Today’s guest is Shay Foulk — an Iowa native, Army Ranger, and current National Guard officer who came home from the military not to slow down, but to build. What he built is three interlocking businesses: a 100-year-old family seed operation he married into, a family farm he’s actively transitioning into his generation’s hands, and a consulting firm that helps family farms across the country do the same thing he’s doing — make hard decisions before it’s too late.
As Shay puts it,
“It is so easy — so easy — to set yourself apart in a world where nobody wants to do the hard things, in a world where people don’t want to show up on time, in a world where people lack the commitment. Veterans have a tremendous opportunity from the basic level of discipline and structure that you went through in your lives.”
In this episode, listen closely for a few key threads: first — how a Ranger Regiment deployment to Afghanistan taught Shay a leadership lesson he applies daily in agriculture; second — why he believes the family farm succession crisis is less a structural problem and more a people problem, driven by avoidance and a failure to have hard conversations; and finally, how he’s spreading 150% of his time across a seed business, a farm, and a consulting practice — and why delegation is the only way out.
This one is part combat story, part business school, and part straight talk on what it actually takes to build something that lasts in agriculture.
Enjoy!
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