Learning when to put the work away as farmer veterans and veteran farmers

Shay: Hey, podcast. Today's recording comes from an AgriSafe Network webinar that I was fortunate to be a part of here today, March 12th, and had a great time doing the actual webinar that we were able to turn into a podcast. If you have an interest in looking at the actual webinar and presentation associated with it, go to our YouTube channel, Ag View Pitch. And search for the webinar. Just type in farmer veteran. Another way that you can find it is checking it out at the AgriSafe Learning Lab. There's some awesome resources there. You can create a free account. They don't send you a whole bunch of emails. It's just a great way to check out some additional resources in the egg safety and health industry. So definitely encourage you to check it out. Please shoot me an email. Let me know what you think about today's podcast.

What I'll say about it in advance is that it's not just for farmer veterans. I think so many of these things hold true for farmers in general, and I make a point of that throughout the podcast of everybody as normal people faces these same issues. So I think it's definitely worth your time listening in on some of the things, and maybe there's some opportunities for you to reach out to some of the farmer veterans in your community. And again, I would love to hear feedback on it. Enjoy. Welcome back everyone to another episode of the AgriSafe Learning Network webinar and podcast series. My name is Shay Foulk, and today I'm honored to talk with you all a little bit about learning when to put the work away and how that looks as we look to find balance for veteran farmers. My name is Shay Foulk. I'm going to introduce myself here in just a minute.

I wanted to go ahead and say thank you very much to Linda Emanuel and all the team with the AgriSafe Network for having me on to do this webinar series. This is probably not like a lot of webinars that you maybe have tuned into in the past. It's a little less, uh, statistical and study-based as it is experiential. And I'm really looking forward to have this discussion of things that I have not only lived, but things that I have had great discussions with others about in the industry. So both of these are pictures of me, and if you can't see them by listening into the podcast, on the left you have me when I was serving with, uh, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment here about 2 years ago.

And on the right you see me with a beard, and I have a quote here that says, "You can tell it's a veteran just by the way it is." I had grown out that beard for about 4 months as I enjoyed the civil liberties that I have come to love and enjoy as a veteran farmer and really am loving what I'm doing. So a little bit about myself. I grew up in northeast Iowa around livestock, corn, soybean, alfalfa, and dairy production and was really surrounded by people that just knew how to put in the long hours and make ends meet. And I think that was a great experience and I don't know if it necessarily drew drove me towards the military, but it definitely had a certain appeal to it with that hard work. So made it through high school and grew up around that production, decided I really enjoyed agriculture, went to Iowa State University and graduated with a degree in agronomy in 2015.

And that urge to serve never really went away. So 9 days after graduation, I enlisted in the United States Army and went through several levels of training, basic training, airborne, the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, and ended up in Savannah, Georgia with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment for 4 years. Just transitioned out back here at the end of 2019 and truly loved my time there. Uh, you know, I have, have on the slide here following in footsteps of giants and the phenomenal number of deployments and the experience and the wisdom that I learned from the men and women that I was able to serve alongside was truly incredible. And I was fortunate to go on two deployments with those groups. So really enjoyed my time there. In April of 2019, I did what is called the Career Skills Program.

I was able to take advantage of creating my own internship, and with that, I decided to blend in what I do here today, which is consulting all over the United States and Canada with Ag View Solutions. Helping producers on everything from cost of production to business structuring and peer groups. And then also with Manier Seed and Service, where we work specifically with seed sales and production for our family line. So that's how I am currently involved as not only a farmer veteran, but also with many other farmer veterans and farmers all over the country. I currently also serve with the Iowa Center for Egg Safety and Health Advisory Board and am honored to be serving with with the AgriSafe Network as an advisor for, I guess you would call it Veterans Affairs, just helping to talk a little bit about how we can better serve veteran farmers within the community.

Today I want to touch on what I think is truly an important topic, and that's knowing when to shut down. And the overview of this, you can see it on your screen, or for those listening, I just want to say, you know, we're going to talk through about why we don't shut down as veteran farmers. Why we should shut down, why it's not the worst thing in the world that we aren't doing that right now, and then more importantly, how to do it. And I want everyone to realize that these are things that I struggle with myself. So on the screen, you'll see a picture. This was from last spring in 2019. I came back and jumped into a tractor as quickly as I could, but I'm planting at 2:31 in the morning, and I loved it. Uh, not complaining at all.

I was happy to be back in the tractor and running those night shifts, and it was something that I was definitely used to with the night rotations in the military, or just learning how to adjust that sleep schedule. But I don't, I don't have all of this figured out, and I don't want this to sound like it's a do as I say or not as I do thing. It's more so these are just some of the things that I found to be effective that could help you or could help a veteran that you know. And some of the things that I struggled with personally and am still working through and trying to get better at are things like sleep deprivation. I thought for a while there that it was okay to, to get 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night and just go, go, go. And I'll talk about some of the reasons why, but I realized that it's not healthy and not sustainable.

Definitely had weight gain and lack of physical health associated with that. And found myself working at literally all hours of the day. I mean, any, any time that you can find on the clock, I found myself working and pushing the boundaries, not only of family, but also with, with new work and taking on as much as I could and looking at what opportunities were, were out there. And that's not me complaining. It really is just a reality of what it looked like for my transition as a farmer veteran. And then also has some of the stories. And so one thing that for those of you listening, whether you are the farmer veteran transitioning here or whether it's someone that you live with or that you know of that's going through these things, I just ask that, you know, you cut yourself some slack, cut them some slack and be careful. You know, don't judge yourself too hard.

You have to understand, you know, that it is a lot. It's a big process. It's completely different. And I'll talk about that here as well. But just make sure that you're giving yourself the leeway. Now, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be accountable, but it's okay to, you know, enjoy yourself and realize that you truly are entering uncharted territories. So as we jump into it, I want to talk a little bit about some of the main topics. And the first one here is why we don't shut down. And I think the key, one of the key things is that we have the, excuse me, the fear of missing out, or FOMO. I don't like that acronym, but when we look at all the opportunities that we have in front of us and the fact that we're truly newly back into the civilian world, sometimes we feel like we must pursue everything.

There might be things as a farmer veteran that we think we're missing out on, whether it's land opportunities, equipment deals, business pursuits, partners, new ventures. Product development, whatever it may be. And these are often things that we've been thinking about for several years, not only while we were in the service, but maybe even before that. And so when we transition back into the civilian world, we want these things to happen right now. And that fear of missing out is the idea that if we don't do them, they might disappear, they might go away, we might be missing out on on something that we should be pursuing. Another thing of why we don't shut down is sometimes we feel as though we need to honor fallen members or looking at the fact that we are moving on with our lives and that we're doing other things.

And I don't necessarily want people to think that this is the same thing as survivor's guilt. It's not. It's more so, like I say, honoring the family members or not, not the family members, the members of your former family, I guess, within the military that maybe unfortunately didn't make it home or that you left when you decided to leave the military. And we find ourselves oftentimes thinking about the fact that they didn't get those chances or that they don't have those chances to be doing these things right now. And sometimes it's hard. So, we honor them by working as hard as we can, continuing to be the best that we can, and thinking about how, you know, they either encouraged us along the way in the service or when we even talked about the plans that we had for the future there with those members that we served with.

And, you know, we want to prove to them and we want to show them how well we're doing, but it's not necessarily the same that we're out. And that's something that we need to realize. But I think also definitely a reason why we don't shut down as Farmer Veterans, because we want to continue to hold ourselves to that high level of expectation that we had with those people. One of the most important things, and I, I don't remember honestly if I heard this somewhere or if I just latched onto the phrase, but I truly believe that drowning in opportunity is something that Farmer Veterans face almost daily.. And it truly can feel like you're drowning because you have so much opportunity going on at once. And people listening might say, well, isn't that a great thing? And it is, but it's really hard to differentiate and know what to pursue.

And so instead, what we do as Farmer Veterans is we just, we pursue everything. We just see how much that we can try and do. And not that that's a bad thing. I'll talk about that here a little bit more. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. But it definitely is one of those things that keeps us up at night because we have a full plate, because we want to do things really well. And it's a reason that we maybe don't shut down or step away from things when we need to be taking the time to do that. Another factor is looking at the prior operational tempo. And for those that aren't military or maybe don't fully understand the concept, this can go both ways.

So many, many farmer veterans come from very fast-paced environments, and it, it doesn't matter if you were a special operations community or you were a highly deployed unit or you were a heavily trained unit that constantly was working and gearing up and training for the next thing. That high, that high op tempo is something that easily transfers over, but it also is something that could be the exact opposite. And I've seen this with a few people is if they came from very slow environments and maybe they wish they had been part of a fast-paced environment, or maybe they were just itching for something more when they hit home and they hit the civilian pavement, so to speak, they want to seek those high speeds. They want to find whatever's next and jump into a really high operational tempo there. And adjusting truly is hard.

So those that had a high, high op tempo, a lot of times find themselves to be very bored if they jump back into positions that aren't engaging and maybe they don't use their mind or the physical aspects of what they enjoyed about the military as much. Whereas on the other thing with the opportunity, those that came from a slow environment they just want to go, go, go all the time because they don't want to go back to what it was that they have served in for the last few years. Another reason is farmer veterans, and I don't want to say this from the standpoint of mental health necessarily, and I definitely don't with any of this want to paint a broad stroke. I'll talk about that more here in a minute, but it's much easier to avoid our thoughts when we're busy.

You know, it gives us something else to focus on, gives us something else to do, and it doesn't really matter whether we're working on a tractor or building an Excel spreadsheet, and it doesn't matter if it's early in the morning or late at night or whether we're alone or with others. It's easy to avoid the thoughts because we are completely focused on something else. And I would argue that it's not one of the healthiest things, but it is a reality for not shutting down. And I don't know if you would necessarily call it an excuse, but it is a reason that farmer veterans find themselves not shutting down. And so to go back what I was saying at the beginning of this point with avoiding your thoughts, these aren't just things that veteran farmers deal with. These are things that most people deal with. But it is something that I have seen in this transition process that we all are a part of.

The next thing to talk about is communication issues or family issues, and it ties a little bit into avoiding the thoughts. And it's just as easy to avoid talking as it is to avoid those thoughts. So if you're always working, you don't have to necessarily communicate the emotions. And I think in ag, we're just as guilty of that as anybody, not to mention veteran farmers, of it's really easy for us to communicate what we need to, to get the job done. And then we go home and go our separate ways and maybe don't talk about some things that went on during the day, and much less so other things that we have going on in our lives, because it's not the easiest for us to communicate those things. I'm just so busy is something that we hear frequently, and I'm guilty of saying that as well when it comes to these sorts of things. And it's an easy cop-out.

And another easy cop-out is for people to truly fake that they're happy just because they're busy. And it's a really dangerous line to walk. And I don't think, you know, personally myself, I don't think I've crossed into that yet, but I have seen that. With others, and I've had others tell me that, is if they stay busy, they think that they're happy because they're occupied and maybe aren't addressing some things that they should be. One other thing that I want to make a note of when it comes to communication and those family issues is sometimes family issues truly can just seem so trivial compared to everything else that we have going on and everything else that we may be had in military experience and whether that was training or deployments or events, it doesn't matter what that level of experience is because it's different for everybody and everybody faces those in different ways.

But family issues can truly seem like such a small thing when it comes to some of the larger issues that we've seen as farmer veterans in the world. So moving on to the next topic, financial stability. This is something that I think people face in all walks of life, but in particular with farmer veterans, a reason that we don't necessarily shut down is we are not okay with not having financial stability. We want to build out of that debt or set ourselves up for success or ensure that our businesses succeed. And some people truly need that money and some people want that money. And it doesn't matter either way how it is. The financial stability truly is a contributing factor to why some farmer veterans don't shut down. For example, healthcare can be extremely expensive as a veteran with a family if there's no off-farm income.

And so having the extra money not only to cover the true cost, but to pursue the things that you've not had in the past, or to pay off those debts is a very big reality. And what we often find ourselves doing is taking advantage of every opportunity in hopes that it will help us reach financial goals. And farmer veterans saying, well, I need the money, is often a reason to take the off-farm or other income jobs. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, I think it's definitely, um, something very beneficial that we see on the consulting side is having that off-farm income can be a huge asset and especially with the healthcare. But I think we need to be careful and selective about what jobs it is that we choose to take and whether that's detracting away from what our mission is or what our goal is overall for financial stability. And I'll talk about that here in a little bit.

About how we can maybe work through that. Physical and outdoor work is something that I'll talk about here next. I'm actually going to talk about loving what we're doing. So as farmer veterans, one of the reasons that we chose the agriculture and career world of agriculture is we truly love it. And even if we have to remind ourselves, you know, that we have fun working on the farm, that we have fun chasing cattle when they've been let out, or we have a stuck tractor, or we're working for 20 hours straight, it's really hard for us to shut down when we're having fun. And I think we can all relate to that fact, whether you have kids or remember when you were a kid and you would yell to your, your mom or your dad or whoever and say, no, just 5 more minutes. I just wanna play outside for 5 more minutes. And if we love that, maybe it's not even outdoor work.

I find myself sometimes having to pull myself away from a spreadsheet or something that I'm building online because in my mind I have it that, oh, this is going to help the operation. This is going to improve what we do. And there's a lot of opportunities with it and I truly enjoy doing it. So just something that we need to look at and recognize with farmer veterans. That sometimes we don't shut down because we love it, but we need to walk a fine line with that because we want to continue to do what we love. And I'll address that here in a little bit. Going back to the one that I started talking about, there is physical and outdoor work. So whether you spent time at an office job or quote unquote in the cage at work waiting for things to happen or on a FOB overseas, just looking at rocks, it's nice to be outside in good working environments..

And it's also nice to do just any physical work regardless of what it is, whether you're turning a wrench or loading seed, moving livestock around, it just feels good to be outside. And even in the harsh elements, I had already that farmers can be a little bit of masochists at sometimes when it comes to that. But having that outdoor work is great. And even, you know, at night, kind of when the temperatures are comfortable and the stars come out, there's something peaceful just about about working during that time alone, and, and maybe that's a different way for us to shut down, but we're not truly stepping away from the business. We're not truly stepping away from what we're doing. Along with that, it really makes it easy to avoid thoughts and family issues and some of these other things that we've discussed if we're doing something with our hands.

Finally, one of the reasons that I think we don't shut down as veteran farmers is we we take great pride in our work. And whether, like I said, it's the Excel spreadsheet or the equipment appearance or how the produce or product looks, we are generally very meticulous and want things to look great. And this can cause a lot of stress. So when it's time to go do something else or comes up, sometimes we say, I can't, I just need to fix this or that or the other, or whatever it may be. I need to get this dialed in and I need to do this just a little bit better. And we don't feel that we can step away because it's not up to our expectations and it's not up to our level. So overall, the points here of why we don't shut down, these are the ones that I'm going to focus on.

There's definitely many more, maybe that you've experienced or maybe others that you have seen loved ones experience, but There's many reasons. And, and like I said, and you can see on the screen, if you're watching the webinar, none of these are necessarily bad or wrong. In no way am I trying to tell anybody how to live, but they may not be healthy or sustainable. And that's what we want to address. And that's what we want to talk about here today. Moving on to why we maybe should shut down is the key thing of mental health. And again, I mentioned earlier, I don't want the key focus of this all to necessarily be mental health. I just want to look at the issue overall and maybe how we can address it and help some people. And so when it comes to that fear of missing out, we can't constantly over-assess these situations because it's very easy for us to get worn out.

And it's unhealthy to constantly think about, well, what if? We need to take some time to focus on what we can control. And if it comes to land rental or buying or equipment deals, whatever it may be, we need to make a decision when the opportunity arises with the best information available. And if it doesn't work out, it's something that we need to move on, move away from, and coach ourselves to shut down and move past that idea. Addressing the idea of honoring fallen members is you need to take a step back as a former veteran and honor your life. And while we never forget the fallen, we also need to remember to honor what we have currently. And it's not healthy, I think, to live in the past or hold too closely old words or old discussions because things change just as rapidly in a day as they do in a year.

And often things that were said at that time maybe are no longer relevant or should not be used as a guide. So it's important to remember those things if you're that close. Um, but it's also important to remember that they would want what is best for you and whether they're still around and they're just serving and you've lost touch with them, or they're busy with their lives, just like we get busy with ours as farmer veterans. Or they've passed on, the, the people that we know and that cared about us, they want what is best for our lives right now. And I don't think necessarily that that is us to stay up too late, for us to be missing time with family and friends, or living in that state of avoiding our thoughts.

And what I would encourage farmer veterans to do, or anybody that knows farmer veterans that need to facilitate this discussion or think it's an important discussion to have, is just talk a little bit about the idea of honoring our lives currently. The next thing is the opportunity will come. And this is something hard to think about, especially when we're in the heat of opportunities, looking at how quickly and circumstantially a lot of these opportunities arise. It's hard to realize that in the moment, but more of these opportunities will come and maybe even better ones will come along the way. If we take time to effectively pursue what we have in front of us and what we can focus on. And again, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't capitalize on good opportunities when they come along, but maybe making a clear distinction and sifting through what is right and what is wrong to pursue.

This really gives us the ability to shut down because we can clearly define what it is we want to be involved with and maybe what we shouldn't be at this time. But we'll have an opportunity to later. Another thing to realize on why we maybe should shut down is civilian life is very different. And the op tempo of the world, as I mentioned, in the civilian side is not the same, which ironically is why we tend to thrive as farmer veterans. Uh, one, because we don't see things as being difficult. And two, just because we operate a little bit at a different level. When it comes to some examples, I mean, we ran night missions. We might be planning at all hours in the night, like that picture that I showed you or told you about. And it seems natural to us, but what does that impact have on our family, on our significant others, and on things like the love for what it is that we do?

Things are oftentimes much slower in the civilian world, and that's okay. And it may be that your job is still fast-paced, or maybe it's faster than ever before, but that home life or normal people things, quote unquote, are too slow. But we need to try and adjust to that so that we're able to shut down, decompress, and walk away at the end of the day, whether it's to go see a ballgame, go see friends, or really spend time with ourselves and working through some of these things. Just recognizing that civilian life is different, that it's okay to shut down when it comes to these things. Another important topic addressing from earlier and avoiding thoughts is we as former veterans really need to tackle our thoughts head-on. And I think sometimes we can feel as though family issues are the same thing as being shot at. And I mean that jokingly, of course.

Hopefully that's never actually the case. But if you're getting shot at, there's things that we're, we're trained to do in the military. And you're not trained to run away and avoid the thoughts or the conflict, whatever it is, whatever it may be. You're trained to return fire, to communicate, and move to cover simultaneously. And then you attack. You don't wait just to get shot at and hope it doesn't affect you because it will. You need to attack the thoughts and the problems that you face head on and in the same way as you would in the military, attack those thoughts and attack those problems. So again, react to them, communicate the entire time, seek cover, and maybe that's financial cover, maybe it's emotional cover, you know, physical cover, pulling yourself away from the work. Form a plan and then continue to return fire and, and, you know, truly go after it in a plan of attack.

One of the most important things to remember, and I hope this analogy helps some people out there, is if you don't attack these issues head-on, if you don't attack whatever it is that you feel as though you're being shot at, others around you are going to get hurt. And you need to remember that you're not in this alone, that you have a team behind you, whether it's your family or your coworkers or your friends of people that are relying on you. So you need to take the time to tackle those thoughts head-on as a farmer veteran. Another thing is looking at the financial stability. And with that, sometimes it's a little better to have a clear mind, better thoughts, and maybe be a little bit more productive with that time to move towards financial stability. And financial stability is really important, but so is the clarity and work purpose and pursuit of the goals.

It's hard as a farmer veteran to do 20 things, maybe 60% as well as they should be done. Versus 3 to 5 things that's 100% as well as they should be done. All right. And I'll say that again. So it's hard as a farmer veteran to do 20 things 60% as well as they should be done versus 3 to 5 things, maybe 100% as well as they could be done. By clarifying what it is you want to do, you can truly double down on those things to help yourself make more money or become more financially stable, or to tackle those thoughts that puts you in a good place so that you can focus on what it is that you're working on. And it's really hard to chase that dream when you don't have the time to focus on what you're chasing because you're too busy doing 17 other things. And by the way, you're doing those things maybe halfway.

The idea here why maybe we should shut down is At night, this will help us by evaluating what exactly it is that we do and what it is that we really want to focus on. So allowing ourselves and permitting ourselves to have these goals, to, to have a clear mind and some better thoughts, will ultimately make us more productive. When it comes to us loving what we do as veteran farmers, We want to continue to love what we do because burnout is a real thing. And I think all of us would hate to see a farmer veteran lose the will to do their work, or anyone for that matter, lose the will to do their work because they tried to do too much too fast and simply got burned out. If you want to continue to love it, you really need to find a way to step away from it.

And, and with that, I don't mean just stepping away once a week for a date night, or once a month on a weekend trip, or once a year on vacation. I really think that as farmer veterans, we need to step away daily and focus on something else just for a certain amount of time. Maybe, maybe as a farmer veteran, you only need 20 minutes, or maybe you need an hour at lunch, or maybe you need 2 hours to work out. Or maybe you need 3 hours to spend time with your family. It looks different for everybody, but you need to take that time away daily to step away from the position and truly focus on something else. Probably something that's really good, especially coming from the military, is, is focusing on the physical health and well-being. And we'll talk about this more and, and maybe how to do it. But this truly is very important.

So learn to shut down so that you can continue to love what you want to do as a farmer veteran. That leads into the next topic, maintaining health and physical well-being. So not only is it important to work out, but also to maintain your physical capabilities. So while we enjoy being outdoors, uh, sometimes it's not the same as getting in a good workout or two a day, especially when diet is factored into the equation. I'm not going to jump into diet today because not only as a farmer, but just with the crazy amount of things that we have going on. Sometimes diet really easily gets pushed to the wayside and it shouldn't be, but that's a topic for another time. So with that being said, you know, focusing on your health, making it a priority truly allows us to shut down because if we don't do this, our health will decline and we will suffer.

And one thing that I found personally from this is I found myself more often than not focusing on the fact that I should be doing a workout or that I should have taken the time to do that. Or if I lay in bed at night wide awake, well, I didn't do enough physically today, otherwise I would be tired and I'd be able to fall asleep. And so then I stay up because if I mentally wear myself down, then I'll be just as tired and I don't have to worry about the fact that I, I didn't get a workout in. And it's just a vicious negative feedback cycle that encourages us, encourages us, or should encourage us as a reason of why we maybe should shut down moving forward. And one of the final things too, perfection is not demanded anymore from us. Training was often formatted to represent a true life-or-death situation, and rightfully so in the military.

It can be that way, but in the civilian world, the stakes are not that high. The 80% military done a lot of times is 95% done in the civilian world. And I'm not knocking civilians at all. There's tremendous amount, you know, maybe a good portion of the audience that's listening here today, whether it's academia or extension or folks that truly work very hard It's just that, you know, as a, as a military person, as a former veteran, that work ethic and drive that most of us have is sometimes very clearly defined. And what we need to realize is when we have a product near completion, finished a lot of times is, is better than perfect. And we can work through those next steps as they come along, or maybe they're good enough as they are and we just need to get that feedback and not necessarily worry about whether it's a perfect product that we're producing.

And again, hopefully this helps us to shut down as we're not trying to focus on the perfection, that we can go to bed a little earlier, that we can spend time on different projects. So these are some of the reasons why we maybe should shut down. And again, I don't want to generalize because while these may not be true for every farmer veteran, they are a consistent message for many people that I've talked with. Through this transition process and definitely things that I have learned firsthand, fortunately or unfortunately. So to talk a little bit too about why this is a positive thing that we're not shutting down, people might look at this and say, well, what do you mean? He just talked about how all of these things are bad and we should be doing them differently. And it maybe isn't what we should be doing.

Well, when it comes to not shutting down, one of the things is it shows us farmer veterans, we don't— we have a true lack of fear. We don't fear things like other people do necessarily. We're not afraid to fail. We're not afraid to succeed. And we're always trying new things. And maybe most importantly is we're truly open to change and adaptability. So, along with that fear is We're not afraid to work hard. We're not afraid to put in the hours towards something that we love and something that we believe in. And as a result of that, we probably do our jobs really well and are standing out and setting up, setting ourselves up for success later on. And that phenomenal work ethic, it's not just how we work, but it's also in how we think about those problems. And what I mean by that is the depth, looking at situations from every angle.

Sometimes this is what keeps us up at night or means that we have a hard time shutting down because we want to do the job well and get it done right. And we look at it, we're trained to look at it from so many different angles that we maybe find ourselves seeing something and need to get it on paper or need to type it up or need to work on that concept before we go to bed because we want to make sure that it's covered. And done right. And on top of that, that phenomenal work ethic outlines that we are dependable day in and day out, that we're hard workers. And it's not just when things are, are good or easy, it's when things get difficult and are in poor situations as well, especially with former veterans looking at the challenges that we faced in 2019 and the challenges that we will face again down the road. That's not going to change anytime soon.

Another reason that it's positive that we are not shutting down is I think it truly helps farmer veterans stand out amongst others. And right, wrong, or different, farmer veterans do tend to stand out. And I think these are all things that I've mentioned, the meticulous work, the strong work ethic. And I think the other thing is having a calm approach when it comes into stressful situations.. And this is definitely a huge asset on top of knowing when, when and how to manage people. And I think that's key, separating that when and how and why a lot of farmer veterans, whether as a farm manager or a team manager, however that looks in the ag operation or as a farmer veteran, is something that we tend to stand out on. When it comes to that. And we're open to new things too. Sometimes that's a big differentiator as well.

Another reason why it's a positive thing or not a bad thing that we're not shutting down is we're just doing what we know how to do. And what we know how to do is work hard. So it's not the worst thing in the world that we're not shutting down because sometimes it's just natural for us or we truly love it. And what we do well is we see the problem, we identify how to fix them, and then we just go do it. And so it's a good thing in the sense that a lot of times we are addressing the problems and are addressing the things that need to get done, but maybe we're not taking as much time to focus on some of the other important things. We are maybe spending a little bit more time just staying busy, but we truly are doing just what we know how to do, and that's work hard.

And the final thing that ties into that is we're doing our best because at the end of the day, we're looking to provide not only for ourselves and our family, uh, the best way that we know how, but also for our employers and for the business or for our personal farm operations and endeavors. And the way that we know how to do that is by continuing to work to get where we need to be. So we try, we truly try to give 100% to everything all the time. Whether that's our family, friends, hobbies, health, work, whatever it may be, we are trying our best. And so I say that it's a, it's a positive thing that we're not shutting down because we do have that, that drive and that will to do the right thing. It's just finding out the best way to do that.

And so those veteran farmers that continue to provide for their families or their country, a key thing to keep in mind is that They're just human like everyone else, and we work through those things and can hopefully steer ourselves in the right direction of away from why we're not shutting down into, into how to shut down. And that's where I want to head next with this. So one thing that I found personally that's good for helping to shut down is scheduling dates with a significant other or scheduling alone time. Maybe that means just taking some time to go do something that you enjoy. Go on a hike. Personally, what it is for me, my, my spouse, my wife Hannah, is phenomenal in the fact that when it comes to scheduling date nights and spending time to each other, I just said, hey, I think this would be really healthy for us if, you know, we scheduled and set some time aside.

And I try to make a point to step away from the busy work to truly spend that time and focus on that. And it helps me to shut down. So whether that's once a week or, you know, once every other week, set an activity or a block of time and don't work unless there's an absolute emergency, of course. Step away and put 100% attention on yourself or your significant other or your spouse, whoever that may be. That's a very actionable way for, for you to shut down and step away from everything that you have going on on the farm and the business or other things that you have going on in life. And again, you need to make that a priority. This isn't something that you just do occasionally or when it seems like a good idea. You truly need to, when you set that date and time, unless something absolutely major comes up, you need to ensure that, that that's what you do.

And that can easily be worked into your schedule. It's just taking time to plan it in advance. Next is physical activity on how to shut down. So try to exercise, I think, a minimum of 3 times per week. This can be really difficult, especially for, for instance, for grain farmers during planting or harvest. It can be really hard to work out every day. And that's true for any operation in agriculture. There's always the busy seasons or busy time. Of year or different events that maybe get in the way of that.

But if you can get yourself to work out 3 times a week, and again, over the last year or so, I haven't been the best about it, but it's something that I've truly come to realize that I need to make time for and something that I've also heard repeatedly said by, by those who maybe fell out of shape or aren't happy with where they are in their physical fitness of getting that physical activity. There's many ways to do it. It can just be 20 minutes to get your body moving, get the blood flowing, and try and stay active where you can. So that could be jogging across the machine shed to go get a tool, or maybe standing at your desk while working. Take time to go on a walk in the morning or, you know, at lunch or during the evening, take the dog for a walk.

And if necessary, if this is something that former veterans find effective, you can truly use this as a pretty good way to decompress or channel that stress that you're feeling into a workout. And very few people that I know of have ever said that they feel worse than before going to work after a good workout or while exercising frequently. So, I think the benefits are very well known and documented and that they can truly be beneficial to us as farmer veterans. Next thing is read. And some people might groan when they hear that, particularly some, some farmer veterans. They say, well, I went to the military, so I want to have to read or whatever, whatever it may be. And I'm not trying to generalize there, but some people have a hard time stepping completely away from work. So you can read something that's relevant to the business.

There's tons of leadership, business organizations, self-improvement, or other books out there that are phenomenal resources, not only for taking a step away from the business and shutting down, but also working on the business, which I'll talk about here in a minute. Another good option is, is audiobooks, and whether that's just relaxing and taking time to do it, or even while you're working, I find that it's really easy to burn through a couple, 2 to 5 chapters a day. Whether you're driving or whether you're doing outside labor and just even having it on in the background and catching some of that information I find is, is really easy to do. And if you don't want to think about work constantly, find something else to read, find a fiction or a history or novel, Western, something that you maybe haven't given time to find what it is that you like to read.

And it might make that a little bit easier. Another thing is, is get outside. And so whether that's the physical activity or just truly going outside and enjoying the weather, if you're like me, you know, you find that running a business is sometimes way more office time than, than you would like. And I think a lot of us feel that way. You know, take the dog outside to play, go on the walks that I mentioned, spend some time outside working on something. Or if the weather's agreeable, take some phone calls outside and you can still conduct business while enjoying some fresh air. The next item on how to shut down is, is sleep. And there's not too many ways to say this. Just go to bed, shut the laptop down, brush your teeth and go to bed. And I know it's hard, but a lot of times it's just that simple.

And obviously there's exceptions, but you should be very diligent in asking yourself, is this so important that I can't do it tomorrow? And I understand I was planting oats until 2:00 AM the other morning because we needed to beat the rain. There's nothing wrong with that. And I didn't chastise myself or judge myself because of that. But I do recognize that I need to get a little bit more sleep after that than I needed to ensure that I was able to stay on top of the other business items that I had by focusing on my sleep moving forward beyond that. When you're well-rested, you think more clearly, you're more efficient, and you feel better. And it's truly important for, for memory and for physical health. What I would argue is on the nights that I don't get enough sleep and that I know that I don't, it sure doesn't make me want to work out in the morning.

Or even the next day because you're just too focused on how mentally drained you are. It makes that physical activity sometimes hard to initiate. Another good way to shut down is, is having hobbies. And hobbies don't have to be something completely different than your business necessarily. If you enjoy working on old tractors and you're a grain operation that is working on tractors throughout the year anyways, that's okay. But maybe you enjoy showing cattle and you want to go watch the rodeo, or, or maybe you find something to do other than work that you truly enjoy. And I think it's important to differentiate here, not to just say you have a hobby to have a hobby, just find something that you truly enjoy to do that allows you to step away from that. And it truly doesn't matter what it is. So find a hobby, find something.

Extracurricular, I guess you could call it, outside of the business that allows you to focus on yourself and focus on things that you enjoy. Next thing is setting commitments, and this can be for yourself as a farmer veteran or as a friend to one. And as a friend, if you see someone struggling and don't really know how to help, just reach out to them and, and set a date and time to do something and follow through on it. Don't back out, don't let them back out unless of course something major comes up. But it's a good way that you can be involved with their, their lives as a farmer veteran, um, or be involved in farmer veteran lives, excuse me, but not necessarily be too intrusive. You know, just try to help out where you can. And, and for farmer veterans, you need to commit to these things that we've discussed.

Just as the people that are reaching out to you or just as the people that want to help you or want, you know, recognize that you could use some time away from the business want to do. So don't make it an option. It's a rule. You know, commit to these things, the date nights, the hobbies, the physical activity. Commit to it just like you committed to your service. And you can better learn how to shut down along the way. And finally, working on the business and not just in it is a great way to shut down as former veterans. So take some time to go to education workshops, input provider clinics, you know, livestock health meetings, Extension gatherings, really anywhere that there's information provided that makes you a better farmer. You feel better when you walk away. Oftentimes come away with a sense of optimism or new ideas, and you're truly open up to new people and possibilities.

I think 80% of what most of us get out of going to those is, is the networking that is involved with that. And even though it costs money and it's time away from other things, just do it. Unless you spend an exorbitant amount of money, you're going to recoup that not only in your efficiency, but maybe your clarity, maybe money savings on some major things that you learned while you were at these events. Take the time to work on your business and not just in the business, regardless of how busy you are and regardless of how tight the year is. You know, one thing that we see on the consulting side is people that are in years of high profit margins maybe are not as, as good of marketers. Maybe they're not as good at knowing their cost of production. Or dialing in some of the things that they need to know because they don't necessarily need to be.

But what's more important is knowing those things in the tight years. And if you can understand the benefits to going to the things of working on the business and not just in it, even when the years are good and you maybe don't need it as much, that's what sets you up as farmer veterans and as people really for success down the road. So talking about these things of how to shut down, you don't get better— excuse me, you don't get better at push-ups by reading about how to do push-ups. And a lot of times we get caught up in our minds of thinking that we've done something just by thinking about it because we no longer have that extreme accountability. And that's not how it works. You don't get better at push-ups by reading how to do push-ups. You get better at push-ups by doing push-ups. And that leads me into my, my next point. And as I kind of wrap things up here, take action.

Do something about what it is that you, that you heard here today and take away just one thing. I'm not doing this for my health. I'm not talking to you all about this topic because it's necessarily good for me. That's not the reason that I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I want you to, you know, change what you know you need to change. Take action on these things and don't be too hard on yourself as you work through it, but be accountable. You don't need to be unreasonable with your expectations, but you need to be accountable. So take action and change those things that you know you need to change or change the things that maybe I was able to bring to your attention today or for others. Just a few other things to consider as I wrap up here, things that I've thought about.

There's more than just learning when to shut down, and I would be more than happy to share any of my experiences, the challenges, opportunities associated with that as a, as a farmer veteran. So feel free to reach out to me at any time. Another thing to look into is the AgriSafe Learning Lab. There's a lot of great information out there that the AgriSafe Network puts on. There's webinars, there's resources, anything, you know, any number of things that you may need. Definitely get over there and check out the AgriSafe Learning Lab. Also the Farmer Veteran Coalition. And so this is something I didn't know existed until I was transitioned out. I might have heard about it along the way somewhere. The Farmer Veteran Coalition is a great resource and network for people that are farmer veterans transitioning. So definitely check out the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

And within that, the Farmer Veteran Coalition has a Homegrown by Heroes label. It's approved by the USDA to put on products and packaging for producers that grow things or raise livestock, any products like that. So definitely check out the Homegrown by Heroes label. So there's some stipulations that go along with that. But I think it's a great marketing opportunity for farmer veterans out there that maybe not enough people know about. Finally, so the Ag View Pitch Podcast, this is less a pitch for the podcast as it is some upcoming series that we're going to be doing. We're going to be doing a health series. This is the podcast that I run and we run as a team on Ag View Solutions, the consulting side.

So we're going to be doing a health series, we're going to be doing a starting in farming series, just looking at some of the basics that are maybe helpful for beginning farmers to understand and hearing from that experience of what other farmers had, had wished that they had known when they got started or wish that they had known more about. So definitely these are just some resources. Find, find one thing to focus on, one thing to check out, one thing to, to look into, uh, to help yourself as a farmer veteran or to help other farmer veterans that you know. Again, today, thank you so much for, for tuning into this webinar, tuning into this podcast. Please feel free to email me. My email is agronguy@gmail.com. You can always connect with me on LinkedIn. Check out that Ag View Pitch Podcast.

And if you're interested in following along what I'm doing as a farmer veteran, or to look into some veteran-owned businesses, look into Ag View Solutions, check out Maneer Seed and Service. They're both on Facebook. And we truly do look forward to, to your feedback and for you to listen into the next webinar. So make sure that you're following along with the great work that the AgriSafe Network is doing. You know, the biggest thank you goes out to the AgriSafe Network for supporting things like this. To better reach the farmer veteran community, to better reach those out there who are looking for this great information. I just can't say enough about the AgriSafe Network and the, the team there that's involved with this. So again, thank you so much everybody for tuning in, and we will catch you next time on the AgriSafe Network. Thanks again for listening, everyone.

If you would like to hear more content from Ag View Solutions, listen to our other podcasts such as Dad's Wisdom or our current Harvest Series. Ag View Solutions works as an integral part of operations like yours, side by side for farm profit management, business collaboration and structuring, facilitating industry-leading peer groups, and coaching and consulting tailored to your farm's unique needs. We know that no two farms are the the same, and we are here to help make your farm be the best it can be. You can learn more at AgViewSolutions.com, email us at AgViewPitch@gmail.com, or call Chris Barron at 319-533-5703. We really look forward to talking with you.