Making It Official — Does This Mean I've Grown Up?

Patio Pondering started with me sitting on the patio on a sunny September morning in 2024. No business plan. No strategy. Just coffee, quiet, and a need to gather my thoughts after a career change I didn't see coming.

I started writing. Then I started talking first to myself, then into a microphone. For seventeen months, the writing and the podcast gave me a place to think out loud about an industry I've spent my whole life in. They opened conversations I didn't expect and reminded me what I'm actually good at.

Yesterday I filed paperwork with the Indiana Secretary of State and formed Patio Pondering LLC.

The writing isn't going anywhere, if anything, I've leaned into it more. The podcast is growing and I'm investing in it. But I'm also putting more emphasis into swine nutrition consulting; helping producers and feed teams make better decisions when the margins are tight and the answers aren't obvious. That's the work I've done for 25 years. Patio Pondering just finally gave it a home.

Forming the LLC was me making it official and being honest with myself. I spent a long time thinking I was just writing and podcasting while I figured out the next move. Turns out I was building one.

I won't pretend filing an LLC was dramatic. You fill out a form, pay a fee, and the state sends you a confirmation. But there's something about putting your name on a thing that makes it real in a different way, the same way putting a deed on a piece of ground feels different than just working it.

It started on the patio. It still starts there most mornings. The coffee's the same. The questions just got bigger.

Patio Pondering LLC — Clear Thinking for Complex Agriculture.