Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E89: From Music Minister to American Meat Magnate - The Story of Good Ranchers

Transcript

E89: From Music Minister to American Meat Magnate - The Story of Good Ranchers · The Lila Rose Show

0:00
Over £3 billion of beef was imported into the US in 2023.
0:04
Wow, that's a lot of meat. It can be born, raised and
0:06
harvested anywhere in the world and get shipped into the United
0:09
States. As long as it goes into a USDA
0:11
facility and gets repackaged. They can get an American flag
0:14
sticker put on it and say product of USA.
0:17
When we started learning these things, we kind of drew a line
0:19
in the sand that we're only going to source domestically and
0:21
we're only going to source that we know is clean.
0:23
Honestly, that was a big game changer for us.
0:31
Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Lila Rose
0:33
podcast. Did you know that more people
0:35
are consuming meat than ever before?
0:38
Despite the push by maybe the vegetarian or the vegan
0:40
movements, people are actually valuing meat more than ever in
0:43
2024. And the trends show that the
0:46
meat industry is growing rapidly as well.
0:48
Today we're going to talk to Ben and Corley Spell of Good
0:51
Ranchers. We've talked about them on the
0:52
podcast before, but to really unpack their meat packing
0:56
company, their meat distribution company, and how they're
0:58
sourcing all of their products from American ranchers.
1:02
Good Ranchers is one of the fastest growing meat companies
1:05
in the United States. They've been growing rapidly and
1:08
the demand for meat continues to go up.
1:10
So if you're a meat lover, you're maybe on a carnivore
1:13
diet, this will be fascinating for you.
1:15
And if you're meat skeptical, you want to hear about the
1:18
origins of this company and also why they feel so strongly about
1:21
the importance of sourcing products like meat in the United
1:25
States. It's not to say global trade
1:27
isn't good and it's not good to trade with our neighbors, but
1:30
it's important to have a food supply that is local and that
1:33
you know where your food's coming from.
1:35
So Ben and Corley spell, they started their life as a youth
1:38
pastor family. They were involved actually in
1:41
ministry at the church level. They did not think they'd get
1:43
into business or certainly not into meat packing and
1:46
distribution. But this is their unlikely story
1:49
and how they have become one of the fastest growing companies in
1:52
the United States. A big thank you to Good
1:55
Ranchers. This is a pro-life, pro family
1:57
company. They are a sponsor of this
1:59
podcast. They're also just amazing people
2:01
that run a great business. And so thank you to Good
2:03
Ranchers for sponsoring the episode.
2:05
And thank you to Good Ranchers for sending me and my husband
2:07
some great meats. If you go to goodranchers.com
2:10
today for the month of February, you can get 10% off your order
2:13
using the code Lila at checkout. That's ordering American Meat,
2:16
delivered at goodranchers.com, delivered directly to your door
2:19
from American Ranchers and use the code Lila at checkout for
2:22
10% off your order. Ben and Corley Spell, thanks so
2:26
much for joining the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having.
2:29
Us. Yeah.
2:29
So glad to be here. So our audience already knows
2:32
about Good Ranchers because we've been talking about it and
2:35
I know a lot of them love it. Our family loves Good Ranchers,
2:38
But there's so much to the Good Ranchers story and to you guys
2:41
and your personal story. So I'm really excited to get
2:44
into that today. Yeah, let's.
2:45
Do it. Yeah.
2:46
So the first thing though, is, you know, starting Good Ranchers
2:49
is let's start with that because people want to hear the back
2:52
story. It's a pretty unique back story.
2:55
When I first started, I was like, wow, there's something God
2:57
is doing something special with this company.
2:59
So I'd love to hear what inspired you to start Good
3:02
Ranchers, especially coming from a pastor ministry background,
3:07
not business and totally feeling led to start one of the fastest,
3:11
the fastest growing small, you know, locally sourced meat
3:15
companies in the country. Yeah.
3:18
Yeah. Well, thanks for having us on.
3:20
We love what you do and love what you stand for and we're
3:23
happy to be here. So in prior to good ranchers, I
3:28
was AI was a worship pastor. I was there for those of you who
3:31
don't know that what that is. That's the guy who's playing the
3:34
guitar and singing. And I worked for a large church
3:37
in Houston and I ran like the whole when I say alert,
3:41
everything's bigger in Texas. So it's like a 15,000 member
3:44
church and. So that's small in Texas, right?
3:47
Exactly, exactly. And so I ran the entire music
3:51
production department. And so that's what I did from
3:58
the time I was a teenager all the way to my mid 30s.
4:00
And I started praying and asking God to give, give me something.
4:05
I was, this wasn't a term back then, but I was praying for a
4:07
side hustle because I, I was, I didn't like that all of my
4:12
finances were paid by the church.
4:15
And so I started praying and asking God to open a door for
4:18
me, open opportunity for me. And, and he started giving me
4:21
this idea of, of, of meat company and like it, it was
4:25
never, ever the, the first time I had the idea.
4:29
There was not a chance that that was for me.
4:32
And I remember telling Corley like, Hey, somebody should do
4:35
this, this, this and this. And and there there was not even
4:38
a drop in the bucket of a thought that we were the ones to
4:41
do it. Few months ago go by and I would
4:45
have the idea again about every three months for about a year, I
4:48
would have these thoughts. And it's funny because
4:51
hindsight's 2020, I was praying and asking God to give me give
4:56
me aside something else that I could do.
4:59
And he's keeps dropping this meat company ideas and in my
5:05
head and and I'm just completely oblivious.
5:07
As you know, men can be accused of being sometimes and just
5:16
completely oblivious that this is for us.
5:18
And and yeah, every three or four months I would talk to
5:21
Corley about it and but it was always someone else should do.
5:24
This was never that and then, you know, never for us.
5:28
And one morning I was getting ready.
5:30
It was it was a Sunday and I was getting ready to go to church
5:33
and I was just getting ready. And all of a sudden I started
5:40
thinking of the meat company again.
5:43
And I clearly heard God's voice. I mean, it was it was it it
5:47
shook me and he said you do it. And it was, it was like
5:51
thunderous in my head and like, and I came out of the bathroom,
5:55
I think like I saw a ghost because she, I think she could
6:00
tell the sobriety I had when I came to her.
6:03
And I said, God just told me to start a meat company and
6:08
thinking she was going to give me all the reasons why because
6:11
we had never talked about us doing that.
6:14
We were just it was just really a very ancillary thing that we
6:17
had would would mention and then move on.
6:20
When I said that to her, she said, if you heard God, then I
6:23
trust you. And which the that was amazing
6:30
in an in of itself like because the if your wife believes in
6:36
you, if your wife doesn't believe in you, like that's a
6:39
really hard, that's a very hard thing.
6:41
But when your wife does believe in you and has your back for, or
6:47
at least for me, I mean, I feel like I could do anything if I
6:50
have quarterly support and for her to just say I support you, I
6:53
trust you, I'm in this with you. And because we had just had our
6:57
first baby boy, we didn't have any money in savings, you know,
7:02
hardly. Yeah.
7:03
And And so we only know one way to do things and that's kind of
7:09
go all in. So that was like in December of
7:13
2017, I resigned in January. I resigned actually in December,
7:19
starting this January and filed an LLC started figuring out
7:23
where can I buy some meat. And, and just a few like maybe
7:27
8810 weeks later, I was selling meat out of the back of a truck
7:30
in a parking lot in Waco, TX. And yeah, that's how we started
7:36
good ranchers. And, but God is faithful and,
7:40
and when God is in something, you know, he's in something.
7:42
And we've worked very hard and we've been diligent to, to be
7:49
good stewards of what God has given us.
7:51
But it's never really been hard. It's definitely not hasn't been
7:56
easy, but it's never really been hard because God truly has gone
7:59
before us every step of the way. I mean, our first year we were
8:02
successful and we were profitable, which is to say I, I
8:06
know and. That so I want to stop there for
8:08
a second because you're thinking for a year at meat.
8:12
Why and what what was the inspiration for the meat
8:15
company? And then what would you discover
8:17
as you were starting Good Ranchers about the the state of
8:20
the meat industry in America and the need for good ranchers?
8:24
Yeah. So do you want to answer that
8:25
one? Well, I think part of it for me
8:27
just, you know, having your first baby or just being
8:30
pregnant leading up to the baby, that whole time you're thinking
8:33
about what's going to be best for the baby, what's going to be
8:36
best for me, our health. And so I think for me
8:38
personally, that's whenever I started diving into what are we
8:41
eating? Where is it coming from?
8:44
What's the source and kind of asking those questions and we
8:46
did it together. And so just having that going on
8:50
and then, you know, you doing your own research and stuff, I
8:55
feel like that led to like the meat.
8:57
It's like, well, where's this meat coming from?
8:59
At the grocery store it says this but like, is it really from
9:02
there? Yes, we, yes, we started when we
9:06
first started full transparency, those first couple years we
9:10
didn't have any buying power. We were just buying from
9:12
brokers. We didn't know what we didn't
9:14
know. And, but as we started, as we
9:18
began to get some buying power and, and started buying more of
9:22
our system, purchasing power, buying more and more, we started
9:25
to be able to cut out middle men and brokers are layers and get
9:29
straight to some producers. And that's when we realized it
9:33
wasn't until 2019, toward the end of 2019 that we realized
9:36
there's no country of origin labeling law for beef or pork in
9:40
the US. And and that the prior to 2015,
9:45
there's always been country of origin labeling law like on, on
9:49
everything and there still is for vegetables and produce and
9:52
T-shirts. Yeah, you know, why not meat?
9:55
Right. Exactly.
9:56
But for beef and pork there's no Contra war in labeling law as
9:59
long as it it can be born, raised and harvested anywhere in
10:02
the world and come into the get shipped into the United States.
10:07
If as long as it goes into a USDA facility and gets
10:10
repackaged they can get a American flag sticker put on it
10:14
and say product of USA. Do they test it as their testing
10:17
that they have to do? As what do you mean by testing?
10:22
Like when the meat comes in, I mean what are the standards even
10:25
for the meat if any like. Yeah.
10:27
I mean, they're going to, they're going to, they're going
10:28
to test it for E coli, they're going to those things, but, you
10:32
know, so. You don't know how it was
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raised. You don't know.
10:34
You don't know what's raised. Yeah, they don't.
10:36
They're not. They're not looking.
10:37
They're not looking. They're not testing for like
10:40
hormonal use, antibiotic use, like they're not testing for,
10:43
for any of those things. And, and fun fact, if you, if
10:47
you look at all of the cases of, of E coli in the last go back
10:54
however many years, 9 out of 10 of them and that's, that's,
10:59
that's a pretty safe number. Almost all of them are from
11:03
imported meat. Wow.
11:07
Well, what I've said on the show before, people listening who
11:09
have heard me talk about good ranchers, it is the best beef
11:12
and chicken that my husband and I have had, you know, compared
11:16
to anything from the grocery store.
11:17
Because when we get from the grocery store and, you know, not
11:20
to, like, throw out another name, but like Costco, I love
11:22
Costco. I'm a fan.
11:24
And I'm a mom. I go to Costco.
11:26
But, you know, even that and you feel like you've got good
11:29
products at Costco. The chicken just doesn't compare
11:32
to the good rancher's chicken. It just, it just tastes.
11:34
It's not that stringy, dry, separated taste.
11:37
And then the meat is just awesome.
11:39
So we're like, walk us through now where you are.
11:43
It says years. You're five years into the
11:44
company. Yeah.
11:45
We're going into six, Yeah, Last year was our fifth year.
11:47
So you said at first you were just starting.
11:49
You're not really familiar with the environment, but what does
11:51
it mean when you say like, the meat comes from an American?
11:55
Right. So, so first and foremost,
11:57
almost everything that you're buying in the grocery store, so
12:00
much of it, so £3 billion / 3 billion pounds of beef was
12:05
imported into the US in 2023. Wow, that's a lot of meat.
12:09
So, so much meat in the grocery store is, is coming from coming
12:16
from feedlots in Mexico, coming from South America, coming from
12:20
but lots of different places and, and again, especially even
12:26
places like Costco, which you think are so great and.
12:30
It is great. For certain.
12:33
Mango for. Certain things, but at the end
12:39
of the day, beef, chicken, the meat aisle is a commodity
12:43
forever in the US and across the world.
12:46
It is a commodity and the grocery stores, even Costco's,
12:50
even your Whole Foods, like all of the grocery stores, they are,
12:54
they're they've just commoditized it even like that's
12:58
the reason you say the, the, the chicken is such a difference
13:01
like organic has, has become the, the, there's so much
13:05
greenwashing even especially in the organic label for chicken.
13:09
What does that mean? Greenwashing it.
13:11
It means saying fancy things to like putting a fancy claim out
13:16
there that absolutely means. Nothing to that specific
13:20
product. So to be organic for like fruits
13:22
and vegetables is important because you know those are
13:24
sprayed with all the things. But for meat, for chicken
13:28
specifically it it has like. Yeah, they, they realized, oh,
13:31
we, as long as we we can, it can be free range organic chickens
13:36
and we can as long as we give them access to outside.
13:40
So they're still be in cages all day long because you're in as
13:44
long as we give them organic feed, which they've they've
13:47
turned that we know we figured out how to just make organic
13:51
pellets and feed them organic feed.
13:55
They really can never go outside, but they had access to
13:58
outside. So it can still be labeled as
14:01
organic. The same thing, the same, same
14:04
thing is, is very true even with with grass fed and things like
14:08
that. Like like again, the large,
14:11
large corporations out there, they are, they want to make as
14:16
much money as they can because that's on one part that's
14:19
capitalism. But they as soon as they
14:22
realize, OK, well, this is what the consumer wants.
14:24
How can I do this? How can I skate the line as
14:28
close as possible, give them what they're what they're asking
14:32
for, but still make as much profit?
14:34
So even with grass fed, they figured out, OK, well, we can,
14:37
we can turn grass into pellets and we can, you know, there's
14:41
different types of grasses or different types of things.
14:43
And, and we can still, we can still feed lot beef and feed
14:48
them grass pellets. And now it's grass fed beef.
14:50
Like there's, there's so many ways around in, you know, all
14:54
these things and then other, other things for the sake of
15:02
time. I'll, I'll just stop there.
15:04
We can, I mean, we can keep going down the list of claims
15:06
and, and, and things just, but, but when we started learning
15:12
these things, we said, OK, well, we, we care about what we eat,
15:16
We care about, about what we bring into our home.
15:18
So what what we we kind of drew a line in the sand right at the
15:23
beginning of 20 going into your 3 going into 2020, would you
15:27
rely on the sands said we're only going to source
15:29
domestically because prior to we, we that's when we learned,
15:32
OK, a lot of what we were buying was coming from Mexico, was
15:35
coming from South America, was coming from from other parts in
15:38
the world. And we said we're only going to
15:41
buy source domestically and we're only going to source that
15:45
that we know it is clean. We, we don't want antibiotics in
15:51
our food, we don't want added hormones in our food.
15:53
And we, you know, we want to know how the animals are being
15:56
raised. And so we made that decision in
16:00
going into 2020. And that was for, honestly, that
16:04
was a big game changer for us. And we, we, we did it for the
16:08
health reasons. Initially we didn't realize that
16:10
it actually tasted better. And but as we started getting
16:14
into it, like we realized wow, like, like what we're selling is
16:18
so much better than the grocery store.
16:20
And people like what you said, people say it all the time.
16:23
They they go, man, your beef is really good, but why do you do
16:26
the chicken? It's like we don't really.
16:28
We don't. Do anything in the chicken, This
16:30
is what it's chicken supposed to taste like.
16:32
Yeah, it's yeah. And so and, and yeah, now we,
16:36
we, we have pork and wild caught seafood as well now, so which
16:41
again, all adheres to the same standards.
16:45
And but yeah, you know, we, we believe that you are what you
16:48
eat and what you put into your body is what you're going to get
16:51
out of your body. And, and people care way more
16:53
about the type of fuel they put in their car.
16:57
And they should be looking at the type of fuel they're putting
17:00
into their body. 100%. All right, so maybe part of your
17:03
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17:06
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code Lila. So one of the things that I
17:55
really like about good ranchers is that it there's there's a
17:59
sense, I mean, again, there's and.
18:01
People who listen to the podcast are really, I think, educated
18:04
on, you know, some of the kind of globalization trends that are
18:08
happening. And, you know, we are so reliant
18:11
on other countries for a lot of necessities as a, as a nation.
18:14
So I think there's a concern about even just security, like
18:17
know where your food is from, you know, know your local farmer
18:20
in your case, know your local rancher.
18:22
And I think there's so much power and understanding where
18:25
your food is from and there's security to that.
18:27
And there's also just building community to that.
18:29
Not to say that trade is bad or that we don't want to do trade
18:32
with other countries. That's all can be great.
18:34
But tell me about your perspective on that and we your
18:37
journey has been with good ranchers because again, so much
18:41
of our food supply even as a country is outsourced.
18:46
But the small family farmer or ranch hasn't necessarily gotten
18:50
the support historically at least in recent years that it
18:54
needs compared to the big corporations and how good
18:56
ranchers is really disrupting that.
18:59
Yeah, so we've been kind of at war against.
19:04
There's been a anti meat movement for the last couple of
19:06
decades. It's gotten really loud the the
19:10
the last decade, especially through the 20 tens and teens,
19:15
but it's it's been happening for a long time.
19:17
And the, I will say the anti meat movement, whether it's PITA
19:22
or veganism or the SPCA, like the, this anti meat movement has
19:31
done an amazing job at dehumanizing the farmers and
19:35
ranchers, at just removing the face of these small families.
19:38
And, and, and just putting it in putting, you know, inserting the
19:42
face of big corporation. And it's, and it's really bad.
19:47
There's, there is that. But what they don't tell you is
19:51
that in the US currently there are approximately 700,000
19:56
independent ranches. That is a mom, a dad, a couple
20:00
kids, a family, a dog, usually a grandparent.
20:02
Multi generational ranches that make up 20% of the world's beef
20:07
supply. 700,000 independent ranches in the US today and you
20:11
don't see their face, you don't know them.
20:13
And they are dependent. The average herd size of those
20:16
ranches is about 50. Like that's that that's not that
20:20
many. So the it's imperative that they
20:24
raise these animals to the best that they can raise them so they
20:29
can then turn around and sell them and make a little bit of
20:31
profit to just survive. And yeah, I was in a, I was
20:38
visiting a ranch last April and I was right into the spring.
20:43
This was in Idaho, southern Idaho.
20:45
And I was talking to the grandfather of the family.
20:50
And he said, and I've been, I've lived here for 70 years or so,
20:55
60 years. And and he said this last winter
20:58
was one of the harshest winters I've ever lived through.
21:01
And he tells the story of they were expecting some calves to be
21:05
born in February and they kept going out and checking them
21:09
throughout the day. And they, they just weren't
21:10
born. They weren't born.
21:11
And so they they come in for the night, They go back out in the
21:13
middle of the night and they had been born and their eyes were
21:17
frozen shut. Their ears were frozen shut.
21:19
Fries frostbite was starting to take in.
21:20
And they they took these three calves and brought them into
21:23
their living room and put them blankets around them and put
21:26
them in front of the fireplace, thinking that they were probably
21:30
not going to make it through the night and wake up the next one.
21:33
And this is not a big how. I mean, this is again, you know,
21:35
you people watch Yellowstone and they think there's, you know,
21:38
ranchers. Most ranchers aren't rolling
21:41
like that, I promise. And and thinking they they
21:44
probably weren't even going to make it through the night, but
21:46
they wake up the next morning and three little calves are
21:47
running around there. They're literally when I was
21:49
there in April, you know, they're much bigger now and
21:52
they're running around in the field.
21:54
That's the kind of care that that American ranchers by and
22:00
large are putting into their animals.
22:02
But again, the whole anti meat movement has dehumanized them is
22:07
they've erased them from existence and they make you
22:09
think that everything's a big corporation.
22:12
Everything is if you're buying meat, you're bad because you're
22:14
supporting this big corporation and there's a lot of families
22:17
that are working 365 days a year.
22:20
They don't get a day off to put food on our table.
22:23
And particularly good ranchers is I mean you're personally
22:26
visiting, do you personally visit the ranches that you are
22:30
buying from like sounds like you're it's a very hands on
22:33
process. And I love what I love about
22:35
good ranchers is like you said, we are like a platform for these
22:38
firms and ranchers because they are really good at raising
22:41
animals. That's what they've they're
22:43
called to, they're gifting and they're able to focus on that
22:46
and then good ranchers can come in and we're like a Co-op for
22:50
them and we're doing the marketing for them.
22:51
We're doing the packaging and distribution for them, the
22:54
selling side, so they can focus on what they're good at.
22:57
And helping tell their story because, yeah, these guys,
23:01
they're, they're great at raising meat.
23:03
They, they and because that's just what they want to do, they
23:07
and somebody's got to help be a voice for them.
23:09
Because when they they haven't had a voice and the country of
23:13
origin labeling just gets stripped away silently in 2015.
23:18
And the vast majority of Americans have no idea.
23:22
People are starting to kind of hear about that.
23:24
And because there's people like us that have been talking about
23:26
it for years now. But I remember when we first
23:29
started telling this story about 3 years ago, everyone's eyes
23:33
would light up when they heard. What do you mean?
23:34
There's no country of origin labeling law?
23:36
And I don't care personally if that meets imported and sold in
23:44
the US, like that's fine. People have the right to be able
23:46
to buy whatever they should be able to buy if they want meat
23:49
from New Zealand, if they want meat from Mexico, they want meat
23:51
from South America, Canada, it doesn't matter.
23:53
They should be able to. They could buy that, but it
23:55
should be labeled. There shouldn't be this.
23:58
There shouldn't be this the the misleading of the label.
24:02
They, they should have to say what country it's from because I
24:05
guarantee you, any of your listeners and, and 90% of
24:09
Americans, if they go to the grocery store and says this was
24:11
born race and harvested in the United States and this was born
24:14
race and harvested in anywhere else, they were usually going to
24:18
pick up the born race and harvested in the United States.
24:20
Because people want to, people still want to shop local.
24:22
They want to support their community.
24:23
They want to support their country.
24:25
Yeah. Well, I think that's the
24:26
disruption of good ranchers in a good way in the market.
24:29
Is that right now, like if you just go to the grocery store,
24:32
you don't know, even if it says product of the United States,
24:34
you don't know if it was, you know, raised and harvested here
24:38
in the United States. But with good ranchers, it's,
24:40
you know, you're supporting the 700,000 or we know whatever
24:43
number you're partnering with at any given year of those ranch
24:47
ranchers. And I just think too from like,
24:49
you know, COVID hit and I do want to hear your guys's
24:53
perspective on COVID cause COVID hit and you know, the grocery
24:56
store lines started to stretch and then there was a shortages.
25:00
I remember the ground beef shortage that hit everybody.
25:03
I didn't know about good ranchers yet during COVID.
25:06
I've only, you know, in the last year gotten familiar.
25:09
But what how did that affect you guys?
25:12
And you know what were what were kind of American ranchers doing
25:15
during COVID? Yeah, struggling, that's for
25:20
sure. Struggling that's that's for
25:22
sure the yeah. So when, when COVID happened in
25:27
2020, it, it really showed and it, it showed a lot of
25:32
weaknesses in a lot of areas of our country.
25:36
So food supply would be, would be a big one.
25:39
It showed trauma or I guess it's just trauma.
25:47
What's another word for trauma? What I'm trying to say like hard
25:53
times, there we go. Hard times can expose the, the,
25:58
the holes in the ship. And so COVID really exposed a
26:03
lot of holes in, in a lot of different systems, but in in our
26:06
food supply for sure, because we were really quick and the toilet
26:12
paper supply, yeah, that's true. How could I forget?
26:17
Yeah. But yeah, it's A to know that at
26:20
any point the store could just, the stores could just run out of
26:24
meat and and run out of food. And I remember.
26:27
Formula. That was the other.
26:28
Formula. Yeah.
26:30
And we're like we're stuck going, Oh my gosh, what do we
26:32
do? Fortunately because we have
26:35
direct access and direct supply, we never ran out and which was a
26:41
massive blessing to us and to our business because there is a
26:46
period of probably six weeks or so I think April and to May,
26:51
April and to May, March, April, May in that of 2020 that I mean
26:56
that back this was before we were selling online, we were
26:58
selling out of trucks across the US We launched online early 2021
27:06
and but we didn't run out of meat.
27:09
We had access and we every single one of our trucks just
27:14
had a line of people all day every day for about 6 weeks
27:18
straight. And, and it was amazing to be
27:20
able to it. It was, it was a so sobering
27:24
thought, honestly, to to know that we're able to provide food
27:28
to a lot of people that didn't have access to it and so.
27:31
Yeah. And not only that, we were able
27:33
to help other small businesses because I remember like
27:36
restaurants calling us and restaurant suppliers calling us
27:39
because they had all this meat, but the restaurants weren't
27:42
open. And so they had no way of
27:44
selling it and they had nothing to, you know, know where to for
27:47
it to go. And so we were able to offset
27:50
offset that from them and and distribute for them.
27:52
So there was a lot of good that that came from it.
27:55
And yeah. Yeah, yeah, on top of being able
27:59
to to bless. So, you know, my background and
28:02
being a pastor that still very connected with churches and
28:06
churches took a big hit during COVID because, but generally
28:12
even faithful church attenders, if they're don't going to
28:15
church, if they're not going to church, they usually don't, they
28:17
stop giving just kind of how it, how it, how it happens.
28:20
The, the nature of that. So churches were really kind of
28:23
struggling. That's like especially small
28:25
churches and church plants were really struggling to stay in
28:28
business and we were not able to.
28:31
We were also in a financial place to be able to support and,
28:35
and not just with food, but also with, with money as well.
28:40
And I and I only say that to give, to give credit and honor
28:43
to God because, you know, he said, start a meat company.
28:46
We had no idea why we were doing it, but we did.
28:49
And we look up a few years later and we're, and I'm thankful, I'm
28:53
so grateful that we listened because we were, we were in a
28:56
position to to be able to do a lot of good.
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I think that's a really inspiring part of the story that
29:51
I love is the entrepreneurial spirit that felt very, you know,
29:55
calling. It was not just I want to do
29:57
this thing, but God's calling us as a family to do this thing
30:00
that we don't have direct experience for and we're going
30:03
to just figure it out. And you said something earlier
30:05
that it wasn't ever, it was not easy, but it wasn't ever really
30:08
hard. Can you explain more of that?
30:12
I know a lot of people who listen to the show are
30:14
interested in entrepreneurial things.
30:15
We have a lot of moms who do you know, side hustles and people
30:19
who are starting businesses. So what what have you learned as
30:23
small business now building a large business owners and what
30:27
does that mean? It wasn't hard.
30:29
Yeah, I just, I feel like for us, that means if you're in
30:32
God's will and you're praying and God's going to go before you
30:36
and, and all of that, like it's just going to feel right.
30:40
You know, you're not, you're not going to have all this push back
30:43
and, and things that you're fighting or just trying to
30:46
figure out on your own. It's just going to naturally
30:48
progress. And there, I mean, there might
30:50
be times of, you know, trouble or things, things happen that
30:56
you're like, well, why did that happen?
30:57
But I don't know, it's just, it's just been like a, an easy
31:02
road. And as long as we're obedient to
31:04
God and following what he's called us to do, it's just been
31:07
like a, a very easy Rd. Yeah, the, the right doors
31:11
opened again, COVID, for example, it opened so many doors
31:18
for us because and we were just I, I, our story is we've just
31:25
constantly been in the right place at the right time.
31:28
And, and it's, and, and again, I think that's what I, you know,
31:32
I'm reminded of, of how Saul was anointed to be king and he, his
31:41
father told him that there was a couple of lost donkeys and his
31:45
father said go find the donkeys. And Saul would have definitely
31:50
been that his family would have most likely been wealthy because
31:53
they had, they had servants and they had donkeys and they had
31:56
all this, these animals. And, and it could have been very
31:59
easily, we know the Saul was head and shoulders taller than
32:02
everyone. He was, he was the oldest of his
32:06
of his brothers and of his family.
32:08
And it would have been really easy for him to, to go.
32:12
I'm too good to go do that. I, I don't need to go like I can
32:16
just send the servants. I don't have to go find a couple
32:18
donkeys. That's a very minuscule thing.
32:22
And but he did. And in doing that, he met
32:26
Samuel. He met in the prophecy was to
32:29
Samuel, a boy's going to come along looking for donkeys.
32:33
That's the one you're going to annoy to be king.
32:35
And and the moral of that story is, you know, so many people are
32:42
looking for their call to be king, but they don't want to do
32:45
the work of looking for the donkeys.
32:48
And I believe that God, God moves and elevates and people
32:55
who listen and and and do as he commands.
33:00
And he usually doesn't come like he didn't command us start meat
33:04
company. That's kind of that's going to
33:06
be the fastest growing in the US and it's going to do all these
33:09
great things like, you know, especially, you know, coming
33:11
from being a pastor and being a worship pastor and being the guy
33:13
who's again out of 15,000 member church.
33:16
Like I'm, you know, I've I've I've LED worship and multiple
33:19
arenas with 10s of thousands of people many times in my life.
33:24
And every week I was up in front of thousands of people into like
33:28
to to remove from that platform. And you know, there's nothing
33:32
sexy about starting a meat company like, I mean, and, but
33:38
to, to follow God's voice and go, OK, because again, I, I
33:43
thought that my, that our call was going to be eventually to
33:46
start a church. That's really what I thought we
33:48
were going to do. Like from.
33:50
Like the meat company would be a way to help start.
33:52
This yeah, I thought and the reason I would so back up a
33:56
little bit, the reason I was praying God give me something
33:58
else because I wanted to plant a church and I wanted to be able
34:02
to plant a church. And I thought that.
34:04
And so I was praying God give me something that we I can that I
34:07
can do to where I would I would because when you plant a church,
34:11
you have no money. And I thought, well, if I could
34:13
at least do something to make some money, then I could then I
34:18
would be able to plant a church. And and so God says start a meat
34:23
company and going into it, I fully thought we both fully
34:28
thought, OK, well, this is this is the means to the end,
34:30
especially when the first year was successful.
34:32
We're profitable, like, hey, OK, we're going to do this for a
34:34
year or two and then we'll go start a church.
34:37
But then we look up in 2020 and we realize, oh, this is what you
34:41
call this too. And, and now going into year 6
34:44
and we again, you don't know what you don't know.
34:48
And having only been in ministry my entire life, like that's all
34:52
I knew. But now I see, now I see a
34:55
complete other side of ministry through business and being a
34:59
Christian business owner where we have, we're able to provide
35:05
quality jobs. Well, not even, not even quality
35:07
jobs, but a quality place to work for people to come every
35:11
day and be able to provide an atmosphere that people enjoy
35:15
coming to. Like, that's a very rewarding
35:17
thing in of itself, but and able to, you know, be able to give
35:22
mothers. We had four babies born last
35:25
year, actually. I think it was, yeah.
35:28
And our employees, yeah. Yeah.
35:30
And to be able to give moms three months off, 6 months off
35:35
and in a lot of cases maternity leave, we give the dads I think
35:40
90 days paternity leave and we, we pay for half of everyone's
35:46
daycare up to six or seven years old to be able to provide those
35:48
things for families. That's that's a but you know,
35:52
those are the things we didn't even think of when we said, you
35:55
know, it hurts like no, start a meat company.
35:57
And you know, those are all things completely on the other
35:59
side of what we're doing to try to help American farms and
36:03
ranches and know where your food is coming from and all these
36:06
things. So there's a lot that
36:08
encompasses. I feel like I just said a whole
36:09
lot of things, but do you want to say anything about that?
36:13
You said a lot. That's great.
36:15
I would say going back to like our side of it, like in office,
36:18
it really is special because I remember the first few years,
36:21
I'd ask Ben, I'm like, OK, so when are we starting the church?
36:24
You know, you're called a ministry.
36:25
Like what are we doing this? And then I just had this like
36:28
epiphany moment one one night and I was like, oh, like, this
36:32
is our ministry. You know, we, we started just in
36:35
our living room. It was just us.
36:37
And then now it's grown. We have like 50 employees now
36:40
and they're so amazing. We love them so much and they
36:43
just love coming into the office and they're on mission.
36:45
And, you know, we have these people for 40 hours a week.
36:49
And for them to like, love coming to work like it's, I know
36:52
that it's, it's bettering us, but it's been bettering learning
36:55
their lives too. So yeah.
36:57
What are you, what are some of the tools that you guys use as
37:01
Christian business owners to guide your decision making?
37:06
You mentioned prayer earlier. I mean, it was really prayer
37:09
that inspired the whole company, it sounds like, like listening
37:13
to God. So yeah.
37:14
How do you how do you listen to God as a Christian business
37:18
owner? And then how do you navigate?
37:20
You know, there's a lot of tough things in business.
37:22
It's getting harder and harder it is, yeah.
37:25
I would say like anything that, you know, big corporate America
37:29
is doing, we are not doing right.
37:32
But no, it is. It's just like, you know, what
37:34
do these people need and how can we provide that in a godly way?
37:40
You know, how can we be good Christian leaders for them?
37:44
That's if like everything is through that filter, every
37:47
decision, every benefit, what else?
37:52
Foreseeing all of it. Yeah.
37:55
So we, we put, we put family first.
37:58
We, we've, we tell our employees regularly, they know this, that
38:04
this job is not the most important thing in your life.
38:07
Your family and your home is the most important thing in life.
38:10
Your family comes first. This job comes second.
38:13
Because at the end of the day, at some point this job won't be
38:18
this. At some point this job won't be
38:21
here, but your family will. And you have to prioritize your
38:24
family. And we try our best to, to live
38:26
by that and, and to model that, but also to allow that for, for
38:33
our employees as well. And, and, and we don't shy away
38:38
from our faith. We don't shy away that we're
38:40
Christian. I mean, we're not a Christian
38:42
business. Like I don't know if it's legal
38:45
to be that or not at pay much attention to HR.
38:49
But but every single I still meet, I'm the final interview
38:53
for every every person, whether they're customer service or
38:56
operations marketing or doesn't matter.
38:59
I still sit down with every single person before they're
39:02
hired. I want you know, when their
39:03
manager says I won't hire this person, I think they're great.
39:06
Then the final interview was with me.
39:08
Sometimes it's with both of us and we tell them, Hey, you can
39:12
believe anything you want and be here, but you have to know that
39:16
we are Christians. We believe in.
39:19
This is what we believe in. And there are times that there
39:24
are times that we will talk about our faith.
39:26
There are times that we will pray over the staff.
39:28
There are all times. And we just put that right out
39:30
in the open. And if that offends you, then
39:33
this isn't going to be the place that you're going to.
39:35
You're going to want to work again.
39:36
You can believe anything you want to believe and work here.
39:39
Just don't. Just don't let our beliefs
39:42
offend you or surprise you. I think that's rare
39:47
increasingly, you know, to have a successful business that's
39:51
growing, that is faith-based, but I think it's also the
39:54
future. I know that is, I mean,
39:56
basically any sponsor for the podcast, it's like, are you
40:00
aligned on the values? But pursuing excellence is just
40:04
obviously a product that's going to be amazing.
40:05
But it is the future because otherwise, I think the people
40:10
who The Who rule business and who are, you know, most
40:13
influential in business, they make huge impact on culture.
40:17
So it is a ministry what you guys are doing 100% both to
40:21
serve families with great meats. But then also to be culture
40:24
shapers and how you run the business.
40:26
Yeah. And another cool thing that we
40:28
get to do with this business is support organizations.
40:31
Like, like, absolutely. Oh my gosh.
40:33
I mean, I've always looked up to you for so long.
40:35
Like I've just admired you and the work you're doing with your
40:38
organization that's so huge. So like you and, you know, Ally
40:42
Stuckey and all the other, you know, pioneers out there, like
40:45
it's just really cool that we get to put our marketing spin
40:47
behind things and people that are, you know, aligning with our
40:52
values. And that's what we believe too.
40:54
So it's been awesome. Thank you.
40:56
Yeah. Any last words of encouragement
40:59
or, you know, for someone who's listening, who feels there's a
41:03
call on their life, maybe, maybe it's a business that they feel
41:06
inspired to start and they're kind of figuring out, should I
41:09
take the plunge? Is this something I should do?
41:11
Any advice for people that maybe feel calling to do something but
41:15
it's daunting? Yeah, I would say first and
41:17
foremost, obviously prayer and seeking God, but also having
41:21
like a really supportive community around you, friends,
41:24
family, whatever that looks like, spouse.
41:26
But as long as you know you have support, the road would be it
41:30
will be a lot easier. But doing it solo I feel like
41:33
would be hard to just, you know, getting people alongside you
41:36
that are supporting you and building you up is super
41:38
important. Yeah, my advice would be do it.
41:43
Spoken like a true entrepreneur. Just go because at the end of
41:47
the day, I mean, you, you don't do anything to plan to fail.
41:52
But if, if, if it doesn't work, then you're right back where you
41:58
were like and but the if it does work far outweighs the what if
42:06
it doesn't work and you just got it, You got to go.
42:09
You got to you. You got to take steps.
42:12
You just have to do it. There's never a good time to
42:14
have children. Well, yeah, you had four kids in
42:18
like 5 years while you're doing good ranchers, Yeah.
42:20
Yeah, right. But there's there's your, your
42:23
life is never like perfectly aligned.
42:26
OK, well, now we're going to have to like and they just bring
42:29
chaos right into the mix. But the same thing is, is, is
42:34
true. And again, for, for us, it was
42:37
start a meat company, OK. Like we didn't, we didn't take a
42:41
bunch of time figuring out how we're going to do it and, and do
42:44
all these things. We just jumped in and, and the
42:46
same thing was true with even getting online and which that's
42:51
our business has just catapulted since being online.
42:55
And because you only sell so much out of the back of a truck
42:58
in a parking lot. And, and, but, but even in that,
43:04
it's a very hard space to get into selling perishable items
43:09
and mailing them and doing it well.
43:12
But I remember in this was in 20 end of 2020 going to 2021.
43:18
And we've been working for months trying to figure out the
43:21
logistics of it. And finally, I, I told one of
43:25
the guy who that with the employee who was working on
43:28
trying to get that going, I said, just put me in a box and
43:32
start shipping it. We'll figure it out.
43:34
Because at some point, because it was like, well, we're going
43:36
to be another week. We're going to be another two
43:37
weeks. It's going to be another two
43:38
months. It's going to we just kept
43:39
running to that. And I said and finally.
43:40
Send it to me and. I was like I said, I said we
43:44
just got it. We just got to start doing it or
43:47
we're going to get left behind. And and I think the the same
43:51
thing is true with even starting.
43:53
You just have to do your homework, do your research.
43:57
I'm not like I'm, I'm, I, I hope to be a lifelong learner and I,
44:05
I read a quote one time that says love like you'll die
44:09
tomorrow, learn like you'll live forever.
44:12
And so I, I believe in, in learning and reading and
44:17
educating and continuing to do that.
44:19
So do that stuff. But some some things you have to
44:23
just jump in and start doing it and don't be afraid to fail.
44:28
What's the future of good ranchers?
44:32
Our 3 1/2 year old daughter running the whole thing.
44:37
As a 16 year old or something, she'll be CEO, I know.
44:41
She's bossy. She's no future is to continue
44:47
doing what we're doing. We're, you know, we, we know
44:50
we're on mission, you know, and by the way, so our mission is,
44:56
is to bring people to the table. And a lot of, you know, a lot of
45:01
great things happen around the table.
45:02
The Last Supper happened around a table.
45:04
And we believe that food brings people together.
45:07
We believe that food, it's, it's a, it's a fundamental human
45:11
need. You need air, you need water,
45:13
you need food. But beyond that, you also need
45:16
community. And COVID really taught us that
45:18
we need each other. We need community.
45:22
And that's what communion is. Jesus said this too, in
45:25
remembrance of me. When you take the bread, when
45:27
you shrink the drink, the wine, Remember Me.
45:31
And, and we know we've really, we've made, we've really
45:38
traditionalized communion and, and, but the reality of, of what
45:45
Jesus was saying was come around the table, eat food, drink wine,
45:52
but let me be the center, make sure that I'm the center.
45:54
This is my body, this is my blood and everything that you do
45:58
when you, when you have communion together, when you
46:00
have community together, remember my sacrifice, Remember
46:04
Me. And so we wholeheartedly know
46:09
that food brings people together and we want to provide quality
46:14
food for people. Honestly, we don't even want
46:16
them to really think about good ranchers.
46:19
We want them to just have access to good food when they get home
46:24
to make dinner and be able to get around the table and have
46:27
communion with their friends and their family.
46:30
Yeah, well, thank you for putting your faith to the test
46:35
and just going out and doing it. And we enjoy it and our at our
46:38
family table and I know a lot of our listeners do too.
46:41
And we're grateful to work with you guys.
46:43
It's been awesome. Yeah, keep it up.
46:46
Thank you. Thank you.
46:49
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Lila Rose
46:50
Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe.
46:53
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47:08
This is where you can get special updates, direct
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47:13
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