C (2:51)

Yeah, so my, my dad grew up my first off. I grew up showing livestock my whole life that would go back to, to both my parents was actively involved in NFA and showing, showing pigs there. And so I didn't really have a choice. You know, I was born into it. Actually the day I was born was the day that my dad farrowed a sow that, that, that pig actually went on and was the champion Berkshire there at Houston. And so that was kind of something that, you know, I really have a choice. You know, I was going to grow up around the industry. I was going to show and I'm very thankful that I am and I'm excited to say that, you know, just having a three and a half month old now that I'm dang sure going to try to do everything that I can to make sure he follows in the same footsteps in terms of growing up around the industry and being involved at a very young age because showing livestock is the greatest thing that you can do growing up. And so kind of my background in terms of the marketing side and maybe those things actually stem from the fact that my mom and dad started a pig sale that many may know today as something that was very big. It was actually called the Perfect Timing Pig Sale. It started in Tecumseh or in Tuttle, Oklahoma. There kind of growing up I wanted to take on more responsibility, more leadership within the family business business there. And so that's when I stepped up and actually going into FFA there I was given the opportunity to start doing a record book. An SAE project, had some great AG teachers that pushed me along the way that asked me to do that and got me involved in the record keeping side of ffa. And so actually it really stemmed from the, from the fact that I took this pig sale and started adding several things alongside of it and started growing a record book within the FFA organization. In 2016 I competed at a state level and I was named the state Sarn Agribusiness and so was very fortunate to be able to do that in ffa. Then actually as the sales side started to come along at that time there really was no Walton webcasting. There was obviously no online bidding. We were one of the very first pig sales to have Walton webcasting come and live stream a preview and make the preview available to the public. And that was one of the things that we wanted to do was the graphic design piece of it. Just trying to really step up the game in terms of everything that we could. And so just kind of. That fell in suit with the ffa, with, you know, wanting to grow my record book, wanting to chase after, you know, a district star, a state star, and. And to be honest with you, after I accomplished that, I just kind of started branching out and doing a few things for some different cell managers and from some different guys in terms of some graphic design, some banner work, and actually started at Wintex Farms there in Lubbock, Texas, doing their videos, traveling, traveling to Will and Jay's there, setting a camera up, taking videos of the pigs that they were going to sell online and kind of doing that for, you know, maybe some of the very first time in this. In the swine industry. And then things kind of grew and I graduated high school in 2016. Something that maybe not a lot of people know is, you know, I actually went to college to play golf. I was on a golf scholarship, played two years there at Seminole State University, and, you know, really enjoyed that and actually kind of just did the sales on the side. And I actually met Christy Collins, as you pointed out there a little earlier. I met her at Embryos on Snow there in 2018. I had introduced myself to her and told her, and I'd kind of heard a few things, that she had built this CCI live. And I went and introduced myself and told her, said, hey, I would. I would really like the opportunity to, you know, provide this service to the swine industry. And she told me, she said, well, let's. Let's chat. Let's talk after. After this event. And I remember sitting there at Embryos on Snow, and I watched it, watched how it worked, you know, listen to them say online, you're out, and just different things. And my mind raced a hundred different ways. And. And with that, I still, I. I got nominated, if you will, or I got told by the state FFA Association. I was told that, hey, your application is going to be put in on the national level for a national star and agribusiness to run. And so I kind of had to go back to the drawing board with that and continue my record book and continue to build my business, all while playing golf. And. And then I was given the opportunity there to, to make a decision. And so I actually left golf. I went out to, to Alva, to Northwestern, down Oklahoma State, that is, that's where I graduated from. And my time there, I focused on growing what is now known as Kennedy Ventures. At the time, didn't really have a name, just kind of was something that, that, that I was working with there. And then during my time there at, at NWOSU was actually where I, where I ended up focusing on my SAE and ended it. And then in 2019, I actually stood on the stage there at the national convention and was awarded the national star in agribusiness over the, you know, obviously the United United States and that. So that's something that, you know, really pushed me in terms of, you know, one, to grow a business. Not from the, not from the standpoint of just working with people, but, you know, seeing what the, the FFA allowed me to do and the doors that it opened for me and the, the ability that I had to continue to go and grow all while then making connections, being able to provide a service for people's livelihood and so many other things. And, and so I, I think between showing livestock growing up and the FFA organization, you know, that's something that, that I will always trust, cherish, and then I will always look back on in, in terms of making a huge impact on my life.

B (9:54)

No, I, I agree for sure. And what I want to ask now is I read in a article that you, or I guess it was a Facebook post, not an article that you had been with CCI from the start or, or close to the start. What I want to know is what did you learn from Christy and that platform and then how did that help you develop your idea and I guess more so visual for Kennedy Ventures.

C (10:28)

Yeah, so I, I don't. I think that she says that she started in 2017. The first ever event that we did with CCI in the swine industry would have been the Oklahoma Youth Expo in 2018. And so in terms of, you know, obviously, yes, being. Being in the, in the, in the early stages of it and understanding, you know, from the ground up of what it takes, you know. You know, I've, I've got to know Christie very, very well and somebody that I respect, you know, a great deal. And I would say that, you know, from the very start, you know, she was very adamant that, you know, if you're going to do it, you got to do it the right way and you need to make sure that you cross every t And dot every I. And that's something that from the start that I've always took a great pride in is offering her services. And you know, to be honest with you, you know, I treat CCI just like I own it. You know, I do everything that I possibly can to make sure that it works at the absolute highest level that it possibly can along with anybody that works for me is the exact same way. Because at the end of the day, you know, the livelihood and the amount of money that's being spent today on these animals is no joke. And you know, that was something that Christy instilled in me from the very, very beginning is, you know, have, have great pride in what you're doing, but also make dang sure that you're, that you're doing it at the highest level that you possibly can. And so from, from the very get go, you know, I can remember when CCI was, was me and Christy and you know, Vanny and just a couple others. And then today it's grown to, gosh, I don't know how many operators she even has on the, on the cattle side and the sheep and the goat side. That, that's something that I don't even hardly know. Take a, you know, take a, any kind of a meeting or anything with him because I've kind of got my, got my hand in just the pig side and, and we're pretty busy as, as it is, so.

B (12:46)

Right.

C (12:46)

But it has grown. You know, I know that her slogan is, is gavels down the best. And to be honest with you, you know, I'm not, not not saying one, one is better than the other just because, you know, but, but I can tell you that, you know, Christy Collins, what I have been able to see from her is, is anything that I have ever went back to her or made a phone call and said, hey, I think we should do this or I think this, I think it should work this way or whatever. You know, she's always been willing and able to change anything to make sure that it actually works at the highest level for anyone. And I think that that is something that maybe you don't get in a lot of places that, you know, maybe something that's built for, built for one thing and just used for the livestock industry because I feel like we see that a lot in the industry is there's not many things that's built for just the show livestock or, or just livestock in general. And we're going out and using other services to provide to just livestock people. So I think that I Think it's very important to have somebody in your corner that understands livestock. And that was something that was a breath of fresh air. And having Christy right there by my side and helping me push and wanting me to be successful just as much as she wanted CCI to be successful in the swine industry.

B (14:15)

Yes, sir.

C (14:16)

Well.

B (14:17)

And something that I, I guess firmly stand on. It's a phrase the most growth sometimes comes with change. And I think that I always firmly believe in that. But you'd mentioned a minute ago hogs were selling really, really high. Or just let's put it this way, all livestock, good quality livestock is selling extremely high. How about that hog in Goss's sale? That thing was wicked good. But that was a lot of money.

C (14:48)

Yeah, that was crazy, you know, 525,000 record breaker, you know, which we just, we just broke the record back in May at the Exchange livestock event. Wild Time broke Sky's the limits record. Sky's the limit set the record in 2013 at 380,000. And we just broke it there in May with, with wild time at 475. And you know, and of course, you know, those two boards there was full grown, you know, those were bores that was ready to go home and work and ready to go home and, you know, be available even the next collection day that come around, you know. And this Goss, you know, I don't think it's no secret. I mean, Blake's one of my very best friends. You know, me and, me and Blake and Ty grew up showing at a very young age and man, you know, I'm super pumped for them and their family, you know, and you're right, I mean, just an incredible animal and being a Wingling for 525,000, you know, it's pretty crazy, you know, but you think of that and you think of everything that I've said, you know, both the, the winning bidder and the contending bidder there was, was solely on cci, you know, and so we're, we're talking, we're talking a half a million dollars, you know, in trust right there of bidding in terms of service. So, you know, that's something that, that you always got to take into account. You know, that's. I guess that's what I tell people all the time is, you know, we're not necessarily in the business just providing a service that we hope that works. We're providing a service that we know that works, that people can rely on, you know.

B (16:42)

Absolutely.

C (16:42)

And very, very important.

D (16:45)

And I think that, that's. To me, that is just crazy. The amount of money and things are going for. I want to know, like, on your side, behind, behind the table, behind the mic, how is it, like, what is going through your head when they're going for hundreds of thousands of dollars? Like, like, how do you still function knowing that I would be. I. I'd probably be shaking.

C (17:04)

To be honest with you. You're. This is funny. I've. I've had this question asked this past weekend. Everybody was asking, like, what was going through your head? And to be honest with you, I can't even remember. I kind of think that kind of back to, to. To wild time, you know, if you watch the video, I did a tick tock on it, I think, or somebody. Someone posted something about the video. And when Kevin Wentz said, I think it's time to take off our jackets, and we were 230,000 on wall time, I remember that I was sweating so bad that I couldn't hardly get my hand out of the sleeve of my jacket. And then my hand was sweating so bad I couldn't hardly move the mouse on my computer. And so then, you know, the other night was kind of the same thing. You know, we. We got up there at, you know, 300,000, and all of a sudden, you know, you just, you know, you can't hardly make a mistake. And that, you know, in that moment and in terms of running it, and then, you know, you don't really even have time to look around. And then you do look up and everyone has their phones out, because by the time we're at 300, then we're 400 and we're 450, and then we're approaching the record, you know, which was 475. And so then everyone has their phones out. And then you're thinking, in the back of my mind, I was thinking, dang, I sure hope I hit record on the computer, because if not, this is going to suck because I'm not going to have any. The audio. And so then all of a sudden, then, you know, we say sold, and then it's all over. And. And I would say that, that, you know, when it's all over, that is when you've got to refocus and say, hey, that lot's over, and we got to focus on the next one. Yeah, you know, we got to be prepared on the next one because, you know, whether that's Goss's or whether that's someone else's, it doesn't matter. You know, you've got to refocus up, make sure all your ducks are in a line and make sure everything's ready to go on the next lot. And so, you know, it is. I mean, it's. It is. I tell people all the time, you know, it's. It's one of the best highs you can have is going to an auction, you know, but to be honest with you, sitting behind the computer screen and running it, it's. Is the very best thing, I'm sure.

D (19:21)

Does it ever get to a point, like, while the bids are going on, like, is there a certain number, something where the crowd just kind of starts dying down and, like, how's the atmosphere change as the bids go on.

C (19:32)

On that one or just in general?

D (19:35)

Just kind of in general, even. Even on that one or anything? Because I feel like at that point, it got to be pretty quiet.

C (19:40)

Yeah, and that's the thing. That's. That's what I think is. Is. Is maybe the craziest thing is, you know, on a lot of these, when it is just, you know, in terms of, you know, like, the board the other day, you know, there's no action in the crowd, so everyone is just kind of turning around and looking at you. And. And to be honest with you, in that time, it's. It's me and my computer and the auctioneer and the iPad waiting for another bid to come in, you know, and. And then it's the time of, you know, how long do we wait on this person to bid? You know, I know that several people, you know, several people ask, you know, said, dang, you know, you know, how do. How do you guys know when it's. When it's time to go? You know, how do you. How do you know when the trains leaving the station? And to be honest with you, there is no. There isn't a right answer to that, you know, And I think that, you know, obviously, if you're. If you're in the crowd there and. And you can go out and ask a guy and say, hey, are you done? And he says, yes, but when you're online, there really is no, hey, are you good or you not, you know, and so the atmosphere in the crowd is different. You know, when. When we do these sales that, you know, I've done a sale before that, that I've showed up and. And the only two people in the entire room was me and the auctioneer. You know, we rented a whole facility to have a sale, and it was me and Kevin went. Walked into a room and Louisville, Kentucky, at the at the Holiday Inn Express. We were the only two there. And you talk about being nervous and we had an incredible sale, you know, and I think that, I think that's where we are today in the industry in terms of marketing. I think that we provide so much, so much information in terms of videos, you know, video voiceovers, catalog information, write ups, pedigrees, data, as much things as we can provide. There is no reason for someone to call anymore. There is no reason for someone to reach out to you and, and to be honest with you, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. You know, I wish I had that answer. I know that that's where we're going to, but I hear all the time, you know, people will say, man, I don't know how it's gonna be, you know, no one, no one's called, no one's reached out. And then when the sale's over, you ask them, well, how'd you think it went? And they're like, oh my God, you know, we wanted a two thousand dollar average and we averaged 4,500, you know. Yeah, but you know, I mean, honestly that's, that's where we are today. There's so much information at your fingertips that you don't have to, you don't have to reach out, you don't have to call because you can quick Google search and if you don't know what a bore is, you don't have to ask anybody anymore. You can just google it and figure out what studies in and what he's done and everything else.

B (22:43)

All right guys, we'd like to tell.

A (22:44)

You about the businesses and operations that have powered this platform and we couldn't.

E (22:49)

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A (22:53)

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E (23:10)

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A (23:23)

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E (23:39)

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A (24:05)

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E (24:15)

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A (24:22)

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E (24:52)

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A (25:10)

For more information about Reed Vessel Ranches, including their private treaty, cattle sires, donors and upcoming sales, visit their website@reedvesselranches.com you mentioned that Blake.

B (25:24)

It's cool because I just reflected back. Why did I start the podcast? Well, I wanted to provide a service for people to listen to leaders and not have to bug them on their phone. I watched a lot of people that were mentors of mine constantly deal with trying to answer the phone and get back with people and answer questions that they didn't know. So that's one of the main reasons why I started this was to provide that service to people that didn't have that opportunity. Fortunately for me, I was able to call those people and people like you, get them on the phone and say, hey, this is what I'm trying to do and afford a service to mainly kids, but I think that we've grown a lot more past that. But even just talking about all of this, go back to while you were at CCI and building that with Christy. I want to know what developed CCI and maybe just a small story behind that. But what was the biggest change that helped y' all become successful before you ventured out into your own operation alone?

C (26:29)

Yeah, I would say, you know, kind of a two part question there. You know, the first off There is, you know, I think that, you know, I've never, never kind of went out on my own. You know, I've always, I've always stuck with cci. Now in terms of, you know, the only time that I really went out on my own here is the fact that, you know, I've kind of got my own, my own crew and just a division of cci, you know. But in terms of still, you know, me and Christie, we still work very closely together on, on so many things. And to be honest with you, you know, thinking back, I thought about this the other day, you know, what, what changed in the industry in terms of, you know, just really taking off and you know, the first year that we did it, that we provided the service, I would say we had eight sales, you know, and in 2018, you know, I made mention that we did oie, you know, perfect timing that year in 2018, I want to say we had 218 lots and I think if my memory serves me right, we sold five of those online. You know, you fast forward to last year, we had 352 lots and we sold 134 of them online. You know, so the substantial difference in terms of, is how we've came. You know, I don't want to say that there was necessarily just a light switch that we switched on and one day it started working. I would say that it was a full blown grind, you know, starting out, you know, and, and you know, I want to say that, you know, our very first year doing it, you know, the Oklahoma Youth Expo, believing in me and trusting me to provide a service, you know, especially these guys that maybe didn't know who Christie was, you know, obviously they would have at the Oklahoma Youth Expo, but you know, King of the hills, we just got done having a tremendous sell for them this last weekend. You know, we sell, we sell however many there was there 150something head for a million to, you know, had an unbelievable sale. And you know, Mark Stanley was one of the very first ones that when I made the call and, and asked to do, you know, provide online bidding for his sale in Decatur, Texas, which was king at that time there was only one king of the Yale sale. And we provided that service for him there. And heck, that was, you know, that was something that, it was just little things like that, you know, no different than Will Winner and Jay, you know, believing in me and trusting in the things that, that I have done for them and Stu Dildyne and you know, Luke Lidner and I mean I Can I can continue to name names, but, you know, those. You know, Those handful, those eight to 10 guys that got me started, that allowed me to show, you know, the industry that, hey, that it could be done. And then you have people like, you know, Jesse Heimer that has a sow sale, you know, and. And one of the very first times that we just decided to sell them off the picture, you know, and there was no alive animals running in the ring, and they were just on the photo. And we sell $1 million worth of females where there wasn't, you know, 60 people in the crowd and we had 300 people online. So it was little things like that that, that, you know, allowed us to grow in the industry. And then as time. Time has evolved that, you know, there has been a huge trust factor. And, and, you know, I don't want to say that there's anything good that come from COVID other than the fact that it got people used to utilizing their cell phones and their computers more. They got an understanding of how to use them, and to be honest with you, be more comfortable with using technology. And in the time that we are today, technology is around us. We have the AI building everything for us. We have so many different things at our fingertips, you know, and I would say that, you know, a huge challenge for every cell today. And this. This wasn't starting. This was a challenge starting out. It's a challenge today. It will be a challenge in five years, and it will be a challenge in 10 years is the Internet. Is us having good Internet and reliable Internet to provide, you know, the service that we can at the highest level. And I think that that's maybe, you know, people all the time ask me, say, hey, you know, what keeps you up at night? And to be honest with you, you know, what keeps me up is the fact that, you know, Josh Brogman has trees all around his barn, and we use Starlink that looks at the sky. You know what. You know, and, you know, I know that that's funny, but. But at the end of the day, it's true.

B (31:47)

Yeah.

C (31:48)

I mean, just like the other day, the last time we was there, you know, we had a sale and, you know, we sell a. We sell a pig for $180,000 online. You know, well, if. If our service goes out or anything like that, you know, heck, that. That animal doesn't sell. You know, it doesn't sell online. And. And obviously there's phone bidding and everything like that, but, you know, when you open all that kind of can of worms, then Then things get dicey for sure.

B (32:22)

And this is a question that just come in my head as you were talking. You said AI has become pretty profound in a lot of ways here. I guess last year maybe two. I don't know if this is a question worth asking, but I just got feeling. Do you think AI comes into any of this at any point in time? Does that come across your mind at all?

C (32:48)

In terms of what?

B (32:50)

Just helping like I guess marketing wise, AI I've seen has helped with social media in terms of making posts and coming up ideas with reels. Do you think AI is at a point where you would feel comfortable writing, making a write up for an animal or being an auctioneer per se online? This is just random thoughts going through my head. I'm just thinking out loud. But I'd like to know your opinion on that.

C (33:18)

So all the, all the social media posts that we make today at Kennedy Ventures, providing for our services, all the graphics that are made for social media, advertising, customer sale, everything is all done AI, we have an AI that is built that we feed information to. When you book a sale with us, we ask for your logo. When we ask for a phone number and an email address, we build your profile and when we hit start it sends off and it generates a 1000 by 1000 pixel graphic to go on social media. It makes a 19 or an 18, a 1080 by 1920 graphic for stories, Snapchat and everything like that. Incorporating your logo with our branding and everything into generates five social media posts and we have everything set up in a portal. Every customer of ours has a portal that they can log into and get all their graphics. One really cool thing that I've built in terms of technology wise is I've been a believer in not necessarily building or providing services that I won't use. No different than Walton Webcasting and live streaming. A preview. That's something that we use at all of our events. CCI is something we use at all of our events. And, and actually just built, just built a piece called Next Cell Manager which is an application that a consigner can fill out at a consignment sale. Put all their information in, you know, animal id, sire, dam, breed, sex, description, picture, video, anything like that, submit. It organizes everything for the cell manager into a Google sheet, takes the photos, the videos, everything, puts it in a Google Drive, renames everything in terms of animal id, breeder and then cell name and just kind of organizes everything for the cell manager so they don't track it down and Then what we've actually done is been able to take and used AI that we actually generate the social media graphics that you see us post on, on social media to help advertise those sales. Probably don't want to let the cat too far out of the bag, but we do have an event coming up that in the next two weeks that, that I have, I have played last night I was up till wee hours of the morning working on it and running a test. But we are going to build a catalog for an event there, the she Sell. And it will be done 100% AI and so awesome. We, we will, we will take the information in. The information will be due on, on a Tuesday and the sale will be Thursday and Wednesday. We plan on releasing the catalog and, and it'll be 100% AI generated. You know, the one thing that I want to say because I'm sure that there's several people that might be listening right now and maybe getting ready to turn it off or maybe have already turned it off, but AI will never replace the graphic designers.

B (37:06)

Agree.

C (37:07)

It will never replace those individuals that build the best catalogs there is because it's never going to have the touch, the, the tweak, the, you know, the human design portion of it. You know, where AI can help you is giving you ideas. You know, in my case, you know, two weeks ago, Nexo Manager, we had, we had eight sales. You know, we had over 500 lots that we generated graphics for. We generated 500 graphics in 38 seconds.

D (37:51)

That's insane.

C (37:53)

And, and to be honest with you, you know, I mean, there's there's some really, really good people at graphic design, but there's no way that I could, I could hand that to someone and they generate it, you know, and so we've, we've taken some stuff and, and you know, and, and been able to build it. And we've been fortunate. And like I said, we're, we're working towards a simple catalog. You know, something that maybe, you know, all the descriptions are right there and everything. And so that, that is, that is something that we are super, super excited about. We're going to try it at, like I said, at she Sell. That's one of our family's personal sales. So if it doesn't work, you know, it's not for a customer, it's, it's technically for us. But like I said, we've, we've tried it out three times. We ran it made 300 and something pages last night in a catalog in under a Minute, you know, and so I can tell you that I build the exchange catalog every year by hand and I can tell you that the 150 lots that we have in that, you know, it takes me three days to do that and, and last night to build 300 and something pages that quick is. It's kind of crazy to be honest with you know, and I encourage anybody that's using AI, that's, that's using Chat GBT or, or, or whatever that you're using. You know, make sure you're prompting the right questions and asking it the right questions. Don't take shortcuts, you know, don't ask it just to make a social media post about your pig. You know, prompt it more in depth questions about your target audience, the way that you're wanting to go about things. You know, put a call to action in there. You know, take some, some marketing sense and some of the things that you use in marketing every day, take that to Chat GBT and you will notice that it will make you smarter and smarter about your marketing. And until then, all of a sudden you find yourself using it less and less and less. Yeah. So you know, that's just kind of one of those things that you don't want to use your, take your life and, and let it revolve around AI and let it do everything for you. But when it, when you can take it and it help you, you know, and it better yourself then, then you need to try to use every advantage that you can.

D (40:26)

Yeah, I think, I think that's crazy how you brought up about how I can make those catalogs for you. I even. I've honestly have a picture on my wall in my dorm room that like put in a printed and put in a picture frame. I was looking when I got to school and there was like two pictures that I wanted to get but like I wanted like a little bit of that one, a little bit of that one put in the Chat GPT. It like combined them got me the marriages exactly what I wanted. Like re ran it a couple times to get it like exactly perfect.

B (40:49)

It.

D (40:49)

It blew my mind. I was, I was amazed. But they kind of tack onto that like you all say you're using it in that next sale. Do you ever think a time where it could almost be the auctioneer for you all, like set it up to where the bids run through it or.

C (41:03)

No, you mean build an application like in terms of building an application that could be an auction site or actually just doing this sale for you, like.

D (41:15)

Doing the sale as, like a speaker.

C (41:19)

Like that might be down the road, it might be far reach out.

D (41:22)

I'm just curious.

C (41:23)

That's. That's way out there. I've never thought of that.

B (41:27)

But I mean, even with all of this, like you said, I don't. I don't think the graphic designers that are out there and even photographers, for example, could ever be replaced with the human touch, because I think they all have a value in. In some way, shape or form in the industry still, because we wouldn't have what we. What we can look at today from 10 years ago if it wasn't for them. So. And I think that can still play into a huge part of our industry even today with everything that we have at the tips of our fingers. But what I want to know, Blake, is what was the biggest flaw in marketing as a whole that you've noticed since you've started Kennedy Ventures?

C (42:13)

Oh, that's a. That's a deep question. And to be honest with you, you know, your mind goes a. A ton of different ways in terms of, you know, flaws of, you know, not. And not in a bad way. You know, in. In terms of just, you know, I don't want to say by no means, by that Kennedy Ventures is doing everything right, because we're not. We're far from it.

B (42:41)

You know.

C (42:44)

I think that if we sit here and if I sit here tonight and tell you that, hey, we're doing. We're doing everything right and everybody needs to follow us, there's no one on top. Now, I'll be the first to tell you that that there is. There's four or five different individuals, different pages, different companies that are pinned on my social media search bar that I look at every day to figure out how I can be more like them and better myself and. And keep up with the Johnson's, if you will. Right. You know, in terms of a flaw, you know, in. In our business, you know, I would say that the biggest flaw that we have is we. We don't market ourselves near good enough. And I know that's crazy, but, you know, until. Until I actually hired a girl to go to work for me that all she did was focus on Kennedy Ventures content, promoting Kennedy Ventures, promoting the services that we offer. We've done a terrible job of that. You know, there's so many people that'll get on there that'll call and, you know, we have a whole printing division in terms of the stuff that we provide, and there's so many people that say, dan, I didn't even know you did that? Like, yeah, we do a terrible job advertising ourselves. You know, people ask all the time, like, oh, dang, I didn't know you did videos. Yeah, sorry. We just. I mean, and I'm being honest. I mean, you know, that's a. That's a huge fall. That. That was my. In 2024, when I sit down, my goal was, for the second part of the year was to do a better job marketing Kennedy Ventures as a whole to the public. And to be honest with you, I think that we've knocked it out of the park. You know, some of the stuff that we've done, it's kind of been stupid, I think, but it's got a lot of traction and got a lot of views, I guess. So.

B (44:47)

Right.

C (44:47)

I'm for it.

B (44:48)

Yeah.

C (44:48)

Yeah.

D (44:49)

So, like, you just mentioned y' all been doing the. The videos and stuff for these pig sales, too, which. Guess it's more like the. The cattle sales now, because I know that that, like, having videos with pictures and pigs has not been around very long. So kind of what goes into picturing and video and pigs. Like, I know I haven't done a whole ton of helping in picturing pigs. I've done a bunch of cattle, like, sale pictures and stuff. I know that's a crazy sale day. So, like, kind of what goes into doing a pig side? I'm just kind of. Kind of curious on y' all side of it.

C (45:18)

Yeah. So the. The one thing that I can tell you right off the bat, and I have. When I've. When I've told Christy this, you know, she's kind of laughed, but, you know, much like the. Maybe the cattle and maybe even other species is, you know, when those guys go and picture and video, you know, they're going to picture and video, and they sell. Might be next month or even might be in two months. We just videoed some pigs today, actually. The boy that works for me, Nate, he kind of. He heads up the video division there, and he finalized some videos tonight. He actually just texted right before we got on and said that he was leaving the office. And that sells tomorrow, you know, and so you talk about an extremely quick turnaround in terms of, you know, the videos that we have to get done, the videos that we have to turn around. You know, not every video is perfect. Most of the time we go, we've kind of got a little spreadsheet or a little Google Doc that we send customers and just kind of tell them if they're new, you know, kind of some things that we encourage them to do in terms of, you know, either they need to be whip broke or they need to be able to follow, follow something in terms of maybe either like tuna or pudding or mud or just anything which I know is, is extremely weird, you know, because you know, most of the other animals, you put them on a halter and you can walk them out there and in worst case keep them on the halter. But it, but in a show pig perspective, you know, that's something that, that isn't going to happen. And so it's, it's very time consuming. And those guys that take pictures of livestock, good for them. I don't have the patience. I never have. I mean, heck, me and dad raise a few pigs and I don't even photo this. I can't. I've got the camera, I've got everything that it takes. But the thing that I lack is the patience in it. And so it's anyone, that photographer or any of the photographers that do livestock, go ahead and pat yourself on the back because you've got, you've got something that I don't have. The video aspect is something that I've always enjoyed and, and I like them in motion. I don't, I don't buy livestock unless I can't see it. And, and that was kind of one of the things that, that Wintex got me started out doing the videos for him is he always said, hey, we're going to show you what they really are and what they, you know, three dimensional. You can see them coming at you, going away and everything. And I hide anything and I kind of took it and ran with it, did it for some other customers, you know, Colson, Evan Green and his crew, you know, they've been phenomenal to us over the years in terms of working with them. And then now, you know, just the other day at the established, we videoed 40, 40 lots. We started at one o', clock, videoed 40 of them, took those videos 100% edited on, laid a voiceover on, clean, cleaned them all up, published them out by 4 o' clock that evening and then we actually sold them at six o' clock that, that night, you know.

B (48:50)

Yeah.

C (48:50)

Wow. And I actually had, I actually had sent the numbers that, that night to Jay and it was pretty crazy. Whenever I looked at it, I got them right here. There was, there was 40 videos from the time that we posted them to right after the sale. 4100 views, 1064 unique viewers, 48,150 impressions. So, you know, in terms of a Quick turnaround. You know, that's, that's full fledged. I mean, that, that's, you know, and I got to give it to Nate. And you know, Cooper helps out and I even help out in places in terms of videoing. But, you know, that's something that we really enjoy. You know, I know Nate, he sure takes a great pride in it and we try to do as good a job as we possibly can to, you know, take a pig that, that maybe we videoed that there was a champion somewhere reserve. You know, I think our most recent was last year at Kansas City when we made that, you know, that post. Nate went out to Goss and took a video of that pig. You know that that video was used to sell the pig and then the pig end up when winning Kansas City. And you know, the biggest question in everybody's mind is, you know, what's what that pig look like as a video, you know, as a baby pig. And if we have the video, you know, if we have that video to provide back to them, that's, that's something special that we can do. So that's why we always try to, we try to post those on social media. Every time that we track one down and we see it.

A (50:36)

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E (50:42)

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B (53:12)

Yes, sir.

D (53:13)

I think that's crazy how y' all can like video and picture them and have them out that day and then they sell within the next day or two. Like, I think that is extremely beneficial because I think like on the cattle side, sometimes, like you said, these things can go a month or even two months before they actually earn a. In a sale since they've been pictured and I mean in that time span, them caps change like crazy in that time. So I think it's pretty unique and extremely helpful having it done on the spot. So, like moving forward for Kennedy ventures and everything, what changes do you all. Is there any changes or anything big kind of coming for you all?

C (53:48)

So in terms of changes, I don't necessarily. I don't really see us any changes now in terms of bettering ourselves. Yes. You know, every day I think it's my goal to think about what can we do better for our customers? You know, what technology can we seek and find to make our services better? You know, just how can we keep up with everybody else? So I don't necessarily think of any industry changes or anything like that in terms of, you know, what are we about to do different than no one else can do? The answer is no, I will tell you that. You know, like I said, the next sew manager, building that for our customers, Using AI to develop social media graphics for customers. We just built a text messaging platform called text wave that we can now send out text to maybe like, if you guys have a list or whatever, and you wanted to send a bulk text out and everything like that. And so you're going to start seeing Kennedy Venture send a lot more text about advertising sales and different lots and stuff like that. But, you know, in terms of providing a better service to our. To our customers, you know, maybe the one thing that I want to get on is, you know, providing more social media posts to them. Not necessarily us posting it on our social media, but providing our customers more content to advertise to make sure everyone knows that, hey, this sales has online bidding provided by, you know, Kennedy Ventures and cci. You know, what. What can we do to make sure that. That our customers have the utmost, you know, successful sale that they possibly can. And so I think that. I think the changes that. That we look to make every day or that I look to make every day is, you know, at the end of the. At. At the end of the day, I'm a customer of Kennedy Ventures. And so what do I want, what do I want out of. Out of Kennedy Ventures? And what can I see better? And. And I think that's where. That's what's kind of made us drive every day is, you know, at what point. At what point do we need to make a change like what you're talking about in terms of, you know, all the time, I think, do we need new cameras? Do we need a new computer? Do we need new this, do we need new capture cards? You know, you can actually stay up all night or I can. I can stay up all night and just worry myself to death. And in terms of, you know, where, what direction we need to go and what we need. And to be honest with you, if it's not broke, don't fix it. So. Or, you know, yeah, if it's not broke, don't try to fix it. So I think that's something that. It's very important to me is, you know, just bettering ourselves for our customers and not trying to change much.

B (57:08)

And you say that you did not or you don't think that changing much necessarily resolves an issue. But what I want to tack on with saying that is you made a Facebook post, I don't know how long ago. For anyone that doesn't know the people that I interview, I go stalking to find questions. And that's just part of my job, I guess. So I can find interesting stuff to talk about because other people I just flat don't know. Blake was one of those people. But I Saw that post, I saw how many people react to it and how many people shared it. And I was like, yep, that's a question I need to add and talk about on the podcast, because I've never asked that question before, nor have I ever even brought that up. And so you made a Facebook post about manipulating livestock photos. Obviously that's changing and essentially frauding your livestock. But I'd like you to elaborate on that subject for me because it's become more and more common as time goes on.

C (58:12)

Yeah, you talk about just a simple thought driving down the road that turned into a Facebook post that turned into a storm of, of people dividing sides and calling and saying, hey, you should take that down. It doesn't need to be up to the people that's like, hey, thank you for posting that. You know, it was not about one person or another. It was not. It was not throwing punches at anybody. It was just, to be honest with you, it was a whole multitude of seeing livestock just across the board. What it happened with, you know, backdrop pictures, sell photos, promotional images, just. Just kind of everything. And to be honest with you, it was just kind of one of those things that just was absolutely fed up with it. And, you know, I think that we all know that those tools are available and, and there was a. There was another podcast out that, that a guy talked about working on those. Working on photos and when to do it and when not to do it. And, you know, I think I put on my post, you know, fixing. Fixing color or editing or, you know, maybe cleaning a. Shaving up or taking a fly off or something like that, you know, but when it comes to actually changing what the animal looks like in terms of making a heavier bone or making, you know, making him level or topped or just anything like that, you know, at some point, I think that you, you asked while ago, you know, the flaw of everything, and to be honest with you, the biggest flaw across the board is honesty. You know, I think that that might be honesty and integrity might be leaving just a little bit. And I think that when you talk about starting to manipulate the photo and everything, you know, maybe some of the. Some of the talks or the text phone calls and talks that I had different people about all my posts saying that, you know, the breeders need to make their stock better, you know, and I had a couple say, well, hey, you know, why did you put that. Well, hey, it's real simple, you know, make your livestock better and you don't have to edit their photos, you know, and. And to be honest with you, you know, us. You know, I. I think that I see a ton of posts all the time about, you know, the show industry is. Is going down. And in terms of numbers and. And everything else, that a. It costs too high and. And everything else. Well, you know, the thing is, is, yes, it does cost a lot. I mean, it's no secret. I mean, it costs. It costs an extreme amount. But. But at the end of the day, you know, if. If a kid gets online and. And doesn't have the ability to drive all over the world like somebody like myself does and sees them, and, you know, a breeder doesn't do a video, and all they do is a picture, and that picture is edited, you know, and manipulated, and they have a $750 budget, and they bid $750 and get it, and that animal is not what it is, and then they get it home. Yes, the breeder sold a $750 animal, but when that kid is not successful, they're done and they're not coming back. And the thing is, you know, the saddest thing to me is the fact that, to be honest with you, you know, an industry that I grew up enjoying so much is running someone else's life. And, you know, I think that's maybe where the posts come from was just, man, like, just be a good person. Like, if he's not good enough, he's not good enough. And, you know, you see all kinds of. All kinds of ones that are manipulated and everything else. And, and like I said, you know, I've had so many people, like, hey, list a name out there. Like, I'm. I'm not throwing anybody under the bus. I'm not gonna say a breeders name, I'm not gonna say a photographer's name. I'm not gonna say a marketer's name, because at the end of the day, you don't actually know if it's true or not. But maybe the people that, you know, defending, you know, things here and there, trying to get you to take it down or just whatever they're trying to do in the background, they might be the problem.

A (62:53)

Right?

C (62:53)

You know, so, you know, it's just kind of one of those things that, like I said, it wasn't about anybody. It wasn't necessarily, you know, so many people texted and was like, hey, who's it about? Like, man, it's just in general, it was just a thought of the day driving down the road. Like, man, you know, we just need to be better people.

B (63:18)

That's honestly fair. But I'll also add this, and this is just something that I notice a lot in the cattle world. And I'm going to speak on it, because why not? And we're already talking about stuff like this, so. But even there's breeders out there that will manipulate genetic scripts.

C (63:38)

Why.

B (63:39)

That's my question.

C (63:40)

Just why.

B (63:41)

Why can't we promote the cattle as to what they truly are? You know, that's what I struggle with, and that's something that I would never do and people that I look up to would never do. But that's one question I always had was like, why manipulate? Just, it didn't ever make sense. And so honesty, again, is something that I think we struggle with a lot in the industry. Just to quote unquote, promote the. The livestock that we represent.

C (64:12)

And so, and it's not just, you know, here's the thing. We can, we can talk about the show. The show industry, because that's what we're involved in. I'm sure you could go to, to a race car driver and they have the same thing and something. I'm sure you can go to the racehorse industry and they'll have you. You know, they have it there. You can go to the Buckenstock. I mean, you can go to whatever industry that you want to, and they have these same problems there. So it's, it's not just our industry. It's. It's every industry in the entire world, but it's just kind of one of those things that, you know, I think that so many people think that this is a hobby for some, but a lot of people, it's their livelihood. Yep. So.

D (65:02)

Completely agree, Blake, as we start to close this up, I know, you know just as well as anybody and way more than we even do. Days and time on the mic can get long. And I mean, I know the majority of the time when you're recording it, so from an hour, 45 minutes, hour, hour and a half max, and maybe, maybe only a couple times a week in, in a busy week. And y' all do it way more than we do for hours, hours on end. How do you and Yalls business kind of stay. Kind of keep the energy up and stay motivated and excited through these long days?

C (65:36)

You know, it's hard. You know, I, I think tonight, you know, I, I sent the text to, to Weston there and, and asked, said, hey, you know, you mind if we push 30 minutes back? Because when I'm home, I, I, like I said earlier, we have a, we have a three and a half month old here and when I'm home, I try to. Try to give him a bath and put him to bed, you know, and I'm gone a lot. I leave almost every Thursday and get home almost every Sunday late at night. And so, you know, being gone, that's something that I dang sure try to do. And to be honest with you, I think that one of, one of the things that keeps us going is the fact that we love what we do. You know, I know that, you know, at times, times I kind of get onto myself because, you know, I kind of think, dang, you know, I'm exhausted, I'm tired, you know, and. And I was thinking about it, you know, when I, when I was mowing earlier today, that, you know, if I'd look back in time and think, dang, what would I want to do as a little kid? This would. This would be exactly it, you know, and just be. Just be thankful for the opportunities that I have and be thankful for the things that. That allow me to get to do what I do every day. And then, you know, going to a breeder's place or going and working with, you know, just like these sales this weekend, you know, King of the Hill, the syndicate, going and working for those guys and watching them be successful and you crawling off the stage and, you know, the auction block or the stage or wherever you're at selling them, you know, the pride that you have in helping them be successful, like I said earlier, if that's not a high that you don't enjoy, then you don't need to be involved in it, you know, and just, you know, as a photographer, you know, someone going in, photographer, you know, doing a set of pigs or just doing a set of livestock in general, and then watching those animals go on and be successful, whether they're showing or selling or anything like that, I mean, you've got to take great pride in that. And that's got to give you some kind of energy to go on and do it more. And then, then I think when you look deeper into it, you know, find your energy of just wanting the, the industry to survive. And I think that's a big thing too. So, you know, it's not sold in a can, it's not sold over a counter somewhere of where you get it. You know, there's a couple of guys that they put out there that, you know, hustle sold separately and, and to be honest with you, I don't even think it's sold. You just gotta want it and you gotta want it for your customer too. And I think that that's what, that's what excites us to put diesel in the truck on a Thursday morning and fill up with death and point it in the right direction to get where we're going.

B (68:52)

Well, Meg, I'll ask you the last question of the episode and then we'll ended out with a Bible verse and such, but I'd like to know what empowers you to be better than who you were before.

C (69:09)

I think just, you know, there's so many, there's so many things, but I never, you know, at the end of the day I always look at what others are doing and what others are, you know, maybe trying to, trying to do and what I can do to compare myself to them. But I've always believed in being different. And my sole goal every day is to be better than the person that I was yesterday and then look and see what I can do tomorrow. And, you know, and I think that if you're in competition with yourself, then you will, you will do whatever it takes to continue to beat yourself yesterday and set goals for yourself tomorrow that you can just continue to do that over and over and over.

B (70:07)

With all this said, we usually end every episode of the Bible verse. I think it's fairly important to keep the good Lord in the middle of all of this. I'll just admit it myself. Sometimes I lose sight. I think every human does at some point in time. But it's important reminder for me to stay intact with the good Lord and I think that needs to stay involved in my podcast as well. But the verse of the day comes from Isaiah 41:13. It says, For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand. And it is I who say to you, fear. Fear not. I am the one who helps you. I think in any struggle or need, it's really, really easy to just seek out to him rather than going to other situation or other things more so. And so I'll just say, I mean that's something I struggle with, is going to other things rather than seeking to him. I'm. I'll openly admit at that, but I know there's other people that would do that as well. I think it's important to make sure that we can trust in him to go out and, and seek after what he has in our best interest. So with.

C (71:17)

Absolutely.

B (71:18)

With that said, Blake, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on with us. It means a lot. You're someone that I've followed for quite some time, especially just because your forte's marketing. That's something I'm trying to get good at myself. We've grown a lot, but we're definitely not at the altitude you are, but we're trying to get there. So I appreciate all the advice. I appreciate answering our questions with honesty and making this a really good episode. I think a lot of people can learn something out of. Out of this, so we hope. Have the blessings and in your life and keep rolling, man. You're doing great things.

C (71:55)

Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be on and to be honest with you. Anybody that's got any questions and. Or, you know, wants to reach out, reach out to me. You know, my. My numbers pretty much everywhere. It's pretty easy to find my Snapchat. Anything, you know, get. Get a hold of me. You know, I'll be the first to admit I probably won't get back to you right away, but I will get back to you. You know, just. Just because. But yeah, I encourage. You know, you said something earlier. You know, never feel like that, that you can reach out to some people. And to be honest with you, you know, I don't want to be that guy. I want to be approachable. I want. I want everybody to feel like they got a question with something that then maybe I know that. That I can help them or I can. I can make them a better person, you know, dang sure. I want to be there for them. I want to be. I want to be able to answer some questions for anybody that might be getting started out that, you know, even if you're wanting to do exactly what I'm doing, I don't care. There's. There's plenty of. There's plenty of room in the business for. For everybody. And so if you want to reach out and have any questions that I can help you along the way, don't hesitate.

B (73:20)

Heck, yeah. You heard it from Blake himself. So with this said, this is empowering you with Blake Kennedy. We will talk to y' all next time.

A (73:34)

Make sure to check out our website@empoweryoupodcast.org where you'll find our team's story, sponsor highlights and merchandise. But also make sure to check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram podcast PowerUpod to stay up to date on episode, sneak peeks and releases, merchandise updates and sponsor announcements. We are proud to have you as a listener on and hope you gained more knowledge through us. Make sure to give us a five star rating and have a blessed day.