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- [00:06]
Weston Hendricks
Welcome to season three of Empower your. And I'm Weston Hendricks, the owner and host and this is my team.
- [00:11]
Augustus Sexton
Hey guys. I'm Augustus Sexton. I'm the co host and supervisor of the podcast.
- [00:17]
Quinn Hartley
And I'm Quinn Hartley, the social media manager as well as another co host of the platform. With that said, season three comes with change. Every Friday, a new episode is released with sneak peeks on our social medias out the day before.
- [00:32]
Augustus Sexton
Our goal is to be consistent, competitive and Christ like. We as a team strive for excellence in all that we do and want to gain knowledge from industry leaders and expand on trends of the industry and what they offer.
- [00:47]
Weston Hendricks
Our priority is to empower you as an individual in the livestock industry and to gain knowledge and confidence while consuming it from some of the most influential people in our industry. So, as always, enjoy the episode and here's to empowering you. Well, all right, folks. It is episode five of Empower your. And if you didn't look at the title and realize who it was, now you do know it is one of the most elite people in the cattle industry. Whether you're talking Midwest or even competing here in Texas at Fort Worth, he makes phenomenal show cattle as a whole. It's Mr. Raymond. Go. Someone that I've idolized for quite a long time. I know Augustus has too. And personally, I can't wait to hear his story. From what I hear, it's unique, but more so how he's become so successful in the industry and the advice he can give to us, but to you as well. And so with that said, Mr. Raymond, if you could introduce yourself, let the listeners get to know you a little bit and then will continue with all the big questions.
- [01:55]
Raymond Gonay
Okay, well, thank you guys for having me. Like you said, my name is Raymond Gane, originally from Alberta, Canada. That's where I grew up. And I now reside in Lawrence, Kansas where I own and operate Competitive Edge Genetics alongside my fiance, Sterling Reichenbach. And we have a few other bits and pieces that we've kind of started here lately is Highland Connections and other little business that we've kind of got on the side where we've been selling some Scottish Highland cattle. But the main, the main focus is definitely Competitive Edge Netflix and and the AI sires that we own. And then we sell 80 to 100 prospects tiers and heifers every year as well.
- [02:37]
Weston Hendricks
That's awesome. And then so with that said, you're from Canada and what I want to know is what led you from there to the United States and kind of the background of you growing up there, right?
- [02:50]
Raymond Gonay
Well, I started showing in 4H when I was 9. I grew up on a feedlot and row crop farm. My parents had about. I don't know, I think they've had about 3000 acres now maybe and had about a 1500 head feedlot. I had two younger brothers, so started showing in 4H and that's what initially kind of got me into showing cattle. And about the time I was 16 and I had a driver's license, I started to want to expand into finding some more show cattle that I could start to maybe buy and resell. I actually had a neighbor growing up that was an ABS rep and he used to bring over the. Every year the new catalog. And for whatever reason, I just became infatuated with club calf genetics. And the just those bulls looked so much different than everything else in those catalogs. And I would say he was probably one of the first people that kind of instilled that fire in me that wanted to kind of get into the shows to your game. And so started to pursue the main Anjou breed and the club cap side of things. And as I got older and towards the end of my show career, we started to buy some more females and. And ended up kind of raising some of our own show steers. And I've had a. Had a sale of our own as well with another friend of mine back home in Canada that we kind of got started and just kind of branched out from there and started building, building a whole deal where we were marketing livestock. And we were kind of young kids trying to do like how they were doing down in the US we really tried to pattern a lot of our. The ways that we did things as far as raising them and selling them. We were trying to kind of follow along with the US Market because in comparison to Canada, the US market was so much bigger and much more expansive in all areas. And so we were just kind of on a much smaller scale. But we still wanted to try to do it the way that they did because we just saw how much success people were having down there. And so as we progressed, once I got out of school, I started raising a lot more of them. And it got to a point where I was selling some stuff into the US and ended up acquiring a semen interest in a promotional bull one year that was going to Denver. And that's kind of where I first initiated my contact with at the time, it was true in Iowa is who I'd kind of reached out to. And I started communicating with them. About potentially working with them and ended up striking a deal with those guys. Sold my whole cow herd, dispersed everything in Canada. I took, I think there's five or six maybe of my best donor cows with me down to the US and moved down to Iowa and started working there and kind of started over from scratch, realistically, because I sold all the cows, I paid all my debts on my pickup. I came to the US with five cows and some suitcases.
- [05:54]
Weston Hendricks
Wow.
- [05:55]
Raymond Gonay
I can't remember. I think I was about 23, maybe it was the fall of 2011 when I. When I made the switch. And at the time I had about. Oh, there's probably about 150cow California that I built up with my. With my parents. And then I was working full time for John Deere actually at the. At the time being a salesman. And I. So I had a really good job. I had an opportunity to help take over the farm with my parents, my younger brothers. But there was just some wild mustang inside of me that said I gotta go chase the big dream and go to the US I'd always wanted to kind of be one of those guys that you'd see in the show circuit magazines and whatnot that were selling the state fair champions and the Denver champions and what have you. And there was just something about that, that just at that age, I wasn't married, I didn't have kids. It was. It was kind of a pivotal moment for me to. Where I told myself if I didn't chase that, whatever it was that was telling me to do it, I would regret it for the rest of my life. And it's not that I wasn't comfortable where I was at all. My family still lives in Canada. Like I said, I had an opportunity to take everything over. I wanted to. I was the oldest in my family, so it was going to be my opportunity if I wanted it, but it just wasn't for me. And I knew that there was something bigger out there for me. So, like I said, sold everything off, packed up. And looking back, I don't know what I was thinking because that was a very rash decision, but. And it could have gone. It could have gone completely sideways and I could have had to tuck my tail between my legs and come home with nothing to show for it. But I was a very determined young individual and had a chip on my shoulder and wanted to prove everybody wrong and moved to Iowa, like I said, started working at Trush Farms. I was pretty aggressive as far as wanting to get better, wanting to do more, and just really immersed myself in the industry once I got down here and tried to better myself and built up clientele and then few short years later stepped out and started Competitive Edge Genetics with some investors. And out of the rest is history. From there I've now at this point gotten everybody bought out of the company. It's all mine. It took me 10 years from start to finish to where I could have it all be mine. And it's been a lot of hard work and there's a lot of stories from A to B there. But basically the short version is I was a kid with a dream, started in another country, took a big chance on myself and never, you know, just always bet on myself and trusted my gut that I could do it. And obviously there was a lot of people that helped me along the way, but you had to have the intuition to really want it bad enough to get to the level that I'm at. And I've been very blessed and very thankful that it's all worked out. And like I said, has not been easy. There's been bumps along the way and there's been a lot of people help. But I guess I try to instill that. And everyone that I talked to that learns about my story is that this was not something that I grew up being handed to. I mean my parents were not show cattle family as far as generational that way. I came down here and left my, I left everything, I left all my friends, family, everything back home in Canada to just chase this dream. So it's not for everybody but if you do have the gumption to want to just make a decision like that and chase a dream, that it is definitely possible because I mean I'm here to tell you it definitely did for me. So it wasn't easy, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't change anything.
- [09:35]
Augustus Sexton
I think that's so neat how you just, you sold pretty much everything that you had and took a leap of faith and said, okay, we're, I mean I'm leaving everything behind and taking whatever I do have left and we're going full force at it. We're going to make this work or.
- [09:50]
Raymond Gonay
Go home broke pretty much. I think that was actually something that my parents told me when I, I walked in their bedroom that night and told them I quit my job at John Deere that day and that I was taking a job in Iowa working on a club cap operation and that the cows were going to have to get sold. And I think my dad looked at me and said, you're absolutely out of your mind. What are you talking about? Because that, that was. That, that was me. Is it. My personality is. If I want it, I just go after it. I don't even like it. I'm a split second decision maker. I guess even another comparison would be like, if I go shopping, whether it's clothes or whatever look for, if I like it, I buy it. I don't even look at the tag unless it's absolutely obnoxious. If I want something and I can make it happen, I just do it. I don't, I don't ever second guess myself. I don't ever try to shop around and find a better deal somewhere. Like it's. If it's in front of me and it's something I need or want, I take it. And so I'd already quit my job and took the other one without even telling my parents what I was doing. I just was like, no, this is happening. And it was like an afterthought. Like, oh, hey, by the way guys, I'm moving to another country. I hope you're okay with it. That's how my brain works. It was a ask for forgiveness, not permission type situation. Because in my mind I thought, well, why can't I still. What if they say no? Like, it's already done, I'm doing it. My parents gave me a lot of support, don't get me wrong, but they knew that I was kind of a wild child that way. As far as if I had an idea in my head, there was no getting it out. It was until I had absolutely flopped on my face. There's no way I'm going to say I can't make it happen. And sometimes I was too determined and I did fall on my face once in a while. I can't say that I didn't. But the large scale of it has always been if you fight hard enough at something, you will eventually climb to the top of the hill. So I've just always had that mentality that you can't tell me I can't do something because watch this.
- [11:56]
Augustus Sexton
What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced when going from Canada down to the US and getting your cowherd established in that?
- [12:05]
Raymond Gonay
So probably the biggest challenge I faced when I first moved down, and I'll give you a couple examples, obviously one was I was young and now I'm in a new country and obviously the people that I was working with had enough faith in me and my ability to. I had good people skills, right? I was in sales and John Deere actually Fine tuned. A lot of my salesmanship, as far as learning, it's not about the product you're selling, it's about people and creating those relationships. And you can say that you don't have the answer to their question. I'll tell you example, I knew nothing about John Deere equipment whatsoever. I couldn't even tell you how to change the oil in most of the equipment. I'm not an equipment guy, I'm a cattle guy. They, they hired me because luckily one of the people at dealership was friends with my parents and they knew that, you know, I'd be good for the job. And that was the first thing that they told me is don't worry if you don't know anything about the equipment. We've got pamphlets on all that stuff. There's a whole computer system that can tell you all the specs on everything. We want someone that when a customer walks in, they feel comfortable talking to them and they feel like they're with someone that genuinely cares about their needs. You can look all of that information up. You can say, hey, I don't know how many horsepower that tractor is. Let me look that up for you. You don't have to to make that up to sound relevant in a situation like that. It's more about making them feel that you really do want to make sure that they get good service, right? So I took a lot of those skills with me when I moved into any other country because nobody knew who I was, right. So the only thing I had to stand on was my personality and just the ability to interact with total strangers. Because a lot of what I did when I first moved down there was, I moved down there during sales season, right? So at that time they were selling probably 200 head a year. So we had a lot of clientele coming in looking for stuff or making calls on sales that we had online that wanted information. So I learned, you know, ask the customers kind of what they're wanting and ask more about what they have going on than what you have to offer and you'll learn a lot more about those people. So one of the challenges I faced was people not knowing who I was or taking me credible at all. Because like, who's this new punk kid that's working here that's now one of the point men at this place. Like his number's on here to call, but I don't even know who this guy is and what his story is. And in the spring we, they had a bunch of AI stars as well. And they sent me out on the road to sell semen. And so you're cold calling customers to stop by and make farm visits. Because at that point when I first started working there, that was when this door to door farm visit thing during semen sales, that was pretty fresh. I mean that, that had just kind of started being a thing within a year or two like that. That was something new. So already the customers are already not 100%, like really in the know of how it all works. But then two, I get a whole list of customers that have potentially bought semen before and I start calling them from a number they don't know and they answer the phone, they're like, and who is this? And I'm supposed to take your recommendation because why? So that was a big obstacle I had, especially in some of the states like South Dakota for example. I'll give you a little inside track on South Dakota. Some of the best club calf cattle in the country are raised in South Dakota because there are so many very long time prolific breeders up there.
- [15:48]
Weston Hendricks
Yeah.
- [15:49]
Raymond Gonay
Huge cow herds. There's, there's way more club calf cows probably in South Dakota than most of the Midwest just in terms of volume. Right. So these guys have been around forever. They're generational families that have race club gives. Now I'm cold calling them at a time of year where they're probably already annoyed because it's, they know it's semen sale season and they know that everybody that sells semen is going to want to stop by. And now they're getting a call from a number they don't know and I leave a voicemail and they don't know who that is either. And they're just like, yeah, I, I don't got time for that. Right. I went to South Dakota that first spring and I sat in a hotel for three days trying to go places. I couldn't get anyone to call me back, answer me, nothing. Nobody knew who I was. They wouldn't even give me the time of day. Now fast forward 10 years later, I have got year. I mean, I don't even know how many years, 8 to 10 year relationships with these breeders now and have done thousands of dollars worth of business in semen sales and cattle. So South Dakota is one of the largest states that I deal with now in terms of volume of both cattle and semen. And when I started, I couldn't even get anyone to answer the phone. So definitely the biggest obstacle when moving to a new country and even just being a new person at a new job is the credibility factor of their operations on the line. Right. They do this for a living. That's how they make their money, to feed their family. And we're providing a service as that company and I'm now the point man for that, that place and they need to trust me. And it was that, that divide of do I take this, this person's word and do I trust what he's saying? Because he seems like he knows what he's talking about because he doesn't really have a track record with anything that tells me otherwise. Right. And so I really, I really worked hard at the people skills side of it, like I'd learned at John Deere. And just once I could get my foot in the door with a customer, I could, I could really work my way towards a successful relationship because they could see I was genuine and they could see that I really did want to help and that I did actually have knowledge about how to make breeding decisions and, and what cattle need to. Need to be to be successful and started picking up on a lot of that stuff. And so once I kind of got my foot in the door, then it really started to get the ball rolling as far as momentum to where I could really build off of that. Because in this business, it is a relationship business for sure. And so if you get a good referral, it goes a long ways because usually if you have a good experience with the customer, you're not just going to tell one person, you're going to tell all of your close friends or family or other clients you've got. And so word, really good word really spreads fast, just like bad does as well. But if you're doing a good job, it definitely speeds the process up to where you can get to a platform where you can be successful. Because if you do good work and you are genuine and you, you know, can back it up with some sort of intellectual ability, then it definitely helps customers feel at ease and feel like they're getting a good service. So biggest obstacle was just getting my foot in the door for sure and just being able to actually have the opportunity to prove my knowledge to them and, and to offer my help. And so that was definitely the biggest thing I had to overcome.
- [19:21]
Augustus Sexton
That's certainly neat how you talk about being kind of in a low spot where you sitting there for three days just trying to get on the phone with somebody. No one's picking up or wanting to talk to you. And I just Bible talks about knocking the door will be open to just keep on persisting. And you will, you will find Success. And you're a good example of that. You through the last 10 years and how much you've grown from that point.
- [19:46]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah, I can't say I didn't doubt myself at times in a situation like that where you feel like you're kind of lost or hopeless because you're there to do your job and you can't do it because. And it's not because of anything that is in your control. Right. It's completely in somebody else's hands to, to open that door like you said. So there's, there's been times like that in my life where I've. I've felt kind of like what happens if I don't get this opportunity to work. You know, just situations like that. But you can't sit there and dwell on that. You have to, like you said, keep knocking because someone's going to open it and you better be ready for it when it does. So you just can't give in to that because if you throw the towel in when there's a little bit of adversity, then you can't expect yourself to ever be prepared to operate at a high level under stress. If you can't even handle the little bit of stress where you're not successful, when you get to another level where you're customers now and you've got way more cattle and everything is more growth is a good thing. The more you grow, obviously with that comes more stress and more situations that can happen both negatively and positively. So if you, if you can't handle the heat in the kitchen when there's just one pan on the stove, then you better not be thinking you can handle it when you got three kitchens to run. Right. So definitely, yeah, don't doubt yourself. You got to stay after it because if you ever want to be successful, it starts low and you got to be ready for when it's up high.
- [21:23]
Weston Hendricks
So you talk about like you went from Canada and then to Iowa and working for tr. Speaking of tr, is that someone like who mentored you growing up or was there other individuals like you've previously stated before that kind of drove you to become or be in the club calf industry? But to tack on that question, what led you to becoming successful with a set of blades? Is it an ordeal where you taught yourself or did you develop it just watching and you know, learning from those mentors?
- [21:56]
Raymond Gonay
Right. So kind of a two part deal there. So trust. That was actually Robert and Esther Trousers is who owned it. They had no real cattle experience whatsoever. They were just kind of Some investor people that wanted to start a deal up. It was Chris and Carolyn Wilson that were actually the farm managers. And that was who I had kind of talked to originally about working with. And so Chris definitely gave me a lot of opportunities to work on sale cattle there and hone my clipping skills in. Because obviously when you start selling 200 head a year, there's a lot of cattle get clipped. And I wouldn't say that they just threw me right in there right away, but they saw that I had some talent and gave me an opportunity to definitely get my skills better. As far as mentors go, though, one of the first ones that I had, and this even goes back to when I was in Canada, that really left a major impact on me was Kirk Steerwal. And so I think it was 2005 was the very first year that Kirk Steerwald had ever came to Canada. It was an invite only clinic held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. And one of my friends was. Had something to do with it putting it on. And so that's how I. I mean, it was like so secret, low profile. Like you had to be in the know to even get like where you could say, yeah, I wanted to be in this deal. I think there was like 10 or 12 of us that got to go and that was. He'd ever came to Canada. It was a three day clinic and. And now he's. He frequents up there all the time in his clinics. But this was like the very first time and it was just like so elite if you could get into that deal, right? So I went to that clinic and he just really inspired me. Just his ability to be able to see livestock and see how he needs to clip something in order to emphasize one thing or minimize something else. And he just made it look so effortless, like watching him clip a neck or clip a top or even any. Any part of the animal's body. You watched him do it and you were just like, how does he make it look so easy? Because you go back to the animal, then afterwards, after he does his instruction and you're doing it yourself and you're like, his hair just doesn't even seem like it's cutting. Like how he made it look like. He just. He was the Wayne Gretzky of clipping to me. Like, he just. That's a hockey thing. Just in case you're wondering, Canadians coming out of me there.
- [24:27]
Weston Hendricks
But I was like, who is that?
- [24:31]
Raymond Gonay
Probably the best hockey player of all time in the NHL. And so for me, I just idolized his ability to. To his work was just so effortless, right? And so I remember sitting there watching him and going, man, if I could ever one day clip like that, it would just, I mean, it was just be amazing, right? You know, so that I obviously, growing up showing there was older, older kids showing that that were very successful as far as, you know, kids that I grew up with in forage that I knew they won the team fitting contests or they were the ones that were winning the show, and they did a fantastic job. And I did a lot of watching. I absorb everything visually is. Is how I really like to take things in and then I want to do it hands on as far as take what I see and now turn it into what I can turn it into myself. I was very blessed to have been given an artistic ability myself. And so actually my mom always said that she wanted me to go to like, art school or something because she always. I did a lot of pencil drawing, pencil sketching. I was always doodling on my homework, drawing cows. Obviously. I always had a. An ability to see things and know how I wanted it to look a certain way. And so for me, clipping became easier for me because once I gained the confidence on how I needed to take the clippers and how I needed to hold them and how I needed to run the stroke of the, of the blade in. In different situations, then I was a. I already knew how I wanted it to look. I just didn't know how. How to get the A to B, right? And so once, once Kirk Stewart actually kind of taught me the proper way to do things, then, I mean, I just dove right into it, right? And then it just becomes a deal where more practice makes you better. It's just like anything with sports. I mean, the harder you work at it, the more muscle memory you can get to something. The more experience you have in different situations, the more prepared you are. And so I definitely, after that clinic, really upped my game as far as being able to get one presented, which at the time, I mean, I was just fresh out of high school. I thought I was just dialing them in, right? You know, I look back now at some of the pictures. I'm like, I remember doing that and thinking, like, I had them whipped that day. And I'm looking at it now going, that wouldn't even cut it at a county fair today. I'm like, man, I thought I was good back then, but it's just everything, everything's come so far. I've obviously had a lot of years under my belt now, and so And I am, by no means do I think of myself as, as one of the greats at all. I think I'm very skilled at what I do. But I mean I could list off 10 or 15 people that I think can clip circles around me. I can hang with, I can hang with the best of them. But I, by no means. I guess if I had, if I had a kid that was showing, I would probably have a couple other guys. If I was really trying to win that state fair or that big show, I would probably tag a couple different guys in to clip my kids calf before I would do it because I think I'd be too nervous too and I'd want them wanted to look right, you know what I mean? So yeah, as far as mentors go, definitely Kirk Steerwald is definitely right up there and there's been some others that have, that have helped me along the way here too. But truthfully, he was the one that really, really enlightened me to a lot of, a lot of things. And then because of the, of my situation where I, you know, like I said, I grew up in Canada and I didn't really know anybody when I moved down here per se. I had to rely a lot of it on myself. It's a lot of it was self taught once I got down here and just, it was repetition, it was clipping as many, just really trying to hone your skills in to get, I need to get those where I can clip them tighter and clip them smoother and just up in your game every time and every time you fit a leg you just. I want to make it look even better than I could before. But like I said, a little bit of advantage I've had is having that artistic eye to where I can see I can look at something and know if it looks right or not to me. Like I just, I have a certain style and everybody that's, that's a successful clipper does have a certain style that they've got. You can look at a calf at a show and tell usually a certain crew that might have fit a certain calf because of the way that they like it done. And that's good that there's variety. But I myself have a certain style and so I can look at any calf no matter how they're designed. And I try to taper all those things towards my style. I don't ever clip a calf the same because obviously you can't just put the same leg on every calf because the way their structure might be or the, or the way their Hair is. But I've always tried to, at the end of the day put that signature look that I try to get on things as far as just crisp edges and clean and smooth and, and just not look bulky and raw looking. It just, it's, it's very. Trying to look very streamlined and very smooth and clean cut has always been my kind of my signature look. And I've had a lot of people tell me that, oh, they see a cap at a show, they can just tell if that's a back leg I've done because it's just the way that they've seen me do them over and over and over again. And so I guess that means I've accomplished a certain level of ability there to where people can pick my stuff out. So I guess that's kind of cool sometimes when people compliment me on that. But a lot of it's just come from repetition and a lot of practice and just a lot of experience. It's taken years and years and years of clipping thousands of them to get to that point where I can feel confident enough to clip a state fair champion and potentially win that show and have it look elite. I mean, it's taken a lot of years to do it, but it definitely, it definitely goes out saying that if you, if you don't stay on top of things and just really do a lot of it over and over and over again, it's. I don't, I want to say you can lose it, but you're not, you're not going to be as sharp as you would be if you're in the heat of battle all the time. Right. So I try not to take too long. Like I take the spring off the self seam and I really don't do much clipping or fittings for those couple months. But then I'm right back into it for junior nationals in through state fair season and then sale season and then we've got, you know, the fall majors and whatnot. So I probably spent nine months out of the 12 months clipping. So it's easy to stay, stay really sharp at it because you're always doing it right. So.
- [31:05]
Quinn Hartley
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- [31:59]
Augustus Sexton
So would you say that just repetition and that is the best thing for young, young individuals who are wanting to start clipping or is there anything in particular that you would say is something that helped you along the way to really advance your skill set?
- [32:14]
Raymond Gonay
I think definitely that repetition is a big part of it. Just to build confidence to know how to really get one tight or just. And I will tell you this, learning how to do things. Don't ever be afraid that you're going to make a mistake because I still nick ones. I mean cattle move, they don't stand still all the time, right? So if you're going to enter into the heat of battle, you better be ready to take the wrong swipe once in a while. But you're not going to ever get better if you're not willing to have the confidence to just really, you know, tune into it and really be one with that animal when you're doing it. So a lot of it is confidence building. But I would definitely say if you're a young person starting out, learn from somebody as far as the parameters of what to take and where and all that stuff from someone like a Kirkster Walter, like go to those clinics, go to the reach out to maybe whoever you buy your calves from and do a one on one with them and just really dive deep into knowing where you need to be, taking certain things down and where you leave certain hair here and just knowing the basics of that. So when you go in and just start clipping on stuff that you're actually doing it in the areas and doing it the right way. So it's kind of a two step process like find out the fundamentals to where you know exactly what you need to be doing and then it's a deal where now get your confidence up to where you can get it as good as you can possibly get it and do it over and over and over again. Start clipping on stuff that doesn't even matter. You find a leftover calf somewhere, find something that's skinny and not going to be ready for a while and just clip them. I mean the hair is going to grow back even if you nick one, it's okay. But you're not going to be able to learn if you don't Clip a lot of them. So do more of it than do less for sure.
- [34:10]
Weston Hendricks
Yes, sir. And I completely agree with that. I'm a West Texas kid that grew up shearing Brahmins, so my whole background of clipping cattle is not there. It's something I definitely want to get better at. And being here at Blend College, being with doormates with these Cajuns, they have definitely taught me a whole lot, especially with their haired state fair. But with that said, I want to focus now on your cow herd and how you built that to the success that it is today. Maybe some stories that come along with it or some advice on how to build a firm foundation for success. And then with that said, how did you build your. Your brand, your operations name, and then market that to where people are like, hey, we should trust this guy or hey, we should buy from him. Like what, what was your approach on that?
- [35:04]
Raymond Gonay
Okay, so as far as the coward, like, are you referring to like when I had the stuff in Canada and how I built it up to like that or kind of what I've got down here now, as far as.
- [35:14]
Weston Hendricks
Yeah, since you moved to the United States and being new with everything and such?
- [35:19]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah. So a lot of what I've got right now for what I would call the cowherd because I don't have a whole lot of acres here to actually run a large volume of cows. So mainly what I've got is a donor cow base. And with the IVF technology and embryo work, we put in a lot of embryos with co op herds. And that's kind of how I've been able to raise. A lot of the stuff I have that's been quote unquote, home raise is through just donor selection. And a lot of that's come from having partner cows with people or show heifer stuff that I might have kept a part of one here or there, stuff like that. It's just being selective as far as finding genetics that you think, and not even just the genetics, but the actual animals themselves that you think are. Are outliers or ones that can generate because of the way that they're built. And I hate to say it, a lot of times in the female side of things, there's. There's definitely a difference between one that can probably win the big shows in the show ring and then the ones that probably might not get it done, but can out generate those ones that sometimes do win. And so you just kind of have to lay your priorities on what you're trying to raise because usually the females that are going to raise the high end steers probably won't win a whole lot of breeding heifer shows because they're not going to be designed to be feminine enough and just toned down enough for what we need to have a true breeding female look like. So I try to get a balance of both. I mean, I have some cows that I own that are probably geared more for making breeding cattle. And then I have some that are definitely more geared for making show steers and raising club calf stuff. And so just finding that, that diversity there and trying to figure out which ones are which and just try to stay hooked on high quality genetics and just focus on, on pedigrees that are proven. And a lot of what we see today as far as successful cattle that get shown or sold, a lot of the best ones go back to someone's genetics that have been successful from anybody's program. Right. So if you can access those genetics from somebody else's program that's successful, that's always good options like that. I do that myself. I try to find certain things that might be out of another breeder's herd that's been very successful for them because I want to take what they've done and then maybe put a different twist on it for myself or maybe even just copy and paste what they've been doing. And we see a lot of that now with ET and IVF stuff is there's a lot of people around the country that try to do that. They try to buy embryos or, or buy daughters of very proven donor cows to then kind of be a cornerstone for their own program to build off of. And so I think there's a lot of availability in today's day and age to do that. And like everything, it just takes money. You got to try to navigate that because a lot of these, these cattle that are, that are, that elite are, they're expensive. But it's an investment. And I hate to sound like this is definitely something that gets said a lot, I know, but you have to, you have to spend it to make it right. So you can't expect to race a whole lot of elite stuff out of bargain bin cows, right? So sometimes it takes the risk of making an investment like that that's maybe a little bit more what you want to give. But usually those types of investments, you know, will pay off if you do it right. So it's just, it's just being selective and, and being very, I guess, in tune with the industry as to what's popular and what the trends are. And. And, you know, matings and stuff like that, and just immersing yourself in the business to where you really know kind of what's going on. You can't just shoot from the hip in this deal anymore. It's. It's definitely something where you have to eat, sleep, and breathe it if you really want to be successful. So that's definitely the mindset that I have with. With raising stuff of my own, for sure, is just try to try to find the best genetics you can for what you can afford and then try to capitalize on it. And ET Work is definitely a way to do that, because you can use genetics from some of the best programs in the country and not have to necessarily buy cows or bulls yourself. Right. So it definitely gives you opportunities that we didn't used to have back when it was just AI or just natural service.
- [39:41]
Weston Hendricks
Yes, sir. Well, you had mentioned. This is something that had popped up as you were talking, but you'd mentioned trends and breeding for trends. One question I'd like to ask, and it's a conversation we've had on this podcast before, but we had someone say, trends are made by the breeders and not the judges. I want to know your aspect of that question, especially being in the Midwest where there's nothing but hair. And, I mean, we're Texas boys, so we obviously share slicks and all that. Good jazz. But I want your perspective on that with you being so involved.
- [40:15]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah. So I think that there's a little bit of. A little bit of both, because I'm not going to say that the show ring doesn't potentially push a trend sometimes, because I know for a fact that we've had breeders that have raced or done certain matings because they think that that would generate what they think is the popular thing to show. And so if that's their mindset, in certain instances, it's because of what's being selected. Now, at the same time, the breeder can sometimes influence it as well, because if all of a sudden a mate really hits hard that somebody tried and creates an outlier in a breed, well, now if that outlier goes and wins all those shows, well, now the judges are going to go, okay, well, if that's the kind that they. Maybe. Maybe we need to kind of lean into that. Maybe that is a progression we need to see. Right. So I guess I'll give you an example. And I was fortunate to be involved in this. In this animal as well, would be like Riverstone Charms, for example, the limousine female. We worked on that female with the Ratliff family, and she was an outlier. When that heifer walked into the living breed, we had no idea that the impact that she would have. I would not say that at the time when she was showing that she looked like anything else, I don't think she necessarily fit the trend of what they were kind of picking then. And I'm not going to even say that the breeder that raised that heifer was trying to raise one that that would do that. It just kind of happened. And that female was so influential in the breed, and still is to this day. She's still raising countless national champions or daughters are raising countless national champions all over the country, all the majors, junior nationals, you name it. An animal like that, that, like I said, can be an outlier, can totally influence the direction of a breed or the direction of show cattle in general. Because all of a sudden, if something, you know, kind of sets the stage and just shakes things up, it's. It's then very possible that other breeders want to go, okay, well, I want one like that. So I need to breed more. Whether it's power into my cow herd or more look, or whatever, whatever that animal was an outlier for. Other breeders go to those shows, or other judges are at the show and they see those animals and they go, wow, that one was really, really good. Maybe I need to be looking more for that type of thing, or as a breeder, maybe I need to be breeding for more stuff that looks like that. And so I think a lot of those trends can be influenced by chance, honestly, almost more than anything, because if you really get one that just shakes things up, it definitely gets people's minds thinking about what they can do in their own programs or as a judge, get them thinking about, well, maybe we need to be looking more in towards things like this or certain specific traits like that that that one had. And so I think both can work cohesively together. Where things get off track is where we have judges that are just steadfast and will not think outside of the box and will not change their mentality or judge cattle in different environments and judge them as if they were in their environment. For example, like cattle in Indiana or Ohio are raised in an environment that's nowhere near, like, Montana or south Texas. Right. And so when judging livestock, I've always personally thought, where I'm judging, I need to judge those livestock for the environment that I'm in, Because those type of cattle cannot necessarily perform the same if they were not in that situation versus if they were somewhere else. Right. So that's the only time I see trends kind of stub their toe is. Is sometimes with situations like that where we don't take into consideration different environments and different situations as far as how those cattle are handled or situations where they're brought up just because things are different in different parts of the country. Right. So besides that, I think. I think everything can work cohesively and trends can be kind of set based on quality. And I really do think that the outlier topic of conversation definitely is something that will really influence certain trends, because until something really sparks interest between breeders or judges, it's hard to really push an agenda any. Any different direction, because there's no reason to. These cattle have gotten so good here lately, unless something really goes, wow, I've never seen one like that. How much better can we make them at this point? Right. So it's tough. I mean, things have gotten so good, and it's really hard to. To say that there's not different varieties, But I think we're just trying to make them as elite as we can make them at this point. So it just comes down to personal.
- [45:22]
Augustus Sexton
Preference, and you talk about all the trends and that, how they're set by the breeders. I mean, you two have a lot of bulls that are, I would say, are very trendy in the way that they're made. Can you talk to us kind of about your bull battery and what you have to offer?
- [45:38]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah, absolutely. So we kind of have a nice mix of club calf bulls that are kind of for the. The process of raising show steers and whatnot. But then we also offer some really cool maternal bulls. And I've probably focused more on the main AJ breed here recently than anything, just because I think that those. Those females are really what's being integrated into the club calf side of things on the female side. So, for example, probably our most popular bull right now has told you so. And he's a club calf bull that we were lucky enough. He came back triple clean. We own him with Linton livestock and young show cattle. And we had him in Denver two years ago. So this was his first calf drop born this year. And so he's a young bull, but probably has had the most momentum out of any bull I've ever been involved with from the time I first moved down here till now. Just absolutely incredible response. The whole Denver experience was just mind blowing. Just the amount of feedback that we got and just the amount of momentum we got off of that. And then for him to come back triple clean Like I said, was crazy. And then we started getting the first calves this spring and he comes back with a red gene, which we had no idea he had, that opened up a whole nother avenue for offspring. And so knowing that we can use them on colored cows now and the first calf crop has looked absolutely phenomenal. There's been. I actually was just working on the high cellar list the other night. I think I'm over, over 30 head that I know of that have sold over 10,000 this fall out of his first cat, which is for a rookie bull is crazy because in this day and age. Let me give you an example. In this day and age, there are bulls that are very proven in this business. And so when you go out on the road selling semen, for example, like I do in the spring, when you pull on someone's property, they've got their core group of cows that they know, especially if they're donor cows, they know what bulls they work to. They've been flushing them that way. They've been getting all these ET cabs. They've been averaging whatever it is they're averaging on them. That's their bread and butter. They know what they're getting to. Then convince them to not go with what is already working and is already proven. And they already have a 99.9% guess that what they're going to get and say, hey, I want you to try this new bull. He's completely unproven, but I think he's quality. It's very difficult. It's a very hard upsell. And we were fortunate, like I said, to have a lot of momentum coming out of Denver. So being that he was triple clean, it gave him an avenue where he could get used on dirty cows. And everybody that's raising club calves has got some of those. And so we didn't necessarily get in all the best cows the first year. I mean guys were sampling it. That's the biggest thing is that all these proven bulls, that's where the volume is getting sold right now. So to try a new bull as a breeder, and I can't blame them for this, I would probably be the same way. You're going to try five, you're going to try 10 units, maybe you'll sample it. You're not just going to go on a brand new bull that's completely unproven and just blanket breed 50 cows. Those days are. Those days are gone. That doesn't happen anymore. First of all, most people don't have that many cows are going to AI Most everybody's flushing their best cows. They might AI. If a guy has 100 cows, they might AI 20 or 30 cows. The other 70 are all resips and they're flushing them and putting embryos in. So the amount of cows that actually you can get AI'd anymore is already diminished drastically in the last 10 years. So you've got that working against you. Plus the fact that they're new and unproven. So to be able to get a high seller list like I've got on a rookie bull like that with no idea how to mate the bull, no mass breeding of them as far as it's not like all these breeders has bred all their cows to them. And that there's just been thousands and thousands of these calves born. It show. It's a true testament to how good the genetics were and how potent he is. And the momentum that he's got now is even more so than when he was displayed. Because now not only do they like the bull, now he can back it up with a calf gruff. That's been successful and hopefully we can continue that on with getting some winners and stuff the first year. And it's just going to keep kind of fueling everything going forward. But I have a lot of faith in the bull. It's been very popular and definitely one that I think has got big, big things coming ahead of them. So that's definitely a bull that's garnered a lot of attention is actually brought our company a lot of new customers and new just introductions to a lot of different breeders that we normally wouldn't get. And so that's been very helpful getting our foot in the door because there's quite often other bulls that we can then sell because we gain a new customer. Right. So told you so is definitely a big one. The other two that I would say are really, really hot right now that we've got are no hard feelings and Apex and those are both main edgy bulls. No Hard Feelings. We took to Denver last year and it was a huge hit. Similar to told you so. Very, very popular bull in Denver. He's a purebred main and he froze a little bit late, but we still got a lot of it out even late in the year. Still super popular. And we're actually. I just brought him home from the bull study other day. We're hoping, fingers crossed. If he will do everything he needs to do, there's a chance he'll come back to Denver as a 2 year old because he looks that impressive. So that's ank is definitely going to get a lot of people's attention as a mature bull. He looks very, very, very impressive and so we're really excited about him. Apex would be another one that we picked up late. Late spring last year had incredible reports of people using them on a lot of donor cows. He's been very popular and that's definitely one that we're selling a lot of semen on as well. We then we, I mean we carry a lot of other bulls for, for different people too. Like I carry Rogers Livestock's club cap bulls. So like chosen one tricked out next man up. All three of those bulls have been very, very popular as well. And they've complemented my lineup because it, for me it's, it's nice. I don't have to go out and buy that many bulls. I can, I can buy one or two a year and then complement the rest of my lineup with other people's genetics that I like that, that kind of fill some of those slots that I need for certain breeding recommendations and whatnot. And I just try to compile all the stuff that I like or the style of cattle that I like and they can offer solutions for a variety of different breeding scenarios. And then that way when I go to someone's house, I've got a calving ease bowl and I've got a main bull that's appear red and I might have a half blood main bull that's good for making females and I've got a th care club calf bowl that's colored and one that's black. And I've got told you so who's clean and just you have the variety pack so that you can offer those customers not just the solution to one thing, but the solution to a variety of things. And so I've always tried to be well rounded in everything I do. And so when it comes to the selling semen side of what I do, that's why I've tried to really compile a group of bulls that I can offer that I know are backed by, you know, really, really good cows. These aren't just one hit wonders out of some random cow that got AI'd. They're usually out of generational donor cows or cows that have proven themselves. I really try to put emphasis on that as well. Because let's be honest, the consistency side of things, that's where you're going to find that. And so if you don't have consistency, what's the point? As far as I'm concerned, if we're going to Try to have other people use our genetics. We've got to have some sort of backing to that, to where we have confidence that when they use our product that they're going to have good results. And obviously they can't all turn out. But minimizing the risk of having things not turn out well is definitely something that you want to take into consideration. So we really do take that serious and try to make. Make our selections for AI sires based on a lot of that criteria. And so I guess being that we've been sticklers for that, that's probably why we've been successful, especially here in the last few years. It's really exponentially grown. I think we've really made a big dent in terms of providing bulls that people are really wanting to use, first off. And then second of all, they then turn out and they work. And so those. Those types of situations just help kind of push things along and create an agenda to where you're more well known for providing bulls that they're going to work. And so just building that reputation is definitely something that's important to it.
- [54:30]
Weston Hendricks
Yes, sir. And so your club calf base is obviously been proven and phenomenal, but this is what gets me excited. Like the highlands just, I mean, on social media, eyes in come out of nowhere and you got a horn highland that looks like a hairy man on you. Just 10 times more of this hair and it's clipped perfectly. And I'm like, oh, where did this come from? And then you've proceeded to take that thing off further and further and it's become really successful. But I guess the big question I have on it is, what led you to the highland breed and what opportunities did you see pursuing it?
- [55:13]
Raymond Gonay
So I guess that's a long story. A little bit. It stems back from, I mean, Sterling, my fiance, like I said, some of the first cattle that her dad ever bought her were highlands. And we didn't really talk about that until we both kind of showed some interest in it. Is that when that story came up. And so she provided kind of a childhood story about she remembered having them around and that they were really cool. And. And that was back before this trend of them being popular was ever a thing, obviously. And I kind of had a similar story growing up. There was a greenhouse, oh, I don't know, 10, 15 miles from where we grew up that my mom used to go pick up a lot of stuff from for her garden. And when we were little kids, I remember taking us along with her, and at this greenhouse, they had this herd Of Scottish Highland cattle. I don't know how many they would had 40 or 50 of them. They were always around. And so I just always remembered seeing them and thinking that they just looked so different. And I guess part. Part of the attraction to it, obviously, was the hair. Just the club calf kid inside of me just thought, like, man, what could I make one of those things look like? And so I guess fast forward to just a few years ago. Greg and Pearl Walthall had been helping Star Lake and definitely kind of really pushed the agenda as far as clipping those things and making them look pretty cool when they were showing them in Denver. And I just. It kind of set off the light bulb in me that said, man, I think I want to try that. It just looks like it would be fun. And so we just kind of ventured into it and took what Sterling and I both have as far as our ability to. She's a livestock photographer, so she's got a really good eye for cattle as well. And we just kind of dove into finding livestock that we thought was elite for the breed, no matter what. We sell a lot of different breeds here in the fall, you know, with our calf sales. We've never sold any highlands like that in terms of that for competitive edge. But we just kind of started this. This little highland thing. It's kind of a fun hobby, but then it's actually turned into a business now at this point. So we just took what we knew as far as selective criteria on, you know, what elite livestock has to have, the fundamentals they have to have, no matter what breed they are, and then obviously put our twist on top of it with marketing and presentation and just all of that stuff together that Sterling and I are able to do and kind of burst onto the scene, so to speak, and made a pretty big splash because we're both the same as far as if we do things, we want to do it at a high level, and we want to do it professional as we can and really make an impact. And so we really did think out a lot of our marketing strategies and a lot of our. Just the way we conduct ourselves as far as social media and presence on social media and the time when to upload things and to get the most viewership and all those things. All that stuff really definitely helped build a business. And so we just kind of launched this whole highland connection thing and. And showed them in Denver. And it's. It's been very successful and it's been really fun. And so we just try to take that same mentality with Everything we do is just do things on a, on a high level as far as presentation and marketing and, and being very, very polished with all that stuff. So that at any point when you're looking to attain a new customer, if they're seeing your stuff, they should hopefully be impressed with what they're seeing. So you never want to give your customers a bad look. So we just try to always make sure that cattle are highly presented when they see them. And our marketing materials are very professional and clean cut and that's definitely been the way that we've always gone about things.
- [59:07]
Augustus Sexton
Would you say that you could see the Highlands with how far that breed has come lately being crossed in with club calves to help get more hair? Or do you think that's not gonna happen?
- [59:19]
Raymond Gonay
That's actually a question that we get asked quite frequently because of my affiliation obviously in the club calf industry. And I don't know that it can necessarily totally be used to do that. But I will say this. We had one that we sold last spring. She was a fall heifer calf. We had a Highland cow that wasn't registered that we bought. The very first one that we bought. We didn't know the difference in, in papers and not papered and whatnot, because I guess there was two associations. But long story short, this, this cow doesn't really have the papers that we needed. And so I bred her to life's a trip and thought, let's see what that does. So we raised a fall heifer calf that was really, really, really cool. And she ended up selling online in Devin Olson sale. I sent her to Devin to sell and she brought thousand dollars. It was crazy. The popularity was there for sure. The popularity is there for sure. But I don't know that I would think you'd have to breed them for quite a few to get them back to where they were dangerous, stout enough to compete at that high, high level. But I mean, as far as a half blood goes, that, that one for a breeding heifer was more than adequate in all areas and, and actually's been pretty fun to, to kind of see how she's matured. So I think there's definitely some, some marketability and some options there to generate some dollars. But I don't know that it'll ever be able to really infiltrate and be infused into the club calf industry is as much as what, what some people might think it would have just because of their hair. But it's definitely been fun to kind of play around with it for sure.
- [60:59]
Weston Hendricks
So one question I got is like roommate was just showing me the video how like with her being a half blood highland, how stout was she in terms of shape, muscle and actual rib shape overall compared to like if she was a full on club calf?
- [61:17]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah. So I guess the best way I could describe her was she was more than adequate for breeding heifer. If she would have been here, she probably wouldn't have had enough punch. But definitely for a breeding heifer, she was plenty feminine but still had enough shape to definitely be competitive in that circle for sure. She definitely had more than I had expected. So the F1 kind of cross there definitely the club cap side of things definitely pulled through more than I, I'd anticipated, which was good because I mean I wanted to try to see how close we could get to, to what we would normally have for a kind of a crossbred heifer in the club cab deal, how close that one would be in comparison. And it really wasn't far off at all. We actually had that one surgically dehorned and we clipped her. I mean we clip them just like a normal, normal calf. And so truthfully, if I would have never told anybody that she was out of a highland cow, there would have probably not been very many people be able to tell the difference. They would have just thought she was a real hairy club calf siren heifer. So it was, it was kind of neat to see how it all came together.
- [62:26]
Augustus Sexton
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- [62:54]
Weston Hendricks
Yeah, for sure. That one brought a lot of attention. A lot of attention. And with that said, like attention wise. A big question that I wanted to ask you, especially with this, I guess becoming, if you want to say a small business or whatever, and that's obviously marketing all the people that we do and promoting ourselves, what is some of the marketing techniques that you can offer to not only us but any other young individual in the industry trying to grow a name in terms of your social media platforms and growing your brand to where people can see everything that you do in terms of performance.
- [63:34]
Raymond Gonay
Right. So a lot of the cattle that we sell here in the fall, I've structured selling everything private treaty here. We don't have a sale. I mean, I've had some sales here and there, but I would say 99% of the cattle that sell at CG every fall are sold private treaty. And so we rely a lot on our social media to kind of get the word out. And it's taken a lot of. Like I said, it's been. We started CG in 2014, so it's been 10 years in the making of building up those followers and the viewership that we've got on our Facebook page, website, Instagram, all that stuff. But the biggest thing I will tell you that we've learned that I take into consideration on every single post that I make is it's all about timing. If you schedule things or post things at the optimal times, your viewership will grow way faster than if you just post it whenever with no real plan. I'll break it down for you real quick. It's very simple to me. People's mentality in society right now, everything's social media is all over everything. Everybody's got their cell phones. And with that being said, everybody's got a job or they've got school or they've got something going on. But what's the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up? You check your phone. You check your phone, you check all your social media. You check your notifications, you scroll through the news feeds. The number one thing you can do when you're posting stuff is you post the optimal times. Like I said, if I make a post for a cap that I'm selling, I post it at 7am or 7:30 somewhere in the morning so that you're hitting the most time zones. I'm on Central Standard time, so it's 7:00am here, it's only 8:00 in Ohio, it's 6:00am out in Montana or Wyoming. So there's a lot of people that get up early for work. I'm probably going to catch some of Those guys at 6am that are up early. I'm going to catch the Central standard time at 7 because that's still before work or school. At 8am in Ohio, I'm still catching people that are just getting to work or whatnot. And you're still getting that optimal time of where they're most likely going to check their social media. Now, the way a lot of these algorithms work is in order to keep it on people's news feeds and keep it on people's timelines, there's got to be enough momentum at the start to where, especially on Facebook or Instagram for that matter, because they're both linked together where the algorithm will say, okay, there's been this many people, look at it already, we maybe need to keep other people that are related to those in the know and we need to kind of keep that floating around, right? So if you can get it in the mornings or after 5:00 in the evenings, when people are home from work, home from school, they're back on their phone sometimes. The reason I feel like sometimes our posts probably get the most momentum is because we do it first thing in the morning. So we're going to catch all that traffic. Now everybody's got lunch breaks, they'll get back on their phone. If you've had good momentum that morning, it's still on people's timelines at lunch because there's been enough traffic to it and so I still catch some there. And then by the evenings, we've had enough momentum throughout the day that it's still, it's still there, right? It's still resonating there. Sometimes I'll make a post in the evenings and we'll usually get really good viewership, but it won't run near as long because 10, 11 o'clock at night people are going to bed, right? So we're running out of time there where if you post in the mornings, you've got, if you get it going right, you've got the full 12 to 16 hours of the day where you're getting the most people that can potentially see it. So I definitely, I tell everybody that that is, number one is try to make your posts when your viewership is going to be the highest. And once you start to describe that to people as to why it would be like that, it makes perfect sense because that's generally when we're looking at our phones, is in the mornings before we get busy, and in the evenings, you know, when we're done for the day. And the in between part, you're always going to have some viewership, but if you don't get it rolling early enough, you're going to miss some of that stuff, right? So that's definitely number one. Number two is don't be afraid to engage with your followers, reply to your messages, reply to comments, do all that stuff, run contests on your page to try to generate followers, do interactive things. It doesn't always just have to be about business. You can post about what you have going on and instead of just always trying to sell something, sell something, sell something, let them know who you are as people Give them a deep dive into what you have going on as far as what you're building. Let them feel like they're a part of what you're doing. Right. And once people feel involved, they're more inclined to want to follow along with what you've got going on. So, for example, with competitive edge, a big thing that we try to do is not just post sale cattle. We do a lot of updates on high sellers, on stuff out of our bulls or we had an open house here this fall. We took pictures of that just to show kind of what went on if you weren't able to make it. Just little things like that. Dropping bulls off at the bull stud. We let people know, hey, we're at 605 sires today. That's where we get a lot of our bulls collected. Just content all throughout the year, not just during sale season if you're, if you're a livestock business or whatever you have. But just try to stay pretty, pretty busy throughout the whole year with content so that you always have something kind of that you can share with your followers. Because the biggest thing that you will start to lose viewers from is if you never make any posts because nobody wants to follow an account, if nothing ever gets posted, right, they're going to forget about you. So try to stay on top of feeding that machine, so to speak, to where there's going to be people wanting to look at it. And then the third thing would be definitely try to make things exciting. Try to make things to where they'll want to share it. Right? The biggest, the biggest thing that we get followers off of is when we have a video or a photo that, that really grabs somebody's attention and it gets shared a lot. And those shares are so huge because it just, it spreads it out all over the place, right? So definitely always be thinking about when you're going to post something. Make sure that it's something that's a. If it's, if it's just something that you're. You're putting out there, like this is one for sale or this is a show winner, whatever, that there's those posts. But then really put your emphasis on if you're gonna maybe boost a post or sponsor a post, do the ones that you know are going to be the things that are going to get the most attention. If it's a. For example, when we go to launch a bullshit for Denver, that's always something that we try to sponsor and just really push that narrative to where it gets the most attention because those are the things that are going to gain you a lot of followers. That's exciting stuff. It's something new. Right. The other stuff that you do throughout the year is to keep them involved, but really focus on the ones you need to push, because you can't just do it to all of them. You're not going to get the same reaction all the time. Right. So just try to focus on what things you think are really exciting news and really push those to your audience. And that will help boost things and get errors and spread the word, and then your. Your followers will just start to really, really increase. That's. That's at least what we've seen on our end, is some of the things that, that have really helped social media presence and just build your brand and build your network of people that you're dealing with, for sure.
- [71:32]
Augustus Sexton
Well, you certainly do have the platform to push that, and it's very neat to hear your perspective on how to make the biggest impact with selling your cattle on that.
- [71:44]
Weston Hendricks
Yes, sir. And so I guess the next question I'd have for you, I've had so many people tell me, hey, you've got to ask Raymond this. This has got to be a convo at some point in time in your podcast. Podcast is how this, you being a producer for hip hop has come to be. So for everybody who's listening, the beats that are behind our intros, ads and outros is proudly and generously given by Mr. Raymond. And what I will say is, I. I mean, obviously he's pointed out customer service is a big thing for them, but it took one text for me to send to Raymond and one phone call for the guy to answer. And all of a sudden I had eight to nine beats that we could just use for our podcast for free. And so one, I want to thank you for that, Raymond. And obviously I've gave you my condolences before, but one thing I want to know is, like, how did that come to be? But what. The biggest question I want to know is what happens when a rapper, a rapper asks you what is show cattle? Like, what's your response to that? And how often do you get that?
- [72:54]
Raymond Gonay
Yeah, so that's been kind of a part of my life that I really never anticipated it being a thing, and it just kind of turned into a thing as well. It all started with, I, obviously I listen to a lot of hip hop music. Everybody knows that about me. I've always been. Been known for that. And I guess I get asked a lot, like, well, what draws you to that? That music or, or whatnot. And it's always been for me it's, it's not even, and I know this sounds cliche to say this, it's never really been about the lyrics. It's, it's been about just the upbeat vibe that the music usually has. It's, it's, it's not slow, melodic, boring music. It's stuff that gets you pumped up. It's stuff that's, it just, it just gets you excited, right? It's, it's very upbeat, high tempo, energizing type of music. And that's my personality. I, I, I literally feed off of that type of energy, right? So I want to get excited to clip a calf or I'm at a show and I want to try to do good. I'm just trying to get, get that mindset of just staying in the moment and being excited about it and just, and just being upbeat myself. And so for me, I've always just been kind of a follower of the hip hop community and whatnot. And so a lot of where this stemmed from was from Instagram, just following different artists and I actually started interacting with one that I'd found on a page at some point in time. I can't remember, this has been a couple of years ago now and so reached out to him in DMS and we just started to kind of communicate about if I could help him just from a business perspective as far as kind of managing and helping him grow his own deal. And so started working with him and kind of got linked in with some actual music producers as well that make the tracks and make the beats and stuff like that and started helping manage him as well just from a business perspective. I was looked at by them as someone that knew how to run a successful business and gave some insight from a listener's viewpoint as to what they could do to better themselves and make themselves more popular or make their music better and just started giving them some advice on certain things. And when I gave some of that stuff to them and they started to see the results coming back positively, it created this relationship where they really relied on me to, to help them make decisions to, with their career as far as, you know, what, what songs to put on, what album and what, what would get the most views as far as, you know, when they're making a music video where they need to be shooting. And just all of that stuff came from my expertise in terms of just running a business. It just being involved in business as long as I had been and knowing what it takes to get people to notice you and your marketing and all those things. I took a lot of what I do with my cattle business towards that. And yeah, one thing that they definitely, when people get to meet me in that industry is they. They see my Instagram page and they see what I do for a living and they're just. It's been nothing but positive feedback all the time that they're just so amazed about the whole thing. They've. Most of these people have never even seen a cow that's clipped. They've never. They don't even know that that thing existed like that. Right. So letting them out a little bit as far as what I do for a living, it's always exciting for them too. And so we just always kind of hit it off and it's kind of like a deal where they recognize my ability in what I do and I recognize their ability and what they do as. As far as being really talented. And it's just looked at, we both can have that mutual feeling of like, respect of that we're, you know, a master of our craft, so to speak. And so I was able to start working with a lot more music producers and a lot more artists. Just kind of spider web from the first initial few that I'd worked with. And it opened a lot of doorways where, for example, the one music producer ends up landing, I think, with six or maybe seven tracks on Trippie Red's album that not that long after I started managing him. Yeah, Trippie Red's a multi platinum recording artist. I mean, he's incredibly famous, incredibly talented. And so that created an opportunity where I got into a relationship with him and his manager based off of us being involved in that album and was able to kind of shed some light on what I do for a living and created some cool conversation there where actually him and his manager got involved in owning part of a promotional sire which we call Life's a Trip, which is actually one of Trivia Red's older albums, not the one that we were on, but one of the older albums. So I named him that. Just. I thought it was a cool name. I'd been saving it forever to use it. And it just seemed fitting that Trippie Red was from Ohio, the Bull was born in Ohio and he was owning a part of them. And so just a really cool marketing strategy, I thought, to promote the Bull. And it did. It went off like gangbusters. Everybody loved it. And so it was really fun to do and just created those relationships where people from a different walk of Life, get to know kind of what we do and vice versa. And it's just. It's been really fun to kind of immerse myself in that whole industry as well and get to meet some of the people I've met and be in meetings and being in rooms and recording studios and doing all those things that I never would have dreamed I would have done when I first moved down here, for sure. But it's been a lot of fun and just being kind of tapped in with the music industry and, and the respect that they've given me has been really cool just from someone that has. You know, obviously I'm not from the music industry originally, so the, the ability for me to kind of converse with those people and in terms of record labels and all kinds of stuff, that that tape that we were actually on ended up going gold and was number one on the Billboard. And so just. It's just really cool stuff that I never thought I would ever get a chance to do. So it's been really fun to kind of just be involved in the industry from a. From a managerial point of view and just see that things that I can offer in that industry as well have helped further their careers and done stuff for them as well. And so it's just been really fun to just kind of do something a little different.
- [79:46]
Weston Hendricks
Well, like, it's just awesome. I. I like it. I mean, I've grown up on a lot. Well, I say I grew up, not really, but I, I do like hip hop music and same way that it gets you going, it gets me going, and I listen. It's literally one of the first artists I listened to when I started listening to hip hop was Trippy Red. That's crazy to even know. I didn't even know that you were involved with him. So that's really cool, to be honest with you. And with that said, I think Augustus has got a question for you as well.
- [80:18]
Augustus Sexton
Yeah, know, I just wanted to say again what you said, Wes. I mean, ever since I've started seeing your Instagram page and that, like, how does this guy breed some awesome show cattle? And yeah, I think he's a rapper too. Like, what in the world is going on here?
- [80:36]
Raymond Gonay
That. That's def. That is definitely probably the biggest question I get asked is. I guess sometimes there's. There's some. Some I guess miscommunication on whether I'm actually doing the. The music myself. And it's not. I'm just. I'm more of a managerial position as far as is all that goes But I'm a big listening piece as far as sourcing the beats for, for different artists and putting those artists and music producers together to make, you know, songs or make an album and, and stuff like that. But I'm definitely someone that listens to a lot of the music, tries to pair things together to create those types of situations that can create songs. It's definitely more of that than it is actually me creating the music myself. But they have. There has been times where they have made me record in the studio just for fun and that it's been kind of fun, but they have not. It's not something that I think I'm going to pursue for sure.
- [81:37]
Weston Hendricks
That's good. That's good. Well, with that said, Raymond, what is one of your favorite quotes or Bible verses and what gets you going in terms of inspiration from Word?
- [81:53]
Raymond Gonay
Well, and I know we discussed this at the start what a favorite quote or Bible verse might be and boy, that's a tough one because I think that there's obviously this. Again, this is going to sound cliche. There's so many good ones. I'm going to tell you a little story here real briefly about an experience that I just had here recently that's. That's definitely changed my perspective on life and on a lot of things. A few weeks ago I was hauling a load of sale cattle home from Iowa and I was in a pretty severe rollover accident with my truck and trailer. I had 19 head on the trailer at the time. I rolled off the side of a gravel road off of a very steep hill twice and landed on the roof, crawled out of the truck after I got it shut off and was able to. We were able to get all the cattle off the trailer and re gathered up and back on another rig and got home and I walked away without a scratch. I didn't even have a bruise, nothing. And the cattle all walked away. There was a few that were a little sore, but no major injuries. The truck and trailer were completely totaled. I don't know if you saw the photos that I had on my Facebook page of the accident photos at the scene, but it was a deal. Where at the time I knew it was bad. I don't think it really sunk in until I was on my way home with a good friend of mine that ended up hauling the cattle and myself home. How lucky I really was when you start weighing in all the things that could have gone differently. I rolled through the fence and there was, I mean there was t posts that went through the trailer roof. There was Fence posts that went through the cab of the truck. The whole passenger side of the truck was completely crushed, but the driver's side wasn't. Nothing hit me that was in my vehicle. As far as any of the junk I had in my back seat, I didn't have my seat belt on, which I always do. I was only a mile down the road from where I left loading that morning, and I planned to get out to make a phone call at the stop sign because I didn't have cell service, and so I didn't have my seatbelt on. My airbags never went off. I can go through a long list of stuff that I don't have the answers to as far as how or why things worked out the way that they did. I mean, the wrecker flat out told me that when they got to the scene, they said they've seen some rollover accidents like this with trucks and trailers. They've never seen anybody be able to walk away from it like that. Cattle or people as well, with no injury whatsoever. They just. They. They've never seen anything like it. And so there is only one answer to why all the things happened the way that they did, and that is the good Lord was looking out for me because any other thing could have changed so slightly, and it could have completely changed the outcome of that whole day. And like I said, riding home, it started to really sink in that just how lucky I was and how blessed I was to be able to survive that, that it just. That wasn't my day. And so for me, since that point, I've had a lot of reflection, and I've had a lot of moments where I really battled with mentally thinking about, you know, the why me? Question, you know, why was I spared? Why. Why did it work out the way it did? And the only answer I've really been able to come up with is that God was trying to show me that he needed me for some reason. Whether it was to help someone or many people in life with anything, I don't know yet what that might be. But if it's inspiring people, if it's teaching people, if it's just being a mentor to someone, there, there has to be a reason why, like I said, I was spared that day. And so I guess as far as a quote or a Bible verse that I could come up with to describe kind of what I would like to associate my life with, I. I guess I don't really want to put a label on it for right now, as far as I. I'm concerned the way I want to. The way I want to, I guess, leave. This is. God works in mysterious ways, and I'm here to prove that to everyone. Because if you don't believe in God after a situation like that, then I don't know what else would make you a believer. Because when you can walk away from a situation like I did and have no answers besides, there has to be a God, it'll really, it'll really put things into perspective for you, for sure, and definitely change the way that you go about life as far as how you treat people, as far as how you present yourself to others and just do things in a godly manner at any time that you can. And I know we all get caught up in the heat of the moment with things and, and I'm a sinner like anyone else, and I'm not proud of it. I'm not. I'm not a perfect person. But God forgives everyone and I'm, I'm only, I'm only here because of him at this point, and I'm convinced of that. And so going forward, I'm definitely, definitely going to take every step I take with that thought in the back of my mind because like I said, things could have, could have worked out completely differently and we might not even be having this conversation right now. So it's definitely something I think about every day as far as remembering, you know, the situation and why I'm here. And, and it's definitely, definitely changed my life. And I think for the, for the good, for sure. It's definitely given me that perspective and that understanding that, that there's a, there's a bigger purpose to all of this, for sure.
- [88:16]
Augustus Sexton
That is one impactful story right there. All right, as we start to round this episode out, I'm going to ask our final question here. It's what empowers you as a person, caretaker, operator, or customer to be better than who you were before?
- [88:35]
Raymond Gonay
Well, that's a really good question. I think the biggest thing that influences everything that I do is for me, my, like we talked about my story, it's kind of a. It's kind of one of a started from the bottom type situation and work my way up the ladder. And so what really empowers me to, to further what I do, or better, what I do, is remembering where I came from and remembering where I started and acknowledging that it was not easy to get to where I'm at and I needed a lot of help along the way from a lot of different people. But the fact that I can now Say that I'm accomplished and I'm established. Being able to do all of that, it's enabled me to try to share that wealth of knowledge with others that you, you don't have to be the most talented person right away. You know, you, you can build yourself up to that. You, you don't have to be from a generational family that's been in the livestock industry or, or whatever sector of, of life that you're. They're wanting to be good at. If it's sports, if it's, if it's whatever, right? If you want to be the best, there is absolutely nothing stopping you besides yourself. So as far as empowering myself, I just remember, you know, where I started and how far I've came. And the sky's the limit, right? It's, it's all, it's all a mentality. If you have a positive attitude and you believe in yourself and you really want to work hard at it, absolutely anything is attainable. And I know that you see a lot of different people make statements like that. As far as if they're athletes or movie stars or whoever you might see on social media that gives an impactful statement like that when they're accepting an award or giving an interview is like, oh, if you work hard and you stay after it, you can be the best. It's the truth. If you have the right attitude and the right mentality, you're your own worst enemy. If you come at things with a positive attitude and don't let yourself get down and fight against yourself, you can be as good as you want to be, you know, so just definitely don't ever give up on yourself or don't doubt yourself. Is definitely the thing that I think empowers me the most is just truly believing in your abilities.
- [91:13]
Weston Hendricks
Ranch House Designs is America's rural marketing hub. They're a proud sponsor of Empower Use new and improved website. We couldn't be more grateful for their efforts in helping us build a brand. But with that said, they can do the same for you. Creating and backing some of the biggest brands and websites in the industry. Trust the process and Visit them@ranchhousedesigns.com Yes, sir. Well, one thing I want to point out is I've never heard that story and everything that you had gone through to get up to the point your life now is being in your faith and on your path. One thing that I'd like to point out is I believe that everyone has a purpose here on earth, whether it's in any industry that you're in whatever passion you have or whatever goal you want to achieve. But it's like you said, no one's perfect. You're going to make mistakes, and you are going to be a sinner. Whether you like it or not, it's going to happen. But take that criticism or mistake, don't do it again, and continue to get better, and do it for his glory. And it's exactly your words. We would not be here if it wasn't for Him. So the biggest thing that I can preach is keep him in the back of your head or in the front of your head, preferably, and know that it's all on him. And control what you can control.
- [92:45]
Raymond Gonay
Absolutely.
- [92:48]
Augustus Sexton
All right. Well, as we end this episode, we like to finish them up with a scripture. This episode's scripture is John 14, verse 27. It says, I am leaving with you a gift, peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give you is a gift the world cannot give. So do not be troubled or afraid.
- [93:14]
Weston Hendricks
I think that speaks a lot to everything we've been talking about for the last 20 minutes.
- [93:18]
Raymond Gonay
That definitely hits on a lot of things for me, for sure.
- [93:21]
Weston Hendricks
Absolutely. Well, with all this said, Raymond, it's been an absolute pleasure. And the fact that you took an hour and 30 minutes out of your day to join us really makes me grateful. But more so all the knowledge that you were able to give us and the people who listen, this is a deal where it's all voluntary. And so for people to come on, give their story and advice to the listeners is something that's truly impactful. And so one thing I would like to point out as well is don't be afraid to give that phone call or send that text to someone that you strive to be like or mentors you even. And so don't be afraid. The people who are having name or elite in what they do want to help the younger generation be better than who they are or be just as good or improve their skill set. So don't be afraid. I was afraid, but I took the jump. Obviously, we are here where we are today, and it's been phenomenal. But thank you, Raymond, for coming on and taking time with us to have a little conversation. And we give you the best condolences and blessings from here on out.
- [94:38]
Raymond Gonay
Well, I appreciate it. Thanks, guys, for having me. I think what you guys are doing is really great, and it's really cool to see young people like yourselves that are kind of go getters and really wanting to step out and do things as well. So I was young, like he wants to. And it definitely, it definitely makes me feel good that there's still kids out here like you guys that are wanting to get after it so good.
- [95:02]
Weston Hendricks
Yes, sir. Well, we appreciate that a lot. And so to wrap this up, this is going to be empowering you with Raymond Gonay. I think I pronounced that right.
- [95:12]
Raymond Gonay
Yes, sir.
- [95:13]
Weston Hendricks
And thank you all for tuning in. We'll be talking to y'all later.
- [95:22]
Quinn Hartley
Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @empowerupod for episode sneak peeks and merchandise updates.
- [95:31]
Augustus Sexton
But also go take a look at our new website, empowerupod.com where you'll find our team story, sponsor update states and much more. Once again, we just want to thank y'all for tuning in. And please follow us on Spotify or Apple podcast and leave a five star rating. If you like what you hear, have a blessed day.