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- [00:03]
Weston Hendricks
Welcome to season four of Empower youw and I'm your host, Weston Hendricks. And I developed this platform alongside my team with the objective of aiding to your interests as an individual in the livestock industry. Our goal is to empower you while gaining insights and trust and consuming it from some of the most significant people in our industry. With that said, a new episode is released every Friday with a sneak peek available on social media platforms a day prior to. So as usual, thank you for tuning in and enjoy the episode. Here's to empowering you. All right, we are live. This is going to be episode eight of Empower you for season four. I'm thoroughly excited. These are two individuals. You've seen sneak peeks. You know the title Case Laro and Kelton Poe. They are no secret to the livestock judging industry. They've been phenomenal in their career and what they've done so far. They've been a tremendous impact to a lot of people and I'm very pleased to have them on as a team. They've always been on a team. Blend Tech friends. And so they've been become fairly good friends to me, Luke as well. And then we got a special guest, Mr. Ian Moss. He's a friend of mine and teammate at Blim College. He's going to be our camaraderie of the episode today. But Luke's been gone for last three episodes. He's been running and gunning smoking tops and trying to dial in hind legs. He ain't very good at it, but I'm gonna let him figure out what he's gonna say. He's gonna give you a little update and then we're get the episode started.
- [01:33]
Luke
Oh yeah. It's good to be back on. Like Weston said, I've been running around the past two weeks. I've been at Bringas and Simmental Junior national. So just been tough to get it all working together. Just being gone and not home and not having all the right stuff to make it all work. But good to be back home and good to be back on. So I'm ready.
- [01:49]
Weston Hendricks
Sweet. Sweet. Well, boys, what I want you all to do is introduce yourselves to the listeners, let them get to know you a little bit and then after that we'll start diving into questions.
- [02:00]
Case Laro
Perfect.
- [02:01]
Kelton Poe
I can go ahead and get us started. Yeah, thanks. Thanks again guys for having us on. I know Kelton and I are certainly excited. Fun to do it with a good friend. My name is Case Larow. Originally from just outside of Waco, Texas. Grew up showing cattle, showing some pigs as well, when I got out of high school, went to Blinn College. Judged for two years under Quest Adrian, and at the time, Clayton transferred up here to Texas Tech along with Kelton. Judge for Schuyler on a good team here, and then I'm currently getting my masters at Texas Tech and helping coach the judging team. Awesome.
- [02:39]
Weston Hendricks
What about you, Kelton?
- [02:41]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, absolutely.
- [02:42]
Case Laro
We'll follow up with that with what Case had said. Appreciate you guys taking time out of Yalls Day and getting us on. I know it's a. A good opportunity for, you know, all of us to sit back and talk to one another, but also spread a little bit of information on our end because I know you guys are kind of in a similar spot to what we were a few years back. But for those that don't know me, my name is Kelton Poe. I grew up in a town called Needville, Texas, about 45 minutes southwest of Houston. Grew up there all my life, and after high school, were transferred on to Blinn College for two years and judge under question, Adrian and Clayton Schramm. And after that, attended Tech alongside Case as well. Once I wrapped up there with a degree in animal science, I hired on at Texas Farm Beer Insurance, and I'm currently selling insurance for all of Bell County, Texas. Awesome. Awesome.
- [03:35]
Weston Hendricks
Well, real quick, something I forgot, Ian. Just introduce yourself so the listeners get hear your voice and get to know you a little bit.
- [03:43]
Luke
Well, yeah, there ain't much interesting about me to say.
- [03:45]
Weston Hendricks
I'm from Louisiana, go to Bland, and.
- [03:48]
Kelton Poe
I'm part of the judging team, but I'm glad to be on.
- [03:52]
Weston Hendricks
Sweet.
- [03:53]
Luke
Well, good.
- [03:53]
Weston Hendricks
All right, well, Case and Kelton, y' all been tight for quite some time now, and from what I've noticed, I'd like to know how you boys met at the start and maybe what y' all did to set yourselves up for success going into your juco collegiate career.
- [04:07]
Case Laro
Yeah, for sure. You know, I'll say this, or me and Case kind of finally hooked up and, you know, became friends. Was close to.
- [04:18]
Kelton Poe
Pretty.
- [04:19]
Case Laro
Pretty close to start of our freshman year, I want to say just a bunch of those judging contests that are all across. I mean, I know you guys that are from Texas and maybe the boys from Louisiana, y' all know too well about all those county fair contests that'll pop up in the fall. And then we'll have, you know, Heart of Texas State Fair, Aggie Fest, some of the bigger ones at the tail end of it. But then everything gets cranked up again for those major shows. So running around, doing Those. I think it's where we met for the most part. And from just kind of talking to one another whenever we were able to attend those, to, you know, being able to talk on the phone message back and forth, things kind of obviously developed to a much closer relationship between him and I to where senior year pops around. And I know him and I were very, very close in cahoots on talking back and forth of kind of what our plan was. And ultimately, I know there was a day that came where Quest gave us both the call about offering us, you know, scholarship to come judge at blinn. And we ultimately made a phone call and talked back and forth about what was the best decision for both of us, and that's where it came out. So, you know, we've been. We've been close for quite some time, and that's kind of where it all kicked off for sure.
- [05:37]
Kelton Poe
Yeah. Yeah. Just to piggyback off what Kelton said, to answer probably the second part of your question, Kelton probably didn't allude to it. He was on a really good high school team. The time I think him and I met, he would have been. It would have been him and Miles Hoxtad, who judged at A and M. Ty Thomas, who judged at A and M. Hunter Bean also judged at A and M. I mean, those guys were really touted in Texas FFA high school judging. They kind of punched their ticket to some national contest. And so my FFA team probably wasn't as good. And so I liked being around those guys. I felt like I learned from them, especially from Kelton's dad, Michael, and just setting me up for kind of understanding what junior college is going to be like. And so whenever Kelton and I, we actually not only took our blinn visit together, we took our SBC visit together as well. So we certainly made the rounds as time has gone on.
- [06:31]
Luke
Sweet. Sweet. So now that we're talking about some of the old blinn college days, we heard a little bit of little stories and videos down the grapevine. Kate seemed like you tried to be a rapper, and Kelton was trying to become a professional fortnite gamer. But regardless of all this, Yalls teams was marked as one of the most memorable. So what was Yalls mindset at Blend and what did y' all take away from this?
- [06:55]
Kelton Poe
Well, I certainly appreciate you airing out probably some of my. My dirty laundry from way back in the day. And I'm. I was actually talking to Quest the other day. He's like, yeah, I love all the kids Getting back to hell week because I get to play your video. I was like, oh, good. You know, that's. That's awesome. And so, man, it was fun. The time that we had at Blinn, it was. I'm not going to lie to you guys, it was posed with some challenge. We would have been affected our senior high school and then our freshman year at Blinn by Covid. And so we didn't probably get as traditional of a route to collegiate judging as what a lot of students have. Because the fall of your freshman year, you get to go to contests like Dallas, Flint Hills, you know, you get to go to two or three, kind of get your feet wet, figure out what it's like. And we never got that. And so we were probably just a little bit slower. I know some of our teammates were probably just a little bit greener on coming around, but, man, once. Once it clicked, it was. It was. It was pretty special. We won San Antonio and Houston, our last two contests of the year. It was a pretty slow on ramp to get to that point, but certainly a lot of memories to be made.
- [08:14]
Case Laro
Well, yeah, I mean, to kind of fall back on the discussion of, you know, kind of bringing out dirty laundry. You can take the boy out of wake up, but you can't take the wake out of the boy, right? No, it's. It was a funny deal that, you know, we had our own little things that we like to do whenever we had time at the. At the dorms and took our mind off of judging, but kind of being able to set ourselves up for success was, I think, a big testament to. To was our coaches. Right. I know you guys have had time to spend a bunch with Quest and Adrian, maybe not so much with Shram, but those three were big and influential and making sure that we stayed on task. We were able to keep up during the downtime. You know, I mean, obviously with COVID being that year in 2020, we weren't blessed with the opportunity to go maybe hit up a few contests like a few of our contemporaries were at other colleges. So we took that time being able to sit down, work amongst each other, but also have the opportunity to go to a few workouts, whether it's 30 minutes down the road or two hours. You know, we've packed up our bags. We just kind of definitely relished the time to have the opportunity to get where we wanted. And I think it's kind of what set us up to be not so far behind whenever it came around at the corner of those contests. For our sophomore year, because I think all we had was what? Patriot, San Antonio and Dixie. I want to say.
- [09:43]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Blue Dragon.
- [09:45]
Case Laro
That's right. The Blue Dragon trip. You can't forget about it. But those four contests were some of the only ones we were able to hit up that spring. And after that, we hit the ground running early in the summer, early in the later part of summer to catch up for Bears show. So I think we could always chalk it up to them, you know, keeping our. Keeping us busy, keeping our minds on the game and opposed to letting us kind of sit down with some time away from everything where we definitely could have been. We were busy bodies for sure.
- [10:15]
Weston Hendricks
What was Blue Dragon?
- [10:16]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, man. So kind of I was thinking, Weston, whenever you sent that slate of questions, like, what are some funny stories that I have from Blend? So like I said before, COVID kind of knocked us out of the fall. We re racked for the spring. We go to Patriot in San Antonio. And so I'm telling you guys, like, we had John Reeves, Will Spicer, Kevin Yendrish, like, Kevin Yendrish up until junior college had never left the state of Texas, like, period, ever. Like, he had never. Like, we crossed the Red river on our Blue Dragon trip. And he goes, wow, Like, I've never left Texas. And I was like, oh, yeah, like you've never went to, you know, major stock show. He's like, no, no, I've period. I've never left the, you know, Texas boundaries. And so we were very green, to say the least. And so we go up to the Blue Dragon, which is hosted, where they have the Flint Hills contest. And I guess maybe my memory is slipping me just a little bit. I don't remember the contest being too absurdly difficult. Like, I remember navigating through the 12 classes, like, feeling good. It was freezing cold that day. Like, it was raining and kind of sleeting. And we gave our reasons, like, at the old racetrack that you guys. Yeah, yeah, you guys probably did this year.
- [11:37]
Weston Hendricks
That had to suck.
- [11:39]
Kelton Poe
Yeah. So it was like, I remember, like, shaking, you know, giving. Giving my sets with my teeth chattering and stuff. And so, like, as you guys will know, Flint Hills and the Blue Dragon is a little bit different of a contest because your coaches, they don't do, like, an official critique, so your coaches will get your drop sheets before you come out. And so I remember, like, I just got done with my eight set. That was the first contest we gave eight sets. Like, I was what I felt was exhausted and drained. I'm getting out of the contest. And I walk up class, Clayton and Adrian are all standing right there, and they're like, they just posed the question, you know, well, how did you think you did? And I was probably just a little bit ignorant, but I was like, man, I felt like I had a good day, like probably 20 or 30. And they all kind of like side eye each other. And Clayton, I don't know how well you guys know Clayton. Clayton was funny. He just starts, like chuckling under his breath. He's like, hey, buddy, try 75 points. You drop 75 points. And I just remember, like, literally thinking my life had ended. And I, like, hung my head and I was like, oh, my gosh, I cost it for my teammates, you know? So I get on the band and all my teammates, like, have their heads down too. And I'm like, they must have told them that Laro was out 75. Like, it was soul crushing. And so I sit down next to Kelton and he's like, well, how'd you fare? And like, almost with tears welling up in my eyes, I was like, man, dude, I dropped 75. I'm so sorry. He goes 75.
- [13:15]
Case Laro
Dude, that's.
- [13:16]
Kelton Poe
That's a pretty good day. Considering when all of us around, I think. I think we ranged probably from. I think our low drop was 55. I think our high drop. I think. I think Spicer. I hope he doesn't get mad for saying this. I think Spicer brought up the rear, dropping up 155 points. And so, needless to say, it was. It was a long awards banquet for sure. It was so bad, in fact, Quest did not let us see the results. Oh, God. Yeah. That tells you where we started.
- [13:49]
Case Laro
Another thing I'll throw onto that. Spicer, buddy, I love you. Don't get mad if you hear it, but after the 155 day, the days following that, we had a few workouts on the way back down to Texas, and Spicer woke up that morning and he said, you know what? I'm gonna have a better, better feel for this and I'm going to change my attitude. His attitude wasn't, I'm going to get classes just striped, right? He said, I'm going to have my road to 500 and our. Our long four day trek. He said, I may drop 500 points, but I'm going to get better. But a good trip. It was cold. I remember walking back to Quest and Adrian and I think I was one of the first ones. And I said, and they asked same question, how do you Knew how do you think you did? Thought I did well. And kind of falling back on what Case said I was a bit overzealous of like 20, 35, probably the, the back, back end of that if it, if at all. And Quest kind of stops and ponders for a second and he goes, all right, we'll change this.
- [14:49]
Kelton Poe
You want to hear the good news.
- [14:50]
Case Laro
Or the bad news? I said, okay, hit me with the good news first. He said he dropped 68 points and that's the second best in the team. And I said, second best on the team. And he said I just put it all together. You just dropped 68 points. I said, okay, whatever. So I, I went, I went back in the bus kind of same way that Case alluded to it. Everybody's heads are hanging. I'm kind of asking, you know, who died, you know, Right. And everybody's looking up at me. We had maybe five of the 15 or so kids on our team in the single digits of drop and the rest were cranked up for 100 plus. So that's one of the best memories from our freshman year was ending our judging freshman and career off that contest. And to make matters worse, guys, we had, like I said, four days back, hit up a few workouts and after drawing all that out the day after, I remember waking up at 7:30 and I was sick to my stomach and there was a long, long morning and a pretty quick and Pacey drive the urgent care in Sealy to take care of my dehydration and food poisoning. So that's another fun story to the mix of it. But yeah, Blue Dragon was a good time. I wish they would take y' all there just so y' all can get the memories right.
- [16:11]
Weston Hendricks
Right.
- [16:12]
Luke
Interesting.
- [16:13]
Weston Hendricks
Sounds like good time.
- [16:14]
Luke
No, I'd rather not go because I.
- [16:16]
Kelton Poe
Already tend to drop a lot at.
- [16:17]
Luke
Every contest so I'd probably set the.
- [16:19]
Kelton Poe
Record for the most drop.
- [16:23]
Weston Hendricks
So maybe you boys can give us some upcoming sophomores some advice on the process and maybe what it takes to be at the top this year. I mean, judging as a is a mentally challenging competition. Maybe tell us how to maintain that drive and want and grit for this upcoming sophomore year. Because it's big. I mean, we started off just giving six sets this year.
- [16:45]
Case Laro
Yeah, absolutely.
- [16:46]
Weston Hendricks
And now we're going to an added two sets and bigger, bolder and a lot more challenging competitions as well.
- [16:54]
Case Laro
No doubt, no doubt. I'll tell you this, the one thing that I, I know we'll talk about it a little bit more. The stuff that I Think about a bunch. Whenever I look at, you know, my time at Blinn, man, I wish I could have turned the tide in a few areas, you know, like as we got to tech and kind of where my judging career took off from the point of fall 2022 to where it ended, you know, things kind of got to where I wanted to set the standard for what I wanted to achieve whenever I started that journey in 2020. 2020, you know.
- [17:28]
Kelton Poe
Right.
- [17:29]
Case Laro
So the one thing I always take from it is I wish I was able to step back and probably provide the same amount of mental maturity I would have had at university. Man, I. I took so many things to heart. Few things got under my skin a little bit too easily, and I tried to kind of correct those a little bit more than probably what I need to be. And. And it was more or less, let's try to make a big impact, a big change, a big difference right off the bat. Off to making maybe one small mistake. So to focus more on cleaning up the small stuff.
- [18:01]
Kelton Poe
Right.
- [18:02]
Case Laro
I think that would have transpired into a lot more success there. So, you know, opposed to maybe sitting there and saying, for you guys, I definitely know that, you know, y' all ranging right now from anywhere from 18, 19, maybe even 20 years old, I know that was one of the parts that I definitely wish I could take a step back and correct. Because I think whenever I finally got over that lingering issue for myself of, like, taking too much to heart and not focusing on correcting the small things and it wouldn't be an issue later down the road, I think I definitely could have set myself up for a much more positive experience, especially off the. Off the bat, because I know you guys are getting prepared for that. And it's from the word to go, you got bear show. And it keeps on rocking all the way to Louisville and doesn't seem to stop. I know whenever we were going that year, it felt like we have, what, four and a half days of free days whenever it started, from the beginning of school all the way to Christmas break. So that's the one thing I'll always fall back and say, guys, is take time out of your day to focus on the small things. And how do you correct that? If it's a bad day, it's not going to be a bad week unless you make it. It's not going to be a bad month unless you make it. You focus on the small things, you cle up and you keep on trucking.
- [19:23]
Kelton Poe
Yeah. To piggyback off what Kelton said, I Think what I. I think what I wish I understood better going into my sophomore year is that it's a. It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. Right. You guys have. Unlike senior college, which is kind of the sphere I'm in now, where you kind of judge for four months and everybody goes away for summer, and then you come back and judge for three months. I mean, it's nine straight months. You know, put. Putting the. The rubber to the road, you know, hitting it hard. You guys are going to contest after contest. And I think sometimes it can get really challenging to stay fresh, and not just when it pertains to judging or your reasons. Right. But just stay fresh and stay sharp mentally, I think can be a challenge. I know that there was times, my sophomore year, you know, to Kelton's point, of the four days off in the fall stretch, and this is gonna sound like I read it on Tumblr or a fortune cookie. I think the way that you approach judging is by a heart full of gratitude, right? Understanding that you're in a position where every day you get to load up on a bus with your very best friends in the whole world. You guys are all conjoined by the same mindset. You think the same things. You guys are driven by the same, you know, purpose and passions. That's a really neat environment to operate in. You know, I know now, not too far out of it, but two or three years out of it since my judging career has closed, I really miss the time of maybe not even judging or not even work out in specific, but traveling in the van, going, you know, going up and down the road, getting to talk with Kelton or Kevin or in senior college, Jake and Colin, you know, about bulls. We liked. What do we think about the guilt that, you know, just talking about things we might not have even understood, but we were passionate about it. And I think there are some times where you can probably get caught up a little bit in the results. And this sounds like a real philosopher, and I promise I'm not trying to be. You can get really caught up in the results and how your team did, you know, hey, I hate to break it to you boys, there's yet to be a junior college team going defeated. You know, likely you guys at some point this year are going to hit a wall and understand that the results don't necessarily make the experience. Right? The people make the experience. And so go to practice, go to the van, you know, get in your hotel room every night and just really, just be thankful for the opportunity that you have to share and bond with your teammates and have that experience.
- [22:06]
Luke
Yeah, I think that's a definitely great advice. So now what I want to know, I'm going to keep it somewhat on the same page. So like, I know judging is a big team effort. It's how it's not always about how you do individually. It's more of how your team works together and all competes and does that exact day. So like with being with such a tight knit group and staying with the same kids so long, I feel like the groups can always at some point feel like they get drama or can split apart. Like now that you've been through teams and had a real strong knit group and also now some coaching, how do you all keep a team close and together and still fighting, working together?
- [22:40]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, it helps if you grew up with some siblings, right? I related judging very closely to family. Right. So now you're in a space and in a sphere where you have 10, 15, maybe even 20 siblings that you got to get along with. And naturally there's going to be some people that get along better than others. Like I know Kelton and Ross on my senior college team. I was really close with those guys. Like, you can almost start to see little clicks form, I think, whenever you're approaching your teammates. Like for instance, right? Let's say you guys go and compete in a contest and you three boys are high individual, third overall and eighth overall. And there's one of your teammates that had a bad day, right. And they cost you guys the contest, right. They're 80th individually. I think it's easy, right, in human nature to start to point fingers and maybe adjust blame on whose fault it was and even inevitably if it was that person's fault. I think knowing and understanding and coming from a place of grace is really important. And know that that person was not trying to deliberately go out there and lose you guys the contest. Right. That he or she put forth their best effort that day and maybe it just didn't click. Right. So understand that hopefully, right. In good nature and in good spirit, that your teammates are rooting for you just as much as you're rooting for them. Right. My dad growing up always used to tell me something that I've never really forgot. There's a difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. A growth mindset talks a lot about if Case loses or if Weston wins, then Case loses. Right. And vice versa. That's a really fixed mindset, right. That Is that is saying, like, hey, there's not enough pieces for the. Of the pie to go around. You know, I think really when it comes to judging teams, what we try and implement at tech and what was what it was like on my blend team and the tech team that I was on was really understanding in a growth mindset. Right. That your win can also be my win. Right. And all boats can rise. And so really rooting, I think, for your teammates. Not like, hey, I really, I want to win this contest, but I want my buddy to be second. No, I mean, I think if you have the maturity to go, hey, if Kelton wins and I'm seventh, hey, we're still probably going to win the contest as a team. And that's what's important. Right? And that's tough. That's tough because the world around us is telling us all about how important personal success is and that. That it's all about you. And it's all about you. I think the reason that I love judging and part of the reason why I'm still in it, Is it still one of the true team sports that we have?
- [25:20]
Case Laro
Yeah, guys, look, the one thing I will say is why me, case and a few of the other guys that were at blinn were such a tightly knit group. So I think we had a good standing relationship. If judging for one day just disappeared. We did things outside of judging that were able to bolster that to where it was, you know, just second nature. Obviously, you know, with six of the guys on our team, four of us lived all together in one dorm. But, you know, John and Fritz would always be in our room to where we'd always hang out from sun up to sundown, you know, so some activities that we would have done around Blinn. I know there was a basketball court about less than a mile away. We would always be out there. There used to be. And I don't know if it's still there. I don't know if you guys still go to it, but there's a. A wiffle ball field that's kind of a small, little bitty replica of what Fenway park is. But I know that was one of the things as a sophomore year that we went out and did a whole bunch. So just things that we found outside of judging was able to continuously build that relationship to where if it all one way, one day there was still no question about it, we were still going to be really good friends. Because you can't avoid that, you know, that, you know, there's no way you can avoid a little bit of adversity, a little bit of push come to shove in a full two year tenure. Whenever there's 15 to 20 you guys living under the same roof, it just happens. And it's. Sometimes it's some big ordeal, sometimes it's not anything to even scoff at. You know, I certainly think that's the one thing that we did a good job of. Whether it was, you know, somebody said something to make somebody upset or you know, we forgot about you and xyz. My big thing was we were able to talk about it, maybe reason back and forth, maybe get a few more people into the mix to talk about where they would done this and what they could have done there. And after a few minutes of bickering, everything was all fine. I know that was probably some of the best stuff I remember was we were so close to where we would put our heads down, we work our tail off, we come back from a trip and we'd sit back and after all of it, no matter how Maddie were at one another or somebody else that wasn't in the room, we would hash out then. And then we go back to, you know, chopping it up about whatever needs to be talked about. So that's my thing, man. I, I think although you can avoid adversity, you can't avoid that, especially in the spot that you're in. Whenever you're living at the dorms. I think making sure you're taking time out of your day and dealing with your teammates and your family. Building a relationship that could stand without being on a livestock edging team is very key.
- [28:02]
Weston Hendricks
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- [29:50]
Luke
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- [30:22]
Weston Hendricks
In addition to breeding competitive show cattle, Reed Vessel Ranch's team is dedicated to offering a full range of services for show preparation, from clipping and fitting to feed management and expert show assistance. RVR ensures that their clients are fully supported throughout the entire process.
- [30:38]
Luke
For more information about Reed Vessel Ranches, including their private treaty cattle, SARS donors and upcoming sales, visit their website@reedvesel ranches.com.
- [30:49]
Weston Hendricks
But if you're looking for proven club calf sires, then stay tuned in at Hartman Show Cattle.
- [30:54]
Luke
They believe and stand by the saying, in order to predict the future, you must create it. Which is one of the reasons why they have become so profound in terms of promoting their bulls and show progeny.
- [31:05]
Weston Hendricks
They have focused on promoting bulls that are backed by pedigrees, knowing that their cow families have a proven track record and their cow families and legacy is what helps ensure predictability and consistency when using their bulls on your cows.
- [31:19]
Luke
Speaking of promoting bulls, have you heard of Pure Reflection? Well, if you have, you've noticed many of his high sellers and contenders in big ring settings. He speaks for himself and is only DS positive.
- [31:31]
Weston Hendricks
And when I say he speaks for himself, he sired the next promo bull named Born to Win and he's a TH&DS carrier. And the Dame herself has produced over 175,000 in 2024 on just six head.
- [31:45]
Luke
But if you're looking for no genetic defects that's built into a gray hided bull named Return on Investment. This triple clean bulls damage also produced the grand champion steer at Denver in 2024.
- [31:56]
Weston Hendricks
If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to reach out to Aaron Hartman himself at 502-655-8323. Yes, sir. Yeah. And something I'm a tack onto that is something that me and Luke had discussed about. I think it was yesterday or maybe it was this morning, saying like, that there's like a fine line in competition between you're pushing your teammates to be better and then essentially throwing them under the bus to make yourself look better. How do you stay on the right side of that line? Like, what do you. What do you all think? What is something that maybe y' all did to prevent that?
- [32:30]
Kelton Poe
Huh? That's a. That's a really, really good question. It's funny, I was just recently back home with my family. So just a little backstory. I did not come. I did not come from ag. So when I go home, I go home to a neighborhood, right? And my family, my mom and my dad and my four siblings and their husbands and wives, I mean, we're all kind of jammed into one house. And so we do a lot of game nights, right? And I get very competitive. And dad, you know, dad pulled me over to the side. He's like, you know, son, like, competitiveness doesn't have to ruin relationships. Now, I thought that was a good point. And I watched the Michael Jordan documentary when his teammates are talking about in practice, you know, Jordan used to trash talk. You know, his teammates didn't like him because he tried to get the very best out of them. And so I don't know if. I don't know if that's really the position that or the route that you want to take. You don't want to try and push your teammates to the point of, hey, they're going to operate or they're going to compete, because actually it's born out of a place of them disliking you and wanting to beat you, right? That's not. That's not really the encouragement. That's not really the way that, you know, we tried to do it. I think reminding your teammates, right, of their potential, of who they are, that that's never wrong. I don't mean to put Kelton on the spot here, but it was at Louisville when we were in junior college, where none of us had done very well, and Clayton had just said something to Kelton along the lines of, man, you were unbeatable in high school, right? Where is that? And I think it reminded Kelton a little bit of, hey, this is the potential that I do have, right? And so I think pushing your teammates to do more is actually vital for the success of good judging teams. But I think doing it out of a place of encouragement, right? And not derailment and not. And not discounting or discrediting that person, right? Like, man, you suck. You know, oh, don't put Weston on a market goat class. You know, words like that and phrases like that that are actually demeaning and demoting to the other person, I think straying away from those things is. Is the best for everybody. But more so actually reminding your teammate like, hey, man, you've done this. You've been here, you have succeeded, right? In moments of pressure, they can actually think back to those times of the words that you said to them and find comfort in them, and then they can operate and execute.
- [35:03]
Case Laro
Well, yeah, for sure. Guys, I think it's paramount to be pushing your teammates, pushing your friends to be a bit better at times, because it's a marathon. There's plenty of times that you're on your highs and you're on your lows as well. So I think it's always big that no matter what your friends, your teammates, your family is going through, it's very, very key to be a strong influence and almost like a beacon to bring them back to a much more positive influence. Because, like you say, you know, there's times where, you know, pushing your teammates could go wrong and. And they get a bit frustrated with you. But, you know, you definitely would not. You definitely wouldn't do that if you didn't care. Right? You definitely just would stray away from it if you didn't care about their success, because their success is your success. And once y' all are able to win together, I think that's kind of what the biggest thing for a team could. I think it's the most important thing for a team, honestly. I know. Whatever we want. San Antonio, our sophomore year. It all. It all kind of came together finally for us. And that was probably the thing that said, hey, this all paid off finally. You know, forget all the ins and outs of, you know, a troubling trip there or not getting what we wanted out of this particular contest. Whenever that happened for us, it was like, man, those late nights of us sitting in the. In our dorms, of us going through a set and us critiquing it to the point where it was like, hey, this is. This wasn't worth even coming in here. Made it all worth it. It was. Made all the, you know, accuracy sets and us being put on the spot to tell them, hey, what would you change here? And giving them a eulogy and making them almost feel dumb, but not intending that to be what's true, that's what made it all worth it, man.
- [36:56]
Luke
That's, that's awesome. So before we kind of switch it up and start talking on some other topics, I know like us living all together in the dorms and everything, we've had some fantastic times, great memories. We always kind of like to look back and think about it and I know we talked about it a ton. So is there any favorite memories or top memories, like even off judging that y' all make? I know we have a lot even that's related to judging whatsoever.
- [37:19]
Case Laro
There's so many, man. I'll say this. On the judging side of things, there's no question that if you were to put a pinpoint on what my, what our favorite judging memory was, there's no question winning Houston, our last contest to go in there, it was, it was that by some margin. But it's the little things for me, man. I, I opposed to those contests and the success, whether we won, we got fifth, we got whatever happened that given day, that's in the back of my mind. But the stuff that I think about and I have to chuckle more times than anything, you know, something that easily pop up for me is, is I'll never forget whenever we had our trip to bear show me personally, I, I felt like I went to the ringer and I didn't even know if a hog had four legs at that point in time. Whenever we were going through that trip from front and back, I was almost inverting every class and I just had my hands in my head at times about how bad things were. And then we roll back into our dorms and our room is very much out of place and disorganized to keep it very lightly. That's stuff I'll remember. I'll remember Kevin, you know, Case, what I talked about earlier. Kevin, Ginger, she good buddy of ours and a roommate for both those years. I remember Kevin and Case having a full blown MMA fight upstairs in 623. You know, I'll remember the, the small things like sitting there on the, the Xbox and having, you know, our board of quotes. Scott Brock, the, the was NCAA 14 SMU dynasty. You know, real ones will know about what I'm talking about there. My 20th birthday, the track record of Putting doors out of service. And the last night we were there, that. That's the stuff that I'll remember the most, guys.
- [38:59]
Kelton Poe
Yep. Yeah, I'll throw alter.
- [39:02]
Case Laro
I'll throw one in.
- [39:03]
Kelton Poe
I'll throw. I'll throw in. A singular memory that I have. I remember a day after practice, kind of being tired. I was probably the most frequent napper of our dorm. And so I just went down to probably rest my eyes. And Fritz. Fritz is now a licensed auctioneer. Man, he's a funny guy. He was. He was wanting to go eat or something like that. Maybe hit up the dairy bar. And I always locked my door when I was taking a nap because I didn't want anybody messing with me. Fritz full blown ran and kicked a hole through my door and unlocked it. Like had reached his arm through the hole. He had just kicked in and unlocked it, opened the door. I thought I was getting mugged. And sure enough, it was Fritz in the doorway. And he just goes, hey, bug, you want to go get some dairy bar? Just as if nothing had happened. And so, yeah, certainly kind of get into some. Into some goofy times.
- [39:58]
Weston Hendricks
That's awesome. I don't think. I don't think it could be worse than 614's door situation.
- [40:04]
Luke
Yeah, I think the doors in the Blend park apartments are very strong.
- [40:08]
Case Laro
Hey, that day where Fritz kicked things down, it was bad. He would have walked up there and he asked me and Spicer, he goes, you think I can kick this door down and make it to where it doesn't break it? The bad thing about it. The bad thing about it was a year ago, before this had happened. A good buddy of ours and it was a sophomore, as we were freshmen, Lucas Martin was a master at it. You lock yourself out of your room, he would be able to kick your door open and no questions asked. You would have to call the RA or anything. Fritz thought he would be able to replicate that, and it just wasn't able to work.
- [40:40]
Weston Hendricks
That's awesome. That's awesome. So you're at the end or. Well, I guess. No, I say that. Start a sophomore year, you're starting to think about what's next senior college wise. I'd like to know. Transferring to senior college, was it exciting? Was it scary and maybe run us through that process of what it was like?
- [41:02]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, it was. It was for sure. I mean, there's a. That's kind of a loaded question. There's a lot of parts to it. We'll start with, like actually leaving Blinn, you know, the. The array of Emotions that you feel. You know, it's terribly sad. It was, it was sad to leave for. You know, I refer to six guys, right? There was me, Kelton, John, Fritz, Spicer and Kevin, and still some of my very dearest friends to this day. But John, Kevin, Spicer and Fritz, they were going to A and M and Kelton and I were going to attack. And so, man, just terribly sad. You know, I'm not afraid to admit that there was probably some, some, some tears shed over the whole deal. And, And I think in your mind, you question, like, man, junior college was the time of my life. Like, is senior college going to be able to live up to that? And so you kind of live with that angst throughout the summer, you know, kind of. I relate it back to like, when you, when you leave high school, you know, and all your buddies, you're like, man, it won't get any better than this. Well, it always does, right? I mean, that's the way that life goes. And so I remember getting up to Tech and it was like, hey, my nervousness kind of shifted to excitement. You're in a bigger city, you're at a real university. There's a lot more people. There's buzz, there's things to do, there's football games, you know, so even while you're kind of wrestling probably with the grief of leaving your junior college teammates, you're kind of met with this excitement of new opportunity. And really, you don't do any judging the first semester that you're in senior college. And so it was a great melting pot to meet all my new teammates, because that's kind of a weird dynamic too, is a lot of people that you are competing against now become your teammates. And so it's kind of hard to shift out of the mindset of, hey, I used to go to contests wanting to beat this group of people to now, like, hey, we got to work together to beat other people, right? So, you know, Jake Dawson, Colin Welper, Cash Orton, Madeline Adams, you know, that's, that's just to name a few. Ross Winger was here. And so it's a fun time to probably build new friendships and get the ball rolling. And then you kind of get re nervous. Right. And there's almost like a pecking order that has to be established on your winter workout and Griswold trip.
- [43:20]
Case Laro
Yeah, I'll say it whenever it boiled down to a decision for me and actually to swing back on and talk about the first part of your question.
- [43:29]
Kelton Poe
Sure.
- [43:29]
Case Laro
It was scary. You know, I'll Tell you this come from, I come from a family that's, you know, a long, long list of Aggie graduates, right? They're a bunch of my family went to A and M and for the majority of my life that was something that I was like, hey, I'm probably going into an A and M, just kind of be one of these. It's going to be second nature ultimately. But I remember a day that I was up in Lubbock been me and Kevin would have went for those that weekend where they have all those deer sales. And I remember going to grab a water from the ice chest at mims place and Dr. Ryan Rasmon came up to me and he said, hey man, how are you? I know Ryan for a good while, we had a good conversation. He said, listen, whenever all this stuff slows down next year, I know you're have a lot of contests coming up, but I want you to come up here and visit. So that was always in the back of my mind and saying, okay, you know, what am I going to think about living in Lubbock? What am I, what is my family going to think about that? You know, there's a lot of things that you come to mind whenever that decisions make. It's a big one. You know, you're going to dedicate another two years of your life and it's after that it's the real world. So definitely a big decision for all you guys to make, no matter where your destination is. To kind of give you a little bit of an insight on how it got to that point. I, I followed up on that word from, from Brian and that December I would have made my visit to, to Tech. And when I got there early morning, we went out to the beef center and then went back to the, went to the main department and just kind of viewed a few more things, the meat lab, some of the upstairs stuff. It was a good time. I'll tell you this. My visit with Tech was about a 10 out of 10 in my opinion. I don't know what I change about it. I mean, I love the campus, I love the department, I love getting to speak with Ryan and some of our advisors. And I remember whenever I was sat down at lunch with Ryan and my parents, we got talking and Ryan was saying, hey, I want to set some expectations for you coming here. You know, obviously we're going to work hard, we're going to try to do the winning. But you know, the big thing about it is I want to prepare you for what's to come after this and I want to be able to sculpt you and your. Your peers to be better men and women whenever this is all wrapped up. I think that was very impactful for me. And then to put a cherry on the top, he said, look, I'm probably not going to be coaching your team every day in and day out, but your team is going to have the opportunity of having Skyler Scott and come from Kansas State, and he's going to be the one that coaches you guys. So whenever I heard that, on top of everything, by the time we were done with that visit, I was at Ryan's place looking at his heifers for his daughters. I left that. I left the. The barn saying, hey, man, I'm not going to, you know, call it right now because I wanted to visit everywhere else, but there's a very, very good chance I'm going to be in Lubbock next year. So I gave my word there, took my visit to A M. And A M was. Was a good visit. I enjoyed that. And if the cards were a bit different and I ended up having to go to Texas A M, you bet I'd be pumped to be there. But it was kind of just a feel that when I got to Tech, from the visit to whenever I left, it was embedded in my mind, like that's where I wanted to go. So that gave me a lot more comfort whenever I got that visit out of the way. Because, you know, one thing that that Case and Spicer would have said back at Blend, whenever that decision is being made and people and everybody was doing this about where to go, what do we do? What do we judge at A M? Where do we go if we don't go to A M? I think both those boys would have. Would have mentioned, like, hey, if it gets down to it, flip a coin. If it lands on what you don't want, then you know your answer. So that never became one thing for me because whenever I thought about, you know, should I go to A and M, it was always embedded Tech, tech, tech. So I was very happy the decision I made and looking back is for sure the right decision for me.
- [47:15]
Luke
Sweet.
- [47:16]
Case Laro
I like.
- [47:16]
Luke
I like where this is going. So I want to almost go a little more in depth, I guess, kind of on the recruitment process, like, in itself. So I know, like, me personally, I know Weston and Ian, I'm sure, have thought about it as well. I know we've talked about it. How do we need to go about as ending our sophomore year? Honestly, now, going into our sophomore year for after Going into senior college, do we need to be more. So reaching out to colleges and talking with coaches and like, when is the correct time to do that? And also kind of set up tours and visits and kind of get everything going far in the future?
- [47:47]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, that's a good question. So not only have have I been recruited, but now I'm sitting on the side of recruiting alongside of Skyler. And so I can tell you guys how. How we kind of do things up here. Please, please, please. I cannot stress this enough. Do not be afraid to reach out to Skyler, whatever senior college coach you're maybe wanting to take a visit. I think what junior college kids maybe don't understand is how busy a senior college coach's life is, right? So a lot of times they're actually, they're employed by the university, obviously, to teach class, to be a professor. You know, they have a lot of things on their plate. And so a lot of times it's tough to get around and do a full recruiting poll on every contestant in junior college, Right? So don't be afraid to reach out. Probably send them an email or a text if you have their phone number. Just, you know, hey, whenever is available, you know, for you, I'd love to come up and tour and take a look around. That is. That is probably the best way to go about it. Now, there are certainly going to be coaches that call you guys, right? And that's a huge honor, what I can tell you guys. And maybe what differs. Skyler and I talk about this oftentimes, like junior college, you really pick the coach that you trust to. To build you, to continue to refine your talent, right. To really kind of hit the ground running. Senior college is a little bit different, right, because you're so established in your judging career at that point that you really pick a place in the people in that town that you want to be with. Right? And so that's probably where they differ just a little bit because, you know, everybody that's going to be recruited, right? And so you want to pick your teammates and the people that you want to be, you know, and the coach is still important. Like a big decision while I went to Tech was for Skyler. I really wanted to judge for him, but I know I'm getting off on a little bit of a tangent. Don't be afraid to reach out. Don't be offended if a coach doesn't reach out to you. Understand that there are people too. They have a very busy life a lot of times, wife and children as well. And so It's a hectic world. Feel free to call or reach out and schedule a visit at any time.
- [50:08]
Luke
Sweet.
- [50:08]
Case Laro
Yeah, exactly. And Cases had a little more, you know, time doing that on the, on the back half of that being the one that's recruiting under Skyler. My advice is very much the same. Reach out, make sure you're doing that and taking the diligence out of your time to get in contact with, you know, whatever coach you want to, whatever university and just, you know, just say, hey, you know, I'm so and so just want to reach out. And if there's a time coming up, whenever things start to slow down, I sure like to come out and visit. Whenever you have some availability, just let me know. Kind of something like that. Because like K said, so. So busy. And like I mentioned earlier, I mean, we only have four days of downtime in our fall. Now. Think about that on the coach side of things, I mean, they got the same schedule and they're doing planning, they're doing stuff for the university because it's their job. And on top of that, they've probably got family and kids and a lot more endeavors they're doing with a lot more trips around the sun than you. So the big thing about that is taking time out of your day and setting it up to where they at least know who you are, you're reaching out to them. And like Case said, don't get offended if they don't reach out. I mean, it's not like this is football and you're talking about big endorsement deals and having 24, seven sports put you on a star rating. It's not one of those deals that is on a recruiting basis. It's make sure that you're doing the diligence to reaching out to those coaches and they'll find you. You know, and that's like Case said, you're so refined and you're so, you know, you're so put together. Now on your judging career, off the things that you've learned in the past two years, from the time you maybe not set a singular set of reasons to, you're at your tip top shape come that march of your sophomore campaign. After that, it's, you know, the, the important things. Where do I want to see myself for a university setting for the next two years? Who do I want to be around? You know, where do I. Where's one of the things that make the most impact on me as a man or a woman to, you know, for the next 50 years of my life? Does that make Sense.
- [52:06]
Luke
Yeah, for sure.
- [52:08]
Weston Hendricks
What I. So now we're at a point where you're at your first six months of senior college. And case you'd mentioned, you know, those first, first semester, first six months, you're not doing much judging. I'd like you to, to run me through that process with there being new town, new coach, possibly new goal, you know, what is it like, what, what do us as people now going into a season like that need to be prepared for?
- [52:35]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, man, just be prepared for a lot of fun. As much fun as I had judging, nothing might be quite as memorable as, you know, your first six months at big kids school, as we refer to it as, you know, just in general sense. Like I would probably be remiss if I didn't say this, you know, make sure you're going to class. Senior college classes are a lot more difficult than junior college. Right? You're not taking all of them online and it's not Intro to English, right. You know, you have Ryan's breeding and genetics class. You know, you really have to go and pay attention. I mean, I can tell you guys, like I remember not really studying for my first nutrition exam and I just kind of walked in there because I was so used to blend, like, oh dude, it's going to be like the question you're like, what color is this and what letter comes after E in the Alphabet? You know, and man, dude, I made like a 35 or a 40, you know, right out of the gate. And so make sure you're going to class, make sure you're studying, understand that classes are a little bit harder. But what, I mean what, what Skyler and I really tried and encouraged is like for you guys to go have fun, go experience life as just a normal college student, go to as many football games, drink as much water as you can. You know, try and, try and stay hydrated if you get my drift. But, but still, but still keep it in the reins, right? I mean, have fun but, but be responsible from, from just a practical sense too. I mean you're in a house and not a dorm, so you have just a little bit more space to operate, right? You don't have to really share a bathroom. You know, all those things are really nice. We have a judging class here and I think most universities do for our junior kids that aren't judging yet called 2301. You know, we meet three times a week. We'll do just like a little bit of judging. Just make sure whenever it comes time to knock the dust off, we're not knocking off years of old dust. Right. It's just kind of. We can sharpen the knife pretty quick and so. But other than that, man, like, we all work jobs. I mean, I'm probably biased to Lubbock, but a lot of our judging students work in show barns. We have a surplus of those in this part of the world. There's always somebody looking for help and a lot of good, you know, talented people that I really respect as mentors up here in this area. And so it's, it's. I can't stress enough just how fun it is to come up and to be a normal college student to meet even kids outside of your judging team. Right. I mean, I have great friends now that never judged in college that I met here at Tech that I talk to regularly. And so, yeah, super fun time. There's a lot to look forward to.
- [55:18]
Luke
Sweet.
- [55:19]
Case Laro
Yeah. You know, Case put a really good spit on it. I'll give you the layman's terms, guys. I was a heathen whenever I had the opportunity for six months off or so because, man, you get to senior college, you're not on the judging team at that point in time of just being focused. That is because that team that's wrapping up has got just a few more than Louisville. And then we were kicking off, you know, close to December. So, man, that was probably the one thing that if I could change my senior, my senior college experience, it would have been just what Case hit on to start off that discussion was go to class. This is not blinn college. This is not you being on zoom and just making sure you're present. And even then, I don't think I was the best at it. But after being able to have some time off, it does set up a lot of positives for you too, for sure. You know, you get the opportunity to get a job, go work out somewhere, you know, whether it's a showborn or. Or elsewhere, for a few months. You know, be able to get involved with that certain department you're in and actually build relationships and. And friends out of that. You know, I know we were gone so much at Blinn. I didn't know a single person in our classes. I had no idea. The only ones I knew were the ones I had primarily judging kids in there with me. So having that opportunity is another plus about. There's plenty of positives to go around, but guys, have fun. You know, I know it's going to be a very, very long year for you guys from starting off to all the Way to march. It's going to be like that for everybody's judging, but that opportunity comes. Take time for yourself. You know, I. I was able to go to football games like Case said. I mean, I was able to go to. One of my favorite memories at Tech outside judging was being there whenever we beat Texas. A bad sunburnt was on me, but a good time, you know, reaching out and meeting a few friends that I've maybe had up there that I haven't had the opportunity of seeing in a good while, you know, hanging out with those guys and gals. I mean, it was a good, good opportunity to take a step back and focus on myself and not myself in the realm of judging. But yes, go to class. Me, Case and Mr. Jaggerhorn know about that all too well.
- [57:34]
Luke
So basically sounds. Take advantage of it while you can then.
- [57:37]
Case Laro
Yeah, for sure.
- [57:38]
Weston Hendricks
Yeah.
- [57:39]
Kelton Poe
Hey, I will add make money, underline and bold that you guys are spoiled at blim. The university. Paying for your gas station stops and meals is not a thing outside of Brenham, Texas. And so make money, save up. Yeah, there's going to be a day where you have to pay for your own things on judging trips, and so I would definitely do that.
- [58:04]
Weston Hendricks
Was there a point in time where that kind of hit you in a brick wall or.
- [58:09]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, our. Our San Antonio. Our San Antonio trip in senior college. I remember calling mom and dad, and I never done this because, like, dad always said, like, hey, you know, you know, try your best. Make your own money, you know, do whatever. We'll be there to help you when we can. And I called him and I was like, dad, I got $0.06. Cents on my debit card, not $6. Like I couldn't buy a. A cheesy roll up from Taco Bell in the water. Six cents. And you know, he, he, I think gave. Transferred 100 bucks or whatever. And so it kind of kept me afloat, but I had to kind of figure some stuff out when I got back to Lubbock to fund me through our Houston trip.
- [58:47]
Case Laro
Yes, the old saying of no money, no mud, no fun. That's very true. It's not very cool. It's not very cool to be walking down Broadway and looking at your bank account and being in the hole about 20 bucks.
- [59:00]
Luke
Sounds like a ton of clipping and fitting will be done in those times.
- [59:03]
Kelton Poe
Yep.
- [59:04]
Luke
Yes.
- [59:06]
Case Laro
And overcharging like you ain't ever seen it.
- [59:12]
Luke
That's awesome. So now I want to know too much about overcharging. So now how has, like, judging everything helped Y' all outside of life, like, done with judging and everything, how was the. The lessons you've learned and the connections and everything helped y' all outside and past judging, out past the college. Really.
- [59:33]
Case Laro
God, me, where do you start? You know, there's so many of them. I'll say for myself personally, with me working at Farm Bureau, obviously the mental maturity discussion had earlier, I think that crafted me into a much more totally positive person, but a much more productive person from start to finish. Now, though, if I didn't go to just compete at livestock judging, I don't think I'd be in the spot I'd be at right now. But there's plenty more to go around. You know, the ability to build relationships and communicate to one another and being persistent, those things were very much taught. Maybe not the exact essence of it, you know, each and every day, but there was plenty of lessons to go around that taught you those stuff. I know. I feel very, very prepared as I get to. As I get further down the road and things I look back on saying if I didn't compete in judging contests, if I didn't reach out to those and depend on them like I did at Blinn College at times, I certainly wouldn't be as advanced. Slash at the spot I'm in right now.
- [60:45]
Kelton Poe
Yeah. Yeah, man. It certainly transformed my life in the sense of what I. What I'm doing. Right. As a profession. You know, I hope to be a judging coach for the foreseeable future. Yeah. To piggyback off what Kelton said, I. To put it out there. I mean, we probably could have prefaced with this a little sooner. So Kelton and I were not on a super winning juco team. We weren't team of the year. We didn't win Louisville in senior college. We were third Louisville. You know, I think those things used to scare me to say, like, they don't so much anymore now. Because the thing that I love so much about judging now, being on the coaching side, being done, being a contestant. I mean, really and truly, I can't say this loud enough or clear enough. Judging frames your life in a way that you understand and know that winning and success is not all of it right. It's actually prioritizing relationship. We'll take my coach, for example. Skyler. Skyler. He'll always be my coach, though. We coach together now. I look at him as that still the mentorship that he has given me. Honestly, as close as we have gotten. Right. I think. And I think judging for those things, and I think it's tough when you're in it. And I remember not really thinking like this while I was in it. But man, if you can understand that, not even the point to judging, right? But it sets up your life in a way that when you guys get married, which I'm not there yet, but when you get married, have children, work a job that you understand and know that your relationship with your wife, with your children, with your friends, right, with the Lord, those are the things that actually make up a meaningful life. I remember being in you guys shoes and thinking, and my parents asked me what, you know, when I was yalls age, like what is a meaningful life? And I think I said something along the lines of being the high individual at this contest, in this contest, and being high team at Louisville and winning, you know, and I look back at that and think about how naive, right? I mean, how, how silly of me to think that way whenever, at the conclusion of my judging contest after really, you know, not accomplishing those things, I wouldn't give back. I wouldn't trade a win for the teammates that I had, for the friendships that I forged, you know, even, even the people I competed against. Pace Middlestadt, Kate Penley, Kaden Church. I mean, I could go on and on, Ty Drock about, about people like that that now I get to call very good friends of mine, you know, and so you kind of get to the other side of the fence, you kind of put the pencils and the stenos down and you kind of assess, what was it all for? Not to get too deep or too often in the weeds, but like seeing my judging career end, being a coach to kids whose judging careers have ended and seeing what they have gone on to accomplish, you know, when you, when you put a pin in it and go, man, you know, I am, I'm so grateful for the lessons that I learned, for the friendships that I forged, you know, for the opportunity that judging gave me. I think if you can think and frame your mind in y' all state as current contestants, if you can almost have that kind of wisdom, to know and understand that success doesn't make a meaningful life, relationships do. And so that is. That would be my biggest piece of advice. That would be my biggest reflection. I think back to my days judging every day, every day. And I laugh at the memories that I had.
- [64:35]
Case Laro
Yeah, I'll come back in and, and kind of bounce off of the idea of the case throughout there. But, you know, someone told me this and you know, to preface who it is, all of us know him in this call, whenever I started judging, he was a. He was a. He was at A M. So a coach slash mentor. He's my boss for a few months and still a very good friend of mine. But whenever I was working in Abbott, Brent Cromwell had pulled me to the side one day when we were bringing back his very untrustworthy Ford F150 from the shop again. And we were driving back to the place and I wrote with him and I got dropped off and we got talking about what's to come. My last semester of lifestyle judging. And he had told me, man, look, this is going to be the most important semester of your judging career. You know, your coach is depending on you, your friends on your team are depending on you. These things are very, very important to focus on at the moment because as of right now, you're going to feel like that's the only thing that you're living for, how much you are going to be working on that. And that's what it was. I mean, there's no question about it, he said. But look, whenever that day comes at the end of Louisville, it all doesn't matter. A week, a month, three. Three months after the fact, that contest all went past. It's a matter of, you know, who. How did so and so do it at Louisville? How did that team do it at Louisville? You know, I'll tell you this. I. I won't. People always say, you know, do you remember who won this year? Well, our year, I will remember because my good buddy John Reeves, that went with us, intended bloom with us, did win. So I always remember that. But past years, I can't remember who won Louisville. Right. You know, and that's not to throw shade at anybody. But guys, it don't. It doesn't mean that much. You know, the one thing that I think you should always look back on, no matter if it's now or if it's way, way down the road, is what's more impactful to you guys. Is it going out there and winning a high individual or winning with your team at X contest you're about to go to? Or is it a bigger impact knowing that, you know, you can call on Weston, you can call on Luke, you can call on Ian. Thirty years down the road and having a meaningful conversation, know that you guys are as thick as thieves and no matter what's going to be needed, you guys are going to be able to count each other. That's what I always fall back on saying. You know, whenever I was 18 years old, fixing to walk onto campus at Blinn. Everything meant all those contests, winning those high team by individual, winning every single species I possibly could and racking up the ribbons and plaques and every award I could think of. That was the most important thing. And as time went by, that quickly dwindled away to where man, I got lifelong friends and I got the opportunity to be in one of the best industries for four years and still being a part of it. Man, those things, you just can't trade it for the world.
- [67:40]
Weston Hendricks
It's time to recognize the other operations that have powered this episode.
- [67:44]
Luke
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- [68:03]
Weston Hendricks
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Luke
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Weston Hendricks
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Luke
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- [69:39]
Weston Hendricks
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- [69:54]
Luke
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- [70:02]
Weston Hendricks
You can find them at over a thousand dealers across the United States or check them out at their website@stockshowsecrets.com. yeah, yeah, and I completely agree. And I appreciate y', all, you know, getting a little deep on it, too. Me and Luke are sitting here chatting back and forth, bouncing ideas back off each other while y' all are talking. And something that, you know, popped up in my head is, what are some of the classes that you think really any ag kid should take if they arrive to a university that would benefit them in the outside world?
- [70:37]
Case Laro
Well, guys, I'll say this. I know Case is way more versed, and I'll let him do the heavy lifting on the classes that are offered at Tech. But the one class that I will always remember is one he alluded to earlier was Ryan Rathman's breeding and genetics class. Now, it was a lot, and it was not easy. You know, put it on top of being gone for almost every week for a little bit of time, and there was a lot of catching up to do, and it beat me pretty bad at times. But, you know, just things that you guys are involved with. I know all three of you guys are either around or raise your own, you know, cattle back home. I know that's the one thing that y' all could take from that class and be tremendously pleased with the opportunity that was given. I mean, there's not. It's hard. It's awfully hard to find someone that's not a geneticist that's as well versed as Ryan is. But I'll tell you, if you do have that chance, no matter what university you pick. Breeding and Genetics, a very, very fun class. Awfully hard to make the right grade, but pick up the things you want to, and you'll learn a thing or two for a good while.
- [71:43]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, yeah, it's all fun games. So you get to write coefficient of relationship. But yeah, I mean, just from the university side, guys, I mean, the. The advice that I would give y' all is, so we were both animal science majors. I mean, I'm getting a master's in ruminant nutrition, and so that's kind of what I know and understand, but there's a degree, animal science with a business Option that I would really take. I would encourage you guys to take business classes. I mean, animal science classes are great. You guys will take a high volume of those. But I really regret probably not taking as many business classes that I could have or that I should have. Probably just basic personal economics, you know, to set up your life. I think that's the nice part about senior college is by the time everybody gets here, nobody really needs a pacifier. Nobody really needs to be babysit or babysat. Excuse me. You know, it's kind of time to grow up and figure out what you want to do. I know it's kind of ironic that I said it's time to grow up and I'm still in college, but I think just looking ahead and knowing, like, okay, in two years time, I'm gonna have to go like Kelton, you know, be an insurance agent. I'm gonna have to go, you know, sell realty. I'm gonna have to, you know, do X, Y and Z, be a salesman. You know, I think just understanding the general vocab and lingo that those guys use is important. And so I would take business classes, if you can. On the animal science side of things, man, it's tough to go wrong. I would really encourage, I think all you guys have beef backgrounds. I mean, take. Take classes that you maybe don't know things about. Like, I took. Took sheep and goat production here at. Here at Tech. And that was super interesting just because I didn't really know. I mean, I didn't certainly grow up on a commercial sheep operation. And so, you know, knowing crossbreeding schemes and all that stuff that those guys do. I mean, all that stuff is super interesting. Nutrition, biochem, breeding and genetics. Beef pro Dale Warner teaches a lot of meat science classes that are super interesting. One of my favorite classes I took, me and Kelton took together. He taught a seminar. It was called meat theory. He just basically posts futuristic questions, you know, about the opposition to animal agriculture in the coming years and how we're gonna, you know, how we're gonna cater to that. And so kind of made you think outside the box. But senior college is fun in the aspect of what? Of the knowledge that you actually gain. I'm not saying that you guys can't learn anything at Blend, but, you know, senior college probably takes it up a notch, right? Psa.
- [74:25]
Case Laro
Take your. Your basics. At Glenn College, it feels a little weird. Don't take chemistry here, except chemistry. It felt weird walking into a big study hall at Tech and Film like a super senior with a Bunch of freshmen taking that as some of their first courses for their first semester. But my grades reflected a whole lot better whenever I went to Tech than what it was at Blended.
- [74:51]
Luke
Now it seems like there's a pretty big difference between school and stuff between like a junior college and a senior college. Is there any difference in judging wise, like contests, practices, workouts? Any big differences between junior college and senior?
- [75:06]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, I mean we're, we're fortunate here at Tech to have Skyler. I mean a big advantage is, you know, Skyler has a great girlfriend, Maddie. But like for the most part, Skyler's not married. He doesn't have anything, you know, tying him back home. And so we're able to hit the ground pretty hard. I think the biggest change that we probably have compared to junior college is that ours is a buildup and anticipation to one contest. I mean you can, you as a team can get 8th everywhere you go and then you can pop up and win and you walk home as national champions with the bronze bull. And so you kind of do everything. I mean, Scott and I both believe that every contest is important and we want to win everyone that we go to. But. But you're always kind of doing things in the back of your mind thinking about, you know, that day in November that everybody has to be at their best, you know, opposed to junior college. I actually love this system that junior college uses, you know, to almost in an aggregate system to name, you know, team of the year and coach of the year, who has done the best throughout the entirety of the judging season right from Kansas City all the way to Houston. Let's kind of compile who we think has done the best. And so I think that's a good system. That would probably be the biggest difference that we have compared to what you guys go through, obviously the schedule differences. Like we start in at Denver, you guys start at Vera show. And so we kind of go balls to the walls from 1st of December until late March. Then we have the national meat animal eval contest, which is a whole nother beast in of itself that we probably don't have time to discuss. But then you're off and then it's. And then you go back like into April, May. You don't really have, you don't practice, you don't work out. I mean everybody kind of settles on some internships to go do and then everybody leaves for the summer and then you come back and you gotta kind of switch gears and go right back into judging. And then you go hard as ever from bereshow to Louisville and then as soon as you know it, you're walking out of your eighth set at Louisville and it's all over.
- [77:07]
Case Laro
Yeah. And I'll kind of tack on to what Case said at the start of it. Man, Skyler Scott was awesome at this guys, like whenever it boiled down to it because obviously Louisville is the, the holy grail when it comes to senior college. That's really the only contest that really just counts and it's make or break for your year. But man, Skyler did an awesome job of keeping the task at hand that not only that, but preparation for, you know, those contests as we got closer to it. Like for example, he would always be very good about saying like look, you know, we're going to go compete San Antonio. San Antonio is going to be good. There's gonna be a lot of parts of that contest that is not going to be needed. Like you're, you're be very hard pressed to ever see a class A brangus eared cattle at, at Louisville. Right. But Skyler was very good about saying okay look, San Antonio may want a more quality induced contest. We'll be running into. This is where the similarities are going to be for the later part of our year. You know, this is a good testament to what we're going to see at maybe a Kansas City, you know, or you know, we go to bear show and we said look, forget being in Texas and we're placed in the class off of density, you know, skull shape and chest width. Let's focus on this, this and this and let's put ourselves into a spot not only where we can win today, but we're going to be way better trained and natural about selecting for this whenever it comes down to a Louisville cont. So Skyler was awesome at making sure the task at hand was always related to something a little bit, a little bit more than what was at hand that day. There was much, there was a much bigger picture always at the end of it. So you know, the question you ask about is there a big change? Well, yes and no. Yes, because there's like I said, Louisville and those tasks that we were kind of put up for. But at the same time, you know, you guys are still playing the same sport is your sophomore year. It's all the same 12, 12, 12 classes, eight sets. You run to that every time. And it's one of those things that I know it felt almost, I'm not saying it did naturally with the way I'm using this, but the game almost slowed down. But Just kind of keeping that in the back of my mind, I think was probably the biggest reason why there was a lot of uptick in my performances was, you know, this is not a make or break deal to where, oh, my gosh, if we get six of this contest, you know, we're putting ourselves almost out of the running for team of the year. It was okay. I'm picking up this, I'm picking up, up that. Whenever it comes down to our last few contests, like Dallas, like, it's Kansas City, and finally Louisville, I've got a whole bunch of stuff in a whole big arsenal of things that I've built up from all these other small contests, things I need to focus on to where we pinpoint our trajectory, and then it's, you know, go all in for the last two, three weeks, then we get to Louisville.
- [79:55]
Kelton Poe
Right, Right.
- [79:57]
Weston Hendricks
So to kind of wrap up the episode, don't want to cut it short, because I'm enjoying this a whole lot, but one thing I'd like to ask you boys is what's something that y' all would do if y' all could go back through college and change differently.
- [80:13]
Case Laro
Build a machine and be able to do it all over again?
- [80:18]
Luke
Yeah.
- [80:19]
Kelton Poe
Yeah.
- [80:20]
Case Laro
Yeah, man.
- [80:21]
Kelton Poe
I. I feel fortunate. Weston to. I feel fortunate to have, like, had a college experience and. And tried to do everything that I could to the fullest. That I don't was anything. I'd go back and change. Probably what Kelton said, you know, build a time machine that would be nice to be able to load up in the judging van one more time. I think instead of maybe answering that, I can tell you what probably changed me the most was Skyler. Whenever we sat down on winter workout, like right when we were first getting judging, Skyler, you know, basically made an oath to us, which I thought was, you know, unique as a leader. And he said, hey, here's a promise I'll make to you guys that. That when you guys step off the van for the last time, you'll be better people than when you first stepped on. He didn't say evaluator. He didn't say stockman. He said, you'll be a better person. You know, that that was his goal for us and not. Not to probably blow too much skirt or too much smoke up Skyler's skirt, but, man, I really do feel like he. He lived that promise, and he upheld it to us. I think all of us have a testament. All my senior college teammates getting off the van, we were better people. And I don't want to Slight quest or Adrian, they did the same thing for us. I was a better person leaving Blended when I got there, but I would. I think back to that oftentimes now as a young coach and still learning under Skyler. But, man, that. That's kind of what it's all about. And I'm fortunate enough to have had a college experience where that was the case.
- [82:02]
Case Laro
Yeah, exactly. Basically the same thing K said, guys, you know, I. I don't think of anything that I would just go back and change to pinpoint. I'm very, very happy with what transpired from my time at Blend. From my time at Tech. I. I became a much more. Not only more productive, but a much more upstanding human being from. From 2020 all the way to 2024. I mean, there's no question about that. And we already talked about it a little bit about, you know, what it. What's to come after livestock judging. I. I think no matter what the bumps, scrapes, and bruises, the ups and downs of every portion of my time in college and what livestock judging did for me, man, I'm tremendously pumped to continue on with what's going on now and to what's to come all from. That's all derived from those relationships that I would have made, you know, regardless that they were on my team at Blinn, they became on my team whenever I was at Tech, or they were guys and gals that we would have competed against time and time again. You know, that's the big port. That's the big part of it all for me is just being fired up to be in a spot I'm at right now to relish in the relationships I've made and the opportunity that was presented. And I certainly think many people that have came before us and many people that will come after us can attest to that.
- [83:27]
Luke
Sweet. Now, do y' all have any favorite quotes or phrases or Bible verse songs, anything that kind of keeps y' all motivated, keeps yalls going also? Yeah. Is there any superstitions y' all had going through college?
- [83:40]
Kelton Poe
Oh, God, I don't know if we.
- [83:42]
Case Laro
Had any superstitions that come to mind. Case may have something, but a Bible verse that I've been pretty heavy and leaning on a bunch here recently because, you know, way things are going, my job, because the insurance game right now, especially in our state, is a bit dicey at times, and it takes a whole lot of remembering to, you know, keep your nose on the grindstone and get after it. It's pretty simple, but it's it's. It's Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 2. All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. You know, it's. It's good to remind myself that, because, you know, there's times that I feel very, very down and discouraged and not motivated at times at work because, you know, you get a call from somebody that's mad about their rates or you hear about what's going on in Kerrville and it's. It's just. It's hard to fathom sometimes. And it's hard to, you know, keep your head up because, you know, what's to come after that. And the. Not only the family's grieving, but from a professional side of things, for me, you know, that's a lot of things on my plate. It's ever so changing. So that's been one that I've been leaning on pretty good. And it's much more simpler, guys. I know that. But kind of what's going on right now, it speaks volumes to me. The second one I got is, you know, from Case, and it's him saying.
- [84:57]
Luke
Look.
- [85:00]
Case Laro
You know, I'd rather have it be a terrible ending than an endless terrible. And although that could be taking a large plethora of ways, I. I've used that a whole bunch of. Whole bunch of times in my life because there's times that I get a bit discouraged or. Or wishing that, you know, this could be changed up, and I start to question, did I make the right decision then, or will I make the right decision as time goes by, but, you know, making sure that, you know, if it goes one way, so be it. If not, it's all going to be all right. But I think Case used that one day and maybe much more of a, you know, haha sense. And although maybe a bit funny at that time, it's. I've changed it and spun it to a bit more of my speed. That makes a lot more sense, what I'm doing now.
- [85:44]
Luke
Yeah, that's awesome.
- [85:45]
Weston Hendricks
Well, one thing that I want to ask you boys, and maybe y' all have heard it, maybe haven't, I don't know. But I love the question and I've kept it for, I guess, ever since we started. I'd like to know what empowers you all to be better than who you were before.
- [86:05]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, I mean, plain and simply. And not to preach or anything, like, I am a sinner saved by Jesus. And so I try and operate every day in my life, you know, as a believer and as a Follower of God. I think that probably is the biggest one. But more so, I think now I'm still driven, and I don't want to be misleading by some things that I've probably said throughout the episode, like, hey, I'm still driven by success. I still want to go and win. I want to accomplish and do these things and make myself and my family and my girlfriend and Skyler and all those people proud. Right. But I still think I wake up every day eager to go out and to compete and to be better. I think when you live a life without competition, you start to kind of lose just a little bit of purpose, because I think competition is good in nature. And so I would say the biggest things that probably spur me on to continue to do good works, my relationship with God, my friends, my mentors, my girlfriend, you know, all those people in my life. It's people mainly that. That spur me on to. To continue to. To strive and to achieve. Right? Right.
- [87:24]
Case Laro
Yes, for sure. For myself personally, the one thing that I think about is.
- [87:33]
Kelton Poe
What.
- [87:33]
Case Laro
What keeps me going and what keeps me, you know, positive. On a bunch of accounts, obviously, friends, family, the whole nine yards about being, you know, not only a good servant to God, but also being able to be there and support for them whenever it's needed. To be quite honest with you guys, guys like y' all are. Are part of the reason why I feel, you know, motivated to. To be able to help in any way possible and also be a large part of success if it's, you know, if it's applicable. You know, you know, guys like yourself that are, you know, at this point, y' all are judging slash kiddos that are wanting to do this later on. I mean, it's. You learn from experience in a lot of things, and having that person there to hear from and build on, man, it was impactful for me, and I think it's really impactful for kiddos, yalls age too, and people that are going to be doing the same stuff at many years go by because, man, I. I love to wake up and, you know, I know you guys do a good job of this, but y' all shoot me a text or have me listen to a particular set, and I'm. I'm all ears to hear for it, and I want to help in any way possible. Being able to help you guys become not only better evaluators, but better men and women. I. I think. I think it's big. You can't beat it with a stick.
- [88:48]
Luke
You know, it's great right now. Before we get you all off. Kelton, Casey all grew or not really grew up, but went through it. Judge you when it came up along together in the future. Any coaching duo between y'.
- [89:02]
Kelton Poe
All.
- [89:03]
Case Laro
Oh man, I love it. That's for, that's for Case Laro to decide. I, I, I do not have any desire whatsoever to go ahead and get a master's degree. I think my time in school has that ship is very much sailed. But, but if the job gets a little bit too much to handle and your fellow coaches decide they want to go ahead and raise hogs full time, the, the I the idea of a head to assistant coach at blended College, I don't think I can ever shy away from it because the, the dream whenever I was graduating I was like, man, I don't know if I'll ever get a high enough education to do that because I'm about tapped out from all that stuff. But if the opportunity were to fall in my lap, man, what an opportunity would it be to go back to Blinn College and do it all over again just on the different end of it.
- [89:58]
Weston Hendricks
Right, right. And I remember me and Kelton had that conversation at one point in time. Pretty cool. But Casey, you'd said the word eager a minute ago and, and I'm sitting here looking at my phone with the verse of the day and a lot. I gotten a few comments from some people on, on Facebook, messenger and such saying it's a little cliche to do a Bible verse. I don't think it's cliche at all and I'll just make that a statement. I think that we all need to have a daily reminder or weekly reminder at that of why we actually all do this. I keep seeing tick tocks of this was the whole point. The whole point is to glorify him. And maybe some people are facing challenges, maybe some people aren't. But specifically myself or maybe some teammates of mine or the good friends or mentors all go through things and it's important to me to keep that in the center. So case you'd said eager a minute ago and, and eager is a word it in this verse and it's from Jude 1. Okay, Jude 1, verse 3. And it says, dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people. And really what I get from that is don't be eager to, to shy away. Don't be I guess foggy Headed because we all get there at some point in time and we just need to have a clear and level level head about things and realize that, you know, maybe we, maybe that the whole point is to really look at it from a glorified perspective.
- [91:40]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if there's one thing, you know, probably to put a fork in all of it. And again, thanks guys for having us on. You know, I. I think a life lived for oneself is not very rewarding, but a life centered around helping others is a good purpose and is fulfilling. And so I would keep that in the back of your minds. Right. I think it's tough in the world that we live in to make everything about yourself because that's what social media, that's what, you know, famous people, that's the message that's being shared with us. Right. But like the Bible says, right? Be in the world and not of it. Go against the grain. Do things differently. Help others. Put others before yourself. Right. Live a life as a servant. I think if you were to tie that into judging and to do that, you asked earlier, Weston, if there was something I would go back and change, that would probably be what I changed. I would think and center and anchor myself to that truth more than believing that my worth was tied to how I did it. A judging contest.
- [92:51]
Luke
Absolutely. Like, I know as long as you trust in the Lord, everything will eventually find its path. Like I know we say a prayer the night before and I'm the prayer before the contest. Whether we do good or we do bad that day, our plan ain't gonna change much. So.
- [93:05]
Case Laro
No doubt, no doubt.
- [93:06]
Weston Hendricks
That's right. That's right. Well boys, I do appreciate it and I know it's been a long hour and a half. It's been a long time since I've had an hour and a half episode but honestly, I think it's a great way to start the ending of an amazing season and I think it's only going to get better after Yalls episode. But with that said, it's the first time that I think I've had a third person on here host wise that just sat there. But I love it. Got too serious for me.
- [93:36]
Kelton Poe
Yeah, yeah.
- [93:37]
Weston Hendricks
I just had to sit here and.
- [93:38]
Luke
Act mature for my age.
- [93:39]
Weston Hendricks
That's right. That's right. Well boys, I do appreciate it and for everyone listening, maybe this episode isn't for. For the elderly but I, I hope that there's something in here that maybe the amounts of people that listen to this platform, hopefully someone can take away something from it. But for sure. Any kids you know my age or younger or maybe a little older in senior college. So with all that said, this is going to be empowering you with with Case Laro and Kelton po. We'll see y' all next time.
- [94:11]
Kelton Poe
Thanks guys. Best of luck this year.
- [94:13]
Luke
Yep.
- [94:15]
Weston Hendricks
Make sure to check out our new and improved website@empowerupodcast.org where you'll find the team's background, our sponsor stories and merchandise. But also check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram @empowerupod, where you'll find sneak peeks of episodes and their release dates as well. Well as sponsor recognition and much more. We are proud to have you as a listener on and hope you enjoyed. Make sure to give us a five star rating and have a blessed day.