May 9, 2024 • 52 mins
When the stakes are high and the fields are wide, you can bet Steven McBee and his family are there, thriving against the odds. Their leap from hunting enthusiasts to first-generation farmers is a story of grit and growth that's nothing short of inspiring. On the Big Dog Podcast, I sit down with Steven to unearth the roots of the McBee family's agricultural empire, which spans everything from corn to exotic meats, and how they've cultivated success while others are scaling back. Listen in for a candid conversation that reveals the resilience required to sow seeds of prosperity in today's farming landscape.
Running a family business is no picnic, and when your portfolio includes not just a farm but a car wash and a meat processing plant, the challenges multiply. Our latest episode delves into the McBees' tale of diversifying revenue streams, the relentless hustle of entrepreneurship, and the strategic moves that keep their ventures flourishing. Steven and I examine the delicate balance of stress management and decision-making that's essential when your income is at the mercy of Mother Nature. This is a hearty discussion for anyone intrigued by the intersection of tradition and innovation on the modern farm.
As reality TV finds its way onto the ranch, the McBees face a whole new world of exposure and opportunity. We peel back the curtain on the family's foray into the limelight, discussing the pros and cons of life under the camera's unblinking eye. Steven shares the behind-the-scenes drama and the business savvy that comes from turning real-life into reel-life. The episode wraps with a heartfelt reflection on leadership, the nuances of family dynamics in the public eye, and how authenticity can be your strongest asset in business and beyond. If you're a fan of true entrepreneurial spirit with a side of reality TV, this is one conversation you don't want to miss.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The vision I have now .
I'm not behind on it's justthat's that next phase and what
we've built in the last five to10 years still support it.
But the goals have to serveyour purpose.
Your goals have to serve yourvision.
If they don't serve your vision, they don't serve your purpose,
there's no sense in pursuingthem.
You know, because if your goalsdo serve you and the vision,
(00:22):
it's easy to make thoseadjustments when you're like,
hey, I was 80% right on it.
(00:44):
What's going on everybody?
Welcome back to the Big DogPodcast.
I guess I'm still the big dog.
It's Josh.
Got the little dog in thebackground.
Logan, what's going on?
Logan, you doing all right, hehates it when I do this because
he's got to mute, unmute.
That's why I do it to you.
And then he pops in and hedisappears.
But no, everything is goinggreat here at the Big Dog
Podcast.
It's a beautiful day out inVirginia and guys pops in and he
(01:04):
disappears, uh.
But no, everything is goinggreat here at the big dog
podcast.
A beautiful day out in virginiaand guys, I got a really fun
guest for us today.
Uh, steven mcbee.
If you don't know about mcbeesor the mcbees right now, you're
under a rock.
The mcbee dynasty debuted onthe 11th I believe, on peacock
and I'm already done with theseason.
It was a ton of fun to watchand steven and I met about a
(01:25):
year ago through a group calledApex, mutual friend of Ryan
Steumann, and we just gotconnected talking about
different stuff, business andthings, and when this hit off I
was like, oh man, we got to gethim on the show and have a convo
.
So, steven McBee, welcome tothe Big Dog Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, thank you guys for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
How's everything out in your world Crazy?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it's been a whirlwind, especially over the
last couple weeks.
Been traveling all across thecountry, been trying to keep the
businesses afloat while we'reout here doing press and just
pushing the show as much as wecan.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Talk a little bit, if you will,for those who are just learning
about the show or the family.
You guys are about an hournorth.
Of Kansas City is where thefarm is.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's correct.
Yeah, we've got a big farmingand ranching operation about an
hour north of Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Okay, and what are the primary things you guys have
going on out there?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah.
So on the row crop side, corn,soybeans, conventional row crop,
and then on the protein side werun beef, bison pork and then
just starting to venture intosome of the exotics.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So, uh, you know, usda inspected deer and elk as
well.
Nice, that's awesome.
And you and the brother, youguys grew up on the farm so
funny story actually.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Um, we're first generation farmers.
My uh, I've got three youngerbrothers.
We all all grew up inIndependence, missouri, which is
about 30 minutes, 20 minutesoutside Kansas City, just to the
east, and we grew up there.
We had the farm since 1998.
My dad bought his first smalltrack to land up there.
We just loved being up there atthe farm on weekends, so
(02:57):
hunting, things like that.
But I did not move up to thefarm and really be on the farm
full time until after I got outof high school and that's a
little bit of a secret.
A lot of people were like oh,it's a multi-generation farm.
They grew up on the farm, itwas handed down from granddaddy
to his dad boys, and that's justnot the case.
We're first-generation farmers,trying to figure things out as
we go and obviously we've grownreally, really quickly.
(03:20):
But yeah, we're learning as wego.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, that was one thing I thought was super
interesting Cause I didn't knowthat until the first episode of
the show and it was talkingabout how your dad had bought
that first parcel late ninetiesand I was like, oh shit, like
this is legit figuring it out.
Oh yeah, you know.
And then the exponential growthover that time where you see a
lot of these generationalranches and farms over the last
20, 30 years have gotten smallerbecause of development and
(03:48):
things like that.
You see the McBee set upexpanding by leaps and bounds
and the fact that it was just arecent piece, you know, for the
family to start into and go downthat path, what you know what
initially got your dad likewanting to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a funny story.
I mean, we bought that firstsmall tract just for hunting and
fishing.
We love the outdoors, grew uphunting and fishing, so that was
what we bought it for.
We leased it out to a localfarmer who would farm the
tillable acreage on it and we'dgo up there on the weekends and
there'd be people fishing in theponds ponds.
(04:25):
There'd be beer cans all aroundthe ponds and we're like what
are you doing?
This is our land.
And they're like well, thefarmer gave us permission and so
that was what we're like allright, screw that, enough of
that, kick the farmer off, we'rejust going to do it ourselves.
And that was in 2005.
So we farmed a hundred acres in2005, bought an old John Deere
and just tried to do itourselves.
And we were horrible.
I mean, if you don't haveexperience in farming, it is a
(04:48):
learning curve that I cannotbegin to describe.
You would think it's as easy asjust putting a seed in the
ground, and it's not.
There is so much to it and somany nuances.
And so we learned very quicklythat farming is not an ease of
entry business.
And so 2005 was our first yeargoing at it.
I'd have been 11 or 12 yearsold, but I was still working on
(05:09):
the farm.
I was going up there runningtractors at 11, 12 years old,
didn't know what I was doing andobviously too young to be
considered like a full-timeworker, but I was still just
kind of easing into what farmingis and how to do it.
And my dad had a telecom companytelecommunications down in
Kansas City.
That's where he generated a lotof his income most of his
(05:30):
income to buy the farm and then,with the real estate crash in
2008, started investing intoresidential real estate in
Kansas City.
We were buying properties forno money down At that time.
Banks were like please takethis property.
Like no one wanted property,and so he was buying these
properties.
He didn't have the cash.
If he was trying to go out intoday's market and buy these
properties, he wouldn't have hada chance but no money down at
(05:52):
the time and so they werebasically just handing over
these properties.
So he was scooping them upbecause he understood there's a
once in a lifetime buyingopportunity and that paid off
leaps and bounds within 10 yearsbecause 2008, he started buying
In 2018, these properties thathe bought for $20,000 and
$30,000 a door we were flippingfor $100,000 to $120,000 a door,
absolutely so.
(06:13):
That was the big catalyst forhow the farm blew up, because
then, once we sold off theseproperties in Kansas City, we
1031 them into farm ground andthat's how the farm shot up so
fast Now the farm.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
How much fast now the farm, how much acreage.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I guess you guys operate now yeah, so personally,
between my dad, my brother,jesse and I, we own 18 000 acres
of ground um, and then we leasethe rest.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We're farming 40 000 acres wow, okay, and then that's
not all contiguous, is it?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
no, no, our biggest chunk is about 8 500 acres that
we own and for missouri.
That's a pretty good sizecontinuous piece of land.
You know it's not like theWestern ranches where you get
50,000 acres continuous out hereand where you guys are at I'm
sure it's hard to gather 500acres you know 300, 350 acres
(07:07):
here in virginia.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You're like what, yeah, where?
And then you see the commasnext to it and you understand
exactly what's going on.
So someone's been sitting onthat literally since the boats
landed.
You know if they still have.
You know those pieces.
It was like lords of england,you know signing over.
You know this land, land grantsback in the day, um, with those
big, big tracks and the prop.
The homes on those big tracksare also out here, something
really special to see becausethey were built in like 1600s
(07:30):
and they're these huge manors.
It's insanity.
But no, most of the farms outhere, I mean you're talking
about 100 acre smaller tracks.
If someone does have a largeroperation, they're piecing them
together but they're not ran upcont know contiguous together.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So that's interesting .
Thousand acre spans, I wouldsay 130 miles circumference.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay is our farming circumference yeah, that's
awesome, and so what talk about?
Kind of through the show.
I I told you know you, I'vealready watched the whole
freaking season Superentertaining, totally wild.
I'm like what is going on righthere your brothers are a trip,
your dad's nuts, I'm like thewhole thing.
(08:13):
Every time I turn around I'mlike what in the hell is Steve
doing?
Like what?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
The man's wild.
It's unfortunate because justout of obviously creating a
reality show, there's a drum upthe drama.
My dad has skill sets andtalent that I like.
It's so crazy how talented heis in certain aspects.
Yeah, replace that.
So you're looking at him andyou're like man, this is a train
wreck.
What is he doing in thecompanies?
(08:40):
Well, the companies didn't growto be the size they were for no
reason.
Like he's a genius when itcomes to tense negotiations,
when it comes to deal cutting,when it comes to construction,
like that things that no oneelse can do.
And then, um he in dealing withstress too.
He can deal with stress.
Which business is all aboutstress?
He can deal with that like noother.
(09:02):
And I think the way he offsetsthat is by his personal life.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, no, he has a great time.
I was like man, this is, thisis fun.
This is fun.
Now talk about like all.
All the brothers are involvedin the farm and operation as
well.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Correct.
Yeah.
So my brother Jesse.
He's mostly overhead ofconstruction on the car wash
side.
Ok Needs if we need him duringplanting or harvest he's sort of
a fill-in guy.
So we cross-utilize laboracross our companies where
necessary.
My brother Cole, full-time onthe farm, loves the farm and
ranch.
He actually moved up toGallatin Missouri to go to high
(09:37):
school there.
He's the only one thatgraduated high school in that
little town because he loved itso much.
And then my youngest brother,brayden, works on the car wash
side too.
We all kind of have ourspecialty skill sets where we
focus in across our portfolio ofcompanies.
But the farm and ranch is ourpassion and heart and where we
want to be.
It's just it's hard to make afarm and ranch profitable.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
No, I mean, that's what I have.
I've heard that so many timesand so many of the aspects of
the business you really don'thave any control over.
You know you don't necessarilyget to control cost, depending
on what it is that you'reselling.
You can't control the weather.
You know you spend all thismoney to put, you know, seed in
the ground If there's no rain.
(10:21):
There's no rain which is goingto limit what grows, which
limits what you sell.
I don't even think a lot ofthat stuff on the agriculture
side.
You necessarily get to setprice points.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
No, there's none of that.
It's commodity-based pricing.
My corn is worth the exact samevalue as my neighbors.
It doesn't matter how we farmedit or whatever we did to it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's right and so no, I mean that's got to be to
the point you made about yourdad, like the stress management
piece, and to be able to seethrough that, still be
successful through that when youhave such little control over
it, it's really remarkable.
And so you guys do have theseother venues, these other
revenue chains.
I know that you know you've gotthe meat company right and you
(11:01):
guys just recently have broughtprocessing on site, correct.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah.
So I had direct-to-consumerlike ready-to-eat meat snacks,
so snack sticks, beef jerky,summer sausage.
And then last year, while wewere filming the show, there was
a local slaughter plant thathad just been built by these
guys.
I mean it's a five-starbuild-out and they only operated
it for a year and they wentunder.
And I mean it's a five-starbuild-out and they only operated
(11:26):
it for a year and they wentunder and I was able to take
advantage of them going underand getting it at a discounted
price.
I wasn't necessarily ready torun a full-scale slaughter plant
by any means, but the deal wasso good Buying a brand-new
facility for $0.30 on the dollarI couldn't pass.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's awesome.
And then the car washes.
You got the coffee and car wash.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, so I graduated fromcollege with an MBA and an
emphasis on accounting andfinance, and so I jump into the
world of farming and I'm lookingat the business model of
farming and, just like you said,we have our big three in
farming is what we call it andout of the big three, only one
of those we have any sort ofcontrol over whatsoever.
Mother nature we have zerocontrol over.
(12:08):
That's one of the big three.
Number two is global commodityprice.
What's my grain worth?
No control over?
So two out of the big threelike just flip a coin.
We have no control over them.
The only one we can slightlycontrol is our input cost, and
even then those vary to the thepoint where you don't really
(12:28):
control your input cost.
I mean, you can try your best,you can control labor and some
of times out of 10, it's on thelatter side, so it's on the
lower side of what you project.
(12:48):
You don't collect your money,so you do all this work up front
and you don't sell your grainuntil the following year.
So it's almost a 365 day cashflow cycle and I'm getting out
of college looking at this andI'm going how do we make this
work Right?
And so I started exploringother industries, like, ok,
we've got to find a way tosupplement the revenue and get
(13:09):
more consistent revenue to helpmake this farm survive.
Yeah, and you look at a car washbusiness, especially like the
express car washes you haverecurring revenue through the
monthly memberships.
You have no, basically yourcash flow cycle is non-existing.
Memberships.
You have no, basically yourcashflow cycle is non-existing.
You don't have to have anaccounts receivable department
because they have to pay fortheir service on the upfront
side and if they don't pay forit, they get to go through the
(13:31):
exit lane.
So it's got all of these andit's low labor.
I mean, it's basically theequipment in the tunnel does 90%
of the work.
You have a couple of attendantsout there making sure that the
customer is satisfied.
So it's such a better businessmodel.
And I was like, ok, we're goingto make this farm survive and
be able to feed all these mouthswe have here at the farm, we've
(13:52):
got to supplement it with somesolid business models.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, yeah, I thought it was interesting because I
really wasn't expecting the carwash piece to be as heavy a part
of the show.
Um, but you guys were reallylike you know, waist deep and a
lot of dealings and stuff youknow with the car wash and, um,
you know, say that for people towatch, you know on the show and
stuff to learn more about it.
(14:15):
But it was.
I really did appreciate how, inthe show and capturing the
family and what you guys weredoing, you really were moving
and showing in a day-to-day lifethat hey, you can be in the
field working on tractor burningfields.
The next thing, you know,you're shooting across to Kansas
City to go meet up with bankersfor car wash business or over
(14:37):
here on houses that are beingbuilt.
I guess the hustle factor wasit was cool to see that part on
display.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Uh, for me if there was anything we could contribute
our success to, because we sureas hell are not the smartest in
the room and I wish we were, Iwish I was smarter, but we're
not.
So the only thing that's evencontributed to our success thus
far is just out hustle, um, yeah, and I'm hoping to change that
to where we can focus a littlemore more on the intelligence
side and and set ourselves upfor success, rather than just
(15:07):
having to out hustle and work,out, work everyone.
But that's all we've been ableto do and and find success in.
And and you're right, we.
There's no conventional day forus.
We aren't, uh, focused on anybusiness, like there's not a day
(15:29):
where I go into the office andI say, okay, I'm solely focusing
on the farms today, becauseI'll get calls for the car
washes.
I never know where my day isgoing to end up.
And it's just a trueentrepreneur mindset of hey,
we're opportunists, we're goingto try and figure out how to
make this work and, come hell orhigh water, we're going to work
hard enough to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, that's great.
Talk to me a little bit aboutwho had the idea for the show,
who kind of pressed that to thefamily, presented it to the
family.
So I know you've done showsbefore this.
You know another another showfeatured on and so kind of how
did that process flow?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So you know I hate to take all the credit for it, but
branding and marketing is whatI love, like that is my
specialty to a T.
So the whole reason I went on adating show, which was Joe
Millionaire, was because Irealized how similar we were to
Yellowstone.
I'm looking at my brother,jesse.
He's a spitting image of CaseyDutton.
(16:19):
Obviously I fly a helicopter.
Like we have this large farmand ranch that we're struggling
to keep and my family dynamicsare just so large farm and ranch
that we're struggling to keep.
My family dynamics are just sointeresting we're a mess.
You can see the show and seethat.
I was like, hey, if we're goingto have to deal with this
stress and the drama that wedeal with, let's at least make
it profitable.
I was like, all right, let'sget some eyeballs on this.
(16:40):
The whole reason I went on thedating show was to try and
introduce, uh, the productioncompanies from LA to my family
in the farm and ranch side.
I knew that there was going tobe a hometown where they were
going to fly to the hometown seethe farm and ranch.
We brought the top six girlsfrom the show up to the farm and
ranch.
Um, and it was all just gettingeyeballs on our farm.
(17:01):
Um and once we did thatliterally since the minute that
show ended, we had been gettinghit up from production companies
about doing this real lifeYellowstone and that was the end
goal for it.
So it all from there.
It just came to what productioncompany do we want to go with?
We had six different productioncompanies that were reaching
(17:21):
out to me that wanted to shoot apilot episode to bid it out to
the networks, and I felt reallygood about Jeff Jenkins
Productions who did ourproduction.
They had done the Simple Lifewith Paris Hilton and Nicole
Richie.
They had done the first 10seasons of Keeping Up with the
Kardashians.
They had done all of BlingEmpire.
Like they have a track recordof these.
So, I felt really good aboutthem.
(17:44):
I sat down and talked to him.
I said, hey, I don't want anymanipulation, um, for our lives,
Like I don't want you guys tocreate the story of who we are.
I know who we are and I cantell you right now we have
enough drama going on to fill upmultiple seasons of reality TV,
so I want to keep it real.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Sure Sure.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And so they.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
They did that and we feel really good about jeff
jenkins productions and whatthey were able to do with the
show that's so cool and Iimagine, with it being the
second time you kind of beenthrough this process of the
reality show, what was theadjustment for the rest of the
family?
You know, kind of how is thatwith the camera crews being
around?
I mean, because it seems likethey're there all damn day, like
(18:23):
like all day, all the time,capturing everything all day.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So this show was way more comfortable than Joe
Millionaire because we were inour environment, our homes, our
businesses and going intoshooting.
We had several discussions withthe production company and they
said the reason why theKardashians were so successful
is because they showed 99% oftheir life the good and the bad
(18:48):
to the audience.
That's what makes it relatable.
If you try to act like yourlife is perfect and there's no
issues, or you parade aroundwith this facade on, the
audience can sense that fakeness.
And so they're like you justhave to lay it all out there,
both the good and the bad.
Everyone's flawed, everyone'sgot a dysfunctional family.
If you showcase that to theaudience, they relate way more.
(19:08):
And so we said, going into it,hey, we are going to show them,
we're going to try and one-upthe kardashians as far as what
we showcase and just let theminto everything we've got going
on, the good and the bad.
And, um man, my, my dad andcole Cole really followed
through on that promise.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Man Cole had me in tears so many times.
That dude had me in tears andthe similarities between him and
your dad.
It actually was really funny tome watching it.
Like there's so manysimilarities between all of you
guys and your dad and like thestrengths and traits and
personality type you know,characteristics, um, that was a
(19:50):
really cool thing for for me tosee.
I love that story.
I love how genuinely close youguys are to your dad.
I love how genuinely he caresfor, for you guys and and loves
y'all and that's such a neatthing.
I don't I have a brother, um,who I don't talk to having in a
long, long time for variousreasons, my dad, but I would
(20:12):
talk to him in years.
You know it's it's the totalopposite kind of dynamic.
And you know my thing was likeman I, I always wanted to create
a family where there that wasnot gonna be the case with my
son and I'm fortunate my son hasdecided like, like he wants to
work for us and build within ourbusiness and be a part of the
family business, what we'redoing, and like that honors me,
(20:33):
like I'm so honored that hewants to do that.
And when I see the big familydynamic and everyone together.
It's the good, the bad, theshit show, the, the laughs, the.
It's just very genuine and Iwould say if you guys wanted to
keep it real and genuine, itvery much felt that way.
(20:54):
If it wasn't, you did a greatjob of making it feel that way,
but it definitely seemed thatthat was the case and nobody was
kind of putting on it's likenope, this is, this is how we,
we roll and you know for forgood or for bad, and I just
thought that was a prettytremendous thing, uh, with the
show and the aspects of it.
(21:15):
So this was all shot lastsummer and fall was that right.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We shot mid-april of last year through late july, and
then we had some pickup scenesin august and september.
Out the show.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Okay, cool, Cool and then.
So how long does the world haveto wait until they find out if
there's a season two?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, we were 85% greenlit in a little bit of
behind the scenes stuff.
At the very end of the seasonit pops up and it says to be
continued.
That is the first time in NBCuniversal history they've
allowed a season one show to sayto be continued at the end of
the season.
That's how much they believe inthe show, wow.
(21:59):
So usually they let the ratingscome out before they you know,
they see how it does before theysay, okay, yeah, season two.
The fact that they were willingto do that is a pretty telltale
sign that they're they'repretty damn positive.
There's going to be a seasontwo here.
So we are 85 to 90 percentgreenlit and we've already had
discussions about shooting aseason two here mid-summer,
(22:21):
starting it in july.
Just haven't gotten officialconfirmation yet yeah, was it
kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Nice when the cameras dipped out and everything kind
of settled down on the farm andit was just focused on a normal
back to normal stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It is.
Yeah, it absolutely is.
I mean those cameras were there, like you said, 24-7.
And it's a job in and of itself.
I mean they were flies on thewall.
Don't get me wrong.
But whenever you're having todo the one-on-one interviews
that happen between the scenes,like that all takes work and
it's just it's a job Like that'swhat people don't understand is
like it's so much work.
(22:56):
And that's why, at thebeginning, we were like all
right, let's weigh the risk andreward of what this show could
potentially bring.
Risk is we tarnish ourreputation.
Obviously, there's a bunch ofdrama and it's a shit show.
Our bankers are watching thisshow, our business associates
are watching.
There's a lot of risk here.
But what is the potentialreward?
(23:16):
If we were to run this thingfor 10 years, 10 seasons of
exposure, with all the direct toconsumer brands that we have,
what could that potentially doto our business?
In pouring rocket fuel on thegrowth?
Like, well, that's a riskreward that we're worth.
It's worth chasing after to seewhat could happen.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
What's next for the McBees?
What are y'all working on?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So just running these businesses day to day, really
the car washes have done so wellhere in the last four to five
months Like they've completelydone a 180, to be completely
candid with you.
Uh, we opened those things upand and, honestly, we put so
much time and investment intothe building themselves, the
business model, what we hadgoing on, um, and then with the
show, I really didn't have timeto market them like I should
have.
And uh for anyone that's outthere running a business,
(24:07):
marketing's got to come Sales.
You can fix a lot of mistakesif you have the sales, but you
got to have the sales first.
So I mean that's what I put allthis time into the build out,
like running the perfect carwash, like all of the tech side
of things.
And then we opened up and itwas like what happened.
I thought if you build it, theywill come.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You have to go out there and market the hell out of
yourself and tell everyoneabout yourself.
And after the show ended, man,we were in a tough spot there
with the car washes.
Obviously, the private equitydeal didn't come through.
The show, you know, dramatizesthat a little more than it was
in reality.
We didn't want to cut a dealthat soon before the car washes
(24:47):
were up and stabilized, but assoon as the show ended it was
like all right, we didn't wantto cut a deal that soon before
the car washes were up andstabilized, but as soon as the
show ended it was like all right, we got to get boots on the
ground and we got to spread theword about what we've got going
on with these washes.
And that's what we did and it'sreally paid off here in the
last few months.
So right now, you know, farmsnot on cruise control, but it's
basically on cruise control andI want to work on building up
the meat company that we'reabout to start shipping
(25:07):
nationwide and then these carwashes that we're continuing to
grow and build out.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
That's great, man, and that's really, really
exciting.
And you are right.
You know everyone's like, okay,I'm going to focus on this
product.
Product's going to be so great,everyone's just going to want
it.
And we don't have to tell toomany people.
No one gives a crap aboutanything that you have or you're
selling until you make themgive a crap about it.
And that's where, like with mybusinesses, I'm probably always
(25:33):
going to be on the revenuegeneration side of it active,
because that's the fun part tome and with us, nothing that we
do like.
My primary business is the dogtraining and that's not a
recurring revenue model Like wetrain your dog.
It's trained until you getanother dog.
(25:53):
You don't have a need for me.
I'm not the $10 an hour guywhere you need lessons your
entire dog's life.
No, we're going to train thatjoker and it's going to be
awesome and we're out moved onto the next one.
So every day you know there hasto be new clients found and
what's the best way to reachpeople who need our service?
Is it Google pay-per-click?
(26:15):
Is it Facebook?
Is it, you know, other metatype style platforms?
Is it face-to-face?
And trying all those things andfiguring out what works for
your niche in it and then goingall in but also still paying
attention to when things startto change and the market shifts
a little bit.
It's like, all right, we'regoing to pull resources from
(26:35):
here.
Now we're dialing in andfocusing on this because this is
the shift in what's happening,so you can still generate that
new stuff.
I love the recurring revenuemodel of the car washes.
I think that's great, and thesame thing with the meat plant
pickup huge, and you guys dothat.
(26:55):
I mean a lot of that, I imaginewill turn into recurring
revenue as well.
You acquire that client and nowyou're able to use them
multiple times.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, I've spent the last eight months and whenever
we bought it it was straight upfor custom slaughter.
So basically, a local farmerbrings in their own beef, we
slaughter it, cut it up for them, send it back to them.
Yeah, the past eight monthshave been about logistically
figuring out shipping beefnationwide and then getting out
of that custom slaughter becauseit's just not very, it's not a
good revenue model, and gettingit more into the subscription
(27:27):
based like a.
It's a butcher box, except weown every single facet.
So it's our beef, our pork thatwe're sending out to you.
The animal.
Like when we say farm to table,the animal never leaves our
farm until it's in a package tocome to you.
That's the difference betweenus and, like a butcher box or an
Omaha steaks, they're using allthese different slaughter
plants across the country.
(27:48):
Everything is right there onour farm.
So when you want to talk aboutfarm to table, I can show you
the pasture that your freakingsteak grew up in and where it
was born.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, that's awesome, cause that was the question I
was going to ask.
You is, with that is all themeat being sourced from the farm
itself, and that's a huge legup for you guys.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
It is.
That's the big marketing ploy,because everyone's like, why are
you doing what ButcherBox isdoing?
And I'm like, yes, it's thesame model.
But as we get into more of thistransparent customer knowledge
center and knowledge market,they want to know down to a
field level where their meat'scoming from, how it was raised.
Was it humanely and ethicallyraised?
(28:26):
What was it?
I can, like I said, I couldshow you the pasture where your
steak comes from, because we ownevery single facet of the
supply chain.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, that's incredible.
That's, that's really reallyincredible.
It's neat.
Well, now that the apex piece,the apex um, like the beef
sticks and all that, that waskind of your first venture into
the, the shipping of the protein.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, I wanted to do it in phases.
I didn't want to take it all onat once and try and do raw beef
shipping and like that was just, you can only eat an elephant
one bite at a time.
So I was like phase one, I'llmake meat sticks and beef jerky
and try shipping that.
Phase two, which obviouslyhappened a little sooner than I
expected I thought that wasgoing to be three to five year
plan was to build out aslaughter plant and start
slaughtering.
And then that one fell in mylap and I was like, ok, I'm not
(29:13):
ready for it, but damn it, it'sa good deal and I'm not going to
pass it up.
So ended up buying that.
And now the past eight monthsI've been like, all right, we've
got to get the fulfillmentcenter set up.
We're building out afulfillment center to be able to
ship all this out, getting theshipping metrics set up for how
we're going to ship it, wherewe're going to ship it to.
It's been a lot to take place,but it's going to be launching
(29:36):
next week, so it's all coming tofruition here.
Oh wow, so it's time.
It's time, yeah, I was tryingto time it out with the show.
The show was originally supposedto air March 25th and so I had
all this geared up.
I was like, all right, march25th is our drop dead date.
And then in February thenetwork called us and was like,
hey, moving it up to March 11th?
And I was like, oh shit, I hadthe fulfillment center.
(29:58):
That was going to be done.
I had our apparel side, ourmerch side.
I had the meet co.
It was all set for March 25thand then I'm scrambling to try
and get it done faster.
And you know we didn't hit theexact March 11th date that the
show dropped on.
But we're going to be prettyclose.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Sure, yeah, that's cool.
We'll have to.
Logan, we're going to have tojump on there and put some
orders in, get some stuff sentout.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Well, there was one point there that I think I do
want to just point out ifanyone's listening and I do want
to just point out if anyone'slistening and I know with how
big you guys are on on personaldevelopment and continually
investing in yourself.
You know Alex Ramosi or Lisa.
Yeah, that is one point.
I love Alex Ramosi, loveeverything he has to say.
The one thing I will disagreewith him on day in and day out
(30:42):
is he says spend two yearsbuilding your product, making
the perfect product, and let itmarket for you.
I completely disagree with thatbecause you're going to be
wrong with the product or modelthat you come up with.
So you spend two years buildingit and then you launch it and
you lost two years' worth oftime and it's the wrong model.
People like this little nicheof that product, not the product
(31:03):
itself.
I would rather go to market andfigure it out by what the
customers are telling me.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, you're a hundred percent right, man, I,
that's one of the things.
We were talking about thepodcast before we.
We started the show and youknow we're coming up on a
hundred episodes.
And I look at this and, man, Ishould be at 300 episodes, but I
took so long to start itbecause it wasn't exactly how I
thought it should be.
So, rather than and then wewere talking about that
(31:30):
exponential effect of once youhit a certain mark and how you
know, the algorithm startssupporting you and putting you
in front of more people I'd beso much further ahead had I just
started putting content outrather than what I thought was
perfect content, just content.
But it's hard.
It's hard to wrap your headaround that.
(31:51):
And when people have theseideas or concepts and you truly
do see it as your baby, well,I'm not trying to put an ugly
baby out, right, I don't wantpeople telling me my baby's ugly
, but the reality is people aregoing to tell you your baby's
ugly, whether you want to hearit or not, and you might think
it's perfect, but there's goingto be parts of it that pick up
and get ran with and that's whenyou adjust right, because
(32:15):
there's no original idea correctthere's.
There's our original take on anidea.
There's what makes you, stevenmcbee, unique and special in
your situation with the farm tosay, hey, we could take that
general idea and we could reallyput a big process improvement,
(32:39):
quality improvement of theproduct itself, you know a
better process and experiencefor the customer and go that
route.
And that's not somethingsomeone else can do, because
they don't have certain thingsin alignment.
And if they did, they might beable to see it from the angle
that you see it from, but onlyyou can see it from your angle,
because that's your situationand that's what I try to tell
(32:59):
people all the time.
It's like you know you have yourvision for what you want to
accomplish and where you want tobe.
You create goals that are kindof your benchmarks if you're
tracking towards that vision ornot.
But, guys, visions change.
The vision I had five, 10 yearsago, for today is very
(33:20):
different.
I'm sitting in a very smallsegment of that vision I had and
what businesses allowed us tocreate and family and different
things have played into it, havematured, priorities have
changed a little bit and thevision I have now I'm not behind
on it's just that's that nextphase and what we've built in
(33:40):
the last five to 10 years stillsupport it.
But the goals have to serve yourpurpose.
Your goals have to serve yourvision.
If they don't serve your vision, they don't serve your purpose,
there's no sense in pursuingthem.
Correct, you know?
Because if your goals do serveyou and the vision, it's easy to
make those adjustments whenyou're like, hey, I was 80%
(34:03):
right on that, now let's getbetter and let's get a hundred
percent right by making thisadjustment.
And now, what are these newgoals?
And so I think that's a reallygreat point that you bring up.
It's like get it out there andlet the market tell you.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yes, yeah, Imagine if you spent two years working on
your business model beforelistening to any customer
feedback and you think youcreate this perfect business
model and you go out there andit flops.
You could have had it a perfectbusiness model by launching in
month two and then spending thenext what 22 months revising it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Man, that is so right and it's so right, but but well
, and that's again.
You know what we're talkingabout.
Number of podcasts that getpast like eight episodes or
three episodes.
How many businesses make itpast that first year mark?
How many businesses make itpast that first year mark?
How many businesses make itpast the first two?
And it's hard, and what I'vetold people is like, look, okay,
your business failed, thebusiness failed.
That doesn't mean you failed.
(34:56):
What did you learn?
What did you extract from thatsituation?
And now, what is it that youwant to do?
And how are you going to applythose things to the next thing?
Like what happened to you?
You're not unique in it notworking out.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's the majority.
It's like nine times out of 10,it's not going to work out.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Right, you know you, you want to go in this
entrepreneurial path or youbetter have some grit and thick
skin, because that is mostlikely what's going to happen.
And if, because it didn't work,that hemmed you up and man, you
got to see past that extractand move forward and get it
going and get it done.
Um, look, my favoritepersonality in the entire show.
All right, you ready for this?
My favorite personality out ofthe entire season of the show is
(35:43):
your dog, sitka.
Oh, one, just a great-lookingshepherd, great-looking dog.
And oh there, yeah, hi, buddy,hi bud, yeah, great-looking dog.
And the producers did such agreat job of building the dog's
(36:09):
personality into the episodes,like some chaos would be going
on and they just pan over to thedog just sitting there looking
yeah, no, it was funny, we were.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We were laughing watching the dogs.
And then there's the one scenewhere sicka brings in a dead
deer head into the house.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Oh God, I was in tears.
I was in tears man Cause.
That just makes so much senseand that's such a funny, normal
thing.
So what?
So with the family itself.
I know that I don't want toruin stuff on people to watch it
, but there was some cool stuffhappened with Jesse and his
girlfriend towards the end ofthe season, which is cool.
(36:49):
That's exciting, you know.
It seems like you know they dida nice job of kind of giving
backstory and setting uprelationship stuff and things of
that nature, good and bad, yeah, on who they're chasing.
What did you and the familyfeel like you wish would have
been caught more, or maybeshared more, if anything, or did
(37:13):
you feel like it was damn nearspot on to how you guys would
have wanted to be portrayed?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
First and foremost, the production company in the
network did an incredible job.
I cannot imagine how muchfootage they took compared to
compressing that down into 10one hour episodes.
Like they did an incredible job.
The only thing that we wishwould have been conveyed more is
you go back to your talkingabout how close my family is and
(37:42):
just how much my dad loves usand how much he puts on the line
for us, how much my dad lovesus and how much he puts on the
line for us.
You know he's made out to be.
His personal life is showcasedand put in a spotlight for
reality TV show reasons.
It's drama filled and it's amess and everyone can see that.
But to me I'm glad you wereable to see the genuine love he
has for us, because for us,watching it back, we're like man
(38:04):
.
You only see the bad sides ofmy dad.
You don't get to see the goodsides Like that dude works seven
days a week like 12 hours a day.
The other four are spent.
You know partying or drama, buthe works 12 hours a day and
he's done that for 30 years,busting his ass to run these
(38:24):
businesses Like.
He is the hardest worker I'veever met.
And if you're his friend, hewill take care of you like to
the end.
I wouldn't ever want to be hisgirlfriend, but if you're his
friend, he is the best friendyou will ever have in your life.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Right yeah, and he's best dad.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I mean, he's such a good dad to us.
You know we take hisrelationship advice with a grain
of salt, but everything else,man, he wants the best for us
and he loves us boys like noother.
And that was the only thing.
I'm like man, that isn't reallyseen and I'm catching a lot of
hate on social media sayingdon't listen to your dad at all
and your dad's a horrible personand whatever.
Yeah, he's got his flaws inrelationships.
(39:00):
He's very jaded inrelationships I'll be the first
to admit that.
But man in every other facet,that dude is a rock star and
works his ass off and he lovesus boys like no other.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, and I do.
I do feel like that came acrossvery clearly, like, if I mean,
I feel like if you're a I mean Idon't know if I'm the typical
consumer of the show or not, youknow, but for me it was easy to
see and like your dad, you know, shoot, I'm probably.
How old are you, steven?
(39:31):
I'm 29.
29, yeah, so I'm closer to yourdad's age than you, right?
So I'm in kind of this fun zonewhere I'm like my kids are
grown.
Well, my daughter will graduatenext year, logan graduated a
year ago and my wife and I justbe her and I.
We're probably going to movefrom Virginia to Dallas and I'm
ready to go Like, hey, I feelenergized, I'm ready with the
(39:53):
businesses, I got a new energyabout myself and I like to go
out and like when I'm in Dallasand do things.
It was so funny.
Your dad made a comment when hewas in when he's in Nashville,
he can just cut loose and like,do whatever and kind of do my
thing.
When I'm at home, it's work,it's work, it's work.
But when I get here, it's kindof like, hey, I'm not
(40:14):
necessarily known by everybodyand I can just kind of be this
alternate personality.
That's exactly how I felt forthe longest time when I would go
out to Dallas and people like,man, there's like this different
side of you that we don't eversee back home and I'm like, well
, back home is boring, like thisis new and no one really knows
(40:35):
me out here.
Now for like four and a halfyears I'm out there a couple
times a month.
We got a condo out there nowand stuff, and so now I am
starting to meet more people andstuff, so I gotta dial it back
a little bit just a little bit.
But um, you know, I couldtotally see that piece and, like
you know, with your dad thepart he's a young dude.
(40:56):
He's 50, 55 years old,somewhere around there I think.
They said right, he's turned 52yeah, I mean he's young, yeah,
he's young and he's working hisass off.
He's going to blow off somesteam.
Blow off some steam and thething is, to your point, right
or wrong, it's his choice.
I mean, it's his choice to makeright and to do his thing.
But I don't think anybody whomissed the fact, with the care,
(41:20):
investment, genuine love thatSteve has for the family and
sending shit on social, I meanthey're going to find something
shit to send about anyway.
Right, those people, they justthey'll never see it because
they don't want to see thingslike that, they don't open their
mind to see things like that.
Cause, I think that's a prettytough piece to miss when, like
(41:42):
70% of the time when he wastalking, it's about you guys,
the boys, correct, you know.
Time when he was talking, it'sabout you guys, the boys,
correct, you know.
And the other 30 percent is thefarm yes, so that's exactly
right.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, and you know that get some comments.
They're like oh he just drinksnon-stop, he's an alcoholic.
That dude I.
There was not in a single cupor bottle of alcohol in our
house from the time I was born.
Until every single one of usboys were at least 20 years old.
There was no alcohol anywhere.
(42:13):
He worked, he coached us boysin every single sport we played,
and that was his life.
There was no drinking, noalcohol, until we were 20 years
old.
It's not like he grew uppartying like this when he was
actually in the decisive yearsof shaping who we are as people.
He was a strict dad thatfocused on work and sports and
(42:35):
that was it.
So it was like all this partyingand stuff that's him cutting
loose, because he spent 28, 30years like just streamlined on
business and making sure theboys were being raised the right
way.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, no good on y'all.
I mean, I, I always have a lotof respect when a family opens
up like this, because the thingthat you feel like in general,
society worries about most iswhat will people think?
What will people say?
Right, they got to put alltheir perfect shit on instagram
(43:10):
and facebook and tiktok.
Everything's got to be.
Oh, you take a picture of yourfriends.
You got to redo it five times,like my coo.
If we take a selfie together, Ijust hand to the phone.
I'm like, let me know, we gotto do it again.
Right, you know, I can't justtake it and it'd be done.
She's going to want to fix herhair, stand to the left of me
instead, or whatever.
My wife's kind of the same waywith it.
And it's cool, like okay, buteveryone's so worried about it.
(43:34):
And then when I see like afamily, family, the same thing
with the kardashians, I'm likeshit, like they just open it all
up and it's like to hell withit.
It, it's, it.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
It's pretty impressive to me well, that's
how us boys, all of us boys onthe show, to be completely
candid, like when I say, if youaren't paying my bills or you're
not making my life better insome way, I don't give a shit
about your opinion.
Like I don't and I hate to becrude like that, but it's the
(44:06):
truth.
And even my mom is watchingthis show and she's texting us
boys.
Like you boys, what is everyonegoing to think Like?
What is the people we grew upwith going to think of you boys?
Or I can't believe.
You cussed on TV and a lot ofthe girls from the show, a lot
of our girlfriends, say the samething Like I can't believe you
(44:27):
made yourself out to be an idiotlike that.
And us boys are like, look,we'd rather not put on this
facade Again.
It goes back to what I wassaying earlier.
Every family is dysfunctionalas hell.
Every single person is flawed.
Like I'd rather be real aboutwho we are, knowing that you
know we've got some, some wartson us or some bad sides to us.
Everyone does then try to likeparade around like we're some
(44:49):
perfect human living thisperfect life.
That's not real for anyone no,no, the the unreality of reality
tv yes, exactly there'sprobably plenty of that too
there is, and I think that's whythis show even though, yeah,
we're catching some hate and,you know, catching some bad
comments it's hitting so hardbecause we just literally laid
(45:09):
it all out there and said, hey,here's who we are, look up our
skirt, we don't care right.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
No, that's cool, that's.
That's good on you.
So, right now, focusing on thefarm, getting things efficient,
getting numbers, focusing onthese car washes You're about to
launch the meat plant, you knowand then that shipping and
stuff, so you got it all.
I mean, you got hands in alittle bit of all of it.
I do.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, Trying to run it all.
I wouldn't recommend that toanyone.
If I could go back in time, Iwould focus on one really good
business model and just ridethat out until I can hire CEOs
to run each of the differentones.
I'm running pretty ragged rightnow, to be honest, but I got
myself into a hole of like hey,I've already got all these
(45:55):
companies.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I got to figure out how to make them run now no, I
mean, we did something verysimilar and I will tell you like
, for your own sake, um, thesooner you can get those solid
leaders right, because the mathwon't math in the beginning, no
matter how you cut it, you'relike, well, I can't afford to
put a position in that role.
I can't, you can't, you trulycan't, but you can't afford not
(46:18):
to either as soon as you findthat right person, because it's
going to be that individualwho's 100% of their energy and
focus and expertise is focusedon the car washes, for instance,
right, whereas it's getting 25%of you at best when you can
allow for it to have a good 25%of you.
The same thing with the meatside, the farm itself in general
(46:40):
, and just having been in thatposition before, where I was the
guy for all of them, we didfine, we did well.
But I compare it to how we didwhen I got the right person in
place, who I'm just feeding intothose five, six, seven, eight
leaders, rather than having tofeed into everybody for
(47:00):
everything and I let them takeover and take that control piece
.
Eight leaders, rather than haveto feed into everybody for
everything and I let them takeover and take that control piece
man it it.
It lights out when we made thatadjustment.
But it's a part of the processand finding those people isn't
easy.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
It's that's.
That is like my one fatalcharacter flaw is I want control
because I'm so.
I'm so leery of extending trustbecause when it backfires you
feel like an idiot.
But I will tell you the carwashin the farms we found those
people.
So the carwash, the carwash.
I extended that trust to our uh,a position that was basically
(47:36):
running the company and right atthe end of the show I come back
after we got done filming CauseI wasn't involved.
It was so hard to be involvedin the carwash when we were
filming.
Come back.
Carwash is an absolute shitshow Like we're like it's in
dire straits, to be completelyhonest.
So fire that position.
Because that was the guy that Ihad extended trust to horrible.
(47:57):
He had a wreck of a personallife.
It was extending over into thebusiness we promoted from within
to a guy that had just been aGM but was a I mean, he's
younger than I am, he's 27 yearsold Like no one you would ever
think would be like a trueexecutive style leader.
But we he was just even keeledemotionally, like nothing phased
(48:18):
him and he knew what he wasdoing and he knew how to lead
people.
Since that day of firing thatprevious guy.
We've hit a sales record everysingle week since and I have not
gotten.
I used to get six calls a daythat were like personal crisis,
like hey, so-and-so is about tofist fight, so-and-so like
stupid crap.
That was what I was dealingwith while I was trying to run
(48:39):
everything.
I haven't heard of any majorcrises since that day.
Yeah, it's wild.
Like, like you said, the mathdoesn't math and it's so hard
for me to say we can afford thisguy right now because we can't.
We're a startup Like there's,how am I going to afford this
guy?
And it's like, all of a sudden,you find the right person and
it just is like the lights startshining down from heaven and
(49:02):
you're like this is how peoplemake it in business.
Like this is wild.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Yeah, I don't have to do it all, I don't got to do
all of it.
And man, at least for mypersonality, morale got better
when I stopped dealing witheverybody.
Culture is so much better, ohGod, culture is so much better
when I stopped dealing witheverybody is so much better.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Oh God, like I, I'm an emotional rollercoaster
because when we're runningaround trying to run all these
companies, we're dealing withmultiple crises every day.
There's no way we can be at ourbest If we're trying to juggle
all these different highpriority deals, yep and so when
I got, when I pulled myself outof the carwash, the carwash
culture improved drastically.
(49:42):
Sales records were hit each week.
The farm is the same way Now.
I just got to figure out themeat facility is really the big
one that I'm working on next.
That's the number one.
I got to figure out a way topull myself out of that.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Good for you, man.
Good for you.
Well, look, I want to honoryour time, man, I can't thank
you enough for coming on theshow and you know talking about,
you know the adventures with,with Peacock and the family and
just what you guys got going on,and it's a lot of fun to see
and it's a lot of fun to hearyou know about, you know plans
(50:14):
for the future for y'all andwhat you're working on, and you
know I wish you guys the very,very best.
You know, truly we do.
I I pray the weather is right,you know, and the prices are
right and everything flows great.
Um, and you know, I know a lotof people feedback I've seen
(50:34):
from you know about the show andnot people I've talked to
personally about the show.
A lot of people out therereally, really are enjoying it
and, you know, having a greattime with it.
So, um, I just wanted to thankyou for for coming on and if
there's ever anything I can dofor you, you know how to get
ahold of me.
Um, you ever need a vent oranything, just give me a holler
man and happy to to be an earfor you.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Well, thank you so much for having me on.
It's always I enjoy the podcastwhere I'm talking with people
about business or I'm talkingwith people that I had
relationships before the showever came about.
It's not just about why wouldso-and-so say this or this
Talking show drama.
I don't like those podcasts andI have to do a bunch of them,
unfortunately.
Oh, I'm sure, I sincerely,sincerely enjoy these talks and
(51:14):
these podcasts where we get totalk about the more important
matters?
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Absolutely Well, steven, take it easy.
Man, I know you got a lot toget to Guys if you enjoyed this
show or you got any questionsfor Stephen.
Well, let me ask this, stephenhow can people follow y'all and
learn more about the show?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, my Instagram and our farm's Instagram page
are the best sources to go to.
From there you can branch outand find out about all of our
companies.
My Instagram is at Steven McBeeum, steven with a V and then at
McBee farms is the twoInstagram pages to follow, and
then from there we're repostingcontent from the washes, the
meat company.
You'll be able to findeverything we've got going on.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Awesome, we'll make sure to plug that.
Thanks everybody.
We appreciate you listening andwe'll catch you next time on
the big dog podcast.
You.
The vision I have now .
I'm not behind on it's justthat's that next phase and what
we've built in the last five to10 years still support it.
But the goals have to serveyour purpose.
Your goals have to serve yourvision.
If they don't serve your vision, they don't serve your purpose,
there's no sense in pursuingthem.
You know, because if your goalsdo serve you and the vision,
(00:22):
it's easy to make thoseadjustments when you're like,
hey, I was 80% right on it.
(00:44):
What's going on everybody?
Welcome back to the Big DogPodcast.
I guess I'm still the big dog.
It's Josh.
Got the little dog in thebackground.
Logan, what's going on?
Logan, you doing all right, hehates it when I do this because
he's got to mute, unmute.
That's why I do it to you.
And then he pops in and hedisappears.
But no, everything is goinggreat here at the Big Dog
Podcast.
It's a beautiful day out inVirginia and guys pops in and he
(01:04):
disappears, uh.
But no, everything is goinggreat here at the big dog
podcast.
A beautiful day out in virginiaand guys, I got a really fun
guest for us today.
Uh, steven mcbee.
If you don't know about mcbeesor the mcbees right now, you're
under a rock.
The mcbee dynasty debuted onthe 11th I believe, on peacock
and I'm already done with theseason.
It was a ton of fun to watchand steven and I met about a
(01:25):
year ago through a group calledApex, mutual friend of Ryan
Steumann, and we just gotconnected talking about
different stuff, business andthings, and when this hit off I
was like, oh man, we got to gethim on the show and have a convo
.
So, steven McBee, welcome tothe Big Dog Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, thank you guys for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
How's everything out in your world Crazy?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it's been a whirlwind, especially over the
last couple weeks.
Been traveling all across thecountry, been trying to keep the
businesses afloat while we'reout here doing press and just
pushing the show as much as wecan.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Talk a little bit, if you will,for those who are just learning
about the show or the family.
You guys are about an hournorth.
Of Kansas City is where thefarm is.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's correct.
Yeah, we've got a big farmingand ranching operation about an
hour north of Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Okay, and what are the primary things you guys have
going on out there?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah.
So on the row crop side, corn,soybeans, conventional row crop,
and then on the protein side werun beef, bison pork and then
just starting to venture intosome of the exotics.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So, uh, you know, usda inspected deer and elk as
well.
Nice, that's awesome.
And you and the brother, youguys grew up on the farm so
funny story actually.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Um, we're first generation farmers.
My uh, I've got three youngerbrothers.
We all all grew up inIndependence, missouri, which is
about 30 minutes, 20 minutesoutside Kansas City, just to the
east, and we grew up there.
We had the farm since 1998.
My dad bought his first smalltrack to land up there.
We just loved being up there atthe farm on weekends, so
(02:57):
hunting, things like that.
But I did not move up to thefarm and really be on the farm
full time until after I got outof high school and that's a
little bit of a secret.
A lot of people were like oh,it's a multi-generation farm.
They grew up on the farm, itwas handed down from granddaddy
to his dad boys, and that's justnot the case.
We're first-generation farmers,trying to figure things out as
we go and obviously we've grownreally, really quickly.
(03:20):
But yeah, we're learning as wego.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, that was one thing I thought was super
interesting Cause I didn't knowthat until the first episode of
the show and it was talkingabout how your dad had bought
that first parcel late ninetiesand I was like, oh shit, like
this is legit figuring it out.
Oh yeah, you know.
And then the exponential growthover that time where you see a
lot of these generationalranches and farms over the last
20, 30 years have gotten smallerbecause of development and
(03:48):
things like that.
You see the McBee set upexpanding by leaps and bounds
and the fact that it was just arecent piece, you know, for the
family to start into and go downthat path, what you know what
initially got your dad likewanting to do that.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a funny story.
I mean, we bought that firstsmall tract just for hunting and
fishing.
We love the outdoors, grew uphunting and fishing, so that was
what we bought it for.
We leased it out to a localfarmer who would farm the
tillable acreage on it and we'dgo up there on the weekends and
there'd be people fishing in theponds ponds.
(04:25):
There'd be beer cans all aroundthe ponds and we're like what
are you doing?
This is our land.
And they're like well, thefarmer gave us permission and so
that was what we're like allright, screw that, enough of
that, kick the farmer off, we'rejust going to do it ourselves.
And that was in 2005.
So we farmed a hundred acres in2005, bought an old John Deere
and just tried to do itourselves.
And we were horrible.
I mean, if you don't haveexperience in farming, it is a
(04:48):
learning curve that I cannotbegin to describe.
You would think it's as easy asjust putting a seed in the
ground, and it's not.
There is so much to it and somany nuances.
And so we learned very quicklythat farming is not an ease of
entry business.
And so 2005 was our first yeargoing at it.
I'd have been 11 or 12 yearsold, but I was still working on
(05:09):
the farm.
I was going up there runningtractors at 11, 12 years old,
didn't know what I was doing andobviously too young to be
considered like a full-timeworker, but I was still just
kind of easing into what farmingis and how to do it.
And my dad had a telecom companytelecommunications down in
Kansas City.
That's where he generated a lotof his income most of his
(05:30):
income to buy the farm and then,with the real estate crash in
2008, started investing intoresidential real estate in
Kansas City.
We were buying properties forno money down At that time.
Banks were like please takethis property.
Like no one wanted property,and so he was buying these
properties.
He didn't have the cash.
If he was trying to go out intoday's market and buy these
properties, he wouldn't have hada chance but no money down at
(05:52):
the time and so they werebasically just handing over
these properties.
So he was scooping them upbecause he understood there's a
once in a lifetime buyingopportunity and that paid off
leaps and bounds within 10 yearsbecause 2008, he started buying
In 2018, these properties thathe bought for $20,000 and
$30,000 a door we were flippingfor $100,000 to $120,000 a door,
absolutely so.
(06:13):
That was the big catalyst forhow the farm blew up, because
then, once we sold off theseproperties in Kansas City, we
1031 them into farm ground andthat's how the farm shot up so
fast Now the farm.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
How much fast now the farm, how much acreage.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I guess you guys operate now yeah, so personally,
between my dad, my brother,jesse and I, we own 18 000 acres
of ground um, and then we leasethe rest.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
We're farming 40 000 acres wow, okay, and then that's
not all contiguous, is it?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
no, no, our biggest chunk is about 8 500 acres that
we own and for missouri.
That's a pretty good sizecontinuous piece of land.
You know it's not like theWestern ranches where you get
50,000 acres continuous out hereand where you guys are at I'm
sure it's hard to gather 500acres you know 300, 350 acres
(07:07):
here in virginia.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You're like what, yeah, where?
And then you see the commasnext to it and you understand
exactly what's going on.
So someone's been sitting onthat literally since the boats
landed.
You know if they still have.
You know those pieces.
It was like lords of england,you know signing over.
You know this land, land grantsback in the day, um, with those
big, big tracks and the prop.
The homes on those big tracksare also out here, something
really special to see becausethey were built in like 1600s
(07:30):
and they're these huge manors.
It's insanity.
But no, most of the farms outhere, I mean you're talking
about 100 acre smaller tracks.
If someone does have a largeroperation, they're piecing them
together but they're not ran upcont know contiguous together.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So that's interesting .
Thousand acre spans, I wouldsay 130 miles circumference.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay is our farming circumference yeah, that's
awesome, and so what talk about?
Kind of through the show.
I I told you know you, I'vealready watched the whole
freaking season Superentertaining, totally wild.
I'm like what is going on righthere your brothers are a trip,
your dad's nuts, I'm like thewhole thing.
(08:13):
Every time I turn around I'mlike what in the hell is Steve
doing?
Like what?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
The man's wild.
It's unfortunate because justout of obviously creating a
reality show, there's a drum upthe drama.
My dad has skill sets andtalent that I like.
It's so crazy how talented heis in certain aspects.
Yeah, replace that.
So you're looking at him andyou're like man, this is a train
wreck.
What is he doing in thecompanies?
(08:40):
Well, the companies didn't growto be the size they were for no
reason.
Like he's a genius when itcomes to tense negotiations,
when it comes to deal cutting,when it comes to construction,
like that things that no oneelse can do.
And then, um he in dealing withstress too.
He can deal with stress.
Which business is all aboutstress?
He can deal with that like noother.
(09:02):
And I think the way he offsetsthat is by his personal life.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, no, he has a great time.
I was like man, this is, thisis fun.
This is fun.
Now talk about like all.
All the brothers are involvedin the farm and operation as
well.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Correct.
Yeah.
So my brother Jesse.
He's mostly overhead ofconstruction on the car wash
side.
Ok Needs if we need him duringplanting or harvest he's sort of
a fill-in guy.
So we cross-utilize laboracross our companies where
necessary.
My brother Cole, full-time onthe farm, loves the farm and
ranch.
He actually moved up toGallatin Missouri to go to high
(09:37):
school there.
He's the only one thatgraduated high school in that
little town because he loved itso much.
And then my youngest brother,brayden, works on the car wash
side too.
We all kind of have ourspecialty skill sets where we
focus in across our portfolio ofcompanies.
But the farm and ranch is ourpassion and heart and where we
want to be.
It's just it's hard to make afarm and ranch profitable.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
No, I mean, that's what I have.
I've heard that so many timesand so many of the aspects of
the business you really don'thave any control over.
You know you don't necessarilyget to control cost, depending
on what it is that you'reselling.
You can't control the weather.
You know you spend all thismoney to put, you know, seed in
the ground If there's no rain.
(10:21):
There's no rain which is goingto limit what grows, which
limits what you sell.
I don't even think a lot ofthat stuff on the agriculture
side.
You necessarily get to setprice points.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
No, there's none of that.
It's commodity-based pricing.
My corn is worth the exact samevalue as my neighbors.
It doesn't matter how we farmedit or whatever we did to it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's right and so no, I mean that's got to be to
the point you made about yourdad, like the stress management
piece, and to be able to seethrough that, still be
successful through that when youhave such little control over
it, it's really remarkable.
And so you guys do have theseother venues, these other
revenue chains.
I know that you know you've gotthe meat company right and you
(11:01):
guys just recently have broughtprocessing on site, correct.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah.
So I had direct-to-consumerlike ready-to-eat meat snacks,
so snack sticks, beef jerky,summer sausage.
And then last year, while wewere filming the show, there was
a local slaughter plant thathad just been built by these
guys.
I mean it's a five-starbuild-out and they only operated
it for a year and they wentunder.
And I mean it's a five-starbuild-out and they only operated
(11:26):
it for a year and they wentunder and I was able to take
advantage of them going underand getting it at a discounted
price.
I wasn't necessarily ready torun a full-scale slaughter plant
by any means, but the deal wasso good Buying a brand-new
facility for $0.30 on the dollarI couldn't pass.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's awesome.
And then the car washes.
You got the coffee and car wash.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, so I graduated fromcollege with an MBA and an
emphasis on accounting andfinance, and so I jump into the
world of farming and I'm lookingat the business model of
farming and, just like you said,we have our big three in
farming is what we call it andout of the big three, only one
of those we have any sort ofcontrol over whatsoever.
Mother nature we have zerocontrol over.
(12:08):
That's one of the big three.
Number two is global commodityprice.
What's my grain worth?
No control over?
So two out of the big threelike just flip a coin.
We have no control over them.
The only one we can slightlycontrol is our input cost, and
even then those vary to the thepoint where you don't really
(12:28):
control your input cost.
I mean, you can try your best,you can control labor and some
of times out of 10, it's on thelatter side, so it's on the
lower side of what you project.
(12:48):
You don't collect your money,so you do all this work up front
and you don't sell your grainuntil the following year.
So it's almost a 365 day cashflow cycle and I'm getting out
of college looking at this andI'm going how do we make this
work Right?
And so I started exploringother industries, like, ok,
we've got to find a way tosupplement the revenue and get
(13:09):
more consistent revenue to helpmake this farm survive.
Yeah, and you look at a car washbusiness, especially like the
express car washes you haverecurring revenue through the
monthly memberships.
You have no, basically yourcash flow cycle is non-existing.
Memberships.
You have no, basically yourcashflow cycle is non-existing.
You don't have to have anaccounts receivable department
because they have to pay fortheir service on the upfront
side and if they don't pay forit, they get to go through the
(13:31):
exit lane.
So it's got all of these andit's low labor.
I mean, it's basically theequipment in the tunnel does 90%
of the work.
You have a couple of attendantsout there making sure that the
customer is satisfied.
So it's such a better businessmodel.
And I was like, ok, we're goingto make this farm survive and
be able to feed all these mouthswe have here at the farm, we've
(13:52):
got to supplement it with somesolid business models.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, yeah, I thought it was interesting because I
really wasn't expecting the carwash piece to be as heavy a part
of the show.
Um, but you guys were reallylike you know, waist deep and a
lot of dealings and stuff youknow with the car wash and, um,
you know, say that for people towatch, you know on the show and
stuff to learn more about it.
(14:15):
But it was.
I really did appreciate how, inthe show and capturing the
family and what you guys weredoing, you really were moving
and showing in a day-to-day lifethat hey, you can be in the
field working on tractor burningfields.
The next thing, you know,you're shooting across to Kansas
City to go meet up with bankersfor car wash business or over
(14:37):
here on houses that are beingbuilt.
I guess the hustle factor wasit was cool to see that part on
display.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Uh, for me if there was anything we could contribute
our success to, because we sureas hell are not the smartest in
the room and I wish we were, Iwish I was smarter, but we're
not.
So the only thing that's evencontributed to our success thus
far is just out hustle, um, yeah, and I'm hoping to change that
to where we can focus a littlemore more on the intelligence
side and and set ourselves upfor success, rather than just
(15:07):
having to out hustle and work,out, work everyone.
But that's all we've been ableto do and and find success in.
And and you're right, we.
There's no conventional day forus.
We aren't, uh, focused on anybusiness, like there's not a day
(15:29):
where I go into the office andI say, okay, I'm solely focusing
on the farms today, becauseI'll get calls for the car
washes.
I never know where my day isgoing to end up.
And it's just a trueentrepreneur mindset of hey,
we're opportunists, we're goingto try and figure out how to
make this work and, come hell orhigh water, we're going to work
hard enough to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, that's great.
Talk to me a little bit aboutwho had the idea for the show,
who kind of pressed that to thefamily, presented it to the
family.
So I know you've done showsbefore this.
You know another another showfeatured on and so kind of how
did that process flow?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
So you know I hate to take all the credit for it, but
branding and marketing is whatI love, like that is my
specialty to a T.
So the whole reason I went on adating show, which was Joe
Millionaire, was because Irealized how similar we were to
Yellowstone.
I'm looking at my brother,jesse.
He's a spitting image of CaseyDutton.
(16:19):
Obviously I fly a helicopter.
Like we have this large farmand ranch that we're struggling
to keep and my family dynamicsare just so large farm and ranch
that we're struggling to keep.
My family dynamics are just sointeresting we're a mess.
You can see the show and seethat.
I was like, hey, if we're goingto have to deal with this
stress and the drama that wedeal with, let's at least make
it profitable.
I was like, all right, let'sget some eyeballs on this.
(16:40):
The whole reason I went on thedating show was to try and
introduce, uh, the productioncompanies from LA to my family
in the farm and ranch side.
I knew that there was going tobe a hometown where they were
going to fly to the hometown seethe farm and ranch.
We brought the top six girlsfrom the show up to the farm and
ranch.
Um, and it was all just gettingeyeballs on our farm.
(17:01):
Um and once we did thatliterally since the minute that
show ended, we had been gettinghit up from production companies
about doing this real lifeYellowstone and that was the end
goal for it.
So it all from there.
It just came to what productioncompany do we want to go with?
We had six different productioncompanies that were reaching
(17:21):
out to me that wanted to shoot apilot episode to bid it out to
the networks, and I felt reallygood about Jeff Jenkins
Productions who did ourproduction.
They had done the Simple Lifewith Paris Hilton and Nicole
Richie.
They had done the first 10seasons of Keeping Up with the
Kardashians.
They had done all of BlingEmpire.
Like they have a track recordof these.
So, I felt really good aboutthem.
(17:44):
I sat down and talked to him.
I said, hey, I don't want anymanipulation, um, for our lives,
Like I don't want you guys tocreate the story of who we are.
I know who we are and I cantell you right now we have
enough drama going on to fill upmultiple seasons of reality TV,
so I want to keep it real.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Sure Sure.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And so they.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
They did that and we feel really good about jeff
jenkins productions and whatthey were able to do with the
show that's so cool and Iimagine, with it being the
second time you kind of beenthrough this process of the
reality show, what was theadjustment for the rest of the
family?
You know, kind of how is thatwith the camera crews being
around?
I mean, because it seems likethey're there all damn day, like
(18:23):
like all day, all the time,capturing everything all day.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So this show was way more comfortable than Joe
Millionaire because we were inour environment, our homes, our
businesses and going intoshooting.
We had several discussions withthe production company and they
said the reason why theKardashians were so successful
is because they showed 99% oftheir life the good and the bad
(18:48):
to the audience.
That's what makes it relatable.
If you try to act like yourlife is perfect and there's no
issues, or you parade aroundwith this facade on, the
audience can sense that fakeness.
And so they're like you justhave to lay it all out there,
both the good and the bad.
Everyone's flawed, everyone'sgot a dysfunctional family.
If you showcase that to theaudience, they relate way more.
(19:08):
And so we said, going into it,hey, we are going to show them,
we're going to try and one-upthe kardashians as far as what
we showcase and just let theminto everything we've got going
on, the good and the bad.
And, um man, my, my dad andcole Cole really followed
through on that promise.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Man Cole had me in tears so many times.
That dude had me in tears andthe similarities between him and
your dad.
It actually was really funny tome watching it.
Like there's so manysimilarities between all of you
guys and your dad and like thestrengths and traits and
personality type you know,characteristics, um, that was a
(19:50):
really cool thing for for me tosee.
I love that story.
I love how genuinely close youguys are to your dad.
I love how genuinely he caresfor, for you guys and and loves
y'all and that's such a neatthing.
I don't I have a brother, um,who I don't talk to having in a
long, long time for variousreasons, my dad, but I would
(20:12):
talk to him in years.
You know it's it's the totalopposite kind of dynamic.
And you know my thing was likeman I, I always wanted to create
a family where there that wasnot gonna be the case with my
son and I'm fortunate my son hasdecided like, like he wants to
work for us and build within ourbusiness and be a part of the
family business, what we'redoing, and like that honors me,
(20:33):
like I'm so honored that hewants to do that.
And when I see the big familydynamic and everyone together.
It's the good, the bad, theshit show, the, the laughs, the.
It's just very genuine and Iwould say if you guys wanted to
keep it real and genuine, itvery much felt that way.
(20:54):
If it wasn't, you did a greatjob of making it feel that way,
but it definitely seemed thatthat was the case and nobody was
kind of putting on it's likenope, this is, this is how we,
we roll and you know for forgood or for bad, and I just
thought that was a prettytremendous thing, uh, with the
show and the aspects of it.
(21:15):
So this was all shot lastsummer and fall was that right.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We shot mid-april of last year through late july, and
then we had some pickup scenesin august and september.
Out the show.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Okay, cool, Cool and then.
So how long does the world haveto wait until they find out if
there's a season two?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Well, we were 85% greenlit in a little bit of
behind the scenes stuff.
At the very end of the seasonit pops up and it says to be
continued.
That is the first time in NBCuniversal history they've
allowed a season one show to sayto be continued at the end of
the season.
That's how much they believe inthe show, wow.
(21:59):
So usually they let the ratingscome out before they you know,
they see how it does before theysay, okay, yeah, season two.
The fact that they were willingto do that is a pretty telltale
sign that they're they'repretty damn positive.
There's going to be a seasontwo here.
So we are 85 to 90 percentgreenlit and we've already had
discussions about shooting aseason two here mid-summer,
(22:21):
starting it in july.
Just haven't gotten officialconfirmation yet yeah, was it
kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Nice when the cameras dipped out and everything kind
of settled down on the farm andit was just focused on a normal
back to normal stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It is.
Yeah, it absolutely is.
I mean those cameras were there, like you said, 24-7.
And it's a job in and of itself.
I mean they were flies on thewall.
Don't get me wrong.
But whenever you're having todo the one-on-one interviews
that happen between the scenes,like that all takes work and
it's just it's a job Like that'swhat people don't understand is
like it's so much work.
(22:56):
And that's why, at thebeginning, we were like all
right, let's weigh the risk andreward of what this show could
potentially bring.
Risk is we tarnish ourreputation.
Obviously, there's a bunch ofdrama and it's a shit show.
Our bankers are watching thisshow, our business associates
are watching.
There's a lot of risk here.
But what is the potentialreward?
(23:16):
If we were to run this thingfor 10 years, 10 seasons of
exposure, with all the direct toconsumer brands that we have,
what could that potentially doto our business?
In pouring rocket fuel on thegrowth?
Like, well, that's a riskreward that we're worth.
It's worth chasing after to seewhat could happen.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
What's next for the McBees?
What are y'all working on?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So just running these businesses day to day, really
the car washes have done so wellhere in the last four to five
months Like they've completelydone a 180, to be completely
candid with you.
Uh, we opened those things upand and, honestly, we put so
much time and investment intothe building themselves, the
business model, what we hadgoing on, um, and then with the
show, I really didn't have timeto market them like I should
have.
And uh for anyone that's outthere running a business,
(24:07):
marketing's got to come Sales.
You can fix a lot of mistakesif you have the sales, but you
got to have the sales first.
So I mean that's what I put allthis time into the build out,
like running the perfect carwash, like all of the tech side
of things.
And then we opened up and itwas like what happened.
I thought if you build it, theywill come.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You have to go out there and market the hell out of
yourself and tell everyoneabout yourself.
And after the show ended, man,we were in a tough spot there
with the car washes.
Obviously, the private equitydeal didn't come through.
The show, you know, dramatizesthat a little more than it was
in reality.
We didn't want to cut a dealthat soon before the car washes
(24:47):
were up and stabilized, but assoon as the show ended it was
like all right, we didn't wantto cut a deal that soon before
the car washes were up andstabilized, but as soon as the
show ended it was like all right, we got to get boots on the
ground and we got to spread theword about what we've got going
on with these washes.
And that's what we did and it'sreally paid off here in the
last few months.
So right now, you know, farmsnot on cruise control, but it's
basically on cruise control andI want to work on building up
the meat company that we'reabout to start shipping
(25:07):
nationwide and then these carwashes that we're continuing to
grow and build out.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
That's great, man, and that's really, really
exciting.
And you are right.
You know everyone's like, okay,I'm going to focus on this
product.
Product's going to be so great,everyone's just going to want
it.
And we don't have to tell toomany people.
No one gives a crap aboutanything that you have or you're
selling until you make themgive a crap about it.
And that's where, like with mybusinesses, I'm probably always
(25:33):
going to be on the revenuegeneration side of it active,
because that's the fun part tome and with us, nothing that we
do like.
My primary business is the dogtraining and that's not a
recurring revenue model Like wetrain your dog.
It's trained until you getanother dog.
(25:53):
You don't have a need for me.
I'm not the $10 an hour guywhere you need lessons your
entire dog's life.
No, we're going to train thatjoker and it's going to be
awesome and we're out moved onto the next one.
So every day you know there hasto be new clients found and
what's the best way to reachpeople who need our service?
Is it Google pay-per-click?
(26:15):
Is it Facebook?
Is it, you know, other metatype style platforms?
Is it face-to-face?
And trying all those things andfiguring out what works for
your niche in it and then goingall in but also still paying
attention to when things startto change and the market shifts
a little bit.
It's like, all right, we'regoing to pull resources from
(26:35):
here.
Now we're dialing in andfocusing on this because this is
the shift in what's happening,so you can still generate that
new stuff.
I love the recurring revenuemodel of the car washes.
I think that's great, and thesame thing with the meat plant
pickup huge, and you guys dothat.
(26:55):
I mean a lot of that, I imaginewill turn into recurring
revenue as well.
You acquire that client and nowyou're able to use them
multiple times.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, I've spent the last eight months and whenever
we bought it it was straight upfor custom slaughter.
So basically, a local farmerbrings in their own beef, we
slaughter it, cut it up for them, send it back to them.
Yeah, the past eight monthshave been about logistically
figuring out shipping beefnationwide and then getting out
of that custom slaughter becauseit's just not very, it's not a
good revenue model, and gettingit more into the subscription
(27:27):
based like a.
It's a butcher box, except weown every single facet.
So it's our beef, our pork thatwe're sending out to you.
The animal.
Like when we say farm to table,the animal never leaves our
farm until it's in a package tocome to you.
That's the difference betweenus and, like a butcher box or an
Omaha steaks, they're using allthese different slaughter
plants across the country.
(27:48):
Everything is right there onour farm.
So when you want to talk aboutfarm to table, I can show you
the pasture that your freakingsteak grew up in and where it
was born.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, that's awesome, cause that was the question I
was going to ask.
You is, with that is all themeat being sourced from the farm
itself, and that's a huge legup for you guys.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
It is.
That's the big marketing ploy,because everyone's like, why are
you doing what ButcherBox isdoing?
And I'm like, yes, it's thesame model.
But as we get into more of thistransparent customer knowledge
center and knowledge market,they want to know down to a
field level where their meat'scoming from, how it was raised.
Was it humanely and ethicallyraised?
(28:26):
What was it?
I can, like I said, I couldshow you the pasture where your
steak comes from, because we ownevery single facet of the
supply chain.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, that's incredible.
That's, that's really reallyincredible.
It's neat.
Well, now that the apex piece,the apex um, like the beef
sticks and all that, that waskind of your first venture into
the, the shipping of the protein.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, I wanted to do it in phases.
I didn't want to take it all onat once and try and do raw beef
shipping and like that was just, you can only eat an elephant
one bite at a time.
So I was like phase one, I'llmake meat sticks and beef jerky
and try shipping that.
Phase two, which obviouslyhappened a little sooner than I
expected I thought that wasgoing to be three to five year
plan was to build out aslaughter plant and start
slaughtering.
And then that one fell in mylap and I was like, ok, I'm not
(29:13):
ready for it, but damn it, it'sa good deal and I'm not going to
pass it up.
So ended up buying that.
And now the past eight monthsI've been like, all right, we've
got to get the fulfillmentcenter set up.
We're building out afulfillment center to be able to
ship all this out, getting theshipping metrics set up for how
we're going to ship it, wherewe're going to ship it to.
It's been a lot to take place,but it's going to be launching
(29:36):
next week, so it's all coming tofruition here.
Oh wow, so it's time.
It's time, yeah, I was tryingto time it out with the show.
The show was originally supposedto air March 25th and so I had
all this geared up.
I was like, all right, march25th is our drop dead date.
And then in February thenetwork called us and was like,
hey, moving it up to March 11th?
And I was like, oh shit, I hadthe fulfillment center.
(29:58):
That was going to be done.
I had our apparel side, ourmerch side.
I had the meet co.
It was all set for March 25thand then I'm scrambling to try
and get it done faster.
And you know we didn't hit theexact March 11th date that the
show dropped on.
But we're going to be prettyclose.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Sure, yeah, that's cool.
We'll have to.
Logan, we're going to have tojump on there and put some
orders in, get some stuff sentout.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Well, there was one point there that I think I do
want to just point out ifanyone's listening and I do want
to just point out if anyone'slistening and I know with how
big you guys are on on personaldevelopment and continually
investing in yourself.
You know Alex Ramosi or Lisa.
Yeah, that is one point.
I love Alex Ramosi, loveeverything he has to say.
The one thing I will disagreewith him on day in and day out
(30:42):
is he says spend two yearsbuilding your product, making
the perfect product, and let itmarket for you.
I completely disagree with thatbecause you're going to be
wrong with the product or modelthat you come up with.
So you spend two years buildingit and then you launch it and
you lost two years' worth oftime and it's the wrong model.
People like this little nicheof that product, not the product
(31:03):
itself.
I would rather go to market andfigure it out by what the
customers are telling me.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, you're a hundred percent right, man, I,
that's one of the things.
We were talking about thepodcast before we.
We started the show and youknow we're coming up on a
hundred episodes.
And I look at this and, man, Ishould be at 300 episodes, but I
took so long to start itbecause it wasn't exactly how I
thought it should be.
So, rather than and then wewere talking about that
(31:30):
exponential effect of once youhit a certain mark and how you
know, the algorithm startssupporting you and putting you
in front of more people I'd beso much further ahead had I just
started putting content outrather than what I thought was
perfect content, just content.
But it's hard.
It's hard to wrap your headaround that.
(31:51):
And when people have theseideas or concepts and you truly
do see it as your baby, well,I'm not trying to put an ugly
baby out, right, I don't wantpeople telling me my baby's ugly
, but the reality is people aregoing to tell you your baby's
ugly, whether you want to hearit or not, and you might think
it's perfect, but there's goingto be parts of it that pick up
and get ran with and that's whenyou adjust right, because
(32:15):
there's no original idea correctthere's.
There's our original take on anidea.
There's what makes you, stevenmcbee, unique and special in
your situation with the farm tosay, hey, we could take that
general idea and we could reallyput a big process improvement,
(32:39):
quality improvement of theproduct itself, you know a
better process and experiencefor the customer and go that
route.
And that's not somethingsomeone else can do, because
they don't have certain thingsin alignment.
And if they did, they might beable to see it from the angle
that you see it from, but onlyyou can see it from your angle,
because that's your situationand that's what I try to tell
(32:59):
people all the time.
It's like you know you have yourvision for what you want to
accomplish and where you want tobe.
You create goals that are kindof your benchmarks if you're
tracking towards that vision ornot.
But, guys, visions change.
The vision I had five, 10 yearsago, for today is very
(33:20):
different.
I'm sitting in a very smallsegment of that vision I had and
what businesses allowed us tocreate and family and different
things have played into it, havematured, priorities have
changed a little bit and thevision I have now I'm not behind
on it's just that's that nextphase and what we've built in
(33:40):
the last five to 10 years stillsupport it.
But the goals have to serve yourpurpose.
Your goals have to serve yourvision.
If they don't serve your vision, they don't serve your purpose,
there's no sense in pursuingthem.
Correct, you know?
Because if your goals do serveyou and the vision, it's easy to
make those adjustments whenyou're like, hey, I was 80%
(34:03):
right on that, now let's getbetter and let's get a hundred
percent right by making thisadjustment.
And now, what are these newgoals?
And so I think that's a reallygreat point that you bring up.
It's like get it out there andlet the market tell you.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yes, yeah, Imagine if you spent two years working on
your business model beforelistening to any customer
feedback and you think youcreate this perfect business
model and you go out there andit flops.
You could have had it a perfectbusiness model by launching in
month two and then spending thenext what 22 months revising it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Man, that is so right and it's so right, but but well
, and that's again.
You know what we're talkingabout.
Number of podcasts that getpast like eight episodes or
three episodes.
How many businesses make itpast that first year mark?
How many businesses make itpast that first year mark?
How many businesses make itpast the first two?
And it's hard, and what I'vetold people is like, look, okay,
your business failed, thebusiness failed.
That doesn't mean you failed.
(34:56):
What did you learn?
What did you extract from thatsituation?
And now, what is it that youwant to do?
And how are you going to applythose things to the next thing?
Like what happened to you?
You're not unique in it notworking out.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's the majority.
It's like nine times out of 10,it's not going to work out.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Right, you know you, you want to go in this
entrepreneurial path or youbetter have some grit and thick
skin, because that is mostlikely what's going to happen.
And if, because it didn't work,that hemmed you up and man, you
got to see past that extractand move forward and get it
going and get it done.
Um, look, my favoritepersonality in the entire show.
All right, you ready for this?
My favorite personality out ofthe entire season of the show is
(35:43):
your dog, sitka.
Oh, one, just a great-lookingshepherd, great-looking dog.
And oh there, yeah, hi, buddy,hi bud, yeah, great-looking dog.
And the producers did such agreat job of building the dog's
(36:09):
personality into the episodes,like some chaos would be going
on and they just pan over to thedog just sitting there looking
yeah, no, it was funny, we were.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We were laughing watching the dogs.
And then there's the one scenewhere sicka brings in a dead
deer head into the house.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Oh God, I was in tears.
I was in tears man Cause.
That just makes so much senseand that's such a funny, normal
thing.
So what?
So with the family itself.
I know that I don't want toruin stuff on people to watch it
, but there was some cool stuffhappened with Jesse and his
girlfriend towards the end ofthe season, which is cool.
(36:49):
That's exciting, you know.
It seems like you know they dida nice job of kind of giving
backstory and setting uprelationship stuff and things of
that nature, good and bad, yeah, on who they're chasing.
What did you and the familyfeel like you wish would have
been caught more, or maybeshared more, if anything, or did
(37:13):
you feel like it was damn nearspot on to how you guys would
have wanted to be portrayed?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
First and foremost, the production company in the
network did an incredible job.
I cannot imagine how muchfootage they took compared to
compressing that down into 10one hour episodes.
Like they did an incredible job.
The only thing that we wishwould have been conveyed more is
you go back to your talkingabout how close my family is and
(37:42):
just how much my dad loves usand how much he puts on the line
for us, how much my dad lovesus and how much he puts on the
line for us.
You know he's made out to be.
His personal life is showcasedand put in a spotlight for
reality TV show reasons.
It's drama filled and it's amess and everyone can see that.
But to me I'm glad you wereable to see the genuine love he
has for us, because for us,watching it back, we're like man
(38:04):
.
You only see the bad sides ofmy dad.
You don't get to see the goodsides Like that dude works seven
days a week like 12 hours a day.
The other four are spent.
You know partying or drama, buthe works 12 hours a day and
he's done that for 30 years,busting his ass to run these
(38:24):
businesses Like.
He is the hardest worker I'veever met.
And if you're his friend, hewill take care of you like to
the end.
I wouldn't ever want to be hisgirlfriend, but if you're his
friend, he is the best friendyou will ever have in your life.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Right yeah, and he's best dad.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I mean, he's such a good dad to us.
You know we take hisrelationship advice with a grain
of salt, but everything else,man, he wants the best for us
and he loves us boys like noother.
And that was the only thing.
I'm like man, that isn't reallyseen and I'm catching a lot of
hate on social media sayingdon't listen to your dad at all
and your dad's a horrible personand whatever.
Yeah, he's got his flaws inrelationships.
(39:00):
He's very jaded inrelationships I'll be the first
to admit that.
But man in every other facet,that dude is a rock star and
works his ass off and he lovesus boys like no other.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, and I do.
I do feel like that came acrossvery clearly, like, if I mean,
I feel like if you're a I mean Idon't know if I'm the typical
consumer of the show or not, youknow, but for me it was easy to
see and like your dad, you know, shoot, I'm probably.
How old are you, steven?
(39:31):
I'm 29.
29, yeah, so I'm closer to yourdad's age than you, right?
So I'm in kind of this fun zonewhere I'm like my kids are
grown.
Well, my daughter will graduatenext year, logan graduated a
year ago and my wife and I justbe her and I.
We're probably going to movefrom Virginia to Dallas and I'm
ready to go Like, hey, I feelenergized, I'm ready with the
(39:53):
businesses, I got a new energyabout myself and I like to go
out and like when I'm in Dallasand do things.
It was so funny.
Your dad made a comment when hewas in when he's in Nashville,
he can just cut loose and like,do whatever and kind of do my
thing.
When I'm at home, it's work,it's work, it's work.
But when I get here, it's kindof like, hey, I'm not
(40:14):
necessarily known by everybodyand I can just kind of be this
alternate personality.
That's exactly how I felt forthe longest time when I would go
out to Dallas and people like,man, there's like this different
side of you that we don't eversee back home and I'm like, well
, back home is boring, like thisis new and no one really knows
(40:35):
me out here.
Now for like four and a halfyears I'm out there a couple
times a month.
We got a condo out there nowand stuff, and so now I am
starting to meet more people andstuff, so I gotta dial it back
a little bit just a little bit.
But um, you know, I couldtotally see that piece and, like
you know, with your dad thepart he's a young dude.
(40:56):
He's 50, 55 years old,somewhere around there I think.
They said right, he's turned 52yeah, I mean he's young, yeah,
he's young and he's working hisass off.
He's going to blow off somesteam.
Blow off some steam and thething is, to your point, right
or wrong, it's his choice.
I mean, it's his choice to makeright and to do his thing.
But I don't think anybody whomissed the fact, with the care,
(41:20):
investment, genuine love thatSteve has for the family and
sending shit on social, I meanthey're going to find something
shit to send about anyway.
Right, those people, they justthey'll never see it because
they don't want to see thingslike that, they don't open their
mind to see things like that.
Cause, I think that's a prettytough piece to miss when, like
(41:42):
70% of the time when he wastalking, it's about you guys,
the boys, correct, you know.
Time when he was talking, it'sabout you guys, the boys,
correct, you know.
And the other 30 percent is thefarm yes, so that's exactly
right.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, and you know that get some comments.
They're like oh he just drinksnon-stop, he's an alcoholic.
That dude I.
There was not in a single cupor bottle of alcohol in our
house from the time I was born.
Until every single one of usboys were at least 20 years old.
There was no alcohol anywhere.
(42:13):
He worked, he coached us boysin every single sport we played,
and that was his life.
There was no drinking, noalcohol, until we were 20 years
old.
It's not like he grew uppartying like this when he was
actually in the decisive yearsof shaping who we are as people.
He was a strict dad thatfocused on work and sports and
(42:35):
that was it.
So it was like all this partyingand stuff that's him cutting
loose, because he spent 28, 30years like just streamlined on
business and making sure theboys were being raised the right
way.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, no good on y'all.
I mean, I, I always have a lotof respect when a family opens
up like this, because the thingthat you feel like in general,
society worries about most iswhat will people think?
What will people say?
Right, they got to put alltheir perfect shit on instagram
(43:10):
and facebook and tiktok.
Everything's got to be.
Oh, you take a picture of yourfriends.
You got to redo it five times,like my coo.
If we take a selfie together, Ijust hand to the phone.
I'm like, let me know, we gotto do it again.
Right, you know, I can't justtake it and it'd be done.
She's going to want to fix herhair, stand to the left of me
instead, or whatever.
My wife's kind of the same waywith it.
And it's cool, like okay, buteveryone's so worried about it.
(43:34):
And then when I see like afamily, family, the same thing
with the kardashians, I'm likeshit, like they just open it all
up and it's like to hell withit.
It, it's, it.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
It's pretty impressive to me well, that's
how us boys, all of us boys onthe show, to be completely
candid, like when I say, if youaren't paying my bills or you're
not making my life better insome way, I don't give a shit
about your opinion.
Like I don't and I hate to becrude like that, but it's the
(44:06):
truth.
And even my mom is watchingthis show and she's texting us
boys.
Like you boys, what is everyonegoing to think Like?
What is the people we grew upwith going to think of you boys?
Or I can't believe.
You cussed on TV and a lot ofthe girls from the show, a lot
of our girlfriends, say the samething Like I can't believe you
(44:27):
made yourself out to be an idiotlike that.
And us boys are like, look,we'd rather not put on this
facade Again.
It goes back to what I wassaying earlier.
Every family is dysfunctionalas hell.
Every single person is flawed.
Like I'd rather be real aboutwho we are, knowing that you
know we've got some, some wartson us or some bad sides to us.
Everyone does then try to likeparade around like we're some
(44:49):
perfect human living thisperfect life.
That's not real for anyone no,no, the the unreality of reality
tv yes, exactly there'sprobably plenty of that too
there is, and I think that's whythis show even though, yeah,
we're catching some hate and,you know, catching some bad
comments it's hitting so hardbecause we just literally laid
(45:09):
it all out there and said, hey,here's who we are, look up our
skirt, we don't care right.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
No, that's cool, that's.
That's good on you.
So, right now, focusing on thefarm, getting things efficient,
getting numbers, focusing onthese car washes You're about to
launch the meat plant, you knowand then that shipping and
stuff, so you got it all.
I mean, you got hands in alittle bit of all of it.
I do.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, Trying to run it all.
I wouldn't recommend that toanyone.
If I could go back in time, Iwould focus on one really good
business model and just ridethat out until I can hire CEOs
to run each of the differentones.
I'm running pretty ragged rightnow, to be honest, but I got
myself into a hole of like hey,I've already got all these
(45:55):
companies.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I got to figure out how to make them run now no, I
mean, we did something verysimilar and I will tell you like
, for your own sake, um, thesooner you can get those solid
leaders right, because the mathwon't math in the beginning, no
matter how you cut it, you'relike, well, I can't afford to
put a position in that role.
I can't, you can't, you trulycan't, but you can't afford not
(46:18):
to either as soon as you findthat right person, because it's
going to be that individualwho's 100% of their energy and
focus and expertise is focusedon the car washes, for instance,
right, whereas it's getting 25%of you at best when you can
allow for it to have a good 25%of you.
The same thing with the meatside, the farm itself in general
(46:40):
, and just having been in thatposition before, where I was the
guy for all of them, we didfine, we did well.
But I compare it to how we didwhen I got the right person in
place, who I'm just feeding intothose five, six, seven, eight
leaders, rather than having tofeed into everybody for
(47:00):
everything and I let them takeover and take that control piece
.
Eight leaders, rather than haveto feed into everybody for
everything and I let them takeover and take that control piece
man it it.
It lights out when we made thatadjustment.
But it's a part of the processand finding those people isn't
easy.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
It's that's.
That is like my one fatalcharacter flaw is I want control
because I'm so.
I'm so leery of extending trustbecause when it backfires you
feel like an idiot.
But I will tell you the carwashin the farms we found those
people.
So the carwash, the carwash.
I extended that trust to our uh,a position that was basically
(47:36):
running the company and right atthe end of the show I come back
after we got done filming CauseI wasn't involved.
It was so hard to be involvedin the carwash when we were
filming.
Come back.
Carwash is an absolute shitshow Like we're like it's in
dire straits, to be completelyhonest.
So fire that position.
Because that was the guy that Ihad extended trust to horrible.
(47:57):
He had a wreck of a personallife.
It was extending over into thebusiness we promoted from within
to a guy that had just been aGM but was a I mean, he's
younger than I am, he's 27 yearsold Like no one you would ever
think would be like a trueexecutive style leader.
But we he was just even keeledemotionally, like nothing phased
(48:18):
him and he knew what he wasdoing and he knew how to lead
people.
Since that day of firing thatprevious guy.
We've hit a sales record everysingle week since and I have not
gotten.
I used to get six calls a daythat were like personal crisis,
like hey, so-and-so is about tofist fight, so-and-so like
stupid crap.
That was what I was dealingwith while I was trying to run
(48:39):
everything.
I haven't heard of any majorcrises since that day.
Yeah, it's wild.
Like, like you said, the mathdoesn't math and it's so hard
for me to say we can afford thisguy right now because we can't.
We're a startup Like there's,how am I going to afford this
guy?
And it's like, all of a sudden,you find the right person and
it just is like the lights startshining down from heaven and
(49:02):
you're like this is how peoplemake it in business.
Like this is wild.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
Yeah, I don't have to do it all, I don't got to do
all of it.
And man, at least for mypersonality, morale got better
when I stopped dealing witheverybody.
Culture is so much better, ohGod, culture is so much better
when I stopped dealing witheverybody is so much better.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Oh God, like I, I'm an emotional rollercoaster
because when we're runningaround trying to run all these
companies, we're dealing withmultiple crises every day.
There's no way we can be at ourbest If we're trying to juggle
all these different highpriority deals, yep and so when
I got, when I pulled myself outof the carwash, the carwash
culture improved drastically.
(49:42):
Sales records were hit each week.
The farm is the same way Now.
I just got to figure out themeat facility is really the big
one that I'm working on next.
That's the number one.
I got to figure out a way topull myself out of that.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Good for you, man.
Good for you.
Well, look, I want to honoryour time, man, I can't thank
you enough for coming on theshow and you know talking about,
you know the adventures with,with Peacock and the family and
just what you guys got going on,and it's a lot of fun to see
and it's a lot of fun to hearyou know about, you know plans
(50:14):
for the future for y'all andwhat you're working on, and you
know I wish you guys the very,very best.
You know, truly we do.
I I pray the weather is right,you know, and the prices are
right and everything flows great.
Um, and you know, I know a lotof people feedback I've seen
(50:34):
from you know about the show andnot people I've talked to
personally about the show.
A lot of people out therereally, really are enjoying it
and, you know, having a greattime with it.
So, um, I just wanted to thankyou for for coming on and if
there's ever anything I can dofor you, you know how to get
ahold of me.
Um, you ever need a vent oranything, just give me a holler
man and happy to to be an earfor you.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Well, thank you so much for having me on.
It's always I enjoy the podcastwhere I'm talking with people
about business or I'm talkingwith people that I had
relationships before the showever came about.
It's not just about why wouldso-and-so say this or this
Talking show drama.
I don't like those podcasts andI have to do a bunch of them,
unfortunately.
Oh, I'm sure, I sincerely,sincerely enjoy these talks and
(51:14):
these podcasts where we get totalk about the more important
matters?
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Absolutely Well, steven, take it easy.
Man, I know you got a lot toget to Guys if you enjoyed this
show or you got any questionsfor Stephen.
Well, let me ask this, stephenhow can people follow y'all and
learn more about the show?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, my Instagram and our farm's Instagram page
are the best sources to go to.
From there you can branch outand find out about all of our
companies.
My Instagram is at Steven McBeeum, steven with a V and then at
McBee farms is the twoInstagram pages to follow, and
then from there we're repostingcontent from the washes, the
meat company.
You'll be able to findeverything we've got going on.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Awesome, we'll make sure to plug that.
Thanks everybody.
We appreciate you listening andwe'll catch you next time on
the big dog podcast.
You.
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