How Barn Talk Created a Top Podcast with the End in Mind

Jared Flinn [00:00:18]: You're listening to the Bolt Floats podcast, your number one resource for everything, bolt freight trucking. Hey, guys. Jared Flynn with the Bulk loads podcast. Got Tyler with me. Tyler Allison [00:00:32]: What's going on? Jared Flinn [00:00:33]: This is the moment everybody's been waiting for. Tyler Allison [00:00:35]: Yep. This is a big episode. Jared Flinn [00:00:36]: Yeah, big episode. We're gonna bring on one of the founding members, torque whistler with Barn Talk. If you are not familiar with Barn talk, you probably will be soon. It's a huge podcast in the Ag space. I feel like this thing just blew up overnight. Tyler Allison [00:00:51]: Overnight. Jared Flinn [00:00:52]: And they. They just really figured it out. And again, they're doing so much. And we're going to talk more about that before we get into the show itself. We're going to do a truck feature like we always do every week. Tyler Allison [00:01:02]: Today's truck feature is Travis Howard with Oakley trucking out of Texas. I don't think Travis is actually a Boclas member with us, but he is one of our YouTube subscribers that won the Carhartt giveaway. And whenever we reached out and sent him the shirt, he sent us a truck picture to be featured. So he's got an end dump here. Looks like, I mean, solid blue truck. Jared Flinn [00:01:27]: Yeah, I like that color. Blue was you that we were talking, or somebody kept pointing out, like, how much you, like, you're gravitated towards blue now. Tyler Allison [00:01:35]: Yeah, yeah, I'm. I like the light blue or like, the teal. Jared Flinn [00:01:41]: I know you always said gunmetal gray. Yeah, I remember that. But I felt like anytime you're picking high trucks, it's always like, if there's a blue, some kind of price. Tyler Allison [00:01:49]: Yeah. It's probably just because blue is my favorite color, so I've got, like, a bias towards it. Jared Flinn [00:01:53]: Yeah. Cool. Well, man, thank you for sending this in. Awesome picture as well. If you would like to get featured, just simply send us. I mean, find us anywhere on social media, but you can send an email to podcast oakloads.com or send us anything through social media. There's different messaging ways that you can send us, and we would love to get you featured on there. Want to share another story? Actually, this weekend, um, we had a member, well, Luke Willard in our office. Jared Flinn [00:02:21]: He actually said, hey, could you reach out to this member, Bobby Boyd, out of Kentucky? We sent him some semi Sam books. And so, yeah, I was like, sure. And I really, honestly, as the company's grown, I probably don't get to talk to customers as much as I used to. And it's one thing that I miss, and after every time I do it and I go on a visit or I go speak with someone on the phone, man, it just gives me gratification to know why we started this business in the beginning. But anyways, spoke with Bobby and Mandev. He was thrilled that we sent these books to him, or more importantly, to his son. He's got a 16 year old son with down syndrome, and his son absolutely loves these books. He said every night that he's home, he reads the books to his son. Tyler Allison [00:03:01]: That's awful. Jared Flinn [00:03:01]: And his son just cherishes them. And, man, it was just a heartfelt story that he sent and just want to share that with you. Garrett will show up the picture of his son with the books. But yeah, if you would like a book, we would love to gift that to you. Simply just drop down in the comments mentioned semi Sam, and we'll get that to you. It's a no charge. No charge. Well, free. Jared Flinn [00:03:23]: Free. You can also go on Amazon to find them, too. But if you want one free, just send us a message. And yeah, we'd love to get that in your hands just as a thank you from us. And again, we feel like we're promoting the industry to generations down the road. I started this book. It was to not just for the present industry, but, man, future generations of trucking professionals and just the importance of that. Tyler Allison [00:03:44]: Yeah, exactly. Jared Flinn [00:03:45]: So, awesome. Well, we'll get into the show. Yeah. I'm going to bring on torque Whistler with barn talk again. If you don't know, you can look them up. They have a huge social media following. Tyler Allison [00:03:54]: Over 223,000 subscribers on YouTube. Jared Flinn [00:03:57]: Yeah. And I think what caught my eye, we're going to talk about this, but they had a trucker, man, years ago, a couple years ago that they brought on, which was actually Jared Holmes, a member of Bulk loads. And he got on there, and he's a neighbor of them up there in Iowa. So start listening to this. But yeah, they have a different angle of how they bring these on that has drawn people into, you know, the ag industry, but the perspective that they put onto it, it's just a really good show. Tyler Allison [00:04:23]: Yeah. And I like this episode. Cause he divesden into what it, what his show's about, but also, like, the behind the scenes, like what their end goal is for the show and how they also got big guests like Ron DeSantis to come onto their show. Jared Flinn [00:04:37]: Yeah. And he is going to give us the secret sauce of how they have exploded overnight. So stay through the end and we're going to talk about that and kind of digest kind of what they've done to really get to that big of a showing and how much it's now impacting their business in the end. So, with that said, here is my conversation with Torque whistlere of Barn talk. Thanks for coming on the Bull Clothes podcast. Tork Whisler [00:05:01]: Yeah, thanks for having me. Having me. Glad to be here. Jared Flinn [00:05:04]: Yeah, I, I was telling a few of our colleagues in here that I was going to have you on and they're like, you're going to have one of the barn talk guys. And. Yeah, so you have a huge fan base in our office, so. Tork Whisler [00:05:16]: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Jared Flinn [00:05:19]: Yeah, well, we're going to get into this and pretty excited to really kind of lay this out, man. We, uh. I'm a fan of your all's podcast. I love what you're doing out there, man. You guys are making strides and man, gaining a lot of momentum, which is really cool to see specifically in the ag space. But, uh, really, I guess, like, just start off like, what, what was the reason behind starting the podcast? Tork Whisler [00:05:45]: Uh, so for my end of it, the real simple answer is that I needed Sawyer way more than he needed me. And I didn't want him to know that, but that was, that was the truth. So when, when he made the decision that he was not going to go to college, that he wanted to and back up a little bit. So from the time that kid, Washington, fourth grade, all I ever wanted to do was play football. He was one of those kids that, that's what he wanted to do. And if you saw him today, he's a big kid. I mean, he's over six foot tall and all that people, I was just. Jared Flinn [00:06:30]: Watching that you guys were talking because you've lost some weight and we're talking about like, there was a point where you were actually going down and he was going up, but yeah, yeah, still that way. Tork Whisler [00:06:40]: So, I mean, he, he's, we met, we were ships passing in the night. And I keep trying to get smaller and he keeps trying to get bigger, but he wasn't that way. Like, he was my size. He was short kid. He was one of those kids that he grew. He literally started growing when he was summer before his junior year. But he was a kid. Football. Tork Whisler [00:07:00]: Football, that's what he wanted to do. And his whole reasoning that why he would want to go to college was to play football somewhere. And so, like the Ellsworths, the Iowa Westerns, the places like that, he, he figured that's where he was going to go. And then probably transfer to Iowa state because he, he liked ag, but he wanted to play football. And he, he got to the end of his senior year, and he ran track to. And we had a, we had a visit set up, and a few days before, he said, you know, he goes, I don't want to go. And I said, why don't you want to go? And he goes, well, it's been two weeks since I've lifted. And he goes, this is the first time in three years that I don't hurt. Tork Whisler [00:07:54]: And he said, I don't really want to go feel like that for the next two years, possibly four years. He goes, it's not worth that much to me. He goes, I really thought it was a. But it's not. And I was like, okay. And he and I are a lot alike. So financing or helped helping to finance him to learn how to drink beer out of a garden hose like I did wasn't all that appealing to me. So I was like, if your heart's not in it, you got to figure out what you want to do it. Tork Whisler [00:08:27]: And he was already, he was already choring all the hog buildings that we had while he was going to school. And he said, I think I want to. I think I would just want to farm with you. And I said, well, there's not enough here for both of us, but if you're going to do it, you need to build a hog building. And so, so we decided that if he was going to stay, we needed to build another hog building. And I was working off farm at the time, and I guess I thought that I was going to keep doing that for a while. When you, you know, when you are, when you are working for somebody else, you get in this mindset that, oh, I need the benefits. I got a company truck. Tork Whisler [00:09:14]: I've got this. Even when you're the point where you feel like you set yourself up to where you could come back the farm full time, it's really hard to take that step because there's that security blanket of working for somebody else. And that's where I was at. I was actually working for the company that we custom feed hogs for to this day. Anyway, so he started, and he was already doing. He was already dabbling in social media, but he didn't really know what he wanted to do. And if he was here, he would tell you that as he looked around, that was when millennial was really just starting to take off, like, just exploding. And he, he realized there wasn't anybody really showing the day to day life of animal agriculture and what we did on a daily basis as far as, you know, with pigs and. Tork Whisler [00:10:12]: And small scale farm and trying to. Trying to set it up to get not one generation, but two generations to be able to make it work. And so he picked up the camera, started shooting, and I thought it was the dumbest damn thing. I mean, I was like, this is gonna be whatever, but I didn't, you know, I didn't have the vision. He had the vision. And what year was that? When was it? Jared Flinn [00:10:42]: Yeah. Tork Whisler [00:10:43]: How long ago? So it would have been four years ago is about when he started 2020. Jared Flinn [00:10:52]: Okay. Tork Whisler [00:10:53]: And so he. He went a little bit, and, I mean, he learned to edit. I mean, we weren't hiring at all. Any of it done. He was. He was figuring out how to shoot it. The first camera he bought was a Sony a seven III and didn't know how to use it. But I. Tork Whisler [00:11:12]: YouTube will teach you a lot, and. And, you know, lighting and sound and all that. And then one day, he's like, we should shoot loading pigs, and you should be in it. And I said, okay, whatever, you know? And I was a little bit. And then we kind of got this rhythm, and we were. What you see is kind of how we are as far as our back and forth goes. And it worked. I mean, it worked all right. Tork Whisler [00:11:41]: And it just kind of evolved. And so that was the farm channel. So that was. This'll do farm. And we only did that for about two years. And both of us consume a lot of podcasts. When I was. So when I was on the road, you know, driving like a lot of guys do, I consumed a lot of podcasts and really liked that format. Tork Whisler [00:12:13]: And both of us, we would joke back and forth that, you know, we should do a podcast. We should do a podcast. And for one reason or another, and I can't remember why, we really were, but on our home farm, we've got a barn, and it was. It was a third full of small squares, and we didn't have any livestock, so growing up, we always had a few horses around, and we had a few sheep because there was always stuff that we didn't want to mow. My dad liked having sheep around. I think it was something for him to have us take care of or do a reason to bail hay or whatever. Jared Flinn [00:12:56]: And where is this? In Iowa? Tork Whisler [00:12:58]: Southeast Iowa. Washington County, Iowa. So we're about. We're about 25 miles south, Iowa City, just off of 218 Avenue of the same. So. Jared Flinn [00:13:08]: And is this the second generation farm? Third. I mean, with Sawyers is now. Tork Whisler [00:13:14]: He would be. He'll be the 6th. He's the 6th tomorrow, so tomorrow the 15th, we're actually going to the state fair. So we're getting a heritage farm award. Jared Flinn [00:13:28]: Oh, nice. Tork Whisler [00:13:29]: We. So this farm was settled in 1853, so we actually have the land grant signed by Franklin Pierce to my great great grandmother back. 1853 is when they settled here, so somehow kept it going this long. So I tell Sawyer that it's all on his shoulders now, not to screw it up. So we'll see how. Jared Flinn [00:13:59]: No pressure whatsoever. So you guys are. You got. You guys were consuming podcasts. You guys started talking back and forth like, hey, we should just do this. Tork Whisler [00:14:08]: Yep. Yeah, that's exactly right. So we were up in that barn and Sawyer's like, what are you going to do? Jared Flinn [00:14:15]: What? Tork Whisler [00:14:15]: What are we going to do at this bar? Because we didn't really use it for anything. The downstairs is full of some old tractors that are on the, you know, the list. We should redo these, you know, that kind of stuff. And we're like, we should just clean this out and do a podcast and call it barn talk. And literally have talked about, you know, what we're doing. And the idea was that the YouTube videos are all ten minutes to 20 minutes, you know, right in there. And so it's all, that's all kind of snapshots of what you're doing. And it's paced. Tork Whisler [00:14:51]: It's paced for that. Well, it's paced for that kind of media. The people that, you know, they want variety and they want it kind of quick and all that. And we wanted people to be able to get to know us on kind of a different level, like, be able to talk about stuff in a longer format. And so it sounded like a good idea. So we cleaned that thing out through the fall, into winter, and we. We literally sat down and watched every video version of podcast we could. And we would sit there and be like, how wide do you think that table is? You know, what. Tork Whisler [00:15:34]: What kind of chairs are they sitting in? You know, what kind of headphones are those? And when we started, we had. We used headphones, and we've gotten rid of that, but we went out and bought everything that we saw and then figured out how to put it together. And when we first started, we had a table that we set across from each other on, and we sat down sometime in February, there was no heat in the barn. It was a decent day. It was probably in the upper forties, maybe. And we're in our sweatshirts and hats and we shot it. We had a roadcaster. Well, we still have it saying we shot it on two Sony 5300s or five thousand five hundred s and a rodecaster. Tork Whisler [00:16:20]: And then we were like, okay, well, how do you edit this? And the only reason that we use Adobe premiere is because it had the most how to videos on YouTube. Everybody's like, you know, why'd you pick that? Well, because that was the easiest one for us to figure out. And I. When we started, Sawyer was editing all the farm videos. And so he said, if we're going to do this, you're going to have to learn to edit the podcast. And I'll tell you what, I should have listened more in school because it was. It was a deal. I think it was a harder deal for Sawyer with his patients than it was for me to actually learn it. Tork Whisler [00:17:03]: But anyway, figured it out and we started doing them. And so when we started, we did everything. We did all the editing. Um, we even started when we started doing clips. We cut all the clips ourselves. And we've subbed a lot of that out now just because it's such a time, it's such a thing. But we did that first episode and we put it out there and, you know, I don't remember what it did, but it didn't do too bad. And then we just kept at it. Tork Whisler [00:17:35]: And there's no, there's no, like, magic sauce to what we've done. Jared Flinn [00:17:42]: Yeah. Tork Whisler [00:17:43]: Other than, I think the one thing that we have tried really, really hard to do is just good or bad, just kind of show it all and not try to cater to anybody. Just be who we were and who we are, and it. It's connected. Jared Flinn [00:18:03]: Yeah. Well, I think what I've noticed about the one, the ones that I've watched, you guys are fully transparent. And I think as viewers, listeners, watchers, people want to. People want to watch people and listen to people that are fully transparent. They know that they're not hiding anything. There's no agenda, anything like that. It's just like, hey, this is who we are and we're proud of, you know. So I was, my first podcast, I was introduced, it was a couple years back, but there was a trucker, I think it was a neighbor up the road, Garrett homestuck. Jared Flinn [00:18:34]: Yeah. So. And actually, he's on a. He's a member on bulk loads where he was at one time, because we looked him up, we're like, man, he's been on our way. You know, he. He used our load board for a while, but somebody. But, yeah, he'd start. Yeah, that's the one that somebody forward me, I was like, what is this? And then. Jared Flinn [00:18:51]: And I mean, just even when the time I'd watched it, that podcast had already, I mean, it was well in the upper thousands of, of listeners and downloads on YouTube alone. So that's where I was like, man, these guys are onto something, or they're hitting a market or niche that people are really attracted to. Hey, guys, Jared Flynn here. Thank you so much for listening to the bulk loads podcast. We started this podcast back in 2018, almost seven years ago, to really be a resource for bulk professionals out there. We wanted to be a platform that really is a positive light on our community, but also gives great, valuable content and insights, everything from trucking to logistics, from everything from buying a truck to helping with freight rates. Again, we've tried to put all that into this podcast to give you a very valuable experience for you to listen to and hopefully make you better decisions and grow your business. Man, we appreciate you being a listener on this podcast, but if you haven't yet, make sure and hit the subscribe button, the little bell, and, and that way you will be subscribed to every podcast that comes out. Jared Flinn [00:19:56]: Also, we would be very thankful for you to share this with your network and social media. Thank you again for listening to the Bulk Loads podcast. God bless. Tork Whisler [00:20:05]: Well, he's a perfect example of we get caught up in this, and you feel like you see people, that you see people out in society, you see people in social media, you're like, man, it'd be great to get that person on and, or, you know, whoever. But the beautiful thing about somebody like Jared is he's just a regular guy. Now, granted, he's very opinionated and he has a lot, he has a lot of personality, and, but those are the kind of people that, it's kind of a gem because nobody had ever sat down and talked to the guy on that, on that format. And some love him, some hate him, and he doesn't care. You know, that's just who he is. He's unapologetically himself. But those are the kind of people that we so enjoy getting on because it's usually, they just have perspective and they're, they're unblemished by any kind of social media success. And it's just an honest, raw conversation. Tork Whisler [00:21:24]: And those are the, those are the best. We've had some very un, you know, very polished people on, too, but, and those are fine. Jared Flinn [00:21:32]: Well, speaking of polished people, Ron DeSantis was like, and I would like to hear your feedback. I would consider one of the, probably a very well known person throughout the country and world to come onto your podcast. Like, what was that like overall? Tork Whisler [00:21:48]: Well, very nice guy, very polite guy. We were. We were very surprised. So people like, how did you get him? Well, as soon as the, as soon as the, the caucus season started in the state of Iowa, we just. The. The best lesson that we got the first year that we started doing podcasts was just ask. No matter how. How you think somebody's going to be like, what are you, stupid? Just ask. Tork Whisler [00:22:26]: And DeSantis is a perfect example of that, because we sent out emails. We tried to find, you know, the press email for every candidate that was coming through, and we just sent them an email with, with links to our stuff and said, hey, you know, we just sit down and we have a conversation, and it's not really scripted, and we'd love to have you on. And if you got questions that you don't want us to ask or you want us to, whatever, send it to us. And we had. We had a. We had two or three that, you know, just sent us generic replies that either, oh, yeah, well, we'll let you know, or, we're not looking for any of that kind of stuff at this time. And we didn't get anything from DeSantis back. And one day on a Thursday afternoon, it was about 530, I get an email, and it was from, uh, his press secretary. Tork Whisler [00:23:28]: And I. I was like, it was so nonchalant that you were like, is this legit or is it not? And her cell phone number was on it. And so I called her. She picked right up, and she said, hey, we're going to be in southeast Iowa. We'd love to do the podcast. Let's try to make it work sometime. So we said, okay. And, you know, so we were really excited about it. Tork Whisler [00:23:54]: And then two days before they were supposed to come on, she emailed me and said, it isn't going to work. We're going to reschedule it. I was like, here we go, you know, but then they did reschedule it. And when they did, I told Sora, I said, we're not telling anybody, because the last thing I want to do is to say he's going to be on there. And then he doesn't show up. And sure enough, they came rolling in, in the bus, and he hopped off and came up. And we did not send them the questions ahead of time. They said, you can talk about whatever you want. Tork Whisler [00:24:31]: And when you get somebody like that, the one thing I'll say is, and if you watch the conversation, the only real question that I felt like you got a glimpse of the real Ron DeSantis, is when we bounced him about the football playoffs, about Florida kind of getting screwed. And, and he made that comment about, it'd sure be nice to keep all those players that play at Alabama that are from Florida, just keep them in the state, you know, and I thought that was pretty good. But everything else, those guys, I mean, they put them through, they put them in a room and they ask them every question eight ways from Friday. So everything, as soon as you pop that question, they already have the answer. They know what they're going to say. Jared Flinn [00:25:16]: Yeah, well, I feel like, yeah, politicians, they always, they're trying to get that gotcha. They're trying to get that gotcha question to you. Like, what kind of were they gonna get you where, oh, I got you on this one. You know, it's not a real genuine discussion. So how did he, you know, and I'm, you know what's cool thing about podcasting, you know, a lot of times the content you produce, I mean, it just keeps, you know, keeps building and keeps working. Even shows from two or three years ago has, did that show really help elevate barn talk to even reach higher levels and more subscribers? Tork Whisler [00:25:51]: Not, we didn't get, we did not. It's definitely not our biggest podcast by any stretch. But what it did was it kind of gave us some credibility. When we do reach out to people, you know, they're like, well, you're not fly by night because you had Ron DeSantis on. It did pretty well. I'll tell you, the thing that was most interesting to me about that was just the I love bad comments because bad comments. Kind of what people don't realize is the people that love you, you really enjoy them. And we love the community of people that, you know, comment on our stuff and that we message back and forth and all, and the people we've met. Tork Whisler [00:26:46]: But that isn't what grows your, grows the machine. It's the people that hate you. Because the people that hate you, I mean, they, they throw that stuff out there and then the people that think like they do, they feed on it. But then the people that want to defend you, I mean, they go, we don't have to comment. And you, you probably know this. Yeah, you don't have to defend yourself. There's all kinds of people that are going to defend you and that, that just goes like this. And that drives, that drives your view. Tork Whisler [00:27:18]: Maybe not so much on the original, like the YouTube video or the podcast, but the clips. Holy mother Mary. I mean, it just goes crazy. And Twitter, the comments on that when they posted on Twitter. I mean, people are, people are nasty. Yeah, they really are. And just one thing that I thought was very funny to me was we took a picture standing outside. It's me, Ron DeSantis, and Sawyer. Jared Flinn [00:27:50]: I know the exact picture. I remember seeing that. Yep. Tork Whisler [00:27:53]: And people bag on him about wearing platform shoes. And he's not a short guy. He might be. I mean, he looks shorter when he's standing next to somebody like Sawyer, but I'm standing next to him. And he's a good, he's a good eight inches taller than I am. And people were commenting about him and his platform shoes because he had his boots on. And I was like, if anybody in this picture needs platform shoes, it's not Ron, it's torque. You know, whatever. Tork Whisler [00:28:24]: I just, it's just funny how people just. Jared Flinn [00:28:27]: Yeah, I want to kind of move a little bit to the content that you guys are creating and talk a little bit about that because I do love the fact that you guys are shedding more light on agriculture and farming and how important it is. And we feel the same way with what we're doing on bulk loads. And because we, I mean, we really cater to the agricultural community, the farmers, I mean, really makes up a lot of our demographics. And we feel like there is a story to be told. And again, it's not as simple as, like, people don't know where their food's coming from, but like, there's a lot of people don't, a lot that people don't realize about farming and agriculture. Tork Whisler [00:29:06]: Yep. Jared Flinn [00:29:07]: What you guys seem to really be teaching and explaining what farming really is specifically in the US. Tork Whisler [00:29:16]: Yeah. I think part of that comes from the fact that we're, we can tell a story in a way that people, so traditionally, I feel like a lot of farmers are, they are the guys that just put your head down and get your, you know, just, if you just do the work, it's all going to be fine. And they're not good self promoters, they're not real. And they don't have the desire to bring a camera into their operation and show what they do. And they don't want to talk about money. They don't like talking about money and, you know, what it costs or what they make or whatever. So traditionally, any outside education in AG was all done by commodities groups, and it still is. You know, you, we, I'm a member of the corn growers and, and the Washington county pork producers. Tork Whisler [00:30:15]: And the work they do is great. The promotion they do is great. However, everything they do, you know, they're, they're trying to walk a fine line and they really don't want to piss anybody off. And everything has to be vetted, and they don't talk in any generalities. And because they really can't, they really can't do that well, when we have a very frank conversation about, you know, rent or about what it actually costs to keep a generation going on a farm or, you know what youre, what people that a good example of a hot button issue, that there's a lot of back and forth within AG is like the people that are all about regenerative ag and biologics and cover crops and all that. And I feel like those two groups are at odds with each other because you have guys out there that are farming a piece of ground that's on a three, if they're lucky, it's on a three year lease. And the regenerative people are like, oh, you need to, you need to plant cover crops. You need to do this. Tork Whisler [00:31:42]: You need to do this. I don't know if I'm going to have that piece of ground next year, let alone five years from now. So when you're telling me that I can do something that's really going to help the water holding capacity of my land and all these things, but it's going to take years to do it, I may not be in business next year if I can't turn a profit off that piece of ground. And I think a lot of people outside of ag don't understand the stresses that people are under. They just look at it as well, if this is so great, everybody should just do it. Well, if you don't have the luxury of having a land base that you own, and the other side of it is the average age of your farmers keeps going up. So the number of family farms out there, and ours is one of them. We just talked about this on last podcast, the number of farms out there that are supporting multiple generations but are also encumbered by absolutely insane medical costs, retirement home costs that you talk about, inflation, that is a huge burden to carry on a lot of these farms, and nobody talks about it. Tork Whisler [00:33:06]: And so we just try to find subjects like that that, you know, you always hear one side of a story, but it's good to have the big picture about why that works for some people, but for other people, yeah, it'd be great, but they're really in a position that they just can't do that. Jared Flinn [00:33:24]: So, yeah, I think that's so good. I want to back up just a little bit because what I heard you say, and I think it's. When I got in trucking 20 years ago, Mandy, when people talked about trucking, there was. There. It was always negative on that. A lot of these truckers, these owner operators were, you know, they. A lot of people in the office I worked, they, there was this. They call them dirt bags. Jared Flinn [00:33:49]: There's this like, this Persona, these guys. And I was looking like, you know, these guys are salt of the earth. I mean, a lot of them are farmers, and. But we had to change that narrative to people that, like. No, the people that. That are servicing us are the same people that are. We're living with, that are in our communities, that farm. They have kids. Jared Flinn [00:34:09]: I mean, the whole thing. But, like, it was this narrative that you had to change the. The pot, I guess society or the world was deeming them as something else. But I feel like you're saying the same thing with farmers. A lot of the farmers that we know today, again, they're very humble people. They don't, they're not out there broadcasting, posting, whatever, right, wrong, or different, but they're just very simple minded. You know, they, they put their head down, like you said, and they grind every day. And I can. Jared Flinn [00:34:36]: I just think of this. That was my grandpa, that was my dad growing up on the family farm. And, uh, I think. But that, in a way, it's maybe not. It's not been more light or shed transparency to the community of what really farming is. And I mean, really, the values that it has. Tork Whisler [00:34:54]: Yeah, one of the. Another. A simple misconception about farmers now is that they were all just filthy rich and that all this equipment's paid for, all this lands paid for, and we get checks. Our cats are like this because this is so you could see to the back of the mailbox, see what government check you're getting. I mean, the, the misconceptions. Just roll and roll and roll. And don't get me wrong, there are people out there. Yeah, there are. Tork Whisler [00:35:25]: Every industry, I mean, are that way. But the vast majority of farmers, it's. You get to play with an incredible amount of money, but you don't actually hold on to very much of it. It's a very capital intensive trucking, same way it's very capital intensive for the return you get off of it. And it's all. It's a grind. It is a grind. Jared Flinn [00:35:47]: Yeah. Talk about a little bit. And I know, you talk on your shows, but for someone that doesn't know, can you explain a little bit of your all's operation? Yeah, hog. Hog operation you guys run in your family farm? Tork Whisler [00:35:59]: Yeah. So, um, I actually grew up right. Right where I am today. Uh, and we had 160 acres. Uh, we had 120 sows, fair to finish. And my parents raised three boys. I'm the youngest of three. Um, and raised corn and soybeans, baled a little hay, and raised a lot of pigs. Tork Whisler [00:36:23]: And when I got out of high school, there was an opportunity, so there was an opportunity to buy 240 acres. That joined us, and we did bought. We bought that and we have that today. And then I bought a guy that was moving. I bought his faro to finish operation, and we combined them. So my dad and I, we had 400. So fair to finish, which, you know, early nineties, that was a pretty good sized operation, but that was right at the time when production agriculture, as far as swine goes, it was really starting to change. Genetics were changing. Tork Whisler [00:37:05]: It was the start of contract finishing mid nineties and 96 was a real bad year in the hog business. And that set us up for 98. And I started in 92. And by 98, we decided that we were not going to keep farrowing. The margins were terrible, a lot of disease, pressure, and the whole industry really was changing at that point, so the decision had to be made. There wasn't enough here for my dad and I, so somebody had to get a job, and it wasn't going to be him. So I started working for a construction company that actually converted our buildings. We converted all our farrowing and nursery and went into custom feeding, and I went to work for the guy that did that. Tork Whisler [00:38:03]: And then after a couple years, I went to work for a larger company that was doing that. I ran all their service. Ultimately, I became a salesman for them. And I had a really, I had a really bad taste in my mouth after going through, going through the nineties. I mean, I was newly married, had young kids, and it was, it was tough. It was really tough. But I didn't really think that I would ever be back in the hog business. But the guy that I worked for kind of, you know, kind of coaxed me out of my, I guess, disdain for production agriculture. Tork Whisler [00:38:52]: And I built my first contract finisher in 2010, and then I built two more over the next few years, and by, by 2020, I had three. And I was. I was to the point. And my parents were getting older, and I continued to help on the farm, but I wasn't a full time farmer by any means, but it was moving more and more that direction because my, my parents were getting older and I was doing more. And then when Sawyer came, we made the decision that, you know, he needed to build a shed, he needed to have skin in the game. So today we farm, we row crop 400 acres and we have four 2400 head finishers. So we raise about 20,000 head pigs a year. We need to finish contract finish for Eichelberger Farms out of Weyland. Tork Whisler [00:39:47]: And then the social media started about 2020. And it, it now is, you know, it's like our off farm job, only it's on farm is really what it is. Jared Flinn [00:40:03]: Yeah. So obviously Sawyer is the other co host. Are any other. Other children involved in the. Tork Whisler [00:40:10]: Yeah, so I have another son, Clay, and he's not, he's not involved day to day on the farm. He and Sawyer, partners, he runs. So they do real estate on the side. So they have some commercial real estate, they have some single family stuff. And then we together, all of us do some Airbnb in our, the town we live in, there's three retirement homes. So there's always plenty of people coming to visit. Jared Flinn [00:40:39]: Oh, nice. Tork Whisler [00:40:40]: Somebody. And so we've gotten into the Airbnb business, but Sawyer and Clay, they own real estate together. And then Clay is a silent partner on the farming side. And at some point, whenever they kick me to the curb, then, you know, my hope is that they'll, they'll do it together. But, yeah, Sawyer is the only one actively farming right now. Jared Flinn [00:41:06]: Yeah, that's cool. Not to give it away. I mean, any kind of like future goals with the social media and podcast? I mean, I saw that you guys promote some of your own pork and offers through that, which I think is just brilliant. Any other maybe ideas in the pipeline that you guys are looking at just as you guys expand into a larger audience and demographic of people that are watching the show? Tork Whisler [00:41:29]: Yeah, so we started, I guess you could say we started kind of with the end in mind. Our, our goal with the social media really was that we were going to launch a product off the back of it. And farmer grade is our direct consumer meat business that Sawyer started. And it. So part of the pigs that we raise, we have, we have processed and then we sell it under the farmer grade brand. But then his goal with that is to showcase farmers that are producing meat direct to consumer. So we have a family from Greenfield, Iowa, that we buy wagyu from. They deliver it to our processor. Tork Whisler [00:42:29]: We have Cole sone, sone farms from South Dakota. We market his beef, we have it processed. He delivers his cattle and we have it processed. We have a guy from Pennsylvania that does free range chicken. And the goal with farmer grade is ultimately, is to grow that to where at some point we would like to get back to just producing our own pigs and marketing our own pigs and not contract finish. Not because we, we enjoy what we're doing. It's just we look at everything we're doing as kind of a funnel. And we're very blessed to have some great sponsors that work with us on the show and that have really helped us build out our infrastructure. Tork Whisler [00:43:30]: But our primary goal is to get to the point that farmer grade is the primary sponsor and all of our social media is the funnel to bring new people that learn about us in. And at the bottom, they decide they need a box. They need a box of farmer grade. I mean, in a perfect world, that's what we would like to do. Jared Flinn [00:43:53]: Yeah. Tork Whisler [00:43:54]: And other than that, we, as you know, as anybody that has a, has a business knows, if you're not growing a little bit, you're getting, you're getting, you're going behind. Because everything costs more and more, I mean, especially today. And so we're really kind of an oddity in the fact that there's not very many people that are farming 400 acres with or without animal livestock or animal agriculture, that are starting another generation on it. And I mean, with any luck, we'll be starting another, a third generation after this one. I'm fingers crossed that I'm going to get some grandkids out of this deal, but to try, to, try to keep that intact, I mean, that's legacy is everything to us. That's one thing that Sora and I really share a vision on is that's good. We, we, you can't guarantee that any the next generation is getting, is going to even want anything to do with this. We just want to set our operation up that they have the chance if they want to, and if they don't, they don't. Tork Whisler [00:45:09]: But if they do, we want to make it viable that they can. Jared Flinn [00:45:12]: So, yeah, I love that you guys are casting that vision out there. It's not just like, we'll just see what happens, but like, I, man, and I'm not going to get too spiritual, but like, you see that in the Bible, like these, you know, some of these descendants, they cast that vision over the children and get grandchildren that lead to those blessings because the fathers or grandfathers are casting that vision. Yeah. Just to wrap this up. It just makes me think. I think you're an encouragement for a lot of people out there that maybe grew up on the farm or had ties to ag, they couldn't find it sustainable so they had to maybe drift off, but they want to get back into it, myself included. I was on the farm for years left. Now I'm coming back. Jared Flinn [00:45:52]: We actually just purchased a farm behind our house and, you know, now we have almost 200 and something acres, you know, for our farm. But like trying to get back to that and as much as when I was a kid wanting to run as far as away from it, now I'm like running towards it and trying to bring my kids to embrace agriculture and embrace farming and just the values of that. So I guess to kind of close in here for those listeners out there that I think that there's so many thousands if not more that are in the same shoes of like they know that maybe they're not, they're doing a little bit of agriculture, they're running some cattle because I know those people are listening to your podcast. Like guys in this office, they run a little bit of cattle, but they got to still do other jobs and all that, man. What would be your encouragement or words that you would speak to them? Tork Whisler [00:46:38]: Yeah, so the first thing, and probably the most important thing to what our, our success so far is just don't quit. Like, it is not, it is not easy. And today you are sold this bill of goods all the time, constantly, 24/7 that if you just do this, this is the next big thing. This is the next thing that's going to propel, whether, whether it's fitness, whether it's money, whether it's career, whether it's relationship, everybody that is marketing is marketing something that they've got the fix. Yeah, the next big, there is no fix. That everything worth having, really anything worth really having is, it is a grind. And you know, we just look at like farmer grade right now is an absolute grind and you just got to look at it as don't quit because we know that long term it'll work, but it's not, you know, we're not going to be vacationing anytime soon because it's a grind. And when we started the social media, I mean the first check we got from the first video we got that went over 1000 views that you could get paid on, we thought, oh man, we're off and going, you know, do you know how many $3 checks we got from YouTube? I mean, a lot. Tork Whisler [00:48:23]: And it is a grind. But, and I tell people this. Good right or wrong, everybody in our family has pretty much been ruined in the fact that we could never work for anybody else. Because once you've. Once you've put your blood, sweat and tears in something and you've bought into something, even if it fails, you're pretty much hooked. Like, you're hooked to work for yourself and to work on your own control, your own destiny, and you're just like, there's no getting out of it now. You're just, we're stuck because you're spoiled and just don't quit and, you know, just. Just stay at it. Tork Whisler [00:49:15]: And the other, I guess the other thing I'll say is, you can never stop working on yourself because time management routine, those two things, routine has done more to help us achieve our goals and probably anything else as far as pushing out the stuff that is constantly getting thrown towards you that you really don't have time for, but you feel guilty about it. Being able to say no is very important now. You don't have to be a prick about it, but being able to say no and being able to stay on your routine. Jared Flinn [00:50:00]: Yep. Tork Whisler [00:50:00]: It, it really frees you up. It's like Jocko, you know, Jocko is the discipline guy and he. A lot of people look at that as that is. It's so hard to be disciplined. Well, it's a lot harder what happens to you and your relationships and your business when you're not disciplined. And I, we fail all the time, but we, we really strive to stay disciplined and just work on ourselves and do that and good things will happen. Jared Flinn [00:50:30]: Yeah. So, so good. Last question. This is on a lighter note, and we'll end on this one. And, uh, where did the name torque come from? Tork Whisler [00:50:38]: Oh, geez. Okay. Um, so I'm the youngest of three boys, and, um, my two older brothers are Todd and Trent. And when I came along, my dad, he wanted all tea names. We used to have a sign out at the end of our driveway that said, ls and three t's. Lawrence and Shirley. This'll do. Farm. Tork Whisler [00:51:02]: And so I'm 50. I'm 53. My dad was 52 years old when I was born. Jared Flinn [00:51:12]: Oh. Tork Whisler [00:51:12]: There's a big gap between us. And he. And I have to say that, because when I say the rest of people, like, there's no way that that can be right. Well, it is. My dad was a fighter pilot in World War Two. He flew P 51 mustangs. He flew 55 missions over Europe. Bomber escort, a P 51. Tork Whisler [00:51:32]: And for part of that time, his wingman. His last name was Torpelson. His nickname was True Torque. And I'm. I. That's where he came up with torque. So that's. Yeah, I mean, because when you go to the tire shop, you know, you get a tire fix, you go, go pick it up. Tork Whisler [00:51:52]: There's all kinds of tires there. It says L. Williams and J. Black, but when I go to get mine, it just says torque, so it's always easy to find. Jared Flinn [00:52:01]: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, you're the first torque I've ever known, so. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Well, torque whistler with barn talk and farm grade, man, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the bulk of its podcast. Man, I love, I could just tell this that, I mean, your heart and passion is, it is in for this industry like we are. And, man, just, it's good to have another friend that's promoting agriculture out there, and, I mean, just really getting it on the, on the forefront for people to see and get a grasshopper. So, man, thank you so much for coming on, and God bless you. Tork Whisler [00:52:36]: Yeah, thanks for having me. Always good. Tyler Allison [00:52:39]: See ya. Jared Flinn [00:52:40]: Well, you heard twerk talk about it, but there's really no secret sauce. Like, they just really start asking guests to be on the show. Tyler Allison [00:52:49]: Yep. Jared Flinn [00:52:50]: And they had a different perspective, and it just grew organically. So I think that was just reassuring to me because some people, you see some of these podcasts, and especially we have one, and, you know, now we're reaching, you know, 30,000 followers. But he was saying that, and they just kept asking people like Ron DeSantis to come on and then some of these guests, and again, I think the way they have the show, it really draws people in. So there's so many referral based, you know, people that listen to show and then send it to other people. So, man, I think it was just interesting that, man, they didn't do anything unique or creative other than people. So, yeah, if you've ever thought about creating your own podcast, it's. Tyler Allison [00:53:24]: Yeah, I think you can apply that, the same methodology to any business decision, too. Like, you don't know unless you actually, you know, ask. And it's just the more you take risks, you know, the, the more you'll know. But I like their whole setup with just, it's in that old, you know, barn, like the whole, I don't know if you want to call it vibe or whatever, but it's just so cool, and it really engages you to where you can sit down and watch. I mean, they have hour, hour long episodes that you can watch the whole episode. And you know, they're, they're talking about farming and educating users on how, um, you know, farms actually work, but specifically their operation, um, wooden wood pigs and stuff. Jared Flinn [00:54:03]: And if you listen to torque, the guy's pretty smart. Yeah, you can just tell by talking to him in the shows. Like the guy's pretty intellectual smart. But I love that the reason they started this was with the end in mind. Like they realized that they could use this as a platform to promote their meat business, you know, selling farmer grade. And uh, that they, if they can built this ecosystem of followers, subscribers and they sprinkle that in and it's paid off. Tyler Allison [00:54:26]: Seems like more farms are doing that, doing the direct to consumer. Jared Flinn [00:54:30]: Yeah, it's almost like a reversal in the industry. You know, like this is how stuff was done, you know, even 50, 60 years ago, directly from the farmer. Well, then corporations come in and, you know, mega food suppliers and all that. And we've shifted, but now we're shifting back because people want to know where their food comes from. They, most people want to buy direct and I, people will probably pay a little bit more to buy direct from the farm. Tyler Allison [00:54:54]: Yeah, exactly. Cause they know they're getting better product, less process. But also as a farmer, it's gotta, it's gotta be frustrating whenever you, you know, sell your product for a certain price, but then walk into the grocery store to see the end product and you know, it's a much higher price selling to the consumer. So that's gotta be frustrating too. Jared Flinn [00:55:13]: Yeah. Tork Whisler [00:55:13]: Cool. Jared Flinn [00:55:13]: Well, torque, man, appreciate you coming on. And man, thank you for what you're doing out in the industry and promoting agriculture, man, you're doing a phenomenal job. We'll put the links to barn talk in the episode notes down below. So if you want to jump over there and you can follow them on that. So, um, a couple things before we close out of here, man, we know the industry keeps getting tighter. You know, we say that on bull clothes we're a little of a lag indicator, you know, we, so we start seeing signs, really, July, June, July, August of a little bit of a slowdown. Tyler Allison [00:55:43]: Yep. Jared Flinn [00:55:43]: And, but we know guys were even seeing that pinch earlier, man, I know this economy is going to rebound, but I know that cash is on short supply. Um, man, if you need help out there, reach out to us. Number one on bulk loads. I think some people too, you got to start cutting expenses where you can. And you just start looking at your bank statement. They've done that, man. But like, if we can help you out in any way, if you can't afford bulk loads, man, reach out. We want to help you however we can, like we got, we want to keep you going, keep you finding the freight you need. Jared Flinn [00:56:11]: We know harvest is now at peak season, so we're seeing an influx of loads coming up on the board. So if you need help, reach out to us, we'll work out with you. If you need to find a load here and there, or if you just need to use it for, you know, we have different subscription plans we would love to get you set up on, but yeah, if you just need help, I want to help you out. Don't get frustrated and give up. We can help you there. Cash flow is short smart freight funding, you know, that's our sister site for cash flow and we're signing up hundreds of people a month on there. But because we realize that people can realize that they don't have to worry about that stress of getting paid. We can handle all that on the backend. Jared Flinn [00:56:45]: It's a really automated system. So, man, if you need help, if you're short on cash, need quicker, you know, payments, we can help you with that at a very, very affordable price. Tyler Allison [00:56:54]: Yeah, I will say this too, on bulk loads, I mean, there's still, I mean, over 25,000 loads posted on the actual board. And we also have the shipper complete shipper and broker database. A lot of guys too might be afraid of how to even get started. You know, sending a mass email to shippers and brokers, that can be maybe a little bit intimidating. Marketing your yourself, especially if you're an owner operator to thousands and thousands of shippers trying to put yourself out there. We have a team in here that if you want to call us, we will walk you through it and our team will actually write out an email for you to show you the best way to do it. And we can send it for you as well to get your name out there. Jared Flinn [00:57:34]: We also have some good resources. I've been actually trying to be more proactive explaining on our podcast. So if, if not, go to our podcast and you read, we have some really simple tips to get you connected to the right people and hopefully save you a lot of time money, because just searching for loads is not the only way you can get connected. And honestly, there's probably better ways than that. That's a starting point. But man, there's a lot of freight out there. Sometimes it doesn't touch our board, but those connections are on our site. And we can get you connected with them. Tyler Allison [00:58:03]: Exactly. Good point. Jared Flinn [00:58:04]: So, awesome. Cool. Anything else before we close out? Tyler Allison [00:58:07]: Yeah, I was just going to mention, so we are starting the whole process of thinking about the conference, starting to plan next year's 2025 conference. Jared Flinn [00:58:14]: We gotta get that squared away. Tyler Allison [00:58:16]: So I think we decided definitely first week of April next year, if we can make that happen. But we'll nail down specific dates. But what you can do to get on the list right now is just go to bulkfreightconference.com into your email and you'll be notified whenever tickets go on sale, any updates are made, whenever dates are picked, everything like that. So you can be actually in line and you don't miss out on your ticket. Jared Flinn [00:58:40]: And Garrett will put that link down below. So, and it's a really easy lift. Just go down there, click on the link, uh, subscribe, drop your email in there. That way, when we get everything lined up, the dates, schedule, all that, you'll be on the email list and know exactly. Yeah, you don't want to miss that. There's. Every year, it just seems like afterwards people are like, man, I heard all this stuff. I wish we could have come. Jared Flinn [00:58:59]: I wish I would have known about them. Like, I don't know how else we can promote it better than what we're doing on our podcast and on our website and through newsletters and all that. But you don't want to miss it. It's an investment that will pay off ten x. I promise you that. So cool. Um, well, last but not least, if, like I said earlier, we know the economy is tough. We know people are hurting. Jared Flinn [00:59:19]: We know that there are, um, a lot of people that just. That need help. And we want to pray for you. If you would be so kind to let us pray for you. Simply send us a prayer, or send us in a prayer to prayer oakloads.com. and, man, we would love to have, we have a team here, um, that, that prays overdem those prayer requests, and, man, we want to be a part of that and lift you up and help you. Um, man, we know that God listens to our prayers, and he petitions that sometimes he doesn't answer the way that we specifically want them answered. But I promise there's scripture that shows that he answers prayers. Jared Flinn [00:59:54]: Um, so, man, reach out to us. We want to be a part, uh, of that process. And, uh, Tyler, you want to close us out? Tyler Allison [01:00:00]: Yep, I will. Jared Flinn [01:00:01]: Yep. Tyler Allison [01:00:02]: Lord, we come to you this morning. Just thank you and praise you, lord, we just, um, ask for a special blessing over this country and nation, Lord, with the election coming up, Lord, I just ask that everybody who's getting anxious about this election cycle just gets peace. Lord, I ask that you just bless all those who are traveling, delivering feed and food, Lord, everybody in the trucking industry, I ask that you just keep them safe. Anybody who is going through any struggles right now with, you know, finance in this economy, you know, family issues, anything like that, Lord, I ask that you just bring them peace and you just give them the strength and the courage to continue on and letting them know that you are there with them. Lord, I ask that you just bless all of our members and all of our listeners on this podcast, Lord, and I ask that no matter what, everybody that we interact with, Lord, there's no doubt in their mind that we serve you, Lord, we know that you are a big God and can do big things, and we love you. Amen. Jared Flinn [01:01:03]: Amen. Thanks, Tyler. Thank you as always for listening to the Bulk Loads podcast. If you know someone that can benefit from this, man, we would be honored just as simply if you'd share this to this. Also, if you haven't yet, click the subscribe button down in the lower left hand corner. That way you don't miss an episode. So thank you very much for watching. For watching. Jared Flinn [01:01:21]: And God.