SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Blair Neihouser from FBi Buildings
[Music] And we're walking by getting this short farmer radio. Hey! I'm your host Rob Sharky. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex hybrids. I can't believe you don't know who Barry White is. No, we're going to start off like that. Well, I'm sorry, but you can't throw that at me right before the show. Yeah, the song "Let's Get It Owned." I know the song. You're butchering it though. Barry White. He's got like the voice of "It's not an angel." Well, it's an angel that is like smoked for 40 years. [Laughs] All right, Mr. Shark Farmer is on assignment today, so we are stuck with number one son, William. How's it going? Doing pretty good. Yeah. You've been machining today, moving machinery. Yep. Yep. You're doing a lot of that. Yeah. Everything starts so far. Oh, yeah, I didn't have to charge anything. That's a first. I know. We've we went on a little bit of a battery buying spree this spring, so we should be in good shape. Yeah, we better be. Yeah, no kidding. All right, William, you are excited to fill the new FBI building. And okay, let's get this out. FBI, so it's not the CIA equivalent. That'd be cool to have CIA buildings and compete with FBI buildings. Yeah. Today, we have the vice president of sales for FBI buildings, a Blair night-houser. How you doing, Blair? I'm doing well, Rob. Doing well. Thanks for having me on. I know you get this question all the time, but can you please explain FBI? Yeah, yeah. We wish it was as cool as CIA or, you know, legit FBI, but we will for sure settle for what our history is. And that's really where it comes from, is the company was founded by original founder as Farm Builders Incorporated. And then through through a lot of the early decade or maybe the second decade or so, it started to just kind of naturally get shortened to FBI, you know, people in the community and whatnot. And then as we started building buildings that weren't just farm related, farm in the name was a little limiting and being that people already kind of were talking about us as FBI. We just officially changed the name to FBI buildings. So it's kind of a throwback to the past, right? And obviously a bit of a reshaping for the future. I don't remember what year that was, but so yeah, that's where it came from. It stood for something. It's like KFC inside of Kentucky Fried Chicken. It's not just for people in Kentucky, William. Yeah, no, I know. Now you are the vice president of sales, so obviously you've got to work with marketing too. Have you guys ever thought like your salesmen to go out to the place to have like the FBI shirts, kind of like the Federal Bureau of Investigation? Yeah, yeah. The shirts, the hats, the jacket, I mean, they could really, marketing could really tool us up well. Some people scratch their heads once we start showing up on their property. I thought I called a builder. No, sir, we're here to investigate. Yeah, might not be the best marketing idea, but it would be fun. Somebody would find it funny. I'd find it funny. They would. Now you're out there in West Lafayette, Indiana. So for the people that don't know, where is that in the great state of Indiana? Yeah, so we're about 45 minutes to an hour north of Indianapolis. That's where I live personally. And then you go just about another half hour north to the small town of Remington, all still on I-65, and that's where our headquarters of FBI buildings is at. So, like you said, West Lafayette for me is about an hour north of Indy, about an hour and a half hour 40 north of Indy is where Remington's at. So, right there in the central, the northwest pocket of the state. But are you originally from Illinois, or did you just work here some? I just worked there some. So I'm originally an Indiana boy. I grew up in a small farming community, about a half hour from where our office is at, and went to Purdue. But then I had family, actually my wife's family, and then a little bit later on my own family, actually relocated out to Illinois. But my wife is, there was, a Peoria girl, Peoria, Illinois, and so we actually moved out there, spent about eight years of our time just shortly after college out there in central Illinois. Wonderful. That's right. I'm impressed, Blair. It was four minutes, 27 seconds before you said that you went to Purdue. Most Purdue graduates are within the first 30 seconds. I try to be a humble one, right? It's one of the best universities there is, but, you know, we can be humble and proud at the same time. It's like jumbo shrimp, right? I suppose. No, between Purdue, I would say Kansas and maybe Kentucky, or like you guys are just nutty with school spirit. Yeah, we try to represent well, we got a lot to be proud of, right? Our sports go in and out, right? But academically, and just to feel the campus, the people there, our leaders, we've got some good stuff going. Yeah. Good place. No, you're in sales, but is that where you started? For FBI, it is. Yeah, I came on as a sales guy when, again, when we were living there in central Illinois, I came on not quite 10 years ago. And so, yeah, I started selling. I had a territory right there around Peoria. I've done some other things in my career. I worked on a crew all the way, you know, way back when in college and then had a couple different other bits of employment before landing back with FBI. But yeah, I started my career at FBI as a sales guy, talking with customers and trying to bring, bring value and bring the magic of FBI to them. So, yeah, you're a salesman for FBI buildings in Peoria. That's right in another company's backyard company that rhymes with Horton. Yeah. Funny enough, funny enough, that's where I lived. I lived in Morton and sold for FBI. And it was, it was a great time, you know, being right in kind of the quote unquote "beest from porch." Right? It's awesome. It's a great challenge. I love it. Pumpkin capital of the world or something. All right. Today, we're talking with Blair Nighthouser from FBI buildings. He's vice president of sales. We come back. We're going to talk more about our shed and how awesome it is. We'll be back. All right. After the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io. That's commonground.io. What do you think of the podcast this week, William? I liked it. Yeah. You liked it, huh? What in particular did you like about it? I didn't edit this one, so I didn't listen to it. You know, just because you didn't edit it doesn't mean you can't listen to it. It's on my list. I'll listen to it. Yeah. It's a, it's a hunting one. So, you know, those seem to cross over fairly well between the, the agriculture and the hunting, but it's a guy named Jared Mills and he's like one of these YouTube hunters. But he's like, because I don't say, I don't, I don't really care for most of those guys because I don't know. Some of them, some can be a little cringy. Yes, but this guy's like, man, I think he lives, eats, and breathes deer hunting. That's all he thinks about. And he's made a career out of it. And then he's also selling like food plots seed. So you ought to, you ought to hook up with him. Well, get his number or something. Yeah. Okay. It's cringy. Let's talk about being cringy. Yeah. Today we're talking with a Blair Nighthouser. Now he's a vice president of sales for FBI buildings, live in Ireland, West Lafayette, Indiana. Yeah. Are you a hunter there, Blair? You know, it's been like a bucket listing for me and the funny thing was it, but I never have. And my grandpa, he's a big duck hunter. He's, he's since past a couple years ago, but like, I look back and I'm like, why did I never take the opportunity to go? I went on a couple of fishing trips with him, but I've never been hunting. I hate to say it. Never have. Yeah. But you're like big in the outdoor stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love being outdoors. Yeah. We go to, we go out West, a decent amount. We got some family out there. We visit love. Yeah. Mountain biking, skiing, all that stuff. We got into camping a couple of years ago with our kids trying to, you know, do an activity together that, you know, makes some memories. So we love being outside, being outdoors, doing stuff, but it's never involved hunting and need to figure it out. I'm missing out. You go out West with the skiing. Is that like the, I don't know, it takes you like 20 minutes to get down to mountain, the long slopes? Yeah. It's actually real stuff. You know, I mean, I grew up in the Midwest, so we go up to Michigan a lot or there's some places, even in Northern Illinois. It's cool, but just not that great. Yeah. Exactly. You spend more time on the lift. It's about a three to one ratio, lift time to slope time. But yeah, yeah, the stuff out West, yeah, you can, you can be on the run a while, actually get a little bit tired and have to stop for a second. It's, it's different. It's super fun. So you mentioned kids, how many do you have? Yeah, we got three kids. It's crazy to think about, but my oldest daughter is in eighth grade. She's playing volleyball right now. And then I got a son who's in sixth grade. He's doing football and then a third grade boy as well. And he's also doing football. So three youngins and in the, in the throes of it with activity. So yeah, you might as well just like throw away the next five, six years of your life because they're ages, you're going to be running everywhere. I tell you what you need is you need those self driving cars. So your wife doesn't have to run them all around town. You are absolutely right. I've been like on both sides of this coin, like, you know, and the old guy in me is like, no, I want to drive myself. I want to feel the pedal. I want to do the stuff. But then the other side of me is like, holy smokes, how effective and efficient would that be if I didn't have to pay attention there, I could take care of the kids, even work. I think there's going to be some real benefits, but who knows, who knows when that'll happen. But where did you meet your wife? We met just before college. So she, she had moved her family had moved from Illinois out to Indiana. I grew up, like I said, in central Indiana. And our church has actually did some use activities together. And so I first was introduced to her in. I don't know, late high school, maybe as our churches kind of did some activities together. And then we actually both ended up at Purdue. And that's where our relationship got a little bit deeper and blossomed further to then ultimately being married and having kids. So yeah, just just early on, just before graduating there in high school and then, then more in college. So wonderful years, wonderful memories. Alright, Blair, let's quit screwing around. Serious question. I mean, you've had a career here and you continually build buildings on farms for farmers that are too small. Why do you guys keep doing that? Well, you know, there's this balance between aspirations, dreams, desires and reality, right? Pocketbooks and space and all that. So I mean, you just built one, Rob, you tell me. You're the one that was right in the check. But it's a problem. We've never had one say, "Hey, I need you to come shrink this thing." It's always, "Hey, man, I need to add on to this." It's quite an epidemic, actually. Yeah. Well, I mean, you should just sit these farmers down and say, "Listen, buddy, I'm going to tell you we're going to throw another 100 feet on there and you're going to like it." If only it would go that smoothly, we would do that, Rob. You're trying to? I mean, I can't say I've done that. I can say we've tried to help guys think about, "Hey, what's five years from now? What's ten years from now? What's the next generation?" Those are things I know that farmers think about, but it can be really hard to think through that today at a tangible level when you start looking at real dollars and cents and what's needed. I mean, there's a lot of big decisions in that, but absolutely, that's our goal, is that how do we help a farmer plan and really think about the utility of this thing, not just now, but for a long time down the road. So. Q-Lift is how we put up our building. You go check out social media if you want to see it. It's a very cool video. Are you guys the only company that does that? Yeah, we are. Yeah, we actually have a patent on it. Yeah, I mean, that was developed. I think we're on year four. So by now, I think it was 2019 or 2020 that we first started doing our first several like that, and it's quickly become just the way we do buildings unless there's some oddity that that doesn't allow for it. And then we'll go back to what we call conventional style building, but yeah, yeah, we've got a market cornered on that way of constructing your structure. So. Yeah, it goes on. Now, one of the guys that put it, I was talking to him about it, and I think he said, you like you, if it's a 15 foot building, you got to have 30 foot out, which makes sense. And so like if you're putting in a building in a tight space, it probably can't do it. Yeah, yeah, because it, you've got your wall or the poles for your walls, right? That roof is only a couple feet off the ground. The columns for your walls are sticking out. They're on hinges. So as that thing goes up, your columns will get pulled in. But yeah, they stick out around the building perimeter. You know, yeah, if you got a 15 foot tall building, you need at least, you know, 12 to 13 feet of that. Around for those columns to stick out. So yeah, if you're like five to 10 feet away from a grain bin or another structure, your house or. Who knows why you'd want to put it that close to your house, but you know, if you're that close to something, yeah, it could, we might just need to get a little creative. Yeah. All right. Today, we're talking with a Blair and I house or he's a vice president of sales at FBI buildings. They're from a Lafayette, Indiana. We come back. We're going to talk more about this a Q lift because everybody loves everybody on social media. William says, why didn't you run your wires for lighting when it was down and low? We'll be back. All right. After the break. So relatable. We're between the lines start to loosen up your mouth. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io. That's commonground.io. [Music] It's too confusing having a will in a William. Yeah, it is. You need to change his name, or the will. Do you think so? Yeah. I've got more control over your name than his. That's a good point. Edward, we could call you Edward your middle name. You could do that. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, what have you found for us today? Today, I'm in West Lafayette, Indiana, which is a city in Tippecanoe County. Approximately 65 miles northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis. Okay. And 113 miles southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city, Lafayette, home to Purdue University. Yeah, we know. It is a college town in the most densely populated city in Indiana. Oh, I would have thought Indianapolis was, but here you go. Yeah. There's a difference between total population and population density, though. Those dorms, they pack them in there. Right, right, right. A few points of interest in West Lafayette include the Purdue University Horticulture Gardens. Okay. Fort Wietanon, an early French trading place. No, no, I don't know what it's called, but it's not that. That's what it's called. Purdue State Bank, a 1914 bank building designed by architect Louis Sullivan. Samara, or the John E. Christian House, a Usonian home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, if you're familiar with his. Yeah, there's a one in the 20 minutes away from us, a Frank Lloyd Wright House. Yeah. And the Celery Bog Nature area and Lily Nature Center. Sounds like something the orcs would go through. Do you grow celery in a bog? I don't think so. There's all sorts of different celery besides the type you eat. And guess what? None of them taste good. None of it. You don't like ants on the log? You know, I like the peanut butter, and actually I don't like it when they put the raisins on it. You don't like the ants? The chocolate chips. Right, right. Well, we got some notable people. We got Katie Bowman, a computer scientist who was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team. They captured the first image of a black hole. Oh, something to put on your resume. Right. Jen Fukunaga, founder of the anime broadcasting organization, Funimation Entertainment. You know that one way? No. You don't have Funimation? You know Crunchyroll? No. Well, and this is Jones, actress best known as Buffy on CBS's Family Affair. I know the vampire slayer, that's about it. Right, right. A little too old for you, huh? A little bit. Multiple world champion bridge player, Eric Rodwell. Okay. And lastly, Brian Binney, test pilot for Spaceship 1, an experimental air-launched rocket-powered spacecraft with suborbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 feet per second, using a hybrid rocket motor. Yeah, I saw the movie. That time cruise, he never ages, never. Spaceship 1 was the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, thank you. Well, very informative. Today, we're talking with Blair Nihouser. He is the vice president of sales at FBI buildings out there in West Lafayette, Indiana. Blair, did you know all that stuff about West Lafayette? I knew about half of it. The accomplishments of the individuals he referenced. I did not. But, you know, that fort, we got none is how it's pronounced. I told him. I told him that. That's what I said. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, it's a great fort. There's a good feast out. It's called Feast of the Hunters Moon. They have, it's a multi-day thing. It's a great place. So, there's great things to see and do in West Lafayette. And you hit a good number of them there, Will. All right, Blair, I feel good about being a farmer. You know, I love doing it. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I have helped feed people, and I find that to be a very good feeling. You, you're in construction. And I mean, the stuff you put up is going to be there for generations. Do you like that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would say that's probably one of my favorite things about construction is just that the physical nature of what ends up being there when, when the things all said and done. Yeah, it's just. Well, I was about to say it's never going to go away, but, you know, mother nature can do something, tornadoes can come through. But at the end of the day, there's a monument there of sorts, right? That impacts a lot of people and really life is different. When a construction project's done, whether that's a house or, you know, commercial building or whatever, or a pool bar, right? For your storage, storage of your stuff, right? Life is different. And I think it's, it's a, it's a really cool thing. I, in my opinion, putting up that poll barn turns a house into a farm, right? Because that's what everybody thinks of, or your farm is generally the house, at least a shed, you know, you can throw all the bins and whatever. But that it seems like putting that, that poll barn up, that makes you a farm. Mm hmm. You got a farmstead now, right? Not just the homestead. You got a farmstead. Okay. If you want to say what I said better, that's fine. That's, I guess that's why you're in sales. [laughter] Man, I got to keep up with you, Rob. [laughter] You, you're not shy about talking about your, your faith, which I very much respect. I mean, is that ever affected sales in any way? Sometimes the two don't go hand in hand. Um, now come on. That, that's like, that's painting a really broad brush there, Rob, on, on salesmen all across our great nation, but... No, no, no, no. That's not what I mean. I mean, sometimes when people are open about their faith, you can, you can turn some people off, because people don't care for that. That's what I was asking. We'll make fun of salesmen later. There you go, there you go. No, I mean, you know, to be honest, I've been very thankful. I've never experienced that. And I think there's a way, um, there's a way that, that my faith, I believe, just drives how I treat people, how I talk, right? It doesn't have to be this, you know, almost slap in the face that maybe sometimes people can visualize, but it really drives my lens and perspective on what my interactions with people are about, right? And they're about pointing them to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and it's not about me. It's, it's a lot of times, not even about them or what we're talking about, but it's about him. And so I hope that comes across in how I interact and deal with people. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, if people, are you on personally, are you on social media? No, you got to like... It's wise. My wife plus my name, so that in case anyone's ever really looking for me, they could find me, but it's really her. I'm not under any, in any fashion. What about FBI? Where can you find all their stuff? Oh, yeah. You can find it on by any platform. We got a great website at FBIBuildings.com. We're on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, whatever, whatever it is, we're probably on it. We got a lot of good things to share. So you'll find this. It's a pretty easy name to remember. Yeah, so it's FBIBuildings. So you just, once you hit that B, so FBI and all that stuff comes up, soon as you hit that B, you guys generally pop up. So Blair, I want to thank you for helping along with this building. We didn't even get to the deer blind, so I guess we'll just have to have you come back someday. The premium deer blinds that you guys are making there. So Blair and Nighthauser, Vice President of Sales for FBIBuildings. Blair, thank you so very much, but don't go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. Yeah, he's a Morton guy. That's all I'm going to say. Canadians. We'll be back. [MUSIC] ♪ Wake up ♪