah, we can just jump right in.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Well, like I tell my c my my guest recently, I'll hit you with both barrels. Sometimes it's a 12-gauge shotgun, and sometimes it's an elephant gun.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Well, we'll see which one we get here. Um just first thing that come to mind, um, if you could go back to episode number one or even number five, um, one of your beginning episodes, and start over, um, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_03 2:30

I think that is a very insightful question. And it's one I've thought about a lot, but I haven't thought about deep enough. The the nice thing about the progression and get into a hundred episodes is I've learned a lot. And I could easily go back and say, well, maybe I'd I'd do better at editing or I'd ask better questions. I I don't know if I'd change anything because the progression, the learning process made me better, and I think it's made the 99th and hopefully the hundredth episode better because it was a learning process. Um I guess if you pushed me for a real answer on what I would change, I think I would I would have changed away from the human interest, hey Grant, tell me about your life, into asking more deeper questions about a person and really getting those deeper questions to better understand about a person rather than just their resume.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

That makes sense. Have a little bit more of that personal connection and and understanding with them.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Yes, the understanding. Okay. And at the beginning it was more feel-good. I know the episode that you and I did when we had to redo it here. Dude, that was that was a pretty generic let me get to know you better. Yeah. Even more than I knew. In retrospect, I probably would ask you a little more probing questions.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Sure. Something something that I I've seen, you know, as I've listened to patio pondering evolve and grow. You know, I can you can hear how those questions have kind of evolved and changed throughout your episodes.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Yes, they have, and I hope it makes the the interviews and the in-listening experience for the guests better. Well, from my perspective, it has been better.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So I've enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Endorsed by Teddy.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

And there we go. Um Okay. Um yeah, I guess. What would you like to share um with your audience um if they also wanted to start a podcast, or you know, somebody came to you and said, Hey Jim, I want to start a podcast, you know, what what should I do?

SPEAKER_03 4:40

I've actually answered that question with two different people. And it's fairly easy from my standpoint. First, start with decent equipment. There's far too often we see somebody start a podcast and they get by with inferior microphone or inferior headset, and they try and make do, and they're struggling with the quality of the sound, and we're they don't get it concentrate on the questions and the guest. And the second thing I would say is just do it. It's scary as hell, it's intimidating because there's so many unknowns. How do I edit? How do I publish it? How do I share it to Spotify and Apple? Those are easy things to overcome, those are the mechanics. Just jump in and do it.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

That's good advice, definitely. And I can see where it would be a little intimidating to get started, but in the day and age of AI and ChatGPT and all of these different resources, I'm sure there's a way to easily overcome like you have.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Well, not to let everybody in on a secret, but I wouldn't have started without ChatGPT. And it was a whole lot of prompts of Merlin, that's my ChatGPT's name. I want to start a podcast, walk me through the process, and when I decided I was going to use Reaper, that's uh the editing program I use for my audio, it was a lot of, hey, how do I do this and and how do I do that? And truthfully, I couldn't have done it without AI. Because of the interaction I had and and the behind the scenes knowledge that the AI gave me, that I couldn't have had unless I knew somebody that did the work. It's no different than me calling you and saying, Hey Teddy, I got this problem with my with my display. Can you walk me through it? Yeah. So if you need a if you need a hand to help you get started, ChatGPT, Claude Sonnet, Gronk, uh whatever was probably out there could help you, or excuse me, I could help you.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Yeah. Everything's uh available at our fingertips nowadays. Yes, it is. All right, very cool. Um this is uh this is kind of a a probing one here, I guess. When an interview is not going the way that you want it to, um, or the interviewee or the guest is trying to take control of the conversation, um, what do you do to kind of steer that conversation back on course? What have you found that works for you um as far as you know keeping that interview quality and and substance?

SPEAKER_03 7:27

The way that I have developed my interviewing is and this is came from one of my guests, that I lay out a runway and I let you land a plane. That allows a lot of latitude for the guests. And I have uh I have taken the stance of I'm not going to interrupt you, and I haven't had to interrupt you unless there's something that totally goes off. I I rely on follow-up questions to steer it, and a lot of times today's episode is a great example. I I interviewed a man from Canada, and I thought we would spend a lot of time talking about the difference in farming on Alberta compared to farming in the I states of the Midwest. We didn't talk anything about that because the conversation just naturally went with the way that the interview went. I'm not gonna spoil it.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Uh so I think my interviewing style has opened it up to allow the the guests to talk about what they want, and my questions kind of set up the runway the way I kind of want it to go.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Okay. Um, what has been your single um biggest takeaway from this podcast?

SPEAKER_03 8:51

My single biggest takeaway from the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Maybe like just like that overarching big picture. Doesn't have to be one thing in specific, but just kind of that takeaways.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

I got two. Okay. And there are things that you and I were taught at Purdue, but we I really didn't practice them until now. It's silence is power. And listening is even more powerful.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Taking a little bit of time in that conversation to allow for some deeper thinking and responses and and understanding. Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Wow, I think we just had some cloud cover coming. Um Yes. Taking taking the t that's weird. Taking the time to listen to what somebody actually said is really something that we don't practice. A lot of times we listen for us to make the next question instead of listening to what people said. And that works hand in hand with silence. And it's a tough skill for us, and I notice that you're a little uncomfortable when I am quiet, because we are uncomfortable as people when it's silent.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah. We're naturally drawn to that uncomfortness.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Yeah, like, oh I want to fill in the void, you want to have a conversation. Where I've really developed that the last uh probably fifteen episodes is having that silence when somebody finishes their thought and allowing the silence to grow so that they can continue if they want to.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah. I think that's a great takeaway. Okay. Um I guess kind of going along the next direction, where would you like to see your podcast go in your next hundred episodes?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

That is really appropriate because I've got a few people in my circle of influence that asked me that same question today, and I honestly I don't have a great answer for it. The easy answer is I'd like to have quadruple the number of downloads per episode. That's that's really easy. That's a metric. What I would I think I would really like to have for the next hundred is that I continue to ask those not difficult questions, but the questions that make people think I want to continue to have guests that have experiences that are worthy of asking tough questions. And I'd like to have more viewers. Naturally.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

I mean, if that isn't your goal as a podcast host, then what are you doing? Exactly. Okay, good. That is it for the questions I have that prepared that I wrote down and prepared for. Okay. Um now it's time for you to riff. So let's do it. Go ahead. Oh goodness. Where do you want me to start?

SPEAKER_03 12:34

So I'm gonna turn the tables on you. Okay. You can be in my shoes, ask whatever you want, anything. And then you follow that with silence after you listen to what I said, and we'll see what the next question is.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Okay. Oh goodness. Hopefully your editing skills are gonna be good enough to piece this together. Oh, I I don't think I have to edit much, Teddy. Oh, shoot. Um gosh, I really hadn't thought of another kind of direct question like that. Okay, let's piece one together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Think about one person from our past that we share in common. Okay, so grab that.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Think about how that person and and I interacted. Okay. And ask me what's the lasting lesson from that interaction.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Okay. So you want me to name a person that way we would both know? Alright. So I'm thinking of my grandmother. Okay. As you probably could have guessed. When I said that, I thought, I sure hope he does his grandmother. Um, yeah. So I guess tell me about a lasting interaction that you have with my grandmother. Uh probably been a few years. Yeah, it has.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

And that is that relationship is probably the epitome of 4-H family. Because your grandmother and grandfather and your mom and and aunt and and uncle they just put their arms around me and my family and said, Yeah, let's do this 4-H thing. Um as far as one interaction, it's pretty simple. It was 1987. And I remember telling your mom and your aunt on a phone conversation. That's the long time when you used to share phones and I s I distinctly said that they were spoiled because they had opportunities that other people didn't have. And that was your grandpa's farm. Sure. And the next week, I think it was your grandpa, but it was your grandmother that said it, they asked if I wanted to raise pigs. And of course I said, Yeah. And I th I think that could pinpoint the moment where I became part of the pig industry is because your grandparents, your grandmother poking your dad grandma grandfather to let me have two white pigs out there. Two white pigs we bought from Howard Fostig.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Okay. So a little bit of that little piece of opportunity has some lasting impact. Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Yeah. So the lasting impact from a broader perspective is you never know what that one opportunity that you give somebody might turn into something that changes their life. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Wow. Almost spoken kind of like a like a teacher would speak there. Well, sometimes those teachable lessons don't come from a textbook. Yeah. They come from those real life situations and like you say, that opportunity. Opportunity. Maybe you always don't always have a fair and equal chance at that opportunity. Yes. So which I think a lot of us in agriculture can relate to that feeling. Yes. Okay. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

I think that's a pretty good example.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

This is the awkward silence. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

You gotta think of the next uh you know deep thing to to talk about or that next question that'll get you there.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Um the natural question that I would ask would be, well, Jim, that was a life-changing experience for you. Were you able to do this something similar for somebody in your life?

SPEAKER_02 17:00

I do like that. That is a good good way to lead into that question. See you showcasing those uh interviewing skills right there.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

I'm still working on building work. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Yeah. Uh so to answer my own question, Teddy. I think uh I think the natural one that's easy is we're on our f fourth foreign exchange student, and that's an opportunity to share our home, our life with somebody that that had the guts to leave home for a year. So I th that's not obviously directly ag related, but that's a way that we've chosen to help somebody else uh experience something outside of what they normally experience. Uh a direct one to to ag man, I probably got a whole bunch of 'em. The easy ones are just taking the forager under the arm and giving them congratulations or p uh a leg up. I don't I can't think of anything that's particular that's outstanding. Yeah. I I think it's the all the experiences combined to put you in a position where you can help somebody. Whether it's like we do at the auction and we do a lot of add-ons every year. Um I think it's just the general attitude of being charitable and giving with some time. But it's just the being in a position where you're able to jump forward if you need to. Yeah. I think we were at at uh Baldytown at Philmont. And we had just um it was a day after that we had had gone up the mountain and we we hiked up to Baldytown to get our stuff, and there was a young man and another young man that were sitting away from their group and he was he's having a hard time. And tears are falling, and it's like, man, dude's having a hard time. And when you're at at uh Philmont, it's ten days in a backcountry where you're alone with your group and it's physically and mentally taxing. And uh an hour later, I happened to walk past him and he was still red-eyed, and I just went up to him and said, Hey dude, I got no idea what's going on, but you just went up Baldy yesterday, didn't you? He goes, Yeah. I said, That's a heck of an accomplishment, isn't it? So, um maybe the experiences with your grandparents opened me up to being open to other people. And in in that case, encouraging that that young man, like, hey, you're going through a tough moment, but you just did something really cool. Everything else is easy after that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

No, that is cool, being able to you know take some of that time and and you know, recognize when somebody needs that little little push or that little bit of opportunity, yeah, and be able to share that and help them out.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

So that's those are a couple examples of how I've taken the hug that your grandparents gave me and turned that into something good, I hope. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So if somebody came to you and and asked you for the podcast uh freeway or highway to get started with their own podcast, are you willing to give somebody that hug and get them started?

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Oh yeah. Yeah, because I now that I'm at a hundred episodes in and I look at my numbers every week, um if somebody has the gumption to do it and they can be successful at it, I'll I'll give them a big old hug and say, here's what I've done. Here's here's the equipment I've got, here's the way I went through it, and kind of lay out the run excuse me, the runway for them. I'd be willing to do that. Yeah. And it and a hundred episodes just means that I've kind of figured out how to play the game. Sure. It doesn't mean I'm in the major leagues. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

There's there's always still you know, just when you think you get something figured out, that's when it'll start to change out. Oh no. Yes. I haven't heard any ads pop up in your podcast yet.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Well, monetization is on the horizon. It's just how far is that horizon away?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Right. Well, inevitably I'm sure it will come naturally. I mean, that's uh, you know, that's always a positive benefit to it.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Well, as my friend Ryan Martin said on his podcast last week, that should be your goal. Otherwise it's just a glorified hobby. Right, definitely. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. So I guess from the podcast in the the hundred to jump back to your question on what I'd like to do for the next one hundred, you and I are playing with video, that would be the next step. It because audio is I've I think I've got that figured out. I've gone I can go through and look at the audio form and cut and spice and making a next step so that my interviewing and my questioning is good enough that I don't have to edit an edit, and we can just go to to video.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Sure. Because I'm sure the video editing is a lot a lot harder than just the audio editing.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

Um according to my sister that works at the television station, it's impossible to do.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

And you're starting with a pretty uh challenging interview here.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

So But the but the difference between audio and video is that audio, you can find the spots on the audio form and you can say, okay, and you can spice it together, take out the uh's and that. On video, it looks yeah. You start pulling that stuff out because you might my hand might be here and they cut it out, and all of a sudden it's like, is that AI? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Did he just lose an arm? Start getting random hand movements and cutoffs here and there.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

It almost looks like stop motion. So that's the challenge that I have from an interviewing standpoint is to ask the questions so that they flow, so it's fluid, so that I don't have to edit as much.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Not like the conversation I started with.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Well, you know. We could we can do magic.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Yeah, right. Work the little AI magic on that.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yes. But it goes back to my philosophy as interviewing people. When I edit my audio, I want to limit what I do and I want to take out anything that distracts from my guest. So I admit it. I'll pull out some of the flushes on my questions. Sometimes I might lead and it's f 14 qu words to get to the questions instead of eight. So sometimes I'll cut them out if it's appropriate. I'll cut out the uhs, I'll cut out the writes and the pauses so that I can answer my c ask my question quickly and get to my guest. And let my guest be the one that that I focus on. Sometimes I'll cut out the the clicks and the uhs and the ums and a little bit of space, but for the most part once you as a guest start talking, that's what we're gonna hear. Helping ask the questions to lead up to make that better is the next step that I can go into b video easily.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Well, it looks to me like you got a pretty good challenge cut out for you. Well, I'm sure you're capable of of getting it done. So I I look forward to seeing lots more videos to come.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Well, as you see, this is the first one that we actually are sitting in something that kind of looks like a studio.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah, no, looking around, I I definitely think it resembles a studio.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

So well, ChatGPT said when I gave it a picture, that looks awful Jim.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

So Mer was it? Merlin said Merlin. Merlin knows you well. Merlin knows me well.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Oh, that's awesome. Cool. Well, Teddy, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, even though you wore a Sioux pig shirt. Okay. I know.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

At least we talked about our time at Purdue. Yes, we did. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

I appreciate you taking time to ask me a few questions. And when I was willing down to have people ask me questions, you were the first person I thought of. So thank you for taking time.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Well, thank you for having me. It was an honor to get to come back here and ask you a couple of questions, and hopefully uh your guests will appreciate it and uh continue listening and share it with their friends.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Well, the guests better appreciate it. Come on down. Cool. Thank you, Teddy. Thank you. Andy Vance, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy Friday schedule and and your return trip from South Africa to turn the tables and interview me for my 100th episode of Patio Pondering.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Dr. Smith, I gotta tell you, you know, as somebody uh who has been a fan of yours for a long time, I've I've known you guys. I really have to think about how we first met. It's probably when I was at Feedstuffs, I suppose. Um but as somebody who's been a big fan of you and your work digging into some of the really challenging issues in agriculture. I love how you start every episode talking about clear thinking in in a complex industry. I want to say something, and that's that in the media business, things are constantly changing. Uh, and so reaching a milestone like a milestone like a hundred episodes is no small feat. You know, it's kind of like starting a restaurant, and most of them go out of business. Uh podcasts start and die every day, so a hundred episodes. I got to congratulate you. That that's incredible. Uh and it's and it's I think a testament to your curiosity as an interviewer. So I'm curious uh to turn the tables and ask you some things that have been on my mind listening to your show over the years. One, you know, when you look back and you were planning that first couple of episodes, uh, did you expect to make a hundred episodes? What uh what were your thoughts as you were embarking on this bold new adventure as a uh swine industry expert-turned media personality?

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Well, I uh think you might have stepped over the fence just a little bit, calling me a media personality, but I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

You're legit now, my friend. Don't downplay it. You you know, you hit a hundred episodes, you earned your stripes.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

Well, I I added a stripe. I I just jumped up to full corporal from Lance Corporal. How's that? There you go. That's right. Um you might be giving me a little more credit when I started. And it started because I had two people that said, Hey, you got some thoughts, and it stemmed from my writing, and you need to share them. And I had no I had no plans to do anything. And if you look at the beginning, I turned it pretty generic. Hey Andy, tell me about your life.

SPEAKER_04 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

And that yeah, it did it took me I don't know, fifty episodes to realize that that kind of sucked. So I've I've turned it into trying to take my thoughts and turn those into good guests and good questions to ask uh tougher questions and and not turn it into a fluff piece. Yeah. I mean uh I'm really trying to to give some clear thinking and complex ag with my questions. So so when I started, I didn't have a path. I didn't even have a clue if I'd make five, let alone one hundred episodes.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

It's funny, you know, you talk about it from your writing into broadcast. I I went the opposite path. I was a radio broadcaster who then became a writer and found out I loved the written word a lot, and in a lot of ways I always thought, well, I'm a writer at heart, uh, but God gave me the face, hairline, and figure for radio, so that's where I started. Going from writing to broadcast, what was the learning curve like for you? You you you had a real good kind of sense of your voice, I think, as a writer, and you'd been doing that a while. Obviously, that was enough that people said, Hey Jim, you got some ideas and and you do, and those are worth sharing. What was what was the learning curve like? Uh obviously part of it was that, hey, these fluffy, geez, Jim, tell me about your life and so on, so on. Yeah, okay, yawn, sleep, go on to the next thing. But what what what what what did you learn in those first fifty episodes, say, for example, that has contributed to making the next fifty good quality stuff?

SPEAKER_03 30:04

The difference is you have time when you write. And you can edit, and I use my editors to change things. What I've really worked hard on, particularly the last fifteen, twenty episodes, is to embrace two things that we were taught in college. I assume you got it at uh house date, I got it at Purdue, is to embrace the silence and to listen. And you've been on radio where silence is a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Yeah, the alarm goes off.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Yes, like, oh, there's dead space. But I I mean embrace the silence, not from what is broadcast, but embrace the silence when you're interviewing. And we we learned it in AggieCon 331, silence and negotiation, the first person to speak loses. And I don't mean it in an adversarial sense, I mean it in a giving your guest the freedom to continue if they want to. But it also gives me a chance to ha have that uh silence to add emphasis and the silence for me to gather my thoughts so that I can get to the next question appropriately.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

The the two things that I love about that one, I was doing a training earlier this week with the Ohio FFA Association State Officers. I I I do a session with them during their summer training session every year. Gosh, it it we're probably pushing 15 years now. And one of the things I shared with them was that as humans we are scared of uncomfortable silences. You know, and so if you're in a conversation with someone and the other person stops talking, your gut reaction, your fight or flight is to fill the silence. You know, you don't want that awkward silence. And though, to your point, you know, it's like uh, you know, good painting or good art uh artwork, the white space matters as much as whatever it is, you know, so that silence. But I think the other piece of it that you you hit on, and this is maybe one of those little life lessons, um, I love that you said it in the context of negotiation, but as an interviewer, as a journalist, one of the hardest things is to learn to listen to understand versus listening to respond, you know. And most of us were just constantly, particularly if you're in an interview, you're you're thinking about what's the next question, what's the next, what's the next thing I'm gonna say? I don't want to sound stupid instead of being like, well, what's Jim really saying here? Uh and so developing that one, that listening, but two, then that natural curiosity, you know. I think it's to me, like that's one of the best things about this the show and the quality of guests that you've had and the topics are it it's based on like your natural curiosity. Uh that's probably why you're a good scientist and and why you're a good media interview is I think you have to be curious in both of those areas of life. Scientists are asking questions, journalists are asking questions, interviewers asking questions. With that in mind, uh favorite episode or conversation that you've had so far, uh, and that's not to single out any one guest, and they've all like your children, you love them all equally, or so on, but but if there's one where you're like, man, that guest really tripped my trigger, made me think maybe it was a topic, somebody that got under your skin. What was one that you walked away from? And I'll give you an example of mine. When I was hosting the Poultry Science Association uh podcast Unplugged, favorite interview I did by far was with a researcher from Virginia Tech University. He's 94 years old the day that I interviewed him. He had been an emeritus faculty member there uh longer than I think he had been a um regular tenured faculty member. You know, he had been working at the university. Uh he was still going to the office, is still, I say was, he's still with us. His name's Paul Siegel, uh brilliant, brilliant genetics researcher in the poultry space. Um, but I talked to Paul, uh, gosh, it's probably a year and a half ago now, and he had just come from the farm. He was in a barn every day looking at chickens at the Virginia Tech Research Facilities, mentoring graduate students. Man's 94 years old. Most of us, you know, are counting the days till we can go sit on the dock and fish or prop our feet up or play golf or however you burn your daylight. Paul is still going to the office and doing work, and he's been retired 30 years practically, right? So that was one of my favorite interviews because that was a just wealth of information from a guy who was a great storyteller, uh, and and I just learned a tremendous amount from his life experience and his way of making you think and and maybe picking uh a little deeper. Wasn't trying to be um you know fluffy. He was like, This is what you need to know, not what you want to hear. So w what what what got under your skin? Well, thank you for taking time to explain.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

So that gave me a chance to think. Um I think uh my favorite episode was with Mike Pearson. And you could look on the surface, it's uh my second most listened to episode. It got a lot of traction. But I really like that because for whatever reason, I was I don't know if I I was able, but Mike was open to being raw and talk about the bad things in Mike's life and how he ended up where he was. Now that was that was in my tell me about your life, but that was probably my first episode where I really was able to ask questions that were difficult. The other episode, it's actually going to come out week after next, is a favorite one not because of the guest, but because um I forgot about it. And when I got on it, I had not prepared like I normally do. And it turned out to be a pretty doggone good episode because it I I I've learned this craft a little bit and I'm was able to in uh uh use listen not for response, but listen to find where this is gonna go. So that's favorite because it taught me or told me that hey you uh uh I've I've grown a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

I think that's you know, both of those answers are are are are really illustrative. So the first one I love, number one, I love Pearson, he's a great guy, uh wonderful practitioner of our craft, right? And just a fun guy to be around. But I think, you know, sometimes as men, and this is no shade against the ladies who are listening, but sometimes as men it's really hard for us to be vulnerable, right? It's hard for us. Our shoulders are broad, our memories are short, our skin is thick, or at least we like to pretend that way. And yet the reality is we've all been through some stuff, right? It's just different shapes, sizes, and the battle scars look a little different, but uh do you think do you find Jim that it seems to be this is an observation? I think over the past couple years, maybe it it's become somewhat in vogue for particularly men in agriculture, but but more generally people in agriculture to be able to talk about we'll say mental health or or our feelings or vulnerabilities. Um I I see it on social media. Is that is that real out in the countryside? Like when you talk to real people off Facebook, LinkedIn, or the podcast, are we getting better about that or or are we just signaling that we're better about it? Like, do you what what's your sense of the distance between things we talk about online and people really being comfortable talking about their vulnerabilities in our community The good thing is that it's at a a broader level, it's more acceptable to talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

And you think about one of our uh our joint friends, Mr. Jim Bishop, and what he's been able to share both on his Facebook and his LinkedIn feed, talking about his vulnerability and and men being open to those things, exactly what you asked. I think that's great. But still in agriculture at the farm gate level, showing vulnerability is not in vogue for whatever reason. And I think from a row crop standpoint, if you're vulnerable, that means you're open to somebody coming in and taking ground you farm. So we're still when it where where the rubber meets the road and where the where the shovel hits the soil, I think we're still fighting that. And you just look at what we talked about this uh last spring with that big suicide in Iowa that garnered so much attention. I mean w we and I wrote about it and I'm critical about the way we talked about it. We didn't call a spade spade. We talked about, hey, call the eight hundred number and if you're feeling bad and when we should have called out and said, you know, this guy's brother and sister, they're assholes. And they need to be called out because they're the one that caused their f their brother to put a bullet in his head. So I I think I think we're getting better, but where where you and I spend time with our friends, it's not as it it we've got room to improve. Yeah. And I'm sorry for being blunt about that. It's my hundredth episode, I can be a little blunt.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

And to your point, like one of the things I find really interesting about our modern society, and I'm I'm curious of how you see this play out, because we there's a bit of a Venn diagram of the circles that we hang out in, but you are engaging with folks in the road crop space a lot more than I am. I'm spending most of my time and we really didn't set this up. I guess maybe I should just pause briefly and say in my my day job uh, so to speak, I'm executive director of a couple poultry industry um organizations. So I spend a lot of my time with people who are working either in the poultry industry specifically, but also the the various pieces of the poultry value chain outside the barn. So I'm working with retailers and allied industry and some you know companies uh up and down that value chain. So I don't get to spend as much time as I did, say, for example, in my first ten or fifteen years of my career as a broadcaster when I was talking corn, wheat, beans, cows, pigs, dairy every day, you know, all day. But but we do have that kind of slice in the middle where a lot of the you know a lot of the same friends and colleagues and people we admire. Uh it's it seems to me, on the one hand, societally, because the advent of social media and maybe some of the socio-political currents, um, people are willing to be blunt, brash, uh you know, say whatever is on their mind in in some ways, sometimes very almost, you know, crude or vulgar ways, you know, we don't we don't mind it. And yet in other ways, like you just described, um, not so much. Like it's very interesting to me just to watch the dynamics at play out there that you know people people don't have any in on one hand, people don't have any compunction about saying things that you and I wouldn't say, because it's like Mike Tyson like Mike, it's like Mike Tyson used to say, you know, uh people have gotten have gotten uh far removed from the time when somebody might punch you in the mouth for saying something. But at the same time, like you said, you know, maybe in other aspects we're not willing to call a spade a spade or say what needs to be said. I don't I don't know how to account for that.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Well, I had an experience of that uh a couple weeks ago on LinkedIn. And I But the there's no uh there's you should not be surprised that Dr. Jim Smith's swine PhD thinks that 30% sw overall mortality in a swine industry is absolutely embarrassing, and the industry should hang its head in shame. And I uh had it I had a guest, uh Dr. Hyatt Frobos, and I teed it up for him, and he hit that softball out of the park. He hit it so hard he hit his wife's car that was parked way, way, way away from the the softball. She'll tan his hide too if uh if he hit that car, right? Yes. And we had a really good discussion with a few people that um one didn't call me to the carpet, but kind of took a took a slight exception of what I I said. Another couple were in agreement, but said, Hey, we've we've got to talk about it. I got a private message from somebody that's older than me that lamb-basted me and said, You need to take it down. This is inappropriate for us to talk about, it is pretty much sharing dirty laundry. You didn't provide any solutions, and the the part that I thought that would have hurt me two years ago, but it didn't hurt me today, was you might not ever get a job because you're talking about what you shouldn't talk about outside of church.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

And you know what I did with that message. Don't air our dirty laundry in public kind of thing, right? We should keep this in the family. Is that the gist of the That's the gist of it?

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Instead of calling out that we got a problem. And w and And I when I talk about the the mortality, I buffet it with or b uh bookend it with if ASPCA and HSUS really got a hold of this you could be bad. Um I ultimately did not respond to that direct message and because it's uh I take exception to the let's not air our dirty laundry. Now that doesn't mean we can be raw about it like we we are today.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Well you know, Jim and I guess I want to push back on that just a a little and again full disclosure, you know, one of the organizations that I that I help lead is is rooted in animal welfare, uh particularly in the poultry space. And, you know, one of the things that that was developed by this organization long before I joined the staff was was a set of key welfare indicators, right? And the idea is that instead of, you know, a lot of those groups you mentioned, the people who don't necessarily want us to eat animal-derived proteins, you know, really would push a resource-based approach to animal welfare. In other words, how much space are you given the hog, how much space are you given the sow, how much why do you have them in a gestation stall, why do you have them in a ferrying stall, whatever the particular issue of the day might be, right? Very resource-focused. What our group said was what we really should look at is what are the indicators at the animal level that would tell us if that animal's in a good welfare state or not. And one of those is mortality. So the idea was if we don't measure it, we can't manage it. And so if we wanna, if we want to be able to manage it, and so we we could all agree that mortality is um clearly an indicator on animal welfare. So if too many pigs are dying, you gotta ask why. And so the way we would approach that, let's say on the poultry space is we would say, we think this indicator is in the wrong direction. And it's gonna vary, right, by farm to farm, company to company, circumstances are different, no two are exactly alike. All those standard caveats. But you would say, for my particular barn, let's just say, you know, Jim's got a barn in the backyard and he looks and says, my mortality rate is X, and I think that's too high. Why? What has happened, right? So that indicator is going to have you go in and look, what were the factors that caused this? And we could be talking about any number of things, right? So we would also look at when we get to processing. We look at mortality rate of the processing plant, mortality rate in transport. You know, are we do we have DOAs going into a slaughter facility? And if so, why? And it's all about being able, so if you don't name it, you can't, you know, investigate it. So I I would just I would I would probably join you in saying I would push back now. Hey, you know, by the way, you're ultimately the idea here is we need to be proactive. And I think that's one of the things where I would push back you know, and you're guessed a little bit. This is saying this is somebody who works in animal welfare for a living. Um we we can't hide. We can't hide. You know, it's like we've got to be proactive. So we should stop being reactive. Don't wait until somebody who doesn't like you gets a hold of your deep dark secrets and you know, own that and say, okay, I which is exactly what you were doing. By the way, I think Dr. Frobos is a brilliant, like that was a great episode because uh just really brilliant thinker. Um but I will say Mrs. Frobos, I I think I think Brandy is one of the one of the most important commentators in our space. I um I really if people aren't following her and reading her writing, I just really find her to be a delightfully insightful person who is willing to say what needs to be said. So I want to give her a shout-out because I think she is an outstanding voice in our space. And like, you know, you said about somebody earlier, like we may not always agree on whatever it is, but um she just I learned something every time I I read her. So the two of them I think are one of my favorite power couples in agriculture because they're both just brilliant and uh in different ways and and complement one another really, really well.

SPEAKER_03 48:12

Well, I think Hyatt is brilliant because he came from the Eastern Corn Belt, you know, Signet I uh Ohio.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

See, see, I I I always have to I always have to chuckle at them because Brandy likes to gig me over my Ohio State affiliation. You know, she has this deep-seated anti-passion for uh for my alma mater. I do want to say, for the boilermakers who were listening, I did my master's at ag economics at Purdue, so boiler up, so we do have that. There you go. Hammered down. That hammered down. You got that that shared DNA. Jim, I want to you you know, we've kind of been talking about some of the uncomfortable things. Mortality may be one of them, but you know, there's I don't want to be too doom and gloom, but we have some headwinds in agriculture right now. You talk about a complex industry, we have some headwinds, uh, whether we could be talking about rising energy costs, whether we're talking about some of the trade issues, uh, the overall sociopolitics, but the overall sociopolitical climate is very challenging right now. Land rates, rental rates, uh interest rate risk, uh I mean just a fair bit of headwinds. And it really doesn't matter what segment of agriculture you're in, we're all facing some of those. As somebody who watches this industry at this broad level um but has the dirt under your fingernails because you're doing it as well um in in your daily vocation and and with your family, what what keeps you up at night on on behalf of this industry? What are the what are the things right now, the issues that you're like, man, this is uh this is one that's got potential to really uh b be a big problem. Because I look around, there's no shortage of things that make me nervous about the the the future of our our industry, but what are the ones that keep you up at night?

SPEAKER_03 49:54

Well, I'll tell you one that personally kept me up for quite a while, and that was how I was gonna make a loan payment. And that was we had r we had equipment note, combine note, and we had a a couple larger mortgage like notes, and uh there were days I couldn't sleep or wake up at two o'clock in the morning and worry about it. And uh thankfully I have a a blender that uh came up with a solution and it took the weight off and so we we did some consolidation and and termed out some things. And so that changed. But I think from a larger perspective, I think that's capital is a challenge or will be a challenge for our industry. And that goes across uh species and uh production practices. I mean you think about operating notes, and we're eight, nine percent for operating note if you have decent credit, decent cash flow. If you're if you're on the wrong side of the ledger, you're probably playing fourteen, fifteen percent for working money. And that that's I mean, that's approaching eighties kind of uh numbers.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

See, see you you've raised the thing that you know, as you're starting to talk about this and the capital. You and I didn't live through the farm crisis, but we grew up kind of in the tail end of the fumes of the recovery, if you will, and and uh I will say this in 25, six years as an ag journalist, it felt like every other year we were saying, is this the return of the eighties? And it hasn't been. But my question is, Jim, are are are you know we at the threshold of hell here with respect to a return to the eighties given the similarities between interest rate risk, access to capital, uh trade-related disruptions, and so I mean, like there are there are a fair number of parallels one could point to if one were so inclined.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

Well, I say we are not, regardless of what the headlines that we read are. We are in a tough time. It might be the second if uh worst it's been since the the eighties. Uh, but I think I'm hearkening back to conversations I had with my banker friends. We're we're cash flow lending, we're not just looking at balance sheets, so I think that uh puts us in a healthier spot from a lending standpoint. But at the same time, ag is not sexy and I think the overall access to capital is shrinking. And you s uh just look at the number of banks that have stepped away from offering uh lines of credit. I th I I think that's a challenge. And let's look at my m put my swine nutrition hat on. To build a brand new facility, I don't care if you're talking a grow finish barn or or sal unit, it is almost capitally infeasible. I mean, we're talking five hundred bucks a head to put up a barn, you're gonna that'd be the interest payments are just crazy. Sal units that you're doing I'd be goodness gracious, millions and millions of dollars to build. So I think capital is an issue because the numbers have changed and the magnitude is bigger. And and and I like to say, or ask my guests when we're talking about the difference between 78 to 84 and 2026, is it the same, or are we just talking, is it bigger because we have more zeros? And I think the concern is we have more zeros. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

A lot of zeros. It's a lot of zeros. And that what you said there about it being cost prohibitive, you know, to really get started. I you know, I often think, but for the grace of God, go I, right? You know, the the stunning Mrs. Vance and I are fortunate to own the home farm where I grew up. Now my younger brother does does all the farming. Uh he loves to put poke fun at me for being a city kid these days because we do I I spend too much time at the airport, so living ten minutes from John Glenn International is a i is a blessing in and of itself. And I long for the day when, you know, maybe maybe once our daughter's out of school or something, maybe we'll we'll we'll you know build a little place at the farm to spend the weekends or who knows what. But you know, I'm still firmly rooted back home. But I think to myself, self, uh, if if I were wanting to start farming today, could I? That's an uncomfortable question. Now, the same is true, by the way. I think about the house where we live in town, uh, we've lived here since 2019, and I say to someone, you know, who's in the real estate market on an almost weekly basis, whether they're looking for a house or they're selling or they're buying or they're moving, we could not afford to buy the home we live in today if we were trying to move here today. You know, seven, eight years later, uh, it's you know, the real estate market in general, and the interest rate component of it that you talked about. I don't want to spend all this time talking about uh, you know, rates and and and risks, but but I want to I want to ask you something else just about kind of our cultural psychology as an industry, as farm folk, as agriculture professionals. I've observed something over 25 years of being a journalist, and I wonder if you've seen it as well. It's kind of come up in context of the farm bill. When I started my career as a reporter, we always used to say ag policy was not partisan. It was regional. So if you were a farmer from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, you had a lot in common, and you probably you're a member of Congress on things like the Farm Bill. A Democrat from Ohio and a Republican from Indiana and an independent from Illinois might all vote the same way because they were voting the way their constituents needed them to. In other words, the farmers in the Corn Belt more or less had something in common. On the other hand, you know, the delegation from Texas, Louisiana, uh, you know, the Gulf states, different set of issues. If you were representing farmers in the Central Valley of California, different issues. So agriculture was regional, not partisan. That has changed dramatically, I think, in the last ten years. Am I wrong in thinking that is largely to our detriment as an industry, that we've gotten away from being policy focused in our government relations work and our relationship with Congress critters and uh federal bureaucrats and so on and so forth, and that we have become in essence monolithic in our partisanship? And and and if I'm right that there's a risk to that, how do we walk back from that ledge to more of that, hey, we need to focus on policy rather than politics? So let's start with my hypothesis. Am I am I observing a real thing or am I imagining something? Let's start with that.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

I think you are spot on with your observation. And I think the danger for us in agriculture is not that we're partisan. It is that we have allowed agriculture to become partisan, which is indicative of our loss of you can call it respect, gravitas, political capital. I don't think we've got the respect that we used to have. And it illustrated by our our challenge to becoming a partisan away from regionality that makes sense from an agricultural standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

So so I want to make sure I'm interpreting this correctly, because that's I think what you've just said there's is profound and potentially maybe helps us answer the second part of the question. But if I if I understand what you're saying correctly, because we've lost that cachet maybe that we would have had 15 or 20 years ago in the halls of power, maybe we had to join the herd, so to speak, of of we're we're gonna we're gonna pick a side because everybody picks a side and we're gonna be red or blue, left or right, whatever, RD, whatever you want to call it. Instead of being able to say, we are agriculture and you need to support us because.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

Yeah, I I I feel that. Yeah. And I think it's illustrated because we can't pass a frickin' farm bill that was days away from being passed. How many years ago? I mean, how many times did you hear Chip Flory or or Jim Wiesmeyer or somebody like Joe Vaklavic, hey, from the floor say we're we're just days away from passing a farm bill. Years ago.

SPEAKER_00 58:52

Years ago, right. We should have had one in 2018. We're on the 2018 bill, so we should have had one in 20 through 22, 23, right? I mean, we're we're we're pushing three, four years over due. Um the other the thing that I find interesting about this, so I I told you I was um working with the state FFA officers earlier this week, and part of that session is examining what I call our biases and blinders and getting them to think about why you think something. And is it really your idea, position, feeling, or is it mom and dads or your Voag teachers or your college advisors, right? So, so classic examples, I will ask them, what kind of music do you listen to? And let's say if there were 10 boys and girls at the table, eight of them, so they listen to country music, all right. Well, what do mom and dad listen to in the truck? Country music, you know, and and or you say, okay, uh, what kind of car do you drive? All right. So if there are eight or ten of them around the table, and let's say seven or eight of them are General Motors kids, what do mom and dad drive? General Motors. The classic one being farm equipment, all right, Jim, red or green, all right? You know, so we would we would ask that question. So, and then you move into some of the more substantive questions about how your your loyalties, your feelings, your ideas. Because a lot of times we will say something and you will have a deep-seated conviction. Well, how did you develop it? Well, maybe it was because that's the way mom and dad thought about things, or you know, whatever. We are the product of our environment in a lot of ways, or our people are influences. So farm bill's a good one. I'll give you this example. I said, All right, and the farm bill had just we'd failed to pass it again out of the committee, and I said, okay, whose fault is it? And what did what did those young agriculture leaders say? Whose fault was it? Which party did they didn't have a lot of people? Oh, the Democrats because one of the trap. That's right. And so I said to them, I said, okay, which party controls the House, and the answer is. And which party controls the Senate, and the answer is. Which party controls the executive branch, and the answer is. And in that moment you can see the color drain from the faces who had very confidently said. Now, now, Jim, I want to make the point for the listeners at home, because I do think this is a substantial policy issue. You mentioned Snap, because that is, of course, the origin of the disconnect here. Jim, why do we have SNAP in the farm bill? You know, I don't know, Andy. In all the years of follow-in, I don't know. How many times have you heard a farmer say, I just wish we could pass a commodity title or commodity and conservation we'd be okay with, right? We're gonna get all this food and get all this SNAP stuff out of the park. You've heard it, I've heard it. It's a common refrain, right? Do you know how many farm bills we would pass without the nutrition title? Zip. 0.0. And why? This goes back to what you the the the votes aren't there, right? No. No. Now. Also, who's the biggest beneficiary in terms of industries of USDA's food and nutrition programs?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Be an egg, right? Yeah, we are. Right. Where's that food come from? Um a farm, at least that's what everybody tries to tell me.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

Yeah, yeah. So I just I I I think we have to be real careful what we wish for in our industry, right, when it comes to some of these policies. Like, yes, there is one one party is going to champion food and nutrition programs more so maybe than the other. The other party maybe is going to and and that you know what? But I'd say that's okay because you need that coalition to hold. Otherwise, you're never going to pass the commodity title. There are not enough votes in Congress on our best day to pass a standalone commodity title. I'm sorry. It just isn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:45

But I think what you brought up to interrupt you, Andy, is a perfect example of why we have lost our political capital. Because we're control one party controls it. Yeah. And it should be an achievable task for the leadership in the Senate to go over to the other side and say, Hey, Mississippi Senator, can I sweeten the pot on sugar beets? Yeah. Can I sweeten the pot on soybean or uh cotton and we can get this thing passed instead of middle finger, we're not gonna do it.

unknown 1:03:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:23

I think we have you you nailed it, Jim. That's it that's it. And so there this is my big frustration with the loss of what I would call policy-focused agriculture and a shift toward those those um politicians, uh I I like the guy who called them Congress critters, you know. Like they they know there is no threat, you know, a farmer from Indiana or Ohio or Illinois or Iowa, you know, you walk in and say, hi, I'm Jim Smith, I'm a farmer from Indiana, they have already mentally filed exactly how you're voting, and they know there's nothing that's going to change that, unfortunately, right? Like, I don't mean you specifically, but you being the avatar for our our our community. Exactly. So that's a problem, right? If you're if you're not a free agent, then you have no leverage. You know, if you're not willing to say, hey, I'm sorry, I need you to get on board here, uh, then then you have no leverage. To the second part of that, of course, is exactly what you said, that we've got to get back to that point where compromise is a thing. So, hey, row crop agriculture in the Midwest, we need X, Y, and Z in the commodity title. That means we've got to be able to give a little bit on the nutrition title to get delegations from urban states to support things we need in the Corn Belt or the sugar belt or the cotton belt or wherever. And then, like, the third thing is we need to get ideologically consistent on our policy issues. This is one thing that baffles me, Jim. When I started covering this industry 25, 26 years ago, we were big free traders.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

And I look at successive generations of ag policy was built on the idea of free trade, was built on the idea of multilateral trade agreements, it was built on the idea that tariffs are bad actually, was built on the, you know, etc. And and and by and large, we've kind of abandoned a lot of those principles for political expediency. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:23

But Andy, I think there's we look for the headlines, and it's real easy to read on farm journal or or feed stuff or wherever. Farm bill doesn't pass, and then but we need to think a little deeper that the challenge that we have by not being able to pass a farm bill, that puts us in a bad position. And this is not my thought, this has come from Jim Weismeyer because he harps on it a lot, whether he's on uh the farmer the uh Friday show or his on his show that he does with Ag Bull. He brings up a point that the commodity credit. Corporation is limited to th 30 billion, I think, is our lending limit. And we bump up against that all the time with our plan programs and the ad hoc pro programs. Changing that lending limit for commodity credit is probably more important to ag than the farm bill. But if we can't pass the farm bill, we're not gonna get Senate to agree to increasing from thirty billion to forty-five or sixty or whatever it is. I think those are the problems that cascade down from the loss of the cachet, I love your word, that agriculture used to have.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

Yeah. Yeah. No, but I think that's well said. And and unfortunately, of course, that's one of those kinds of issues that's really esoterica. You know, it's in the weeds. Your average person's like, oh, what the hell is he talking about commodity credit corporation? Eyes gloss over, you just lost, you know, 20% of your audience or whatever. But but it makes a difference. I would also say this is one of the things that really concerns me about the death of expertise. Um, there's some challenges right now, I think, with brain drain out of USDA and Washington generally, and and you know, you know, we in rural America, I think we really talk down institutions and the bureaucracy and and so on. And I think to our detriment, because in a lot of ways, those are the people and functions and and institutions that really do grease the wheels of our industry. They really do. I mean, you've got a great example there of the just the lending limit. It's not sexy, it doesn't get the headlines, like you say, but man, it sure has implications for how we operate. And uh, you know, we need to we need to be mindful of that. Yes, Jim. You know, I uh we probably could have just done an episode on the farm bill basically. Yes. And uh maybe maybe we'll do that one of these days, but what a treat it is. And just want to say again, congratulations to you on a huge milestone. And for you know, finding your voice um and taking your your great skills as a thinker and uh applying them into this uh into this channel. You've done a you've done a great thing, and I'm tickled to have been a part of it a couple times.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:22

Oh, thank you for the kind words, Andy. Um I'm going to I'm gonna say what um a disappointment I have. It took me to 55, 54, to be given the opportunity to explore who I really am and I think that um I think my mom is rolling over in her grave that I finally am doing this. But I think how many times do we see somebody that uh we would say we'd be sitting around the ball diamond and like, man, it's just the ways that he never did anything. And I don't feel that way. But I think it's it's uh I think our world is uh less uh benefici benefited by me waiting to fifty-five instead of discovering this at thirty-five.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

Here's what I'm gonna push back on you though, Jim, I'll tell you. You know, my when I look at my um career arc, you know, if you will, and then I spent uh oh gosh, twenty-five years in media, but it was or twenty twenty plus anyway, we'll say, but it was is kind of security, you know, from a little radio station in Columbus to uh, you know, multi-state radio network as an owner operator to working for the preeminent trade journal in the feed and livestock industry at feedstuffs to now in association management and spent three years at a scientific society and and now at uh you know a large international multi-stakeholder or representing the poultry value chain. The I think when you start your career, you start adulthood, you sort of picture a line graph, everything is up and to the right. Um the destination really to you know to me, the destination anymore isn't all that important. It's the the the journey along the way because I've now reached a point where um, you know, and I started my career a bit early in the sense that I um I was still an undergraduate when I started working full-time at WRFD 25 years ago. And it was definitely not up and to the right, like you know, I had a lot of setbacks along the way and detours or left turns. I mean, it's an unusual resume that I've compiled. Um but but what I would say is there's never been a time in there, you know, everywhere I was along the way, I said, What are you going to be doing in five years? You know, we always love to yes that see yourself in five years, Jim. I would have gotten the question wrong every single time. And yet, every place along the way, I would have said, I can do this till I retire. Like I when I was at Dipurky, I loved it. When I was at ABN Radio, I loved it. Feedstuffs, I I mean, I go back to feedstuffs in a heartbeat. Sarah Beerhead is, you know, why I I would take a bullet for that woman. She's incredible, brilliant leader, taught me so much about the feed and livestock industry and being a business professional and a leader and in all of those things. I just so I push back on you, Jim, to say you wouldn't be the Jim Smith you are today if you hadn't done all the stuff that you did between point A and point B. And circuitous whether or not, you know, the j journey was up into the right, everybody's journey's different. Yeah. But you're the product of your experiences and and all of that. So um you're doing what you're supposed to be doing right now, and that's the thing that matters.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:45

Oh, y you were definitely right. Uh if I was at 35, uh my writing would have been paled in comparison to what I'm writing now. So y I I agree. It's I could not have done this at 35. Had I opened up a little bit more, maybe my career track trajectory and my influence might have changed. But you you're right. I I thirty-five-year-old Jim Smith could not be doing what you and I are doing today. Well, Andy, you asked questions I didn't expect to be asked, and I appreciate your perspective. I appreciate the discussion we had about politics and allowing me to to riff off a little bit uh without sharing too much about my political opinions. So thank you for being part of my 100th episode, and uh I believe you owe me that World War II podcast episode too.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:36

Sign me up for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:37

That's uh that that that is one we need to make happen. You got it. Very good. Well, thanks again, Andy, and uh look forward to talking to you again.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:47

Well, hello from the patio. My name is Amber Foote, and unfortunately, Jim is unable to host our celebratory 100th episode of Patio Pondering. So I'm gonna try to fill these shoes the best I can. I'd like to introduce our guest today. He's a 10-year 4-H member, Eagle Scout, where he is still an active volunteer in both those organizations, received his undergrad from PewDiePie University in Animal Sciences, attended graduate school at Kansas State University, where he also received his PhD. He has worked as a nutritionist and product consultant in the animal science industry for many years. He's currently running as a civic community position in the Township Trustee, and he might have a slightly familiar voice and face to a lot of you, as he has hosted the last 99 episodes of Patio Ponderings. Today's special guest is Dr. Jim Smith. Jimmy, welcome to the other side of the patio.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:45

Well, thank you for welcoming me to the other side of the patio.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:48

Yeah. I'm I'm a gl I'm glad that you can be here and I can be here. So I want you to tell me a little bit about you, something that you may not have talked about on the patio so far. I know you've talked a lot about your past experiences and what's gotten you to hear, but I want you to tell me a little bit of something about you that you haven't told us about yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:09

Wow. Um I think I've I've tried to be pretty open, but not too open so that my guests aren't aren't um don't feel like they have to fill a niche. Um here you go. Um high school and college, I ran coon hounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:33

Uh I love hounds. I'm smart enough to know that my wife won't let me have hounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:40

I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:42

Um I shoot a 16-gauge shotgun. Um that's uh unheard of today. That's came from my grandfather and my dad. Um obviously I like Purdue basketball. Uh I love the taste of bourbon. Just it's just something about bourbon just it's like a hug from a woman you love. It just embraces you. Um I have become a lover or a uh uh appreciate a Mercedes-Benz car.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:18

I have noticed that.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

Yeah, yeah. We have three. Wow. Um, what else about me? Um I was president of Block and Bridal at Purdue.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:30

I did not know that about you.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:31

I was president of Block and Bridal. I judged on the livestock judging team in 1992. I was also a member of both the junior board and senior board for Bohemaker Tractor Pool Foundation. I was the finance manager for Boylmaker Tractor Pool.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:45

Do they still have that down there?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:46

No, they don't.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

I didn't think so.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:48

I was on a junior board for four years for Grand Prix. Um I was the outstanding master's student at Kansas State University in 1994.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:59

You know, honestly, everybody should have their own podcast because you learn a lot about somebody when they have one.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:04

Yeah, so I I um I won't let you dig too deep.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:09

I do have a lot of other questions that'll dig a little deep.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:12

I think. But those are the I guess that's a lot of stuff I'm sure a lot of people haven't heard about me.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:17

Those, you know, that's exactly what I was wanting out of that question, anyways. So we're sitting here at the hundredth episode of Patio Ponderings. How are you feeling about this being triple digits now?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:30

Um it is uh surreal.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:35

Surreal because it's a hundred. Now we can go in and say, well, is it really one hundred because I broke some up into two and threes? You know, who cares? It's a hundred uh it's a hundred. It's surreal because I I talked to other people, like when I was at World Pork Expo and I told her I got a podcast, and and a former colleague of mine said, Oh, I have a podcast too. I'm like, Oh, cool, so I look for it. Like, you did five episodes nine months ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:04

Okay. So it's surreal that I've made it to one hundred. That's that's that's probably the and it it the other part is it's almost scary about what I'm gonna do the next one hundred.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:16

Oh, we'll get into that one too. We'll get in I hey, I did my homework for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:20

Well you even typed it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:21

Oh, oh yes, two pages.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:23

So But you know what happens on the patio. It we throw the script on.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:28

It is. I gotta have a structure though. I mean, if you've known me structure. Yeah, you've known me long enough. I gotta have a little bit of a structure here. I'll agree with you on that because when you went in and texted me to ask just to come and ask you questions for the hundredth episode. I remember when you texted me and you actually talked about it on my episode, I responded in all caps because I was so excited to be here. Because I knew you, I I first met you and your family when I was 13 years old. Never would have thought that one you would have had it. Not that you couldn't, I just never would have thought because you always think somebody has a podcast, they're like not in your hometown kind of thing. Like you just think it's out there, you don't really realize that people have it, and it's kind of an opportunity for them to so I think it is kind of a surreal moment for you, and it's you should be proud of yourself for it for sure. So when I came to the patio, actually on May 5th, 2025, is when you released my episode. We talked not about failures, but just about how things may not have gone as planned. Um, and somehow it turned out for the best. So thinking back to your first episode that was released on December 5th, 2024. It's kind of wild. I had to scroll quite a ways to get that date. Um, where did you envision patio ponderings going and where did you see yourself by episode 100?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

So patio pondering started the writing as a way for me to have a job when I lost a job.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:57

My therapist said, You need to get up and do something. Well, which is kind of a redundant comment to say to somebody that's on a farm. We have stuff to do. So I started writing. And I tried to do that every day because get up, do something. And I had two friends, Ryan Martin and Todd Thurman, through that writing watching and said, You got you got thoughts, man. You need to share 'em. And in November of 2024, when I was trying to come up with the idea, I kind of pulled the reins back in and Kim and I talked about how how can we talk about people in AG and how AG influenced them. And the difference between where I thought I would be if I even thought I would have a hundred, and where I am today, is that I stopped pussyfooting around and instead of just like, hey, tell me about yourself, it's a I'm gonna ask you something that's gonna make you think, and we're gonna talk about how we're gonna think. So I I'd never envisioned I'd be here asking tough questions. I thought it was all gonna be friends and ag is great, and here's where I am.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:08

Yeah. I was actually at work and thought of you the other day. Oh no. Um, so we have what we call impressions group, which is when you walk into our front door, instead of it being our secretaries or our front desk girls, they're called the impressions team. And they're supposed to make that lasting impression on you when you walk in the door. And so what they've been kind of challenged with in the last year is to go three deep with questions. So when they ask that first initial question and you get a response, a lot of times people quit there. Or sometimes they might ask one follow-up question, but instead it's they're wanting our team's wanting them to ask multiple follow-up questions so that there's intentionality behind wanting to know how their day is. And I heard that and I really did think of the Smith family in a lot of different ways because when I have some of my big life issues, whether it's gardening and I call your wife, or whether it's honestly, I've been around you guys for a lot of my life issues. So whether it's something with my animals or it's something with the relationship, it's not just like you and Kimmy, but you guys already you guys both raise three really smart and loving kids that I go to them too. And so it's when you guys like have it's just kind of funny because yeah, you kind of think of a patio or of the patio ponderings when it first started, people are like, oh, it's Jimmy meeting with people and talking with friends about AG. And it's like, no, you like it really goes down to like the core foundation of the Smith family, where when I think about that impressions team at work, it's going three deep with questions. The Smith family sometimes I wish would only go three questions deep. You guys are usually ten questions deep. So it's I feel like if anybody had the right to have a podcast and dig into ag in life, it's somebody within that Smith family. You should be proud of yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:53

Well, thank you, Amber.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:54

Sorry, I keep making you wipe away tears. I know. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:58

I I told you it's gonna be a video. We might re- uh evaluate that.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:03

So um one of the main subjects that we talked about when I was here was me being AT Amber, and that was after Termination Amber. It's something that you and I share in common. We have both become AT versions of ourselves. So um the day that you became AT Jimmy or after termination Jimmy, how did you see yourself moving forward from there?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:24

Oh, the day after?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:25

So that was I'm gonna say the day after because the day of is kind of always a blackout moment.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:30

So Monday I got fired on a on a Friday. Yep. And Monday I was like, okay, where am I gonna be the next swine nutritionist job? Um going through my head, who can I talk to? Even though I kind of purposely took a step back, but the day after, I was still in the same rut I was the day before I was 80.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:51

Yeah. Oh, that is do you think it was just because you were kind of in like a weird shock thing? I know I went through like a really weird being in shock and kind of a denial phase.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:02

Um I wasn't I wasn't so much shocked. I kind of had seen things were coming and the the landscape had changed. There was a few times I'm like, I should have, to be blunt, gotten the fuck out.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:18

Um But it wa it wasn't shock that that kept me in the thinking of where am I going to go next. It was I've been doing this for almost thirty years. And I have been trained to be in my silo as a swine nutritionist. Yeah. And I was still in that silo. I mean, it took me there's some things common that I'm trying to tear down those silos, but the day after I or the week after I was still in that same rut.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:53

Yeah. It's kind of hard because it's a mold that is I still find myself to this day. There's certain I feel like fears that were, I don't want to say instilled in me because of the moment I became A.T. Amber, but there's certain things that led me to who I am that like I still sometimes have a hard time breaking out of that mold and like being because it there's a little bit of fear, which is just human nature. So Okay, what is the hardest lesson that you've learned since becoming AT Jimmy?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:23

Ooh. The hardest lesson in the last twenty two months. Oh jeez, almost twenty-four months.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:32

I didn't realize it would have been that long.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:34

It'll be twenty-four months in two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:36

Um time flies when you're having fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:40

Exactly. What is the biggest lesson? I think the biggest lesson that I've had is that even though we talk a good game about silos and getting out of a rut. It's tough for us to break down the silos and get out of a rut.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:06

I you could have all the ambition and determined in the world, but you're still like you're still gonna have that thing in the back of your mind that's gonna be scared that you're gonna become like AT Amber times two. Like there's still things that are gonna kind of slow you down a little bit, which I think is good. Yeah. But I definitely, yeah, it's kinda hard to get out of some of those ruts. So tell me about any opportunities, whether it's big or small, that you had since that big life change. And I mean, outside of the patio pondering podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:39

Um the biggest opportunity was uh partnering with Todd Thurman at Swine Insights and going to China. That is that wouldn't have happened if I was still at XYZ feed company.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:52

So here's my question for you, because I know when I became 18 Amber, I had the expectation that I was gonna be there for a really long time because I I feel like it's mainly based off of my parents. They raised me to like if you're gonna go and put in the effort, like be in it for the long haul, did you think that you were gonna stay at XYZ feed company and stay there until you retired?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:13

Yeah. Oh yeah. We had talked to our financial advisor and we'd planned it. Like uh Kim was gonna cut off at 62 and I was gonna work to 65 or 67 because then our our gross amount of money in a retirement fund would be, oh yeah, I was there was no thought about going to any place else.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:31

It is it's wild. Like you have you ever seen those little memes where it's like it's somebody that's holding like two flowers in a bouquet and it's like my plan, but then actually there's like a f beautiful flower bouquet, and it's like, well, that's God's plan. And it's kind of funny how sometimes no matter how stubborn you are, God's like, No, I got a better plan for you and a better bouquet right around the corner.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:53

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:54

It's kind of cool how that works.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:55

It is cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:56

So um it's not fair for me to ask you what your favorite episode has been. Who your favorite guest is.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:03

Oh, it would have been May 5th, 2025.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:06

I was actually thinking the day that you had your wife here, but I mean I've I'll gloat to Kimmy about that. But over the last you've actually done for 4,900 minutes, or right around 4,900 minutes worth of episodes, and so I went and counted them. It took me a little bit. 4,895 minutes, give or take a couple seconds, is how much you have done with patio pondering. Really? Yes. So out of all of those episodes, all of those minutes, which one meant the most to you, whether that was made you smile, left you puzzled, or changed the way you thought?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:44

Ah. See, that's different than favorite episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:50

Okay, yes, that is true. That is true. I mean, if there's two separate answers, we can talk about the two separate separate answers too.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:00

Uh the most gratifying episode was the Mike Pearson episode.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:06

And that is because Mike didn't have didn't have Ag Media Mike. Okay. So it wasn't him talking about what he talks about on This Week in Archibis this side. He talked about being arrested. He talked about having to sell the farm because he couldn't make the mortgage payment because they spent the money on the lawyer because he had a DWI. I mean he was he was raw. And that was the most that was my favorite one as far as how a guest would open up.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:41

That did you ever think back at episode one that you would have I mean, you've had a lot of people be pretty raw on your episodes. Did you ever expect that one, you'd have people be as raw as they were, and then you probably don't even realize because I don't know if I ever told you about how much it felt like a therapy session coming here to be able to open up and talk about that stuff because I like to try to be open about it because for some reason everybody thinks that once you've been fired you can't talk about it and you're a disgrace to your grandmother. But it really is helpful for being able to come here and talk about that stuff and realize that like sometimes when you hear somebody else talk about it too, you're like, oh wow, I'm not the only one. Like we all are humans and we all have to learn from our mistakes one way or the other.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:25

No, I'd never and I have not ever thought that somebody talking to me would be cathartic. Yeah. I just it's just me talking to you, and it's kind of cathartic to me that I'm learning to ask tough questions. I never realized it was the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:42

No, I it definitely it is well, I guess I've always had that feeling, again, going back to the Smith family. You guys have always been my therapist. I'd say probably next to you, Toby's probably been number one.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:55

Because there's something about the way a Smith family member can put their arm around you and be like, okay, so let's talk about how you feel about this.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:03

Amber and Toby have been in the camper for a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:06

It's okay, they're just talking. You walk in the door and we're both just stopping. I don't know. Leave them alone. You get a beer, I'll get you a beer. Totally. So yeah, it is it's pretty cool about I guess some of the stuff that you've had people open up to, or even the stuff that you've opened up to about because I know it kind of sparks conversations. It sparked conversations in my life listening to your episodes. Where it's like, well, I should talk about this a little bit about how I feel about certain things with certain individuals, and it it's pretty neat. Okay. So we talked about I introduced be f you know who Jimmy was, how he got where he is today. We talked about what got you to 100 episodes, talked about those hundred episodes. Looking in the future of patio ponderings, where do you see yourself by episode 200?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:58

Um it's great you're asking that because I uh I reached out to a handful of other social media uh personalities and ag asking them for a little bit of guidance, and like a good interviewer, they turned it around on me and they asked that exact question. Um it's real easy to say, I want more listeners.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:20

Okay. But uh by 200 episodes with Kim's help, and she's offered this is going to be a studio.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:31

Oh fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:32

And it will be videoed and it won't be just with a webcam, it'll be a little more professional. I will still worry about the downloads. Yeah. It may or may not be monetized, and it will continue to ask probing questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:51

I like that. I like that. If you had to like manifest who you were gonna have on your podcast, like dream person, you want to be on your podcast. Let's manifest it right now. Who do you want to be here?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:08

Uh this just hit me, and I've never thought about it before. Former Governor Mitch Daniels.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:16

I love it. I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:19

Because he fits patio pondering political career, back to Purdue, or president of Purdue, retire back to Purdue. And he's reinvented himself several times.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:34

I now I don't know if I'd be able to get him to be as raw as I was able to get Amber Foot, but Hey, you got Amber Hooping Gardner to be pretty raw too, so um, so if you could go and have patio ponderings travel for like a just go anywhere to shoot an episode, where would be your goal and destination?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:59

Um I'm gonna give you two answers. Okay. One's a snarky one.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:05

One's gonna be the main stage at World Pork Expo.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:09

Is that the snarky one? That's the snarky one. I don't think it's snarky.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:13

Um it's only snarky if you take it wrong. I think you have good intentions with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The snarky part was middle finger to the pork industry. But Okay, I see it now. Okay, yes. Um That would be one because that's I mean, that's me. Pork. That's that's me. Um I would like to do one at a big ag show.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:39

The National Farm Machinery Show, Commodity Classic. Um because like like it or not, patioponder is ag based. And we had some non-ag, but it's it's ag.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:51

And I think that'd be cool to be able to do one there.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:54

So if you had to figure out like steps to make that happen, how does that even happen? Do you get a like have a booth and you just start like sitting at one of those? Or how does that like even work?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:06

Uh that's a great question. And that's one of the questions I asked sort of my mentors.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:10

I love that. Because I'm like, wait, do you get it just like rent your own booth and you just start like rolling right there in the middle of the show?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:18

But Yeah, you can. You can be invited.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:22

However you want to make it.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:23

Maybe it'll be Amber, we're going to Dallas Commodity Classic. You're going to be my producer.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:29

You might have to teach me how to run all those buttons, but I'll sure give it a whirl. I mean, I won't say no. I don't I'll I'll give it a try.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:37

So at the end of every one of your episodes for Patio Ponderings, for the last 99 that you've had a guest on, you've asked the same five questions to all those guests. It's not fair for me to do that to you because you called me out for cheating on mine because I listened to Micah Malcolm's. So I came up with my own five closing questions.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:59

So, first one, if you could give the next generation of agriculture a piece of advice, what would it be? It's not all about ag that honestly should be on an FFA t-shirt. That really should be. That's deep. That's a few words, but that's deep. If you weren't involved in agriculture, what part of the industry would you miss most?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:25

If I m was not part of ag, what would I miss most? The cycles.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:31

Okay. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:34

Uh spring, summer, just that.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:36

Okay. I didn't know if you had anything else on the case. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:39

The cycle of the anticipation for planning, the anticipation of what this crop's gonna do is you watch the rain fall and then the trepidation when harvest starts. I would miss that cycle.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:51

I will say, like, being in the financial industry now, I see there's a lot of similarities I feel like you can see across different industries. And that is one that I probably would have agreed with before. And I look at like in my mind, I'm sitting here thinking, how is that the same in a financial industry? We have the same thing, but our seasons are RMD season and tax season.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:14

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:15

I'm not gonna lie, the agon was a lot more fun, but yes, they it's kind of weird how everything has different seasons, but it's just what seasons do you kind of miss like the perks of? Um what is the most or sorry, what's one thing agriculture r does really well that other industries should learn from?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:45

Ag does a really good job of making it seem like we got it figured out.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:51

I I would agree with that. I would agree with that. I do think there's other industries out there that definitely are better at that than we are. But I feel like that could be a controversial one, but I definitely agree. What ag innovation innovation um do you think will be completely normal in ten years from to now?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:13

Small autonomous uh farm implement of some sort. Whether it's uh uh a small bot like the uh the food delivery bots at Purdue that cultivate, or it's a small sixty horsepower tractor that plants, but it the small autonomous, I think in ten years we'll be talking about I need to get two or three of those.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:38

I remember when I did my first internship at Agplus, my freshman year of college, and it was one of the first times that like I'd ever seen one a drone, let alone as large of a drone as like what a sprayer drone is. And then when I did go and have like my first shop out of college and we were doing all the plots with those sprayer drones, and now you see Drew Dafforn doing it, and you're like that when I had that question down, I literally thought of that. I was like, that was kind of my thing behind it too.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:06

If you would ask me that two years ago, that would have been my answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:08

But now they're I feel like it is more normal though, like it is becoming that normal thing. Yeah. So this one's kind of a fun one, it can be a little goofy here. If agriculture had a mascot, what do you think it should be?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:21

If we had a mask. Ooh. Um I'm on a Harry Potter kick.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:30

Oh boy, here we go. I like Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:32

A Phoenix.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:35

You know what? It that's kind of funny because I was actually gonna say the rising sun. Yeah. Yeah. Very similar. Very, very similar mindsets. That's kind of a good place to leave it. Jimmy, I want to let you know I'm proud of your last hundred episodes. I'm excited to see where the next hundred go.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:54

Oh, wait, but you still got another page of questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:56

Well, those are my two pages.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:57

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:58

So, do you have any closing statements that you want to say on behalf of their last hundred episodes?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:04

I'm going to I'm gonna do to you what I did to the same person or the person that was in that chair yesterday, and like you went through your list. Yes. That's riff.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:15

Oh boy. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:18

I'm the one being asked, so I'll you won't need to start asking away?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:23

Man. I wish I wouldn't have known that I wish I would have known that. I wouldn't have put so many questions on my list.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:28

No, your questions are great. Now you can ask anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:31

Ask anything. Okay. Well, this was kind of one that I wanted to talk about a little bit. And I think I want it I I didn't know how it was going to tie it into my list of, you know, amber planning questions here. What legacy do you want to leave behind for your kids? Whether it's this, the farm.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:50

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Um, thanks for attending the hundredth episode of Planet of Fire.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:58

Hey, you said you wanted to riff. Here it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:01

That is the and that that's a tough one, and not not tough. It's tough because I thought about it and uh don't have an answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:10

It's it would be real easy to say, well, I'll find something and leave, and then they'll they'll have something. Um and that that's that's too cliche. I want to leave a legacy that I was a good parent and that I set them up for success. And success doesn't mean lack of failure. No. Resiliency that they could be successful in their lives.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:36

Yeah. I like that. I think that I don't know why, but like I feel like there's a lot of times, and I don't know if it's just because you're one of my fair folk dads. And for people that don't know the fair folk, it's our 4-H family that we came up with that name. I looked back, it was actually 10 years ago. Ten years ago this last weekend, because it was on my birthday weekend for my 16th birthday at the State Fair, we came up with that. And you're one of my fair folk dads, so maybe that's why I'm kind of like honing in on this whole looking up to you kind of thing. But I feel like a lot of times um parents have that mindset too, where they don't want their kids to fail at all. And they just want their kids to completely succeed.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:17

You haven't been around a Smiths if you think that's the case. Oh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:20

I was gonna say, but if somebody thinks that's well, I was gonna say a lot of parents, there's a lot of parents outside of that. I'm very fortunate that um a lot of my fair folk moms and dads have you guys sometimes you'll let us fall and you'll laugh about it, and then once you're done laughing, you'll help us up and lead us in the right direction. But that's kind of a cool mindset of I like the part that you said where it's like, well, it's not a lack of failures, but it's just keep moving forward. Well, I gotta start thinking of more questions here. It's kind of difficult to come up with right off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:54

Welcome to podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:55

I know, I just took a big exam before I came here, so my brain's about fried. So if you could go and spin off of patio ponderings outside of the patio, outside of doing your videos, is there anything else that you want to potentially reach out to? Is there anything that you think because I know when we're gonna we're gonna touch a lot of on the 4-H side of things and because that's I mainly how I know you and that's how I met you. With 4-H, a lot of the stuff that we do has to deal with like outreach to the community, and they've actually been talking about a lot of trying to reach into like the inner city kids too to teach things. Is there anything you think patio ponderings could do to help either teach inner city kids different things about agriculture, reach out to the younger generation to maybe help them start their adventure down advocating for agriculture?

SPEAKER_03 1:42:50

Well, I I tried already. I did not know this, but there's a uh market garden high school on the southeast side of Fort Wayne that is trying to teach urban A, and I've tried to get their CEO on a few times. And apparently my proposition isn't good enough for them.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:14

Oh maybe that'll be one of the guests we're gonna have in the next hundred episodes.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:20

That would be a good one. I I think patio pondering could be in a position where we could have some of those guests to expose people to agree because let's think about 4-H. And we get awful tunnel vision and it's it's pigs and its steers, and we do some non-livestock projects, but we we get we silo ourselves. And agriculture's not that. And we get food from so many different places, primarily from a few places, but from so many different places that I think there's an opportunity that a title of honor could expose us. And I did I've done it a little bit with a cal having a couple people on that sell con directed consumer beef. Yeah. I mean that's a different way of putting it, but when you're talking about the inner city food deserts, uh I don't know if you know, on the back way to ADM, the old Central States, you come on Rose Avenue, there's a massive huge, I don't know how many fifteen, twenty acre uh individual garden plots.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:39

I have heard about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:40

Yes, I forget what it's called. The thing you see when you drive by that, they ain't white people.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:46

Well, I will I'm gonna throw this way back to when I really got my like introduction to the Smith family.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:55

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:56

This was this was like I didn't even have my license at the time. It was when Shelby, Toby, and I all went down to the state fairgrounds in the middle of a winter, and do you remember this? They did a biosecurity thing. Yes. I went through, and I I think mine was like a food science, but we essentially went through a whole weekend of workshops and it was I can't remember what I don't want to call it the star program. I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:24

Yes, they did, but then it was to go along like side by side with the 4-H teaching inner city kids, and we would go to different elementary schools and teach them like Shelby and Toby taught about biosecurity, and I was teaching more on like which is kind of ironic with the whole garden thing because I struggle with my garden all the time. But that's essentially what I was doing. And it was essentially it was to go and like for kids that had I don't know if they still do it this way, but if they wanted to have a plot essentially in that inner city garden, they had to take a class of some sorts with us. And so yeah, that was there is a definite stereotype that is there with that with that community of kids that they were reaching out to. But it was a cool opportunity to kind of see people's minds spark a little bit. And actually, Greg Canabular brought this up to us, and maybe you did this when you were growing up in 4-H. We were talking about it at a swine committee meeting where they would have I think the way he described it is you would get partnered with an inner city kid, and then like so Greg's family hosted an inner city kid to have a pig to show at County Fair.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:31

That was after I was out. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:33

So he was telling us all about that, and I was like, well, that's a really cool opportunity, which I also feel like it's a little different when your family raises pigs a little bit, and then also the way that I I don't know how feed prices are anymore to show pigs, but I know what it was when I was in, and I could only imagine paying for somebody else's kids to have 4-H animals. But it was kind of a cool outreach program too, and it's I feel like there's a lot of outreach programs like that, but there's still opportunity to do more for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:01

Yes, because you you asked about AG. Um we're we're awful arrogant and we're awful hypocritical at times.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:13

Very tight-knit.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:14

Very tight-knit, very tradition bound. And if you get outside some of those traditions, you you start making some waves.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:24

I made w waves. I've definitely done that. I did that while being on the 4-H board, did that while and as sitting on the 4-H board the one year that I was elected to be the president, which I don't think anybody that young should ever be 4-H board president, but that's what happened. I sat on our fairgrounds committee board because I was trying to be that liaison or bring the voice back and forth just because they don't get along in our fairgrounds, or it's implied that they don't, but in all honesty, they do. It's just you have to be polite when you speak. And it goes back to the same thing where the same group of guys are on that committee or on that board. And they have their they're very set in their ways, but they're also open to it. If you're willing to explain it and willing to you gotta kinda like you can't just cannon ball in. Sometimes to adjust the traditions for the best ways possible. Sometimes you gotta one toe at a time, put it in the water.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:23

So I assume this is me projecting on other people, that people look at me, if they don't know me, and they think, oh, he's stuck up. And this came directly from my first wife's best friend at Purdue. She told me I thought you were a stuck up son of a bitch. I kind of was at the time. Anyways. And it's because and I I think it's gotten that I I project that that impression might have been getting worse because I'm becoming more observant and contemplative.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:01

I can see that.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:02

And sitting back in the back row going, hmm, but Amber just said this and Greg just said that, and I think this, and sitting back there is going, hmm, thinking, thinking, thinking can come across as very arrogant, stuck up because you're not participating.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:20

But I think I have turned that into a better I've used that observation skills, the distilling of what I observe and what I've learned over the last two years of writing and with patio pondering the podcast is a better way of coming out and summarizing putting challenges forth. Old me would have been, What in the p are you doing? If I would have had the guts to say it. And now it's like, man, I really love that we have. People that are there all the time at the county fair because they bring some tradition, they bring some thought.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:06

Yep. And they bring it.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:07

Why not they gotta step aside and let somebody else do it? But that is also buffeted with if they leave we don't have Amber or Joe or somebody that's worked with them, they don't understand some of the things that happen, for good or bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:26

And I think uh I've got a uh I've become a position where I can I can articulate that better than uh uh than I did before.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:40

So I want to kind of go back a little bit here to our conversation previously where we talked about that whole therapy thing that like you invited me here to host you for your hundredth episode, I'm supposed to ask you questions. So I was supposed to have like the I'm therapeutic to you thing, and then you come in here and say a statement like you just did, and then you just kind of gave me a therapy lesson. So I wanted to just kind of point this out where it makes me double check because I kind of I kind of shoot off the hip a little bit. Um ginger bushing was one that she will call me on my bluff more than anybody, and one of the statements she does is saying that I'm blunt. And it's coming back where like as you were saying that throughout the years you've been able to sit back and just kind of watch and listen to things before you say the what the F comment, it makes me laugh because Jackson and I just had this conversation the other day where I am a very quick, like as soon as we're sitting in those meetings and I wanna I I kind of push the boundaries, whether it's sitting there talking to Jackson and I'm shooting off the hip and I'm having that conversation and I'm not I probably should think a couple extra seconds before I speak, or I'm sitting in an ag meeting, like sitting with the 4-H board, or I'm sitting in the swine committee meeting or whatever. Sometimes it's like, oh yeah, maybe you really should just take a second to process that one extra time, throw it back through the brain loop one more time. So just want to let you know you still gave me my epic session here.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:12

At a swine committee meeting last year, is it was the uh August meeting where you had input into things. Okay. Went through the show ring, and every pig was eligible for grand champion, and every pig was eligible for scanning. Yeah. Okay. And five, ten years ago, I would have come in and said You bunch of freaking idiots. This is not what we do in the real swine industry, and you're just catering to the show jocks. Instead of that, and everybody said and and I was Ryan Harrell was is the chairman. I was like, hey Brian, what am I we have to remember that 4-H is about education.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:06

And with the change in the demographics, particularly in the show ring, our opportunities to educate have changed. I think we have a beautiful opportunity to continue the education about the real swine industry with the way that we scan the pigs. And we need to keep that reality that the swine industry wants pigs that weigh this, and if we get outside of that, what education opportunity do we have? So think about how we can continue to educate while we're still being able to show pigs. I would not have been able to do that had I not been sitting here doing patio pondering, because number one, I wouldn't have articulated it as well. And number two, I probably would have been an ass when I said it.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:48

See, I think that also goes back to like some of the big things that are the positives that have come out of being A.T. Jimmy. Had you not had that opportunity to step out of it, had your experience in the swine industry the way you did, you wouldn't have been able to think about that. And it's something as simple as like I just laugh sometimes when I think about like some of the stuff that I've gone through becoming AT Amber and how in the world that something that kind of well, it didn't kind of it rocked my world, and becoming AT Jimmy rocked your world. How something that big can also have such an an important kind of monumental moment in the way that you think of things that could literally change the way that a 4-H member learns about the swine industry in the future. Yeah. Like it's wild how things happen. Like it I could go on and on about that because it just kind of blows your mind.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:39

So this year at the swine show, I took the ultrasound data and I put it into a spreadsheet and we put dollar values on your pig. If you had shipped all those pigs to Tyson and Mike Taylor bought them, that's what every pig would have been worth. I had two people that came up and said, Oh, this is kind of cool. Uh at first I was like, that was a waste of time. But I had two people that had would never have thought about their pig was only worth $125 because of where it came in. And like, okay. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna push back on you on this AT.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:21

Uh because it goes deeper than that for me. The AT was uh August 24th.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:30

Or 28th, whatever day it was, that Friday. The the bigger gut check that took me a while to accept was after 75 job applications, the swine industry has not said we want Dr. Jim Smith to be part of it. And it's um I'm still breaking down that silo. And it's tough. And uh I've got some acquaintances on on uh LinkedIn and former colleagues that are insistent that I n that I shut up, that I'm hurting my ability to be hired and all this other stuff, and I'm like if you don't want to hire me after all the stuff I've done with patio pondering, with my writing, with having the finally having the the guts to say some of the tough stuff, then I don't want to be part of it.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:33

That I did that wasn't September 1st, 2024. That was probably uh August what day is today, the 14th? August 13th, 2026?

SPEAKER_01 1:56:49

Well, it's kind of a funny thing that you say that because that's even again back to the whole therapeutic thing on my side where I didn't even th I like you mentioned that and as soon I knew exactly where you were going when you said this, you know, 75 applications. I went through a similar thing, hence why I am now in the financial industry. Um I kind of took an opportunity and ended up loving it and whatever, but I had the same thing happen where I went through multiple interviews with multiple different companies where I was a young gun trying to come in and trying the best I could. And I mean it wasn't even like I went in for one interview and okay, cool, we're gonna no-show you and we're not gonna ever respond again. I went to like there was one place I went, I think I did four, four interviews, in-person interviews for this company. I mate meeting with multiple people. I met with the owner of the company, I met with multiple people, still got no-showed and nobody ever responded. And it's a it's a very no matter the age you are, I was 22, and then whatever you are now, it's still kind of a humbling experience how you everybody thinks, and I ever this also goes to the whole idea of like all these kids that are going to their freshman year of college starting like this next week. Just because that's the degree that you are getting in and this is the path you think you want to take, don't always stick to that.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:14

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't completely stick to it because whether it's two and a half years out of college and your career kind of gets rocked and you go in a different direction, or how many years was it out of college for you that you know you had the same thing happen. It can happen at any point of your career. Sometimes the best things are just I don't want to say go with the flow because that gives it a real hippie vibe.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:38

The word is resilience.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:40

Yes. Not giving up on it in realizing that sometimes what you like what I try to think about is it wasn't not that the ag industry didn't want me, the ag industry didn't need me, and for you it wouldn't be that the swine industry didn't want you or maybe doesn't need you anymore, but it's what you learned in the swine industry needed to be put elsewhere. Yes. And that's I've had to kind of have that have that mindset about myself too, where it's the ag industry taught me a lot, and there's been a lot of things that I have taken from the ag industry, back to one of those questions I asked. Taken that and I've brought it to a different industry, and I've been able to apply it. And there's been a lot of times that what I was able to do has kind of in a way ruffled from some feathers, and I've had fun doing it because I'm ruffling feathers of somebody that's in his mid-50s, been in the financial industry for 30 plus years, and he comes back to me and he goes, We need to talk about that again. I'm like, Okay, that's that's what I needed to do there.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:41

So I'm I'm gonna let the cat out of the bag a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:44

Okay, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:45

I was standing upstairs at the stove making my salad. I'm I'm a salad maker for lunch. And I had a oh shit moment where I had it was like oh no duh, you dumbo. I have been talked a lot about silos and how we're in an organization, you're silos, you're the sales team, you're the operations team, you're production and we don't do that. And then I was sitting there making my salad and I realized that the previous oh this was like June. So for twenty months of me and patio pondering, I was still siloing myself. I was Jim Smith the swine nutritionist. And then I was Jim Smith the farmer, and I was Jim Smith the patio pondering guy. But the podcast and the writing really didn't go so I had all these silos. And I sat down with Merlin, my my um Chat GPT interface, and said, Merlin, I I've been siloing myself, and I used the illustration that it was like going to the strip mall.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:58

So you had you you could go to the patio pondering in this store, and you go down a few windows, and you go through the farm, and then you go to the writing, and then you go to a bigger store that's as the swine nutritionist. I'm working on branding Jim Smith as I am Jim Smith, who's a farming swine nutritionist that has gotten proficient at writing as is uh as a podcast. And that is scary.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:27

Well, I think that also goes to when I asked you about the whole where do you want to travel, and you're like, well, my snarky comment is I don't think it's a snarky comment. When you say what you just said there, and then think about where you want to travel to World Pork Expo and be on that main stage. In all honesty, that's not a snarky thing when you can think about the fact that your goal, what you're saying right there, is instead of having separate silos, just putting it all together and being Dr. Jim Smith with all these components in one, it would kind of be like your grand stage. Mm-hmm. Because that would be able to give you that opportunity to pull all those different places together. Because I've never been to World of Pork Expo. But I could assume that you don't talk just about pigs. No, no. I guarantee you you're talking about the farming side of it. You're gonna get to talk about the pig side of it, but then on top of it, you're getting to bring in your writing and your podcasting, and you get to stand on that stage and have that conversation.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:30

Outside of us, but I have never been professionally appreciated for all the hats that I wear. I have been professionally denigrated for having that. And a drunk at Kites in Kansas State after World Pork Expo. An acquaintance came up and says, Why do you keep fucking around with farming? And at the time, like I was I was still drinking dad like what the hell are you talking about? But that comment has stuck with me because if he said it, other people said it. And I'm like, I'm fucking around with farming because it's who I am.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:13

Yeah.

unknown 2:03:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:15

And it makes me a better swine nutritionist because I understand where the corn comes from and all this. And I don't I'm trying to figure out how I can be appreciated for all of those.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:26

It gives you that um I think sometimes when everybody and they've said it a lot at my job where everybody's like, oh, that's a thankless job. That's an underappreciated job. Where and we I mean, even people talk about it at the county fairgrounds, that volunteers, it's a thankless job. Yep. And it kind of gives you that perspective where sometimes we need to give a little extra thanks. Stop and give that extra appreciation to somebody over the fact that you are going down the right road, keep going down that road and kind of make you grow a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:57

Mm-hmm. So you asked about what I see for the next hundred episodes. Uh I want my interviewing skills to increase so that I can do inter do the video and not going, oh, there was some dead space there.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:12

And I want to be able to take those interviewing and writing skills and help, whether it's 4-H or Boy Scouts or something else, because I think that I I think I could do that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:25

I think it would be cool. I think there's kind of there's even something you could do with this where it's not even just giving kids the opportunity to have that conversation, but doing mock interviews. Like reaching out to different that would be kind of a cool thing because I don't know, having interviews are I mean it's definitely not my strong suit doing. Like, well, I can do an interview like when I'm going into a job and I don't know anybody, and like I can bedazzle them with my brilliance and baffle them with my bullshit a little bit, but when I sit in front of somebody that I know, it's a little different.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:56

Well, and with the interviewer that interviewed me yesterday, uh, I threw out that we almost do a disservice to youth when we continually promote the people that are so good.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:13

The speakers in FFA that just have a knack and they get up and they're like they just they do it. Yeah. And they they can think. It wouldn't matter if it's a prepared speech or extemporaneous there are people that are good at it. And we put them on a pedestal. What about the kid that might have a speech impediment, that doesn't think as fast? I mean how can how can we better help them cultivate there? And are we doing a disservice by here's what you can be, and the dude can't even say a word without a lisp in or something? That's a really, really obscure but but can we take these skills and help those people that you know it's okay if you stumble. It's okay if there's some dead space. It's okay if you say the wrong thing. Hold on, let me back up and restate that.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:02

Yep. Well, it it kind of goes to the whole Temple Grandin idea. Or somet have you ever heard of Temple Grandin?

SPEAKER_03 2:06:08

Oh yeah, yeah. I've seen her speak in person. So like what I what do you mean by the Temple Grandin?

SPEAKER_01 2:06:13

Well, when you look at somebody, and maybe I'm speaking out of turn with it, but looking at somebody that because she's on the autistic scale, if I remember correctly, correct?

SPEAKER_03 2:06:24

Okay, yes, yes, Temple Grandit is on the autistic scale.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:27

I was like, wait a second, you're giving me a look that way Am I not thinking the right way here? Like maybe I'm thinking of the wrong person.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:34

I was gonna say, well, understatement of the interview.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:37

I was like, but you're like giving me the look, and I'm like, maybe I'm thinking incorrectly.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:41

Oh no, you are very high-functioning autism.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:45

But being able to go, and it would have been so easy for somebody to dismiss exactly who she was for just her basic corness, but instead of dismissing her, putting her to the side and highlighting that person that could have been easily highlighted, building off of what she is and how much like it just kind of makes you wonder how many people are out there that had they been treated the way Temple Grandin was treated and built upon, versus I don't want to say turning a blind eye, but highlighting that special highlighted person um just makes you wonder how many opportunities we've missed to have the industry changed in a positive way. For sure. Maybe I also have that mindset just because my sister too.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:27

Like I just kind of wonder, but well, she was Temple's an interesting example because her autism probably allowed her to be successful because her givea ship meter was didn't work.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:44

That's part of her autism. She didn't her social skills and understanding. She had to learn because they weren't innate because she wasn't wired that way. And probably, like you said, her ability or not caring, not because she didn't, but she was wired, is probably why she was able to be successful, as opposed to if she had the exact same thoughts and had a little bit of self-consciousness, yeah, she might have self-regulated out of being impactful.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:13

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah.

unknown 2:08:15

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:16

It's kinda weird.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:16

How's that for turning the tables?

SPEAKER_01 2:08:19

Yeah, that turned the tables on me. That's right. That was a little bit more than my two pages of questions.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:24

Okay, so my my question for you is what do you want to see in the next hundred episodes of Patio Pondering?

SPEAKER_01 2:08:32

I I for one, I don't know why, but I think it would be a very impactful thing for you, just based off of coming from the youth side of things, where I eventually had to delete TikTok because TikTok just kind of gets the worst of everybody. But when you do get your studio built, I think having little clips that can be sent out because sometimes having I don't want to call it like clickbait, because it wouldn't be clickbait, but having those because I mean we've had so many m small conversations within this big one. Being able to highlight some of those small conversations in videos that it is there's times where I learn about something that I'll show somebody a video and be like, hey, did you see this or hear about this? I think it would be able to help you reach out really far, and I think it would be super impactful. I think that would be a cool thing for patio ponderings to do in the next hundred episodes. Once Kimmy gets your studio.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:27

There you go. We started a little bit with some of the sharings. Yeah. It's uh the the it's uh streamlining needs to help happen.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:37

Yes, I understand that 100%.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:39

Yes, but but the picking out those video clips to highlight, that's what kind of got me in trouble with on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_04 2:09:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:49

Yeah, because I shared a clip where my guest talked about a challenge in the swine industry. Led to a good conversation, but I got some private feedback saying, don't do that. But those that was one of those video clips. Perfect example of getting some traction.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:06

It kind of makes you just want to be like, well, why shouldn't I do that? Do you want to come on the podcast and talk about it with me? Probably not. That given is a great response. I it's very polite, professional, and some might say snarky response, but hey Polite and professional, beat snarky to the punch, so sometimes. I think that would be a you're never gonna make everybody happy, and there's always gonna be waters that are gonna get rippled. And if it gets rippled, I know you're not one to shy away from that either. I think it would be the best. But I also think there's ways that it could also help outreach in a lot of possibilities.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:45

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:47

But that's where I think I don't know if that's necessarily the answer you were looking for, but that's something I think that would be I can work on that one. Beneficial working on it. So yeah. I'm glad you had me here today.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:56

I'm glad you volunteered to or agreed to come, Banner.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:59

I was honored when you sent me that text, I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:02

It's funny. The three people that that are part of this hundredth uh hundredth episode expose all use that same word.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:12

It was it's I I feel like this has become your baby, so being able to come in here and help with that. Yeah, it makes me feel good. Especially I think what made me feel even more honored was there have been a lot more guests in the last hundred episodes that I feel like are well that are way more in tune in the agriculture industry than I am anymore. I kind of sometimes miss that I'm not as knee deep in it as well as I wa as I was. And so I was like, well, it just kind of made me feel good that even though I'm not knee deep in it anymore, it still makes me feel special.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:46

I was one of the Well, the the ag is the thread that winds us all together.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:51

It doesn't mean that it's the tapestry that with what we're all made.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:56

No, I agree. I definitely agree.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:58

How's that for wordsmithing?

SPEAKER_01 2:12:01

That was like a close the cut right now. Leave it at that.