The brain of your business: why a farm office changes everything

Chris

Barron: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today we're going to have a conversation around something that's super important. Think about the brain, think about how you make decisions, and the title of this is going to be The Brain of Your Business, and we're going to get into what that means here in a second. But before we do that, I want to introduce to you, uh, family that we've worked with at Ag View Solutions for quite a while. They farm in Minnesota, in God's country where everything's all perfect, right? They'll smile when I say that. But, you know, just a great family. We've got Roger and Rhonda Toquam, the parents, and then we've got Isaiah, Josh, and Brennan, and 3 brothers farming together.

Mom and dad have done to talk them up for a second before we start having them talk, have done a phenomenal job of just transitioning the business while still being engaged and actively farming with their sons. And so it's been a, from Ag View's perspective, it's been a pleasure to work with this family. And I think you guys are going to enjoy this conversation and want to listen all the way to the end as we talk about the Brainier business. Before we start, Again, we've got Roger, Rhonda, Isaiah on the left, and then we've got Josh and Brennan on the bottom there. So if you're watching this, I'm going to direct some questions to each of them, and I want to start with the most important person in the business right now, which is Rhonda. She's the one that probably keeps everybody in line in the operation, and I bet there's probably no disagreement with anybody sitting around her there.

I want to ask you, Rhonda, You know, we're going to talk about the brain of your business, and, and we'll just say what that is. It's, it's an office, okay? You guys kind of looked at me funny, I think, in the very beginning when I started saying, you know, hey, you guys need to think about where your business is going, how you guys have grown the operation, how you guys are very executive-minded. You've got your financials figured out. You, you know, nobody does everything perfect, but you guys really strive to do the best you can in every aspect of the business. Rhonda, when the first time I met with you guys, we met— I don't think it was in the kitchen, it was kind of— well, maybe it was at the kitchen, I think, where we met around the table.

Isaiah

Toquam: That room table, yeah.

Chris

Barron: Yeah. And we had a, a, you know, a very detailed and, and I think important business meeting, but it was in your home, right? It was— you and, you and Roger live there, that's your home. Talk a little bit about the best part of that. I mean, because it's a good thing too, right? I mean, I want to start out with the positives of that. What did you like about having, you know, being able to conduct business in the home?

Isaiah

Toquam: Well, your things are always there at any given moment. Whenever you have a moment to go work on something or a couple hours or whatever, or choose to stay up late at night into the evening working on things. Um, so that, that was, I'm going to call it a plus right now. Uh, now that I've seen the other side, I would say that maybe isn't such a plus, but at the time, um, you know, I could be doing bookwork, I could be doing some laundry, I could be prepping meals. Um, yeah, it was, it was always there. Um, the business stuff was always there. I could write checks whenever I needed to. And so, or look up something whenever I needed to. So, um, I would say when we had our office in our home, that's what I would view as the positives.

Chris

Barron: What were some of the challenges about having it in your home where the family is?

Isaiah

Toquam: As far as the office itself, I don't know if there was too many challenges. It was smaller. So limited space. If we did want to have a meeting, we usually ended up at the dining room table that you referenced. And just a few steps away was the office to go grab something, that sort of thing. So I would say that, you know, I mean, it worked. It worked. One of the things that I found as a challenge was not so much with the home office itself, but just the paperwork traveling around. So, you know, we have different entities and different things going on within our business. And so Sometimes it's not always clear, like, okay, who's paying that bill, or what is this, or the boys need a copy of this. So there's a lot of paperwork traveling around in vehicles. Um, Roger would usually see the boys on a daily basis at our main shop, um, farm shop.

And so a lot of times there would be a pile of paperwork or, or a few pieces of paper to go to one of the boys, and so he would transfer it in his pickup and then it would get given to them and then it was kind of out of my control what happened to it after that. But so I would say that, you know, we've cut down, we don't do that anymore. So, um, now I can just walk across and put it on their desk.

Chris

Barron: And on a windy day, when you open up one door and you open up the other door, everything that's on, on the, uh, front of the dash goes flying out the other window anyway. So, you know, and that's probably why you didn't get all your invoices once in a while or something, or at least that's a good excuse, right?

Isaiah

Toquam: Right, right, that's a good excuse. But yeah, and it's a privacy thing too, you know, you don't you know, on something with a Social Security number or whatever, you know, might have been on there to be blown around the neighborhood.

Chris

Barron: So, yep. Yeah. So, um, Roger, I want to pick on you for a minute. You know, you're in the house too. What, what did you like or not like about it? I mean, she just said she, she could go in there at night and work on bookwork. Sometimes it's nice to hang out with your wife and chill and talk.

Josh

Toquam: Yep.

Roger

Toquam: And we did a lot of that. We would stay up very late at night working on, on cash flows and balance sheets and Profit Manager and those kinds of things late at night. And the advantage of that was, is you could, after supper, you could go up there and get that work done. The other advantage was all our files and all our file cabinets and all our old taxes from previous years were in that closet in the office and in our home. So you could always have access to that. But on the downside, we, we didn't have a lot of couple time, I guess you could say, because we were spending it in the office, in the house. And so we, I guess we've grown closer as a couple now that we don't spend our evenings in the office talking about numbers and those kinds of things.

Chris

Barron: Weird how that happens, right? You know, that's the one thing Alyssa will tell me. We'll take off driving down the road to go on a date and the first thing I do is start talking about that field over there or, you know, some cash flow thing or something. It's like, can we not talk about farming for a little bit, you know? And that's, that's one of the things that I think we, we're all challenged with. And, and when our business lives in our home, it's pretty hard to separate it. So, um, Isaiah, I'm going to pick on you next because you're sitting there right next to your mom, at least on my screen.

Roger

Toquam: Yeah.

Chris

Barron: Um, Talk a little bit about your perception of the office and the home. I mean, were there any challenges for you that you saw that's like, this is, this is kind of a pain in the butt, or I gotta, you know, or did you like it, or were there things good and different?

Brennan

Toquam: Um, I guess I just kind of echo what they said. Um, yeah, there were some nice things about it. Um, like, say work late at night or early in the morning or whatever. Um, like last night I took my computer home for my wife to do something on it for our Christmas cards address book, and I took all my paperwork with me too. I thought maybe I can squeeze in a half hour in the office on my computer. I never did, but, um, I just feel like when you have that at home, it's always in the, you know, it's always in the back of your mind that I could go work on that when go turn on a Christmas movie or, you know, just hang out like Mom and Dad said. Um, so that's, that's a, that's definitely a negative in my opinion, that I can't look at my computer and be like, I really should work on that, or whatever.

So, um, but yeah, positive, um, is just being able to do it whenever you want or whenever you can. But the, the negatives in my opinion definitely outweigh the positives. Josh, positives. No.

Josh

Toquam: Well, yeah, yeah, you said it right.

Brennan

Toquam: Oh, the negatives of the office in the home outweigh the positives is what I mean.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you said it right. So Josh, I'm going to pick on you for a minute. Knowing you over the years, you're a driver. It's like I envision you not shutting it off for good. Or you could act like you shut it off occasionally, but it's the wheels or the gears are still turning. You know, it's, you know, even if you push the clutch in, the gears are still turning, right? So talk a little bit about how you see it affecting you. Can you imagine having your office in your house with your personality? How well would that work with family, do you think?

Rhonda

Toquam: Well, before we built the office, I did have it in the house.. And, um, yeah, it didn't work real well. Um, it was, yeah, pretty much every night or every day when we would get done with work, you know, out in the shop doing stuff, I'd go in the house and I'd be out there till, you know, I'd be in my office in the house till the middle of the night doing stuff. And so, uh, with the office being— the office is still on the property where me and my wife live, um, but it's a separate building than our house, and that has made it nicer in the fact that if I want to go out and do office work at night, I have to, you know, walk out of the house or drive over to the office.

And so it has allowed me not to shut it off, because you are right, that is something that's very difficult for me to shut it off, but it has allowed me to go in the house and enjoy my son and my wife a little bit more now that the office is not in our home.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, and, and, and Brandon, I'm gonna, um, go to you next because what he just said is a good transition. As an observation, and I don't want to like pigeonhole you guys into this is how you are, this is how, but as an observation, I think, you know, you do a great job of, you know, just in conversations with you, of understanding balance probably as good as anybody in terms of you know, the farm and the family and sort of the why we do what we do type of thing. Talk a little bit about your perception on the same— it's pretty much the same question of just being able to separate the business from the family.

Josh

Toquam: Yeah, yeah. Well, before this, yeah, I had an office in my home or, you know, kind of down in our basement, dungeon basement, an old unfinished basement. And yeah, it just, it wasn't pleasant to go down there. And so yeah, I would just kind of shuffle paperwork, you know, into that basement, and then before you know it, you know, you haven't been down there for a week, you know, or 2 weeks, you know. And so that, that, that was the challenging thing because, you know, when you're home, I got, you know, I got a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. They tend to be kind of, uh, needy at this age, you know. They want to see their dad when dad's home. And so, uh, yeah, it's a lot easier to to put that to the, to maybe the paperwork to, to the side and stuff. Um, but, but now that I have, that we have this office, I would say no.

When I, when I go to the office, um, and it's not in, it's, it's separated from our shop. The shop and the office are on the same property where Josh lives. And, um, I think it's nice that, you know, hey, when you're in the office, you're, you're there for paperwork, you're there for decision-making, you're there to be the brain of the operation. You know, when you're in the shop, you're wrenching on something, you're fixing, you know, changing oil, whatever you got to do, you know, and then when you're home, you're dad, which is probably in my mind the most important job that we have while we're on this earth.

Chris

Barron: Mm-hmm. Yep. Great comments. I want to ask you guys, and anybody can answer this question, but, or a couple of you can, one of you can go first, but my question for you is, and to advocate why an office or creating a brain for your business— excuse me— is so important is especially if you have more than one person involved in the operation, such as you guys do. I mean, you have, you know, you have, you have a 5-person leadership team in your organization, right? And so when you have multiple people and you'll have separate offices, it's pretty easy for communication to get screwed up. It's pretty easy for things to get missed. It's pretty easy to miss out on an opportunity or to mishandle a challenge.

I would like to have one of you or a couple of you just comment on the benefits of having everybody in the same space, at least, you know, while you guys are working on either individual operational stuff because you guys have some different entity structures, like you said, Rhonda, but you also have one operation, right? And so having everybody together, I would assume, is a pretty huge benefit. But if a couple of you want to talk to that, I think the benefits—

Rhonda

Toquam: I mean, I don't think you put a price tag on the benefit of it. So we have 5 offices and a conference room and a bathroom in this office. And so every single— every one of us has an office. And, you know, some good examples is, you know, we all 5 of us were in here yesterday working on stuff and Dad was working on a P&K bill from the local co-ops and there was a question about it. Well, he just kind of yelled across the hallway because Brennan takes care of the agronomy side to make— to have Brennan come into his office. And Brennan went in there with his computer and looked at what he had for numbers and they're getting the bill figured out. Isaiah runs our trucking company and he had some questions on some bushels that got hauled and some hours and some, some spraying for his tender.

And we were all in here and, you know, at one point I think 4 out of the 5 of us were in Isaiah's office because all of us kind of have different areas inside the business. But Isaiah kind of needed some information from all of us to make sure his numbers were right. And so instead of all of us trying to get on a Zoom call or on a conference call when we're all in our home offices. It was literally just walking across the hallway and getting everybody in one office to go over this stuff. And we got those bills and those— I don't call them issues, but those discrepancies figured out quite quickly and a lot more efficiently than I think we normally would have if we had home offices. Anybody else? Everybody's paperwork is here too, you know.

So if, if, uh, Dad has a question and Brennan has the paperwork for it, he can— Brennan can just pull it out of his file cabinet and it's, it's right there instead of saying, well, that, that's at home. Because that's what always the problem was before. We'd be working in the shop or in our old— there we had a little office before that was attached to the shop and we try to work out of there, but it never failed, somebody always forgot something. Paperwork that we needed for a meeting or for whatever we were working on.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, any other—

Roger

Toquam: and in our, in our operation, each one of the boys, or each one of us, 5 of us, has an area of, um, of a role and a, and a, um, responsibility. And so when, uh, yesterday also we were working in profit manager, and, um, so to, to work on our marketing plan for 2026, we needed to know what Brendan, our agronomist, as it was stated earlier, what is our herbicide program going to cost going into 2026? Well, before, you know, Brendan, well, I'd have to check when I get home tonight. Well, now I can just take 3 or 5 steps over across the hallway to get into Brendan's office and get that number. Josh takes care of our grain facility and Martin and a lot of the marketing. So I needed to walk across the hall and get the crop production for 2025 from Josh. So we know how many bushels each entity owns or has to market.

And same, and like Josh said, as far as the trucking goes, we just walked across the hall and Isaiah had all his numbers in his office, we just needed to sort through them. So there's the efficiency of our family and our opera and our business is has really improved since we're all in one location.

Josh

Toquam: And I would just add that, you know, and I see Josh and Dad, whoever else working on Profit Manager and putting those numbers in and really diving into those numbers. When that, you know, when they say, when they come out and said, I think we're going to trade bean heads or whatever it is, I know that not that I didn't trust them before, but I saw that kind of equity, that work go into that decision. And I know it's the right decision because I was in the office, you know, observing them, watching them go through all these decisions. And then when Isaiah needs to make a, you know, if he's going to trade grain trailers, you know, I know that he's gone through it because he's put the time in. And while I was doing my own thing, and I just wanted to add that.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, it's interesting sometimes how when you put a number of people together and then if you're not in the same space, you wonder if the other person's even working. You know, that happens with the employees too. If you don't have everybody in a consolidated location and nobody shows up for 2 days and you might be at the FSA office and you might be at the dealership doing some, you know, parts or doing all these things. And you got 2 or 3 employees and they're like, well, he never works, he's never here, so I don't know, you know, what's going on. That leads me to the next question. One of the things I always observe with those who invest in an office, and we're going to talk about that as an investment here in a minute too, but what the observation is, is that when people build an office, and it's kind of like the old movie, you know, if we— if you build it they will come.

And what I mean by that is the lender shows up, the CPA shows up, the equipment dealers show up, the, you know, the fertilizer, fertility, you know, crop protection, seed guys, all of this business, as opposed to being conducted on somebody else's platform in on their space, now can be done and conducted in your space. There's an advantage, if you watch sports at all, at least from my observation again, to home court. And so I want you guys to talk about that. Um, I'll start with Rhonda and Isaiah because the other three got to talk first, so we're gonna, we're gonna be equal opportunity talkers here. Um, but talk a little bit about observations or experiences you guys have had where that has been a massive advantage, because it It's something I see all the time instantly when that office is there.

I mean, we're talking, and correct me if I'm wrong, but we're talking saving a ton of money or, you know, you might get your grain buyers to come in and visit you and see your space and have that home court advantage. So talk a little bit about that. I'll pick on you first, Rhonda.

Rhonda

Toquam: The only thing I'm gonna say before that is since we've built this office, None of us have gone to any retailers. We have not left this office to go meet with a retailer, equipment dealer, any of that stuff, insurance, everything. They have all come to us since we've— since building this office. We have been— we've been in here for—

Isaiah

Toquam: moved in in March.

Rhonda

Toquam: We moved in in March, a year ago, March of 2005.

Isaiah

Toquam: We've not been here a year.

Rhonda

Toquam: We haven't quite been here a year, but in, in the 10 months that we've been here, everybody has come to us.

Josh

Toquam: Good point.

Isaiah

Toquam: Okay, sorry. Yep. So for me, um, you know, I was typically at home in our home office doing, doing the work, and they were here at this site, um, meeting with those folks, having those conversations, or maybe going offsite. Josh said earlier we had a smaller office which is attached to our shop And so they would typically meet there with people or go offsite. And so I heard names, but I didn't always know people's faces because I wasn't here. I was at home doing the paperwork, which was fine. So even when we had— we hosted an open house in March and we brought all of our retailers and the people that we do business with, our partners, our lending partners, our insurance The list goes on and on. And they came here to our office for an afternoon. And I think it was just a good way for us to say that this is, this is our office now. This is where we will conduct business.

And we welcome you in as part of our team. And this is what we have for meeting space. And, but with that, there were people that day that I heard their names many times, but I had never met them. And so Um, not that I needed to, but I still think that that's an important part, um, of being a business is that you, you kind of can recognize both ways. Um, that me as the purchaser could recognize who I'm purchasing things from, um, or possibly purchasing things from, and they too know who all the partners are in the business. They may always meet with Josh. But now they have the opportunity to at least shake a hand with Roger or Brennan or Isaiah or myself and know who we are. I think that just builds a better team atmosphere all the way around, not only for the 5 of us, but for all of those that we do business with.

Chris

Barron: And when equipment dealers show up sometimes, and maybe this has never happened to you, but this is something I hear occasionally, it's like, oh, I guess we bought a tractor today. I didn't know that was happening, you know. I mean, stuff can happen when there's conversations and not everybody can be there, you know?

Isaiah

Toquam: So— Correct, correct. And this makes it, you know, we're not all 5 here all the time, but the little bit that we have been able to be here since we've moved in in March, you do hear things that are going on that you maybe, for me anyway, that you maybe didn't know prior to that. And so it's maybe not my responsibility or my role to be involved in the machinery training, And that's okay. Somehow I always get to write the check for it.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, right. Somebody's got to— somebody's got to pay for it.

Isaiah

Toquam: Yeah, but it's just you might just hear enough to at least know what that's— that's a conversation that's happening in your operation, and that just makes everybody feel more like a team player.

Josh

Toquam: Mm-hmm.

Chris

Barron: Comments from you, Isaiah?

Brennan

Toquam: Yeah, not a whole lot. She kind of stole what I was going to say there at the end, which is fine, but But what all I was going to say is, yeah, um, if someone's in here, um, you might be like, oh, I'll pop in there and take a listen to what they're talking about or what deal they're doing or whatever, even though it's not my, uh, specific part of the business. But it is nice just to pop in and listen, or like Mom said, just go and shake a hand at least. Um, so yeah, I think it, it just, um it just brings a different level of professionalism to the business for sure. So instead of meeting, meeting in our old office or at home or at our home or mom and dad's or whatever, it's just like this. Yeah, we're here to conduct business, not screw around.

Josh

Toquam: So this is—

Rhonda

Toquam: if I could just—

Josh

Toquam: yeah, go ahead. If I could just add, like, you, Chris, you were talking about home court advantage. There's something to when the fertilizer guy is sitting on the other side of the desk you know, there's just something to that, that, you know, you're here to help me, you know, and I don't mean to sound arrogant, but like, you know, you're here to help me, the farmer, you know, I'm not here to help you, the co-op, or your business, you know, you're here to help me. And it's kind of, I don't know, it's just an interesting power dynamic that I never really thought of before we built the office. And I don't know how to explain that. I hope that didn't come across as arrogant or anything like that, but it's kind of how you feel, you know.

Chris

Barron: Any other comments on that? And I'll go to my next question.

Roger

Toquam: To steal your line, Chris, that I've heard you say before, we're a family that happens to farm. And I can't think of any other successful business in town, a successful business in town that does not have an office with a conference room room and a work area where people will go to, to do business. And why do we think our farms would be any different? And so that's, that's how I think of this office in that, in that way, that we are a, we are, we are a successful business. And so we need to have a central location that reflects that.

Rhonda

Toquam: Appreciate it. The only last comment I'm going to make, Chris, is that, um, you and Shay always like to talk about the beer truck, getting hit by the beer truck. And I— that's one thing that I've noticed in this office too, is that when somebody pops in here to, um, try to sell seed or equipment, they also get to put a face to everybody else that's in the office here. So if the person that you're meeting with Um, you know, if we have the agron— if we have, uh, um, our local co-op coming out to meet with Brennan, but we're all sitting in our offices, they can put a face to every one of us. So if something— if Brennan gets ran over by the beer truck, like you say, they at least have a face to the rest of us that we can conduct business with that person, and they know at least who we are.

Roger

Toquam: And it helps with some of the cross-training Yeah, exactly.

Josh

Toquam: That's true. Yeah.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, for sure. I want to transition over to a couple of things that are always the catch points for people when we talk about the need for a brain for your business. And, and really it's not the brain as much as it's the conduit, right? It's the nerve center. You guys are the brains, but any of us as one individual are never as powerful or as intelligent as we are as a unit. And when you bring the unit together, you get the synergy of that horsepower and potential that's there, but you sort of need the conduit, which is your office, which is the space, which changes professionalism and everything. And it's like a lot of things that we try to coach people on. It's like, you know, some of this stuff you got to go with a leap of faith too.

You know, there's a, you know, sometimes there's divine intervention or sometimes there's just these things that, you know, you got to trust, you know, and you got to, you got to just take a leap of faith. For some reason, as farmers, we will write a check for a tractor or a combine or a tillage tool or a planter or whatever, because we've got to have it. You know, you can't grow a crop without a planter, probably, unless you hire somebody to come plant it for you or whatever. And so, you know, we have this mindset, which is completely understandable, of the amount of capital that it takes. We're in a business that's massively capital intensive.

And so the pushback that I always get is, well, geez, you know, I'm not going to spend $300,000 on an office, or I'm not going to spend— you know, I can spend $20,000 and put it in the corner of the shop and have a desk in there and a table, and that's just going to be good enough. I want to ask you guys, you know, who have invested because there's, you know, and I want to ask you the difference between expense and investment. And I, I do this with people a lot too, you know, not to get off target, but, you know, we'll go and we'll buy a, a bigger planter and a bigger tractor and spend an extra several hundred thousand dollars and not be a huge deal. It's a big deal, but it's— we don't— that doesn't bother us. But then if we got to go hire a really high quality person and pay them $100,000, we freak out. Well, last time I checked, you know, pieces of machinery are depreciating assets.

Humans are appreciating assets. Now you just created an environment for professionalism, for growth, and for unity and development, all in that facility of Conduit where you guys are all sitting there together growing your business. And the money is made in the office. I'll argue that all day long. The money isn't made sitting in the tractor. You can hire somebody for $30 an hour to drive a planter that's probably going to do a darn good job because you can watch them from your phone. Technology has changed the business of agriculture, and this is a business. As you said, Roger, this is a business. We all just happen to farm, but we have to make that choice. I want to ask you guys, when you first thought of the office, honestly, did you think of it as an expense? An investment? And what do you think of it now?

And any of you can go first, but I want all you— how about you start, Roger, and we'll go around the loop. But I want to know, what did you first think? Was it an expense or an investment? And what do you think now?

Roger

Toquam: Well, it was definitely an expense. And I remember you telling me, Roger, I'll even put it in writing that it'll pay for itself faster than tractor. And I'm glad I didn't take you up on it or put money on it because Um, I think we, we bet $1,000.

Josh

Toquam: I'm pretty sure I failed to remember that part of it, but anyway, uh, it's definitely an investment.

Roger

Toquam: And, um, usually investments like this, um, you know, our— I think ours was around $300,000 investment like this. You'd see it as a, um, uh, you know, it's going to be a while before we see the reap the rewards of that investment, but we have seen the rewards of that investment immediately in, in the things that we talked about earlier. So I, I, yep, that sums it up for me. First it was an expense, um, but I went on blind faith of a guy in Iowa called Chris Barron, and we did it, and it's definitely an investment, uh, that was well worth it.

Chris

Barron: Awesome. Rhonda?

Isaiah

Toquam: Um, I, I will start out by saying it definitely in expense. Um, I think I've pivoted now more to a gift. Um, yeah, not only for this generation but for the next generation.

Chris

Barron: Mhm.

Roger

Toquam: This will fit the, the cousin stage.

Isaiah

Toquam: Yep.

Roger

Toquam: This, this will work in the cousin stage when that comes.

Chris

Barron: Mhm. Yeah, it's the gift that keeps on giving, right? It's, it's there. It's, you know, it's not— it's, it's a, it's a structure. I mean, if you build it right, you have a structure. You don't have a depreciating asset. You have a structure. And I love the way you say that, Rhonda.

Isaiah

Toquam: Well, and it's, it's a place that the kids can go other than the tractor or other than the shop to know this is where Daddy goes to work. And farm families don't typically have that.

Josh

Toquam: Mhm.

Chris

Barron: Excellent. Good point. Try to beat that one, Isaiah.

Isaiah

Toquam: Yes. Um, and while Isaiah's thinking— and it's also, I mean, the grandchildren come here and it's great, you know. It's just, it's, it's a bonus. They, yeah, they pop in here whenever needed or whatever. And I just got to watch Graham the other day for a little while because Isaiah needed just an extra their hands, and that, that's just fine. That's awesome. It's wonderful. So it's just a way to integrate them. You know, we think of spending time— farm kids spend time in a tractor and a grain cart and a, you know, whatever. But I think to help with that generation, they need to see that no, there's time spent in an office too.

Chris

Barron: Mhm.

Brennan

Toquam: Uh, yeah, definitely. Well, one thing I was just going to say quick about the Cousins phase, just looking out the windows here, we got a lot of places to add on. Onto this thing if we need to. If we— if it does— if it does— if we are lucky enough for that to happen. Um, but yeah, definitely, definitely an expense. Saw it as an expense. Didn't really— I honestly didn't really think it was necessary in the beginning. Um, but yeah, well, it's really changed. I didn't take long to figure that out, that it's, it's definitely a long-term investment. Lifelong, long— lifelong long-term investment, if that even makes sense. Yeah, but, um, no, it's definitely an investment now. And, um, thankful for, uh, Mom and Dad to be— to do this, uh, help us with this. And, and, and, uh, they definitely didn't have to.

Very appreciative of them, um, because like Mom said, it isn't about us really as much anymore. It's about the next generation and carrying it on. And, um, if it wasn't for this office, we would have had a much harder time to be able to pass it on to them.

Rhonda

Toquam: Awesome.

Chris

Barron: Josh, try to beat those two.

Rhonda

Toquam: I guess the only thing I got to say, um, you don't know what's broke until you fix it. And, and I think we thought it was fine, uh, how we used to do it. And now that we have done this, um, what we had before was pretty broken. Um, our old office, um, the only way to get to— the only way to get to the bathroom is you had to go through the offices. And so that was hard to meet with, um, retailers and stuff like that. And then a lot of outdoor urination. A lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we have employees coming through trying to go to the bathroom and, you know, things like that. So it, um, it, it, it— this was definitely something that was, um, it wasn't on anybody's radar about 3 years ago. And, um, Chris just kind of kept telling us we should be doing it. We kept looking into it, and I think we're all really glad that we did it.

I guess the only advice I have is, and I don't know if this is where you want this, but I would say take your time, but hurry up and get it done.

Isaiah

Toquam: Yeah.

Rhonda

Toquam: And I mean, take your time because this office started out at 20 by 30 and the building ended up being 42 by 52. And so we had lots and lots of drawings picking on a lot of people's brains of how to do it. And so that's why I'd say take your time, do it right. But I would strongly recommend that you get it done.

Isaiah

Toquam: Yep.

Rhonda

Toquam: Because we can't— I don't think, I don't think there's a dollar figure you can put on the efficiencies and the professionalism and everything that has come from building this office.

Josh

Toquam: Brennan, any comments?

Rhonda

Toquam: Did I top it, Chris?

Chris

Barron: You did really good.

Rhonda

Toquam: I don't know if you did top it, but you did really good.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, you did.

Josh

Toquam: You did.

Chris

Barron: Good job, Josh.

Josh

Toquam: Brennan? Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to top any of us, but I'll just say I think it proves to people who are pulling in, you know, let's be honest, to try to sell, you know, sell us something, you know, that we're serious about this farming thing. This isn't just because we like diesel engines and holding steering wheels. You know, we're, you know, we're serious about this. And, you know, we're not going to be wowed by a free hat, you know, stuff like that. You know, it's like, oh, we, you These guys mean business. I can't be, you know, you know, I, as a salesperson, as a, as a recovering retail guy, um, I, you know, to come in here, um, would be pretty almost— maybe intimidating is the wrong word, but I better be on my A-game if I'm coming in here. So I, I think that really, um, helps.

And, and it shows that, like, like Mom said, What we do as fathers is, you know, try to show the next generation, and I think we're showing the next generation that, yeah, driving tractors is fun and stuff, but making decisions and spending money wisely is more important than making sure you're planting straight.

Chris

Barron: Awesome. Awesome. So I guess, you know, I don't really have a lot more other than to ask, you know, where Josh, where you were kind of going, was talking a little bit about the practical or the how side of, you know, if somebody is listening to this and thinking, well, yeah, you know, how big, how elaborate, how, you know, what should I do, you know, or not do? And I think that's, you know, that style portion of the question is different for everybody. You know, the key is that it's professional. I think you need the basic office space. For everybody that's, that's involved that has a management role in the business. Everybody needs a space. Those spaces need to be connected.

I think you need to have a sufficient conference room, and I think you guys grew your conference room a couple of times, you know, which is what you find out real quick is that the, the more space, the better. You know, more square footage costs more, but, you know, it is like Rhonda said, you know, it's the gift that keeps on giving. It, it's going to be there year after year, and it's not about always the current generation. If you're gonna— if, if you're watching this and you're going to be farming in, you know, multiple generations and you don't have a professional business space for conduit for the synergy of the leadership team, you're missing out. And it's, it's really hard to get that across to people. I— trust me, I bring it up all the time, and a lot of people look at me like I've got 4 heads or something.

And, and, you know, and so I really sincerely appreciate you guys coming on and talking about your experience to this point. Um, and, you know, and like you said, it's hard to put a number on it, but I guarantee you that, you know, in 99% of the cases, an office is going to pay for itself way faster than any piece of equipment, including planters and combines and all that stuff, because it interferes— it it provides value to the entire business. It's not a one operation thing. It's, you know, to me it's kind of like the tractor that pulls all of the implements, right? It's the, it's the, you know, it's that, it's that, that brain center of the operation. I want to leave and one of you can go first and then I just want the last word from each of you. If you were to give somebody advice that was thinking about this or thinks we're crazy, why shouldn't they?

Or what's just kind of one thing you would like to leave people that are listening to this discussion with, and we'll start with whoever wants to go first. And it can just be a brief comment, so we're getting against time here anyway, but just kind of your last, what you think people, you want to leave people with.

Josh

Toquam: Um, I'll just say I, I worked in retail at two different locations, and one had a very professional office space where people would gather, they'd show up early for work, sip on coffee, talk about the Twins game the night before or whatever. And that culture, even though you had truck drivers, say, as a groundless, the boss, everybody in that same room was so much better than a place— the other place that I worked that didn't have a very— had a very small office, and basically you had room to clock in if you were a shop guy, and then you went to the shop. And the culture at that first place was just so much better. And, uh, I would say that it was just because of that— the people make a difference too, but it was because of that space and that we were all together to start our day. Um, and then we went our separate ways.

Brennan

Toquam: Other—

Josh

Toquam: and I think that makes a big difference. So I just wanted to, to say that, and this provides that, this office does.

Isaiah

Toquam: So, and I would just add that, um, Chris, you've talked about, you know, the professionalism of your business will go up when you have a, a facility like this, or it should. Um, I can definitely see that. Um, like Brennan said earlier, you know, people come here, or if he would have came here as on the retail side, it was, um You know, I better be on my A-game. So I definitely think that, but I think for myself as well, um, it has brought myself to a different level. When I walk through that door, I'm not going to step out to go do a load of laundry. I'm not going to step out to go start supper early or, you know, those sort of things. I'm here to work and I'm more efficient because I'm here during this time. And, um, And I just, it just, it just makes you feel more professional and easier to come to work and get something done. That makes sense.

Chris

Barron: Awesome.

Roger

Toquam: I think we've all, I think in all of our, at the beginning of this, we all talked about how we would stay up late doing our book work, being on our laptops, getting our numbers together for the next day or for the next thing. And we asked ourselves, you know, okay, I just went to work from 7 o'clock last night to midnight, let's just say, working in the office in our home. And you ask yourself, okay, how am I going to fit that 5 hours of time in, in a, in an office when I really should be in the shop or something like that? But once you come into your office, you are such, you are so more, so much more efficient with that time. You don't need those 5 hours that you spent. In the home office because you are so much more efficient because your partners are in that same area. So you can get your numbers quicker, you can have those conversations so much quicker.

So the efficiency makes up for that time. And, uh, and, and, and it's been said, you, you don't get extra time in life, so you got to utilize your time as the best you can. That that God gave us. And, and, uh, this office has done that for us.

Josh

Toquam: We are—

Roger

Toquam: yep.

Josh

Toquam: And obviously the quality of the numbers, I think, have gone up too. Yeah, too, because you're not working at midnight or whatever, you know, just get, just get out, get it done.

Brennan

Toquam: I'll go then. Uh, one thing we haven't talked about yet, and I'll make it brief, is, um, we have one employee and we just did an evaluation with him, um, uh, last Friday, I think it was. And it was a lot easier to do that in an office setting versus leaning on a tool bench shop like we used to. Get so distracted, like Mom said, at home. It's— you get distracted in the shop too when you're leaning on something or whatever. So that's been helpful for me and for our employee. Well, for all of us. But, but yeah, any advice, I guess, is just— yeah, it's just echo every— what everyone said and just do it.

Chris

Barron: Josh. Yeah, wrap it up, Josh.

Rhonda

Toquam: I made, I made a few notes. Um, wow. I know the rest of my family's gonna say, wow, what a surprise, Josh made notes. Um, yeah, no, the other things I'm going to say, Chris, just to kind of wrap this up, it kind of goes all with the professionalism. But I mean, since we've done this office, people see the professionalism in our business. And Isaiah's actually, since we built this office, pretty much Isaiah's had 2 people come to him asking if we're looking to hire. And I think it just goes to show what this office and the professionalism this office has brought to our family and our business has done, that, um, people see that and, and people will see that in, in your business if you, if you build an office.

Um, the— I guess the last thing I— or I got two things, but the second last thing I want to say is, Chris, you had that Andy Bob Cajun Junkin on the other day on your podcast, and one thing that he— he told the story about how, you know, he had a gentleman that, you know, was fed up or whatever it was with his dad, and you— Andy met with him, and at the end of it Andy asked him how come he never said anything, and he said, how can I say something at the dinner table where I used to get hit in the back of the head with a spoon if I spoke out of turn. And not that mom and dad ever hit us in the back of the head with a spoon. But when you're in a conference, we have— we meet as a family business in our conference room. And those meetings, it's the same 5 people used to sit at the table at mom and dad's house at the dinner table.

But if it's in a conference room, that meeting is completely different. That is a completely different atmosphere that— not that we argue, but we can have discussion and disagree on stuff. And, and it's a, it's a, it's, it's just a lot better way to conduct business at a conference table, kind of offsite from where you, you know, used to. It separates that family and business because we are a business. And when we sit at the conference table, It's not saying we're not family, but it's a business meeting at that point. It's not a family meeting. It's— this is a business meeting and we need to treat it that way. So that's— I guess that, that story that Andy told was something that I hadn't really thought about, but I have definitely noticed that that is something that this conference room has given us. Um, for meeting here versus at mom and dad's kitchen table or dining room table.

And the last thing I'm going to say, Chris, is that, um, feel free to put our information in the notes for if people want to reach out to us. We'll gladly talk to anybody about this and the benefits, um, of the office and share our floor plan. Yeah, yeah, we can share the floor plan and things maybe we do differently next time. Stuff like that.

Chris

Barron: That's awesome. Yeah, we'll, we can put an email connection for you guys in the show notes there so you guys can go down there and if you want to email these guys, you can sure do that. So any, anything that you guys have done and that I've watched, I've been impressed with your operation. You guys have, you know, whenever you see an opportunity or a way to improve the business, you guys have jumped at it and it's going to be fun to watch you guys continue to grow. It's going to be fun to watch the next generation and, and, uh, see how your operation continues to grow because you guys stay focused on the right stuff. And especially that balance between farm and family and business— there's, there's a separation there, and, and you guys got it figured out.

I think that's a challenge for a lot of us because, just as Josh said, I think, you know, one of the other observations— I really appreciate you bringing that up, Josh— is that A lot of times, you know, families have dysfunction. Not that you guys do, but a lot of times a lot of our families do have this little dysfunction or whatever. And when that carries over into the business, that compounds and then it spreads between the family and the business and it just makes it worse. And so if you can separate, because, you know, in business things aren't personal, right? It's, you know, we can have disagreements and we can agree to disagree at some point. And sometimes, you know, somebody has to be— like Roger said earlier, you have different areas of expertise and somebody has to be accountable for certain divisions of the business.

And those final decisions sometimes got to be made, and they're just much more efficient in that business sense. But Roger, Rhonda, Isaiah, Josh, Brennan, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for sharing. I think this will be an excellent podcast. You'll change some people's lives because they'll make some decisions differently, I think, than they otherwise would have. And so thank you so much for that. That's really what we're trying to do all the time with the Ag View Pitch and with 19 Minutes is try to help people, and you guys certainly do a lot of that as well. So thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Josh

Toquam: Thank you, Chris.

Isaiah

Toquam: Thank you.

Chris

Barron: You bet. Sounds good. And, um, like Josh said and everybody here, if you guys want to reach out to this family and, and find out the what to do, and maybe there's— they've probably figured out something not to do too. So, you know, um, the best learnings you can get sometimes is don't do this or whatever, you know, and figure out, um, some of the things that might, might fit your operation. So great family to connect with as well. So with that said, Thanks everybody. Thanks to the Toquam family. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll catch you again next time on the Ag View Pitch.