Zach: What's going on, guys? My name is Zach Falk and I'm the host for the podcast you're about to listen to called. It's Just Personal. Have you ever sat down with somebody and learn something about their life and you just had more questions, but you didn't have enough time? That happens to me every single day when I communicate with people. I'm a people person and I just want to know more about their stories and about their lives. So that brings me to the purpose of this podcast. I'm going to be interviewing people from all over the state of Montana and maybe even beyond, so I can learn how they utilize relationships and their own personal people skills in their lives.
I want to talk about their businesses, their communities, their families, their churches, and I want to ask questions so that you as an audience can learn how to better yourself from a relational perspective, because that's what life is about. How can we become better people? And even more importantly, how can we make the people around us even better people? So I hope you enjoy today's episode, today's guest. It's going to be awesome. So let's get right in. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode two of my podcast It's Just Personal. So the title of our episode for today is People Like It Fresh, and we're going to unpack that a little bit for you as we get in.
But joining me today is a dear friend of mine, Mr. Noah Hashley. Noah, welcome to the show. Say hi to our audience. Noah: Hello, everybody. Zach: Good to have you today. So a little background on Noah and I before we get into more of
his story and why he's here today, we actually go honestly way back, which is really, really cool. Um, so well, we were friends in middle school, and I, uh, for those of you who don't know, I was home schooled for the early part of my youth. Noah: Can't tell.
Zach: Noah still gives me grief about it. And rightly so. It's all right. Um, but in seventh grade, I joined a private school where Noah had been attending since pre-K kindergarten, kindergarten. And I unfortunately took the approach that I was too cool for school.
And so I found Noah and his friends to be like, losers. You know, good old middle school. Noah: We had some rivalry before that from basketball and stuff. Zach: That's a good point. Yes, there's a home school. So I went to Stillwater Christian from middle school through high school, and in the sports world they're rivals with the home school crusaders.
And so there was yeah, some. Noah: There was some stuff going on. Zach: Before we were middle school boys who were competitive, right? Noah: Yeah, Basketball was. Zach: Life. Imagine that. Uh, so, but here's the cool thing.
Little did I know I. I was the idiot. Noah and his friends were not idiots, so I. Later on in high school, probably around ninth to 10th grade, is kind of when our friendship started budding more.
And honestly, we had a really great class of kids, and I still credit a lot of who I am today as an adult. Just the group of people that we had and that included primarily Noah and and what was his friend group at the time that became my friend group later, which is kind of cool. So um, and high school is awkward, so it's always nice to have people that are, that are good people surrounding you.
So, um, so then, Noah, tell us a little bit more about yourself. So where'd you grow up? What's your family like? All that good stuff? Noah: Well, I like to say I'm born and raised in Kalispell. Technically, I'm not born in Kalispell. My grandparents moved to Kalispell. My parents were born here, grew up here, and they moved to Idaho for less than two years where I was born. And then we came back. So I tell Out-of-staters I'm born and raised here, but.
Zach: It gives you some clout, right? Right, right. Noah: No third generation, all that good stuff. But yeah, I grew up here in Kalispell, went to Stillwater.
I have two brothers and two sisters. So at a big family, Yeah. So that's where the basketball comes in.
Our family was very athletic, playing basketball, soccer. Zach: All. And your dad was a big basketball player? Yes.
Noah: Yeah. Dad was a champion at Flight High school in 1989. Ooh, it's the last championship I think they won for basketball there. He always says that once in a while.
So. Yeah. So basketball and then also music is a big thing. Everyone in my family was pretty musical, so I play drums and still do it.
Fresh Life Church and yeah, so all that fun stuff in school loved going to school. It's Stillwater, got to be a part of everything. So when Zach came along, it was cool to add him into the mix basketball and in high school soccer. So yeah, I don't think you took a long time to to get in with the friend
group. We weren't, we weren't that clicky in high school or middle school, but yeah, definitely. We had a great relationship in high school and. Zach: Yeah, absolutely. So how about your family? Are you married? Do you have kids? Noah: Yes, I am married friend Zach. So, yeah, I married my high school sweetheart. Zach: We have that in common! Noah: Yes. So both of our wives went to other schools.
She goes to a different school, so. Yeah, my wife went to Glacier High School. We knew each other through church, and.
Yeah, we dated in high school for a couple of years. Got engaged to right out of high school. Zach: And like, literally right the summer after high school.
Noah: So it was August before I went to MSU. Zach: Nice. Noah: So I was away. I was gone for a whole semester at school in Bozeman and decided to come back because my fiance was here and I was coming back here every weekend during my MSU days. So yeah, got back here.
I got married the next summer. So 2014, in June, we got married and now we have two kids, four year old Everett, two year old Everly, and rocking and rolling. Zach: Nice. I love it. We every once in a while we get the families together. And my sons.
Absolutely. Love Noah's kids. And I think. Noah: It's the boys. Yeah, the boy calls them the boys. The boys? Yeah. Zach: Pretty cool little kids.
Um, so thank you for kind of introducing yourself. How about, uh, so just briefly let me back up and kind of help people understand again what the, the premise and the purpose of my podcast is and why I have Noah here today. So, um, we've been hitting her at it already, knowing I have a relationship that has spanned 15 years, probably actually, maybe getting close to 20 now. It's nuts. Um, and so what I really like about my podcast is we're focusing on relationships.
And so relationships really are a fundamental piece to everything that we do. Um, and we're going to kind of talk about that throughout today as we get into some other stuff. Um, but the cool thing about relationships is that no, and I, we can go weeks or months without talking and then we can get together and really enjoy one another's presence. And it's that's because we have built a strong relationship in the past. So that's going to be the focus for today is why that matters. That's a big reason why Noah is sitting here today. But before we kind of dive into that, let's talk a little bit about work history.
So, um, you mentioned MSU. So you're going to college for a while. What happens after that in the work path? Noah: So I went to school for mechanical engineering. I did that for one whole year and decided I didn't want to sit at a computer my whole life. I didn't realize it was quite that when I started studying. Zach: Do you have a brother who's an engineer? Noah: Uh, he's a physics major. Zach: Uh oh. Even worse.
Noah: He's kind of smart, but weird, like, too smart kind of way. Zach: We hope you're watching this. Noah: Uh, well, he his wife is also like they call me, so they're really smart. Uh, anyway, so I went to school for a year studying engineering because I was good at math. I wasn't super amazing at it, but I was good. I enjoyed the logic of math. And so after that, I decided I want to switch it up a little bit and go into education.
So through FCC, the community college here, I started studying elementary education, hoping to focus in like middle school and middle school math, because I love the math classes. When you're studying to teach elementary kids, math tends to be easier than the math that goes into building rockets. So yeah, I really enjoyed that. I did that for a few more years.
Was in schools a lot in the education program. You're just in the schools a lot nowadays. It's not just one semester of student teaching.
So yeah, I was doing a bunch of that and at the same time working part time at my in-laws greenhouse, which is kind of the next chapter of life. In the summer before my last year of school. Um, I decided that I wanted to start taking over the greenhouse. So the greenhouse was a family. Family farm. Family business that my wife's parents started. And, um.
Yeah, it's just a lot of fun growing things. And they had kind of told me that I had the option someday if I wanted to get more involved, take a more management role, and maybe take it over someday. And I thought about it for a couple of years and.
Yeah, I knew that businesses can go really bad or they can go really good. And so I really took that to heart and decided that, yeah, this was something I want to, I want to get involved in a little bit more. Zach: So that's great. So what year are we talking here when you start getting more.
Noah: Involved is 2017, when I decided to stop going to school and pursue farming full time. Zach: Did you finish your degree? Noah: Nope. Zach: We have that in common too.
Yeah, that's great. That's okay. We made. Noah: Uh, so I went to FCW, but it was through the University of Montana, so that tuition was a little bit more. So I did one year of loans and then I was like, You know what? I don't think I need to pay another whole year of loans, tuition to get a degree that I'm not planning, hoping to not ever have to use.
Zach: Exactly. Yeah. Now we think a lot of like in that arena, um, as a, as a loan officer, you absolutely need to be licensed because it is a it's a significant enough field that it requires some education, but it does not require a college education. Um, and I don't have a college education. I have an associate's degree. So, uh, I used to be ashamed of that, but.
Noah: Yeah, we went to FCW together. Together? Same time. Yeah. Zach: Wasn't Maggie and some of your classes for education? Noah: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zach: Kind of crazy. Yeah. Intertwined. A little small town. Noah: Kalispell, right? Yeah.
Zach: But no, I. I used to be ashamed of not, uh, having a college education. And the older I get, the more I'm actually sort of proud of it because I don't have any student debt and I do mortgages, and I. And I see, uh, the weight that student debt can have on people when they're trying to buy homes. And I'm just grateful I don't have. Noah: That. Is something true for you? Yeah, we we actually paid off the whole year of tuition in one go. We never made one normal payment.
We just saved our money. And once that year was done, we paid it off. Zach: Okay, so this is where we have to use my favorite button. Noah: Noah Oh, yeah, that's a big deal. Zach: I love it. Now, paying off student debt is huge.
So nice job. Yeah, we. Noah: Were big on the Dave Ramsey kick when we were, uh, in like, premarital counseling, counseling and stuff and when we were first married. Stay on that course. So, yeah, that was a quick it was a hard like, oh, there's a bunch of money and one go. But we've never had to think about paying back a student loan. Love it. It's nice.
Zach: That's freeing, right? Yeah. Okay, so you, uh. So 2017, you make the decision, you're going to get more involved in the greenhouse. Give us a little plug about your green house. What's the name? What do you guys grow? Why should people buy your product? Fill us.
Noah: In. Yeah. So basically, Mountain View Gardens is a green house located in Kalispell. We're just over an acre of covered greenhouse now. It's like a soft plastic material. Everything's climate controlled.
Irrigation is controlled by a computer. So technically I could step away and the greenhouse can function the growing part. But there's a lot of manual labor that goes into tending plants and picking. So we grow everything hydroponically, which means we don't grow in traditional soil. All of our plants are grown in cocoa peat, which is just the coconut fibers or fibers of a coconut all ground up and they get shipped to us dry.
So they're really light. And then once we add water, they puff up and create a really nice aerated root zone for the tomatoes to really dig in their roots and. Basically they can retain a bunch of water with also letting a lot of air in, which is a great thing that you want for growing plants. You want a lot of oxygen and also them to never dry out. So that's how we grow our tomatoes and cucumbers. We supply all the minerals to the plants so they get the exact nutrient that they need to flourish. And we're not certified organic, but we grow organically.
So our cocoa peat that we get is is certified organic. A lot of the fertilizers we use are certified organic and we don't use pesticides, which is the biggest thing to a lot of people and biggest thing to my family is, you know, you can be certified organic, but what kind of organic pesticides get sprayed on these plants? And I mean, there are some organic farms around here and stuff that probably don't use pesticides at all, even if they are organic. But we don't spray anything in our greenhouse and well, I guess we we spray some things once in a while. If we have some plants that have some mildew on and we'll spray a baking soda mix, But pretty nice, pretty light.
You know, water and baking soda is pretty much what's in it. And soap to get to stick a little bit. But yeah, we let our kids run in the greenhouse. We you can eat the fruit right off the vine.
It's not you know not to worry about, you know, anything on the plants, anything on the fruit before eating it. You can just go in there, pop a tomato in your mouth and be happy and healthy. So yeah. Zach: I had the chance to visit your greenhouse, uh, maybe a year ago. It's. It's been a while before.
Uh, yeah. Anyway, and what they do is fascinating to me. I don't. I know the. I'm the farthest thing from a green thumb, so I walked in there like
a kid in a in a Disney World. I'm like, What is going on in this? Noah: Actually, it's funny, say, Disney World, because us down in Disneyland in Florida at Epcot, they have a hydroponic. Zach: Oh. Noah: Like growing working like small farm thing. Zach: Is that people can go. Noah: Yeah observe look at it So so one day we're gonna take a business trip and go to Epcot and look at this hydroponic system because they, you know, there's this super high tech, fully automated.
Zach: Sounds like a business right off. Noah: Yeah. Yeah. Someday, someday it will be. We thought about it a couple of years ago. We went to Florida on vacation.
We're like, you know, we could go to Epcot on the get some business expense out of this, but we didn't have time. That's awesome. Zach: So, um, like I said, I got the chance to go in there. Do you allow anybody to come take a look at your plants if they wanted to? Noah: Um, mostly, um, you know, if people want to come look at it, it's pretty few and far in between, so it's pretty easy to accommodate that if we're super busy. It's kind of like, well, you got, you got to wait until we slow down in the fall.
Or when we're starting up in the spring. Sure, Yeah. If people are interested enough, then yeah, we'll give them a quick tour. So sweet.
Zach: That's awesome. How about your primary clientele? Where are you selling your product? And, um, like, how far is your reach? That sort of stuff. Noah: So basically, you know, if you think of a local farm, you probably think of a CSA program. You can go to the farm and pick things up. Zach: What's CSA? Noah: Community supported agriculture, I think.
Okay, got it. I think we don't do that. So I'm not exactly sure. But that's basically you pay a lump sum of money at beginning of the growing season so farmers can have extra money to start their their growing season. And then you get a weekly allotment of produce, which is a great deal for the farmer, a great deal for the customer.
But we don't do anything direct to customer anymore. We used to be in a few farmer's markets that would be our only retail spot. What we do is we send tomatoes and cucumbers that we grow to grocery stores primarily. So we do our own selling, our own delivering, and so we ship stuff to the grocery store just a couple of days, at least within a couple of days of us picking it.
And yeah, the grocery stores, we try to have good relationships with the produce managers so that they enjoy working with us and that we're easy to work with so that they will take care of the fruit that they're putting on the shelves that are ours. Zach: Nice. That's just in case people aren't paying attention. Relationships. Yeah.
You make a relationship, uh, with the produce guys at the grocery store. Noah: So basically, you know, we, we call and deliver twice a week to different places. So Kalispell will call on a monday morning. This year we change it to delivering next day. We used to deliver same day, which kind of created a lot of stress. So we change that. But so it's all you know, the produce managers get to decide for the
most part what's produce they order. So if if a produce manager is very upset with us, then they don't need to take anything from us and they can just get it from, you know, any, any warehouse in like Spokane, there's a bunch of produce warehouses and it's easy for them to add tomatoes to that order. So yeah, relationships are super important in that sense. Um. But we also have a great product which is helps with the produce managers. So we we are a little bit more expensive than the really cruddy tomatoes you can get from out of country in warehouses. Right. You know, the ones that were picked a week ago when they were just slightly pink
and then banana gassed on their way here. And then the next week you get a hold of them. Um, so yes, there is, um, are a little bit more expensive than those, but it's, it's not without reason. They're fresh pesticide free. They got amazing flavor and yeah, they're local.
Zach: That's good. Yeah, I like the local plug. Uh, we have a relatively small community here in the Flathead Valley, though. It's growing every day, right? Um, very much. But the. I'm. I'm sure this is probably true, too, do you think? But I guess I'm not sure.
So let me ask you, do the produce managers talk to each other, grocery store, to grocery store about their suppliers they will. Noah: Like in the same chain of grocery stores. So we're in super ones around here in the Flathead and actually over into Idaho. So our reach is mainly it starts out with Kalispell in the season as we're starting to pick more and more, it'll grow to Kalispell and Missoula, all the grocery stores between there and here. And then occasionally we'll take trips over to Idaho and there's like I think there's seven super ones on like the same highway. Down know panhandle of Idaho.
So it's like a great. Zach: It's like McDonald's. Noah: One trip and get a lot of super ones. Yeah. Seriously. Um, there's actually like two super ones that are I think they're within
a few blocks. They're technically different cities, but I know we accidentally delivered to the wrong one once, and I was like, Oh, wait. That one's to this one. That's a block away.
Zach: Did you get new business out of the mistake? Like, Whoops. Oh, well, now that you guys have it, you wanna. Noah: Sell it and see how it goes? Uh, we, um. So with that, all the, all the grocery store produce managers in a chain, so like all the super ones, so they, they will contact with each other, there is like a head produce guy that will assist them with if they do some bulk ordering from a different supplier or something. But yeah, ours will definitely be in communication. And um, yeah, so we try to, we try to make everyone happy. Sometimes we just have to make the call to say, Hey Idaho, we're going to stop coming there because our season is slowing down.
And then, you know, in the spring when we start speeding up again, we'll come back to Idaho. So, yeah, nice. Zach: I love it. That's great. So you mentioned you take orders on a monday.
Uh, you deliver them on a Tuesday. So I assume that you guys have to have a reasonable amount of staff that you employ. Noah: Yes.
Zach: And for those of you who are in ownership or management, um, the staffing market in the Flathead Valley has been hard. Yeah, right. Noah: So, yeah. Zach: So can you give us a glimpse kind of into what that looks like for you? How many people do you have on staff? Uh, how do you engage with employees? Get them interested in, come and work for you. Noah: Yeah. So basically I just work my tail off in the summers and make my father in law work his tail off. He always says I'm working him to death.
No, we definitely in the summers, we're, you know, we're working as hard as we can, trying to still have priorities outside of the work life. But for the winners, we I try to hold on to three or four full time people. Um, that way we have enough people for turning the crop around. So basically we're producing tomatoes from late, late March until December. So we're we're going pretty strong for, you know, nine months of the year. And then in the middle of December, we clean everything out.
That takes a big crew. There's a lot of plant material to take out of there. Um, then we usually take a little break and then in January, start setting everything up again after we clean it and sanitize it. And then new plants come that are propagated for us.
This year we'll be doing it at the end of January. So we'll get plants that are about this big and it all starts over. So three or four people in the winter can keep me really on track with getting everything done in time for those new plants to come.
Zach: And so so you don't get a break. You personally don't get a break in the winter. Noah: I don't get a break.
Zach: Don't work as much in the winter. Noah: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's not like, you know, we're our growth season is this long, and then we're just not doing anything right. So, I mean, our our greenhouse has plants in it for 12 months of the year. You know, at the end of the year, they're getting pretty worn out at the
beginning of the year, their brand new plants. So there's a few months where we're not really producing anything. Sure. Not having any cash flow coming in. But yeah, it slows down enough. Like right now I might work more like three or four days a week. Zach: And you can come do podcasts.
Noah: And come to podcasts. Yeah, he told me this morning. So that's good. Um, but like I also plow snow on the side for a company and it's, you know, I'm able to do that because I work at the greenhouse that I run. And, you know, if, if I'm plowing all morning, then I can just say, you know, get the things done I need to get done there, but then take the rest of the day off.
Nice to rest. But yeah, so once we once we get rocking and rolling in March when we start picking stuff, yeah, that's when I will start hiring. Looking for more full time people. Well, looking before that. But that's when they start coming on early April start adding the full time people and then the seasonally full time.
So working 40 hours a week or so for hopefully a long summer. And then as schools start to close, I will also start getting a lot of students. Zach: Oh, high school or.
Noah: College students try to get, um, a lot of those because that works perfectly with our growing schedule of being super busy starting about June and that not stopping until late August. Perfect. Yeah, it definitely makes the Shoulder Seasons pretty busy, but it's a manageable busy If we have enough help to get us through the summer and not get behind. Zach: So do you do any sort of marketing in the local high schools or the community college from an employer perspective? Or is it you just well known enough? Noah: Okay. Um, mostly it's just friends and family. Friends. So you work. Zach: Your father in law to death.
Your mother. Mother in. Noah: Law. Dad. Yeah. So actually, last summer. Um. I had my mom and dad working for me.
Um, just part time. Um, cause they do other things. That's fun to say. Yeah. And then my sister works for me full time, year round. And then. Yeah. So my mother and father in law, they.
I mean, they're running the business, you know, I'm running it with them for them. So it's kind of different there, but. And then I think I had my wife come in a couple of times to help with picking tomatoes.
So, yeah, it's kind of it's definitely a family business. I, um, my two brothers have worked there in the summers when they were out of high school. Zach: Um, that's gr Pretty soon your son is going to have to get in there. Noah: Oh, yeah. And I'm definitely trying to get him to start learning to pick my mother in law. Got him some extra small, like, nitrile gloves to wear in the greenhouse so he can pick.
And it's adorable. He loves it. So yeah, I think next summer we'll he'll definitely be doing something. Zach: That's so good for him to get some work ethic going and and you get to not have to work as much as well Maybe you have to work more, cause yeah, he eats. Noah: A lot of tomatoes. So I might be losing money, but profit is going down. The tomatoes will be picked.
It'll just be less tomatoes that we can sell. Zach: If you have a tomato from super one that has a little tiny five, four or five year old bite out of it. Well, we might be. I've written I haven't had that. Noah: Before, like just in our packing room. Um, we just where we store the tomatoes, Helen would be like, did we get some mice in here? What in the world? And it's. Oh, Everly was in there.
Let me take these out. Like, go through the box and take out the tomatoes. I love it. So we keep an eye on her for sure. Cause she'll just grab a handful, take a couple of bites and throw them back on the ground or in the box. Zach: And it's like, That is awesome.
Kids are they love fun. Noah: They love it. Zach: So much fun. Cool. Um, well, thanks for kind of giving us the overview there on staffing. Uh, it's great how you have the seasonal capacity for that.
So happens to fit other seasons of the way our society runs. Noah: That's awesome. And it's, you know, like this last year we were, we were really short staffed, but like, that was kind of the theme everywhere. Yeah. You know, it's, it's definitely always a challenge to be fully staffed to where where I want to be. And that is like for my father in law to be able to when he's working
in the greenhouse, it's him going in and doing what he wants to do for a little bit. Yeah, you know, in a day not doing stuff that has to get done for the business to run. Right. And that's kind of what I want to do for me too, is, you know, even though I
enjoyed working in the greenhouse and working with the plants, I also enjoy, you know, thinking about the future, thinking about new marketing, things that like this summer, we didn't really do much marketing. Zach: Was that because you were so busy you didn't have time to so busy? Noah: Yeah. Um, I think last last summer, not this one. I was in the office quite a bit doing office things. A lot of the times just changing up labels. I don't even know what I did playing games.
Zach: It's all a blur, right? Noah: But this line, like this last summer, it was probably 90% of the time in the greenhouse working and which is a great thing. It's a great workout and it's great to be working with plants all that fresh oxygen. Yeah, it's nice to also have a little extra time to think about the future.
Zach: So good. I want to draw out something for our audience. Noah mentioned that the primary source for where his employees come from are friends and family. So, uh, just cause I'm a I'm focusing on this, how do you think that happened? Noah: Relationships. Zach: Relationships. Exactly. So it's just I like to draw those themes out because it's it really does impact everything that we do.
Uh, so then kind of stepping back and looking at it geographically, why is the greenhouse in Montana, you'd think, um, maybe monetarily that you could make more money if the greenhouse were somewhere else, right? What's the story there and why does it work for you in our beautiful state? Noah: Yeah. So my father in law and his wife, they started the greenhouse in 2007. They. They started it, um, pretty small scale growing lettuce, which is kind of the first thing that people start growing hydroponically or FFT system, which is nutrient film technique. Zach: I think so. Not like nft's like everybody's talking on Instagram. Noah: This, this is fungible.
That's, that's the word I think they use. But that's growing basically lettuce in water. So you don't have like an actual soil medium. It's just growing in a nutrient film. Huh. Um.
So they started with that started and then they went to grown cucumbers, which is kind of the next step. And after that went pretty well. They started growing tomatoes, which is the next step, and that went pretty well. So they expanded the greenhouse and yeah, they had some partners that started it with them. And Keith took a step away. Just because it was a smaller greenhouse couldn't really sustain three families. Zach: Sure. Noah: So he stepped away from it a little bit and then came back.
Um. And took it kind of took it all over. They took sole ownership of the business. And that's kind of when I started working there part time and then worked there full time and then started helping out. Zach: So they were.
Did they live in Montana when they decided to put the greenhouse in? Yes. Yeah. Noah: So my my in-laws, they are they my father in law is Canadian. Zach: Okay.
Noah: Uh, for. Zach: Canadian, right. Noah: And obviously, uh, American now. And my mother in law was born in Seattle, so my wife is a dual citizen. Nice. Um. Yeah. So we could get that for our kids too, but we haven't yet.
Zach: Um, but maybe someday. Noah: Maybe someday. If Canada's ever better than America or the United States. What? Zach: You What? Canada? Noah: Yeah. Zach: I mean. Noah: No offence.
No. Um, but, yeah, So they moved here. Um, started working with, uh, Christian organization here and then started the greenhouse, uh, with some, uh, friends. So. Zach: Yeah. Awesome. That's great. So then, um, so you're going down this path, you're going to be a teacher,
and then all of a sudden church. Greenhouse What about the greenhouse industry, if that's the right term? Yeah. Drew you in to the point where you were willing to forgo an education. Like, what about it just makes you tick. Noah: Well, I think I've always had a knack for not necessarily growing things, but just working with plants.
Zach: Sure. Noah: I've. You know, I've always worked in landscaping, growing up in high school and middle school, working in landscaping, mostly mowing lawns. But just. Kind of knowing how plants.
Zach: Work a little bit. Noah: And then obviously stepping into the greenhouse world. It was. A way bigger picture of growing the head. I had to learn. But yes, I stepped into that. Um. Just because I was familiar with working with plants. But then also.
I liked the challenge of kind of where the business was at when I came on was it was recovering from some problems from a couple of years back and it was kind of like. There is nowhere. Um, yeah, it's basically. It's only up from here.
Got what it is. And. Zach: And you were handed the keys that was like, Hey, we need you to make sure that only up is where we're going. Right? Right, right. Noah: Yeah. And, and, um, you know, I stepped into it with some experience working there and just trying to see things from a new angle that, um, you know, my. My father in law was a farmer in Canada who grew beef, and so he, he had the farmer part down, and I kind of saw myself as adding some of the.
Non traditional farming part. Which kind of greenhouse industry is non traditional. Zach: Yeah. So. Well, I always remember you enjoying even like coming back to our roots. Middle school, high school. I enjoy or I remember you enjoying math and sciences
primarily. And what I find interesting about you being in senior leadership within a greenhouse is that, I mean, literally you're using science to grow what. Noah: You sell. Zach: And then you're using your math skills to make the budget and the cash flow of the company work. Yeah. So when when you told me, it actually made sense, but I was just. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean.
Noah: I, I mean that's the part that I, that I love doing, you know, the office work that I have to do it I love doing, you know, doing some books, doing some making different graphs to help Keith understand what the plants are doing, how they're growing, just being able to analyze what's going on and put an actual, you know, mathematical number to it and say like, this is the best thing for us to do right now. Zach: I love it. Yeah. So, um, since we re talking about statistics I pulled, so actually you found this information. This has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but I think it's entertaining. Noah: It has everything to. Zach: Do, but it has everything to do.
So Noah mentioned sports a couple of times. Um, and so I found this fascinating. So we had a, we had a guy who we went to high school with who is an outstanding basketball player. Um, Josh Brey, if you watch this, we still respect you for how good of a basketball player you are, respect.
Noah: You even. Zach: More. Yeah. Noah: Cuz we looked at. Yes. Zach: So just for your enjoyment, um, Noah pulled up what's called Maxpreps and it's a, it's a statistics database for high school basketball players. And Noah and I both played varsity basketball at Stillwater.
And so we noticed this discrepancy in it. It made us excited that we are doing mortgages and greenhouse stuff and not like professional basketball. So but here's the other crazy thing is we thought we were a really big deal. Yeah, we were really. I thought I was a big deal.
Did you think? Oh, yeah. I mean, we were until. Noah: I looked at these stats, you know, a week ago, I thought I was good at basketball. Zach: So Josh Brey, he averaged 22.3 points a game. This is our senior year of high school. That's great, right? Yeah, that's pretty good. Um, and, you know, we were a team, right? There's five people on a basketball court, so who? I can't even get the information out.
I do want to lord this over, Noah. I was second on the team and points per game and it was a whopping 6.8 points per game. So good.
Josh, thanks for carrying us to, um, we didn't, we didn't win, but we did make it to the state championship. Noah: We won junior year. Zach: We won our junior year, so I mean a little bit. And Noah was in second with 6.2 points per game. I'm sorry. Noah: Third, second to you.
Zach: Second to right. Naturally. No. And then the rest of the stats are, you know, about as about as, uh, sad. Noah was second, so Josh's first in every category. So we're not gonna even talk about him anymore.
Noah had a 26%, three point percentage. That's pretty good. One in four, so. Right.
Not too. Noah: Bad. Yeah. I want to force a good way to look at it. Zach: Uh, so then I guess the total points Josh had 535 points for the season. I had 149.
No, I had 142 and we were second and third. So I must have played a couple of less games to get a better average or something like that. Noah: Josh did play the most games.
I don't think he missed any games. I missed two games. You missed one, I think is what I saw. Zach: Okay, got it, man.
It's amazing. So, um. And then assists. Noah did beat me in assists. He wanted me to include that stat player.
Team player over here. Yeah. Uh, 2.2 assists per game for Noah. 1.4 in assists per game for me. And Josh only had 2.3. So basically tied with me. Pretty much tied.
Noah: So I was tied with him. Zach: So again, that has absolutely nothing to do with what we're talking about. But we were talking about math and statistics. And since Noah and I go go way back, I just kind of found that intriguing.
Noah: And then we can go to the other sport. Yeah, the more competitive one. Yes. You're thinking of soccer?
I'm thinking of golf. Yes. I watched Zach was the number one golfer senior year. Yep. And I went back and forth with another guy to be the number two golfer. Zach: We're kind of a big deal.
In case you guys haven't figured that out. Noah: I was probably only 15 to 20 strokes behind Zach. Um, and that's like on a nine hole course, so we were a pretty big deal. Yeah. Oh, my.
Zach: Goodness. So much fun. Um, so, Noah, I appreciate having you on. We're going to wrap up here pretty soon.
Um, I like to just get some motivation for my audience from the people that I interview. Um, I can't imagine that running a green house is easy. Um, we had a restaurant for a couple of years, and it was really, really hard. And so I, I have a newfound respect for people that run businesses because the perception from everybody is, Oh my gosh, you own a green house, you must be just crushing it. And while you guys are crushing it, it's very hard work.
And so my question to you to help the audience is what message of encouragement can you give to other people? Because I think a lot of people feel stuck in their nine to fives or their I mean, you mentioned schedule flexibility for you as a young dad. That's a big deal. It's important for me. Um, so what what kind of encouragement can you give to people that maybe they need to step outside their comfort zone, take the bull by the horns, try something new, take some risks. Yeah. What's that? What was that been like for you? And why should they do it? Noah: I think, you know, for me, I had a little bit of time when I was in school to think it over, and that was nice.
And, you know, I did already have my foot in the door. The opportunity was there. So it was kind of like if I wanted to take the risk, if you want to call it that. Um, but really like. The advice I would give is, is to follow your passions and whether that means starting your own business with something or if it means prioritizing.
Um, your passion, like, as a hobby. And, you know, maybe that could be a business someday, but just. Having that thing in your life that you're passionate about is it makes, you know, the regular 9 to 5 a lot easier.
So like for me, I mean, I love working at the Green House, but when there's times where we can't find the employees that we need, there's got to be something else that you are pulling energy from because a business can take so much energy away. So you need to be getting filled back up. And like for me, that's playing drums at our church on a lot of Sundays in a year. Um. You know, it's a volunteer.
And sometimes that can be burnout for people. But I've been doing it for a lot of years and it's it's something that just fills me up, um, that's filling with energy and joy and. Yeah, so just having something that you're passionate about, um. Yeah. And then just also stepping out as much as you can.
Um, I don't think it's ever a good idea to just drop what you're doing and go on to the next thing, unless you really feel called to do that. But, um, you know, if give as much as you can or take as much as you can to move on to the next thing, and then when it's time, you can make that call to jump. Zach: So absolutely. I love that. Yeah, there's a lot of faith involved in everything that we do and we we try to we like to take credit for all the good decisions that we make, um, and then not take credit for the poor ones that we make.
Uh, so I appreciate you mention that. Have something else that does provide passion that emulates into the rest of your life. I think that's really good advice. Noah: So, yeah, cause you can, you can set really good goals and you could hit a year like 20, 20 or something. I mean, that didn't affect the greenhouse business per se, but for a lot of people that was like, Oh, there's a lot of things out of my control or, you know, like last year with not being able to find a lot of employees for like businesses around here, you know, there's things that are going to happen and you need to be able to jump around them.
Zach: So so be adaptable. Noah: Yeah, definitely. Zach: So cool. Yeah. Awesome. Well, excellent. Noah, thank you so much for coming on my show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I just hope that you guys enjoyed this content. Uh, it's always fun for me to interview my really good friends.
So, um, we hope you appreciated this content if you did reach out to Zach. I'm always interested in feedback for how we can make this better or more entertaining or more valuable for you so you can find me on social media. And then if you have other people that you'd like me to interview, um, I would be happy to do that. Or maybe it's you. And maybe you want to come on the show.
Um, I'll talk to anybody and, uh, from anywhere, just because, um, believe it or not, I'm a relationship person, so there you have it. Noah, Thanks again. Appreciate you. Take care, guys.
Well, folks, all good things must come to an end. So that concludes today's episode on It's Just Personal. Thank you so much for tuning in.
If you made it this far, you're an all star. Do me one more favor and subscribe to my podcast on whatever platform you're listening or watching on. It helps me out a lot and I appreciate it very much. Also, as a people person, I cherish your feedback, so if you have any suggestions on things you'd like to see modified or changed, or maybe you have somebody you'd like me to interview, please reach out to me on my social media platforms. And even better, if you want to be on the show. Let's get it on the calendar.
All right. Thank you guys very much. And remember, go create a new relationship today. Thanks and have a good one.
2023-01-08