Thank You FBN…

It was 10 years ago this month that I jumped onto a plane and flew out to Sioux Falls to meet w/ a handful of guys that were working on a really cool startup project. I had just did a TEDx talk on “Biting the Hand that Feeds Us” relating to the struggles faced by family farming operations. A good friend connected me with the CEO of Farmers Business Network because he felt like we were on the same page. I had just sold one of my companies and was trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be.

I knew about 10 minutes into my meeting with the guys in Sioux Falls (who were working on top of each other inside of an old bank branch building with folding tables pushed against the walls and conference calls going on inside the restroom) that something special was getting ready to happen and I wanted to be involved. A few days later I jumped onto a plane and flew out to Silicon Valley and met with the other half of the team and completely bought into the mission and vision of Farmers Business Network. When I started we didn’t even have a product to sell other than a membership to “join the network” which enabled growers to share agronomic data. Eventually we obviously decided to add crop protection products to our portfolio and the rest is history…

A few weeks ago FBN and I parted ways. Before you ask, yes it was on very good terms.

Bottom line, I still believe that there’s a place for FBN in the industry that growers need now more than ever. I can’t say enough good things about the people that I’ve had the opportunity to work with at FBN over the past decade. I still believe in the mission and vision of “Farmers First” and wish FBN nothing but success moving forward.

The past few weeks I’ve had hundreds of calls and messages asking me about “what’s next for me?”, and to this I haven’t really responded because I wanted to take advantage of the remaining few weeks of summer to spend time with my family before school started back and to also jump onto a few projects that I’ve been pushing down the road for a long time. The more that I talk about my “early retirement” I’m learning a lot about myself and how I’m wired. I don’t think I will ever be able to completely retire because I crave structure to be productive. I also think it’s important for my own mental health that I stay connected to a team environment working towards a common goal…

So, to answer the question… what’s next? I’ll be completely transparent, I haven’t reached out to anyone anywhere but I’ve had about a dozen or so people reach out to me with opportunities. I also think that there might be opportunities in the future to work with FBN down the road (or at least that’s how we left it when we parted ways). I’m having a lot of fun right now with my “High Cotton Collectibles” business as well as my new online marketplace that we’ve been working on but now that school has started back and the growing season is starting to come to an end I’m probably going to dust off my resume and start looking into opportunities, so if you know of something I might be interested in give me a shout!