Can you imagine making a successful leap from auditing derivatives at a big four accounting firm to running a thriving business in agricultural installation? That's exactly what Greg Schonefeld did, and we're excited to bring you his inspiring journey on the Poultry Leadership Podcast. Greg, the owner of Ag Installers and host of the Eggheads podcast, shares his story of transitioning into the agricultural sector, scaling his company to over a hundred employees in its first year, and overcoming challenges despite lacking a construction background. He also reveals how the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) became a cornerstone of his leadership strategy, helping him navigate his rapid business growth and plan for the future.
We also touch on a critical issue: shifting the perception of manual labor in America, particularly in agriculture. Greg emphasizes the need to professionalize and value these roles, sharing insights on building a leadership team and the transformative impact of adopting EOS. He discusses strategic shifts in business operations and offers practical advice for farmers looking to scale their operations, including starting with the book "Traction." Greg's insights demonstrate that success in agriculture involves more than just hard work; it's about strategic planning and leadership.
Greg's passion for agriculture and leadership extends to his role as the host of the Eggheads podcast. He shares the inspiration behind starting the podcast, its impact on educating and engaging consumers, and the camaraderie within the podcasting community. We also delve into the importance of embracing challenges like the 75 Hard program to foster personal growth and resilience. This episode is a treasure trove of insights on leadership, innovation, and the value of sharing knowledge to foster growth across all industries. Tune in and be inspired by Greg Schoenefeld's remarkable journey and the lessons he's learned along the way.
Listen to Greg's interview of Brandon - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scaling-success-greg-schonefelds-journey-from-auditing/id1716410281?i=1000657776541
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:27):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, brandon Molnix,and on today's show I have Greg
Schonefeld, owner of AgInstallers and host of the new
podcast Eggheads.
I am super excited to interviewGreg today and I cannot wait
for him to share his story withyou all.
Thanks, Branodn, I appreciateyou having me.
(00:51):
Greg, well, as I said, you know you're the new
host of the podcast Eggheads,but before we dive into that,
you are so much more than theshell that you present with
Eggheads.
So can you give the audience alittle bit of background on who
you are and what was yourjourney like to get into the
industry?
Greg Schonefeld (01:10):
Sure, yeah, I guess everything kind of starts
for me.
I studied accounting andfinance in school and went first
to work for like a big fouraccounting firm where I was
doing auditing.
So where I started is verydifferent from where I've ended
up, and that really came aboutthrough leaving the big four
accounting firm to go work formy dad who has a company that
(01:32):
does construction in the agworld called Signet.
And it wasn't really somethingI necessarily planned to go do
but the way things lined up, itlined up great and I was kind of
at a place where I was inaccounting I kind of realized
that wasn't the road for me andhad some crazy ideas about oh
well, I'll go consult, eventhough looking back, I probably
(01:55):
didn't know that much at thetime.
But I started off looking at mydad's business and really saw
some real opportunity there, sowent and joined him and gave
myself the title of CFO at theage of 27 and went into his
office and, you know, workedwith with his company for a few
years and through that a bigthing I learned is, you know,
(02:16):
just some some leadership thingslearned, kind of working with
the crews and and and andworking as a leader and also
learn how to operate some of theimmigration programs he was
using.
And after doing that a few years, an opportunity opened up for
me in the installation spacewhere you know no one else was
(02:39):
really using some of theseimmigration programs and the job
really requires traveling allover the country and it's super
hard to get people to kind ofwork these jobs in rural
locations and moving all overthe place and really thought
there was an opportunity toutilize some of these
immigration programs in theinstallation space.
So that's how Ag Installers wasborn and got to start off with
(03:01):
a really great opportunity outin Arizona on a huge project.
Brandon Mulnix (03:12):
Wow, that is an opportunity that you have really
taken advantage of too.
I mean, I've seen your growthin your company get to
participate and work with you oryour teams, cause you know, I I
don't put cage equipmenttogether, I'm not an electrician
, I'm not on the site, but ourteams are out there.
But yeah, you and I have had achance to work together and
that's just incredible to seeyour growth in the industry and
your reputation in the industryand it seems like you guys are
(03:34):
the go-to company for agequipment installing.
Greg Schonefeld (03:37):
I appreciate that, brandon, and it was a
challenging road.
I mean when I, you know, kindof looking back to how we
started it was, you know it wasa challenging road.
I mean when I, you know, kindof looking back to how we
started it was, you know it wasa great opportunity.
I mean we went from zero to ahundred people in the first year
at Ag Installers and, you know,had some support from customers
and all those kinds of things.
But it was a real challenge togo from zero to over a hundred.
(03:58):
And there were definitelymoments along the way where you
know we're trying to lead thisproject and you know I didn't
have that constructionbackground and there were days
where I was asking myself whatam I doing as an accounting and
finance person trying to runthese jobs?
But just showed up every dayand tackle one thing at a time
and do your best.
Brandon Mulnix (04:19):
It is amazing how, whatever your background is
, there is a place for everybodywithin the industry.
That's a cool story.
I mean, how are you with yourdad now?
I mean, do you still workalongside your dad?
Greg Schonefeld (04:32):
The way that worked out.
I mean we had someone come in.
The timing really worked outgreat, where we were able to
bring someone in to handle someof the responsibilities I had
been doing in his business,handle some of the
responsibilities I had beendoing in his business, and this
was a great way for me to usesome of the skills, the things I
learned, as well as just myoverall background and lifelong
(04:54):
interest in business, to go dosomething that utilizes those
skills but wasn't in competition.
So Signet, the company my dadfounded, puts up the buildings,
works in the egg world, works inhog and dairy putting up
buildings labor only as well,and so ag installers kind of let
(05:14):
me focus on a different trade.
That is almost like acomplimentary business.
And now things are coming fullcircle where I've taken the
management of Signet and I'm inprocess of buying my data out of
Signet as well.
Brandon Mulnix (05:27):
Oh, that's really super exciting.
And, Greg, through some of ourconversations you've mentioned
that you've got a philosophy oryou've bought into a philosophy
of business.
That's really helped you growand organize and create a
scalable process.
Can you dive into that?
Greg Schonefeld (05:48):
Oh yeah, referring to EOS, that's been a
big difference for me as aleader and for our business and
a big reason why I think I canundertake the responsibilities
that Signet will present as well.
I guess what I would summarizewith EOS is that it's really
just a great comprehensivesystem for running your business
(06:09):
and kind of stepping back towhere how it presents presented
value to me.
You know where I came from.
You know.
First I was in this big fouraccounting firm.
That's a huge company, 30,000employees.
I'm just someone who startedoff very entry level and my job
was to audit derivatives at thattime.
(06:30):
So it's like someone would goout and actually do something,
then someone else would accountfor that, then someone else
would check their accounting andthen I'd be there to check that
.
So I felt like I was four stepsremoved from the real world.
And then moved over to workingfor my dad, where I felt like I
was four steps removed from thereal world.
And then moved over to workingfor my dad where I felt like I
was right in the real worldsolving practical problems every
(06:52):
single day and I just love that.
But very entrepreneurial kind of.
You know atmosphere,environment at Cignet and you
know it had kind of its own wayof doing things that it had done
for a long time, that thatworked, but not a lot of
necessarily documented systemsand processes, those kind of
(07:12):
things.
And then I went and did startedAgonsellers and we definitely
don't have systems and processesand those kind of things
established.
So I've never really gotten achance to see, hey, what a
business of this size looks like, that really kind of has this
system of running things.
And that's really what EOSoffers is kind of like a roadmap
(07:37):
and including when you do yourmeetings and those kinds of
things.
And I'll say the first thingfor EOS that really became clear
.
That sounds so simple in a waybut wasn't for me, for whatever
reason is like it is startingwith an org chart and I guess my
mindset for whatever reason is,you know, always thought, oh
yeah, org chart, that's justkind of some corporate mumbo
(08:00):
jumbo thing or something likethat.
Eos really helped me to see thevalue in that that you really,
once you grow and you have ateam, you know it needs to be
clear to everybody what yourrole is.
And then and they don't justcall it an org chart, they call
it an accountability chart,because everyone really truly
needs to be accountable for thatposition.
And maybe that sounds simple aswell, but you know, so many
(08:23):
times you kind of can lookaround and see, okay, this
person really helps me.
But it changes the expectationfrom hey, you're really helping
me, but I'm still kind ofcovering this, that or the other
, to no, you're really trulyaccountable for.
This makes that simple thing.
(08:47):
It's simple but difficult atthe same time, but that simple
thing just really changeseverything.
And there's other things on topof it, but I'll say, everything
for me starts there.
Brandon Mulnix (08:53):
Yeah, the accountability chart.
Being from a company thatadopted EOS about four years ago
, man, it helps simplify so manythings.
And when you look at thataccountability chart and say,
okay, so who owns this role?
It's not about the person rightoff the bat, it's about the
role, like okay, so sales andmarketing, who is that?
(09:13):
Well, I got assigned that.
Okay, so what does that looklike Underneath?
That is the key takeaways fromthat, and it's so much, so
simple for me to say, okay,where else in the company do we
have this?
And then you start lookingthrough there and going, okay,
who reports to who, which ismore of your org chart kind of
thing, but it's.
It just really aligns with that.
(09:34):
That's awesome.
And I know you've mentionedyour vision statement, your
mission statement.
Tell us about that.
Greg Schonefeld (09:39):
Yeah, I'll give , you know, eos credit there as
well, because the they've gotdesigned for you know, basically
a two, two-page vision thatincludes eight different
elements, and part of that is,yeah, the mission is is a big
piece of that.
So your mission and your valuesand if I could start with the
values, because I kind of I kindof see that as a big, huge,
(10:00):
maybe the biggest part of ourvision, and some of that kind of
happened naturally, reallybuilding this culture, these
values, and it took time, butthe time it was kind of instinct
.
I'd say year three or four forag installers really started to
become clear who were the peoplethat really fit our program and
(10:21):
who were the people that maybedidn't quite.
And you just kind of make a fewkey decisions out of instinct.
But looking back in this ideaof having really truly defined
values, and for us that's teamfirst, work hard, continuous
improvement.
Everything we do is builtaround that, and so that was
kind of the first thing tobecome clearer for us in terms
(10:44):
of and so that was kind of thefirst thing to become clearer
for us in terms of vision isonce we just we put words to our
values.
I think everyone kind of had afeeling that, hey, we were
really working on something thatfelt special to us on values.
But once we put words to it itreally helped us to build it
that much stronger.
And then the mission ideareally came later and it came
(11:18):
just over a year ago I'd say thebeginning of last year where we
you're going to see I wrote ahundred iterations or something
of our mission, which is kind ofcrazy, but it just felt
important and nothing quiteseemed right.
But then I read this book calledthis is Marketing by Seth Godin
.
It was a marketing book but itjust had this little line in it
(11:39):
that said what change are youtrying to make?
And because it said, if you'rein business and you're trying to
market, it's because you'retrying to make change.
And I had never thought ofbeing in business as an idea to
make change.
I was just trying to buildsomething that kind of served
its purpose and its market,created a good life for the
(11:59):
people who were a part of it.
And I never thought that Istarted a business to go out and
set about change.
But I wrote it on the boardbecause it just felt important
for me it was on my whiteboardbehind me to just keep looking
at.
And all of a sudden it hit meone day, maybe three weeks later
, that you know the change thatwe need to make is around the
(12:21):
kind of the perception of laborin America which I think I think
a lot of people in the agindustry understand how
important manual labor is, but Ithink a lot of people, maybe
outside the industry you'll havea certain kind of look of it.
I mean, if you grew up in acity and went to college and
studied this or that, you don'thave a lot of close contact with
labor.
And I guess that actuallydescribes me.
(12:44):
I mean, I guess through mydad's company and my upbringing
I had some contact, but notreally until I stepped into Ag
Installers did I really immersemyself in it.
And I think the thing I learnedin that process is, man, how
smart some of these guys are,how dedicated they are, how much
(13:05):
they how much they're thinkingabout what they're doing, how
much they're trying to improvethings on their own, and it kind
of made me realize, man, youknow, I don't know how many
people see this and what can wedo to help people see that.
So this idea of kind of reallyguiding a new light on labor is
what inspired the mission andkind of putting that in
(13:25):
different words, we want tocreate true professional and
it's not.
It's not just about theperception.
I mean, we need to do things asa company as a reality to you
know, to make that reality real.
So that's kind of our missionthere is, you know, we've got to
be those true professionals anddo all the things that it takes
to be you know, to really trulymake that a reality, but also
(13:46):
to kind of be seen that way aswell, the value you put into
training and treating yourpeople like professionals is so
important, greg, and I'm so gladthat you do that for your team.
Brandon Mulnix (14:00):
They're not just people, they're family to you
guys and that's in your team andthat's pretty cool.
Greg Schonefeld (14:04):
Man, I appreciate that and honestly
it's kind of amazing becauseit's kind of been I would say,
it's been this back and forthwhere I started with an idea of
what we could do and then you gosee somebody exceed your
expectations and then you gochange what you think you could
do and then that motivatesothers to go raise the bar.
(14:26):
I just feel like there's kindof been this back and forth
raising of the bar.
Brandon Mulnix (14:30):
Well, and you're not doing this alone, you have
a team now of leaders alongsideyou, and can you talk about the
process of who you put alongsideyou and why they're important?
Greg Schonefeld (14:41):
Yeah, that's been a hugely impactful thing to
our business over the lastcouple of years because, you
know, in the beginning I mean,like I said, we started off big
over a hundred people in thefirst year but you know, that
made us or maybe me specificallyfeel pretty smart.
And then it was all on one bigjob.
But then when we had to goreplace that job and got spread
(15:06):
out among three sites, realizedwe had a lot left to learn.
So we actually I mean, we wereas high as 150 people in the
early first couple of years andthen down to 80 in our fourth
year and really making a lot ofmistakes across the board.
So our first move was to reallyget ourselves shored up where
(15:26):
we're performing on the jobsites, and that was just kind of
really trying to work throughthe people who were there.
And and then, yeah, since youknow, getting back to your
question, brandon kind of got toa point where we really figured
things out on the site.
But it was really at a certainpoint it was difficult to think
about growing beyond thatbecause there's all the things
(15:47):
that have to be handled off thesite.
I mean, you've got to go sellthe work, hopefully do some
marketing and you know, with theimmigration processes we run,
have a lot of lead time, we haveto secure housing vehicles.
You know all these kinds ofthings that have to be managed,
that you have to build a team.
For that aspect and I'll say Imean we went six years before.
(16:08):
I mean we had a couple, let'ssay, heroes on our team at that
time that even made it possible,because we were so understaffed
, but then really made aconscious effort to go bring in
and build an executive team andthat was really inspired by EOS.
And, like you said, your firstmove there is to really build
out the structure.
(16:29):
Like you said, sales andmarketing and operations and
finance are kind of the standardkey pieces and to go out and
define that and then go get it.
Because you know my naturalmode before that was okay, this
has to be done.
I look around and see who wehave who can help me, and you're
(16:49):
just taking the people you haveand trying to get them to do
this or that.
I mean maybe like a basketballcoach that needs to like
redesign their offense for theplayers they have.
That's kind of how we weredoing things, where now the
encouragement has been no.
Go design exactly what you needand then go find the people
that really truly have the matchfor that structure.
Brandon Mulnix (17:11):
So, greg, we talk about this for small
business, we talk about this fornon-farm.
How can a farmer that's tryingto grow and scale implement
something like EOS in their farm?
Greg Schonefeld (17:27):
And that's a good question.
I think there's the group offarms that have been around for
decades that I would thinkprobably have some semblance of
this.
They've built a leadership andthose kinds of things, and
there's probably probably thosefarmers of a certain size out
there that I would guess there'squite a few that have the same
(17:48):
mentality.
I have that just hey, I've gotthis kind of limited pool of
resources here that I just gotto go show up to work every day
and get the most out of it.
And I think there's some levelwhere you have to balance your
ability to invest and build ateam and just having to kind of
get things done with maybe anidea of going out and really
(18:10):
just taking a shot.
And I think the best place tostart would be maybe read the
book Traction and kind of seesome of these tools, see which
ones make sense to you, seewhich ones you can implement.
Yes, I do see quite a fewfarmers out there just kind of.
I think it's that great farmhard work mentality which is a
(18:30):
big reason why I'm attracted tothis industry in the first place
, and maybe some of what I haveinside of me, some people kind
of take that hard work and thenthey just go out and kind of
make things happen with whatthey have.
Where I think it's useful, ifyou can, to take a step back for
a moment and really think aboutbuilding out a structure and
kind of a system for doingthings that may sound impossible
(18:53):
to do on top of your alreadyhard job.
But if you can give that littleextra to get there, it makes
your life easier later.
Brandon Mulnix (18:59):
Yeah, you said it there, putting in that work.
What we call it is working onthe business else to do, because
(19:40):
any good leader knows that inorder for them to pursue their
passions and their purpose, theyhave to train others to do the
work, to free them up to leadthe company and make the
decisions.
You know, at the at the largerscale, and you know, and I know
EOS did that for us it reallyfocused us through their tools
and their meeting cadences andall that to really be able to
free up time to say, hey, as theleader, you know you need to
take time out for yourself.
You need to focus on the workthat needs to be done this week,
but also work that needs to bedone this quarter or this year.
Greg Schonefeld (20:05):
Yeah, it's a great point and you said it
perfectly that it's working onthe business instead of only in
the business and yeah, it'simportant to set aside that time
(20:30):
.
It's difficult to set asidethat time, but important.
And you know, I really like themethod of setting out those 90
day objectives and of those done.
But if you can sit down andreally choose your best three
and have a commitment that hey,no matter what the next 90 days
we're going to knock out thosethree, first of all sitting down
and thinking, you know, workingon the business to develop what
those three are, but then to beable to go out and set out to
(20:53):
do it and get consistent ataccomplishing that.
Just moving the needle forwarda little bit every 90 days makes
the world a difference withtime.
Brandon Mulnix (21:02):
Yeah, that's still a challenge for me and my
planning, as I always take onway too much yeah.
Greg Schonefeld (21:08):
Here we are doing podcasts and not working
any time right.
Brandon Mulnix (21:11):
Absolutely.
It's like, yeah, what do youwant to do this quarter?
I want to start a podcast.
This should be easy.
Greg Schonefeld (21:18):
I think we're both a glutton for punishment,
Brandon.
Brandon Mulnix (21:22):
Oh well, you made a great transition.
You're doing all this you justmentioned.
You're in the process ofpurchasing Signet from your dad,
which is an incredibleopportunity for you signet from
your dad, which is an incredibleopportunity for you but you
started a podcast, so you and Iare like co-podcasters now in an
industry that has you know.
We're finding out that there'sthere's a few of them that have
(21:45):
been tried in the past and anddidn't go go as long as they
hope.
But, my gosh, greg, what tellme about your podcast?
Greg Schonefeld (21:52):
yeah, eggheads.
Uh, you know, I guess I guessit was inspired first, uh, my
brother-in-law, kyle Farmer, whodoes immigration, a lot of
immigration work for agriculture.
He has a podcast called theImmigration Guy and I went on as
a guest with him and I'll saythat.
Really, kind of at the sametime I guess I had a marketing
firm saying, hey, think aboutthis kind of thing.
(22:14):
And really I guess those areprobably some of my inspirations
.
But then my first thought waswell, you know, what am I going
to talk about?
Installation labor?
That's a pretty small world tolisten to.
But then I really realized thatthere are so many things in the
egg industry that I'm just sointerested in.
So where where my firstthoughts were well, I'm not an
(22:37):
expert in anything, what am Igoing to be doing with a podcast
?
But then I realized, well, Iwant to learn more about the egg
industry and this could be agreat way to learn.
At the same time I don't haveto start off an expert.
So I really thought I guessthat was kind of the early
thinking.
And then last fall just kind ofjumped in and started doing a
(22:57):
little bit of recording.
You know I've got to give BillSnow at Lubing credit for being
willing to sit down with me fora little bit.
But then, second of all, I meanhe said the words that you know
you could do a real servicewith this thing, and that really
kind of made me think that myfirst thought was I think he's
right.
I don't know how, but I thinkhe's right.
(23:18):
And then it just kind of reallyhit me that you know, I get
questions from neighbors, fromfriends, about eggs.
I think there's a whole worldof consumers out there that are
really interested in what goeson in the egg world and at the
same time I think there's kindof a recognized need in the
industry that, hey, how can wereach those consumers?
(23:40):
We have some avenues today, butwhat else can we do to reach
consumers?
And that's what I'd really loveto be able to do with Eggheads.
Brandon Mulnix (23:48):
It was interesting because your road
and my road were literallyparallel for the longest time
and even my boss is like hey,have you talked to Greg?
And so you and I chatted and itwas so exciting to have this
collaboration and to be able toreally just have someone in the
(24:08):
industry to talk to about what'sholding you back, greg, because
it's the same thing that washolding me back.
You know, hey, what's what's.
You know what's the challengesand just the fact that you're
willing to step out and do thispodcast and it's a fun podcast.
I really enjoyed being a gueston your show there and that's a
plug.
So go back.
I'll have a link to theEggheads podcast in this podcast
(24:30):
, because in this industry, evenpodcasts have to be like
farmers.
When we're supposed to becompetitors, we're actually
partners.
I mean, greg and I arechallenging each other to be
better.
We have different topics, wehave different guests and it is
so much fun to be able to justgo.
Hey, what's working for you man?
Hey, you know it's kind of cool.
(24:52):
So thank you, greg, and thankyou for stepping out there and
doing this.
Greg Schonefeld (24:56):
No, thank you as well.
And no, and you're, you're,you're totally right, because I
mean, it's, it's embarking onsomething new and and you know,
I guess I've I've done that acouple of times in a different,
in a couple of different ways,as have you, but this, you know,
podcast is totally newterritory.
It's a new set of challengesand, like you said, you're
(25:18):
feeling the same thing, so wecan talk about those kind of
things and also grow together,and I agree it couldn't have
worked out better to be able tostart this up at the same time.
Brandon Mulnix (25:29):
It's so much fun having a guy like you going
alongside here, so appreciatethat.
We're going to get back to thetopic, though.
I mean starting a podcast isyou know it is a leadership
thing.
It's going outside your comfortzone, but tell me about some of
the things that you strive forin leadership.
Greg Schonefeld (25:49):
Oh, man, one thing I'll say is, I guess, you
know, when it comes toleadership, I think it's it's
been an iteration and I guessthere's a certain period of time
for me where I would say I justhad something kind of maybe
burning inside inside me that,you know, I didn't really know
what it is, but it always justkind of kind of pushed me and it
(26:12):
just, for some reason, I alwayskind of wanted to be in
leadership kind of roles, and soit's been a total evolution,
because there's a period of timewhere you follow your instincts
.
I mean, I've read well, I guessI've been a big reader really
ever since I finished college Iwasn't before then, but then
have had the chance to take ondifferent leadership roles and
each one has created differentchallenges, and you're just
(26:35):
responding every time and,honestly, I forgot your question
now, Brandon.
Brandon Mulnix (26:44):
There are so many great things of that too.
Greg Schonefeld (26:46):
Yeah, no, we can, we can keep that, we can
keep this whole thing.
But that was leading somewhere.
I knew my starting point.
I knew my ending point that Iforgot when I got to the middle.
Brandon Mulnix (26:57):
I'm going to leave this because I've been to
show what you know.
A couple of podcasts, oh, gothrough, absolutely.
So where I was going was we'vetalked about hard things and be
a leader.
You talked about gettingoutside your comfort zone, and
what does that look like for you?
Greg Schonefeld (27:16):
Oh sure, you know, what I would say is I
haven't always kind of thoughtof it in that way.
I've just kind of done whatseemed necessary at the time.
You know, I guess more and morerecently and and this comes
from following different peoplemaybe on LinkedIn, podcasters,
uh, different leaders out thereand and I really feel like this
(27:37):
idea of doing hard things haskind of hit me, you know, quite
a bit in the last year, twoyears, and something I've
started to embrace in my lifeand especially, the more
experience you get, the more yousee that you're going to have
periods of hard roads, you'regoing to have periods where
maybe it lightens up a, and Iguess what I've really started
(28:03):
to do there is, you know, formdifferent habits in my life and
kind of take on challengesproactively, and what I believe
it does is it kind of builds upyour endurance, your stamina.
It's almost like a muscle thatyou have to strengthen, and you
know some examples of that wouldbe I mean, you do those ultra
(28:23):
marathons.
So you know as much as anybodyinflicting pain on yourself that
you didn't maybe need to, andI'm not sure if your reasons are
on these lines, but I guess Ireally kind of first got
inspired doing 75 hard last yearand one of my friends put me on
it.
I was kind of feeling like Ineeded something and it just all
(28:43):
came at the same time.
Feeling like I needed somethingand it just all came at the
same time and he described it tome and I was like man.
I was mad at him for a minutebecause I knew I needed to do it
once he explained it to me butthen I did decide to do it.
But it's something where youhave to do two 45-minute
workouts a day.
One has to be outside.
They've got to be three hoursapart from each other at least,
(29:06):
so you can't do like an hour anda half workout.
You have to drink a gallon ofwater every day.
You have to commit to a dietand there's some kind of
flexibility in that, butdefinitely no desserts,
definitely no alcohol.
You have to take a progressphoto every day, and that's like
an easy thing to do, but it'salso one that, if you forget it,
you fail, because you've got todo this 75 days in a row.
(29:27):
You can't miss any one of theseitems.
You know that taught me a couplethings.
I mean for one thing I thoughtwell, you know, I work out 20,
30 minutes, you know, probablyfive days a week.
I'll just do 30 minutes twotimes a day.
But the guy is very clear youdon't modify this challenge.
The guy's very clear.
You don't modify this challenge.
(29:48):
You either take it or you don't, because life doesn't throw at
you a challenge that you get tomodify.
Life throws at you a challengethat you either say yes to or
you say no to, and that's kindof the mantra with this thing.
And I would say that itdefinitely taught me a lot.
You know, the first thing ittaught me is I had to re,
totally rearrange my wholeroutine to make this happen and
(30:09):
it kind of it showed me that Ican.
And just rearranging yourroutine, whatever routine you
produce, dictates your results.
So that applies to this, but itapplies to everything,
everything.
I mean if you read 30 minutes aday as your routine and you're
(30:30):
reading of a certain genre,that's going to dictate the
things you know in life.
So that's something that ittaught me.
And then the other thing I'llsay is yeah, I lost weight doing
75 hard, and a lot of peoplekind of see it as like a weight
loss kind of program the guy whodesigned it is very clear that
it's not a weight loss, it's amental toughness program.
And so, yeah, I lost, I lostweight and got in better shape
(30:53):
and there's certain confidencethat comes, you know, associated
with that.
But more than anything, theconfidence that it gave is kind
of a trust and a belief inyourself, because you're first
committing to this super hardthing that you don't know you
can do and every day you have awin and you do what you set out
(31:15):
to do.
You not only get the results ofthat win but you get the
confidence that it produces andit's almost like a trust in
yourself that, hey, I toldmyself I was gonna do it and
then I went and did it, I kept apromise to myself and it's just
confidence building in thatregard.
And I'm not necessarily sayingeveryone should go out and do 75
(31:35):
hard.
You could apply this probablyin different ways of your life,
but I will say that inspired meand has kind of inspired me in
general to change my eating anddiet routines not necessarily
for my weight or those kind ofthings me in general to change
my, you know, eating and dietroutines, not not necessarily
for my weight or those kinds ofthings, but but for producing a
certain outcomes and and yeah.
So I think, uh, kind of takingthis I mean my wife jokes that
(31:58):
now I've signed up for life hardinstead of 75 hard, but I I do
think, do think doing thosekinds of things is difficult but
it does, it does prepare youfor life and kind of prepares
you to, you know, be in acertain mode where you also just
have the sense of confidencethat, hey, I can take what life
throws at me.
Brandon Mulnix (32:18):
Yeah, you just nailed it.
Any type of program like that,whether it's a diet you know
I've done diets in the past toget healthy and I've done, as
you mentioned, ultra marathonswhat it does, it just gives you
that mindset, and you said it itgives you that mindset.
So when things are tough inbusiness, when things are tough,
tough personally, hey, I canget through that.
(32:40):
I put myself in here 75 hard, Ican get through this and you
don't know what futurechallenges you're gonna have.
But, man, you've preparedyourself and that's all.
You can look back on any ofthose and even 10 years from now
, you might gain a few poundsback and you might, you know, be
less active than you werebefore.
But you can always have thatreserve to go back and say I did
(33:03):
something really hard and Iknow that whatever worked for me
back then will work for meagain.
Even if you're 10, 15 yearsaway, you still have the
confidence in yourself becauseyou can go back and do it again.
It's not that hard.
I just I.
You know I accomplished it andI think we minimize our
accomplishments some ways.
(33:24):
But 75 hard is that's a beastman, Congratulations, no, thank
you, and no, we minimize ouraccomplishments some ways, but
75 hard is that's a beast man.
Greg Schonefeld (33:32):
Congratulations .
No, thank you.
And no, what you said isexactly right.
I mean cause, yeah, you canthink back to man, I'm on mile
23 of over 26 and even havingfour miles left to go is super
daunting and yeah, whateveryou're facing, you're kind of
put yourself in that mindset oflike man, can I do this?
Brandon Mulnix (33:56):
And you know you did so you start to believe you
can do it again throughimplementing an EOS system,
which stands for EntrepreneurialOperating System, and created a
mission, created a vision, allfor his company, so it could
continue to grow.
And then he starts buying hisdad's business, which is going
(34:19):
to be a huge challenge for him,upcoming, because I was going to
ask him what's the next hardthing that he's going to do, and
I know what that is.
I try to run two companies, butwhile he's doing all of that,
he also works on himself with 75Heart, and that is what leaders
do.
You know there's a lot ofthings that we do that are
work-related, there's a lot ofnew challenges that are mentally
related, but what are you doingfor that aspect of physical
(34:40):
health?
What are you doing for yourspiritual health?
No-transcript.
(35:09):
Well, is there anything that Ididn't cover?
Greg?
Greg Schonefeld (35:13):
I was just going to say what you just said
is super well said and I mean,I've been told recently that I
am the ceiling of my business orany undertaking that I'm
undertaking.
I'm the ceiling.
So if I don't get better, I'mholding down everybody with me
and that's been.
You know, that's a bigmotivator for me.
Brandon Mulnix (35:34):
Wow, that is an interesting way to look at it,
for sure.
So, greg, we've shared all ofthese things and I know there's
people out there that reallywant to grow, but they just need
someone to talk to or ask aboutEOS or ask about 75 hard.
Is there a way for them toconnect with you?
Greg Schonefeld (35:55):
Sure, I'd love for people to reach out to me.
They can reach me by email atgreg, at aginstallerscom that's
aginstallers.
Is H-E installers dot comthat's aginstallerscom.
And you can also find me atLinkedIn, greg Schoenefeld, and
send me a message there.
So, yeah, I'd love to havepeople reach out to me and help
(36:15):
any way I can.
Brandon Mulnix (36:17):
Hey Poultry Leadership Podcast audience,
please go check out Egghead'spodcast.
He's releasing episodes everytwo weeks.
We're talking about maybecoordinating this a little bit,
so that way he's one week, orEggheads is one week and the
Poultry Leadership Podcast isthe next week.
We're going to get on thatschedule so that way you, as our
audience, can be shared amongstboth of us and every week, have
(36:40):
valuable content from the eggindustry, because guess what?
That's what partners do, that'swhat people in this industry do
together.
So, greg, I so appreciate youbeing here.
You've shared so manyincredible things with our
audience and I mean you nailedit, buddy.
Greg Schonefeld (36:59):
I appreciate it , brandon, and thanks a bunch
for having me on and, yeah, Ilook forward to continuing to
grow together and I think it'sreally cool the engagement
you've already created and lookforward to continue to build on
that.
Brandon Mulnix (37:12):
Hey podcast listeners.
One last thing like share getthis episode out to your friends
, family, whether they're in theegg industry or not.
I'm sure this will be valuablefor their leadership growth,
because you know what You'reholding someone else back
because they need you to sharethis with them so that they can
grow as a leader.
That could be someone on yourteam, that could be someone from
(37:32):
another company.
So thank you for listening andalso, last but not least, this
podcast would not be possiblewithout our sponsors, prism
controls.
Prism controls is the leader inproviding technology to farmers
in the egg industry.
They believe in growing leadersso much.
They sponsor this podcast byallowing me to do it.
So thank you, listeners.
(37:53):
I look forward to hearing backfrom you later this June May
have to adjust my schedule alittle bit due to the fact that
I'm actually taking a familyvacation, so we'll see how that
goes, but I will be back withyou later this June and this is
what's going to line Greg and Ito get our podcast in sync.
So thank you and have a greatday.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, brandon Molnix,and on today's show I have Greg
Schonefeld, owner of AgInstallers and host of the new
podcast Eggheads.
I am super excited to interviewGreg today and I cannot wait
for him to share his story withyou all.
Thanks, Branodn, I appreciateyou having me.
(00:51):
Greg, well, as I said, you know you're the new
host of the podcast Eggheads,but before we dive into that,
you are so much more than theshell that you present with
Eggheads.
So can you give the audience alittle bit of background on who
you are and what was yourjourney like to get into the
industry?
Greg Schonefeld (01:10):
Sure, yeah, I guess everything kind of starts
for me.
I studied accounting andfinance in school and went first
to work for like a big fouraccounting firm where I was
doing auditing.
So where I started is verydifferent from where I've ended
up, and that really came aboutthrough leaving the big four
accounting firm to go work formy dad who has a company that
(01:32):
does construction in the agworld called Signet.
And it wasn't really somethingI necessarily planned to go do
but the way things lined up, itlined up great and I was kind of
at a place where I was inaccounting I kind of realized
that wasn't the road for me andhad some crazy ideas about oh
well, I'll go consult, eventhough looking back, I probably
(01:55):
didn't know that much at thetime.
But I started off looking at mydad's business and really saw
some real opportunity there, sowent and joined him and gave
myself the title of CFO at theage of 27 and went into his
office and, you know, workedwith with his company for a few
years and through that a bigthing I learned is, you know,
(02:16):
just some some leadership thingslearned, kind of working with
the crews and and and andworking as a leader and also
learn how to operate some of theimmigration programs he was
using.
And after doing that a few years, an opportunity opened up for
me in the installation spacewhere you know no one else was
(02:39):
really using some of theseimmigration programs and the job
really requires traveling allover the country and it's super
hard to get people to kind ofwork these jobs in rural
locations and moving all overthe place and really thought
there was an opportunity toutilize some of these
immigration programs in theinstallation space.
So that's how Ag Installers wasborn and got to start off with
(03:01):
a really great opportunity outin Arizona on a huge project.
Brandon Mulnix (03:12):
Wow, that is an opportunity that you have really
taken advantage of too.
I mean, I've seen your growthin your company get to
participate and work with you oryour teams, cause you know, I I
don't put cage equipmenttogether, I'm not an electrician
, I'm not on the site, but ourteams are out there.
But yeah, you and I have had achance to work together and
that's just incredible to seeyour growth in the industry and
your reputation in the industryand it seems like you guys are
(03:34):
the go-to company for agequipment installing.
Greg Schonefeld (03:37):
I appreciate that, brandon, and it was a
challenging road.
I mean when I, you know, kindof looking back to how we
started it was, you know it wasa challenging road.
I mean when I, you know, kindof looking back to how we
started it was, you know it wasa great opportunity.
I mean we went from zero to ahundred people in the first year
at Ag Installers and, you know,had some support from customers
and all those kinds of things.
But it was a real challenge togo from zero to over a hundred.
(03:58):
And there were definitelymoments along the way where you
know we're trying to lead thisproject and you know I didn't
have that constructionbackground and there were days
where I was asking myself whatam I doing as an accounting and
finance person trying to runthese jobs?
But just showed up every dayand tackle one thing at a time
and do your best.
Brandon Mulnix (04:19):
It is amazing how, whatever your background is
, there is a place for everybodywithin the industry.
That's a cool story.
I mean, how are you with yourdad now?
I mean, do you still workalongside your dad?
Greg Schonefeld (04:32):
The way that worked out.
I mean we had someone come in.
The timing really worked outgreat, where we were able to
bring someone in to handle someof the responsibilities I had
been doing in his business,handle some of the
responsibilities I had beendoing in his business, and this
was a great way for me to usesome of the skills, the things I
learned, as well as just myoverall background and lifelong
(04:54):
interest in business, to go dosomething that utilizes those
skills but wasn't in competition.
So Signet, the company my dadfounded, puts up the buildings,
works in the egg world, works inhog and dairy putting up
buildings labor only as well,and so ag installers kind of let
(05:14):
me focus on a different trade.
That is almost like acomplimentary business.
And now things are coming fullcircle where I've taken the
management of Signet and I'm inprocess of buying my data out of
Signet as well.
Brandon Mulnix (05:27):
Oh, that's really super exciting.
And, Greg, through some of ourconversations you've mentioned
that you've got a philosophy oryou've bought into a philosophy
of business.
That's really helped you growand organize and create a
scalable process.
Can you dive into that?
Greg Schonefeld (05:48):
Oh yeah, referring to EOS, that's been a
big difference for me as aleader and for our business and
a big reason why I think I canundertake the responsibilities
that Signet will present as well.
I guess what I would summarizewith EOS is that it's really
just a great comprehensivesystem for running your business
(06:09):
and kind of stepping back towhere how it presents presented
value to me.
You know where I came from.
You know.
First I was in this big fouraccounting firm.
That's a huge company, 30,000employees.
I'm just someone who startedoff very entry level and my job
was to audit derivatives at thattime.
(06:30):
So it's like someone would goout and actually do something,
then someone else would accountfor that, then someone else
would check their accounting andthen I'd be there to check that
.
So I felt like I was four stepsremoved from the real world.
And then moved over to workingfor my dad, where I felt like I
was four steps removed from thereal world.
And then moved over to workingfor my dad where I felt like I
was right in the real worldsolving practical problems every
(06:52):
single day and I just love that.
But very entrepreneurial kind of.
You know atmosphere,environment at Cignet and you
know it had kind of its own wayof doing things that it had done
for a long time, that thatworked, but not a lot of
necessarily documented systemsand processes, those kind of
(07:12):
things.
And then I went and did startedAgonsellers and we definitely
don't have systems and processesand those kind of things
established.
So I've never really gotten achance to see, hey, what a
business of this size looks like, that really kind of has this
system of running things.
And that's really what EOSoffers is kind of like a roadmap
(07:37):
and including when you do yourmeetings and those kinds of
things.
And I'll say the first thingfor EOS that really became clear
.
That sounds so simple in a waybut wasn't for me, for whatever
reason is like it is startingwith an org chart and I guess my
mindset for whatever reason is,you know, always thought, oh
yeah, org chart, that's justkind of some corporate mumbo
(08:00):
jumbo thing or something likethat.
Eos really helped me to see thevalue in that that you really,
once you grow and you have ateam, you know it needs to be
clear to everybody what yourrole is.
And then and they don't justcall it an org chart, they call
it an accountability chart,because everyone really truly
needs to be accountable for thatposition.
And maybe that sounds simple aswell, but you know, so many
(08:23):
times you kind of can lookaround and see, okay, this
person really helps me.
But it changes the expectationfrom hey, you're really helping
me, but I'm still kind ofcovering this, that or the other
, to no, you're really trulyaccountable for.
This makes that simple thing.
(08:47):
It's simple but difficult atthe same time, but that simple
thing just really changeseverything.
And there's other things on topof it, but I'll say, everything
for me starts there.
Brandon Mulnix (08:53):
Yeah, the accountability chart.
Being from a company thatadopted EOS about four years ago
, man, it helps simplify so manythings.
And when you look at thataccountability chart and say,
okay, so who owns this role?
It's not about the person rightoff the bat, it's about the
role, like okay, so sales andmarketing, who is that?
(09:13):
Well, I got assigned that.
Okay, so what does that looklike Underneath?
That is the key takeaways fromthat, and it's so much, so
simple for me to say, okay,where else in the company do we
have this?
And then you start lookingthrough there and going, okay,
who reports to who, which ismore of your org chart kind of
thing, but it's.
It just really aligns with that.
(09:34):
That's awesome.
And I know you've mentionedyour vision statement, your
mission statement.
Tell us about that.
Greg Schonefeld (09:39):
Yeah, I'll give , you know, eos credit there as
well, because the they've gotdesigned for you know, basically
a two, two-page vision thatincludes eight different
elements, and part of that is,yeah, the mission is is a big
piece of that.
So your mission and your valuesand if I could start with the
values, because I kind of I kindof see that as a big, huge,
(10:00):
maybe the biggest part of ourvision, and some of that kind of
happened naturally, reallybuilding this culture, these
values, and it took time, butthe time it was kind of instinct
.
I'd say year three or four forag installers really started to
become clear who were the peoplethat really fit our program and
(10:21):
who were the people that maybedidn't quite.
And you just kind of make a fewkey decisions out of instinct.
But looking back in this ideaof having really truly defined
values, and for us that's teamfirst, work hard, continuous
improvement.
Everything we do is builtaround that, and so that was
kind of the first thing tobecome clearer for us in terms
(10:44):
of and so that was kind of thefirst thing to become clearer
for us in terms of vision isonce we just we put words to our
values.
I think everyone kind of had afeeling that, hey, we were
really working on something thatfelt special to us on values.
But once we put words to it itreally helped us to build it
that much stronger.
And then the mission ideareally came later and it came
(11:18):
just over a year ago I'd say thebeginning of last year where we
you're going to see I wrote ahundred iterations or something
of our mission, which is kind ofcrazy, but it just felt
important and nothing quiteseemed right.
But then I read this book calledthis is Marketing by Seth Godin
.
It was a marketing book but itjust had this little line in it
(11:39):
that said what change are youtrying to make?
And because it said, if you'rein business and you're trying to
market, it's because you'retrying to make change.
And I had never thought ofbeing in business as an idea to
make change.
I was just trying to buildsomething that kind of served
its purpose and its market,created a good life for the
(11:59):
people who were a part of it.
And I never thought that Istarted a business to go out and
set about change.
But I wrote it on the boardbecause it just felt important
for me it was on my whiteboardbehind me to just keep looking
at.
And all of a sudden it hit meone day, maybe three weeks later
, that you know the change thatwe need to make is around the
(12:21):
kind of the perception of laborin America which I think I think
a lot of people in the agindustry understand how
important manual labor is, but Ithink a lot of people, maybe
outside the industry you'll havea certain kind of look of it.
I mean, if you grew up in acity and went to college and
studied this or that, you don'thave a lot of close contact with
labor.
And I guess that actuallydescribes me.
(12:44):
I mean, I guess through mydad's company and my upbringing
I had some contact, but notreally until I stepped into Ag
Installers did I really immersemyself in it.
And I think the thing I learnedin that process is, man, how
smart some of these guys are,how dedicated they are, how much
(13:05):
they how much they're thinkingabout what they're doing, how
much they're trying to improvethings on their own, and it kind
of made me realize, man, youknow, I don't know how many
people see this and what can wedo to help people see that.
So this idea of kind of reallyguiding a new light on labor is
what inspired the mission andkind of putting that in
(13:25):
different words, we want tocreate true professional and
it's not.
It's not just about theperception.
I mean, we need to do things asa company as a reality to you
know, to make that reality real.
So that's kind of our missionthere is, you know, we've got to
be those true professionals anddo all the things that it takes
to be you know, to really trulymake that a reality, but also
(13:46):
to kind of be seen that way aswell, the value you put into
training and treating yourpeople like professionals is so
important, greg, and I'm so gladthat you do that for your team.
Brandon Mulnix (14:00):
They're not just people, they're family to you
guys and that's in your team andthat's pretty cool.
Greg Schonefeld (14:04):
Man, I appreciate that and honestly
it's kind of amazing becauseit's kind of been I would say,
it's been this back and forthwhere I started with an idea of
what we could do and then you gosee somebody exceed your
expectations and then you gochange what you think you could
do and then that motivatesothers to go raise the bar.
(14:26):
I just feel like there's kindof been this back and forth
raising of the bar.
Brandon Mulnix (14:30):
Well, and you're not doing this alone, you have
a team now of leaders alongsideyou, and can you talk about the
process of who you put alongsideyou and why they're important?
Greg Schonefeld (14:41):
Yeah, that's been a hugely impactful thing to
our business over the lastcouple of years because, you
know, in the beginning I mean,like I said, we started off big
over a hundred people in thefirst year but you know, that
made us or maybe me specificallyfeel pretty smart.
And then it was all on one bigjob.
But then when we had to goreplace that job and got spread
(15:06):
out among three sites, realizedwe had a lot left to learn.
So we actually I mean, we wereas high as 150 people in the
early first couple of years andthen down to 80 in our fourth
year and really making a lot ofmistakes across the board.
So our first move was to reallyget ourselves shored up where
(15:26):
we're performing on the jobsites, and that was just kind of
really trying to work throughthe people who were there.
And and then, yeah, since youknow, getting back to your
question, brandon kind of got toa point where we really figured
things out on the site.
But it was really at a certainpoint it was difficult to think
about growing beyond thatbecause there's all the things
(15:47):
that have to be handled off thesite.
I mean, you've got to go sellthe work, hopefully do some
marketing and you know, with theimmigration processes we run,
have a lot of lead time, we haveto secure housing vehicles.
You know all these kinds ofthings that have to be managed,
that you have to build a team.
For that aspect and I'll say Imean we went six years before.
(16:08):
I mean we had a couple, let'ssay, heroes on our team at that
time that even made it possible,because we were so understaffed
, but then really made aconscious effort to go bring in
and build an executive team andthat was really inspired by EOS.
And, like you said, your firstmove there is to really build
out the structure.
(16:29):
Like you said, sales andmarketing and operations and
finance are kind of the standardkey pieces and to go out and
define that and then go get it.
Because you know my naturalmode before that was okay, this
has to be done.
I look around and see who wehave who can help me, and you're
(16:49):
just taking the people you haveand trying to get them to do
this or that.
I mean maybe like a basketballcoach that needs to like
redesign their offense for theplayers they have.
That's kind of how we weredoing things, where now the
encouragement has been no.
Go design exactly what you needand then go find the people
that really truly have the matchfor that structure.
Brandon Mulnix (17:11):
So, greg, we talk about this for small
business, we talk about this fornon-farm.
How can a farmer that's tryingto grow and scale implement
something like EOS in their farm?
Greg Schonefeld (17:27):
And that's a good question.
I think there's the group offarms that have been around for
decades that I would thinkprobably have some semblance of
this.
They've built a leadership andthose kinds of things, and
there's probably probably thosefarmers of a certain size out
there that I would guess there'squite a few that have the same
(17:48):
mentality.
I have that just hey, I've gotthis kind of limited pool of
resources here that I just gotto go show up to work every day
and get the most out of it.
And I think there's some levelwhere you have to balance your
ability to invest and build ateam and just having to kind of
get things done with maybe anidea of going out and really
(18:10):
just taking a shot.
And I think the best place tostart would be maybe read the
book Traction and kind of seesome of these tools, see which
ones make sense to you, seewhich ones you can implement.
Yes, I do see quite a fewfarmers out there just kind of.
I think it's that great farmhard work mentality which is a
(18:30):
big reason why I'm attracted tothis industry in the first place
, and maybe some of what I haveinside of me, some people kind
of take that hard work and thenthey just go out and kind of
make things happen with whatthey have.
Where I think it's useful, ifyou can, to take a step back for
a moment and really think aboutbuilding out a structure and
kind of a system for doingthings that may sound impossible
(18:53):
to do on top of your alreadyhard job.
But if you can give that littleextra to get there, it makes
your life easier later.
Brandon Mulnix (18:59):
Yeah, you said it there, putting in that work.
What we call it is working onthe business else to do, because
(19:40):
any good leader knows that inorder for them to pursue their
passions and their purpose, theyhave to train others to do the
work, to free them up to leadthe company and make the
decisions.
You know, at the at the largerscale, and you know, and I know
EOS did that for us it reallyfocused us through their tools
and their meeting cadences andall that to really be able to
free up time to say, hey, as theleader, you know you need to
take time out for yourself.
You need to focus on the workthat needs to be done this week,
but also work that needs to bedone this quarter or this year.
Greg Schonefeld (20:05):
Yeah, it's a great point and you said it
perfectly that it's working onthe business instead of only in
the business and yeah, it'simportant to set aside that time
(20:30):
.
It's difficult to set asidethat time, but important.
And you know, I really like themethod of setting out those 90
day objectives and of those done.
But if you can sit down andreally choose your best three
and have a commitment that hey,no matter what the next 90 days
we're going to knock out thosethree, first of all sitting down
and thinking, you know, workingon the business to develop what
those three are, but then to beable to go out and set out to
(20:53):
do it and get consistent ataccomplishing that.
Just moving the needle forwarda little bit every 90 days makes
the world a difference withtime.
Brandon Mulnix (21:02):
Yeah, that's still a challenge for me and my
planning, as I always take onway too much yeah.
Greg Schonefeld (21:08):
Here we are doing podcasts and not working
any time right.
Brandon Mulnix (21:11):
Absolutely.
It's like, yeah, what do youwant to do this quarter?
I want to start a podcast.
This should be easy.
Greg Schonefeld (21:18):
I think we're both a glutton for punishment,
Brandon.
Brandon Mulnix (21:22):
Oh well, you made a great transition.
You're doing all this you justmentioned.
You're in the process ofpurchasing Signet from your dad,
which is an incredibleopportunity for you signet from
your dad, which is an incredibleopportunity for you but you
started a podcast, so you and Iare like co-podcasters now in an
industry that has you know.
We're finding out that there'sthere's a few of them that have
(21:45):
been tried in the past and anddidn't go go as long as they
hope.
But, my gosh, greg, what tellme about your podcast?
Greg Schonefeld (21:52):
yeah, eggheads.
Uh, you know, I guess I guessit was inspired first, uh, my
brother-in-law, kyle Farmer, whodoes immigration, a lot of
immigration work for agriculture.
He has a podcast called theImmigration Guy and I went on as
a guest with him and I'll saythat.
Really, kind of at the sametime I guess I had a marketing
firm saying, hey, think aboutthis kind of thing.
(22:14):
And really I guess those areprobably some of my inspirations
.
But then my first thought waswell, you know, what am I going
to talk about?
Installation labor?
That's a pretty small world tolisten to.
But then I really realized thatthere are so many things in the
egg industry that I'm just sointerested in.
So where where my firstthoughts were well, I'm not an
(22:37):
expert in anything, what am Igoing to be doing with a podcast
?
But then I realized, well, Iwant to learn more about the egg
industry and this could be agreat way to learn.
At the same time I don't haveto start off an expert.
So I really thought I guessthat was kind of the early
thinking.
And then last fall just kind ofjumped in and started doing a
(22:57):
little bit of recording.
You know I've got to give BillSnow at Lubing credit for being
willing to sit down with me fora little bit.
But then, second of all, I meanhe said the words that you know
you could do a real servicewith this thing, and that really
kind of made me think that myfirst thought was I think he's
right.
I don't know how, but I thinkhe's right.
(23:18):
And then it just kind of reallyhit me that you know, I get
questions from neighbors, fromfriends, about eggs.
I think there's a whole worldof consumers out there that are
really interested in what goeson in the egg world and at the
same time I think there's kindof a recognized need in the
industry that, hey, how can wereach those consumers?
(23:40):
We have some avenues today, butwhat else can we do to reach
consumers?
And that's what I'd really loveto be able to do with Eggheads.
Brandon Mulnix (23:48):
It was interesting because your road
and my road were literallyparallel for the longest time
and even my boss is like hey,have you talked to Greg?
And so you and I chatted and itwas so exciting to have this
collaboration and to be able toreally just have someone in the
(24:08):
industry to talk to about what'sholding you back, greg, because
it's the same thing that washolding me back.
You know, hey, what's what's.
You know what's the challengesand just the fact that you're
willing to step out and do thispodcast and it's a fun podcast.
I really enjoyed being a gueston your show there and that's a
plug.
So go back.
I'll have a link to theEggheads podcast in this podcast
(24:30):
, because in this industry, evenpodcasts have to be like
farmers.
When we're supposed to becompetitors, we're actually
partners.
I mean, greg and I arechallenging each other to be
better.
We have different topics, wehave different guests and it is
so much fun to be able to justgo.
Hey, what's working for you man?
Hey, you know it's kind of cool.
(24:52):
So thank you, greg, and thankyou for stepping out there and
doing this.
Greg Schonefeld (24:56):
No, thank you as well.
And no, and you're, you're,you're totally right, because I
mean, it's, it's embarking onsomething new and and you know,
I guess I've I've done that acouple of times in a different,
in a couple of different ways,as have you, but this, you know,
podcast is totally newterritory.
It's a new set of challengesand, like you said, you're
(25:18):
feeling the same thing, so wecan talk about those kind of
things and also grow together,and I agree it couldn't have
worked out better to be able tostart this up at the same time.
Brandon Mulnix (25:29):
It's so much fun having a guy like you going
alongside here, so appreciatethat.
We're going to get back to thetopic, though.
I mean starting a podcast isyou know it is a leadership
thing.
It's going outside your comfortzone, but tell me about some of
the things that you strive forin leadership.
Greg Schonefeld (25:49):
Oh, man, one thing I'll say is, I guess, you
know, when it comes toleadership, I think it's it's
been an iteration and I guessthere's a certain period of time
for me where I would say I justhad something kind of maybe
burning inside inside me that,you know, I didn't really know
what it is, but it always justkind of kind of pushed me and it
(26:12):
just, for some reason, I alwayskind of wanted to be in
leadership kind of roles, and soit's been a total evolution,
because there's a period of timewhere you follow your instincts
.
I mean, I've read well, I guessI've been a big reader really
ever since I finished college Iwasn't before then, but then
have had the chance to take ondifferent leadership roles and
each one has created differentchallenges, and you're just
(26:35):
responding every time and,honestly, I forgot your question
now, Brandon.
Brandon Mulnix (26:44):
There are so many great things of that too.
Greg Schonefeld (26:46):
Yeah, no, we can, we can keep that, we can
keep this whole thing.
But that was leading somewhere.
I knew my starting point.
I knew my ending point that Iforgot when I got to the middle.
Brandon Mulnix (26:57):
I'm going to leave this because I've been to
show what you know.
A couple of podcasts, oh, gothrough, absolutely.
So where I was going was we'vetalked about hard things and be
a leader.
You talked about gettingoutside your comfort zone, and
what does that look like for you?
Greg Schonefeld (27:16):
Oh sure, you know, what I would say is I
haven't always kind of thoughtof it in that way.
I've just kind of done whatseemed necessary at the time.
You know, I guess more and morerecently and and this comes
from following different peoplemaybe on LinkedIn, podcasters,
uh, different leaders out thereand and I really feel like this
(27:37):
idea of doing hard things haskind of hit me, you know, quite
a bit in the last year, twoyears, and something I've
started to embrace in my lifeand especially, the more
experience you get, the more yousee that you're going to have
periods of hard roads, you'regoing to have periods where
maybe it lightens up a, and Iguess what I've really started
(28:03):
to do there is, you know, formdifferent habits in my life and
kind of take on challengesproactively, and what I believe
it does is it kind of builds upyour endurance, your stamina.
It's almost like a muscle thatyou have to strengthen, and you
know some examples of that wouldbe I mean, you do those ultra
(28:23):
marathons.
So you know as much as anybodyinflicting pain on yourself that
you didn't maybe need to, andI'm not sure if your reasons are
on these lines, but I guess Ireally kind of first got
inspired doing 75 hard last yearand one of my friends put me on
it.
I was kind of feeling like Ineeded something and it just all
(28:43):
came at the same time.
Feeling like I needed somethingand it just all came at the
same time and he described it tome and I was like man.
I was mad at him for a minutebecause I knew I needed to do it
once he explained it to me butthen I did decide to do it.
But it's something where youhave to do two 45-minute
workouts a day.
One has to be outside.
They've got to be three hoursapart from each other at least,
(29:06):
so you can't do like an hour anda half workout.
You have to drink a gallon ofwater every day.
You have to commit to a dietand there's some kind of
flexibility in that, butdefinitely no desserts,
definitely no alcohol.
You have to take a progressphoto every day, and that's like
an easy thing to do, but it'salso one that, if you forget it,
you fail, because you've got todo this 75 days in a row.
(29:27):
You can't miss any one of theseitems.
You know that taught me a couplethings.
I mean for one thing I thoughtwell, you know, I work out 20,
30 minutes, you know, probablyfive days a week.
I'll just do 30 minutes twotimes a day.
But the guy is very clear youdon't modify this challenge.
The guy's very clear.
You don't modify this challenge.
(29:48):
You either take it or you don't, because life doesn't throw at
you a challenge that you get tomodify.
Life throws at you a challengethat you either say yes to or
you say no to, and that's kindof the mantra with this thing.
And I would say that itdefinitely taught me a lot.
You know, the first thing ittaught me is I had to re,
totally rearrange my wholeroutine to make this happen and
(30:09):
it kind of it showed me that Ican.
And just rearranging yourroutine, whatever routine you
produce, dictates your results.
So that applies to this, but itapplies to everything,
everything.
I mean if you read 30 minutes aday as your routine and you're
(30:30):
reading of a certain genre,that's going to dictate the
things you know in life.
So that's something that ittaught me.
And then the other thing I'llsay is yeah, I lost weight doing
75 hard, and a lot of peoplekind of see it as like a weight
loss kind of program the guy whodesigned it is very clear that
it's not a weight loss, it's amental toughness program.
And so, yeah, I lost, I lostweight and got in better shape
(30:53):
and there's certain confidencethat comes, you know, associated
with that.
But more than anything, theconfidence that it gave is kind
of a trust and a belief inyourself, because you're first
committing to this super hardthing that you don't know you
can do and every day you have awin and you do what you set out
(31:15):
to do.
You not only get the results ofthat win but you get the
confidence that it produces andit's almost like a trust in
yourself that, hey, I toldmyself I was gonna do it and
then I went and did it, I kept apromise to myself and it's just
confidence building in thatregard.
And I'm not necessarily sayingeveryone should go out and do 75
(31:35):
hard.
You could apply this probablyin different ways of your life,
but I will say that inspired meand has kind of inspired me in
general to change my eating anddiet routines not necessarily
for my weight or those kind ofthings me in general to change
my, you know, eating and dietroutines, not not necessarily
for my weight or those kinds ofthings, but but for producing a
certain outcomes and and yeah.
So I think, uh, kind of takingthis I mean my wife jokes that
(31:58):
now I've signed up for life hardinstead of 75 hard, but I I do
think, do think doing thosekinds of things is difficult but
it does, it does prepare youfor life and kind of prepares
you to, you know, be in acertain mode where you also just
have the sense of confidencethat, hey, I can take what life
throws at me.
Brandon Mulnix (32:18):
Yeah, you just nailed it.
Any type of program like that,whether it's a diet you know
I've done diets in the past toget healthy and I've done, as
you mentioned, ultra marathonswhat it does, it just gives you
that mindset, and you said it itgives you that mindset.
So when things are tough inbusiness, when things are tough,
tough personally, hey, I canget through that.
(32:40):
I put myself in here 75 hard, Ican get through this and you
don't know what futurechallenges you're gonna have.
But, man, you've preparedyourself and that's all.
You can look back on any ofthose and even 10 years from now
, you might gain a few poundsback and you might, you know, be
less active than you werebefore.
But you can always have thatreserve to go back and say I did
(33:03):
something really hard and Iknow that whatever worked for me
back then will work for meagain.
Even if you're 10, 15 yearsaway, you still have the
confidence in yourself becauseyou can go back and do it again.
It's not that hard.
I just I.
You know I accomplished it andI think we minimize our
accomplishments some ways.
(33:24):
But 75 hard is that's a beastman, Congratulations, no, thank
you, and no, we minimize ouraccomplishments some ways, but
75 hard is that's a beast man.
Greg Schonefeld (33:32):
Congratulations .
No, thank you.
And no, what you said isexactly right.
I mean cause, yeah, you canthink back to man, I'm on mile
23 of over 26 and even havingfour miles left to go is super
daunting and yeah, whateveryou're facing, you're kind of
put yourself in that mindset oflike man, can I do this?
Brandon Mulnix (33:56):
And you know you did so you start to believe you
can do it again throughimplementing an EOS system,
which stands for EntrepreneurialOperating System, and created a
mission, created a vision, allfor his company, so it could
continue to grow.
And then he starts buying hisdad's business, which is going
(34:19):
to be a huge challenge for him,upcoming, because I was going to
ask him what's the next hardthing that he's going to do, and
I know what that is.
I try to run two companies, butwhile he's doing all of that,
he also works on himself with 75Heart, and that is what leaders
do.
You know there's a lot ofthings that we do that are
work-related, there's a lot ofnew challenges that are mentally
related, but what are you doingfor that aspect of physical
(34:40):
health?
What are you doing for yourspiritual health?
No-transcript.
(35:09):
Well, is there anything that Ididn't cover?
Greg?
Greg Schonefeld (35:13):
I was just going to say what you just said
is super well said and I mean,I've been told recently that I
am the ceiling of my business orany undertaking that I'm
undertaking.
I'm the ceiling.
So if I don't get better, I'mholding down everybody with me
and that's been.
You know, that's a bigmotivator for me.
Brandon Mulnix (35:34):
Wow, that is an interesting way to look at it,
for sure.
So, greg, we've shared all ofthese things and I know there's
people out there that reallywant to grow, but they just need
someone to talk to or ask aboutEOS or ask about 75 hard.
Is there a way for them toconnect with you?
Greg Schonefeld (35:55):
Sure, I'd love for people to reach out to me.
They can reach me by email atgreg, at aginstallerscom that's
aginstallers.
Is H-E installers dot comthat's aginstallerscom.
And you can also find me atLinkedIn, greg Schoenefeld, and
send me a message there.
So, yeah, I'd love to havepeople reach out to me and help
(36:15):
any way I can.
Brandon Mulnix (36:17):
Hey Poultry Leadership Podcast audience,
please go check out Egghead'spodcast.
He's releasing episodes everytwo weeks.
We're talking about maybecoordinating this a little bit,
so that way he's one week, orEggheads is one week and the
Poultry Leadership Podcast isthe next week.
We're going to get on thatschedule so that way you, as our
audience, can be shared amongstboth of us and every week, have
(36:40):
valuable content from the eggindustry, because guess what?
That's what partners do, that'swhat people in this industry do
together.
So, greg, I so appreciate youbeing here.
You've shared so manyincredible things with our
audience and I mean you nailedit, buddy.
Greg Schonefeld (36:59):
I appreciate it , brandon, and thanks a bunch
for having me on and, yeah, Ilook forward to continuing to
grow together and I think it'sreally cool the engagement
you've already created and lookforward to continue to build on
that.
Brandon Mulnix (37:12):
Hey podcast listeners.
One last thing like share getthis episode out to your friends
, family, whether they're in theegg industry or not.
I'm sure this will be valuablefor their leadership growth,
because you know what You'reholding someone else back
because they need you to sharethis with them so that they can
grow as a leader.
That could be someone on yourteam, that could be someone from
(37:32):
another company.
So thank you for listening andalso, last but not least, this
podcast would not be possiblewithout our sponsors, prism
controls.
Prism controls is the leader inproviding technology to farmers
in the egg industry.
They believe in growing leadersso much.
They sponsor this podcast byallowing me to do it.
So thank you, listeners.
(37:53):
I look forward to hearing backfrom you later this June May
have to adjust my schedule alittle bit due to the fact that
I'm actually taking a familyvacation, so we'll see how that
goes, but I will be back withyou later this June and this is
what's going to line Greg and Ito get our podcast in sync.
So thank you and have a greatday.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.