Hello, and welcome to the bushel buddy seat. I'm Lacey Cyber. And before I join the bushel team, my career led me to work across various areas in the ag supply chain, and I really developed a passion for helping farmers become more successful. I specialized in the grain area and found it really beneficial to work alongside my peers who, maybe specialized in other areas of the ag supply chain, like agronomy, energy, animal nutrition, because really each of those areas are connected to each other. So today, that's what we're gonna talk about is the challenges the agribusinesses face as each of their businesses business divisions are tasked to manage their own budgets, achieve their own goals, and we'll talk about what a great opportunity that presents us with as agribusinesses to connect those dots internally across the different silos that we've probably created. Before we jump into the webinar content, I wanted to draw everyone's attention to the Q and a box. If you have questions, please add those, and as they come up, we'll make sure we look and address those. Today's webinar will be recorded. So look for that recording in an email afterwards and share it with your team members who couldn't count today. So the couple of experts that we have joining us today, I've had the pleasure of working within the past and I can say firsthand that they really understand how important it is to connect these dots that we're talking about. This the connecting of the dots is really what leads to the success of our businesses, and the farmers that we serve. So without further ado, I'll introduce Lee Parker vice president of energy at nexus and Nick Audrey, director of western sale sales at Aurora co op. Welcome guys. Can each of you tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe your background in the industry and what you're doing today? Lee, let's start with you. Sure. Happy to, Lacey, and hello, everyone. As Lacey mentioned, my name is Lee Parker. I'm the vice president of energy here at nexus in northeast Iowa. My, entire career has been spent in the energy industry, mostly through the lower Midwest. From South Texas up into Wisconsin, Iowa, and it's been in and around the cooperative and agricultural system throughout the last thirty years or so, have had some, opportunities to work with the co operators, work with independence, and then several joint ventures and LLCs. But through all of that, the biggest connection and enjoyment I've had is working with the end user, especially in the rural communities that a lot of us represent and serve and, and meeting producers' needs and or trying to find a solution. So I'm originally from Kansas. I have a couple of kids scattered across the country, one in California, one in Oklahoma, and really glad to be here and hope I can provide some insight to this. Awesome. Thanks. Nick, how about you? Yeah. So I I've got a not quite as diverse of a of a geographical background as Lee, but I also hail from Kansas. I'm a case state grad. I been in Nebraska working in the ag retail sector. Going on about fourteen years now, I think. Started with Cargill, from an independent standpoint, worked with Lazy while at Cargill. And then I moved on to CPI, and now have been at Aurora co op where, you know, we're trying to do some of the very things with our business today that that we're gonna talk about. I've I've, I've got a bit of passion, I think, for for just helping the farmer, you know, and and that sometimes I think it's easy to be selfish as a salesperson or I've got a goal and I'm trying to meet. But really the crux of what the, like, I've always tried to represent and, and show up is to just help the farmer. And then however that that could be on any given day. Thanks. I agree I have experienced, like I said, with both of you, how important this is and how you see that it is important to how well we show up for farmers. And so I think let's dig into that. As we talk about that being so important, What do you guys think gets in the way of that collaboration and that working together? Go ahead, Lee. Yeah. I think there's a couple of things I found as headwinds on, on collaboration, especially from a cross divisional standpoint, you know, we all we all recognize the fact that if we're working for entities that are multidimensional, that we have something to offer. And it's something that we feel like sets us apart from some of our more focused competitors. But, the saying I've heard in the industry a lot is whoever figures it out first wins, and it's been a tough thing to to just conquer as far as a cross divisional or collaborative approach. And what I found that kinda gets in the way of that, is the as you do, as as Nick mentioned, There's some times throughout people's careers as account managers, they get selfish that those are their customers, and those are my customers, and please don't mess up my relationship. And breaking that down, and getting folks to see that from a larger perspective, that it's not their truly their business that they're representing. It's the entire organization. And, get realize how much more valuable that those individual account managers can be if they can bring more to table than just the products or the prep the book or the sheets that they're carrying. So that's been the main thing is just getting individuals to open up their perspective to house much more success they can be to their customers if they can bring in collaboration. And then the second thing is just a fact of how busy everybody gets. And we get focused on our main goals and our own divisions and our own people. And we kind of just actually forget to prioritize that collaborative approach, and we just wanna make sure we get what we're truly responsible for right and make that our focus and we'll get to collaboration when we have time. And then, of course, as we all know, when busy work cycle, that never happens if we don't make it the priority. Yeah. I imagine. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was just gonna say I think that's so true, like, when all the chaos hits, your first reaction is just to manage what's in front of you instead of can take a step back and look at the big picture. Nick, how about you? What are your thoughts about what gets in the way? Yeah. I think ego is a lot of times get in the way. You know, we we are by by nature, we are competitive individuals as as salespeople. We, we want to win whether winning means for our company or for the grower and and returning invest, you know, on the investment that they make into their crops. It's really easy to just get focused on what do I need to do in order to be successful with with my goal. And and I I think I if we take the approach a little bit of What does the customer need from us in order to be successful? That that that train we transition into a lot better relationship to where it, there's some synergism there to where we are helping drive profitability or or, smart decisions on their farm. And it's it's, I heard somebody say recently, are we collaborating or are we coexisting? You know, and I think there's a lot of takeaway to that you know, where are are we truly if we're collaborating, are we really doing what's best for the farmer or, you know, if we're just coexisting, are we just going on a joint call or or do we just show up and, try to take care of the growers' needs based upon our motivations instead of just what's best for the customer on that day. Yeah. I think All of those things definitely get in the way, but I think like Lee said at the beginning, it's people who can get this figured out are gonna very quickly see how it helps them win altogether. So as you guys think about what success looks like with working together and collaborating in an agribusiness. What what does that look like in your mind? Nick, how about you? Yeah. So for me, I I think, really just a team working together to accomplish a common goal. I don't need my Grain merchandisers to be experts in agronomy or experts in energy products or oil and grease. But I do need them to listen, for for offer opportunities or listen for problems that the growers experiencing, with a given brand or product line that that any of our businesses represent. And then we've got a lot of great people that work with us. You know, I've always been surrounded by really, really good people. And so can we then connect the need with the expert, within the field that that we're connected to? We have a great network of individuals, whether it's crop protection products or, grain solutions or or energy programs to take care of customer's needs, And so can we just connect people who are educated and knowledgeable about the the products and goods and services that a customer needs and just make the connection so that ultimately we can, we can provide more of of what they need in one place and and drive more trust in a greater relationship to where we we can work together. And and it's not my retail provider is trying to, you know, I don't have the same level of trust as I do with So we just get everybody working together on the same page, rowing in the same direction, to ultimately take care of the the things that are are struggles with them on the farm? Yeah. I I think I can add maybe a couple of examples to what Nick has said that it just kind of occurred recently and, here in Texas is we've, you know, it's when I see that there's a, an individual dealing with an account that, recognizes a request of that customer from another division. And instead of saying, well, we'll just let him get ahold of you for that, that they decide to take two steps out of their way to save that, other person five steps to make it happen. So some of those examples could be, you know, negronomic, salesman or account manager talking to a customer that's needing a case of case of oil, for example. And instead of, just telling the energy person to take it out there or the driver. They just simply say, one coming back on Tuesday, and they make the effort to go grab it, get it off the shelf, and get it to the customer. You know, it was simple. They were going anyway, and they became a bigger representative of the organization. Another example that comes to mind to where you kind of recognize that getting a little bit of traction with collaboration is we've all had this where we walk out and someone has an issue with their bill. And we've got two choices at that point. We can throw the whole administrative team under the bus and say, yep. A lot of folks are having that issue. Well, someday they'll get their poop in a group. And, will be, will be better, or they can simply own the issue, work directly with admin or accounting to figure it out, take it back to the customer as a solution, and own it all the way to the end. So it doesn't necessarily have to be collaboration amongst, selling features or divisional legs of your stool but even some of the support divisions need to have that collaboration so that they so that we all know that we're a functioning organization So true. I I heard like a few things that you guys said. It's like almost the extreme ownership of this all working together for the best situation for the farmer and then proactivity. And then also I heard trust a lot And so I think the trust from the farmer with you, but also you with your other team members or peers within the organization because that's what Nick, when you and I would get in a pickup and go out to meet the farmer, you didn't need to know everything about the grain market. You trust that I was gonna bring that to the table, and I trusted that you were gonna help him with an agronomic solution that would help the farmer in the end. And so it made it where we both wanted each other there because we trusted the value. And so that kinda leads me to the next question. Is people seeing the benefits of working together in the collaboration because we all know that nobody does anything really unless they can see what the benefit or the outcome is gonna be. So what do you guys think some of the main benefits that we can see from this far? I think just as you use the word trust. And I think as we get more successful or as an as an organization gets more successful at sharing, ideas and sharing successes and even sharing challenges, the trust that somebody else is gonna support them the trust that they're going to not, make themselves look good at someone else's expense. That's where I see benefits to organizations, and they just the culture of the entire organization starts to change. Some of the excitement that we can, you know, that we know that, lacy's going out to the farm to talk green, but if there's an energy issue, I know she's gonna be able to manage it well versus fearing that she's gonna open her mouth and talk about energy. Those are just benefits that I, you know, that I see as as it starts to get some momentum. The, and again, just breaking apart from the those customers are we all want to work off of relationships, and we're all in agriculture. So we're lucky that we get to sell and, provide through relationship type scenarios. But, we also have to trust that that relationship's gonna be intact with other people from the organization and that we represent the entire organization. And that's when you start to feel momentum within the entire business. I think the to add, I think the challenge is, Just just getting people to engage and embrace, the the opportunity to collaborate rather than just to coexist I've got locations that do it really, really well. And it's fun to be there and to see the excitement when collaboration actually occurs, you know, and and someone gets past a lead, with a new customer that was a, you know, that that worked with one of our other brands. And it just seems to snowball. You know, once the once those interactions start to occur and we realize that Lee is is out to help my customer just as much as I'm there to help him from an agronomic standpoint. And Lacey's just trying to do the best thing from Ukraine procurement standpoint or a buying standpoint, that that we're really truly all trying to help the farmer achieve a desired end in the end result. And so it's fun to see those things. And then on the flip side, you also see, you know, people or groups that are resistant to change and it is a struggle, you know, and and they they're singular focused and and the, it just seems like there's something missing, you know, in, in my eyes. And, when we, when we truly hit those breakthroughs, we're so much more powerful, together as a team. If we go at things alone, sometimes conversation lags or wanes, you know, as as questions are asked and, a team selling environment is is just so much more productive productive. And I feel like we provide such a greater experience for our customers when we when we do show up that way. Yep. I think I think what a lot of what we're talking about so far is how we approach the farmer together and we sell to the farmer or try to earn the right to buy the grain from the farmer together. But what about how our leadership approaches this? So let's talk to the leaders who are listening and, trying to get their teams to collaborate with each other. What have you guys done, with your teams to get them to work together and maybe think beyond just from a sales perspective. Like, Nick, I can think of when we were both leading sales efforts. One of the things that we did would be to organize sales meetings and talk about sales in a way that it show the team that we were working together and Lee the same thing when we would be in the, executive leadership room together and working on strategies together. So What do you guys think about that? How the leadership can work together? Yeah. So I I I can share a little bit about, you know, the the changes that we are embarking on, at Aurora. Where we've intentionally tried to Typically, our businesses are described in as divisions. And and the connotation of the word division, whether intentional or not implies that we're not implies that we're not working together all of the time. So I've really struggled to try to come up with not saying our energy division or our feed division, and call them by our brands. Right? Like, we have we have an energy brand. We have a, or a product offering. And so recently within the last three to four months, we we've intentionally looked more at like an Aurora one model to where we are just one co op. We are the trying to get back to the old co op model that that that we've been. And, so when we have sales meetings, it's it's very intentional that that all sales individuals are there. And so that we are it's not just an agronomy sales meeting. It's not just an energy sales meeting where we speak specifically around, goals or projects or tasks that we have to do singularly, but we talk collectively about what we need to do and accomplish and how we can work together more efficiently and effective to to accomplish those goals while working together to do it. And so rather than to have, you know, typically you would have a three legged or a four legged stool, if you will. Within any retail organization, you'd have agronomy and energy and feed and and, and grain as well. And Today, we're focused more on revenue generation, procurement, and operations. And so, we've tried to break down the walls and we are in the process of breaking down those walls, to be more collaborative, to work more together across our brands to maximize our labor efficiency and, to to just ultimately provide the greatest customer service experience that our customer possibly get. Yeah. I I'm gonna take it from a different angle a little bit. And and kind of speak to how we're how I do it today, but it's as a result of several failed attempts. And what I've kinda learned by trying to, believe in this and push it out and then just wondering why it doesn't work. And and what I've found, like I said, I've I've failed more often than succeeded in getting this because, again, we've we've always approached it to the entire organization needs to be one hundred percent collaborative. And where I've gotten, I guess, frustrated in my past is that we focus on where it's not working. And that and we're looking at well, that hub over there or that division or that salesman just isn't supporting what we're trying to do when we focus on the why nots. We've or we've got a CRM, such as a Salesforce or something that's out there, and we're focused on what people aren't putting in it instead of focused on what they are, what the folks that are using it are contributing. So how I've kind of adjusted it from the leadership perspective is is to keep it small and in pockets. So one of our approaches here has been, let's identify our top twenty customers from every division and recognize which ones of those are collaborative and currently and working across all of entire organization and which ones of those are not. And focus on why the ones that are are, and then let's focus on how to create and convert the ones that aren't. And it's a identified list that's assigned to people that truly buy in, believe in what we're trying to do. To fight the folks that just aren't gonna relinquish control of certain pieces of their business, that can be disciplinary, that can be, career limiting for them, but that doesn't necessarily need to derail what you're trying to do collaboratively. I don't think. And finding those folks that are, jelling together, are taking it to the streets, are making it work. Let them, I've tried to let them lead by example. And through their success, we can convert the rest of our crew our group or our crew over to what, what's feeding their their success. So we've from a leadership, we've always tried to just recognize segments of our customers that we feel are qualified candidates for what this collaborative effort is, try to find the right sales, team or account manager or CSR chemistry that can support what we're trying to do for those customers and then just kinda rifle shot it into those pockets. And then it just kind of sends, as Nick mentioned before, the momentum starts to grow. People start to buy in. They all wanna be a piece of it. And it kind of spreads across your organization, but it's based off of success versus dying inside your organization based off of failures. Yeah. But I think I think of kind of the next look at that is how are leaders I'm gonna use this approach and lead by example with the collaboration. So I think of, like, the many hours we we spent trying to figure out how to maximize logistics across all of our different areas and And like you said, I mean, there were plenty of failed attempts, but, how do you see leaders working together to try to use this in a way that not only from the overall business is driving this collaborative success, but then the teams that we're trying to impact this change upon see that. Yeah. And that's that's a good question. That depends a lot on the chemistry of the leadership team, for sure. But, you know, of course, there's gotta be the buy in, and that's that's step one, and that should be kinda granted and given. But but we've gotta, as as divisional leadership, especially, we've gotta push our teams to think, as outside of that that silo as was mentioned earlier. And I think some of the ways that that can be done as as Nick mentioned, we encourage our sales to have sales meetings, not agronomy sales meetings, not grain origination meetings, But true meetings where everybody has a portion of the first hour or two to share what's important to them, what they're going to market with, And then, you know, we can exit and let the division that called the meeting work on their own specific deals. But just promoting and encouraging and almost demanding that other each divisional leader includes us, or that we include each other And every time we think that we're gonna have our group together, there's a piece of what we're gonna be talking about that needs to be shared. And that that opens up, again, the perspective within the organization, that, we are one organization. We're not a four or five different ones. And it's so easy to step back in that that it has to maintain a focus. And I you're gonna ask me in a minute about measurements I would guess on how we know if we are being successful and and that's a kind of an intangible feeling. I think what the only way that we can truly be successful is to continue to promote it and not not demand it, but encourage. Yeah. Nick, what what have you seen in terms of leaders working together and kind of, promoting this thought through example? Yeah. So I I think one example I can think back to that that you and I specifically had worked with is natural hedge. I don't even know that it exists today, as an offering with with cargo out of the market, but, essentially just taking historical relationship between grain and and agronomy inputs, as it related to nitrogen and phosphate, products because they were the they were the most preval inter dominant within our geography. And being able to create solution that would allow the forward thinking producer to go out, you know, go out more than a year in advance and secure crop inputs based upon the the known relationship between that market. Was it always the best for the grower? Did they always buy the inputs, the cheapest probably not. But from a profitability standpoint, they made some really good decisions, you know, and and If they paid too much for their fertilizer, they also probably hit a home run marketing. They're great. I can think of a of a customer here just in the last couple of years where, we sold him some ammonia at a at a whatever the price was in the summertime. You know, it wasn't it wasn't a fall ammonia price, if you will. But the guy wanted to sell eight dollar and three cent corn. You know, like, against the ammonia that he was gonna purchase. And then how could I fault him for that? So, from a procurement standpoint, we bought the tons and made the sale and and he made the the hedge on the other side from the grain, from a grain perspective, And when fertilizer prices came out, he he purchased ammonia six hundred dollars a ton probably higher than what the actual fall market developed as. But he also lost three dollars a bushel in the in the commodity market. So, he was he was super happy with with the work that we had done and and how we had been able to come up with a solution for him. And as we as we get into today's times, know, some of the things that looking that that I'd like to look at today or I'm trying to look at today is historical bushel invest. You know, it's really hard to go out to a farmer and understand is nine hundred dollar anhydrous today at good fertilizer price or is you know, eight hundred dollar eleven fifty two o or or what about three hundred and sixty dollar UAN? You know, how does that compare Historically to what that ton has cost me to buy. And so if I can establish a relationship that I understand that Historically, that's cost me eighty five bushels to purchase. And so anytime that I can show up to the farm and make a recommendation that costs less than eighty five bushels. Historically, we're doing better for the grower. And it's a it's a similar concept to natural hedge. You know, the farther we were away from that that relationship, And the growers favor, the more, you and I advocated for them to to make that decision on on that given day. But it changed all the time. So I I think also, as a just as a as a another add on. I think it's hard sometimes from a collaboration standpoint to it oftentimes we wanna lead by example. And so many of the collaborative efforts that that Lacey, you and I had, or I assume you and Lee had, at different times working together. They're kind of behind closed doors, and you don't really get to model that collaborative effort. What does that really look like? And how do I show my team what that like. And so, I really try to work with, my subject matter experts I've got a CDSM that works within the region that I work within, my chem reps, you know, just just all of the different subject matter experts that we deal with on a day to day basis. And I really try to model some of those, collaborative efforts in front of my team with those individuals because they don't get to see the conversations that that we're having behind closed doors or in in other meetings during the day while they're out calling on the customer. And so, yeah, I I try to take those opportunities with with those that I work with, from a subject matter expert standpoint to to really drive the collaboration efforts home. Yeah. I think that's great as leaders. I think our teams have to see us be humble enough to seek help from others, and that includes outside of our organization and even inside from other leaders. And Lee, you you mentioned this earlier talking about how we're gonna goal people around this, and that includes us as leaders and then all the way down, the chain. So what do you guys think about setting goals and incentives around working together? What does that look like? Yeah. I I'm not sure I'm the expert on this one at all. I'm pretty good at giving out a lot of, gratitude and and attaboys and attaboys when these happen. But as far as measuring it, setting goals. We've I'll just tell you what we're doing today here, and people can use it or ignore it. But We have just went and identified our zero wallet customers. So they are zero in some segment of our business, whether it be green, economy feed, energy products and have challenged, for example, on the energy piece that we know who is doing business and other divisions and zero within energy. And our goal is how many of those zeros can we move to a dollar. And it's going to take the people to have the relationship and and my team to introduce, themselves to those folks within our organization and have that relationship just to get the introduction. And then how do we move that needle off of zero? Because add it to us as a win, and now we we're working with customers that are already customers that are our organization and now if we can get it to a dollar, we're working with customers that are now, customers of our division as well. But we gotta do it with people that already have the relationship versus barging in through the door that Dave opened already. So that's kinda been our way as we have the list we've identified the individuals. We've assigned them to account managers and then challenged them to see how many of those they could move from zero to something greater than zero. I really like your conceptly. It's a different way of thinking about things. And, I can think back as a salesperson when I was at cargo, we we used to draw circles all of the time and and we would associate the numbers of customers that were agronomy customers and the number customers that were grain customers. And, and we would look at the overlap between them. And and then they would provide metrics around the stability of the business or or how closely we were tied to some of those customers. But We didn't spend as much time focusing on the zero dollar customer. And and and how do we move them off of zero to a dollar. And so, as I take notes today, that's just one thing that I've wrote down today that that I think that's a really interesting concept, to identify those customers we are really doing business with already. And and try to move them off of zero. That's a that's a great concept. And I think we measure customer activity or, the spend or the the share of wallet. Oftentimes, and we try to incorporate metrics based around. We understand on average what it takes to raise a bushel of corn or soybeans or or wheat. And we know how many acres they have. And so we can make some generalized assumptions around a percentage of a, of someone's business that we have, but, just really trying to drive engagement and, and measure. I think that's a great measure of collaboration. I guess is what I'm trying to say. Because I don't when Lacey asked the initial question, I don't know that I've got a great answer today around how do you goal or how do you incentivize, collaboration amongst groups. For me personally, I I was we had several awards that Cargill gave away when I was a salesperson and I was more motivated to be the person who drove collaboration than I was to be the salesperson of the year, you know, just to sell the most things for Cargill in that instance. I was more motivated to work with my peers to do good things for the farmer. And I felt like that was a greater measure of my success than it was, any personal or or individualized goal that I could that I could go try to accomplished for myself? Yeah. Add a little bit to that. You know, I mentioned that we are kind of explaining that we do that from moving an energy group, we've tried to move the energy zeros. But for the folks on my team that truly get collaboration. And, again, I'm trying to lean on individual people's strengths and those individuals that get it that we also present to them the same scenario in reverse. Is the customers of yours that are current customers that are a zero in another category and challenge them to go throw somebody in the white pickup with them, take them to the farm and make that introduction. And so now the producer knows that they've got two people to call if they ever have question related to that other division, either the one they know or the one they've just been introduced to. So how many of my team can get other division people off of zero is a kind of a double up, so to speak, but it expands some of the success of the organization without making it all about the individual account manager's growth. Yeah. I I love that. I mean, I think that's what it's gotta take because back to our early earlier points about trust is it feels like the first step has to be with the person that the farmer already trusts to kind of move the the needle there. And then from there, we can prove that they should trust others in the organization. So speaking of others in the organization, let's let's talk about the support teams. I'm skipping around a little bit on you guys, but I think it leads to this pretty well. As we think about maybe it's an admin person or the ops leader at the location that they go to to up, their LP or their, agronomy products. How do you see these support teams impacting the whole organization working together, either with the farmer or with each other. I for me, I think they're almost they're definitely as integral. As of maintain in maintaining a relationship as the sales relationship is. And maybe sometimes I would tell you more. I think if we have a bad service experience or a bad support experience, it can do more one poor fifteen minute phone call or interaction dumping a truck at a pit or with the sprayer operator that's pulled up in their field can do more to destroy a relationship in ten or fifteen minutes than the seller did in a year's worth of time trying to build a a relationship or build trust with a grower. So so I think they're extraordinarily important. And they're just an extension of the sales process. And ultimately, we're just trying to provide the absolute best customer service experience, around the delivery of product goods and services or receipt of of products or goods or services that we can possibly provide. You want the the splits accurate we want the billing to be correct. We want pricing to be correct. And we put a lot of plans and tools in place, in order to ensure that we that we are executing those things at a very, very high level. And ultimately it's on our teams to embrace and to utilize the tools and the team behind them, to be successful. So I I think there's that that network is is integral in the overall success of the business. Yeah. I I couldn't I couldn't expand enough. I could spend an hour on support systems within our organization and how important they are. One of the things that from an energy focus on the energy piece for just a minute is that we don't have the luxury of every account of ours having a salesperson or an account manager associated to it. So for every propane tank behind the house or every time somebody needs a case of something, that starts and ends with a support division. I would say in our world, admin, our administrative teams start and end the entire transaction. All we have one little piece in the middle that the divisional team delivers the product. But as far as receiving the order, getting it accurate, getting it out, we do the little delivery step, then knowing it's in, knowing it's posted, knowing it's build appropriate assigned to the contract correctly. This payment's applied correctly. That is all outside of our division. And so we are dead in the water if admin, if IT, if safety, if HR doesn't support what we need to do to do our little piece of that process. So do we also go out and try to sell yes, but if we don't have that support, the sale is gonna be the worst day decision they ever made, to purchase from us if it's not supported by the rest of the team. So I truly, I think, Lacey, you'll remember, I kiss a lot of butt to the support divisions because they are the ones that make me successful. I can get drivers and get them we can get excited about what we do when we get to actually interact face to face with the customer. But if we don't have the right information to do our jobs correctly, it it's just not gonna happen there. It's definitely not gonna happen twice. Yeah. You guys nailed it. We desperately need those folks to make everything go okay that we promised it's gonna go. And if not, better than what we promised. So it's really important that we are working with those support teams and thanking them and and helping them stay in the loop as much as possible with everything we're doing. And I think that leads into the next topic is communication. And, I think if it wouldn't matter what topic we were talking about here today, communication would probably come up as an obstacle And so how do we see communication impacting either positively or negatively, this working together in collaboration concept? I think if we just share communication and I'm gonna ask you, are you looking across all of the internal functions of our organization or communication against our, Salesforce. Yeah. I mean, I think you can think about it and we'll ways. Some of the examples that come to mind is, how are we as divisional leaders talking about the things we're offering to the farmers to everybody that might be impacted or might touch that. How are we educating them? How are we communicating with those support people those kinds of things. I think two things. I like to communicate the goals of our I know it's back to a divisional standpoint, and and I appreciate the concept that we don't need to we shouldn't be speaking individual language. But just to know that what are the goals and what how we need the help to get there. And that it's not a truly, we're gonna take it all the way from start to finish line by ourselves, and you all can get sucked up in the vacuum, which we need the encouragement support and push. From our other teammates to be able to be successful. So just communicating what we're trying to accomplish and at the same time how we need other people, other teammates, other vendors to help us get there so that they're aware of why we're going to work every day and what trying to accomplish, and hopefully they can help us succeed. The other thing that I've learned about communication is people communicate better with people they know. And encouraging, folks to just go spend some time together to take lunch at the same time hang out. You know, I know it may not be looked at as productive hours, but to just go spend a day in the pickup with them, spend some time together you see them across the street at the cafe, go sit down and have lunch. But once people get to know each other, they seem to enjoy talking them a lot better than if they're talking to a stranger. And we've got folks as our organizations continue to get larger that we know who they are and what their name is, but we don't know what they are. And so that's kind of been where I've seen we've spent a lot of team events, a lot collaborative events where it's nothing to do with selling anything. It's nothing to do with a new policy. It's simply we just all go six of us and we just go to bowling for the or pizza or whatever it might be. And by the end of that, we know who they are and we like talking to them. And then suddenly now we're trying to help out a friend versus just trying to, call them if we need them. So that's been that leads to communication, I guess. So it's not necessarily how communication works, but it's kinda how to get it started. Yeah. We we do a lot of the same things, you know, break bread together. And I think it's also important, like, from my standpoint, When I have an opportunity and we've got a busy Saturday, or a busy Sunday, and I don't have a whole lot going on. I think it's beneficial for me to run out there and and to to be there with the team. But I also think communication is a two is a is a two way street. And I think one of our biggest challenges today and the teams and and the segments of growers that that their customers that we work with today. We've seen a tremendous amount of changed technologically, in in the time from individuals that are that are near or facing retirement today to the group that's just entering, into the workforce today. Lacey and I have seen it all. I remember the first computer that we had in middle school I was in sixth grade and played Oregon Trail on a on an Apple, square monitor that had a green screen. And, I mean, it was archaic in in, today's terms. And I remember the first Mac that we got that had some weird fancy colors, and it was like, big monitor and desktop all in in in one system. And now we get to today where I think some of the twenty two and three year old kids that we hire today might just rather be texted. And some people don't like to read emails. And others would rather have a phone call. And and so I think we have to be very intentional in our communication methods and trying to make sure that we reach all audiences. Because it it it seems like no matter where I've been, communication on a employee engagement survey always comes back just everywhere. And so I think it's it's a challenge to, you know, have company wide meetings where you have access to the executive team that that provides some very high level information around a program or things that are going on or just updates company wide. You know, then we communicate via phone call and message and email in the meantime and face to face meetings. One thing that I really try to do is I've got one on one time scheduled with every one of my direct reports on a monthly basis. And I sit down face to face with them for a minimum of an hour, and just talk about what's going good, what going poorly, what they need from me in order to be successful in their job. And so really just trying to go over the top in terms of communication. So people just understand the expectations, what is going on. And and work to educate everyone. So that's not just a controlled message or only a certain segment of our of our employee base or customer base gets gets the communication. Yeah. I think it's important that everybody understands what we're marching towards, and we've gotta meet people where they are, per se. Okay. I think we have time for one last question or conversation piece here. So let's think about the farmer and their sentiment towards how the agribusiness should be collaborating. What do you guys think the farmers think about this? What do they want? I don't know if I'm honest. I think they would love convenience. Right? They got a gift for the guys in the back, please, Nick. We we all use Amazon today because Amazon's easy. Right? We can get on our phone. We can get on Amazon Prime or Amazon, or we can order a good, and it shows up at our house in three days. Most of the time, I guess, pre COVID, it showed up in three days. I don't know if it always does today. But having said all of those things, I think the hardest part from the grower standpoint is is the trust piece. I their There are so many more things thinking back as a as a salesperson working with a grain marketer like yourself, Grace. Where if we knew all of the finer details about their business, there are strategies and there are things that we could do to both drive increased production or to help them make smart business decisions based around knowing what a breakeven is, but so often that information isn't really divulged or I'll give you just enough that you need to know. In in order for it to be wildly successful, you know, what what does what does crazy success look like? Well, it's it's being vulnerable enough on both sides to have a trust that we can share everything there is about their business so that we can ultimately provide the best product solutions and services on their farm, things that help them achieve their goals, But until we get to a place where to where we trust each other, and we are confident that we're working towards a common goal. That I think it'll be a little disjointed. Yeah. And I think we've all talked enough about trust to know that that's the foundation for sure that we have to build before any of this becomes successful. And and I chuckled. Yeah. I don't believe the producer or farmer does know exactly what they want because they because of that, they don't wanna be vulnerable, or they so they won't they may even know it, and they're just they're whether they're willing to share it with us or not is is a challenge. Couple of things I think I've pulled out that our standard is a customer wants us to be available when they have a question. And and that's not necessarily business hours available. Although that's probably the most important time we need to be, but even after hours available. So I think when they are faced with a question, they need us for the solution. They don't wanna wait for the solution. How we go about providing that is that it's still kind of a mixed bag. The other I think thing from a collaborative standpoint is I think producers are encouraged by the concept of collaboration but they're not willing to give up any component of it as a sacrifice to get the other piece. So as soon as they feel like they're paying extra for their energy in a collaborative standpoint, that suddenly becomes a focal point. Of the whole process and and we suddenly are defending ourselves versus promoting ourselves. So if we can gain the trust of the producer still let them feel like they're in charge of the actual final decision or maybe they're even the right of refusal. We're there when they need us and they, they can understand the overall good versus the good in each and every component of what we're trying to do. Then I I think we're getting close to what they're looking for. But, it's not a a checkbox that you can just know you're there and you're gonna stay there. That's kind of a, it's kind of a goal that you're working on every time you're in relationships or engage with that customer? Yeah. I think your guys hit the nail on the head that they are unsure and they're looking towards us to lead them down that path and It can't just be because we think it's good. We've gotta prove out why it's gonna be beneficial to them to work with us together. Well, I could say, Erin, talk with you guys about this all day. I think we have such an important mission as we Agra businesses are trying to feed and fuel and clothe the world. And working together is what's gonna help us get that done, and we will be so much stronger when we do it together. Lee and Nick, you guys are both making a really positive impact on agriculture, and I'm really thankful to have worked with you. And we are so thankful that you are coming here today to share your experiences with our audience. Audience, thank you guys for listening. And if you enjoyed the webinar, please consider joining us for our next event. Our in person bushel buddy conference on June eleventh and twelfth in Fargo, North Dakota. The Buschel buddy seat conference is part of the larger ag tech week that's happening that week in Fargo. And we will provide more information about those upcoming events and the recording of today's webinar in the follow-up email. Or you can visit bushel buddy seat dot com to see the recording and all of our past webinars. Thanks, everybody.