Kevan Hueftle
Appearances
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
We had five surgeries within six days of cleaning all the shrapnel and bone fragments, and it was a gnarly foot. They literally had to lay it over all of that pinky toe to clean all. My x-ray was, if this is my pinky toe, my x-ray was just like a Christmas tree. It just had a piece of shrapnel everywhere. The bolt really never came out. It hit bones and just exploded right there. Really? Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Oh, no, no. It was just a regular soft tip 243. Yep, just regular soft tip 243. Some of them bullets are made to do that. Holy smokes. They sewed me up good enough that when I actually left the hospital, I could put my foot up and I could see you through the hole where they sewed. So my ankle bone was here, and then the bullet went in right above here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I could see right through my foot, and I could take pictures of my friends through my foot when I went home. So they did not amputate. Not then. But that was your choice. Yes, they wanted to. And I was like, there's no way I would be able to play sports or anything. And they sent me home with a wound vac, which is a sponge in there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And then you seal it up and it puts negative pressure and actually pulls your muscles and skin and back together so it heals better, which is great. But when you change it every two days, you're literally ripping off its bright red tissue. And you're ripping something that grew to it every single two days. And that was the most painful thing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Right after the hunting accident, ripping that off every couple days. Within a month, I was actually, so October 23rd, by January 13th, I was walking again. Wow. But it was never going to be a foot that I ever really wanted to have. So March 30th, 2006, we went to Omaha, Nebraska, and we chopped her off. Because of complications? I was never going to be an athlete.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I would be limping around it the rest of my life. It was fused. I was missing like 30% of the bottom of my foot. It was never going to be a foot I could ever use, really. So it was just going to be a foot that looked like a foot, but it was nothing that I was going to be happy with or be able to actually play sports with or anything like that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Seven and a half inches from the ground.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Well, this will be a first-time podcast. So back then, you only used to be able to put feet underneath on a pylon system. So you had to put an adapter on the bottom of your stump, and it went to a pylon to a foot. Okay. All right. So they didn't make any feet that were lower than 7 1⁄2 inches to fit in there. So I could have cut it off there down here because my accident was actually right here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah. You know, blew this part away to my ankle bone right here, but they couldn't do that back then because, um, the adapter, nothing would ever fit in the bottom of your foot. Well, now we have feet that you put on the back of them, posterior mounted feet. Now I have a lot more athletic build and spring to them.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And so you could have did different, but my stump is really awesome because of the accident wasn't where my stump's at. So like I healed really, really well. Like everything went great. And, um, Yeah, I tried to go back and run track by June 1st after amputating March 30th. That was a mistake. I was still bleeding and thought I had to get right back into it and start training right away.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And that leads to the next 10 years of my life of being an alcoholic. Gotcha.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So at the end of it, I could drink a whole 175 of vodka or a 30-pack of bush light in a day just to function. Wow. That's a lot. And that was pain management? That was not so much. It was a little bit of legs not fitting right in pain management. Mostly it was mental. I mean, I was a 20-year-old kid that decided to cut his leg off and thought it was going to be just as happy-go-lucky.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And then you're a farm kid who doesn't talk about your feelings. You're small. You know, you're 20 years old, and then it just keeps building up. You know, I was, I was the life of the party and hang. I mean, I had a great time in college. I went to Beatrice SEC and, but the entire time I was not mentally okay.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like I was struggling every single day and that was just to get me by was just drinking. Like I, there wasn't days, I don't remember five days in 10 years I didn't drink. And the last five years it was every single day. Wow. Every single day. It was three beers prior to wake up. I knew if I was going to Eustis to get parks, I could drink three beers on the way to Eustis, which is 4.5 miles.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I knew I had a routine. When I go check cows, I take at least a six-pack. So did you go deeper than beer and into recreational drugs? When you have a prosthetic and a foot issue, you have Oxycontin and Percocets if you want them. Alcohol is my number one choice, but I would always use those in backup if I was always going to run out somewhere or I was traveling or something like that. Gotcha.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Oxycontin and Percocet were definitely in the system. Some more over-the-counter, though. Yep, never dove into anything else. But, yeah, I was 5'9", 200 pounds, and just...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I got sober on August 7, 2015, and it was just one day. Then it was two days, and it was three days, and it just kept snowballing. Like, I don't know. There's no reason. I didn't wake up that day and say I didn't. I tried to quit drinking multiple times before this. I mean, I would go two weeks without drinking, and all of a sudden, you know, something would go wrong, and it's just right back.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But then what people don't understand is when you're an alcoholic and you quit for those two weeks, you don't start back up at two beers a day. You start back with the same place you finished off. That's where you start right back up the same day again. You might have one beer on Thursday, but Friday morning, you're drinking 30 beers a day. That's just like that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You're instantly an alcoholic again. That's how my mind works with everything I do. I'm addicted to anything that I do. There's a reason I got so well. I got so fast in the Paralympic world for track and field. I was addicted to working out and making my body better and things like that as soon as I got sober.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
No. When I was an alcoholic? Yeah. So, yeah, I met my wife in 2007. Okay. So I met her playing Presidents and Assholes at a party in Beatrice and Rasta. And I was very good. I mean, I was very good at all the drinking games. Yeah. So post-amputation. Yep. So I'm APA in 06, met my wife in 07. So she literally met me as an alcoholic.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like she's only known that until 2015 of me being that person, which is tough because that person wasn't driven like this person is. It's a wholly different person. Gotcha. It's a totally different person. So we've had issues. I mean, obviously every marriage does, but of me being too much because I can be. I know I can be. When I think of something, I want to do something, it is on my mind.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And it's going to either happen or I'm going to die trying to get that. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
No, because it never bothered me to have it around the same when I quit. Okay, got it. She has almost like a year sober now, but not because she had a problem, just because we just don't drink anymore. Mm-hmm. You know, but when she was drinking, like, it could be in the house. It did not bother me. I go to bars and hang out.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
My rule is always if you told me the same story twice, that's when I'm going home. So I could be around the bar for the first story, you know, around the table. But as soon as you came over and told me the same story you told me 10 minutes ago, then, yeah, I've been here long enough at the bar to hang out. It's time for me to go home.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It's a lot more popular now than it used to be just to not drink, just to be healthier. Yeah, correct.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So I got sober in 15, and the first year was just me not drinking. I dropped like 20 pounds. Like I didn't work out. I didn't do any training. It was just me eating better and not drinking 5,000 calories a day. And then 2017, on January 1st, I took a leg that I hadn't worn –
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
um a sprint leg which is it's like a big c so it acts like an ankle so it compresses when you run on it to give you the same bounce as an ankle would give you springboard kind of thing well it's it's you get 100 and whatever 50 50 percent return out of your ankle you get 30 out of a prosthetic it's not as nearly as much people think unless you're using the long jump leg which that's a whole different story but they make it they designed a long jump leg you can go like eight and a half meters on that's really it's wow but so
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Took the old 10-year-old leg and went to Carney, Nebraska, and had a new socket made, which is the top part of the prosthetic where my stump goes in. They made a new socket, and I went to the Y, and I ran for the first time since 2006. And it was slow, and it about fell, and it was horrible. And next thing you know, I ran two days in a row, then three, and then I got a training partner or a coach.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
He started helping me out. One of my old athletes I ran with at UNK, he was coaching in Colorado, and he was like, all right, do these workouts, and do this, this, and this. I actually flew out to LA to do a track meet called the Angel City Games. It was the Paralympic Nationals that year for Team USA. And I was in a 10-year-old... leg, and I was also 30 years old at the time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Well, 32 years old at the time, which is kind of old to be a sprinter. I was getting made fun of out there because my leg was old, I was old. I played a place in 7th and 8th and 100 and 200 and 3rd and the 400 meter dash.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But I met a person out there called Nick Stilwell who runs an organization called the Never Say Never Foundation who gets prosthetics usually to kids because these aren't covered. Sprint legs aren't covered for insurance. Oh. So if you want a sprint leg, you have to pay for it. It's out of pocket.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It's all carbon fiber and it's very expensive. And so to get that set up for kids most of the time, it's unrealistic. You can't get it. Every kid should grow up running. So he does mostly kids, but for me, he saw my leg and saw I was fast. He's like, dude, what are you on? And I'm like, what I have.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And so he set me up with a guy in Seattle, Washington named Greg Davidson, who runs Davidson Prosthetics. And he sent me a new foot out there, a new socket, everything for free just to fly it out there. And I started training really, really hard. Yeah, and then I got fast. Got fast. Were you fast when you had two legs? Yeah, I was a state record holder in a 4x4. We ran 326.8.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I ran a 48.5 400 in high school. That's kind of fast. And then I never ran the 100 and 200 because that wasn't my events. But for the Paralympics, the only events I get to choose from in Paralympics, I'm a T64, which is a below-the-knee amputee. That's my category. Okay. So we run with the T62s, which is the doubles in the 100, but then the 200-meter dash, we're just our T64s.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But I only get the 100, 200-meter dash. Javelin, shot put, discus, high jump are the only events I get to choose from for the Paralympics. So I'm a 4.8 runner, but at the age I am, probably not so much a 4.8 runner. So I hadn't been in blocks, starting blocks, in my life until 2017 to try to be a sprinter for one of the fastest people in the entire world.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So it was a little bit of a learning curve there right away, but I got fast really quick. I started running a lot of college track meets. I mean, I'm training three times a day, 5 a.m. workouts on my own, and I'm taking kids to the weight room after that, and I'm an hour and a half workout in the track. I'm doing all this with the beef company, running too many head of cattle, still farming.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I pretty much had to have my dad come out of retirement. He was almost 70 to take over my slack because I was gone an hour and a half in the middle of the day. I had to train when it was hot out because all the track meets you go to – are hot. So there's no point in me training earlier in the evening.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
If you go to the track meet and it's not 100 degrees out, you know, and you're not used to it, you're going to run like shit. But I just kept training and training and it was, I mean, it was tons of work. I mean, it was a lot of doubting going on because, I mean... My goal was to make Team USA, to make Team USA to be one of the fastest spinners in the entire world.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like, you have to be top five or they're not even going to really look at you because it's so expensive for them to take you places and this and that. Well, I run enough track meets that I got noticed, and they actually sent me to Lima, Peru to run the Parapan American Games down there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I ended up placing first in the 100, and got second place in the 200-meter dash in the Parapan American Games, which, I mean, I was ecstatic because you get to hear the national anthem being played for the first time from a kid that's less than five years ago.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It was 2015, so four years ago I was an alcoholic, weighing 200 pounds that I wouldn't trust with my own kids at one point in time because I was driving around drinking with my daughter in the vehicle. I mean, it was just a normal thing for me. It was horrible. I never had a rock bottom, but I had a lot of moments looking back where I'm like, I'm a freaking idiot.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I can't believe I got away with this, this, and this. My son has never seen me drink a drop of alcohol in my life. My daughter's 11 and Hayes is 8, so he's never seen me drink ever in my life, but To be honest, the worst day of my entire life was when I was actually sneaking alcohol into the hospital my daughter was born. Because that's how much it had a hold on me back then.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And it was ridiculous to think back at that I had to do that to survive. And so I like to promote, you know, Obviously, social drinking is not a big deal, but when you're something like that, I'm here to help. I've been through a lot in my life, and hopefully I can help other people that are going through the same issues that I went through, knowing that you can be at the bottom.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I came out of the bottom, and I went clear to the top. So, yeah, I got to wear that red, white, and blue. They send you a big old suitcase with it, and they... have all the Team USA stuff in it, which is the most amazing feeling in the world, knowing that you've worked that hard to be able to represent your country.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And then we went to Lima, Peru, which I don't know if you've ever been to Peru and Lima, but it's pretty run down where we were at. The buses we were taking, we had a road to the track and where we stayed at the village. And there was cones that were supposed to be, you know, lining your way. And there was people that are on both sides. Their job was to put the cones back up.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Because there's no... Stoplights don't work in Peru, Lima. Like, it's just... You get to an intersection, you just figure it out. Yeah. And they have all the tuk-tuks there and everything like that. Well, there's people that... They were leaning against... There's a cement wall and then cones. They were putting these cones up and they would be against a cement wall.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And they're this far away from the bus. And we're going by at 50 miles an hour. Jeez. Like, you'd put your head against the window and you'd be sleeping. You wake up and you see eyeballs go by. It was... Insane. And you go from that and go to Dubai. We went to UAE Dubai for the World Championships. Completely opposite. The bus we had in Dubai had every seat.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It was heated and cooled seats in Dubai. All the Ubers were BMWs and Mercedes. A lot of wealth in Dubai. Yep. It was the craziest experience of my life going to Dubai. We stayed in the hotel. It was the longest hotel in the entire world. The hotel is like three quarters of a mile long. Like... And I ended up placing fourth in the 100 and 200 meter dash in Dubai.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I missed placing in the podium at the World Championships by .03 seconds. So that was rough to come home from that. So what year was that? That was 19. And then the story keeps going. Roll into it. So then what happens in 20? Yep, COVID. COVID hits.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And when you're already 30-some years old, that you're too old to be training in the first place for this, and you're already on a schedule that's insane for years of you doing it. Because I wasn't athletic enough to be able to take time off. If I didn't keep with it, I knew it wasn't going to be fast enough to make this Paralympic training for Tokyo. Yep. And so they canceled, of course, COVID.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And then 21 comes around and I'm in the best shape of my life. I am, the weight room is insane. I'm flying on the track practices that have never felt better. Like I'm not just making the team in my mind. I'm going to Tokyo and I'm placing, I'm coming home with a contract. I'm coming home with a sponsorship.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I'm doing all this at one point in time, but two people have helped me out, the home agency and Paulson's Incorporated. Only two people ever helped me sponsor by this point in time, you know, and that's only been a couple thousand dollars and years of doing this. So it's been all on my dime. It's been all my time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And for me to actually know that it all was worth it because my daughter grew up in the track with me. Since she was three years old, she's been helping me. So it's been great, but it still costs money to do all this and travel around. The kids can't come with me. The wife can't come with me to Minneapolis because of COVID. So it's just me up there by myself trying to make this team.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
There's hardly anybody in the crowd. I'm doing block starts on Tuesday morning, and I had the most confidence I've ever had in my entire life on track. I mean, my life is going great right now. I'm doing block starts. I'm 30 meters out on block starts, and all of a sudden I hear something snap, and I look down, and my right ankle won't move. It won't work. I just tumbled. So the opposite ankle.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, the one that's supposed to be the good one. So I ended up getting help to the Team USA tent and ended up finding out later. We didn't know that at that point in time, and I— Snapped my posterior tibial tendon and spring ligament in two. So I didn't have nothing holding my foot together anymore.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Which is a team USA training team, and Dee Mahoney was in there, and she's like, all right, so what are we going to do? And I said, just tape it and go. Like, I've trained for four years for one track meet. Like, you think I wasn't going to run regardless if I was crawling across that finish line? Like, mentally, I had to do something.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So I was non-weight-bearing from Tuesday to Friday afternoon. So I crutched into the track meet Friday afternoon. When the tent, she taped my ankle up enough that it would function as an ankle at least. Because if I would hold my ankle up when there was no tape on it, it just went like this. I could literally not move. It literally would not work.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
The tendon and ligament were literally both completely torn apart. Wow. Yeah. And so I competed, and I still placed fifth in the 100-meter dash. And the time I ran in Lima, Peru and won with, I ran faster at trials with no ankle. So you're telling me how much faster I would have been actually with an ankle? It would have been a really fun Paralympics for me to go compete. That's amazing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I don't know. You didn't have one ankle. The 200-meter dash the next day, and I placed fourth in that as well and missed Team USA by like six-tenths of a second with no ankle. And that one was even – if there was anything left on Friday of the ankle, completely got rid of it by Saturday. Then it was gone. So my warm-ups consisted of stretching and a one stride. I couldn't even stand on it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It was the most pain I've ever had in my – well, no. Third most pain I've ever had in my entire life. Just mental toughness then. Well – You start replaying the back of your mind how many things you've missed. I've sacrificed the last four years. My family has sacrificed. All the nights I was up at 5 a.m., 4 a.m. to go work out, and it's like I had to do something.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I really didn't care if I was crawling across that finish line. Mentally, I don't think I would have handled it to not be able to try at least and compete. So you had to get surgery to fix that? So I had surgery on the opening day of the Paralympics in Omaha, Nebraska, which is not a good thing to be all doped up on surgery when you're trying to watch all your friends do the opening ceremony.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And then I decided that day I was going to try to come back again. And trials were two months ago in Florida, but April 14th of this year, I pulled my hamstring. And so I went to trials at 85% and still placed third in the nation. I just didn't have a fast enough time to make it for Paris this year. But you know what's in four years? LA 2028. So here we go, baby. Gotcha.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
23 25 yeah like not that so do you think the injuries are from age or just like you just overwork everything because you're making it hard that one actually was i got a new prosthetic and i was i was set out to haul so i was actually reaching too far and i was sprinting and that's what that issue was with the leg um i just got a new leg in march and i wasn't ready for it yet it was it was gonna be faster eventually my body my body wasn't
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
ready to actually go after that hard and of course i don't have a filter when it comes to that so it was more on me than anything my body feels i don't feel 39 right now like um on my 39th birthday i box squatted 3 390 pounds on my 39th birthday like i can still deadlift 500 pounds right now so like i'm still the weight room is still my life i still that's what's made me um impressive on the track is the work i put into it day in and day out
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Move more efficiently. So that's what – we've changed the workouts completely since I started this. Now it's a lot more efficient compared to – I can't outwork somebody anymore. My body won't hold up. But I can do things a lot more efficient. And, you know, there's different types of workouts now. So it's a lot more, it's quality over quantity now compared to just grinding, grinding, grinding.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah. So when you hit, when you set your goal so high like that, how many goals are you going to hit before you actually hit that goal? So you're going to hit 150 goals before you actually hit that goal. And if I don't actually make the Team USA for Tokyo or for LA 2028, I'm going to impact thousands of people's lives before I get to that point. So is it really? Am I going to be upset with myself?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Probably not. Am I going to be in the back of my mind like, oh, dang it? Yeah, because I'm a competitive person that wants to do that. Yeah, for sure. But the speaking thing now and helping people, what I've been through in my life is what my passion is now. That's up until... this year was always training, family, then speaking.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Now it's, now, well, family and training should be a little flop back and forth once in a while, but it kind of went training, family once in a while. Now it's family, speaking, and now training. So speaking is above that because that's what I love more than the actual training part of it. Like, I still love going to college track meets and beating 18-year-old kids. Like,
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
There's nothing better than lining up with an 18-year-old kid that should just kick the shit out of me, and I smoke them. I got you. At 40 years old. That's kind of fun. It's very much fun. And then they don't feel about, I mean, they have two choices in their life. It's either get better or get worse because they just got beat by a 40-year-old. 39 and a half, I guess.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So when did the speaking come into play? Years ago, I just got asked by, you know, first month I had FCCLA and I talked about failure. And then it just kept, you know, everybody's like, you have a great story. And now I'm changing and just, you know, telling my story to actually punching home the points of why I am like I am, you know, of the things I've had to do to get where I'm at.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I just love the fact that I can't help people. For this last winter, I did like 38 days of ice baths in a row in Nebraska. Middle of winter. The coldest it was in the middle of a blizzard, it was like negative 38 wind chill, and I was out there in a stock tank taking an ice bath on Instagram Live.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And I kept getting people's comments later on about, you know, they're going through depression right now, and I would just do like six minutes of talks or whatever was on top of my head that day. If you didn't talk in the ice bath, it was horrible. But as soon as I started just ranting on about, you know, Anything and everything, I always hit somebody.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I always get a message the next day about, hey, that really helped me out.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I really don't have a huge social media following. No, I have zero. I have like 1,650 people. And I have, like I said, I've always been the guy. I didn't want it. When I was training hard and being an athlete, I didn't want people to know what I was doing. Like, I had the edge of when I got to the world championships, nobody knew who I was.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So when the tent going to the 100 and 200-meter dash, they weren't afraid of me in the tent. I had an edge over them. Well, now, obviously, when you do it that well, people know who you are. But I'm the guy that, as far as athletic-wise, I will always train in the dark and just pop up out of nowhere and be like, dude, where did he come from? But now I have to revert to I'm really bad in self –
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Promotion. Yes. I always feel like I'm bragging, and it's not that at all. Like, I need to be better about, you know, I've worked. I had somebody tell me at trials that you understand that I always said, oh, if you're in the right situation, anybody could do what I'm doing. They could all run the beef company and the family and the training. And I had him come up to me and say, that's not true.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like, not everybody can do what you're doing. If you would help people do what you're doing, there's people out there that want to listen to you that actually could learn from you.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Website's being built right now. The Instagram is at fleaspeaks. At fleaspeaks? Yes. So, yep, the website is being built right now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yes, absolutely. Have you done quite a few? I did 10 high school and elementaries last year and a couple of bigger corporate ones. And this year I'm hoping to get, you know, double, triple that this year. Do you have multiple messages or, like, it's just one kind of thing? So, like, elementary and junior high – Mostly on the fifth and under.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It's mostly prosthetics and just informative about Paralympics and what I did. Junior high, I get to talk a little bit more about the bowling side of it and working hard in high school. I can be myself, for the most part, alcohol in high school and things like that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
College athletics is where my life went wrong and where I actually can be my true self and not sugarcoat my life and actually tell them I was a piece of... I did this, I did this, I did this. I'm not proud of it, but if you guys want to learn from me, you know, and that's where I can actually be.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You can push the points of not just working hard to get what you want, but you have to be really consistent. I mean, everybody can be motivated one day at a time to get what they want, but if you want to get up every single day and be consistent every single day, consistency wins over motivation all the time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Man, when you're sitting there and you know you're almost like you're feeling helpless because, like, we had a chance to sell corn at $6. You know, last year's corn, and we didn't take opportunity. We just kept dropping and dropping and dropping, and you keep looking back. The same thing with being an alcoholic was I kept looking back what I did wrong. Well, today is the day.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So what can you do tomorrow, today to make the situation any better? So like for our program, like if me and my dad's mental health isn't right, like if I don't work out and I don't do things like that, I'm a shit employee. I just seem depressed all the time. So number one is take care of yourself because you can't make multimillion dollar decisions if you're not clear on yourself at the same time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It's tough out there right now because you're watching money fly out the window. There's a whole not a lot coming in right now. Like for our operation, we downsized and got away from, I was spending $5,000 a month on fuel, just checking things all the time. And now I have, like I said before, I have everything close to home now. Within two miles, I have everything right now I can take care of.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I got rid of a pasture. I'm making more money per head. I have less cows though now. But I had more money per head running them on a section of grass and 90 acres irrigated than I did when I was running 1,000 acres. And, you know, I had to rent it for $46,000 when there was no grass out there because we had a drought.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So I was planning ahead a little bit on this because I wanted to push the speaking some more. Agriculture is in my blood, and I was born on a ranch and farm, and I've had it my entire life. There's a time where I've seen my dad thrive when the markets were great, and I've seen the hardest times we've ever had, and that's coming up. My life hasn't been great for farming.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
We've had a couple of good years in there, but it's been rough. I'm trying to get to the point where I can make the farming side of it the most enjoyable side of it with my family and make the speaking thing is what's going to save. opposite. And a lot of people don't want to hear you might get another job. I mean, that's what it comes to.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
If you're not big enough to sustain, like I have the beef company, I have, I do, I still day work for people and I'm, you know, cowboying. Um, and speaking like that's, I want to get to the point in a couple of years where the farm part of it is my tax write off and I can go work my cows with my family and enjoy the hell out of it and not think about the money side of it as so much.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And eventually if I can get to the point where I'm selling all my cows through my own beef company, Even better.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
That's still my go-to gun. Absolutely. It's a Model 700 Remington 243 with a three-power weaver on it that's never been sighted in since my dad had it. You can throw it out of a pickup 10 feet in the air and... The scope is crap. It's a three-power Weaver. Yeah, no way. And I'm 100% with that gun. I've never missed yet, obviously, humans or animals. So I'm perfect with that gun. One for one.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
That is the beat-around range pickup gun. Let's clarify. Can we get We get the coyote. Like, what happened to the coyote? So I hunted for him after. Yeah?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
He was an old coyote. He was dark on top, but he had silver gear on the side of him. I know exactly what it looked like. I hunted that thing so hard afterwards, but never did find him.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, so I did a podcast a while back, an APT podcast, and, like, that's – Obviously, on the top of my mind, like, you've got to understand, I'm just a dumb freaking farmer kid who just decided to work hard. So, like, all this social and all this other stuff is hard for me to even fathom. Like, how do you even start a book? You know what I mean? Like, with internet, you can do research. Exactly.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But in my mind, you know, I'm still on – I have no idea yet. So, I'm learning this as I go just because I don't have any – you know, I don't have mentors or this and that. I've learned – everything I've learned, I've been self-taught pretty much the entire way. So, I'm learning that I need to –
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
ask for more help even on the ranch i set corrals up by myself you know 150 pound panels i do it i'm always by myself like i guess how i do everything so it's hard for me to ask for help that's what i've got to learn to do better especially on this side of it because i would do the world injustice if i didn't share my story more and actually do it i've always wanted to write a kid's book too i think it'd be great to write a funny amputee kid's book kind of i mean it's always it's always nice when a speaker comes around has an inspiring story people want to patronize you and i
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So that's Lazy Creek Beef Company on Instagram as well. And then we're going to have – the website's going to be tied together with – I've got a person that's working – well, it's LazyCreekBeefCompany.com, too, but it's – Somehow they're tied to flea speaks and the whole internet thing. I don't understand exactly how that all works yet.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So my grandpa bought red Angus back in the 70s, and then my uncle is a sea stock producer, and he sold some magnificent tens of thousands of dollar bulls, and I kind of got always a red Angus guy, but no, it's way better than black Angus. So Red Angus has a tenderness gene that Black Angus doesn't have. Really? Yes. So my aunt and my uncle found it and has it. You can test for it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And so even without the way you have amazing marbling anyway, but even with less marbling, you still let more tenderness in.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Oh, yeah. It's, like I said, it's double the price as I started this in 17. Slap all the labels on it. Oh, yeah. And then you have to deal with, you know, people advertise their own ranch stuff. You know, no hormones. Well, every beef has hormones. There's no animal hormones. Yeah, correct. And animatic free. Well, they all are. They all are by the time. We're not idiots. I think you should add.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
When you're your own worst nightmare, if you're doing that to yourself, like we have, as an industry, you have to be better to understand. You know, you can't advertise like that. You know, you can't. I hate going through the aisles anywhere because it's all lies. Like chicken antibiotics is the worst thing ever because they're not given in anyway.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Well, I have a big burger business I want to start called Half-Leg Hamburgers.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I'm the right age, and I'm fit, and it's just, yeah. Correct. Yeah, so there's times I'm like, oh, sorry I didn't. And if it's a thank you, and I walk away, and I just leave it at that, and there you go.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Oh, man, what's the point of stopping? I mean, if we're being completely honest, after 21, in 21 I was the top of my game. I was ranked third in the entire world on the 200-meter dash going into the trials. At the third fastest time that year in the 200-meter dash. Like I was at the top of my game. The ankle blew up, had surgery.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
That winter we had negative, like, 20-degree temperatures for weeks in a row. I was feeding multiple alfalfa bales on stocks for cows a day, and the cows were just looking like we had lice. It was one of the worst winters of my entire life. I went from being the top of the world in June of 21. I was suicidal that winter. That's how fast it happened.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I was literally sitting in my pickup with a 9-millimeter for multiple days checking cows going, is this the day? I've been there. And I had to sit there and think about all the things I've did in my life.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
and all the good I've actually helped people, and I'm a freaking idiot for even thinking about this, but it was there because I worked so hard, the ranch side of it, the sprinting side of it, and what was it for? It just all fell apart at one time. And so I had to pull myself out of that hole. I had to start working out harder, and I had to find something that I was proud of.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So even though the farming side can be hard, the weightlifting and the running made me proud to know I'm still working at something. So I had to always find that niche for myself to be proud of myself, even though things in other parts of my life weren't going well.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like prayer obviously helped quite a bit too. Because in the darkest times, there's one person that can help you out, and that's God. Yeah. I shouldn't be here, to be honest. The things I did in my life, there's not one reason why five things in my life shouldn't have put me out, been done with it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Like, you know, and every time, God always asks, you know, everybody always asks, why does God tell you this happened to you? Because he's a freaking genius. Because the guy let me shoot myself in the foot. Let me be an alcoholic. Let me get to the top of that. Let me fall off the bottom of that just to sit here and talk to you guys. Like, there's a reason I'm still here and I didn't, you know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
have those thoughts go all the way through because I can help people in this world. And this world is a shitty world sometimes. It can be amazing, but there's a lot of days if you're working on motivation and happiness alone, you're not going to be okay. You have to find your own happiness.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You have to work at something to be happy because there are times when you, when everything is going great, it can be a shitty world. So what's going to happen when it doesn't go great all the time for you? So it's... We can get pretty calloused. Absolutely. No.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I am too. Because you wouldn't be here. Every day. It is the best day of my life. Isn't that crazy? Yep. So that question, what is the best day of your life? Obviously, your kids being born is always up there. My sobriety will always be at the top of my list because that's my sobriety on April or August 7th. I'm not here. None of this happened.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And I didn't even tell you, when I got my Team USA bag on 2019, it showed up on April 7, 2019. Wow. It showed up on my four-year sobriety date. My Team USA bag from UPS did. So you tell me God's not doing something, they'd look down at me and say, hey, this is for you. So, yeah, shooting myself in the foot was one of the best things I've ever did in my entire life.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So now you have a different drive. Well, I'm already pivoting because I've already looked into the triathlons after sprinting. People can do that in their 50s. I almost wanted to do it for LA 2028, but I love sprinting so much. That chapter is unwritten for me. The hamstring issue was an issue. I want four years of just... This is the part that people don't understand.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I love making myself miserable. Does that make sense? Like, I love going to the gym at five. I love that. If I don't do hard things, I'm a piece of crap. I don't work hard that day at work. If I don't get up and I don't make myself suffer, I don't do well. So I love the sprinting part of it because it's really, really hard. You know, sprinting is not like jump running and jogging.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You don't get in a zone when you're sprinting. I sprint for three seconds to ten. 27, 30 seconds as hard as you can. That's it. Have you ever thought about doing long running? That is not yet. Those people are weird, aren't they? I honestly think eventually I'll get into triathlons and Ironmans and this and that, but that takes so much more time too.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
When I make my millions in speaking, I guess I can have more time on my hands. I can do that more or more of a time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Well, I was watching some of your profit ones, you know, and, like, I'm not that guy. Like, I'm not the guy that went bigger to get, you know, two more acres. I went the opposite way. I went smaller, making more money per head, but happiness is on my forefront and just having less input in everything I do. So, like, those cows, like, I'm running, the section's paid off.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
The ground's all paid off around there, so it's just the rye input a year and cane input and planting it and then fertilizer. So it's just a whole different process of how I'm doing it. Especially working through the beef company, I know exactly where that beef is everything's from. Like it. Yeah, it's... It's a different, because I was coming in the same way.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I'm like, man, I'm not, I'm the opposite of what these other guys are doing. Talking about, you know, numbers of the millions and this and that. They're not great. I'm the downside of that side, you know. I only had to drive 2.5 miles in my side-by-side now to check everything. And you know what, it cost me $2.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Instead of when I used to go to the valley and drive 150 miles in a diesel pickup, that was $30 a day just, you know. So.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
no matter what you are faced with uh these are badass hats absolutely love them i didn't realize dave your hat is different than mine's way cooler you have to know the logo it's like our logo so that's my favorite and then everybody else loves those and i hate them but i wanted to wear my first form shirt because i want to eventually get sponsored by them too so i want to put flea speaks in because you're faking it till you make it hey you know what
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I almost went to the bathroom because I didn't hear that. So, all right, this is off the top of my head. I incorporate them together, 100%. I have my kids help me with the irrigating, with the cattle side of it. That's the nice thing about being a half mile away from my cows and stuff and checking is I can drive by. They can hear me. My house is here. I drive by the farm road to the cows.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
if they want to go with people to hop on the side by side of the four-wheeler too and meet me over there you know I had to it's got to be together because that's the part when I was running all the stuff in the valley um and more cows it wasn't I wasn't home till eight o'clock at night it was miserable for everybody because I wasn't enjoying life and to have those together now is the most it's so amazing to be able to see your kids grow up with a work ethic um and have forage calves and
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Everything for me is a lot slower. I can go do speeches once in a while and make a couple grand. That would take me all month to make, you know, on the farm. So I have a lot more time at home. You have to change your mindset because I was always brought up, if you're not, manual labor is work. And so you guys are the same way now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I sit on the computer and do research now watching YouTube videos on how to get a TED Talk and do courses. That's also work. You have to change your mindset. In the middle of the day, I can sit down if I have Wi-Fi and work and not just clean pens or do this and that. Working on your business, not in your business.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah. So I try to incorporate, you know, the kids go on the track with me as much as possible as well. When Hayes was growing up and littler, he would take all this farm toys to the sand pit. And when I was training, he'd be farming in the sand pit. Like I said, my daughter Chessa, since she was three, had been on the track with me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
She grew up in Cozad with all the girls knew her in the pole vault pit. They knew her by name at three years old. Just include.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But it's not easy because I have to travel quite a bit for these sanctioned track meets. And that hasn't been easy because I can't take them because it costs too damn much to take. I was going to these track meets in L.A. and Arizona and staying in Airbnbs that were a cement floor, a twin bed, and a bathroom for $50 a night. And that was still pretty shady stuff.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You know, I couldn't afford the $200 a night hotels for my kids and stuff to go with me. So I've had to sacrifice that. But I try to incorporate that. I mean, everything I've did, eventually it's going to pay off for the family of me being home more and me being able to take more time off.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And the speaking thing is the part that's cool because I can incorporate them coming with me in those speeches. And we get paid to go take a little mini vacation somewhere.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Flea Speaks is on Instagram if you guys have any more questions. My phone number is also 308-529-1186. Like I said, I talk on a bunch of different topics, mostly about...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
consistency of our motivation is what I really I tell my story but it's it's a lot more points of how you can be how I got to where I'm at because I didn't wake up wanting to do the things I do every single day yeah if you work out when you're tired and when you're pissed off and when you're depressed you will work out when you're happy then too and you will get things going
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
You've got to wear them. I'm in talks with them, but I don't have an Instagram following yet. So I'm the guy that always worked in the dark and then just popped up during big events. But I've got to change that when you're trying to be a speaker. So I've got to change my whole mindset about advertising myself.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So, I'm a legionnaire with them right now, which means I'm working underneath them to get more people just to their app to be healthier and fit. But eventually, the goal would be to be one of their athletes and be invited to their big function. Oh, cool. You know what I mean? Something like that. So, that takes, obviously, followers as well. That's part of the process. But...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I've already been conned. They know who I am. It's just, it's not a good fit yet because I, you know, if you're ever world champion of something, you're actually Paralympics. It's a little different, but I didn't make that far yet.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Well, thank you guys for having me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So my name is Kevin Hifley, but it's a German name, Hifley, so it's spelled H-U-E-F-T-L-E, so nobody ever could say Hifley. But my first name, Kevin, is spelled K-E-V-A-N, so nobody could ever say Kevin either. It's just Kevin. It's not Kevan or Keevan. So, Hifley got cut off. There's a lot of Hifleys in Eustis. Like, that's all the town is.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So, you always call everybody by their last names, you know, in high school. You know, Hifley this, Hifley that. Well, there's too many Hifleys. The Hif just got cut off, and the Flea just stuck, and I've been Flea ever since. Cool. Wow. Well, that's a lot simpler of a story than I was expecting that to be. It's just the names.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I mean, even then you have to explain to yourself why your name is Flea, but you have to explain to yourself. I was thinking of something like I itched and went away.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Uh, to be honest, growing up was a little rough when you have bright red hair in elementary and high school, and it was... I actually had, in high school, I had hair down to my shoulders, too, at one point in time. I could see that. It was.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It was very... Well, my grandpa Carl told me one... It was, like, in my freshman year, told me I needed to get a haircut, and it was, like, short, and I didn't get a haircut for, like, three years. Ah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, so... No, but I got bullied quite a bit when I was younger. I had a gap to suck my thumb until I was, like, eight years old. Like, big old frame glasses, you know, my dad wore. So it was a little rough, and then... High school was, I mean, kind of the same way for a while, but then I found sports, and I figured out I was an athlete, and that kind of turned everything around a little bit.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
What kind of sports? So everything. Football, basketball, track. I was actually in musicals, too. I was in math counts. I kind of was in the whole high school experience, and I kind of... When I do my speeches now, it's kind of different because I was bullied.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
But then when I got in high school and like elementary or in high school more, I turned into a bully a little bit because I was from one side to the other. So I've seen both sides of, you know, that and how it can be difficult anyway.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So that's not something I'm proud of, but I'm actually glad I went through because now I can talk to elementaries and junior highs about I've been both sides of it, you know. So it's not fun. And where was this at? Eustis Farm High School in Eustis, Nebraska.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So about an hour, hour and a half west and south of here. Yep. Great. How far away is that from Colorado? Not that far. You got to be getting close to Colorado then. So we're nestled in the corner. We're like an hour and a half in the corner of Colorado. Can you guys say Ogallala? Ogallala. Ogallala, Nebraska.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Have you not noticed how fast I talk yet?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yep, play in sports. And I was good in sports in high school. My senior year, I was all-state basketball, all-state football, state record in track. So, you know, it was... That's where I've learned to work my tail off. I was the guy that didn't... The other athletes didn't really enjoy on your team because I was the guy that... I wasn't the most athletic, but I would work my tail off in practice.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So I didn't lose 21s in basketball. I was always the guy in track practice that would make sure I came in on time. Like, I didn't not do a workout and... The only reason I played a lot of times was because of my hustle. So that's all I had. I wasn't gifted to be an athlete, you know. So I was 110 pounds and 5'7", and it wasn't going to be in my cards unless I worked for it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I think you should change from work your tail off to work your leg off. That's right. At that point in time, I still had two legs, thank goodness.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Still live in Eustis. I live a mile and a half away from the house I grew up on. Still live on the family farm and ranch. I actually localized everything, so I farm and ranch everything within two miles of my house. Wow. So I don't have to travel. As of last year, I don't have any more travel. What do you mean? You got to choose where you're Well, yeah, I got rid of the valley ground.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
It wasn't being profitable, and I just farm closer to home now, and I just do less acres and more cows on less acres and more profitable. What kind of cattle do you have?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And a cow-calf? Cow-calf. I actually have Lazy Creek Beef Company also, so I do a direct sales beef company as well. Okay. So I'll finish, you know, 30 to 60 head of year. Do you do that after COVID or before COVID? I started that in 17. Okay. And when I started buying beef, it was $1. $42 a pound hanging waste when I started buying beef from the ranch. Got it. Now it's $3.20.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
No, I do 30 to 60 head is what I'll finish a year. I thought you were saying you finish, like you could slaughter a calf every day. So years ago, I was doing four to five head a month, which is quite a bit for one guy delivering beef across. I have beef in like seven states at that point in time. Wow. But it's just me in a minivan delivering beef around the country. Got it. Yep.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
That's right. So, yeah, so my speeches always start on October 23, 2005. I was out scouting for deer. Well, actually right where I live now, and I was on top of a big old hill, and I saw a coyote, and I grabbed my .243 probably 100 times in my life. I grabbed the gun out of the pickup.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And next thing I know I go to step out of the pickup and the gun was no longer, well the gun was in my hand but my foot just started going ba-boom, ba-boom and my head was ringing and I looked down and I had loper lace up boots on and my top bow was still together and I untied that not knowing what actually happened and my boot literally fell off my foot.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And the boots, the seam on the inside, the heel on both sides and all my laces were blown apart. My foot was that, went from being normal foot to being that big.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
They're just regular boots that you lace up like tennis shoes all the way to the top. All right. You guys need some ropers.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
All right. Okay. Keep going. So then I realized I shot myself in the foot with a .243 about two inches away from my ankle bone is what had happened. Gotcha. This is back in 05. So I had a cell phone but didn't have any service. So we had two radios for farming.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
So I got a hold of my grandma who got a hold of my uncle who got a hold of my dad or my mom who got a hold of my dad who finally came and picked me up. And I think I was there for like 45 minutes by myself at this point in time. I probably could have ended up driving if it had been any longer than that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I don't know how long I just sat there before realizing what actually had happened, but I took my, they said the bull went in so hot that it actually kind of cauterized the vane going in or else I would have been bleeding out a lot worse than I was. That's a good thing, yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
Yeah, so I took the sock off and I shoved it in the middle of my foot and just kind of held it there and then dad had an old 7.3 diesel and he just came roaring up the, it was actually, it's a pivot that we grazed and it just, hitting all those pivot tracks all the way up, I could hear it from a mile away. He came and picked me up, took me to the highway, and the EMTs met me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
And I ended up going to Cozette, Nebraska, a small town hospital, where I finally got some morphine in me. So things were pretty good after that. But then they had to find me. Nobody really wanted me. They called me O'Carney, Lincoln, Denver. So I ended up going to the med center in Omaha. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Ended up going to the med center that night. They wanted to amputate that night.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
I was 20 years old. I was running track at Kearney at UNK at the time. So my life was still sports. I wasn't going to... A guy with only one foot that was going to be able to run track anywhere. So I'm like, I'm not cutting it off. Side note is my parents getting down there, they took...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
The crop dusters, a friend of ours that cropped us, Dave Malcolm, they took his brother's plane with no interior lights in it. So my dad's sitting on the bucket holding a flashlight, flying into Blair, Nebraska, took off at Johnson Lake to get down to Omaha to see me because they flew me in the helicopter. Yeah. So I had my uncle meet me down there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Overcoming Adversity: Kevan Hueftle "Flea Speaks"
My aunt got pulled over going to the hospital with my family. They got a police escort to the hospital after she got pulled over from Blair. And this, yeah, so it was a... It's a crazy couple of days, but they wanted to cut it off that night. I decided, you know, obviously I was pretty high the whole time, but there's no way I was going to cut my foot off. So we tried to keep it.