Mark Haney: Yes, this is the Mark Haney Show, on a

Mark Haney: mission to ignite the entrepreneurial

Mark Haney: revolution right here in the hometown.

Mark Haney: We love, and we do that by building the

Mark Haney: Backyard Advantage the most connected

Mark Haney: community in the world for local

Mark Haney: entrepreneurs, and it's based around this

Mark Haney: culture of love.

Mark Haney: And today on the show I have a couple of

Mark Haney: men that I have just met, but I've loved

Mark Haney: their business for the last several years

Mark Haney: and you're going to enjoy this.

Mark Haney: This is going to be a discussion about

Mark Haney: family business, and Wayne Bishop is the

Mark Haney: owner of Bishop's Pumpkin Farm and Lee

Mark Haney: Bishop his son, I presume is the CEO of

Mark Haney: Bishop's Pumpkin Farm, and if you don't

Mark Haney: know about Bishop's, then you haven't ever

Mark Haney: driven down Highway 65 before, because you

Mark Haney: get out there and there is just this really

Mark Haney: cool oasis that is a family-friendly place

Mark Haney: to go.

Mark Haney: You can go around holiday seasons, but I

Mark Haney: think you can go full-time any time of the

Mark Haney: year.

Mark Haney: So we're going to get their story today,

Mark Haney: and so I would just say welcome to the show,

Mark Haney: guys.

Wayne Bishop: Thank you.

Wayne Bishop: Thank you, I do want to tell you Lee's only

Wayne Bishop: been CEO for three weeks.

Wayne Bishop: Uh-oh, three weeks.

Mark Haney: He's still in his probationary period.

Wayne Bishop: Okay, so how long is the?

Mark Haney: probationary period last, I haven't decided

Mark Haney: yet.

Mark Haney: Okay, so let's find out about this.

Mark Haney: Okay, let's get an overview of the company.

Mark Haney: Then let's dive into those dynamics.

Mark Haney: So maybe, wayne, maybe we'll have you start

Mark Haney: off.

Mark Haney: So this is a multi-generation company.

Mark Haney: You guys have been around 50 years.

Mark Haney: Maybe tell us what you are today and maybe

Mark Haney: the origination of the business.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, so what we are today is a farm that

Wayne Bishop: hosts 300,000 plus visitors every fall,

Wayne Bishop: which is one of the largest operations in

Wayne Bishop: the country like us.

Wayne Bishop: There's only a handful that host that many.

Wayne Bishop: We have 850 temporary employees in the fall.

Wayne Bishop: We have about I don't know, 17 or 18

Wayne Bishop: full-time now people year-round have about

Wayne Bishop: I don't know, 17 or 18 full-time now people

Wayne Bishop: year-round.

Wayne Bishop: Uh, we do some other farming too, but but

Wayne Bishop: our primary business is is this, this

Wayne Bishop: pumpkin farm, and it's it's more than just

Wayne Bishop: pumpkins actually.

Wayne Bishop: You know the the actual sale of pumpkins

Wayne Bishop: now is about five percent of what we of our

Wayne Bishop: revenue in the fall.

Wayne Bishop: Uh, so it's all the things that go with

Wayne Bishop: that to.

Mark Haney: You know, it's a family day at our, at our

Mark Haney: place yeah, I've taken my kids, as I was

Mark Haney: telling you, my kids are 36 and 38.

Mark Haney: Now I was, I think, the last.

Mark Haney: It's been a few years since I've been out

Mark Haney: there, but I've taken my grandkids.

Mark Haney: It's about time I take my.

Mark Haney: I have two newer grandkids.

Mark Haney: I gotta get them out.

Mark Haney: But my, my grandkids that are a little

Mark Haney: older, I've taken out there and I just see,

Mark Haney: I just can remember these pictures that I

Mark Haney: have of us being out there and it's such an

Mark Haney: experience Can you describe.

Mark Haney: So there's what is there?

Mark Haney: A hundred acres or so.

Wayne Bishop: It's pretty it's really big.

Wayne Bishop: We actually own 235 now that's, that's a

Wayne Bishop: big a big, big change for us in the.

Wayne Bishop: In the last five years or so, we we started

Wayne Bishop: on 45 acres okay, is, is all that we owned,

Wayne Bishop: uh.

Mark Haney: And then for a long time, we, we leased

Mark Haney: ground around us uh to grow pumpkins on,

Mark Haney: and and, um, you know, we finally were able

Mark Haney: to buy some of that land just a few years

Mark Haney: ago okay, so I want to describe, I want to

Mark Haney: better understand the experience, um, so

Mark Haney: you've got these, you know several acres,

Mark Haney: hundreds of acres, um, and a lot of people

Mark Haney: converge and I've gone out there um

Mark Haney: halloween type time frame.

Mark Haney: Are you guys open year round or is it

Mark Haney: predominantly and seasonal?

Wayne Bishop: yeah, no, it's, it's, it's all seasonal.

Wayne Bishop: We we have stretched that season out now to

Wayne Bishop: nine nine weeks so shortly after labor day

Wayne Bishop: and through the first weekend in november

Wayne Bishop: and and we may, uh, we may continue to

Wayne Bishop: expand that season a little bit, and the

Wayne Bishop: only other thing we do is is a um, we do a

Wayne Bishop: spring field trip, so it's it's schools

Wayne Bishop: only.

Wayne Bishop: We get about 15,000 people in the spring

Wayne Bishop: for that, Um, but but it's a tiny, tiny

Wayne Bishop: amount compared to what we do in the fall.

Mark Haney: Okay, well, let's get over.

Mark Haney: Let's bring Lee into the conversation.

Mark Haney: Lee is the new CEO, and uh, how well.

Mark Haney: First of all, how's he working out so far?

Wayne Bishop: So far fantastic.

Mark Haney: Looks like you're going to pass the

Mark Haney: probationary period, but you know, see how

Mark Haney: you do today on the Mark Haney Show.

Mark Haney: So give us a little bit of your background

Mark Haney: and what led to you becoming the CEO.

Lee Bishop: That's a great question.

Lee Bishop: I think we just hired a consultant who said

Lee Bishop: you know, lee's probably a better fit than

Lee Bishop: his brother.

Wayne Bishop: And so my brother didn't take that so great.

Wayne Bishop: She also said we should go outside first.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, yeah she actually.

Lee Bishop: I was the second choice, remember I was the

Lee Bishop: third choice on CEO, but my background is I

Lee Bishop: graduated from Chico State with a finance

Lee Bishop: degree in 2011.

Lee Bishop: I then worked for most of my career at a

Lee Bishop: company called Reynolds and Reynolds and

Lee Bishop: they did software for car dealerships.

Lee Bishop: I spent all of my time working with service

Lee Bishop: managers and sales managers and controllers

Lee Bishop: and dealers and just answering their

Lee Bishop: questions on the software really and

Lee Bishop: osmosisly growing through, just being

Lee Bishop: around those people every day.

Lee Bishop: And then in 2020, I moved back to the farm

Lee Bishop: and I told my dad when I moved back I don't

Lee Bishop: want to manage people, I'm the controller

Lee Bishop: of the business and I'm going to start a

Lee Bishop: hard cider brand.

Mark Haney: And that's what I'm going to do.

Mark Haney: Okay.

Lee Bishop: Now here I am the CEO.

Mark Haney: Okay.

Mark Haney: Well, do you have to manage people in this

Mark Haney: new job?

Mark Haney: Assume so, I love it.

Mark Haney: Okay.

Mark Haney: So let's go back to the beginning here.

Mark Haney: It's 50 years old.

Mark Haney: Was it started by your family?

Mark Haney: Yeah, my parents.

Mark Haney: Okay, so your family.

Mark Haney: Can you tell me about how it started and

Mark Haney: yeah so.

Wayne Bishop: So my mother had been a teacher and um, and

Wayne Bishop: she recognized that dad was a farmer and

Wayne Bishop: she recognized that kids just didn't didn't

Wayne Bishop: know where their food came from and, you

Wayne Bishop: know, didn't know what what farms were all

Wayne Bishop: about.

Wayne Bishop: And so she really just wanted to get kids

Wayne Bishop: out to a farm on a field trip.

Wayne Bishop: And um thought, between her and dad they

Wayne Bishop: thought, well, we could plant a few

Wayne Bishop: pumpkins.

Wayne Bishop: He had a small field in front of the house

Wayne Bishop: that he wasn't doing anything with and she

Wayne Bishop: said, well, I'm going to put pumpkins there

Wayne Bishop: and see if we can get kids to come out on

Wayne Bishop: field trips.

Wayne Bishop: So that's what it started as, and right

Wayne Bishop: away we were getting people on weekends too.

Wayne Bishop: You know the word got out that you could

Wayne Bishop: come out and pick a pumpkin off the farm,

Wayne Bishop: but that's all it was.

Wayne Bishop: In year one other and although maybe she,

Wayne Bishop: maybe she was making pies also that first

Wayne Bishop: year there were there were there were a few

Wayne Bishop: years in the beginning where she would make

Wayne Bishop: pies in her own kitchen and and sell on the

Wayne Bishop: farm, which was not legal at the time,

Wayne Bishop: interestingly enough it is now.

Wayne Bishop: Now you can get a cottage food license and

Wayne Bishop: do that now, which is great.

Wayne Bishop: But at that time you know she did it for a

Wayne Bishop: few years and the county came out and said

Wayne Bishop: you know, you can't do that, and so then it

Wayne Bishop: was a while before we could get a bakery

Wayne Bishop: built and reestablish that part of the

Wayne Bishop: business.

Mark Haney: So what was it like?

Mark Haney: When did you grow up working in the

Mark Haney: business?

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, in fact we were getting ready to do

Wayne Bishop: my other son, austin, who, by the way, is

Wayne Bishop: the COO my other son.

Wayne Bishop: They really worked that out between them.

Wayne Bishop: We had this consultant come in and give us

Wayne Bishop: advice on how to do this succession and she

Wayne Bishop: felt Lee was more suited to be the CEO.

Wayne Bishop: And Austin was a little taken aback, which

Wayne Bishop: we all were.

Wayne Bishop: She was very blunt and he went home for the

Wayne Bishop: weekend and came back and talked to Lee and

Wayne Bishop: he said you know, I think she's right, I

Wayne Bishop: think that you are a better fit for the CEO

Wayne Bishop: and I'm a better fit for COO Interesting.

Wayne Bishop: And so it's fantastic the way they've

Wayne Bishop: worked that through.

Wayne Bishop: That was almost a year ago.

Wayne Bishop: We had that meeting, and so we were working

Wayne Bishop: a year towards making it happen, but anyway,

Wayne Bishop: I'm way off track.

Wayne Bishop: What was the question?

Mark Haney: So how did you take over?

Mark Haney: So mom and dad started the business in what

Mark Haney: the 70s?

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, so 1973 was the first year, and

Wayne Bishop: that's why this came up.

Wayne Bishop: My other son, was talking to me this

Wayne Bishop: morning that we were going to make a video

Wayne Bishop: on just the history of our hayride to the

Wayne Bishop: field.

Wayne Bishop: So we had done that from the beginning and

Wayne Bishop: my brother and I were the drivers when we

Wayne Bishop: were six and seven years old, you know.

Mark Haney: Drove the hayride.

Mark Haney: Now these motorized uh, oh, yeah, it's a

Mark Haney: tractor.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, yeah and uh anyway, so there's

Wayne Bishop: there's a.

Mark Haney: We can talk for an hour about that.

Mark Haney: Okay, so you don't work.

Wayne Bishop: They put you to work early we, we worked,

Wayne Bishop: we worked through childhood and, and which

Wayne Bishop: is fine, you know.

Mark Haney: And so that was you and your brother, and

Mark Haney: then you as your brother.

Mark Haney: Did he ever stay with the business?

Wayne Bishop: Well, so interestingly enough, we both, you

Wayne Bishop: know, when we both graduated from high

Wayne Bishop: school, the business was still very small,

Wayne Bishop: Okay, and neither of us expected to come

Wayne Bishop: back.

Wayne Bishop: And we went off to college.

Wayne Bishop: And when my brother was almost finished

Wayne Bishop: with college, my dad showed up one day and

Wayne Bishop: said hey, man, I need help.

Wayne Bishop: You know the business is growing and I need

Wayne Bishop: help.

Wayne Bishop: And so my brother went back right after

Wayne Bishop: college.

Wayne Bishop: He worked about six years six, seven years,

Wayne Bishop: something like that Decided he wanted to do

Wayne Bishop: something else and left, and that was my

Wayne Bishop: opportunity then to go back.

Wayne Bishop: And so that actually is 30 years ago next

Wayne Bishop: week.

Wayne Bishop: Wow.

Mark Haney: And the business has changed a lot since

Mark Haney: then.

Mark Haney: When you came back, how big was the

Mark Haney: business?

Wayne Bishop: We were grossing $300,000 at that time.

Mark Haney: Okay, Annual revenue $300,000.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah.

Mark Haney: And now you have 800 seasonal employees on

Mark Haney: hundreds of acres.

Mark Haney: It's quite a bit, I would assume.

Mark Haney: So Okay, so that was, and at this age

Mark Haney: you're an adult, so you were part of

Mark Haney: driving that growth.

Wayne Bishop: Yes, so my dad retired in 2005.

Wayne Bishop: So so, uh, you know, I worked for him for

Wayne Bishop: 10 years, for my mom and dad worked for

Wayne Bishop: them for 10 years and, uh, and then he

Wayne Bishop: retired in 2005 and and I took over, so so

Wayne Bishop: I got to run the company for 20 years and

Wayne Bishop: and we, uh, I, since I do know the numbers,

Wayne Bishop: I I can tell you well, we average 15 growth

Wayne Bishop: over that 20 years.

Wayne Bishop: Wow, 15 a year.

Wayne Bishop: So, uh, we're about 14 times now what we

Wayne Bishop: were in 2005.

Wayne Bishop: Wow, congratulations on that growth.

Mark Haney: A lot of people are probably interested in

Mark Haney: the family dynamics here a little bit more.

Mark Haney: So I have kids that are 36 and 38, and if

Mark Haney: one of them became the boss, that would not

Mark Haney: work right.

Mark Haney: They're too stubborn.

Mark Haney: I couldn't.

Mark Haney: I can't even imagine it.

Mark Haney: My brother and I we had a business together.

Mark Haney: I was actually in part of a family business

Mark Haney: and we had video stores and my three

Mark Haney: brothers and I bought out my parents from,

Mark Haney: bought out the video stores.

Mark Haney: We had 12 stores and ultimately my younger

Mark Haney: brother and I bought out the older brother

Mark Haney: and our titles were he was more like the

Mark Haney: financial guy and I was more like the

Mark Haney: people guy, so maybe a little bit like you

Mark Haney: and your brother.

Mark Haney: Somehow.

Mark Haney: He let me have the title of CEO, but he was

Mark Haney: really the brains and I was the person that

Mark Haney: was more like in the field.

Mark Haney: Uh, you know, we sold security cameras, had

Mark Haney: a, uh, you know, pretty good size group of

Mark Haney: security camera companies and so I was out

Mark Haney: there with the people and, you know, kind

Mark Haney: of like a hands-on with all the customers

Mark Haney: and stuff.

Mark Haney: Um, he let me have the title of CEO, but he

Mark Haney: was really the brains behind the business.

Mark Haney: So, yeah, uh, so I'm kind of curious, lee,

Mark Haney: from your standpoint, do you break up roles

Mark Haney: so you don't have to run into each other as

Mark Haney: much, or do you really manage him?

Lee Bishop: No, I don't manage him.

Lee Bishop: He's unmanageable.

Mark Haney: Yeah, yeah, I was like my brother didn't

Mark Haney: manage me and I didn't manage my brother,

Mark Haney: but we had titles right.

Lee Bishop: You need something for the, you know Well

Lee Bishop: interesting, he's my older brother by three

Lee Bishop: and a half years.

Lee Bishop: oh interesting, he's been at the farm for

Lee Bishop: 15 years and I've been there for five yeah

Lee Bishop: um, so for him to just say, you know, yeah,

Lee Bishop: you're a better fit for it was for him, I'm

Lee Bishop: sure, a shot in the heart.

Lee Bishop: You know he's been there for so long.

Lee Bishop: But naturally when he came back to the

Lee Bishop: business it was a lot different than now

Lee Bishop: and he kind of got siloed into you're an

Lee Bishop: outside guy, that's what you do.

Lee Bishop: And when I came back to the business it was

Lee Bishop: like we need help inside, you know.

Lee Bishop: And so I think we both kind of got just

Lee Bishop: siloed into our own areas.

Lee Bishop: But I think you know, and I've told him

Lee Bishop: this I'm not his boss, I'm his business

Lee Bishop: partner.

Lee Bishop: We are gonna be co-owners in this business.

Lee Bishop: We already are co-owners in the business.

Lee Bishop: I'm not gonna make a huge decision without

Lee Bishop: him knowing about it.

Lee Bishop: I can't just go build a new attraction with

Lee Bishop: him not being able to see, it Are there

Lee Bishop: other brothers and sisters, or just you two?

Lee Bishop: We have a younger sister and she worked

Lee Bishop: with the business up until 2020, for about

Lee Bishop: five years or so, and she left in 2020.

Mark Haney: Okay, but you all live locally.

Lee Bishop: She moved away.

Lee Bishop: Actually, when she quit, she moved up to

Lee Bishop: Idaho.

Mark Haney: Okay, she wanted to get away from it all.

Mark Haney: Huh, yeah, okay, but do you and your

Mark Haney: brother, so you have all these acreage.

Mark Haney: Do you live near the property or on the

Mark Haney: property?

Lee Bishop: My brother lives in the town in Wheatland

Lee Bishop: and I actually live in Lincoln, so I'm 15

Lee Bishop: minutes away.

Lee Bishop: But he my dad lives on the farm.

Lee Bishop: Oh, you live on the farm too.

Mark Haney: Okay, so what we did with our family and we

Mark Haney: don't have a?

Mark Haney: We don't have a business like yours where

Mark Haney: you know you could build, you know you have

Mark Haney: enough acreage.

Mark Haney: You guys could build more houses out there.

Mark Haney: We've ended up building a family compound

Mark Haney: where there's 12 of us we all live, you

Mark Haney: know, cause we've got grandkids and stuff

Mark Haney: and we all live on the property together

Mark Haney: and we've been doing this for the last few

Mark Haney: years and we haven't killed each other yet.

Mark Haney: Um yeah, yeah, yeah Watch the news.

Mark Haney: So I'm curious if you've thought about

Mark Haney: doing that kind of thing.

Mark Haney: What's the family dynamic in terms of you

Mark Haney: know, you living uh in Lincoln, which is,

Mark Haney: for those listening, that's probably 20, 30

Mark Haney: minutes from wheatland.

Mark Haney: Wheatland is where the?

Mark Haney: Uh the business is and uh, it's this small

Mark Haney: town with a frosty in it and it's got you

Mark Haney: guys, but you guys are tucked away.

Mark Haney: So what's the population of wheatland?

Mark Haney: 5 000 people less 30 about 3 500 okay, 3

Mark Haney: 500.

Mark Haney: So how is the?

Mark Haney: You know, are there?

Mark Haney: Are there family meals together, where you

Mark Haney: guys all get together and talk?

Mark Haney: How does that?

Lee Bishop: work.

Lee Bishop: Well, I mean, we all go to work together

Lee Bishop: every day.

Lee Bishop: So we actually eat lunch together basically

Lee Bishop: every day, which is more of a family time

Lee Bishop: than it is a work time.

Lee Bishop: Interesting, so right in the middle of our

Lee Bishop: day we have more of an hour family time.

Lee Bishop: But yeah, I mean we're a pretty close

Lee Bishop: family.

Lee Bishop: So even all the holidays, even though we

Lee Bishop: all work together, we still see each other

Lee Bishop: on all the holidays.

Lee Bishop: And, uh, my brother has three girls and so

Lee Bishop: we're always going to a softball game or a

Lee Bishop: volleyball game or soccer game or something

Lee Bishop: you know.

Lee Bishop: So we're, we're pretty well, always

Lee Bishop: together.

Mark Haney: One of the things that, um, I've always

Mark Haney: felt, and so Ronald Reagan quote, is that

Mark Haney: all great change in America begins at the

Mark Haney: dinner table.

Mark Haney: And I'm wondering, like, growing up, were

Mark Haney: you guys at the dinner table talking about

Mark Haney: business and you know what's involved all

Mark Haney: day long.

Mark Haney: Were you, was it bred into you, uh, as as a

Mark Haney: young person?

Mark Haney: Or were you talking basketball or football

Mark Haney: or something like that, what described to

Mark Haney: me like family time when you were growing

Mark Haney: up?

Lee Bishop: it was definitely both of those things okay

Lee Bishop: we had to have our you know hour-long talk

Lee Bishop: about barry bonds that time.

Mark Haney: Okay, now are we a Barry Bonds fan.

Lee Bishop: Oh yeah, we're San Francisco Giants people.

Lee Bishop: Oh nice.

Lee Bishop: I don't know exactly what happened at Volco.

Mark Haney: Well, yeah, you can see my Buster Posey

Mark Haney: shirt right on the back of my chair over

Mark Haney: there, so I'm a Giants fan too.

Lee Bishop: But definitely at home it was.

Lee Bishop: You know, we grew up in the business.

Lee Bishop: We lived in Wheatland when we grew up and

Lee Bishop: my grandparents are still living on the

Lee Bishop: farm.

Lee Bishop: I started going to work in the bakery with

Lee Bishop: my grandma when I was five or six years old

Lee Bishop: and I was helping her in there.

Lee Bishop: I wasn't allowed to drive hay rides when I

Lee Bishop: was seven years old.

Mark Haney: Yeah, that is a young age.

Lee Bishop: We changed that Probably by the time I was

Lee Bishop: eight or nine, I was probably driving the

Lee Bishop: tractor for my dad while he was moving the

Lee Bishop: pipes.

Lee Bishop: He would get me out of bed at 6.30 in the

Lee Bishop: morning.

Lee Bishop: When I was nine years old, 10 years old my

Lee Bishop: brother and I would alternate days on who

Lee Bishop: got to do that.

Lee Bishop: But yeah, even at home, around the dinner

Lee Bishop: table or when we'd go to my grandparents'

Lee Bishop: house work came up a lot.

Mark Haney: What were your grandparents like, or what

Mark Haney: are they like?

Lee Bishop: My grandpa passed away a few years ago.

Lee Bishop: My dad will probably tell you a very

Lee Bishop: different story of my grandpa than I will,

Lee Bishop: and my brother will too.

Lee Bishop: My brother will tell you a lot.

Lee Bishop: Like my dad, I wasn't around when my

Lee Bishop: grandpa was fading out of the business.

Lee Bishop: I was away.

Lee Bishop: I loved my grandpa.

Lee Bishop: He was a hard worker man.

Lee Bishop: He's got red dirt in his knuckles.

Lee Bishop: That's who he is.

Lee Bishop: He worked a hard worker man he is.

Lee Bishop: Uh, he's got red dirt in his knuckles.

Wayne Bishop: you know that's who he is.

Lee Bishop: He's just, he worked, and worked and worked.

Lee Bishop: And my grandma's similar, you know, but she,

Lee Bishop: she obviously had different.

Lee Bishop: You know, passions, the bakery, but they

Lee Bishop: loved work.

Lee Bishop: That's who they were, that's the generation

Lee Bishop: they grew up with.

Mark Haney: Yeah, um, how so you?

Mark Haney: There's a contrasting opinion there.

Wayne Bishop: Give us the uh, give us your thoughts on

Wayne Bishop: that way you know, my dad and I, you know,

Wayne Bishop: we were both passionate about the business

Wayne Bishop: and there was a period of time there when I

Wayne Bishop: first came back, where it was really just

Wayne Bishop: the two of us doing all the work and and my

Wayne Bishop: mom and you know, and then we gradually

Wayne Bishop: were able to hire a little bit of help.

Wayne Bishop: But um and my dad had some mental health

Wayne Bishop: issues that he dealt with his whole life

Wayne Bishop: and I think he he kind of conquered those

Wayne Bishop: at the end, but but he uh, boy, we clashed

Wayne Bishop: at times, okay, you know, and we had great

Wayne Bishop: times together.

Wayne Bishop: You know, we uh, my favorite year of my

Wayne Bishop: life, maybe, in 1999, we spent the winter

Wayne Bishop: in the shop building a new locomotive for

Wayne Bishop: our train and we and you know who gets to

Wayne Bishop: do that with their dad right, we built a

Wayne Bishop: train together and you know, and that train

Wayne Bishop: has hauled hundreds of thousands of people

Wayne Bishop: and and made a lot of families happy.

Wayne Bishop: So, um, that was it was, it was fantastic,

Wayne Bishop: you know, we both loved to be in the shop.

Wayne Bishop: I majored in engineering and ran a machine

Wayne Bishop: shop before I came back to the farm and and,

Wayne Bishop: um, we had a great time.

Wayne Bishop: But then there were other times.

Wayne Bishop: Boy, boy, we, we butted heads, you know,

Wayne Bishop: and and uh so, so, we had our ups and downs,

Wayne Bishop: you know, but we stuck it out and and in

Wayne Bishop: the end, you know, uh, I think we respected

Wayne Bishop: each other.

Wayne Bishop: We always know.

Wayne Bishop: Uh, I think we respected each other.

Wayne Bishop: We, we always did.

Wayne Bishop: We always respected each other.

Wayne Bishop: I think, um, there were just times where it

Wayne Bishop: was hard to work together.

Mark Haney: Yeah, yeah.

Mark Haney: Well, you guys are members of the family

Mark Haney: business association.

Mark Haney: I'm a member too.

Mark Haney: I'm not as involved maybe, as you guys have

Mark Haney: been a little less active, but uh, this is

Mark Haney: where family businesses can get to know

Mark Haney: other family businesses, get to learn ideas

Mark Haney: on what it's like to have a family business

Mark Haney: that is handed down through the generations.

Mark Haney: I'm kind of curious.

Mark Haney: You said you brought in the consultant, and

Mark Haney: that's do you?

Mark Haney: What kind of information have you got from

Mark Haney: the family business organization?

Mark Haney: I'm assuming that idea came from someone

Mark Haney: there.

Mark Haney: Is that right?

Wayne Bishop: Well, yeah, actually, we got the referral

Wayne Bishop: for her from that organization.

Wayne Bishop: But you know, I think the biggest thing is,

Wayne Bishop: it's so when you, when you learn that every

Wayne Bishop: family business, that I've ever heard of or

Wayne Bishop: that we've ever heard about, goes through

Wayne Bishop: similar struggles as what we've gone

Wayne Bishop: through and, um, of course, some of them

Wayne Bishop: it's.

Wayne Bishop: It's the end of them.

Wayne Bishop: You know some of them can't work through it,

Wayne Bishop: but but you, we get to go there and hear

Wayne Bishop: about the ones that have encountered their

Wayne Bishop: challenges and and gotten through, worked

Wayne Bishop: their way through them, and you know how

Wayne Bishop: they did it.

Wayne Bishop: And you know, bringing this consultant in

Wayne Bishop: was all about communication really, which

Wayne Bishop: is, you know, if you could give one piece

Wayne Bishop: of advice to families and business together.

Wayne Bishop: You got to keep talking and we don't always

Wayne Bishop: do that when we should.

Wayne Bishop: Lee talked about our, our lunches together

Wayne Bishop: and that was something I heard years ago.

Wayne Bishop: The family that owned the jelly belly uh

Wayne Bishop: business and and um that that there was

Wayne Bishop: something they did.

Wayne Bishop: I think in their case they commuted

Wayne Bishop: together two generations for for decades

Wayne Bishop: they lived near each other.

Wayne Bishop: They were 10 miles or whatever from the

Wayne Bishop: plant and just that, 10 minutes or 15

Wayne Bishop: minutes in the car twice a day, where

Wayne Bishop: there's no pressure to talk about business.

Wayne Bishop: If there's something that comes up, it's

Wayne Bishop: not like okay, we've scheduled a meeting.

Wayne Bishop: You got to talk about business.

Wayne Bishop: Well, when we have lunch together, we talk

Wayne Bishop: about my grandkids.

Wayne Bishop: We talk about sports, sports politics,

Wayne Bishop: whatever.

Wayne Bishop: And if, if there's something pressing in

Wayne Bishop: the business, it will come up and we'll

Wayne Bishop: talk about it.

Wayne Bishop: But we just, you know, I think we maintain

Wayne Bishop: the love of the family that way and the

Wayne Bishop: closeness and and it.

Wayne Bishop: If there was one thing that we've that that

Wayne Bishop: I started that we do right it.

Wayne Bishop: It's like hey, you guys, when they came

Wayne Bishop: back to work I said I want you at my house

Wayne Bishop: for lunch as many days of the week as

Wayne Bishop: possible.

Wayne Bishop: You know sometimes it doesn't work out, but

Wayne Bishop: as much as possible we have lunch at my

Wayne Bishop: house.

Mark Haney: That's great, my brother and I we had our

Mark Haney: own businesses, since, like we had paper

Mark Haney: route together.

Mark Haney: You probably remember the Sacramento Union.

Mark Haney: I delivered the Sacramento Union as a kid,

Mark Haney: so I recruited my little brother to help me

Mark Haney: and it kind of became our thing.

Mark Haney: But in our video stores and security stuff.

Mark Haney: But we went out to lunch almost every day

Mark Haney: for a few decades One year, and we'd always

Mark Haney: split like who's going to pay?

Mark Haney: Or sometimes the business paid.

Mark Haney: But one year for my birthday I think it was

Mark Haney: for my 40th birthday he said I's going to

Mark Haney: pay, or sometimes the business paid, um,

Mark Haney: but one year for my birthday, I think it

Mark Haney: was for my 40th birthday.

Lee Bishop: He said I'm going to buy lunch for the next

Lee Bishop: year.

Lee Bishop: That was my birthday, cause we go to lunch

Lee Bishop: every day.

Lee Bishop: I said that was my.

Mark Haney: you give me a financial but that was also

Mark Haney: saying I want to have lunch with you too.

Mark Haney: So I remember that being, uh, very touching

Mark Haney: gift.

Mark Haney: That you know, not only was he going to pay

Mark Haney: for lunch for a year, but that you know,

Mark Haney: hey, he liked that.

Mark Haney: We did that together and it helped the

Mark Haney: business and it definitely helped our

Mark Haney: relationship to be talking all the time.

Mark Haney: So I agree with you on that communication.

Wayne Bishop: And I'll go one step further on that.

Wayne Bishop: I just was telling Lee the other day, I

Wayne Bishop: think in 2020, covid happened and my

Wayne Bishop: daughter had been with us for several years,

Wayne Bishop: loved the business.

Wayne Bishop: Uh, she was pregnant with her second child

Wayne Bishop: at the time.

Wayne Bishop: Uh, and we said, when, when you know, you

Wayne Bishop: remember the, the terror we all felt at the

Wayne Bishop: beginning of kovid?

Wayne Bishop: We, there was so much unknown and we said,

Wayne Bishop: hey, uh, you know, you don't need to be

Wayne Bishop: coming into work right now.

Wayne Bishop: Why don't you stay home with your, with

Wayne Bishop: your older child?

Wayne Bishop: Not, let's not take her to daycare.

Wayne Bishop: Hey, you don't need to be coming into work

Wayne Bishop: right now.

Wayne Bishop: Why don't you stay home with your older

Wayne Bishop: child?

Wayne Bishop: Let's not take her to daycare right now.

Wayne Bishop: We don't have to have that exposure and

Wayne Bishop: anyway.

Wayne Bishop: So she ended up home for a while, then had

Wayne Bishop: her other child home for a few more months

Wayne Bishop: and we're not having lunch together.

Wayne Bishop: And at the end of that, she's like hey, you

Wayne Bishop: know what I want to be a mom, which is fine.

Wayne Bishop: I have zero criticism about that.

Wayne Bishop: My wife didn't work while the, while the

Wayne Bishop: kids were growing up, and she, you know,

Wayne Bishop: mom, being a mom, was the priority and

Wayne Bishop: that's wonderful, um, but it, it, she, she,

Wayne Bishop: she lost interest in the business and we

Wayne Bishop: lost a connection that we had during that

Wayne Bishop: time, you know, yeah, you seem sad about

Wayne Bishop: that.

Wayne Bishop: Oh, I'm still sad, yeah, and and uh, you

Wayne Bishop: know she may listen to this, so but, uh,

Wayne Bishop: but what would you say to her?

Mark Haney: right now she's listening to this.

Mark Haney: What would you tell her?

Wayne Bishop: uh, we miss her, you know, and, and you

Wayne Bishop: know what we still.

Wayne Bishop: We miss her in the business.

Wayne Bishop: We still see her.

Wayne Bishop: We're not estranged by any means.

Wayne Bishop: We she was just here for christmas and and

Wayne Bishop: um, you know, we get along great, but we

Wayne Bishop: miss her in the business.

Wayne Bishop: You know, she, growing up, of the three of

Wayne Bishop: my kids, she was the one who loved the

Wayne Bishop: business the most and and um and always

Wayne Bishop: talked about coming back at some point and

Wayne Bishop: um.

Wayne Bishop: It doesn't lessen the way the boys felt

Wayne Bishop: about it.

Wayne Bishop: Or when they chose to come back, they did

Wayne Bishop: it for good reasons, but it hurt when she

Wayne Bishop: said, no, you know what, I'm not interested

Wayne Bishop: anymore.

Wayne Bishop: That was.

Mark Haney: What prompted her move to Idaho.

Wayne Bishop: They felt they could, between her and her

Wayne Bishop: husband, that living up there with a lower

Wayne Bishop: cost of living, that she wouldn't have to

Wayne Bishop: work and could stay home and be a mom.

Mark Haney: So yeah, yeah, um, my family, right now

Mark Haney: we're transitioning in our own way as well,

Mark Haney: and one of my buddies he's actually, um, uh,

Mark Haney: natoma wealth management, by the way he

Mark Haney: suggested that we write a family mission

Mark Haney: statement, and you know like we live, all

Mark Haney: we all live on this property and you know,

Mark Haney: this unity is an asset, a valuable asset if

Mark Haney: it can be, if it can be brought together

Mark Haney: and continued, and he said he thought the

Mark Haney: key to that was writing a family mission

Mark Haney: statement.

Mark Haney: So there, but me and my wife are supposed

Mark Haney: to stay out of that.

Mark Haney: They're supposed to present the family

Mark Haney: mission statement to us and they're in the

Mark Haney: process of preparing that or getting that

Mark Haney: going right now.

Mark Haney: Have you guys done a family mission

Mark Haney: statement, or has that ever been

Mark Haney: contemplated?

Wayne Bishop: We don't even have a company mission

Wayne Bishop: statement.

Wayne Bishop: Okay.

Mark Haney: No, so do you do annual goals and things

Mark Haney: like that?

Lee Bishop: Yes, yeah, okay, because that growth didn't

Lee Bishop: happen by accident.

Lee Bishop: Yeah, we have core values and definitely

Lee Bishop: meetings, and there's just some little

Lee Bishop: corporate stuff that we've probably missed

Lee Bishop: along the way.

Mark Haney: Well, I, I mean, it's obviously worked.

Mark Haney: Uh, you've decided.

Mark Haney: I always think of a.

Mark Haney: A mission statement is what we are going to

Mark Haney: be, so, or, excuse me, what we are going to

Mark Haney: do, and a vision statement is what we are

Mark Haney: going to be, and it's all centered around

Mark Haney: those core values.

Mark Haney: And so how did you come up with the core

Mark Haney: values?

Mark Haney: Were they there when you got there or did

Mark Haney: you help?

Wayne Bishop: They were there when I got there, that was

Wayne Bishop: something that's huge I had for years, of

Wayne Bishop: course, heard about mission statements,

Wayne Bishop: didn't understand the point, didn't take

Wayne Bishop: the time to try to understand it, and

Wayne Bishop: finally somebody made me understand why we

Wayne Bishop: should have one, and I don't remember how

Wayne Bishop: that happened, but so I bought a book and

Wayne Bishop: started reading and it said you know, step

Wayne Bishop: one is to define your core values.

Wayne Bishop: And so we got that done, and that's as far

Wayne Bishop: as we got.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, got back to work.

Mark Haney: We got pumpkins to tend to.

Mark Haney: So that's really cool.

Mark Haney: So do you have, I would imagine, that

Mark Haney: there's a vision for the company, and one

Mark Haney: of the things I think we have to get right

Mark Haney: if we want to attract the right teammates.

Mark Haney: In my world, you want to attract investors,

Mark Haney: if you want to get people to follow you,

Mark Haney: you need a compelling vision.

Mark Haney: So how compelling is your vision?

Lee Bishop: I think it's a very compelling one.

Lee Bishop: You know, we always talk about what's next

Lee Bishop: for us, so maybe we don't have a mission

Lee Bishop: statement, but we're always talking about

Lee Bishop: what's the next project and what's the one

Lee Bishop: after that.

Lee Bishop: And the one after that and the one after

Lee Bishop: that We've got, you know, I like to say,

Lee Bishop: five years of projects that are likely 15

Lee Bishop: years of projects lined up, you know.

Lee Bishop: But the nature of our business is we always

Lee Bishop: have to do capital improvements.

Lee Bishop: That's what we have to do to keep people

Lee Bishop: coming back.

Lee Bishop: With that, you've got to have some vision

Lee Bishop: and some foresight of what to do next.

Mark Haney: All right, well, so I'm going to have you

Mark Haney: paint the picture for me, lee here, what is

Mark Haney: the?

Mark Haney: So I walk through the door.

Mark Haney: You still have the train, lee here.

Mark Haney: So I walked through the door.

Mark Haney: You still have the train, right, that you

Mark Haney: and your dad built right.

Mark Haney: So you got this train and then I remember

Mark Haney: going out in the fields it must have been

Mark Haney: on a hayride type thing and then you get to

Mark Haney: pick out your pumpkins, but then you can

Mark Haney: come back to this sort of centralized area

Mark Haney: where there's get stuff to eat and petting

Mark Haney: zoo, and all that Now.

Mark Haney: Now that was 10 years ago.

Mark Haney: Pay me a picture of what it is today,

Mark Haney: because I know it's changed.

Mark Haney: You've done some capital improvements, yeah

Mark Haney: so we have now.

Lee Bishop: We have five or six, uh, amusement style

Lee Bishop: rides.

Lee Bishop: Okay, on the train, a carousel.

Lee Bishop: We have a airplane ride.

Lee Bishop: That's kind of like the dumbo ride at

Lee Bishop: disneyland.

Lee Bishop: We have a, uh, tootling tractors is what we

Lee Bishop: call.

Lee Bishop: It was just tractors that go around some

Lee Bishop: scenes and animatronics thing to each other.

Lee Bishop: Uh, we installed a teacup ride last year.

Lee Bishop: Um, we have you pick sunflowers, a petting

Lee Bishop: zoo, a corn maze, uh you know, apple cider

Lee Bishop: slushies, which is our number one seller, a

Lee Bishop: bakery that my grandma, you know, created

Lee Bishop: and, and like a food court style thing on

Lee Bishop: top of a bunch of you know, weekend

Lee Bishop: entertainment around the farm of jugglers

Lee Bishop: and, uh, all that other stuff, and then we

Lee Bishop: have a bar on site.

Mark Haney: Now, too, that's serving the hard cider

Mark Haney: that I came to make okay, yeah, I see that

Mark Haney: in your shirt is this is, uh, this hard

Mark Haney: cider.

Mark Haney: Tell me about that.

Lee Bishop: That sounds like some a reason for me to

Lee Bishop: get out there, yeah, and uh, one of my

Lee Bishop: reasons to come back was I, my dad and my

Lee Bishop: sister went to a class in 2019 or 2018 how

Lee Bishop: to make hard cider, and they both left that

Lee Bishop: class saying man, we don't have time to do

Lee Bishop: that aha, so I'll have to do it, but don't

Lee Bishop: yeah, so you make a.

Mark Haney: This is a drink that um.

Mark Haney: It's got alcohol in it I take it and uh, so

Mark Haney: you, uh, you sell it there at your business.

Lee Bishop: Yeah, we make it.

Lee Bishop: We just we're about to keg our first stuff

Lee Bishop: for the 2025 season.

Lee Bishop: On Monday, we'll be our first kegging.

Lee Bishop: So, yeah, I started making hard cider in

Lee Bishop: 2020.

Lee Bishop: I'm a finance guy, so I'm not a chemistry

Lee Bishop: guy, so I had to learn how to make it,

Lee Bishop: which took some years.

Lee Bishop: It's really one of the things that really

Lee Bishop: took off.

Lee Bishop: Our business, too, is now you can have hard

Lee Bishop: cider all around the farm.

Mark Haney: What's it taste like?

Mark Haney: What goes into it?

Lee Bishop: It's apple.

Lee Bishop: The base is apple, which is like a white

Lee Bishop: wine, and we sweeten it up with a flavor.

Lee Bishop: So we have just an apple which is back

Lee Bishop: sweetened with a little apple juice

Lee Bishop: concentrate.

Lee Bishop: Or we have a blackberry, a pineapple, guava

Lee Bishop: or a pear, so we juice concentrate.

Lee Bishop: Or we have a blackberry, pineapple, guava

Lee Bishop: or a pear, so we have four different

Lee Bishop: flavors right now, but the base of that is

Lee Bishop: all fermented apple juice okay, and then

Lee Bishop: the only place to get it is at your

Lee Bishop: location.

Mark Haney: Are you guys selling it through retail?

Lee Bishop: just at the farm right now.

Wayne Bishop: We are constrained with space right now

Wayne Bishop: where we make it just to get it made for

Wayne Bishop: what we can serve.

Lee Bishop: Yeah, okay, we've run out all year for the

Lee Bishop: nine weeks we're open yeah, okay.

Mark Haney: So now paint me a picture.

Mark Haney: You say you have these capital improvements

Mark Haney: that are, um, that you've dreamt up, um, is

Mark Haney: that to make the place, uh, different?

Mark Haney: Obviously you need to put capital you got

Mark Haney: to put money into your business to keep it

Mark Haney: going.

Mark Haney: But are you going to do new things?

Mark Haney: What were the?

Mark Haney: What are those things going to look like?

Lee Bishop: yeah, so uh, this year our big project is a

Lee Bishop: big um snow tube style slide that's six

Lee Bishop: lanes.

Lee Bishop: Uh, it's 50, 60 feet in the air goes 200

Lee Bishop: feet long oh my goodness, okay, snow tube

Lee Bishop: style so um, sit on like a snow tube and go

Lee Bishop: down this big, huge hill.

Mark Haney: Uh, it's all bumpered, contained and you

Mark Haney: can race each other okay, so not with

Mark Haney: actual snow, though, but yeah right, you're

Mark Haney: going down, is it?

Lee Bishop: uh dirt or no, it's on a, it's a plastic,

Lee Bishop: it's a.

Wayne Bishop: It's a turf, which is the same thing that,

Wayne Bishop: like skiers or boarders use to train on

Wayne Bishop: when there's no snow.

Mark Haney: Same same stuff.

Mark Haney: And then how high is it again?

Wayne Bishop: Well, the actual drop, I think, is around

Wayne Bishop: 35 feet, but there we're going to, we're

Wayne Bishop: going to put it in, um, we're going to put

Wayne Bishop: that coming out of a building that's going

Wayne Bishop: to look like an old grain elevator or one

Wayne Bishop: of the old rice dryers that are that are in

Wayne Bishop: our area.

Mark Haney: So that building is going to be almost 50

Mark Haney: feet tall, okay, and so it's going to be a

Mark Haney: real landmark and so you walk upstairs to

Mark Haney: get there and then you'll go down the slide

Mark Haney: and it's 200 feet long, long and you're

Mark Haney: going.

Mark Haney: Uh, so are you engineering this well?

Wayne Bishop: yeah, somewhat.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, I mean I, I, which, which is what I'm

Wayne Bishop: still.

Wayne Bishop: That's why he's letting me still work for

Wayne Bishop: him yeah, you got to.

Wayne Bishop: You got that mechanical engineering stuff,

Wayne Bishop: yeah yeah, and, and that's what I enjoy

Wayne Bishop: doing the most, or or the the new projects

Wayne Bishop: on the farm so, uh, it's for adults or kids.

Mark Haney: I take it either and you're going pretty

Mark Haney: fast.

Lee Bishop: It sounds like yeah it's a big, yeah, and a

Lee Bishop: lot of farms have done a smaller version of

Lee Bishop: this.

Lee Bishop: You know we're big, yeah, and a lot of

Lee Bishop: farms have done a smaller version of this.

Lee Bishop: We're doing six lanes.

Lee Bishop: A lot of farms have done two lanes of it I

Lee Bishop: like the six lanes that way too.

Mark Haney: You know people, brother and sisters can go

Mark Haney: down at the same time and kind of race,

Mark Haney: yeah.

Lee Bishop: So anyway, that's one of the projects, but

Lee Bishop: you know we're working on a.

Lee Bishop: Uh, we're really behind on food service

Lee Bishop: right now.

Lee Bishop: Our crowd is demanding more food, more

Lee Bishop: lunch items, so we're working on another

Lee Bishop: kitchen which would be a chicken strips and

Lee Bishop: corn dog style.

Lee Bishop: Um, we want another building for a hard

Lee Bishop: cider production so we can make it

Lee Bishop: permanent in there.

Lee Bishop: Uh, we desperately need more bathrooms.

Lee Bishop: Our customers are um begging for more

Lee Bishop: bathrooms, right now we have to kind of

Lee Bishop: backfill with porter potties.

Wayne Bishop: We're also thinking about what the next

Wayne Bishop: amusement ride will be.

Wayne Bishop: Those take.

Wayne Bishop: If you're going to order a new one, take

Wayne Bishop: about a year and a half to get them.

Wayne Bishop: So we're going to go to Germany this summer

Wayne Bishop: and look at one that we think we like.

Mark Haney: We were talking about subsea systems

Mark Haney: earlier.

Mark Haney: Have you talked to people that are

Mark Haney: obviously really good on underwater rides

Mark Haney: and things like that, but they build

Mark Haney: amusement type rides.

Mark Haney: Have you talked to those guys at all about

Mark Haney: what you're, what you're thinking?

Wayne Bishop: not really.

Wayne Bishop: It's interesting, you know they go to the

Wayne Bishop: same conference we do in orlando when we're

Wayne Bishop: going to uh to look for these things and

Wayne Bishop: and uh, we haven't specifically talked to

Wayne Bishop: them about, about what they could do for us

Wayne Bishop: we should do that.

Mark Haney: It's fun because you know they've got such

Mark Haney: imagination they were developing a ride.

Mark Haney: Uh, last time we talked to them actually an

Mark Haney: underwater ride, yeah, yeah and for those

Mark Haney: listening subsea systems has got an

Mark Haney: underwater car among other rides, and they

Mark Haney: they have them in a mute.

Mark Haney: Uh, excuse me, like resort areas typically,

Mark Haney: but they are also a family business and a

Mark Haney: lot like you guys, I mean just a great

Mark Haney: story of innovation and growth and

Mark Haney: stick-to-itiveness.

Mark Haney: So tell me more about like what you see for

Mark Haney: like the next 12 months or so with you and

Mark Haney: your brother.

Mark Haney: You know you've got to get through your

Mark Haney: probationary period and so how does?

Mark Haney: that if he doesn't get through it, do we go

Mark Haney: to the consultant or do we go to?

Lee Bishop: we go to bro brother, I like to think I

Lee Bishop: already completed it, because the thing is

Lee Bishop: she told us last february, I think it was,

Lee Bishop: you know okay, we decided lee was probably

Lee Bishop: the next guy and that's it.

Lee Bishop: Well, I'm not gonna let you do it.

Lee Bishop: Take the title till next year, but you can

Lee Bishop: act like it now.

Lee Bishop: So I already I've already done it for a

Lee Bishop: year, in my opinion, but he's still holding

Lee Bishop: the probationary card.

Wayne Bishop: I just made that up when we got here.

Mark Haney: I love it that you're still involved in the

Mark Haney: business too.

Mark Haney: It makes it there's a lot of continuity.

Wayne Bishop: I'll tell you what, mark I'm the happiest

Wayne Bishop: I've ever been right now, because these

Wayne Bishop: guys are more than ready to run the company.

Wayne Bishop: I still get to work in it and do the fun

Wayne Bishop: parts and, and, um, do some other things

Wayne Bishop: with my time that I want to be, want to

Wayne Bishop: work on too, and it's, it's great.

Wayne Bishop: These three weeks have been great.

Mark Haney: Oh, that's great a lot of people, uh uh,

Mark Haney: want to shy away from the 800 employees in

Mark Haney: california kind of thing.

Mark Haney: Um, so you have 800, I guess most of them

Mark Haney: are seasonal type employees.

Mark Haney: But some of these employees work year round

Mark Haney: to keep the business operational.

Mark Haney: You know, keep the farm rolling.

Mark Haney: How difficult is that to?

Mark Haney: I guess?

Mark Haney: It seems to me that it'd be running the

Mark Haney: farm pieces.

Mark Haney: You know, know, that's kind of like that

Mark Haney: just kind of continues.

Mark Haney: But when you have to staff up, um for these

Mark Haney: seasons, talk to me about the what goes

Mark Haney: into that yeah, so uh, luckily, most of

Mark Haney: that's not on my plate okay that's your

Mark Haney: brother, no, our HR manager oh okay, um,

Mark Haney: it's, uh, it's been a process.

Lee Bishop: I think we've grown it, certainly over the

Lee Bishop: last few years of the last 10, 15 years.

Lee Bishop: Our HR program my mom kind of started that

Lee Bishop: and then my sister came in and was our HR

Lee Bishop: manager for a long time and kind of

Lee Bishop: developed this, our strategy, going into it.

Lee Bishop: Now our HR manager and my wife play a big

Lee Bishop: role in getting the people out.

Lee Bishop: Now our HR manager and my wife play a big

Lee Bishop: role in getting the people out.

Lee Bishop: You know we have 20 full-time employees

Lee Bishop: right now.

Lee Bishop: We have one HR manager.

Lee Bishop: We'll bring in another 8 to 10 people to

Lee Bishop: help with the hiring process.

Lee Bishop: We'll hire 850-ish employees.

Lee Bishop: You know last year we had about 550 that

Lee Bishop: were returners, so their paperwork is

Lee Bishop: pretty seamless.

Mark Haney: Oh wow, that makes it so much easier.

Mark Haney: So you have supervisors, you have people

Mark Haney: coming back, so you already have your

Mark Haney: little management staff sort of set up.

Lee Bishop: That was a struggle for us, especially in

Lee Bishop: 2020 and 2021.

Lee Bishop: We lost a lot.

Lee Bishop: Our retention rate on seasonal employees

Lee Bishop: was not good, so we spent a lot of effort

Lee Bishop: over the last three or four years to try to

Lee Bishop: develop some strategies to get people to

Lee Bishop: come back year after year, and it's working

Lee Bishop: now.

Lee Bishop: So we're only hiring 300 or so brand new

Lee Bishop: employees.

Lee Bishop: Everybody else comes in.

Lee Bishop: They know the drill.

Lee Bishop: We usually put them back to where they were

Lee Bishop: the previous season.

Lee Bishop: It makes life a lot easier.

Lee Bishop: My brother and I were talking just the

Lee Bishop: other day how much easier the start of this

Lee Bishop: season was than previous season, and it's

Lee Bishop: it was, you know, the biggest year we've

Lee Bishop: ever had.

Lee Bishop: So there's something to be said about

Lee Bishop: getting returners.

Wayne Bishop: So a number of years ago now I couldn't

Wayne Bishop: tell you exactly what year it was, but we

Wayne Bishop: went over a million dollars in payroll that

Wayne Bishop: year and now we're four, four and a half

Wayne Bishop: million, but, but we went over a million

Wayne Bishop: dollars.

Wayne Bishop: And I thought four and a half million, but

Wayne Bishop: but we went over a million dollars and I

Wayne Bishop: thought, holy cow, we've never spent that

Wayne Bishop: much on anything.

Wayne Bishop: You know, any improvement we'd ever made on

Wayne Bishop: the farm at that point had never spent a

Wayne Bishop: million dollars.

Wayne Bishop: And I thought, here we are spending it

Wayne Bishop: every year on people and, and yet we put

Wayne Bishop: very little effort into making sure that

Wayne Bishop: we're getting the best people and that

Wayne Bishop: we're training them and and giving them the

Wayne Bishop: culture that we want them to pass on the

Wayne Bishop: best people, and that we're training them

Wayne Bishop: and and giving them the culture that we

Wayne Bishop: want them to pass on.

Wayne Bishop: So so really, my wife jumped in at that

Wayne Bishop: point.

Wayne Bishop: You know we talked about it and we happened

Wayne Bishop: to go to a seminar that year where a lady

Wayne Bishop: talked about how to do behavioral

Wayne Bishop: interviews and and and.

Wayne Bishop: So we made some huge changes at that time,

Wayne Bishop: started getting better people and, and then

Wayne Bishop: likely Lee and his wife have worked on this

Wayne Bishop: the last three out four years.

Lee Bishop: We really.

Lee Bishop: The interview process hasn't really changed

Lee Bishop: since my mom took it over yeah it's

Lee Bishop: relatively similar.

Lee Bishop: You know, we we have to hire kids, and

Lee Bishop: that's struggle right.

Mark Haney: Most of the workers that you hire are

Mark Haney: direct facing with customers.

Mark Haney: Yeah, yeah, good, good, half of them at

Mark Haney: least, and uh, anyway.

Lee Bishop: So, yeah, my mom really built up that first

Lee Bishop: half part of it and then, you know, my wife

Lee Bishop: really, uh, has built up the back half,

Lee Bishop: which is retaining them and getting them to

Lee Bishop: come back, and so you know, we have to do a

Lee Bishop: lot of incentives to get them to come back

Lee Bishop: year after year, but it's working what's

Lee Bishop: great too is that for some reason we don't

Lee Bishop: fully understand, Hopefully just people

Lee Bishop: enjoy working for us, but hopefully that's

Lee Bishop: the reason.

Wayne Bishop: But we just get a ton of applicants Other

Wayne Bishop: than those couple of school there you have.

Wayne Bishop: Lindhurst High School is out there.

Mark Haney: What else Wheatland?

Lee Bishop: High School.

Lee Bishop: There's Wheatland High School there, but we

Lee Bishop: get a lot from Yuba County in general, so

Lee Bishop: Plumas Lake.

Wayne Bishop: But also Sutter County and Sutter County.

Mark Haney: Okay, people get to drive for that type of

Mark Haney: thing, it's probably a great.

Mark Haney: It's probably like a part-time job for most

Mark Haney: people, right?

Lee Bishop: It's right before Christmas, so you can put

Lee Bishop: a couple extra thousand bucks in your

Lee Bishop: pocket, right?

Mark Haney: before.

Lee Bishop: Christmas.

Lee Bishop: That's how we get a lot of good people on

Lee Bishop: the weekends.

Mark Haney: Yeah, and people, probably parents.

Mark Haney: You have any parents that drive out there

Mark Haney: and their kid is a worker.

Mark Haney: Their teenage kid is a worker and they're a

Mark Haney: worker.

Mark Haney: Yeah, because transportation for a 16 or

Mark Haney: 17-year-old is harder, especially if you've

Mark Haney: got to drive 20 minutes.

Wayne Bishop: We've had that happen a number of times,

Wayne Bishop: where we hire a kid and then their mom will

Wayne Bishop: come in and say you know what I got to

Wayne Bishop: drive here anyway.

Wayne Bishop: Could I work too, yeah?

Lee Bishop: Yeah, we get a lot and it just seems like

Lee Bishop: we're getting better at that, because I

Lee Bishop: think we're doing a really good job

Lee Bishop: treating our employees well.

Lee Bishop: We're getting four or five or six people

Lee Bishop: from the same household working for us and

Lee Bishop: it just it really makes everything a lot

Lee Bishop: easier, because they also hold them each

Lee Bishop: other accountable when they're not doing

Lee Bishop: something right and whatever building and

Lee Bishop: that's the thing too, is that when you,

Lee Bishop: when you get a family working for you, you

Lee Bishop: know, we have several of these families

Lee Bishop: that, like this, they care about the

Lee Bishop: business as much as we do you know they

Lee Bishop: they, they, they really consider it their

Lee Bishop: own as much as we do, and when you can have

Lee Bishop: that in an employee, it's special.

Mark Haney: So your wives are both in the business.

Mark Haney: Your mom and dad were both in the business.

Mark Haney: I mean, I couldn't work with my wife no way.

Mark Haney: We worked together great at home, but you

Mark Haney: know 40 years and we never.

Mark Haney: Well, we started working together in the

Mark Haney: video stores back in the day, but you know

Mark Haney: she worked in accounting, I was more like a

Mark Haney: customer facing, so we didn't really work

Mark Haney: together.

Mark Haney: I don't know how you guys do that.

Wayne Bishop: You know it's not for everybody uh my wife

Wayne Bishop: and I were doing great until you know.

Wayne Bishop: We just got done remote, doing a huge

Wayne Bishop: remodel on a house, and that almost well,

Wayne Bishop: that was almost.

Mark Haney: Did you keep living in the house during the

Mark Haney: remodel?

Wayne Bishop: fortunately we didn't have to do that, but

Wayne Bishop: but yeah, that was, that was tougher than

Wayne Bishop: working together on the farm.

Wayne Bishop: But I'm not sure what makes it how it works

Wayne Bishop: that well.

Wayne Bishop: We just maybe we chose good women.

Wayne Bishop: Yeah, I think well between you know,

Wayne Bishop: between.

Lee Bishop: Well, my wife is a very hard worker, so

Lee Bishop: it's pretty easy to work with her because

Lee Bishop: she wants to work, it's it's shutting her

Lee Bishop: brain off at night.

Lee Bishop: That's, that's what I struggle with because

Lee Bishop: she wants to work till till we're laying in

Lee Bishop: bed.

Lee Bishop: I'm like, hey, I'm going to sleep now.

Lee Bishop: But I think what drives us is we all have

Lee Bishop: the same passion for the business to grow

Lee Bishop: me and my brother my dad and my wife and my

Lee Bishop: mom.

Lee Bishop: We all want success, we all want it to grow.

Lee Bishop: So that's really, I think, if we all have

Lee Bishop: that at the root of ourselves, that's, uh,

Lee Bishop: that's all you need really Is our business

Lee Bishop: and there are others like this too, but

Lee Bishop: there's a lot of businesses where you just

Lee Bishop: don't get the gratification that you, that

Lee Bishop: we get.

Wayne Bishop: You know we're we're so lucky that if

Wayne Bishop: you're in your office and you're a little

Wayne Bishop: grumpy and not feeling it, you can walk

Wayne Bishop: outside and see a lot of happy families.

Wayne Bishop: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Wayne Bishop: And when you see that and a lot of times

Wayne Bishop: they'll, uh, they'll recognize us and, you

Wayne Bishop: know, want to talk and just tell us hey, we

Wayne Bishop: just love coming here.

Wayne Bishop: Thank you for doing this, um it.

Wayne Bishop: You know that that can smooth over the

Wayne Bishop: rough patches real easy.

Mark Haney: Yeah you know I had talked to you, uh, I

Mark Haney: think before the show, about, like, we have

Mark Haney: these 74 acres out in lumas it's like six

Mark Haney: minutes from here and on horseshoe, right

Mark Haney: off horseshoe bar, and there's 31 acres.

Mark Haney: That would be ideal for either developing

Mark Haney: new houses, you know, like custom homes, or

Mark Haney: something like, uh, a pumpkin farm,

Mark Haney: something, you know, christmas tree stuff

Mark Haney: and my family gets excited about these

Mark Haney: kinds of ideas because they're kind of

Mark Haney: entrepreneurial.

Mark Haney: And then you know it's like what do you

Mark Haney: wish for?

Mark Haney: Be careful.

Mark Haney: What you wish for my mentality was, yeah,

Mark Haney: it would be cool to go out there and see

Mark Haney: the kids, or if you had your buddies out

Mark Haney: there drinking some hard cider, let's go,

Mark Haney: let's go hang out.

Mark Haney: But, um, I, I can only imagine what goes

Mark Haney: into doing, you know, built, starting it

Mark Haney: from scratch, and so I've always thought,

Mark Haney: well, what if you could partner with

Mark Haney: somebody to put that experience together

Mark Haney: and maybe you could contribute, however you,

Mark Haney: you know, were able to, but somebody else

Mark Haney: is sort of running the operations.

Mark Haney: Your thoughts on that?

Mark Haney: Have you thought about expanding somewhere

Mark Haney: else, not necessarily my place?

Lee Bishop: Well, it's not a hard no on your place.

Mark Haney: Yeah, okay, it's always a discussion.

Mark Haney: Okay, can we head over there, right?

Wayne Bishop: now.

Mark Haney: Yeah, let's go over there so it's the

Mark Haney: perfect location, but I did drive down

Mark Haney: Horseshoe Bar the other day and I saw

Mark Haney: another place that was doing something

Mark Haney: similar to that, so it would be smaller

Mark Haney: than ours would be, though ours would be

Mark Haney: special.

Mark Haney: I'm not the thirstiest guy we've been along,

Mark Haney: so but anyway, yeah, it just seems like

Mark Haney: such a cool idea, especially when I have a

Mark Haney: bunch of grandkids that could put them to

Mark Haney: work.

Lee Bishop: Yeah.

Lee Bishop: I think, you know, you always got to stay

Lee Bishop: open to business opportunities and if the

Lee Bishop: right one were to hit us, you got to take

Lee Bishop: advantage.

Lee Bishop: And I think that's the mentality we haven't

Lee Bishop: had, that, at least in a while.

Lee Bishop: The right opportunity come up to where

Lee Bishop: we're like let's get that farm and let's,

Lee Bishop: you know, make another Bishop's Pumpkin

Lee Bishop: Farm.

Lee Bishop: But you know, I think we're always open to

Lee Bishop: that.

Mark Haney: We're always open to ideas.

Mark Haney: Well, maybe if you guys have time right

Mark Haney: after the show we'll drive over there, but

Mark Haney: if not, I you know, no pressure.

Lee Bishop: It's just a podcast.

Mark Haney: You can paint me a picture of what it might

Mark Haney: look like or something, uh, what the pros

Mark Haney: and cons are.

Mark Haney: So, um, anyway, uh, what did I not ask you?

Mark Haney: Like, I want to make sure you have a chance

Mark Haney: to really tell your story the way that you

Mark Haney: want it to to be told.

Wayne Bishop: You know, um, we, we belong to a couple of

Wayne Bishop: organizations, and, and so we, uh, of what

Wayne Bishop: I call the funny farmers in in the country.

Wayne Bishop: You know that that do similar things to

Wayne Bishop: what we do, and so we visited a lot of

Wayne Bishop: farms.

Wayne Bishop: We talked to a lot of people that do

Wayne Bishop: similar things to what we do, and so we

Wayne Bishop: visited a lot of farms.

Wayne Bishop: We talked to a lot of people.

Wayne Bishop: The thing that I think we do better than

Wayne Bishop: all of them is is the food, and, you know,

Wayne Bishop: started from, uh, my mom's bakery, and we

Wayne Bishop: make a pumpkin pie from, from an heirloom

Wayne Bishop: variety pumpkin that we grow, and, um, I

Wayne Bishop: actually take credit for saving that

Wayne Bishop: pumpkin from.

Wayne Bishop: You know, there was a time where it was

Wayne Bishop: really hard to get seed because nobody was

Wayne Bishop: growing it anymore.

Wayne Bishop: And uh, there there are a bunch of things

Wayne Bishop: we do like that and we make.

Wayne Bishop: We make food from scratch.

Wayne Bishop: We make caramel for our caramel apples, we

Wayne Bishop: press apples into cider and now we ferment

Wayne Bishop: it to hard cider and and, um, we, we, we go

Wayne Bishop: to the extra work to to make the food good

Wayne Bishop: and and, um, I don't know, I'm just I'm

Wayne Bishop: kind of a food guy.

Wayne Bishop: When I travel, I always remember what I ate,

Wayne Bishop: especially if it was good yeah and and I

Wayne Bishop: associate that with with my memories, like

Wayne Bishop: you know.

Wayne Bishop: Oh yeah, we visited this um.

Wayne Bishop: You know, I was in nuremberg, germany, and

Wayne Bishop: I I had the most awesome german sausage I

Wayne Bishop: ever and I and I started eating mustard.

Wayne Bishop: I never ate mustard before in my life, but

Wayne Bishop: I ate it the way the germans do, and now I

Wayne Bishop: like mustard you know, it's, it's, uh.

Wayne Bishop: So to me, that's the thing that has been

Wayne Bishop: the predominant driver for our growth.

Wayne Bishop: You know, and now we have these rides, we

Wayne Bishop: have a full day's experience.

Wayne Bishop: If you want to bring your family out, I

Wayne Bishop: still think it's the food that brings

Wayne Bishop: people out.

Wayne Bishop: Interesting.

Mark Haney: Is it you got to?

Mark Haney: I know, I believe you pay to park, you pay

Mark Haney: to get in and then you can buy the stuff.

Mark Haney: How does what's the mechanics in terms of

Mark Haney: no, I.

Lee Bishop: I think that's.

Lee Bishop: Another thing that makes us really unique

Lee Bishop: is we're open 65.

Lee Bishop: I'm pushing 70 days a year and we charge

Lee Bishop: parking 12 days a year, just october,

Lee Bishop: friday, saturdays and sundays, and the rest

Lee Bishop: of the year we're admission free okay you

Lee Bishop: can walk in and choose your own adventure.

Lee Bishop: If you just want to come in and have dinner

Lee Bishop: and a hard cider, that is totally okay.

Lee Bishop: Wow, if you want to come and just ride the

Lee Bishop: rides and not buy anything else, that is

Lee Bishop: totally okay.

Mark Haney: So it could be a real, affordable night out

Mark Haney: for a family that's on a real budget.

Wayne Bishop: You can bring your own picnic, if you want

Wayne Bishop: to.

Lee Bishop: Wow, there's not a lot of places in the

Lee Bishop: world that do that still.

Wayne Bishop: That's really special.

Wayne Bishop: They're charging you $30 to get in the game.

Lee Bishop: Oh yeah, santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is like

Lee Bishop: that too, but I think that really makes us

Lee Bishop: different in our industry.

Lee Bishop: I don't care if you spend $5 with us or

Lee Bishop: $100 with us, just come and have a good

Lee Bishop: night.

Lee Bishop: That's what's important, I think, to us as

Lee Bishop: a family.

Mark Haney: That's really cool.

Mark Haney: Okay, anything else I didn't ask you.

Mark Haney: I had to let your dad uh chime in for his

Mark Haney: uh, his thoughts on the uh, on the food no,

Mark Haney: I don't, I don't think so.

Lee Bishop: I think we had a lot of, uh, good stuff

Lee Bishop: today.

Mark Haney: Well, congratulations and thank you for

Mark Haney: coming on the show.

Mark Haney: Thank you for making so many families happy,

Mark Haney: employing people and getting them their

Mark Haney: christmas money and, uh, maybe for a lot of

Mark Haney: people, their first job those experiences

Mark Haney: that we get in our early years whether it

Mark Haney: be going to the pumpkin farm and grabbing a

Mark Haney: pumpkin or a pumpkin pie or just our first

Mark Haney: jobs we want to be in a wholesome place

Mark Haney: like what you guys offer, so thank you very

Mark Haney: much.

Mark Haney: Well, thank you, mark, for having us.

Lee Bishop: We appreciate it, you bet.