Ben and Corley Spell, founders of GoodRanchers, join me to talk about their story of faith and healing, and how God gave them the idea to start a chicken and beef burger delivery company. God bless!
00:00:21.000The velocity of which they go through them in our house, we have to just keep on calling the Good Ranchers people, like, we need more, we need more, we need more.
00:00:27.000But this conversation is actually very little about Good Ranchers and their amazing chicken nuggets and their amazing Wagyu beef burgers and their incredible filet mignon.
00:00:36.000It's a story of faith and healing and how Corley was diagnosed with something very brutal and potentially tragic, and she trusted God, not her doctors.
00:00:50.000This might speak to some of you in this audience.
00:01:34.000He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
00:01:40.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:53.000Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
00:02:03.000Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:03:35.000I have a lot of pastor friends and stuff.
00:03:39.000Watching a lot of Shark Tank and getting different ideas and things and started having this idea of a meat company and started kind of telling...
00:03:50.000I remember the first time I told Coralie, man, somebody should do this, this, this, and this.
00:03:55.000And even though I was praying for those ideas and praying for God to give me something else, the first time it came, you know, clueless man, I am.
00:04:06.000It didn't even register for a second that that was something that we should do or something that was for me.
00:04:12.000And so I remember sitting at dinner with Corley saying, you know what?
00:04:15.000I bet if somebody were to do this, this, this, and this, they could be pretty successful.
00:04:20.000And then we just didn't think much of it.
00:04:22.000And over the course of about a year, every three or four months, I would have these ideas of starting a meat company, which I knew nothing about meat, nothing about agriculture.
00:07:12.000Yeah, for beef or for pork in the U.S. And we went, whoa, that's not cool.
00:07:19.000And then lo and behold, we looked at all the stuff that we were buying at that time, and almost all of it was imported, even though it was USDA inspected, product of USA, and those things.
00:07:33.000And so going into 2020, we made some new connections.
00:07:39.000Supplier connections and drew a line in the sand and said, you know what, we're only going to source American-born, raised and harvested meat, which is actually harder than you would think.
00:07:49.000And so we went into 2020 with setting up for that goal, still selling meat out of the back of trucks.
00:07:58.000COVID happened that year, which was really crazy.
00:08:03.000We've realized we've got to get online.
00:08:05.000Which we were kind of, you know, in the future, that'll be there one day.
00:11:00.000So we started seeing really good success, like I said, out of the trucks.
00:11:03.000And then we decided to go fully online in 2020-2022.
00:11:08.000And that's when we actually started sponsoring your show.
00:11:11.000You were our first podcast that we ever sponsored.
00:11:15.000Yeah, we love telling people that too.
00:11:17.000Yeah, and we just saw huge success online.
00:11:22.000And this was, again, this was in 2022, so it was after that COVID online boom.
00:11:28.000But through 22, through 23, and through 24, and even now into 25, which has only been four years, we're seeing just a steady increase.
00:11:40.000And subscribers and customers because there's a real difference when you source correctly, age correctly, package the way that we do.
00:11:51.000So yeah, I'm trying to tell the most abbreviated version of the story possible because the second part of this story, which is why we're here, the main reason of why we're here is we want to get to, which is Corley and her health journey.
00:12:45.000I think ignorance had a lot to do with it, meaning we didn't know what we didn't know.
00:12:50.000And I was foolish enough or faithful enough to hear God and go and trust that...
00:13:03.000That we'll figure it out along the way.
00:13:06.000Last year, there's a verse in Proverbs that really stood out to me, and it's, Commit your work to the Lord, and He will establish your plan or your path.
00:13:21.000Looking back, it's easy to connect the dots, right?
00:14:07.000Even as being able to sponsor your podcast, which your podcast has been tremendous for us, but I don't know if you remember this or not, because we had done a little bit with it before we were online when we were still selling out of the trucks or with your show or something.
00:14:27.000And then once we got back online, you actually approached us, or your team approached us, because we weren't really thinking about it, but another meat company reached out to you, wanted to advertise, and you said,
00:14:43.000hey, will you call those Good Rancher guys, because I've done some ads for them before, and I'd rather just keep with one person.
00:14:53.000And so I can kind of testify even to that was God kind of working things out because we didn't come back to you and say, hey, Charlie, you actually came back to us.
00:15:05.000And that was extremely successful for us once we started online because the marketing for online was completely different than how we had to market.
00:15:17.000And so then we started putting together the dots from you to Allie Beth Stuckey to some folks at the Daily Wire and then Glenn Beck and just kind of other things.
00:15:28.000We really didn't have this elaborate plan.
00:15:31.000It just kind of pieced together little by little.
00:15:36.000So then tell us about the health episode.
00:15:47.000And in 21, when I was pregnant with our fourth baby, I was six weeks pregnant, went to a random dermatologist appointment because I felt like he had a spot that needed to be looked at.
00:15:58.000Well, lo and behold, it was actually me.
00:16:00.000And so they biopsied it, and sure enough, the results came back, and it was melanoma.
00:16:06.000Which is, I didn't know anything about skin cancer, but now I do.
00:16:09.000And melanoma, skin cancer is very treatable and preventable if you catch it early.
00:16:16.000But melanoma accounts for 75% of skin cancer deaths.
00:16:52.000And they didn't find anything else except they did an Olymp node, which put me at stage three.
00:16:58.000But it was so small that they felt comfortable with me continuing on with the pregnancy, having her, and then going from there.
00:17:07.000But before that, they were having some really, really scary conversations with us, sending us down, asking Ben if he was prepared to be a single dad of three other babies if I were to die with the baby.
00:17:23.000They're just kind of pressuring me to not continue with the pregnancy, which was...
00:17:36.000And I remember going into one appointment and my oncologist made a remark to her colleague and said, okay, and the baby's important to her.
00:17:44.000But it's just crazy how in that environment they just, you know, treat you that way and just discount life.
00:18:42.000You know, which we went into last year, 2024, was the first year that since starting the business that we didn't either have a newborn or you'd be pregnant.
00:20:01.000In January of 2024, we got that diagnosis.
00:20:05.000Yeah, and it's crazy because even going into 24, I don't ever have a word for the year or anything, but I did feel in my prayer time that I wanted to focus on my health.
00:20:14.000God was asking me to focus on my health.
00:21:09.000They've helped me and they make it so easy.
00:21:34.000We just prayed about strategy, what that looked like, and we decided on an integrative approach, so I did a A lot of holistic therapies.
00:21:42.000I went to a clinic in California to kind of build up my immune system in various ways before I did immunotherapy at MD Anderson and then surgery after that.
00:27:39.000She said, you always tell the story of when God said to start Good Ranchers, said he spoke to you and said to start a meat company, what was that like?
00:30:37.000And even the other lymph nodes that they removed, that they thought that they were seeing cancer and never had cancer in them at all.
00:30:43.000So it's just, I mean, obviously God is wonderful and miraculous things happen, but there's also part of the story where you have to advocate for yourself.
00:30:53.000Yeah, what did the doctors say when you told them this stuff?
00:30:56.000Yeah, so we went for the follow-up after surgery, and they're going over the results.
00:31:02.000My oncologist thinks I'm crazy at this point.
00:33:52.000We're supposed to give those weights to God.
00:33:54.000We're supposed to give our cares to Him.
00:33:58.000We're supposed to cast them on Him, right?
00:34:01.000And again, it sounds easy, but that's what it was.
00:34:09.000It was giving those cares, giving that weight to the Lord because I'm not strong enough to carry it on my own.
00:34:18.000Again, we have a great team that came around us and helped us through.
00:34:23.000But yeah, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.
00:34:29.000And if our hope was in this life only, we'd be miserable.
00:34:33.000But we know that there's a hope beyond this life that's beautiful.
00:34:37.000And it sucks to see your wife going through this.
00:34:43.000You never want to see your wife or your kids go through anything.
00:34:50.000Again, our hope isn't in this life only.
00:34:52.000Our hope is in Jesus, and our hope is in heaven.
00:34:56.000So, you know, we're here to run a race, and that's all we can do.
00:35:04.000So, the answer to your question was just...
00:35:07.000And I was inspired by Corley's faith, so the answer to your question is faith, and faith in Jesus.
00:35:14.000What does a mechanic and auto shop owner in Georgia, a taco restaurant operator in Arizona, and a life-saving medical innovator in Tennessee have in common?
00:35:23.000They're all small business owners, and they're all thriving on TikTok.
00:35:27.000Across the U.S., over 7.5 million businesses, from family-owned shops to entrepreneurs, are using TikTok to compete and grow.
00:35:34.000We use TikTok all the time on The Charlie Kirk Show.
00:35:36.000In fact, 74% of businesses on TikTok say TikTok has allowed them to scale their operations, increasing sales, and expanding to new locations.
00:37:52.000I say you choose, but in our case, you get to choose what kind of benefits you're going to give your employees and what kind of atmosphere you're going to have at...
00:38:02.000At the office or what kind of environment you're going to create and being able to create an environment where people want to come to work and be able to create an environment that...
00:38:19.000We don't really ever talk about it, but we have amazing health.
00:38:23.000We pay 75% for all of our employees rather than just 50%.
00:38:28.000We give six months maternity leave to moms.
00:38:32.000We give three months to the dad because we believe in family and we believe in...
00:38:40.000You know, it's hard enough having a kid, having a baby, like, you know, and especially your first one is just like, here's this human, go figure it out.
00:39:51.000So you find a local chicken farm in Arkansas, and because of your national network, you could plug into that, and they can scale in a way that...
00:39:59.000They couldn't be able to do that previously, right?
00:40:56.000It doesn't mean they ever have to go outside.
00:40:58.000And so that's the way the USDA law is written.
00:41:02.000It says as long as they have access to the outside, they can be free-range or cage-free.
00:41:08.000But to be able to go to these farms, be able to go to these ranches, and be able to look at the rancher, look at the farmer, and say, How many more chicken could you grow if you knew you had an outlet for them?
00:41:22.000And they give you a number and you go, okay, we'll take that.
00:41:26.000It means it's a massive impact because the way the supply chain works, it's really not set up for the little guy.
00:41:35.000And again, we're not perfect, but we're trying to continue to get better because we believe that We need farmers.