Wisdom, Work Mules, and Million Dollar Farms - The Briefcase and the Barn - Episode 12

October 9, 2024

0:00

[Music] hey guys welcome back to another episode of the briefcase in the

barn with me and

0:05

Gary um today's sponsor is Arbon thought I'd bring my stuff today

0:11

so if you're watching the video version of this every morning I grab two

scoops of my feel fit protein Arbon protein a

0:18

scoop of bwell super greens uh some collagen Builder and some

0:23

gut health every morning in a shake just with some ice and water and if you

want to feel better may help you physically

0:30

definitely will not help you mentally and emotionally that's probably true but

if you want to feel better physically if you're that care about that part it's

0:36

probably the easiest part to take care of um ironically it's so connected to

the emotional part of you and the mental

0:41

part that it's pretty wild that is true yeah I did notice that um it actually

reminds me of uh uh Jim Butler told me

0:49

this um he goes uh Martin Lloyd Jones who was a pastor in the UK yeah he

gets quoted at our church a lot okay so he's

0:55

a medical doctor first okay before he became a pastor and he always

asked when people came in uh to talk to him about

1:02

depression when he was a pastor uh first he'd be like uh what are you

eating what are you doing for exercise and how is

1:09

your sleep and those are also the first things you would always ask um

because yeah they are super related yeah some

1:15

Freedom sessions we have the halt scale right or fault scale the halt scale

hungry angry lonely and tired and like

1:20

are you dealing with those basic basic ways to help yourself obviously yes

often it goes much deeper but a lot of

1:27

people don't do those things anyways so on the physical side if you want to

feel better that's what I take every morning there's a link in the description

um of the

1:34

video if you want to try it or if you go to my social media there's links there

as well um and there's a discount if you buy through those links uh I think

it's

1:40

like 20% off or something so every morning I drink three to four cups of

black coffee and about 2 liters of water

1:46

by 10: a.m. the water's pretty good for you yeah so is the coffee Wide

Awake Wide Awake Wide Awake

1:52

how was your week Gary um good I'm forgetting what happened on the

weekend spent lots of

1:57

time how are you doing I should ask that how are you doing how am I doing

pretty well I uh on the real estate side I've

2:04

been really busy um eliminate that but I listed a very

2:09

big farm for 13 million a chicken farm it's good deal actually it's probably not

a lot of our Mark Target Market on

2:16

the podcast is looking for $13 million purchases but um for farming families

2:21

people that are looking to expand or people that are looking to have one

sibling or child or somebody whatever 13

2:27

million how does that cash flow it doesn't but no Farm ever does I mean

people that look well just not farming

2:32

like farming doesn't cash flow like farming is old money it's you know it's an

recommend any young guy to go into

2:39

farming if that's the case only if you love it you have you have to love it that

doesn't make a lot of sense

2:44

financially you obviously have to love right but what about if you you're

better off starting a farm is to scetch one then or like going to it doesn't

2:50

make a lot of sense there either honestly it really I would argue it makes

almost no more the only thing is is that proportionally the dollar

2:56

amounts are smaller because land is cheaper so you probably could start

with less Capital but I would argue that you

3:01

could start here on a very small scale setting up a roadside standing

growing produce or you know there's lots of ways

3:07

people always have an idea in their head of what something should be and

then that's their frame of reference it's like no you have to think outside the

3:13

box and for me I wanted to start farming and that dream came to fruition

through totally another venture where I was

3:19

selling piles of hay and then I went to Farm Credit just for like an operator

because I had no line of credit and okay

3:26

I want okay pause that a second there's a question no that's not a rabbit

chill it's perfect go this is a question that

How did Gary become successful

3:32

I got this week how did Gary become successful what's the success story if

he didn't really come for money well

3:39

first of all I would question whether I'm successful because what is the

definition of success I sure I sure would hope this is financially but it's

3:46

that wouldn't be successful but yeah um how did I start

3:53

farming I mean it's part of my whole journey of kind of like stopping doing

what I wanted and just kind of giving up

3:59

not trusting on my own and asking advice from people and I started selling

uh hay

4:06

by accident basically so I started off first just relief Milking for people on

dairy farms and chillock as a young guy

4:13

then I started unloading hay by the semi load I unloaded sometimes three

four S A Day for somebody else and then I got

4:19

sick of doing that or just working in that environment and I wanted to do my

own thing just kind of wanted a bit of Freedom so I went out on the limb

and it

4:26

was a dying business because basically in the late ' 90s to early 2000s to

2010 every single dairy farm was switching

4:32

from feeding small Bales like horse like you know you still see small Bales

but they were all switching from that to

4:37

huge bailes that you unload with the tractor so basically in 2006 or so I

4:42

bought hey elevators I literally maxed out my credit cards bought hay

elevators bought a pickup truck from a good friend

4:48

and put a rack on that truck and started unloading hay and like Henry flute

wag and a few other good guys gave me the

4:53

work which is awesome um and then okay so you would just do just like

you would just be I would just be the

5:00

do it myself right and you basic like it was good money like especially back

way more than you were making just as an

5:05

employee yeah but I mean I had the truck and the elevators and the debt

so I mean yeah it was more for sure especially

5:11

once I had that stuff paid off and then it started to kind of snowball I started

to have some other guys work for me and and but it was just a dying

business and

5:17

so then um there was a hay guy that got me into selling hey to One

customer he

5:22

let me deal with one customer cuz he was selling all big baales he let me

do the small Bales for One customer and it was

5:28

really interesting that we were on at the same place every time at Chapman

Stockyards one time I did not have

5:33

enough room to stuff all this product into the uh hay area and I was renting

a place from coan's on the other side of

5:39

the highway on actually on this road ironically and I just stuffed the hay in

there into some shed and I put it out on

5:44

Craigslist which ties into what last week's story about the Craigslist which

yeah we'll get you back to in a minute but anyway so I put an ad on

Craigslist

5:51

all these people came out and they're like oh you seem like a pretty friendly

fellow oh you know what your hay sucks but if you had nice hay I'd buy hay

5:57

from you right just your product sucks and so that got me thinking and I

was so

Connecting the dots

6:02

you were buying hay at that point from somebody I already was from one

one per one grower to one seller like not

6:08

connecting the dots that I could do this on a larger level I probably did that

for two years at least and never thought hey like I could sell to other like

just

6:14

not and I think that's most people's thing like it's just the the possibilities are

endless it's just

6:19

we're we're limited by our own mind mostly that's why coaching is so

powerful yeah okay because all your you're just getting challenged on your

6:25

beliefs and all all your options open up and you're like wow I could actually

do that and then sets in so fear would be the other thing that really holds

people

6:31

back right so for me it was like okay so I had a guy there again another

great guy Larry pool he helped me get my first

6:37

load of beautiful hay up and I still remember delivering it I remember

exactly where I took it one load I put

6:42

in the shed by where I lived sold it by the bail first just Craigslist right and

then Steve Johnson who's still partner

6:49

of mine today great guy he built a website a while after that and then he

6:54

ended up moving away and going to Haiti as a missionary and stuff but um

Dan slowick started working for me and then

6:59

the rest is history like Daniel delivered a lot of hay he and I at first and then

him with other people and sold

7:05

hay and then very shortly after so that was probably 2008 I started selling

hey like crazy 0920 Marie and I got married

7:12

and then 6 months later I went to Farm Credit and asked for like a line of

credit and they said oh based on your cash flow you can borrow quite a bit

7:18

money and I'm like can I use it for whatever I want and they're like yeah I

guess so and so I went to um I literally

7:24

pretty much drove straight to the milk Board office in abbottsford like I

Googled it and I'm like okay I always wanted to be be a Dairy Farmer my

dream

7:30

I was always told you will never be a Dairy Farmer if you're not born into a

dairy farm my dad's never touched a and at this time were you getting

advice

7:37

from people and like like my brother-in-law whim in particular has always

been a huge

7:42

supporter of mine very encouraging um back me financially at times lent

me money very gracious um and always yeah

7:51

just been a been a big support um and so espe so you drove through the

the milk Board office yeah especially in those

7:57

years he would have been my my main adviser say and yeah I mean he he

probably didn't think it made much sense

8:03

either he was willing to be like a partner help me but eventually they just let

me the entire amount and I went and

8:09

bought 13 cows 10 cows worth of quota or whatever how much that be

550,000 and that was in WoW 2010 and I bored every

8:15

single dollar I had no Farm lined up nothing and then some Dairy Farmer

8:21

excuse me some guy in abbottford heard about a farm and so 6 months

after we got married Mar and I moved to this

8:26

dumpy old place she had never even seen in the house we moved in there

and started milking our 10 cows I remember

8:31

our first milk pickup and I was literally living my childhood dream right and

uh 10 cows in a farm like that

8:37

that doesn't cash flow at all does it no no it never that's I guess that's where

I was that's where I point I had selling

8:43

hay like crazy oh okay oh yeah I was selling like probably every single year

from 2008 to 2014 my sales doubled every

8:50

single year okay like it was very exponential and then they've it's ironic

they've plateaued ever since then

8:55

they've never went above that number it's fascina is it that when you kind of

started not being as involved as you

Selling hay

9:01

were used to be no I just think that every person um like I actually talked to

uh Trevor th thonus as a business

9:08

coach he T I've talked to him about this it's like you know I forget the

percentage I think it's you know 1% or

9:13

oh no 4% of businesses in Canada hit a million in sales and then it's like

410

9:18

of 1% or something hit over go over 10 million like it's just very hard to get

over that number yeah and so um but

9:24

you've also shared with me that because you've done so many other things

that you don't put give as much attention to the h as you used to yeah and

that would

9:30

be very accurate so I still love selling hay I like the relationship piece of it

even today I was in my farm looking at hay that I brought in and I know it's

9:36

good value and it's priced right and it's like you know I enjoy that part of it

um but it's not like selling product is

9:44

not that fulfilling after a while it's still you know you mean yeah I know um

9:50

okay so you're so to 2014 that's you're like you're doubled every year and

so that that that's what you were using to

9:56

pay for the farm that's how I was subsidizing my farm my parents Co

signed for a loan in 2013 or so um so then I

10:05

like tripled the size of my Dairy I went to 40 cows okay so I I that million

yeah

10:12

yeah full million dollar loan at that point I think I probably owed 1.1 or 1.2 I

was paying down debt at the same time

10:17

I was buying quota to cash flow as well so I did have extra from the hay

side I was just funneling it straight into quota quota quota yeah and then in

2015

10:24

my in-laws their family like my my my mother-in-law and her extended her

her parents uh her mom and dad and then also

10:32

like her uh brother and sister-in-law were farming and they were retiring

and

10:38

so they sold me their quota in 2015 and that was 150 CS worth and so then

I and

10:44

my in-law cosigned for that loan okay and then at that same time a year

later I had already owned a house in town that

10:51

I had owned since I was 19 I sold that house in 2015 like the same year as

I bought all that quota and I used that as

10:57

a down payment to buy a Farm in Manitoba with my cousin so all those

things just

11:02

cuz all this time you didn't actually own any of the farms you just you were

renting the Farms no that was the first Farm I owned and I never actually

owned

11:08

my own Farm here until 2019 okay we bought a farm in Greendale so in

2018 I sold the farm in Manitoba I used all

11:14

that money to buy the farm in green okay and that's where all your car

cows are no I sold that in 2020 okay because cuz

11:20

somebody wanted to buy it okay and there when I when somebody wants

to buy something I sell it when someone wants to sell something I buy it

those are the

11:26

two best times to do a deal that's fair that is that is don't fight the current

don't fight the current okay so then um

Selling cows

11:35

okay so those and those loans and then the the paying off these loans that

came from the hyale yeah hell sell cows a lot

11:42

of cows like and in the dairy industry in 2016 17 and 18 there was 25%

growth over those three years which in the

11:48

dairy is not normal but basically what we did as Dairy Farmers is we agreed

to sell more milk for less money and

11:54

through that we got a whack of extra growth in the market and um so for

someone like me I was selling milk cows

11:59

bringing them in from the US and all over just buying and selling locally um

wait wait wait so along with the farming

12:05

and the cot of you doing you also buying and selling cows huge part of my

business probably like in 2017 18 I'd

12:11

sell 2,000 cows a year and they all flowed through that little 40 cow Farm

okay and that and that was just just

12:17

opportunity you can you knew you could buy Buy For Less sell for more

yeah I basically you know it's the old addage right buy buy by the mile cell

by the

12:23

inch I mean I'd buy 40 cows at a time somebody would come in pick out

two they pick out the exact two that they wanted

12:29

and that that's been really really good to me I've never made I never started

keeping track this is embarrassing until

12:35

2020 I never kept track of how much money I made in cows and the reason

I say I never kept track is because everything just went in the same

account

12:40

and many entrepreneurs I'm finding as I'm getting older are doing that they

they might have three different income streams they actually have no real C

12:47

they might think so but they couldn't tell you what they're making on one on

one specific piece and so for me my goal

12:53

in the last three years you know there's a saying that our accountant has in

their office you know that which is trackable is obtainable it's like you

12:59

know you don't know what you're doing if you're not tracking it so so Kelvin

who runs my Dairy he has been tracking to

13:05

the dollar how much we make on C so mon that's actually true for

everything that's like also true for like spiritual

13:10

disciplines or I'm actually having David Mattis on the podcast who wrote um

uh the book uh habits of Grace I'm going to

13:18

go okay I've heard of that book yeah and so uh but yeah I mean you track

you track your habits you track what you're doing uh you're going to be able

to look

13:25

at the data and see you know for what it actually is it's like it's honesty

again right it's like facing the truth yeah

13:30

facing the truth yeah so most people don't track because they deep down

know that it may not be as great as they

13:35

think it is and so they just leave it alone and it is a lot of work I would say

there is some level of work uh the M the beautiful thing is when you do start

13:41

to record things you Journal you keep track of things I think you probably

you just start to be way more intentional in

13:47

life you start to really be more self-aware and yeah some people don't want

to be self-aware but if you do that's probably a great way to do it

13:53

yeah okay it ties uh um into something I got this week so this week I got um

one

13:59

of the guys I'm working with wrote a journal and I got permission from him

to uh to share this part of the

Working like a mule

14:04

journal um this is what he said I struggle a bit with the balance of being

14:10

of it being drilled into our culture that we need to work like mules to be good

people and on the flip side of

14:15

being a good person as the Bible teaches us to be helping others share the

go helping others sharing the gospel

14:22

providing for the less fortunate being a faithful dad husband and all the

things and making disciples out of it out of my

14:27

family I feel like it's easier to get pulled into overworking and having to push

myself towards these other things

14:33

that are actually more important and I thought as I read that I

14:39

was like this is like most guys I know uh you know we have this idea that

14:46

if you're working super hard working like a mual like putting in tons of hours

making money that's like that gets

14:52

praised in our culture like that's almost like a um something you you know

you're proud about it's an idol yeah um

15:00

but then the the other side is like you know realizing okay there's other

responsibilities but that doesn't you

15:05

know you don't get the accolades for that no you don't get pats on the back

at home for changing diapers you do 20

15:11

years later though if you consistently do it and you have a good relationship

with your son yeah or even just your wife I mean my wife's super

appreciative

15:16

when I'm helpful um what do you think about that that's why I don't like the

question

15:21

that was asked because whoever's asking that is looking at me in a certain

way which probably isn't that healthy like or you know they're not looking at

15:29

you know they're not thinking okay like who's who's sacrificing right I mean

so who if you look back at you know since

15:35

2008 in our early years of marriage often I would start work at 4:00 or 5 in

the morning and come home at 10: at

15:40

night like literally just come home at 9:00 or 10 at night and then she would

say like hey if we have a family like you can't live like this this is not

15:45

going to work well it didn't work then either like if I I already have regrets of

my early years of marriage like can

15:51

you push really hard yeah but you still have to have some levels of

boundaries you have to realize that like it will

15:56

never be enough right there's the old saying how much is enough just a

little bit more like that's a fact for everybody it does not matter how wealthy

16:02

you are and I mean it probably doesn't come across as well from someone

like me who's who's relatively well off but even

16:09

people that don't are barely getting by like the level of contentment it's not

coming from that stuff right you obviously got to be able to feed your

16:14

family and pay your bills but um I think that the the area where I've

struggled is kind of always in in my life has been

16:21

hey do I go what does Ministry look like or should I be more doing that or

what no like we're supposed to work with our

16:27

giftings and so if mine is an Entre R preneurial thing or I'm able to do this

hey that's what I got to do right and I should be able to do that and and I

mean

16:34

Bill booster shared about it really well well not and it should be be able to

be a part of it the and should be the work

16:40

yeah yeah he just he articulated it better than I am but just the idea of of uh

being even in his own company right

16:46

just being generous being caring for employees and all that I think I think a

big part of it is like your values if

16:52

you don't have your values you know you're not clear on what you want the

data again of what you actually believe

16:58

that you know I believe that my family is more important than my work you

know if you don't if you're not clear on that

Being an entrepreneur

17:04

or it hasn't been modeled to you or something like that then you're going to

go off of your feelings and what feels better and naturally we're going to go

17:10

to things that serve us more than serve the people around us I do feel like

an entrepreneur and this is where there

17:15

needs to be probably a lot of communication especially in a relationship but

like for me the early

17:21

years and I granted some people just are probably very blessed and

become successful and Wealthy very quick in a

17:26

business I mean it wouldn't have been healthy for me if that happened

happened um most people can handle failure way better than you can

actually handle

17:32

success um and definitely more characters what you mean that people can

handle failure better than they can handle success most men can't handle

17:39

success that well right most people will tend to become proud most people

tend to become want more money not become more

17:44

generous when they get wealthy most people will become thinking they're

doing it when they you know or be cling

17:50

tighter to their stuff right like yeah that's not all people I don't I'm not I'm not

paint brushing I'm just saying that

17:56

like in really really hard times like I noticed it when we had the flood on our

farm in 21 like people's amazing there's

18:04

a few stories of bad stories but most people like were just amazing and

most people their character Shan way brighter

18:10

like people that I didn't even know had the helping Spirit were just like

showing up with food meal like meals and just was humbling right and so I

think I

18:17

think the idea of everybody wanting to be successful whatever our North

American culture is is probably not right at the same time there's people

18:23

that are called to be extremely business oriented entrepreneurial driven

18:29

and they have to use their giftings whatever that looks like right so the

challeng not at the expense of their

18:34

family but I but where I was going with that is in the early seasons of a

business there is going to be some

18:39

sacrifice on the part of family most likely that's acceptable I think it is I I

think it'd be a Utopia to think that

18:45

people that built amazing things over the centuries to think oh they could

have just toned her down a little bit and been successful I mean I don't

know

18:52

I would struggle with that I don't have a Biblical reference for why I'm

justifying that right now I just feel like I I'm saying I did way too far I'm

19:00

just saying there people that are building businesses their life is not going

to look like the person that works for them they just never are the person

19:06

that's building something is wearing a weight and responsibility that an

employee will never fully understand unless they go do it themselves yeah

19:13

weight and responsibility I I can fully accept and understand and time like

there's just going to be crap that you

19:19

have to deal with that in opportune times there's going to be families

holidays that are not going to look the same as the person who leaves their

19:24

phone at home and doesn't have to deal with anything for a week right

yeah I guess I just I I think that you know

19:30

like that people can just run away with that I have I've Justified all kinds of

horrible things so I'm probably not the

19:35

one to give a lecture on it but but on the money thing that's interesting you

said that how you think that um failure is easier to handle than success I

read

19:41

this quote from Spurgeon this week it's a little bit longer but he says it is

very difficult for a man to have much

Charles Spurgeon

19:47

money running through his hands without it some of it sticking it is very

sticky stuff and once it sticks to the hands

19:53

they are not clean in the sight of the Lord unless a man is able to use

money without abusing it except acting it as a

19:59

talent lent to him and not as a treasure given to him it will soon happen the

more money he has the more troubles he

20:05

will have Charles Spurgeon okay well I don't want to I don't want to put your

a Spurgeon quote but one of my sayings

20:11

that I always use is money's like honey the more you play with it the more it

sticks to you there we

20:18

go I think SP you would approve oh dear but I think with money too like I

think

20:24

Randy Dyke said in his in his podcast he became really successful in one

area and he right away started assuming was going to be really smart in all

these other

20:30

areas just got educated yeah and money does that right you start making a

lot of money you start you know thinking you have power and um I mean

also who cares

20:38

like I think that most people fear failure too much in the sense of like even if

you do fall flat on your face

20:43

like at least you did it most people are just standing in the sidelines pointing

fingers being critical and never like you know the man in the is it the man in

20:50

the what's the quote from the was it a president that said it or said what oh

it's the man in the in the ring quote

20:57

have you not heard it man ring yeah anyways we'll find it for next yeah it's a

good quote it's one of my favorite

21:02

quote just proverbial ring it's about the man that's actually in the ring

fighting taking okay okay I'm probably

21:09

using the WR term somebody's listening to this just short circuiting because

I don't know what I'm talking about but anyways okay okay well good

answer uh I

21:18

enjoy that proverb of the week weedone the series of uh fruits of the spirit

so we have to think of a new series so if

Proverbs 456

21:24

you have an Adas guys send them in okay proverb of the week uh proverbs

four five and six the wise are mightier than

21:31

the strong and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger so don't

go to war without wise guidance Victory depends on

21:38

having many many advisers ties in nicely to my

21:43

conversation earlier yes the last verse many advisors I think the many

advisor

21:49

thing is is huge I mean I I uh but not many advisers to finally find someone

21:54

who agrees with what you already wanted to do yes a lot of people do that

they just keep running around in circles so they find some Bozo that agrees

with

22:00

their horrible idea so go if you get three pretty wise people the first people

all kind of look at you and people aren't blunt enough in today's

22:06

day and age either we don't want to offend people but if people are looking

at you quizzically or kind of questioning things that's probably a

22:12

sign that they're not like whereas if people say hey that's a great idea yeah

that would be affirmation right if they're questioning you don't take that

22:18

as oh they just have a few concerns that's probably a polite Canadians way

of saying hey you're a fool don't move

22:23

forward with that right exactly but for me it's been like my gift like having

very very wise guys that have done

22:29

really well and just yeah and and being honest with me they'll just blow it

right out of the water that's a stupid idea Gary why would you do that that's

22:36

just not not smart right and I know that they care about me and when you

have trust or relationship with someone where you know they care about

you you should

22:42

be able to take a hard word from them and not be too offended so and be

open to it in the first place I mean there's lots of you know good coaches or

mentors

22:49

out there got people in the church and stuff like that that you know are more

than willing to sit down with you and and uh and hear your business out or

22:56

whatever you're doing and stuff like that and and and speak into you but

yeah you got to be willing to change and

23:01

that's people don't want to do that yeah how long are we at now I always

wonder how long we we are at 24 minutes at says

23:07

that too long for you well lots of people say they like the podcast because

it's short half hour well I mean

23:12

compared to the other ones they're like two hours right so oh I see

compared to your others yeah yeah those are those are the long for ones I

want to do a

23:18

quick plug here for U Big Brothers Big Sisters so I went there um to their

um SE and social fundraiser last week and

Big Brothers Big Sisters

23:25

so Big Brothers Big Sisters is an organization that uh um finds kids in in the

area that um are in need of you know

23:33

some sort of mentor guy or girl generally below 15 years old I think I don't

know exactly it's like um how old

23:40

do you need to be to be a big brother uh just an adult adult yeah an adult

yeah and so they are looking for people to

23:46

spend one um hour a week with these kids for a year and just to menture

them go do something with them it's not a lot of

23:51

time but they're looking especially for guys and there's a huge huge need

and so uh I know everyone's really busy but if

23:57

you're listening to this and you feel convicted super important like at least

go and like

24:03

investigate and and be open to the idea of meeting or pH call give a phone

call who would you talk to there is there a

24:08

person there that's kind of in charge of the program the big that the the

connecting of the um brothers and little

24:14

brother be people Big Brothers Big Sisters are all over the all over the US

and Canada and so wherever you're listening I think just go to Google your

24:20

local chapter and and and and they're all over yeah reach out online but

there there's just a huge need and you can have like a really really big

impact on

24:27

someone's life and and uh uh and yeah they're just there a huge need so I

did a similar thing not uh not identical but

24:33

well it was restorative justice is the same Mantra of kind of you were the

24:39

person that was the the the the offender yeah yeah well initially first I went

through as an offender okay and then I

24:46

went through as a facilitator well first a mentor and then a facilitator okay

who was your who was your Mentor when you

24:51

were in it don't remember oh so he didn't was very good wasn't very good

well I basically got sentenced to uh

24:57

community service hours did I tell you the story already that I was working

at the bingo hall in rosale no this is when they stilled smoking there I hung

out

25:03

with all the old ladies that were playing bingo on Saturday night smoking I

was in my I was it was awesome I just

25:08

chain smok cigarettes with them got them new dabbers learned a whole

new skill set Bingo anyways that was in a long

25:16

time ago but then I went through as I got older I what did that have to do

with restorative justice cuz that's in restorative justice you basically rather

25:23

than like go to jail eventually that had to happen too but the uh it was a

process C where you would go through as

25:29

an offender and you would sit in a circle with all the people that were

involved in the crime whatever it was major minor if it was shoplifting it'd

25:35

be the store owner um you know it could be whatever any type of business

that was vandalized it would be all the

25:41

people that were affected and um and then you would everybody would get

to share about how it affected them how it

25:47

felt pretty powerful experience um and then eventually there would be

some type of solution hey what what would what

25:53

would restoration look like in this case right and uh sometimes pretty

serious right I mean people that were assaulted

25:59

physically assaulted you'd have the kids parents everybody there this this

one you had stole something at the bingo hall no I I me and my buddy L A

Canada

26:06

Post mailbox on fire on Halloween in the early 2000s and there was a

police officer right behind us and uh because

26:13

we it was it's actually a federal offence to tamper with mail I didn't know that

until I got pulled over but

26:19

anyways reminds me if they do that in Holland at at New Year's they they

weld them all shut cuz those they all be gone

26:25

the fireworks they blow up all the mailboxes anyway great program Big

Brothers Big Sisters great program as well we'll check it out look it up okay

26:34

um got another cost of living question this is a question that come in from a

listener okay

Buying a House with Family

26:40

Pete uh okay here we go because of cost of living how do you start a

partnership and buy a house

26:46

together um with your kid so let's say you're you know 50s and 60s

whatever

26:52

else like that and you want to buy a house for your kid help your kid yeah

help your kid buy a house how do you do that um let's say you're doing let's

say

26:58

you're in your 50s now and you buy the house and then you're like let's say

you die in your 60s like what happens then I

27:04

don't agree I have two people that are trying to do this right now somebody

came over last night and ran it by me about buying a house with a sibling

and

27:10

then I had another client who's talking about buying a house with family and

I really disagree with it as a general

27:15

rule I mean there again I'm paint brushing there's probably situations where

it's fine I would be way more

27:21

inclined for you to just co-sign for a loan and have them buy something for

way less money um I think there's a bit of a

27:28

there again I don't know this person situation but there's a lot of people that

tend to feel like Hey we're entitled to own a house in the big

27:34

backyard it's like no we're becoming an urban center and similar to if you

lived in Vancouver the last 40 years like no

27:39

buy person's buying their firsttime home on the west side on a 8,000 foot lot

right like they're just buying like an

27:45

apartment in the sky and it's I'm not saying it has to be that here but unless

housing prices crash a lot which I think

27:51

they're going to correct a lot but I don't think they're going to crash they're

going to crack a lot um the uh to me it would make a lot more

27:59

sense to help to help your kid get into a place that they can actually afford

they can do on their own because the

28:04

problem is Independence is a beautiful thing it teaches so many things that

you'll never

28:10

learn when you do something with a parent right so yeah like a little nudge

or a bit of help or a co-sign or help with a bit of a down payment but to like

28:16

be 40 60 partner and I've I can I could write a book on the amount of messy

relationships that come from business

28:23

Partnerships and there again there's people that do it well my experience

personally and just watching ing others

28:28

has been it's a horrible idea as a general rule there again I mean there are

families and people that have so you

28:33

don't go into Partnerships anymore or you just really care no I'm married to

my wife and that's it and that's enough like that's my modotto like it's that's

28:40

enough like I and there again that's not true I I have one business partner

but he and I were we yeah my wife says we're

28:47

more married than he her and I are but it's BS but like there's a you'd rather

sit with him on the couch we definitely

28:53

have more to talk about bad joke yeah you're going to I'm going to

28:59

get skewered no I uh I digress even that has its challenges we've had

sticky

29:04

moments we've had awkward conversations and I just think it's totally fine

and it's you know there again we that's a SE

29:11

separate business that neither of us needs anything out of we we do it we

have the same vision it's totally fine

29:17

however it plays out neither of us care yeah but most business and

relationships aren't like that and the thing is this

29:24

is what where it really gets sticky when you have a father with a kid the

father has more wealth they have other kids

29:29

typically that they need to help out they're in the there's a power and

balance there Power Balance the kids

29:36

along for the ride and you know just if you're going to help them actually

help them and let them be independent and figure out do their thing right

unless

29:42

you actually think they're a fool and they need a lot of guidance or or

maybe they just really are terrified and you need to that's part of you

coaching them

29:48

but there's something beautiful of independent so I me personally if in

chilak a person had to decide between

29:53

hey my son and daughter-in-law I'm just using that as an example are

going to buy the first place I'd Rather they live in a two-bedroom apartment

for 350,000

30:01

that they can barely afford on their own rather than helping them buy a

$650,000 town house that Mom and Dad own 3ars of

30:08

because the loss needs to be theirs if there's a loss if there's an equity

decrease and if there's a gain let them

30:13

take the whole gain and like it starts to get messy who gets what or move

to Saskatchewan I was just talking to my brother-in-law uh and this morning

and

Real Estate in the Prairies

30:20

he he bought a place last year you know I think it's like 45 minutes or an

hour north of Saskatoon for 80 grand the

30:25

middle of nowhere for 80 grand middle of and it will always be worth 80

grand I just bought no I just bought a

30:31

commercial property uh in qual and we paid the same money less money

40,000

30:36

less than than it sold for in 2007 like well do like that's like that's fine

30:41

it's fine if you don't care about the yeah if you just want somewhere to live

totally and I would argue that anywhere in the in the Prairies will always be

30:47

like that because they don't have the ALR like in BC we have the

agricultural land reserve and like and I'm going to get skewed here now too

for talking

30:54

about you know taking out Farmland but there's pieces in chillak I don't

care how the Farmland is like just

30:59

strategically as a city we need to decide that some of this land needs to be

you know into housing and kind of the

31:05

city did the city get to decide that no it was the BC government made it in

1972 who who who regulates the ALR well the

31:11

alc does they call L land commission and they are the most powerful like

there's nobody you're not appealing to the alc

31:17

when they make a decision the premier can't even no no they appoint

people that are on the alc and so depending on

31:24

the the government like now we're going to have a conservative

government which there's probably people a little more Pro business and

maybe a little less

31:29

safe but it won't matter I mean the in our Province whether you're

conservative or or or left leaning or whatever your

31:35

political B is I mean people feel very strongly about local Agriculture and I

do too like really strongly I just feel

31:42

like Canada's a big country and when we have urban areas where we

decide hey

31:47

this is the most the nicest climate to live in and this is where people want to

live like as much as possible we should

31:52

allow that and the worst part is back to the agricultural land Reserve there

are lots and lots of pieces in our area in

31:58

chillac that I know in particular that are totally never going to be Farmland

like they're horrible chunks of Farmland

32:03

but we don't have any subjective wise people that say Hey this guy get the

biggest reason that the land doesn't

32:09

come out is because they don't want people to become instant Millionaires

and that's what happens right so you picture somebody that owns a 30 acre

32:15

piece of land right now it's worth 3 million bucks all of a sudden it's going to

be worth 9 million bucks or 12 million no why don't they want that cuz

32:22

they don't like people getting rich people are jealous they think oh why

should someone else get rich easy there's literally that petty of reasons

32:27

that people it's almost like it's almost like people are sinners it's almost like

people are sinners all the time everywhere doesn't

32:32

matter where he bleed sin yeah but anyway so that the AL the ALR has

been

32:37

around for a long time and there have been very contro controversial

pieces that have been taken out and there's

32:42

gray area pieces like where molsen Kors is in chillac like we're all going to

agree that that piece is not being used

32:48

for farming it's got a massive factory pounding out beer every day but it's

agricultural right like it's taking

32:53

wheat and other agricultural products and turning it into beverage

32:58

okay I was with the partnership did I answer the question yeah I think you

did yeah pretty strongly too strongly

33:04

probably but but if someone does want to go with partnership anyway how

do they do who would they talk wise counsel they're going to talk to an

accountant

33:09

they're going to talk to a lawyer and they're going to talk to somebody that

knows both parties that can speak truth

33:14

to both of them and give them the pros and the cons and most people don't

do that they sit in a table they have no idea how to move forward and one

of them

33:21

agrees to something that they shouldn't agree to and it's usually the person

that is in the power uh yes

33:28

yeah yeah yeah Power IM balances and so how do you do that in a

company because this happens often in companies where oh I'll tell you

right now in a company you

33:34

are just you're hooched like the president calls shots yeah but I mean

Protecting Yourself

33:39

but like so but if you're the president of a company business owner you

want of course you want to well-run business you want to do well for your

employees stuff

33:45

that you want to put yourself in a position where you can get called out uh if

you're doing something offside at least but maybe not your own employees

33:51

but at least by somebody else like how do you how do you protect yourself

because it's not good to be surrounded by yes men like you want good

advisors

33:57

good advisers are not yes man I think there's a swath of people that

probably want to be challenged but even me if I

34:02

had to be really honest with you I struggle with that it stings it stings and

and I'm a

34:08

control freak so I'd like to do it my way but yeah ideally you have some

people in your life that and I and I have that with close friends I have guys

34:14

that will say no that's just not smart or be think big picture or just like why

are you you know why are you treating

34:20

that guy that know and I've seen it enough where people have quit in other

businesses and I'm like oh wait a minute I'm kind of doing that yeah I'm and

34:26

have lost people right it's just like no you got to yeah people don't generally

quit because of money like they do

34:32

sometimes and young people might for sure because young people tend to

think grass screen on the other side but somebody who's 35 40 years old if

they

34:38

leave they're leaving because of a seismic shift in their either how they feel

about the business or they're looking for something different anyways

34:44

we're turning this into a long episode and I I can feel the criticism coming

uh we got overtime yet you

34:50

shouldn't yeah you shouldn't worry about it um you uh mentioned the story

last week of the hay and Craigslist you refer

34:57

in the start of the podcast you were going to say something about it yeah I

have to set the record straight a few people thought that I posted it in the

35:03

casual encounter section on purpose oh not true okay that's clearly air on

that

35:08

if you were wondering f. no somebody was wondering they were basically

accusing me well I did put it in the title so

35:15

casual encounters I thought that would be a good good grab not that

people watch for the title but people even know what casual encounters are

uh Nicole

35:22

asked she was like like what kind of casual encounter how casual was it

very cas

35:28

I was sweating profusely covered in here this is terrible okay we're going to

35:34

we're going to go in overtime you're doing a book giveaway again over time

so if you want to support the show I mean

35:40

you'll see the extro right now yeah so you guys and the cool thing is you

have to say what the book is right so you

35:45

don't get to say how anyways you got to watch the overtime what book

you're giving away it's one of my favorite books though it

35:51

is really good yeah anyways okay see you guys next week thanks again for

listening to another episode of the briefcase in the barn as always really

35:58

appreciate it like comment subscribe share it with social media any of that

stuff it helps a lot also if you you

36:04

like the content and you're benefiting from it and uh would mind supporting

the show patreon.com curiously curious I'll put a

36:10

link in the description as well or you can find that link in any of my social

media bios you also get access to

36:15

tim

pis

ain

r lis

nin

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