Grow Farm's Toolbox

Steven talks about the importance of having a plan for yourself and your business. How not having a plan can be harmful to your success. How having a plan can help you grow as a person and a business leader. Learning to adjust and adapt when things change and even learning from your mistakes.

Steven talks about the dangers of frustration at home and in the workplace. He talks through some questions that he uses to help him get over his frustration and how that helps him stay calm even when he becomes frustrated.

Steven talks about an issue that his family faced on their family vacation. How this led him to want to speak on the value of controlling one's reactions in stressful situations and adapting to the facts can lead to a better solution and less stress on everyone involved.

Steven talks about the benefits of tracking things in your business. How keeping track of things in an organized and proactive process can relieve stress from your day to day. How having something ready before you need it makes you feel great when the time comes to use that information that is already on hand.

Steven talks about the dangers of dark thoughts when the weather throws your plans into disarray. How keeping busy and moving on to other tasks will keep you in the right mental space. You can't control the weather, but you can control what you do because of the weather.

Steven talks about the importance of showing mercy to your employees by allowing exceptions when things go wrong. How it's important not to punish your employees for something that they did not do. How the hard and strict rules of no exceptions builds a reputation of being an employer that is uncaring and unable to see reason.

Steven talks about how to make the best of losing a good employee. How sometimes the issue isn't the employee at all but you as a leader. That you might not be ready to lead the best people and how a growth mindset will get you there if you stick with it.

Steven talks about communication and who's responsible for making sure everyone has all the information they need to be successful. Going over some types of failure of communication and how it can be used for training or as an excuse for some behaviors.

Steven talks about the value of tracking your time when working in the farming and ranching industry. How easy it is to underpay yourself when you start to work lots of hours. How you can lose touch with loved ones and hobbies. How you can feel that you do not deserve time off because you don't think you're working enough. All these things can be overcome by tracking your time so you can truly kno...

Steven tells a story about how he followed his gut, how it turned out to be the right choice, how the choice led to less problems with a customer and the team.

Steven talks about two different types of employees. How they might think differently, how their mindsets create different types of challenges for them, and how to handle them as a manager seeking to bring the best out of their team.

Steven talks about how living in ignorance can be comfortable and allows you to hide from the issues that you will have to face. He talks about his personal experience with hiding from the truth and the stresses that it caused him. Going into how when he finally did face the truth he found that the issue was not as bad as it seemed and how that was a great relief to him.

Steven tells the story of an old employee who didn't want to grow with the company and how he handled the citation. This story focuses on the importance of cutting quickly and early and how you should always make sure to judge the scale of what you are asking of your team to make sure you are not overloading them without additional compensation.

Steven talks about the value of properly training your team and the benefits of doing so on your free time and ability to tackle other tasks.

Steven talks about his experience tending the sprayer for the first time. Using this experience to reinforce that failure is part of the growing process. How you can't allow your failures to keep you from trying new things. How failure is how you become a master of a skill and not trying will never make you better.

Steven talks about how available one should be for their job. Talking about some tricks and ideas to get home from the perspective of a business owner and employees. Remember that life is meant to be lived.

Steven talks about the way he views discipline. How just because what you're dedicated to doesn't align with others doesn't mean that you lack discipline. It just means that your discipline is focused on something else. It is focused on what matters to you more than what someone else has to say.  

Steven talks about the importance of following your experience and your gut. Telling a story about how failure to do so led to a cost to the Grow Farm Solutions company that could have been avoided if they had leaned on their experience and gut.

Steven talks about how clear communication is important and failure to have clear communication can lead to issues. He shares a story of someone in a group that the Grow Farm Solutions team is part of going through an issue that could have been avoided with clear communication and guidelines to insure such issues don't come about.

Steven talks about the importance of Standard Operating Procedures (S.o. P.s) or as we like to call them Steven's Obvious Procedures. How to set them up, check them for accuracy, and how they recently helped him get through a task that he has limited experience with.

Steven goes over some basics of taking care of your body as we get into the planting season. Some tricks that he tries to keep in mind as we get busy with growing crops!

Steven talks about the importance of giving attention to the top performers and those who are right for the culture of your business. He tells a story about how he failed to keep a top performer due to lacking the ability to keep him engaged and moving forward.

Brooks is excited to get into the planting season and shares a tool from our toolbox that helps us know how to properly grow our crop to get the most out. He and Steven talk about the process of seed testing and how those results help us plan the season.

Brooks interviews Brian Reineke from Phospholutions while we were at the Total Acre Growers Clinic. They talk about what Phosphosolutions does and how they hope to help the farming community. Take a listen!

Brooks and Steven talk about the Total Acre Grower Clinic that they just attended down in Houston Texas. They talk about how the Total Acre group is their Right Room Right People and the value that the group brings them!   Shout out to the sponsors of the Total Acre this year! ROI Biologicals John Deere Brandt Valmont Environmental Tillage Systems Sound CaseIH AgroLiquid ESTES Performance Vive Sto...