Profitable Farmer: Recent Episodes
Farm Owners Academy
This show is all about increasing the profitability of your farm so you work smarter and not harder. Your host, Jeremy Hutchings (CEO of Farm Owners Academy), reveals the best farming business tips for more leverage in your farm business.
Pat Barrett has spent nearly twenty years at Walsh & Blair, and before that he was playing regional rugby for the Wagga Waratahs, learning lessons about mateship, discipline, and common goals that he still leans on today when he sits across the table from farming families trying to navigate succession.
In this episode, I sit down with Pat, director at Walsh & Blair and one of the most respected rural lawyers in the Riverina, to talk about what actually makes succession work. And what quietly wrecks it.
We started with rugby, and the idea that not knowing the rules can get you hurt. So often we throw the next generation into farming with no rules, no structure, and no shared understanding of what success even looks like. Pat's seen that play out again and again, and had some really practical thinking on how to fix it.
Here's what we got into:
- What happens when everyone in a family business is carrying a different version of the common goal, and why that's the difference between touch footy on the beach and playing for real
- The three stages of a proper transition: management, business, and land, and why trying to do all three at once is where things get messy and emotional
- Why bringing your accountant, banker, consultant, and lawyer into the same room beats passing messages between them like a game of Chinese whispers
- Why paying family members a market wage builds accountability instead of entitlement
Pat's a straight shooter, and what got me thinking was his point about timing. He reckons the older generation has a window early on, while it's still exciting and before any history's built up, to get things agreed on properly. His advice to the next generation was the mirror image of that. It might feel awkward going in, but as Pat says it's "a lot more awkward later on down the track" if you don't.
If you're the older generation holding on a bit too long, or the next generation wondering what you've actually agreed to, this one's worth your full attention.
đ You can learn more about Pat and the team at Walsh & Blair at www.walshblair.com.au
A huge thanks to Pat for his time and his candour, and for the impact he and his firm have had on hundreds of farming families across the Riverina and beyond.
Here's to getting the agreements right, before you need them.
Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team
If a plan only lives in your head, no one else can help you make it happen.
That's the line that sits at the heart of this conversation. Because so often on a family farm, there isn't one plan. There are two, or three, or four, each one living quietly inside a different family member's head, each one slightly different, and none of them written down anywhere everyone can see.
In this episode, I'm joined by two of our senior FOA coaches, Elle Webb and Kerrie Smith. Both started, in their own words, at a zero out of ten when it came to having a clear, documented, common plan for their farm businesses. Both now run their businesses off a simple two-page, Clarity Action Plan that keeps the whole family and team pointed at the same goal.
We explore:
- What life actually looks like without a shared plan: reactive decisions, disorganisation, and family members quietly filling the information gap with their own version of the story
- Why a BHAG (a big, hairy, audacious goal) needs to stretch 30, 50, even 80 years out, and how to break that down into 10-year, 3-year, and 1-year goals without getting stuck on the how
- What a Brick List is (anything left undone, sitting in your head and weighing you down) and why simply writing it down and prioritising it is one of the fastest ways to free up headspace and get moving again
- When and how to bring your employed team into the annual, quarterly, and weekly planning rhythm, and why that alignment is what turns individual effort into real momentum
- What it means to have a coach as your "unreasonable friend," asking the questions you can't ask yourself or your own family, and why that discomfort is so often where the growth happens
It took Elle around 35 to 40 versions of her plan over three years before it finally clicked. And what came through clearly for both of them is that the ten-year goal was never just about a bigger business. It was about a business that could fund real holidays, hand genuine ownership to their kids, and give the whole family the freedom to build the life they actually wanted, not just the one the farm demanded of them.
If you'd like a copy of our Clarity Action Plan template or the five questions every strategic plan needs to answer, email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and we'll send it straight through.
Elle and Kerrie, thank you both for your honesty about where you started and for the wisdom and care you bring to our members every single day. You make an extraordinary team.
Till next time,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
What if the best investment you could make on your farm costs nothing extra to feed, never needs a day off, and compounds in value every single year?
That's the case Dr Mark Ferguson has been making for 30 years. And the numbers back him up.
Mark is a sheep geneticist turned ag tech founder who grew up on a family farm in the Victorian Mallee. After completing his PhD in Merino genetics, he founded neXtgen Agri to help sheep and beef producers across Australia and New Zealand breed better and build more profitable enterprises. He also heads up Genesmith, an AI-powered sheep facial recognition platform and hosts the Head Shepherd podcast.
In this episode, we reconnect to talk genetics, entrepreneurship and what it really takes to build a business that compounds in value over time.
We explore:
- The research behind the modern Merino, how fat and muscle selection transformed lamb survival and what that means for your flock today
- How to make genuinely objective breeding decisions and break free from the emotional, vision-driven choices that quietly hold most operations back
- The kitchen table origins of neXtgen Agri, what a trip to Stanford University sparked, and the lessons Ferg learned building a 19-person trans-Tasman business
- Genesmith: the AI-powered facial recognition platform trying to solve one of the sheep industry's oldest problems, dam-lamb matching at commercial scale, and what it needs to get there
- How to attract and retain great people in ag, give them the freedom to grow and build a team that performs beyond any individual
To connect with Dr Mark Ferguson, visitâŻwww.nextgenagri.comâŻor email mark@nextgenagri.com. The Genetic Plan and other resources are available atâŻthehub.nextgenagri.com. If you are interested in Genesmith, whether as a supporter, partner or someone who wants to help drive the project forward, get in touch via the details above. And if you haven't already, search Head Shepherd wherever you listen to podcasts.
Ferg, thanks for your time, your openness and your complete dedication to helping farming families get more from their genetics. The industry is better for it.
It was great to re-connect again.
Some friendships change your life. This one changed Australia.
When Tracy Bevan met Jane McGrath at an airport café in 1996, they were simply two British women far from home, trying to find their place in a new country while their husbands travelled the world playing cricket.
What neither of them knew was that a friendship forged over cups of tea, loneliness, laughter and life's challenges would go on to impact hundreds of thousands of Australian families.
Tracy co-founded the McGrath Foundation with Jane in 2005. Two cricket wives, a kitchen table, no roadmap. Before Jane passed away in June 2008, Tracy made her a promise: to keep going, to honour what they had started together and to ensure no family would ever face cancer alone. She has spent nearly two decades since keeping that promise.
Today, 367 McGrath Cancer Care Nurses, 174,000+ families supported, and a mission that has changed what a cancer diagnosis looks like in Australia.
In this episode, Tracy shares the story behind one of Australiaâs most loved charities - not from a corporate lens, but from the heart of a best friend who has spent nearly two decades honouring Janeâs legacy.
We explore:
- How a difficult childhood taught Tracy resilience and the powerful lesson that helped her break free from the past
- Jane McGrathâs breast cancer diagnosis that changed everything and how one moment between two best friends sparked a national movement
- How one extraordinary nurse helped Jane navigate her darkest days and inspired a mission to ensure no family faces cancer alone
- What it really takes to build a lasting organisation from scratch, growing from a kitchen-table idea to one of Australia's most trusted charities
Today, one in two Australians will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. You may already know someone who has.
It's a sobering reminder that the work of the McGrath Foundation is far from finished. Behind every diagnosis is a family navigating uncertainty, fear, and change and that's why the Foundation's support is needed now more than ever. To learn more, seek support, or contribute to this incredible mission, visit the McGrath Foundation website.
Tracy, thank you for keeping your promise to Jane and reminding us that one act of care can become a ripple that reaches families we may never meet, in places we may never see.
Sincerely,âŻ
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻ
Thereâs an old saying that uncertainty creates opportunity.
But if you're a grain grower right now, uncertainty can also create confusion, hesitation, and some pretty costly decisions.
Over the past few years, we've seen massive swings in commodity prices, input costs, weather patterns, and global politics. For many farm businesses, it feels like the rules keep changing. One minute we're talking about record production and oversupply. The next, global conflict, fund money, and drought concerns are driving volatility back into the market.
In this episode, I'm joined by Market Checkâs Managing Director and Founder, Brett Stevenson and CEO, Nick Crundall to unpack what has changed in global grain markets over the past nine months and what Australian grain growers need to be thinking about right now.
More importantly, we explore the mindset and disciplines that separate consistently successful grain marketers from everyone else.
We cover:
- How global conflict, rising fertiliser costs, and speculative investment are influencing grain prices and market volatility.
- Why global wheat stocks are tightening after record production years and what that means for the outlook for Australian growers.
- Insights around hedging, forward selling and grain storage, including why many growers continue to leave money on the table despite producing excellent crops.
- The common mistake of allowing tax planning and cash flow pressures to drive grain marketing decisions instead of following a clear strategy
Nick shares some compelling analysis comparing hedging versus traditional forward selling and the long-term performance difference between growers who actively manage risk and those who don't. You can access Market Check's analysis here.
This conversation also reinforces themes I explored with Jeff McDonald around financial clarity, proactive planning, and leading your business with confidence rather than reacting to circumstances. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I'd encourage you to do so here.
Nick and Brett, thank you both for your time, your honesty, and your willingness to share what you've learned over many years working alongside growers.
Here's to a great season ahead,
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team.
In Part 1, John Fargher took us back to the beginning, exploring the early days of AgriWebb and the farming families who backed a young ag tech company long before the rest of the industry could see what it would become. If you haven't listened to that one yet, we recommend starting there.
In Part 2, the story gets bigger.
Because beneath the global partnerships and the rapid growth, this episode is really about how farming families move from recording the past to actually getting ahead of it.
At the centre of it all is still the farm business itself. The producer who knows their country better than anyone but is making critical decisions without the right information in front of them. The family navigating rising expectations around data, sustainability, succession, and performance, often without the tools or support to do it confidently.
John talks openly about the gap between what is possible and what most farming families are actually doing, and how AgriWebb's direct to farm model is closing that gap every day. Their collaboration with Figured takes it even further, finally connecting the operational and financial picture of a farm business in one place, so that the decisions being made on the ground are backed by the numbers that matter.
In this episode, we explore:
- How AgriWebb's two-part business model works and why the enterprise model is unlocking value for farmers in ways the industry has never seen before
- The Sainsbury's and ABP partnership, six years in, 500+ farms, and results th
John Fargher grew up on a remote family station in the Northern Flinders Ranges, where distance, drought, hard work and innovation were simply part of life.
He saw first-hand how quickly farming can change. A station that once needed 40 people could later run with four or five. Horses gave way to motorbikes. Water runs that once took days could be done in hours by plane. Each shift changed what was possible, and left John asking one question: what is the next step change in livestock agriculture?
That question became AgriWebb.
In this episode, John Fargher, co-founder of AgriWebb, shares the story behind one of Australiaâs great ag tech businesses, from a floppy disk sitting unused in a station office to a global platform now used across 28 countries, tracking more than 20 million head of livestock.
He talks openly about the early days, the failed hardware ideas, the farmer who almost said no but then chose to back them, and why that moment still gets him emotional more than a decade later.
We explore:
- What AgriWebb is seeing across global agriculture and why Australian agribusiness may be slower to invest than other markets
- How AI is shifting livestock management from recording what happened to forecasting what is coming
- Why the future of farm data is about planning ahead, not just tracking the past
- How AgriWebb now supports farmers across Australia, the UK, the US, Brazil and beyond
For farmers, this is more than a technology story. It is a reminder that progress rarely comes from one big leap. It comes from practical people backing better ways of working before the rest of the industry catches up.
This is Part 1 of the AgriWebb story, with more to come in the next episode.
Thank you John, for sharing the story so openly, and for the work you and the AgriWebb team continue to do in helping move agriculture forward.
Keep winning,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
A good season can hide a lot. So can a strong balance sheet. But performing well on the surface does not always mean the business is built on the right foundation.
Risk builds quietly. Options narrow over time. And by the time most farm owners recognise it, they have less room to move than they thought.
In this episode, Jeremy sits down with Andy Fenton, Managing Director of Fenton Financial, who brings more than 20 years of experience across financial planning, funds management and investment banking, to unpack a confronting but important idea:
It can be our business structures that kill our farm businesses.
Not all at once. Not dramatically. But over time, through outdated structures, poor protection, limited leverage, unnecessary tax inefficiency, and too much control sitting with the bank.
Andy explains why so many farming businesses are still operating in structures that were inherited, kept because they were simple, or never reviewed as the business grew. He talks through what can go wrong when land, machinery and trading operations are tied together in the wrong way, and why that can leave farming families more exposed than they realise.
We cover:
- why outdated structures can quietly hold a farm business back
- the risks of having land and trading activities sitting together
- how tax averaging and poor structuring can limit flexibility
- why banks can gain too much control when security is not set up well
- how better structures can improve protection, succession and wealth creation
We often see farming families operating in structures that no longer fit the business. Thatâs why conversations with specialists such as Andy matter. While Farm Owners Academy is not an accounting firm, we help members ask better questions, think more strategically, and strengthen the business behind the farm through the deeper support available in our 3-year comprehensive Platinum Mastermind program.
If this episode has raised questions about how your business is structured, you can learn more about Andy and his work at https://fentonfinancial.com.au/
Andy, thank you for bringing a clear and commercially grounded perspective to how structure, tax and leverage can shape the level of risk, control and succession in a farm business.
Till next time,
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
Are you concerned by the uncertainty surrounding increased fuel prices?
Is the current global turmoil challenging your view on how to best navigate this season?
The biggest risk right now is not fuel, fertiliser, interest rates, or global instability. It's panic.
Uncertainty has a way of hijacking clear thinking. It pulls people into worst-case scenarios and pushes reactive decisions before the facts are fully in.
That is where the real damage starts. Not in the disruption itself, but in the response to it.
Because when something shifts, whether it is a headline, a price rise, or a disruption, the natural human response is not calm, measured thinking. It is alarm. It is projection. It is the tendency to ask, âWhat if this gets worse?â rather than, âWhat is actually true right now?â.
In this conversation, Sam Johnsson, Tracy Secombe and I unpack what it really looks like to lead through uncertainty, not just from a business perspective, but from a mindset and leadership standpoint.
We cover:
- how to check your state first and move from angst and panic back to composure and optimism
- why stepping away from drama, media, and negativity helps you come back to facts and make logical, informed decisions
- how to use forecasting to assess worst case, average case, and best case, and adapt your approach accordingly
- how practices like gratitude, exercise, and self-regulation help lift your mindset so you can lead your family and team more strongly
You do not need to pretend uncertainty is not there. You do need to lead yourself well enough that it does not make your decisions for you.
Sam and Tracy, thank you for the practical insight and steady perspective youâve brought to this conversation on how to lead through uncertainty.
Navigating the financial side of the business in times like this can feel overwhelming, and youâre not alone. Many farm owners have felt that same pressure and have used the Cash Flow Optimiser to turn uncertainty into clearer thinking and more confident decisions. If thatâs where youâre at right now, you can find out more here.
Keep winning,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
This week, Sam Johnsson hijacks the podcast while Iâm off on a skiing holiday in Austria and he takes on a topic that might not sound flashy, but can quietly change everything in a farm business: building a strong financial system.
Because for a lot of farm owners, the numbers are still something that sit in the background until they become a problem.
And thatâs a hard way to lead.
When the books are behind, the reporting is patchy, or the numbers only come out at tax time, it leaves people making big decisions without a clear view of where the business is actually at. That creates stress, second-guessing, and a constant sense of being on the back foot.
In this conversation, Sam is joined by Jayne Walsh, Tim Fowler, Renee Nicholls, and Bec Balfour to unpack what good financial management actually looks like in a real farm business.
Between them, they bring lived experience from multi-generational farming operations, succession, enterprise management, and bookkeeping support for rural businesses. And what comes through clearly is this: strong financial systems are not just about compliance. They are about clarity, confidence, and better decisions.
We explore the gap between âdoing the booksâ and actually using your numbers to lead the business well. From clean data and simple chart-of-accounts structures, through to forecasting, enterprise analysis, cashflow visibility, and stronger conversations with banks, this is a practical discussion about getting out of reactive mode and into a much more proactive way of operating.
Hereâs what we uncover:
- Why weekly reconciliations and end-of-month processes create confidence in the numbers
- How forecasting helps you adjust as the season changes instead of reacting too late
- The value of enterprise-level reporting to understand what is and is not making money
- Why banks and lenders respond better when your numbers are current, clear, and well presented
- Practical first steps for farm businesses wanting to improve their financial systems this year
If youâve ever felt like the financial side of the business is heavier than it should be, this episode is a good reminder that youâre not bad at business, you just might not have the right system yet.
Because the goal here is not to become an accountant.
Itâs to build enough visibility and rhythm around the numbers that you can lead with more confidence, make better decisions earlier, and stop carrying that constant uncertainty in your head.
Bec Balfour from Rembiz Bookkeeping and Renee Nicholls from RN Business Consulting both work with rural businesses to bring more clarity, structure, and confidence to the numbers. You can reach Bec at rembiz.com.au or rebecca@rembiz.com.au, and Renee at rnbusinessconsulting.com.au or renee@rnbusinessconsulting.com.au.
Sam, Jayne, Tim, Renee, and Bec - thank you for a conversation that gets to the heart of what strong farm finance looks like. Thereâs real value in this one for any farm owner who wants to feel more in control of the business, rather than be overwhelmed by it.
Keep winning,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
Selling the family farm can feel like the ultimate failure. For a lot of farming families, it can carry guilt, grief, and the sense that something precious has been lost.
But Mike Stephens challenges that story head-on.
Mike is the founder of Meridian Agriculture, one of Australiaâs oldest and most experienced agricultural consulting firms, and the author of Life After Farming. For decades, he has helped farming families navigate the people side of agriculture with practical support around succession, transition, and decision-making.
He argues the real measure of âsuccessful successionâ is not whether the land stays in the family, but whether the outcome meets the needs of the whole family, passes the fairness test, and protects relationships.
We explore why the ânever sellâ narrative adds pressure to families already carrying enough, how to get the right conversations on the table (early), and what it looks like when a family chooses a positive exit and thrives in the next chapter.
Hereâs what we uncover:
- Why selling the family farm is not a failure of succession
- Why fairness is the hard but necessary test, especially between farming and non-farming siblings
- The cost of staying in the game at all costs, including debt, pressure, and resentment
- How to approach succession conversations properly, starting with confidential one-on-one input before bringing key issues to the family table
- The power of starting early: it may be too early for a succession plan, but itâs never too early to plan for succession
If your family is carrying the weight of succession conversations, this episode offers a clearer reference point for what good decision-making can look like. Not perfect. Not painless. But fair, practical, and grounded in what matters most.
Mike, thank you for bringing such clarity and steadiness to one of the hardest conversations farming families ever face. Your perspective gives people permission to think more honestly about legacy, fairness, and what a good outcome really looks like.
In your corner,âŻâŻ
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻâŻ
As we step into 2026, thereâs a lot of noise out there.
Geopolitical tension. AI hype. Market highs. Media drama.
And if youâre a farm owner trying to make steady, strategic decisions in the middle of a tight season⊠it can feel like one more thing to carry.
In this episode, I sit down with my good mate Terry Tran, founder of Freedom Trader, to cut through the headlines and look at what the data is actually telling us.
Because while the media sells emotion, markets move on numbers.
And if youâre building off-farm wealth whether inside super, a managed fund, or direct equities, this matters.
We uncover:
- Whatâs really driving the market surge (and why itâs not as broad as it looks)
- Why AI investment is inflating valuations across tech
- What Warren Buffett and other âsmart moneyâ investors are quietly doing
- What questions you should be asking your advisor or super fund
- And how to prepare so youâre not a spectator when opportunity returns
If youâre looking for a clear, practical framework to assess markets, filter quality investments, and build an off-farm portfolio with confidence, join Terryâs exclusive FOA webinar on March 17th at 7:20pm AEDT. Register here.
You can also learn more about Terryâs philosophy, real-money approach to risk management, and the Freedom Trader Blueprint program via his website here.
Thank you Terry for your generosity, your clarity, and for continuing to equip farming families with the tools to invest with confidence and discipline.
Yours in investing,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻâŻ
What if the real constraint in your business isnât effort, seasons, or skill, but the role youâre still stuck playing?
For Ben and Kate, this question didnât arrive neatly. It crept in over time.
Their journey took them far from the farm first, through university, into investment banking in London, and straight into the pressure cooker of the GFC. Long hours. High stakes. A world where structure and accountability were non-negotiable.
Choosing to come home to the family farm wasnât about escaping work. It was about building something of their own.
What they returned to was a third-generation Darling Downs farm growing irrigated silage for Wagyu feedlots. A good business, but one run largely from peopleâs heads, with no clear leadership role and a heavy reliance on who was on the ground each day.
Hereâs what we explore:
- What it really took to come home and spend years earning influence before having authority
- Why their succession took close to two years, and why slowing it down led to better decisions and stronger relationships
- The point where expanding pivots and working harder stopped delivering growth
- What changed once Ben stepped out of daily operations and into a full-time CEO role
- How simple rhythms now hold the business together, including weekly meetings, clear roles, and a 90-day operational focus
If you know your business could handle more, but not the way itâs currently being run, this conversation will give you a clearer reference point for the next shift.
Ben and Kate, thank you for sharing what leadership looks like when itâs intentional, well-timed, and anchored in long-term thinking. The clarity youâve built into your roles, your team, and your systems is a benchmark for whatâs possible when committed leaders give good decisions the space to compound.
Cass, thank you for walking alongside Ben and Kate as their coach. The decisions, structure, and confidence reflected here show whatâs possible when farm businesses are supported, not left to figure it out alone.
Sincerely,âŻ
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻ
There comes a moment in every farm business where the question isnât how much more can we do, itâs what do we actually want to build?
For Simon and Naomi Goode, that moment came after years of doing everything: cropping, hay, livestock, all while raising four kids and managing 3,200 hectares in Victoriaâs eastern Wimmera. They werenât in crisis. In fact, from the outside, they were flying. But inside, they were carrying too much. Too many moving parts. Too many long days. Not enough space to step back, lead strategically, or live the life they were working so hard to create.
In this episode, their FOA Accountability Coach,âŻRick Morris sits down with Simon and Naomi to explore what it really looks like to evolve a fifth-generation family farm into a professionally run business without losing the heart of it.
From completing full succession to stepping into defined leadership roles, they share what it took to:
- exit a legacy enterprise that no longer served them;
- restructure the business and move Naomi into the CEO seat;
- create a trusted âCore Fourâ advisory team to guide decisions;
- redefine success around clarity, family time, and aligned growth.
Youâll hear Simon speak candidly about letting go of old work patterns, building a team he can trust, and learning to prioritise leadership over busyness. And Naomi with her background in public health and local government unpacks how sheâs brought structure, financial discipline, and long-term planning into the heart of the business.
If youâre running a solid farm but craving more alignment⊠if youâre stuck in the weeds but ready to step up and lead⊠or if you simply want to see whatâs possible when a couple gets clear, strategic, and intentional, this episode is for you.
Thank you Simon and Naomi for your candour, courage, and willingness to share the journey so generously. You are a brilliant example of whatâs possible when structure meets heart, and business meets life. And Rick, thank you for being a steady guide and coach on their journey, and for holding this conversation with such care.
Hereâs to more farmers leading like this.
Keep winning,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
There comes a point when the late nights, the mental load, and the constant pressure make you wonder... how much longer can we keep doing this?
Lachlan and Anna Sutton hit that point. Burnt out. Leasing land. Bucketing grain by hand while raising three young kids.
Then something shifted.
In this episode, their FOA Accountability Coach, Hayley Grosser speaks with Lachie and Anna, a couple who, in just 18 months, scaled from those long, heavy days to owning their first property, finishing over 20,000 lambs a year, launching a vertically integrated meat brand, Red Dirt Lamb, and holding a bold vision to build a $100M agribusiness that revitalises rural communities.
But this story isnât just about scale. Itâs about identity, grit, and the price of transformation.
We dive into:
- how they scaled from $200K turnover to multi-million dollar growth in less than two years;
- Annaâs leap from night shifts and nappies to launching a thriving farm-to-fork brand;
- the cashflow squeezes, mental burnout, and mindset shifts they had to overcome with the FOA community in their corner; and
- why their next chapter is about more than lambs on grain - itâs about building a team, backing people, and reigniting regional towns.
This is for anyone whoâs been told itâs too hard to start from scratch. For the couple feeling the strain of burning both ends. For the farmer who lies awake wondering, âIs this all there is?â.
Lachie and Anna show us that itâs not just about working harder. Itâs about changing the game, letting go of the rules, and building a farm that works for your life, not against it.
To learn more about their story or to order their pasture-raised lamb direct from the farm, head to reddirtlamb.com.au.
Thank you Lachie and Anna for reminding us that the strongest farms arenât built on perfect conditions, but on heart, hard conversations, and a refusal to give up. And to Hayley, for not just guiding the story, but offering the right challenge and believing in them before the results were visible.
Until next time, all the very best!
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻ
What if the hardest seasons in your business turned out to be the ones that set you free?
In this deeply honest episode, Marina Gregor, one of our senior business coaches sits down with Andrew Graham, a cattle producer from southwest Victoria, to explore a powerful story of resilience, family, and business transformation.
Andrew was previously burnt out, juggling operations management for a large-scale dairy business while navigating succession plans for his own family farm. Fast forward to today, and his world looks remarkably different, with a thriving cattle operation with 2,500 head, family back on the land, systems in place, and a sense of balance he never thought possible.
This episode is a conversation about what happens when you step out of survival mode and into leadership with clarity and intention. Itâs about letting go, backing yourself, and creating a business that truly works for you.
Together, they explore:
- The messy reality of succession and how Andrew found clarity through it
- How burnout showed up, and what it took to finally slow down
- Why mindset, not just management, was the missing piece
- What changed when Andrew started building the business around his life
- The power of building a team and trusting them to lead
These small shifts might not look like much at first, but theyâre where real change starts. On the farm, itâs the everyday choices including how you plan, how you work with others and how you set priorities that determine the outcome of the season. The same applies in leadership. Creating space to step back, adding structure to the work, trusting others to lead, and getting clear on roles and direction helped Andrew move from burnout to focus and confidence.
If youâre looking to do the same, now is the time to take stock. Block time early in the new year to step off-farm and get clear on your 12-month priorities, because without space, clarity rarely comes. Need help resetting your goals for the new year ahead? Our Ultimate 2026 Planning Guide can help. Itâs a practical resource designed to support reflection, bring focus, and give you a framework to set clear, purposeful goals for the year ahead. Download the guide here.
Thank you Andrew for your openness, your wisdom, and your leadership. Youâve not only changed your business, youâre lighting the way for others too. And to Marina, thank you for stepping in to lead this conversation with insight and care. Your ability to support others to reflect, share honestly, and draw out lessons that others can learn from is what makes conversations like this truly valuable.
Sincerely,âŻ
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
As we reach the business end of the season for many, this episode offers a quiet reflection on some of the deeper and important challenges showing up for farming families and their business teams right across the country.
Thereâs no guest this time. Instead, I wanted to take a moment to share some of my learnings and observations over the year through coaching calls, leadership workshops, and time spent walking alongside farm owners who are doing their best to juggle family, team, operations, and future planning.
What continues to surface are three common forces quietly undermining even the most committed families. They donât always get named, but theyâre felt - in the tension, in the exhaustion, and in the weight that so many carry day to day.
Those three forces are confusion, conflict, and control.
In this episode, I explore what tends to happen when thereâs no clear structure, when roles arenât defined, and when everything rests on one or two people to hold it all together.
I also touch on something many find uncomfortable - the idea that succession might not in fact be the issue at all! Sometimes all that is missing can be a professional and practical business management framework. Without structure, succession becomes messy. With structure, it becomes manageable, and the potential for success through generations enhanced.
We will explore:
- Why resourcing decisions have such a direct impact on freedom, stress, and family dynamics
- The cost of carrying too much, and the long-term risk of building a business that depends on one person
- What it means to lead professionally and put the right frameworks in place, from organisational charts and role clarity to strategic planning and operating rhythms
- The career ladder model that helped one farming family move from tension to shared understanding
- What high-performing teams have in common, and how theyâre built with intention, not guesswork
This is an honest look at what it takes to lead well inside a complex family business. Itâs not about having all the answers, but about making time to pause, reflect, and begin putting the right pieces in place.
As you think about what you want 2026 to look and feel like, this could be the right time to reset. Our TOP Producers Workshop offers space to slow down, take stock, and plan from a stronger base. If youâre looking to lead with more clarity and confidence next year, this 2-Day Workshop in February is a great place to start. We highly recommend it. More details here.
You can also book a free coaching call to assess whatâs working, pinpoint bottlenecks, and walk away with a clear 3-step action plan for your business. Click here to lock in a time and date that suits you.
Thank you for your continued involvement with us and well done on everything each of you achieve for yourselves, your families, teams and communities. We're honoured to share this journey with you.
Wishing you a safe, restful break and the clarity to make 2026 your most aligned year yet.
Merry Christmas!
From Hutch & the entire FOA Team
Sam Whitelock knows pressure. Heâs captained the All Blacks through some of rugbyâs most intense moments. Heâs made high-stakes decisions with the weight of a nation on his shoulders. And now, heâs turned that same grit and composure to life on the farm.
But hereâs what Samâs learned. Real leadership isnât about powering through at all costs. Itâs knowing when to push and when to pause. When to speak and when to listen. And how to look after yourself, so you can lead others well.
In this episode, Sam opens up about his transition from rugby to farming, the lessons heâs learned along the way, and how the principles of leadership he honed on the field apply to farming life. From managing stress and communicating effectively to balancing the demands of family and business, Sam offers practical insights that can help anyone facing the pressures of modern-day farming.
We cover:
- The parallels between leadership on the rugby field and managing a farming business, and how both environments require clear communication, calm decision-making, and showing up for your team.
- The importance of staying grounded and managing stress in high-pressure situations.
- The impact of Farmstrong, a wellness initiative supporting farmers' mental and physical health.
- The challenges of farming and why building a support network and taking time off are key to long-term success.
Whether youâre managing a farm or a team, Samâs reflections remind us that leadership is not just about being in control. Itâs about being self-aware enough to step back and ensure your own well-being is a priority.
Sam, thank you for sharing your journey with us and for reminding us that good leadership starts with taking care of ourselves.
For all our listeners, if youâre looking for resources to support your mental and physical health, be sure to check out Farmstrong. And if you're in Australia, I encourage you to get involved with Active Farmers, a great initiative supporting rural communities.
Keep leading, keep caring, and keep supporting your mental well-being.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
âYouâre doing better than you think.â Itâs the simple, powerful reminder that Tim and Cheryl Freak leave behind after every farm visit.
In this episode, I sit down with two of our long-time FOA members and coaches, Tim and Cheryl, who have spent the past three years deeply embedded in our community, supporting hundreds of farm businesses across Australia. This year alone, theyâve completed more than 50+ full day, in-person visits and share rare insight into whatâs really going on in farming right now.
From drought-hit sheep properties in Victoria, to feedlot expansions in NSW, to cropping and irrigation operations in Queensland, theyâve sat at kitchen tables and walked paddocks, helping farming families align around a shared vision, map out their next steps, and reconnect with why theyâre doing what theyâre doing.
They bring a fresh perspective, often seeing things that others canât because theyâre too close to it. Whether itâs spotting simple changes, helping families refocus on what really matters, or gently challenging assumptions, their approach is grounded in experience and care.
In this episode, we unpack:
- The key themes from their farm visits, from confinement feeding and breed decisions, to water shortages, machinery investments and more
- How the most effective operators are thinking strategically, knowing their numbers, and making informed decisions even in tight seasons
- Succession planning, and the honest conversations that many families avoid but desperately need to have
- The power of having a clear Clarity Action Plan that brings the whole team into alignment, and maps a path forward
- Why investing in your people and seeing your team as an asset, not a cost, is key to building a business that lasts
- The importance of finding joy, creating harmony, and celebrating wins along the way
What Tim & Cheryl bring to these visits with fresh eyes, deep understanding, and a tonne of lived experience is gold.
They often walk into some homes where stress is written all over peopleâs faces and by the time they leave, thereâs a visible shift. Shoulders ease. Confidence returns. People stand a little taller, not because everythingâs perfect, but because theyâre clearer, calmer, and more focused on what matters most.
Whether youâre a grazier in Victoria, a cropper in NSW, a dairy operator navigating burnout, or running a mixed-enterprise with a family team, thereâs something in this one for you.
Tim and Cheryl, you have given yourselves fully and wholeheartedly to this community. You have helped families feel seen, supported, and stronger through some of their most challenging moments. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for the care, wisdom, and compassion you continue to share so generously.
Letâs get into it.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
Australiaâs wool sector is still feeling the pinch. Thereâs no doubt the last couple of years have been challenging, with recent decile two and three prices making it hard for many businesses to stay afloat. But despite these obstacles, the Swales of Woodlands set an example of resilience. Theyâre carrying 150 years of family heritage into the future, proving that even in the face of adversity, there are opportunities to adapt and thrive.
This week, Iâm joined by Jamie & Will Swales both proud Platinum Mastermind Alumni from Woodlands, a 4,265 ha merino operation 55 km west of Armidale in NSWâs New England. This year marks 150 years of their family farming this property, with children Will, Georgia and Angus representing the sixth generation. Congratulations to Jamie, Angela, and their family on this incredible milestone.
In this conversation, we dig deep into:
- The significance of 150 years of family farming at Woodlands, discussing how the farm has evolved and the connection to family heritage.
- The current state of the wool industry, including the impact of falling production, shifts in global demand and the disconnect between auction room price signals and actual consumer uptake.
- Strategic responses to tough times, including pivoting to cattle during drought periods and focusing on merino genetics to improve wool production.
- The industry's need for action on mulesing, with Jamie and Will stressing the importance of addressing animal welfare practices and marketing efforts to meet consumer expectations and boost demand.
Will also shares his personal journey into the wool export industry through Endeavour Wool Exports, a company thatâs become one of Australiaâs largest wool exporters in just a few short years, now exporting around 220,000 bales annually. Will's role at Endeavour involves helping farmers navigate the export process and connecting them to the global market, offering direct-to-farm services and auction support. You can learn more about Endeavour Wool Exports by visiting their website here or by emailing Will directly at william.s@ewexports.com.au.
Whether youâre a wool grower, a farmer considering merino, or someone keen to understand what levers can shift an entire industry, this episode is for you.
BONUS: Get the exclusive! Hutch catches up with Will Swales 10 days later about his recent trip to China, where he joined a group of young wool producers to tour processing mills. Will shares his insights into the industry's future, with mills investing in state-of-the-art machinery and expanding production. He also talks about advocating for Australian wool growers at the Nanjing Wool Market Conference, highlighting the need for price adjustments as production continues to decline. Willâs message seemed to resonate, with the wool market rallying soon after.
A huge thanks to Jamie & Will for sharing their industry knowledge and practical insights into sustainable farming, wool genetics, and navigating global market challenges. Your experience and forward-thinking approach are invaluable to anyone looking to understand where the wool sector is heading and how they can adapt for the future.
Till next time,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If youâre feeling the pressure of navigating industry challenges like falling wool prices, shifting demand, or tough times on the farm, the 2026 TOP Producers Workshop is tailored to help you tackle these hurdles head-on. Weâve created this workshop to address the unique challenges farmers like you face, so you can stay ahead in the game. Secure your spot here.
Australia now has its own Wagyu of lamb and itâs changing everything.
After more than 15 years of focused breeding, data collection, and persistence, Tom Bull and his team at LAMBPRO have achieved what many thought was impossible: the creation of KS7, a Marble Score 7 lamb, developed in partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia, Endeavour Meats, and chef Matt Moran.
This high-marbling lamb delivers the same eating quality, juiciness, and tenderness that consumers love in premium beef. But this story isnât just about a product. Itâs about the vision, innovation, and belief that Australian lamb can compete on the global stage for the most discerning markets.
Tom shares the journey from identifying high-marbling Hampshire Down genetics to developing grading technology that can now grade lambs accurately on the processing floor. He also reflects on what this means for producers and how the industry can evolve to attract young people, reduce labour, and build more efficient, profitable sheep enterprises.
Specifically during this episode, we unpack:
- how genetic discovery and grading technology combined to deliver the worldâs first Marble Score 7 lamb;
- how labour efficiency and youth engagement are shaping the next era of sheep production; and
- why Australiaâs future lies in premium, not commodity markets, serving the âUber-premiumâ consumer who values quality over quantity.
Tom Bullâs work is proof that persistence and vision can move an entire industry forward and that Australian producers are ready to lead the world in innovation and eating quality.
You can learn more about Tom and his work at https://www.lambpro.com.au/
A huge thanks to Tom Bull for his time, insight, and unwavering commitment to raising the bar for Australian lamb.
P.S. Innovation like Tomâs doesnât happen by chance. It comes from clear goals, smart planning and bold action. The TOP Producers Workshop in Sydney on the 16th & 17th February 2026 will help you bring that same mindset to your farm business. Two days that change the way you lead, earn and grow. đ„ Early bird tickets are on sale now for a limited time only! Click here to secure your spot.
Australian cattle and lamb markets are at a tipping point. Prices have surged to record highs, but according to leading analyst Simon Quilty, weâre about to hit what he calls âunsustainable pricing.â
Bringing over 30 years of hard-won market insight to the table, Simon Quilty has worked with top firms including Louis Dreyfus, ConAgra, DR Johnston, and FC Stone. Today, he helps large financial institutions and farmers alike make sense of the complex forces shaping the red meat sector.
In this episode, Simon delivers a no-nonsense forecast: cattle rallying up to 750c/kg before falling back to a new norm around 550⊠lambs peaking at 1350c/kg before settling at 950. These arenât guesses. Theyâre grounded in global supply shocks, Americaâs herd liquidation, and the structural rebuild now underway in Australia.
We cut straight into the forces driving this market, including:
- why Americaâs drought and Trumpâs tariffs are reshaping global trade in our favour;
- how the mass liquidation of the southern Angus herd has set the stage for a desperate chase for quality cattle;
- the shift from wool into meat sheep and the rise of self-shedding breeds; and
- how new global demand from China shutting out US beef to the Middle Eastâs booming chilled carcass trade is creating both opportunity and protection against future price crashes.
For producers, this conversation is a wake-up call. The highs wonât last forever. But there is a clear path forward. One built on understanding the new norms, preparing for volatility, and making confident decisions in a transformed market.
Simon Quiltyâs analysis has never been more relevant. If you want to know where livestock pricing is really headed and how to position your business, this is essential listening.
đ You can learn more about Simon and Global AgriTrends at www.agritrends.com
A huge thanks to Simon for his time, his candour, and his ongoing commitment to helping livestock producers navigate these markets with clarity and confidence. Simon, your insights are invaluable and weâre grateful to have your voice guiding us through such a pivotal moment for the red meat sector.
Hereâs to strong seasons ahead.
Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team
At just two years old, Terry Tran fled Vietnam by boat with his parents, was rescued after days lost at sea, and spent months on a Malaysian refugee island. It was there, on Christmas Eve, that a storm claimed his fatherâs life, leaving his 21-year-old mother widowed with a toddler to raise.
From those humble beginnings, Terry has built a life of financial freedom, not through shortcuts but through patience, persistence and following a clear process. Along the way, he was also shaped by the kindness of others, a reminder that generosity can change lives.
In this conversation, Terry shares how he started from almost nothing, the mistakes he made chasing quick wins, and the principles he now follows to protect and grow wealth. He talks about the role of risk management and how the mindset farmers use to work through seasons is the same mindset needed to succeed as an investor.
We also explore Terryâs view on the global share markets. He explains why US-China tensions and trade tariffs have left markets sitting at unsustainable highs, why Australia may face deflation rather than inflation, and why he is holding larger cash positions to stay prepared. Most importantly, he reminds us that downturns, while uncomfortable, are often when the best opportunities appear.
Specifically, we explore:
- Why managing risk and protecting your capital must always come first
- How to avoid âget-rich-quickâ traps and instead build wealth through discipline and compounding
- How global tensions and tariffs are shaping markets, and why Australia may face deflation
- Why downturns like the GFC and COVID-19 can be the best times to invest if youâre prepared
For farmers, this is both a story and a lesson. The same qualities that get you through tough seasons on-farm can also build lasting wealth off farm.
And thereâs more. Terry is running an exclusive webinar for the Farm Owners Academy Community on Tuesday evening, 23rd September. This is your chance to go deeper, learn directly from him, and build the skills to invest safely and confidently.
Click the link to register your interest: https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/
Thank you, Terry, for sharing your journey and wisdom with such openness. Your generosity and guidance continue to inspire and support our FOA community.
Keep winning,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
In recent years grain growers nationally have enjoyed an extended period of strong prices and favourable market conditions.
According to grain industry authority, Brett Stevenson, Managing Director of Market Check, this may well be all about to change.
Of the back of last monthâs Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC), I invite Brett to once again join me to give us his expert insights to the new headwinds Aussie grain growers now face in coming years.
As grain prices face downward pressure, Brett Stevenson offers invaluable insight on navigating a challenging global market â it seems clear the good times we have enjoyed may now not last forever.
With over 30 years of industry-leading experience, Brett dives into the challenges of navigating a low-price environment and offers advice on risk management, grain marketing strategies, and why the next few years may likely be tougher than many expect.
In this episode, we explore:
- the impact of geopolitical tensions and changing international supply dynamics;
- the challenges of managing input costs while facing long-term low grain pricesâ
- how to prepare for market fluctuations and manage your grain marketing more strategically; and
- the importance of adapting your business model to ensure sustainability in uncertain times.
You can learn more about their services and advisory offerings by visiting Market Check, with a short overview of their capability here.
I would like to personally acknowledge, the long-standing and dedicated service Market Check provides many hundreds of grain growers across Australia. Their team is passionate about supporting farmers with practical, tailored and industry leading advice to help them navigate the complexities of grain marketing, ensuring long-term success, even during challenging times.
Now more than in recent years, we need to be taking complete responsibility for our risk management and grain marketing. Whether youâre looking for daily market updates or in-depth advisory services, we advocate for Brett and his team at Market Check to ensure you're making informed, proactive and strategic marketing decisions.
This conversation is a wake-up call for grain growers: itâs not just about weathering the storm, but making smart, strategic decisions to thrive in uncertain times. By preparing now, you can position your business for long-term success, no matter what the market brings.
A huge thanks to Brett for his candid insights and for stepping in to provide much-needed clarity at this pivotal point in the grain growing season. As harvest approaches, proactive grain marketing and financial planning will position Australian growers to navigate the challenges ahead and make the most of whatâs to come.
All the best for the remainder of this season!
Keep winning. Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team
From growing up on a dairy farm in western Victoria with 12 siblings to the frontlines of one of the toughest fights in medical research, Sam McGuaneâs story is one of resilience, service, and hope. As the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of The Brain Cancer Centre, and a key leader behind Carrieâs Beanies for Brain Cancer, Sam is on a mission to transform the future of brain cancer research.
In this heartfelt episode, Sam opens up about how the values of gratitude, service, and hard work, ingrained in him growing up on the farm, have shaped his approach to both business and charity. These lessons, learned early in life, now fuel his leadership as he works to change the future of brain cancer research.
Brain cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children in Australia, with survival rates virtually unchanged for decades. Sam is determined to change that. Heâs building a model that brings researchers together, fosters collaboration, and supports breakthroughs in treatment. The result? A research ecosystem focused on tangible progress, including one of the most significant brain cancer clinical trials in the world.
We discuss:
- How the farm values of teamwork, generosity, and service shape his approach to tackling one of the toughest medical challenges.
- The incredible success of Carrieâs Beanies for Brain Cancer, which has raised over $27 million, a campaign born from Carrie Bickmoreâs Logies speech and fuelled by the power of community.
- Why the Brain Cancer Centre is changing the way research is done by focusing on sharing knowledge and working together to make real progress.
Samâs story shows how small, everyday actions can lead to big change when fuelled by purpose and community. His mission is clear: No lives lost to brain cancer and heâs working tirelessly to make that a reality.
To all our listeners, you may or may not know someone affected by brain cancer, but imagine making a choice today that could change someone's future forever. You have the power to be the hope someone needs. Whether it's donating, sharing this message, or getting involved in any way you can, every step brings us closer to a cure.
To learn more about the incredible work Sam, Carrie, and their team are doing, and to contribute to this life-changing cause, visit Carrieâs Beanies 4 Brain Cancer and The Brain Cancer Centre.
Sam, thank you for leading this vital cause with passion and purpose.
Sincerely,âŻ
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy TeamâŻ
When you wear as many hats as our farming families do, time is one thing you never have enough of.
From the kitchen table to the paddock, weâre constantly making decisions, solving problems, and figuring out how to do more with less. What if there was a way to take some of that pressure off, without handing over the reins?
In this episode, I sit down with Dimity Smith, agri-business innovator, event leader, and one of the most refreshingly practical minds when it comes to tech in agriculture. Dimity runs tailored AI training sessions for farming families and small ag teams, helping them get started with tools like ChatGPT and put them to work in your business.
Together with Sam Johnsson, we dive into how AI is already helping farmers:
- Draft job ads, safety procedures, and strategic plans,
- Make grant writing quicker and less painful,
- and even help with farm system reviews, one prompt at a time.
But more than the tools, this is about mindset. Dimity reminds us: AI is your co-pilot, not your competitor. Itâs not here to replace your hard-earned wisdom, but to amplify it. And like any tool, itâs only as powerful as how you use it.
We also explore the fears many have about AI, and how simple curiosity might be the antidote to overwhelm.
Dimity puts it best, "You donât have to be great at spelling, you donât have to be techy, and you donât need to have it all figured out.â She runs hands-on workshops through GRO Events Group and GRO Rural where she walks through it all slowly, answers your questions, and helps you use AI in a way that makes sense for your farm.
Join the 2-hour online workshop exclusive for Farm Owners Academy listeners:
- Evening Session â Tuesday 12 August, 5.00 PM AEST (Register here)
- Daytime Session â Wednesday 13 August, 11.00AM AEST (Register here)
For more information on all the workshop details and options, visit the workshop landing page here.
To get in touch, connect with Dimity via social media or head to https://www.groevents.com.au/
Dimity, thank you for showing us that you donât need to be a tech expert to start using AI, you just need to be open and willing to learn. And Sam, appreciate the way you bring these conversations to life.
Hereâs to staying curious, having a crack, and using whatever tools we can to make things just a bit easier, one step at a time.
Keep winning.
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
I really values the constructs that: âyou cannot solve the problem you have created in the environment in which you created itâ⊠and âmany minds make for smarter workâ.
What could you see more clearly if you took time with key decision-makers away from your farm?
How many more options and insights might you access if you more actively called on the collective wisdom of other high-performing farm owners? In this episode, Sam Johnsson speaks with FOA coaches Cassandra Kath, Elle Webb and Sam Pincott to unpack the powerful conversations and insights to come from our latest client conference, our âOrganise Infrastructureâ Deep Dive. With more than 550 farm owners in the room, the focus was clear: how to optimise your investment in infrastructure, equipment and technologies in order to drive efficiency, productivity and farm performance. We all have a long-list of items weâd like to invest in to move our farmâs forward. At the same time there are a host of emerging technologies we need to be considering to help get it done. Getting the sequence for these investments, and structuring them in the right way is critical. Being cautious and under-investing can limit our progress. Being too bullish and over-investing can lock-up cashflow and capital and be the thing that brings us un-stuck.
Are we allocating capital to the highest pay-off items?
Are we making measured decisions based accurate due diligence?
Are we working to a well-designed strategic plan, or making emotive and reactive investment decisions?
For those who attended, breakthroughs came not from a spreadsheet, but from getting off-farm and into a room filled with open, like-minded growth-oriented peers. From sharing 250 tested infrastructure improvements to creating space for goal-setting, strategy and real connection, the impact was felt well beyond the conference content.
In this interview, we cover:
- how a clear process helps avoid âwish-listâ investing;
- the value of stepping off-farm to reflect, reset, and return with focus;
- the impact of immersing yourself in a high-performing farm business community, with individuals open to sharing all of what underpins their success; and
- how clarity can often come from one honest and open conversation, or one small and meaningful action.
You donât need to have it all figured out. Itâs about carving out time and space to slow-down, think, question, collaborate, reflect and reset your plan.
Sam J, thank you for stepping in for this discussion while I take some time to be with my family. Thank you Cass, Elle & Sam P for your reflections and insightful comments.
Keep winning!
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Want to check the strength of your farm business model ?? Join us for the Future-Proof Workshop, a free and practical session designed to spot inefficiencies, set confident financial targets using your own numbers, and refocus on what matters most. đ Register here
What if the future isnât something to fear but something we can prepare for, shape, and lead into with confidence?
For Simon Kuestenmacher, understanding whatâs ahead isnât guesswork. Itâs grounded in data, demography and deep thinking. As co-founder of The Demographics Group, Simon helps leaders across the country make sense of the big forces shaping our communities, our economies and our businesses. In this conversation, he brings that lens directly to farming.
This is a full and generous exchange with someone who not only understands the numbers but deeply respects the people behind them. Simon doesnât just talk about trends, he speaks to what they mean for farm owners, for regional Australia and for the next generation of workers we are all learning to lead.
And his message is simple. The world is changing fast, but if you are in farming, you are in the right place. The question is - are you setting your business and your people up to thrive in what comes next?
Specifically during this episode we explore:
- What happens when the âtyranny of distanceâ becomes a strategic advantage
- Why community and sport remain the glue in regional Australia
- The real story behind generational shifts and what each cohort needs from its leaders
- Why farmers are some of the most skilled professionals in the country
Whether it is about creating better housing options, sharing your values with new staff, or just understanding the long arc of change, this episode will help you see the road ahead with a little more certainty.
Simon, thank you for grounding the data in real meaning. And for reminding us that leading well today is still our best investment in tomorrow.
To every farm owner listening - stay curious. Build systems. Invest in people. Keep asking the questions that matter.
You are farming in the right country, in the right industry. And there is real opportunity ahead for those willing to prepare for it.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
What if we treated safety not as a box to tick, but as a culture to lead?
For Rebecca Fing, this isnât a theoretical question â itâs the heart of her lifeâs work. From her base in Goondiwindi, Rebecca and her team at House Paddock Training & Consulting have spent two decades helping farm families lift their game in HR, business strategy, and importantly â work health and safety.
This episode is a full-bodied conversation with someone whoâs been on over 600 farms and seen it all. Rebecca doesnât just talk compliance â she talks culture. She doesnât just talk paperwork â she talks people.
And the urgency is real. Agriculture employs just 3% of Australiaâs workforce, yet accounts for 30% of all workplace fatalities. Even more sobering â 75% of those deaths involve machinery. These arenât just numbers. Theyâre reminders that safety isnât something we can afford to âget to later.â Because whatâs at stake is far too important.
In a world where the urgent often crowds out the important, she makes a powerful case for choosing safety not someday, but today.
We cover:
- How to make safety part of your everyday rhythm â not a once-a-year task
- Why consistent follow-through matters more than a polished folder on a shelf
- How a culture of confidence (not just compliance) can actually save lives
- And practical tips on how to make a start today: Google free audits, borrow best practices from other industries, and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
Rebecca speaks with the kind of clarity and conviction that only comes from lived experience. Her honesty is refreshing, her passion is contagious, and her message is simple: donât wait for a crisis to care.
Whether you're leading a large team or running a family farm, this one will hit home. Because at the end of the day, this isnât about rules â itâs about responsibility. And creating a farm culture where everyone gets to go home safe.
Rebecca, thank you for showing us the heart behind the how-to. For reminding us that leading with care is the most powerful form of leadership there is.
To every farm owner listening: make a start. Sloppy success, as Rebecca says, is far better than perfect procrastination.
Keep caring. Keep leading. And keep making farms safer.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
Every great innovation starts with a question â Could this be done better?
For Wayne Perkins, that question came in a wool shed, with a busted back, and a view of shearing that hadnât changed in a century. He wasnât looking to build a business. He was looking to fix a problem.
And in true agri-entrepreneur fashion, what followed was part invention, part persistence â and one heck of a story.
In this episode, we shine a light on the doers. The tinkerers. The farm-based problem-solvers who arenât waiting for permission â theyâre out there building something better.
Wayne Perkins is the founder of Perkinz, and the creator of the CrutchMaster and ShearMaster â two breakthrough systems in sheep handling that have become a lifeline for farmers and shearers across Australia and New Zealand. Backed by a background in shearing and solid grounding in farming, Wayne's story is a raw and real account of what it takes to create, adapt, and endure.
We explore:
- Why practical farmer feedback â not engineering perfection â led to breakthroughs
- What itâs like to lead a growing business when the industry you serve is under pressure
- And why innovation sometimes starts with a hunk of steel and the belief that things can be better
Wayne has been through the wringer â financially, physically, emotionally. And yet, through all of it, heâs held onto a simple, powerful vision: make shearing better. He is one of the most determined, self-made thinkers in our space â and someone who reminds us all that real progress often starts with having a go.
If youâre an agri-entrepreneur forging your own path, this episode is for you. And if you're looking to reduce the strain and sharpen the system on your own farm, check out the Perkinz CrutchMaster and ShearMaster at perkinz.com.au.
Wayne â thank you for showing us what it means to stay the course, solve the real problems, and lead with vision (and a bit of good Kiwi cheek).
Hereâs to every farmer and agri-entrepreneur asking that same question: Could this be done better?
Keep building. Keep asking. And keep believing in better.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If youâve got a spark of something â an idea, a side project, a better way â the challenge is keeping it alive while everything else demands your time. Thatâs where our planner comes in. In just 10 minutes, it will help farm owners like you, get back in control and keep your good ideas moving forward.
đ Click here to download your free planner
Succession isnât just a plan on paper â itâs a living, breathing conversation about legacy, leadership, and what weâre really passing on. And when itâs done well, it can strengthen not just the business, but the family behind it.
This episode is a testament to that.
Rob and Ainsley McArthur arenât just managing a successful beef operation in central Queensland â theyâre guiding a generational transition with intention, structure, and a whole lot of heart. Alongside their six children, theyâve created a culture of contribution, where ownership and responsibility are shared from the ground up.
In this conversation, I am joined by the McArthurâs and their Platinum Mastermind coach Sam Pincott. Together we dive into the nuts and bolts of a family business thatâs thriving because itâs been built on purpose and participation.
Hereâs what we explore:
- How Rob and Ainsley stepped into leadership early and chose to rewrite the script on what succession could look like
- Why they treat their kids as stakeholders â inviting them into planning, strategy, and even financial oversight from a young age
- The real impact of strategic rhythm â from quarterly meetings to goal-setting retreats â in building trust and vision across generations
- What it means to balance the âfamily businessâ with the âbusiness of familyâ â and why both need attention
- How FOA frameworks and lifelong learning have helped them shape a business thatâs bigger than any one person
Youâll hear how their children have stepped up to run operations and organise camp drafts, and how strategic grazing lifted their carrying capacity from 1,500 to over 5,000 â all while staying true to their family-first values.
But more than anything, youâll feel the deep pride and strength that comes from leading a family, not just a farm.
To any family listening â whether youâre navigating succession, shaping strategy, or simply wondering how to get your kids more involved â this episode is full of gentle guidance, real-world tools, and hope.
Rob, Ainsley â thank you for showing us whatâs possible when you lead with vision and raise the next generation to do the same.
Sincerely,âŻ
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If this episode got you thinking about legacy, family alignment, or setting the next generation up well â and you know your finances could be more structured â the Cash Flow Optimiser course is a great first step. Designed for farming families, it offers practical tools to reduce stress, improve decision-making, and help you build a business that supports the future youâre all working toward. Take the step as a family â because the best legacies are built together.
Right now, itâs on sale for just $9 (save $188) â and youâll get the exact forecasting tools, templates, and budgeting systems used by top-performing farm businesses. You can apply them in just a few hours and start taking control of your numbers â fast.
đClick here to learn more about the short course
P.P.S. This is your FINAL chance to secure discounted tickets to our last TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop for the year!! Early bird tickets special closes TODAY at 7pm AEST â save a whopping $1,195 on tickets. Join us in person in June in Melbourne or online. If you have ever considered attending an event, donât wait any longer. This is the exact event that has already changed the lives of hundreds of farming families across Australia and New Zealand
Click here to secure your spot
Now and then, you get the chance to pause, look back, and really take stock. And when that moment rolls around, it can be quietly powerful.
Thatâs exactly what this episode is. A milestone. A moment. A celebration.
This year marks 10 years of Farm Owners Academy, and I wanted to sit down with two people whoâve been there from the start â FOA founder Greg Johnsson and our CEO Sam Johnsson â and reflect not just on where weâve come from, but where weâre going.
In this one, we unpack the heart behind FOA, the thinking that shaped the Top Producers Program, and the impact itâs had on farming families across Australia and New Zealand.
But more than that, we talk about what truly sets top producers apart â and why, now more than ever, mindset, business acumen, and strategic focus are the critical tools for leading through uncertainty.
Because right now, volatility is the new normal.
Climate, markets, costs â theyâre all shifting. And that means farming families need a stronger compass and clearer tools than ever before.
In this episode, we explore:
- How FOA began, the purpose behind its creation, and the real-world gaps it was built to fill
- The 9-step Top Producers Model â and how itâs helped thousands build more robust, profitable, and scalable farm businesses
- How top producers use entrepreneurial thinking to stay ahead in uncertain times
- The power of mindset â and how inner growth creates lasting, external transformation
- Real-life examples of families whoâve doubled their scale, renegotiated better finance, and gained strategic clarity â all within months
So wherever youâre at â whether youâre in growth, in a rut, or somewhere in between â this episode is an invitation to step up, get clear, and take charge.
Our last Top Producers 2-Day Workshop for the year is happening June 23rd and 24th in Melbourne (or online if you canât be there in person). And I can tell you, itâs two days that could completely change the trajectory of your business.
This is your chance to step out of the day-to-day and rebuild from the top downâwith the same framework the top 20% of farmers are using to outperform, year after year.
Weâll walk you through how to transform your thinking, optimise your business model, and propel your farm forwardâwith clarity, purpose, and a clear plan in hand.
But hereâs the truth: youâve got to choose it.
Because the best businesses donât happen by chanceâtheyâre built by people who make time to grow, who lean in when itâs hard, and who say yes when most would sit back.
Get off the tools. Step out of the chaos. And create space to lead with purpose.
đ Early bird tickets are available now â reserve your seat here!
Greg, Sam â thank you for the wisdom, leadership, and heart youâve poured into this community.
And to every FOA member and listener â thank you for backing yourselves and walking this road with us.
Hereâs to the next 10.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
The markets are rattled. The headlines are loud. And for farmers trying to plan ahead, itâs starting to feel a bit like trying to build a fence in shifting sand.
Thatâs exactly why, in this episode of Profitable Farmer, Iâve invited back our trusted investment specialist, Terry Tran from Freedom Trader - because when the world gets noisy, Terry brings sharp thinking and clear-eyed strategy.
At present, weâre diving deep into one of the biggest economic curveballs we've seen in years â the Trump-imposed US tariffs. This conversation is as timely as it is important. We explore:
- What this means for Australia & NZ, for agriculture, and for the way we make decisions in uncertain times
- What these tariffs actually are, and how they were calculated
- The ripple effects on global trade, inflation, interest rates â and yes, our ag exports.
- Where the risks lie⊠and where the opportunities might just be hiding in plain sight.
- Smart, proactive strategies to help you safeguard your business and potentially thrive on the other side of this storm.
Terry doesnât sugarcoat it â and thatâs what makes this episode so valuable. He brings the data, the insight, and most of all, a calm, measured voice in the middle of all the noise. Whether youâre feeling rattled, curious, or fired up to adapt and invest wisely, this oneâs worth your time.
Because when everyone else is panicking, the best in the game are positioning.
If you're wondering how to navigate the months ahead and where to look for your next smart move â tune in. And a reminder that Terry is running an exclusive Freedom Trader Webinar for our community. Itâs designed to help you get ahead of the headlines and build real financial resilience for your future.
đ You can register for the webinar here
Terry, thank you for your wisdom and generosity. And to all of you listening â keep leaning in, keep learning, and above all, keep taking care of yourselves and each other. The times may be uncertain, but your next step doesnât have to be.
Just a quick note, this conversation is general in nature and reflects the personal opinions of our guest, Terry Tran. It does not constitute personal financial advice. So as always, take a moment to consider your own circumstances â and if needed, have a chat with a qualified advisor before making any big financial decisions.
Keep winning, everyone.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If this episodeâs got you thinking more seriously about your finances â about how to protect what youâve built and position yourself for whatâs next, then we invite you to join us at the TOP Producers 2-day Workshop this June.
Itâs where strategy meets clarity. Youâll join hundreds of growth-minded farmers diving into what it really takes to build a financially strong, resilient, and scalable farm business. From managing volatility to creating consistent profits â this workshop is packed with the financial know-how and tools every modern farm needs.
đ Early bird tickets are available now â reserve your seat here!
P.P.S. Got 60 seconds? Thatâs all it takes to help us make this podcast even more powerful â and go in the draw to win a $100 gift card.
What resonated with you today? What do you want more of? Your feedback helps us improve our episodes and deliver exactly what you need to grow, lead, and thrive.
Weâd love it if you could take a moment to reflect and share. Your feedback helps guide where we take this next â and keeps the conversation meaningful and focused on what really matters. Take the quick survey here!
Letâs be honest - running a farm can feel like a never-ending list of things to do. The sun comes up, and weâre off⊠chasing the day, solving problems, making it all happen. But hereâs the question weâre leaning into on this episode: What if the biggest breakthrough for your business isnât out there in the paddock⊠but in here, inside you?
At Farm Owners Academy, weâve learned time and again that real transformation - the kind that sticks - starts with mindset. When farmers turn the focus inward and start doing the inner work, everything shifts. And this episode of Profitable Farmer is a powerful reflection of just that.
Weâre unpacking the theme: âWork harder on yourself than you do on your business.â It's a simple idea, but it cuts deep. And itâs at the very heart of what made our recent Tune In, Deep Dive event so special. Over 500 farmers joined us to dive into the mindset, wellbeing, and emotional intelligence tools that donât just improve your business - they change your life.
Iâm joined by two people I respect deeply - Tracy Secombe, our Head of Wellbeing, and David Westbrook (Westy), one of our most loved coaches and a farmer through and through. Together, we get real about:
- Why mindset matters - and how looking inward can unlock better relationships, stronger leadership, and a more fulfilling life.
- Breaking old habits - especially the tough-it-out, stoic mentality so many of us were raised with.
- Simple, practical tools that build self-awareness and keep you grounded, even on the hardest days.
- Real stories of transformation - Westy shares his own journey - raw, honest, and incredibly powerful - from living on autopilot to becoming intentional and aligned in life and business.
If youâre ready to lead with clarity, step into your potential, and show up as your best self - on the farm, at home, and in life - this episode is for you.
Tracy and Westy, thank you for sharing your wisdom and experiences. To everyone listening - my hope is that something in this conversation stays with you, nudges you forward, and reminds you just how powerful you really are.
Keep winning everyone!
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
As we reset for 2025, many are feeling the weight of a brutal 2024. And to be completely honest â when you're staring down a decile one year, itâs hard to know where to start.
How do you budget with confidence? How do you front up to your bank when the season doesnât go your way?
So here is the truth: waiting it out isnât a strategy. Hope isnât a business plan. And if you want to lead your business forward, now is the time to level up how you turn up.
In this episode, I am joined again by Jeff McDonald, Founder & Director of RLS Agribusiness.
Born and bred on an irrigation property in Loxton, SA, Jeff stepped off the farm and into finance, spending 20 years inside a major bank before founding Riverland Lending Services.
Today, Jeff leads one of the largest Agri-finance brokerages in the country. His team settles over $200 million in Agri finance each year, and through RLS Agribusiness, he advises farm businesses on everything from strategy and succession to governance and growth.
Jeff has worked with hundreds of producers, and his insight is gold because itâs built on experience and not theory. He knows what banks are really looking for and how the best operators are preparing â strategically, financially, and emotionally â for what's next.
This episode is not about hype. Itâs about truth. Itâs about acumen. And itâs about how we all step forward, more commercially aware, more proactive, and more in control.
So, hereâs your call to action:
If youâve been flying under the radar... waiting to see how it all plays out... hoping the bank gives you another run - I hope this episode provides insight into how to take a hard look at your business, forecast with clarity and lead with courage.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Ready to take your leadership, financial clarity, and business strategy to the next level? Join us at the next TOP Producers event â live at the Melbourne Convention Centre or virtually on June 23 & 24. With early bird tickets on sale now and the last three events completely sold out, get in quick â secure your spot today and get ready to shift gears in your business.
Where have you learned leadership?
On the farm? In a day job? Inherited perhaps?
For most, NONE have learned the vital art and science of leadership.
It is a learned skill. One we can all commit to and master.
One we all need to be successful in life and business, and in succeeding in the pursuit of a family farm that can transcend generationsâŠ
It is a privilege to introduce Paul Ainsworth, Managing Partner of Lincoln Institute to you in this episode - one that speaks deeply to the heart of leadership, resilience, and the power of community.
Over 15 years, and after a decorated career in the Australian Army, Paul has helped shape leaders in the veterinary and agricultural industries. A graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Royal Military College Duntroon, Paul served as an Infantry Officer with international deployments across five foreign countries, culminating in a role as a military observer in the Middle East.
His leadership journey continued beyond the Army, first as the inaugural Director of ALDI Foods in Australia and then, as CEO and Board Chairman of Australiaâs fastest-growing company in the energy sector.
Now, as the Founding Principal of the Lincoln Institute, Paul is dedicated to equipping veterinary and agricultural professionals with the leadership, management, and communication skills they need to thrive.
Leadership is more than just making decisions. Itâs about connection. Itâs about knowing when to step forward and when to step back. Itâs about building a team that isnât just technically strong but also aligned, empowered, and accountable.
Here Are Some of The Key Leadership Lessons from This Episode:
- How self-aware are you as a leader? How you think you come across isnât always how you do. Where might there be a gap between your intent and your impact?
- Whoâs in your corner? Isolation is the enemyâwhether youâre a vet, a farmer, or a business owner. Who do you lean on? How are you building a strong support network?
- Are you pushing yourself and your team to grow? Real learning happens outside the comfort zone. Where are you playing it too safe?
- Are you empowering or micromanaging? Move from telling to coaching. Teach the standard, then trust your people to own it.
- Do your people know whatâs expectedâbefore thereâs a problem? The best way to avoid hard conversations is to set clear expectations from the start.
- Are you creating clarity or confusion? Strong teams donât need coddlingâthey need to know where they stand, what success looks like, and how to get there.
We are delighted that our FOA Platinum Mastermind & Alumni Members have access to the Lincoln Institute Emerging Leaders Programs. For more information about FOAâs programs and our connection with Lincoln, book a Complimentary Coaching Call here.
Paul and his team at Lincoln Institute have been working alongside farm owners, veterinarians, and business leaders for yearsâhelping them not just lead, but lead well.
This is a conversation about what really makes a difference in leadershipâthe moments that test us, the decisions that define us.
A sincere thanks to Paul for joining us in this conversation. Your knowledge, wisdom and insights are so valuable and transferrable.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and The Farm Owners Academy Team
Running a farm comes with its fair share of challenges, and itâs easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. But some of the biggest opportunities for growth come from stepping outside our own operations, connecting with others, and learning from those facing similar challenges. Stronger businesses, smarter decisions, and a more resilient industry all start with farmers coming together and sharing knowledge.
This episode is all about the power of grower groups - why they matter, the impact they have, and why getting involved can be a game-changer for your farm and business.
I'm joined by Pippa Jones, who, alongside her husband, runs a mixed farm near Goondiwindi, QLD. Beyond the farm, Pippa has played a key role in the Macintyre Ag Alliance, helping to drive innovation and support for local farmers. She also works as an extension officer with NSW Local Land Services and represents the Northern NSW Drought and Innovation Hub. On top of that, sheâs a 2024 Nuffield Scholar, exploring how carbon farming can be both a profitable opportunity for farmers and better supported on a global scale.
Together, in this episode, we explore:
- The critical role of grower groups like Macintyre Ag Alliance and the impact they're having in southern Queensland and northern NSW.
- Why getting involved in these networks goes far beyond just improving technical farming skills.
- How simplifying your farm business model can give you the time and space to pursue off-farm interests, leadership roles, and industry impact.
- Why we should all back ourselves as leaders, even if we don't see ourselves that way just yet.
At Farm Owners Academy, we're proud to be partnering with Macintyre Ag Alliance and other grower groups across Australia to help farmers connect, learn, and thrive.
If you haven't yet, I encourage you to seek out your local grower groups and engage with your regional drought and innovation hubs-they offer invaluable resources and networks that can help you navigate challenges and future-proof your farm business.
You can access more information about the items discussed in the episode below:
- Macintyre Ag Alliance â click here https://www.macintyreagalliance.com/
- Drought and Innovation Hubs â click here https://www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/drought/future-drought-fund/research-adoption-program/adoption-innovation-hubs
- Nuffield Scholarships â click here https://www.nuffield.com.au/
Pippa, thank you for your time, your insights, and your leadership. I hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Keep winning.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
If something happened to you tomorrow, would your farm keep running? Would your team know what to do? Would your business continue to operate, or does it all rely on you?
Itâs one of those things we donât like to think about, but itâs critical â not just for succession planning or long-term growth, but for building a farm business thatâs resilient and can operate without you.
Today, I have the pleasure of sitting down with two of the best people to have this conversation with â Tim and Cheryl Freak.
Tim and Cheryl have been with Farm Owners Academy from the very beginning. Theyâve spent the last 10 years transforming their farm into a âFreedom Farmâ but also, travelling the country in the Farm Owners Academy caravan, working alongside farmers to help them create farm businesses that thrive without total dependence on them.
This is a powerful conversation because it challenges the traditional mindset in farming â the idea that working harder is the only way forward. Tim and Cheryl show us the alternative way. In this episode, we unpack:
- How they transitioned from a business that was completely reliant on them to one that now operates smoothly without them being hands-on every day.
- Why they chose to bring in business partners â giving key team members skin in the game, rather than just employing a farm manager.
- How theyâve structured their operation with clear roles, responsibilities, and systems that ensure everything runs efficiently â whether theyâre there or not.
- The impact of their farm visits with FOA members â where they ask the tough questions and help these incredible people work through challenges that they often donât talk about anywhere else.
We also talk about Freedom Farming â what it really means and why itâs different for everyone.
For Tim and Cheryl, their definition of freedom farming means they now have the flexibility to travel, spend quality time with family, and step into roles where theyâre mentoring and coaching other farmers.
Thereâs so much wisdom in this conversation, and if youâre feeling stuck â if youâre working harder but not seeing the freedom, security, or lifestyle you want to achieve â then this episode will give you plenty to think about.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and The Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Inspired by Tim and Cherylâs journey to creating a Freedom Farm? Ready to take your farm business to the next level? Our Complimentary Coaching Calls are designed to give you the clarity, tools, and strategies you need to succeed. Book your spot here and start making real progress today.
Farming is a beautiful and rewarding way of life, but as we know, it comes with its fair share of risksâsome that we prepare for and others that shake us to the core.
In this episode, we dive into an extraordinary story of resilience, resourcefulness, and reinvention as we sit down with Matt and Hayley Watson, first-generation farmers who built a thriving free-range egg business, faced devastating adversity, and emerged stronger on the other side.
Matt and Hayley share their incredible journeyâfrom building their egg operation to 9,000 birds, navigating one of the worst droughts in Australian history, and tackling the challenges of growth, to the devastating biosecurity crisis that forced them to start over.
Through all the setbacks, their determination, values, and ability to ask âunreasonable questionsâ of good people helped them rebuild their business in under 12 months and turn it into a more efficient, scalable operation; an outstanding result and credit to them both.
This conversation is packed with hard-earned lessons on managing adversity, knowing your numbers, and building a team and a business that can weather even the toughest storms. Itâs also a reminder of the power of community, integrity, and daring to dream big, even when the odds are against you.
Stick around as Sam Johnson, CEO of Farm Owners Academy, leads this inspiring conversation with Matt, Haley, and their coach, Alison Hamilton. Whether youâre navigating challenges in your own farming business or simply looking for a fresh dose of inspiration, this episode is for you.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. To check out Watson Family Produce, click here. Or, if you are interested in egg production for Watson Family Produce click here.
P.P.S. Ready to take your farm business to the next level? Our Complimentary Coaching Calls are designed to give you the clarity, tools, and strategies you need to succeed. Book your spot here and start making real progress today.
Today, weâre diving into a cracker of a conversation with three of our incredible FOA business coachesâRick Morris, Marina Gregor, and Jack Owen. They not only run their own successful farming enterprises but also help guide others in our FOA community to achieve remarkable results.
In this episode, we reflect on the wins, challenges, and insights that shaped 2024. Youâll hear how these coaches, through bold decisions and a deep understanding of their numbers, transformed their farms by simplifying operations and finding focus. They share firsthand how these changes have driven profitability and reduced overwhelmâan approach thatâs reshaping the mindset around diversification in farming.
Before we get into it, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jack, Marina, and Rick for joining me in this episode. Your dedication, commitment, and input to this community are deeply valued. The way you lead by example and share your stories with such authenticity is inspiring. Itâs people like you who make this community what it is, and I couldnât be more grateful to have you as part of the Farm Owners Academy team.
Itâs not just about numbers though. This conversation also highlights the role of mindset, strategic planning, and community in navigating tough seasons and setting the stage for success. Whether itâs embracing the three Rsârest, reflect, reset, or having those all-important planning days off-farm, I hope youâll leave inspired to tackle 2025 with purpose and clarity.
If you want to set yourself up for success in 2025, The Ultimate 2025 Planning Guide is packed with tools to help you map out your best year yet. Donât wait â get your hands on it today. You can download it here.
Thank you Jack, Marina and Rick for joining me in this episode.
I hope this conversation brings you value and wish you all the best for the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Donât miss out! The early bird sale for the Top Producers Program ends on the 20th of January 2025 (This Monday!). If youâve been thinking about joining us to take your farm business to the next level and connect with like-minded producers, nowâs the time. Secure your tickets today before the sale closes â weâd love to see you there! Secure your spot here.
As we near the end of another whirlwind year, itâs a chance to reflect, reset, and recharge. The festive season brings its own flurry of busyness, but before we all step into some well-deserved downtime, I wanted to bring you a conversation packed with insight and inspiration to help you wrap up 2024 with purpose and head into 2025 with clarity.
In this episode, Iâm joined by Farm Owners Academyâs CEO, Sam Johnson. Together, we dive deep into the year that was â exploring the highlights, hurdles, and lessons learned across our farming community.
We unpack practical ways to stress-test your business model, navigate challenges like rising interest rates and tough seasons, and build resilience into your farm and family operations. We also delve into the important interplay between scale, gearing, and business model and how to assess your farmâs performance against several critical measures.
Sam shares a special reflection on his personal journey this year, showing how resilience isnât just a business strategy but a life skill, too.
We also celebrate the incredible work of the FOA team â our analytics professionals, coaching leaders, and operational champions â who have supported farming families across the country to benchmark, plan, and grow stronger farming businesses. Thank you, team, we are so grateful for the dedication and âabove and beyondâ support you consistently provide to our members and community.
Whether youâre looking to refine your vision, strengthen your business, or just find fresh motivation for the year ahead, I hope this episode will help in some way or another.
So grab a cuppa, or keep the tractor running, and join us for a conversation that could set the tone for your best year yet.
Thank you for tracking with us this year. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and festive season.
Hutch and the Farm Owners Academy team.
P.S. If you know someone who would make an excellent guest for the Profitable Farmer Podcast, you can nominate them by providing their name, contact details and an outline as to why you feel theyâd be a cracking guest by emailing us at support@farmownersacademy.com
Resources mentioned in the episode:
Complimentary Coaching Call: If you would like to find out more about our Platinum Mastermind â business coaching and mastermind program â and whether this is a good fit for you and your business, you can book your one-on-one coaching call with a member of our business coaching team here. Book your call today.
Cash Flow Optimiser: This short course is designed to help make your financial planning more straightforward and effective. Discover how to turn your farm into a highly profitable business by choosing the right model, leveraging the Profit First Farm Business Model Analyser Tool, and mastering accurate forecasting. Uncover the seven steps to effective business model forecasting (BMF), the difference between budgeting and forecasting, and equip yourself with strategies to benchmark, stress test, and project cash flow with precision. Plus, gain invaluable insights from bonus training and real-world case studies that show what it takes to thrive, even in tough seasons. Check it out here.
TOP Producers Program: If you are ready to elevate your farming operation to unprecedented levels of productivity and profitability, the TOP Producers 2-day workshop is designed specifically for forward-thinking Australian farmers like you, who are motivated to scale up, earn more money, and run a better farm business. Discover innovative ideas, practical strategies, and the latest insights, all tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of Australian agriculture. We have two events in 2025, attend virtually or in person â dates and locations here.
Ultimate 2025 Planning Guide: this FREE planning guide is here to help you refocus, set meaningful goals, and build a clear plan for a more profitable, sustainable farm business. Reflect on 2024, follow along with templates and tools to help you set up for an incredible 2024 and ensure you start the new year with clarity, purpose and control! Download your free guide here.
Todayâs conversation is one of those deep dives into leadership, resilience, and navigating the complexities of lifeâwhether thatâs on the farm, in the boardroom, or out on the footy field.
Joining me is Cameron Schwab, a man who, at just 24, stepped into the CEO role of an elite AFL club, and over the years has learned not only what leadership demands of us but how it shapes us.
Cameron is the real dealâa thinker, a mentor, and someone whoâs walked the path of success, failure, and reinvention. Now founder and CEO of designCEO, Cameron leverages his extensive leadership experience in professional sport and business to mentor and support CEOs, senior and emerging leaders, and their organisations across various industry sectors. You can find more information about Cameron and his offerings on his website here.
In this episode, we unpack what it takes to show up as a leader when the pressureâs on, how to navigate those âwhat am I doing here?â moments, and why the quiet, reflective times when no oneâs watching might just be the most important moments of all.
Cameronâs insights, from his experiences in elite sports to his work now coaching leaders across business and community, are so relatable and deeply impactful.
We explore what it means to create the right conditions for people to thrive, how to reframe your story when itâs holding you back, and why leadership isnât about having all the answersâitâs about showing up with courage, humility, and a deep sense of purpose.
I hope you enjoy as we dive into this thoughtful and inspiring conversation.
Cameron, thank you for sharing your wisdom, heart, and valuable practical tools that we can all takeaway.
Sincerely,
Hutch
P.S
Often, the journey of personal development can be misunderstood or even dismissed- many might view it as unnecessary or even indulgent. As we explore in this episode, it is not about âfixingâ yourself or chasing perfection⊠itâs about choosing who you want to become, letting go of old stories, and moving towards a more authentic, abundant version of yourself.
In this episode, I am delighted to once again speak with Tracy Secombe, our Director of Wellbeing at Farm Owners Academy, and someone who helps our community open-up to and embrace conversations about personal development and mindset.
In challenging times and an ever-changing world, for mine, this shift is more important than ever.
Tracy and I explore how to reframe challenges, embrace emotions without judgment, and navigate the highs and lows of personal growth.
Tracy shared a perspective that Iâd describe as seeing life through a glass-half-full lens: âThereâs plenty more where that came from.â Itâs a simple yet powerful phrase, and when you really reflect on it, it represents a mindset shiftâfrom focusing on scarcity and limitations to embracing abundance and possibility.
We unpack how to manage emotional triggers, find clarity during tough times, and step into a mindset of growth and abundanceâeven when the world feels heavy. Tracyâs take on shifting from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance is not just inspiring; itâs transformative.
I hope this conversation will leave you with fresh perspectives and valuable tools to take into your own life and business.
So grab a cuppa, take a moment for yourself, and settle in for a heartfelt conversation thatâs sure to challenge and inspire.
Letâs dive in.
Hutch and the FOA Team
I have heard it said that âdoing a traditional thing in a traditional industry may no longer be relevant.â
I have also heard it said that the point of entrepreneurship is to âcreate a legacyââŠ. that is to create something that makes an impact of significance in the market, that will last beyond your life-time.
Certainly there are great examples of individuals and teams out there daring enough to be highly entrepreneurial, deeply strategic and very innovative in finding ways to âget it doneâ.
For mine, Liam Leneghan and his GO.Farm Story presents an outstanding example of this, in modern day Australian Agriculture.
Just over 10 years ago, GO.Farm Australia was simply an idea in the mind of a very credible and progressive Australian Agriculturalist.
Today, GO.FARMâs vision for transforming Australian agriculture has driven the development and management of $1.2B worth of agricultural assets, including 96,000ha of farmland producing high-value crops such as almonds, mandarins, tomatoes, winegrapes, grains, pulses and oilseeds.
With a strong focus on innovation through a Responsible Agriculture lens, GO.FARMâs investment strategies deliver a positive impact for its environments and local communities, while generating significant wealth for its investors.
From an idea, combined with a deep determination to transform Australian farmland⊠GO.Farm is now a growing team of over 250 people, committed to this vision.
It is a truly compelling story, that I feel we can all learn from. Through this I am reminded of the benefits of being unconventional; that leadership starts with making informed and risk-aware predictions about the future; that business ownership is about being courageous and dertermined; of the power of having conviction; of learning from mistakes and âgoing againâ; of the value in making unreasonable request of people with influence; of the importance of a commitment to our own learning and growth; and the importance of surrounding yourself in high-calibre people on this journey we all play in business.
Some individuals are simply truly pioneering and daring to make an impact.
Liam, I commend you on your courage, deep conviction and your modern-day pioneering. I hope our conversation pays some tribute to your impressive career, and the successes of GO.Farm and your team.
Congratulations mate.
Hutch & the FOA Team
In this episode, I speak with Tim McGavin, Founder and Managing Director of Laguna Bay, one of the largest privately owned agricultural investment funds globally.
Reflecting on his farming background and extensive career, we explore life growing up on a station west of Barcaldine, QLD alongside his âbushyâ father and family. We explore Timâs early years through school, his journey into agriculture and the intriguing and unique pathway he has taken to achieve significant success within our industry.
Our conversation touches on the pivotal role of Marcus Oldham in shaping the next generation of Australian agricultural leaders. We explore its innovative approach to education, its extensive Alumni network and its influential impact on the industry.
Importantly, we speak of Marcus Minds, a new initiative developed to help farm owners learn the key principles of high performance. This collaboration between Laguna Bay and Marcus Oldham draws upon the expertise of leading specialists and focuses on helping people overcome personal challenges, pursuing mindset mastery, pathways for self-development, a higher quality of life and building resilience.
Much like the personal development and entrepreneurial principles taught at Farm Owners Academy, Marcus Minds is bringing an important new way of thinking and leading into our industry.
Tim and I both acknowledge that farming can be a lonely and challenging environment in which to live and operate. Yet, we agree that to achieve the highest level, we must first master the mind.
To quote Tim, âIâve learnt that if you get the inside right, the outside falls into place.â
Marcus Minds is a free resource available to all, and I recommend checking it out.
Congratulations Tim, on your pioneering of this project and congratulations on a fascinating career. Thank you for sharing your story and insights for success in this conversation so openly.
And thank you for helping us highlight the great work of both Marcus Minds and Marcus Oldham Agricultural College in supporting excellence in Australian agriculture.
And what a story it is.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
As always, it is great to speak with Terry Tran and get an update on what is happening across our economy and the global investment landscape.
In this episode, and 6 months after our last update from Terry, we cover all things interest rates, inflation, commodities outlooks, exchange rates and economies.
We get Terryâs valued insight across the USA, China, Russia/Ukraine and other global developments, and how these might impact equity investment decisions in the near and long term.
We are excited to bring another exclusive Freedom Trader investment webinar to the Farm Owners Academy community at 7:20 pm (AEDT) on Tuesday, 5th November, details are here.
If you are interested in exploring world-class coaching on how to invest successfully in the global market, then we recommend this webinar and Terryâs Freedom Trader program, details here.
Thank you, Terry. Congratulations on the work you do supporting so many families to pursue and achieve financial freedom.
I look forward to a beer on your new veranda and to enjoying the view across Sydneyâs incredible cityscape very soon!
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If you're also looking to tackle stress and improve your well-being, our FREE 2024 Edition of The Low-Stress Farmerâs Handbook is now available. Discover essential strategies for reducing stress, avoiding burnout, and building resilience. It's packed with practical advice tailored to farmers' unique challenges. Click here to get your copy now: Download the Handbook.
We all have a role to play in inspiring our next generation of farmers â now there is a compelling program and pathway to make this happen.
In this episode, Hutch speaks with Chloe Smart, Training and Career Development Coordinator at AgCareerStarts. As Chloe explains, AgCareerStarts provides on-farm employment opportunities for 17 to 24 year olds interested in pursuing a career in agriculture. Backed by the National Farmers Federation (NFF), the initiative provides the link between a recent school leaver or ag college/university graduate with a professional farm business owner, keen to nominate themselves as an AgCareerStarts Host Farmer.
In addition, we speak with Host Farmer Simon Cameron, a fine wool merino producer from the Northern Midlands of Tasmania. Simonâs farm, âKingstonâ comprises 3125 ha of which about 12% is developed with introduced grasses. The rest is split between lightly timbered bush country and native grasslands. Their wool production is accredited under SustainaWOOL Gold and the Responsible Wool Standard, making Simon a great example of the on-farm opportunities we can create for young people wanting to forge a career in our industry.
Post university, Chloe travelled across Northern SA and Western NSW as a contract musterer and senior station hand on a 280,000-acre Merino Sheep property in Hay, NSW. She understands on-farm roles and the challenges associated with farm life, as well as how difficult it can be for young people to shape their early careers in our industry.
This is an important and highly professional initiative I am only too happy to advocate for.
I commend Chloe and her team and NFF for pioneering this initiative, and congratulate the many host farmers already active in helping our next generation to positively enter our industry.
For more information, click here.
The deadline for applying to secure an AgCareerStarts Team Member for 2025 is Friday 4th October 2024.
I am sure Chloe and her team will be only too happy to speak with you and answer any questions you have.
Thank you, Simon, for sharing your experience, and congratulations to Chloe and your team on the great work that you do!!
Hereâs to the next generation!
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If you're also looking to tackle stress and improve your well-being, our FREE 2024 Edition of The Low-Stress Farmerâs Handbook is now available. Discover essential strategies for reducing stress, avoiding burnout, and building resilience. It's packed with practical advice tailored to farmers' unique challenges. Click here to get your copy now: Download the Handbook.
âFarm Systemsâ or âGrower Groupsâ play a pivotal part in our farming landscape.
Of these, Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) is the pinnacle.
Providing large-scale, in-season crop & pasture production trials, the latest research intelligence and important production improvement training to progressive farmers across Victoriaâs Wimmera & Mallee for over 30 years, BCG is one of our nationâs major contributors to in-paddock production advancement.
Perhaps equally important is the community assembled, the farm management support provided, the collaboration now possible, and the knowledge-sharing and the boundary-pushing outcomes achieved for bringing many hundreds of passionate, forward-thinking farm owners together.
In this episode, I speak with Harm van Rees, a legend and gentleman of our industry, who has been part of the BCG story since its inception.
With BCG Founders Ian McLelland and John Ferrier, and as an independent agronomist for over 30 years, Harm has pioneered countless research and extension projects that help farming families push the boundaries of production. He has consulted directly to many hundreds of farming families over his career, and travelled the world on behalf of GRDC, CSIRO and other research institutes always with a dedication to pushing production boundaries.
Farm Owners Academy is proud to be partnering with leading Grower Groups across Australia, and bringing our business education and coaching capability to their communities. If you are part of a leading Grower or Farming Systems Group in Australia or New Zealand, please reach out to us here to explore opportunities to collaborate.
I hope this discussion with Harm van Rees does both his important career and the BCG story justice.
To CEO Fiona Best and the entire BCG team, and on behalf of our industry (if I may be so bold), I want to say thank you, well done and congratulations on your passion, dedication and support to Australian Farming Families.
Thank you Harm, wonderful to connect, and hereâs to a positive finish to this production season!
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. If you're looking to tackle stress and improve your well-being, we have just released our FREE 2024 Edition of The Low-Stress Farmerâs Handbook. Discover essential strategies for reducing stress, avoiding burnout, and building resilience. It's packed with practical advice tailored to farmers' unique challenges . Click here to get your copy now: Download the Handbook.
Itâs incredible seeing the results members of our Platinum Mastermind are achieving, their commitment to the program and the progression of their business and personal development.
FOA Alumni Members David (Diesel) & Rhianne Low, make a great example of this.
Commencing the program in July 2017, Diesel & Rhianne have become valued members and real contributors to our growing community. Starting as a mixed farm struggling for profitability, the operation was completely dependent on them, with Diesel typically working 80 hours per week. It is fair to say that they have completely transformed their business and lives.
Benchmarking and the support of our Analytics Team helped them decide to focus on ONE enterprise to achieve more focus and scale.
Forecasting and Decision Support Tools have allowed them to set down a financial roadmap that provides them more confidence in the resilience and performance of their business model for years to come.
Their 2 Page Strategic Plan helps them remain aligned and focused together as they prioritise business improvement through structured annual and quarterly meetings.
Having a Business Coach dedicated to their success has helped them navigate some challenging business and personal times, and consistently held them accountable for the implementation of their plan and toward their compelling goals.
FOAâs Personal Development Training has helped them together move from a mindset of blame, lack and hardship to one of positivity, abundance and gratitude.
The Business Development Training has supported them to set down structures, systems and professional disciplines that drive on-farm efficiency, and support an on-farm team that helps them get it done and enjoy more balance, fun and freedom in their lives.
Last, but certainly not least, the friendships and the community they are now part of is a highlight of their 7-year journey with FOA.
The FOA Team are delighted to welcome Rhianne Low into our Team as an Accountability Coach. We also highly value Dieselâs contribution as a mentor to others in the program.
Diesel & Rhianne, thank you for your positivity and for being such dedicated members of the FOA Alumni & Community. And thank you for sharing your story and FOA journey with us.
Simply, incredible.
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
In this episode, I am delighted to introduce to you Zoe Lamont, owner of Farm Door Riverina, a growing regional food business providing ready-made, wholesome meals to busy families, retirees and the elderly across Australia.
Growing up on a farm near Junee, Zoe has deep ties to the land and a vision for bringing high-quality, wholesome, locally sourced food to families across Australia.
Zoe shares her journey from farm life to buying and then building a highly successful business, with her husband Frank, that not only supports local producers but also brings the best of what we grow directly to people's tables. We explore:
âą The origins of Farm Door Riverina
âą Frank & Zoe's mission to bridge the gap between farm and table
âą The challenges and triumphs of scaling a food business
âą The importance of innovating and adapting your business models in order to grow
âą How Farm Door is providing wholesome food solutions to busy urban families, retirees and the elderly alike.
A team now of over 30 providing over 3,000 meals per day, Zoe & Frankâs story is a powerful reminder of how good quality food can change lives and bring happiness and wellness to households across Australia.
It is also a reminder to us all to stay true to our values, even when the chips are down, and put integrity and a commitment to quality at the forefront of everything we do.
If you are looking to provide farm produce more directly to the consumer or explore new ways to diversify your farm's income, this episode will leave you inspired to think bigger about the impact you can have.
More information about Frank, Zoe and the Farm Door story can be found here: https://farmdoor.com.au/pages/our-story
Thank you, Frank, Zoe and your team for all you do. I appreciate you sharing your story.
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
In complement to our last two episodes that focus on on-farm culture and team, in this episode, I explore a question we receive often:
When is the right time and how do we best establish an Advisory Board?
There is an important set of business practices and disciplines that need to be in place and effective prior to establishing a Board. It is important that as business owners we retain ownership and full responsibility for key elements of our businessesâ strategic plan, performance analysis, budgets and operational plans. It is important we have reasonable expectations of Board Members and do not expect them to do the âhard workâ on these important elements of business leadership for us. It is also important to be very careful who we invite onto our Board, and what we should reasonably expect from them.
Letâs be real for a moment, farm business ownership is a very complex assignment. We are exposed to the vagaries of the season and the markets. We run complex businesses in isolated settings with our families.
To be in the top 20% of our industry â like the elite athletes we see achieving so much presently at the Olympics â it is important that we have the right advisers around us and that we engage with them in a proactive and highly professional way. It is also important that we immerse ourselves with peers and in a community that is growth-oriented, open-minded and committed to excellence.
I feel privileged to be part of the Farm Owner Academy team and community, and I thank all of our Platinum Mastermind and Alumni Members for their contribution to our elite and high-performing community of farming families.
I hope this episode adequately answers these important questions, and challenges you to ensure you have the people you most need around you to support your success.
Keep winning!
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
CULTURE - we all have one, whether we like it or not. Within our business, our family, even our community.
Leaving our culture unchecked can be a disaster. Accepting a sub optimal culture can be destroying... for you AND those around you.
At Farm Owners Academy, we believe deeply in creating high-performing teams and cultures, both in family AND business.
Once again giving you special insight into our Platinum Mastermind program, this episode is an excerpt from a previous 'Growth Call' webinar that I run monthly with our members.
In this particular coaching call, I call on my old mate and past business partner, Simon Harris to dive deep into the essential elements of building a thriving culture within your farm business. Si brings a wealth of experience and insights into creating an environment where your team can excel and your business can flourish.
Specifically, we explore:
- What is company culture
- What are the 6 types of cultures
- How does your culture rate
- What we can do to improve the culture of the companies we lead, and
- The unique set of 'SOFT & FLUFFY RITUALS' that can be the key to the foundations of a great team and high-performance culture.
Throughout our conversation, we emphasise the impact that a positive culture can have on overall business performance. From increased employee engagement to improved operational efficiency, creating the right culture is a game-changer for any farm business. Si provides actionable tips and real-world examples that you can implement in your own operations to start seeing immediate benefits.
Whether you're struggling with team dynamics or looking to take your farm's culture to the next level, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice. Tune in to discover how you can create a thriving culture that drives success in your farming business.
Enjoy!
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
It is clear to me that so many of us are under-resourced.
As such, we dedicate 20-40 hours per week to low-value farm activity, often at the expense of CEO-level tasks. For me, this continued focus on low-value activity might save a wage, but it's costing you a FORTUNE. This episode is all about how to break free from that cycle and step into the role of a true business leader.
Giving you special insight into our Platinum Mastermind program, this episode is an excerpt from a previous 'Growth Call' webinar that I run monthly with our members.
During this call, I am joined by Farm Owners Academy CEO, Sam Johnson, and we have an open conversation with our members about:
- Identifying where and why we are under-resourced.
- Shifting from a scarcity mindset to one of growth and abundance, which allows us to see the value in investing in our teams.
- Practical steps to justify the financial investment in new hires and the long-term benefits this brings.
- Strategies for recruiting effectively, even in a challenging job market and how to build a team that supports your vision.
- Creating a clear organisational structure that defines roles and responsibilities, ensuring everyone is aligned and working towards common goals.
Thank you, Andrew Driscoll, for sharing your experience in this area, and thank you all for your involvement in this important conversation. Andrew's journey from feeling overwhelmed to strategically resourcing his farm provides a real-world example of the transformation possible when we back ourselves and our vision.
To have a FREEDOM FARM, we need to build out our dream team. Let's back ourselves to each get on and get this done!
Keep winning.
Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team
Nuffield Internationalâs vision is to inspire people to make a difference in the world of agriculture.
It is fair to say this great organisation is truly achieving itâs global vision- directly as a result of the many great leaders of Nuffield, like Jim Geltch, who have committed much of their careers to making this happen.
It was a privilege for me to speak this week with a fellow scholar and good friend of my fatherâs, Jim Geltch about the Nuffield farming scholarship program and the significant impact this unique and very special organisation has had on our industry, both locally and globally. For more information on how to apply for a Nuffield Scholarship, click here
Jim started farming in 1971 in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area at Whitton growing rice, row cropping and ultimately into tomato production. This led him to later taking up a leadership position managing the Australian operations for New Zealandâs tomato processing company, Cedenco.
As a long-serving guardian of the Nuffield farming scholarship program, Jim served as CEO Nuffield Australia 2005-2016, Nuffield International CEO 2008-2020, having completed a Nuffield Scholarship tour himself in 1986.
Over that time Nuffield expanded to be a truly international foundation and a greatly expanded global community of scholars.
Jim has since been awarded an Australian Order for Services to Agriculture, and the Rabobank Leadership Award recognising the fundamentally important role he had played developing upcoming leadership in the Australian and New Zealand food, fibre & agribusiness sector.
It is my hope, through this interview, that we advocate for the Nuffield farming scholarship program and that we honour the immense contribution that Jim has had made to this organisation and itâs community of industry leaders.
Thank you Jim for a career advocating for the next generation of leaders in our industry, and for your immense contribution to Nuffield and to Australian Agriculture.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
Imagine losing your arms, legs, body and your entire outlook on life⊠at age 19.
Imagine being in the prime of your life, only to have it all taken away.
Imagine having to start over, come to terms with that hardship, yet find the determination to get on with life.
Imagine how hard it would be to âstand back upâ and turn up to life again.
Then, imagine successfully re-creating yourself, finding the woman of your dreams and excelling in a 35-plus-year career as a successful farm business owner.
Imagine finding a way to farm, ski, drive, fly and so much more again!
Imagine complementing all of this with a 20-plus year career on the speaking and education circuit; dedicating your life to helping and inspiring men & women and children of all ages to face adversity, overcome their hardship and live their best lives.
Ladies & Gentlemen, meet Sam & Jenny Bailey.
For me, this conversation was a genuine privilege.I love the opportunity I have to share great Australian stories.
Sam & Jenny, you are truly wonderful, on so many levels. You are a great example of companionship, determination, courage and true grit.
We look forward to having you with us at our next FOA event, and to welcoming you into our community.
For anyone wanting to connect directly with Sam & Jenny, you can find them here.
For anyone wanting to read or share their book âHead Over Heelsâ, you can access it here.
And for anyone wanting to help Sam on his mission to be the worldâs first quadriplegic helicopter pilot!! you can learn more and do that here.
Thank Sam & Jenny, for helping us all keep perspective and be appreciative in times of need.
Hutch & Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Would you like to take advantage of a 60-minute coaching session with one of our leading coaches at Farm Owners Academy?
We are currently offering 15 free sessions to our podcast listeners where you will be able to sit down, overcome obstacles and gain clarity in your farming business with guidance from an experienced coach. Click here to book your session before spots fill out.
In this episode, it is great to connect again with the impressive Sam Johnsson, CEO to Farm Owners Academy, and:
- reflect on his 3 years with us;
- acknowledge the incredible FOA team and community;
- discuss the importance of the CEO Role in any business;
- explore the power of focusing team members toward âtheir geniusâ within a clear and well-documented team structure, and the value this can bring to growing teams;
- explore the important concept âThe Gap and The Gain, and how this concept can help us transform team cultures, enhance confidence in individuals, and underpin high performing teams; and
- revisit the value of strong cashflow modelling in farm business management in helping stress-test your business model in the current climate.
It is always good to connect with Sam on Profitable Farmer, and to share the insights he sees for his time leading FOAâs growth in supporting members of our Platinum Mastermind and Alumni Community in their farm expansion decision-making.
To access the Cashflow Optimiser Program we mention, click here.
To access our Farm Financial Framework training, click here.
And to book your tickets to our upcoming June TOP Producers event on the Sunshine Coast, click here.
Finally, keep an eye-out for our next Business Mastery Series webinar (scheduled for August) â How to Stress-Test your business models, adapt and thrive in the current farm business climate.
(Georgia â check the headline for this with Michaela, and share a link to this as well, IF the landing page is available and liveâŠ)
A massive shout-out from Sam J & I in this episode to our incredible coaching, analytics and business support team. Your dedication and commitment to FOAâs growth and this community in immense and greatly appreciated. Thank you sincerely, for all you do.
Keep being incredible.
Hutch & FOA Team
For so many of us, so often our self-confidence and sense of self go up and down with the seasons. We feel good about ourselves when times are good, and we are intently hard on ourselves, and even think we are failing, when the season, the conditions or the markets go against us.
Before Christmas we saw a shock hit the sheep-meat market, impacting meat producers at that time significantly. In many areas of our country, we see farming families navigating extended flood events, and in others extended dries.
In this podcast I invite Tracy Secombe- Director Well-being & Coaching at FOA- to join me and explore this issue, and how- as a farm business owner- we can overcome it and rise above it.
Ladies & gentlemen, we are not our bank account balance. We are so much more than âjust farmersâ and âjust farmers wivesâ. We are leaders of families and great businesses. We are citizens in communities and valued friends to so many. We are good, hard-working, dependable, capable humans doing very good work and making very real differences in so many ways.
As we explore in this important discussion, we have the opportunity to take ownership of OUR IDENTITY. We have the opportunity to change our personal story and realise that farming is what we do, it is NOT who we are.
In the episode, Tracy shares some tips on how to expand our identity, to include all the important roles we play; how to find a greater sense of balance between them; and how to also shift our sense of self to âwho we areâ rather than âwhat we doâ.
Tracy also helps us understand how can best navigate those moments in life when our Identity needs to shift from an active farmer into retirement; from technical farmer to farm business owner; from âfarmers wifeâ to âpartner in a successful family businessâ and from career person to being a Mum & Dad for the first timeâŠ
Changing our story and embracing practices that support a strpgner sense- of self and a well-rounded IDENTITY is fundamental in the pursuit of growth and expansion in any area of life.
Elite athletes, musicians, artists and professionals all get coaching on this â Australian Rugby Captain Michael Hooperâs interview with Ben Crowe on his podcast âCar Chats with Croweyâ being a great example. Good enough for them, equally important for us.
Thank you Tracy for your time and for your insights on such an important topic at this time.
Thank you.
Hutch & Team
I have said before that there is so much we can learn from business leaders and entrepreneurs outside of our industry.
In this episode, I interview Jim Gall, now CEO of RB Sellars.
There is no doubt that RB Sellars has been established as an iconic brand across our landscape. Jim reminds us that success in business doesnât happen overnight and that the strong position they have developed in the market has come from a leadership team with a clear focus. Focusing on a sustainable commitment to a consistent and high-quality product range with outstanding service has led the brand to where they are today.
Jim also reminds us of the importance of creating a culture of trust, creativity and innovation to inspire our teams to be actively in pursuit of continuous improvement.
He emphasises the importance of encouraging a culture of radical candour, where teams feel safe and empowered to speak their truth and contribute fully and openly at every opportunity.
Have you created a culture and focus like this in your business?
Besides Jimâs current contribution at RB Sellars, his entrepreneurial backstory is just as impressive.
Raised on a family farm near Euroa in Victoria, Jimâs enthusiasm to share his familyâs farming story led him to establish Redhanded Creative, a national marketing, communication & advertising agency for Australiaâs regional and agri-businesses. 12 years on, Redhanded Creative was acquired by global marketing agency, Clemenger. In the ensuing years, Jim established himself as a natural leader in the company, taking over the CEO role at Clemenger Australia & New Zealand.
On his journey through Australiaâs Corporate landscape, serving and growing many of the major agribusiness brands we now interact with, Jim has always retained his humility, authenticity and connection to his farming routes.
It was wonderful to connect with Jim again after so many years and to have the opportunity to share his insights into our industry, our people and all things leadership.
I feel the iconic RB Sellars business and brand are in good hands.
Thank you, Jim.
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
The Authentic Farming Entrepreneur: Insights from Jim Gall
Here are the show notes for the podcast episode:
This episode features insights from Jim Gall, an entrepreneur and CEO of the iconic rural brand RB Sellers, as well as Jeremy from Faithful's Creek Lamb and the new RB Sellers CEO Ben. Key topics discussed include:
-
The importance of storytelling and authenticity in marketing for farming/rural businesses to connect with modern consumers
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Jim's diverse career path from growing up on a farm to founding companies and leading RB Sellers, providing a unique perspective on business strategy
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Challenges and opportunities for small-scale, paddock-to-plate farming operations like Faithful's Creek Lamb in building a distinctive brand story
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RB Sellers' history and success driven by its founder's deep understanding of the farmer customer base and developing durable, affordable products like the iconic Burton work shirt
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The value of strategic planning, a clear vision, and aligning the team at RB Sellers to continue growing
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Fostering a culture of radical candor - providing direct, honest feedback to drive growth while maintaining trust and psychological safety
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Jim's leadership approach focused on shared success, inclusivity, and addressing issues head-on to stay true to the core business
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RB Sellers' future plans to increase accessibility through more regional stores and a stronger online presence to reach the next generation of customers
Key Lessons
- The importance of storytelling and authenticity in marketing for a farming business, rather than just focusing on the product itself.
- The value of diversifying enterprises and connecting with customers through genuine brand narratives, rather than relying on a single product or service.
- The potential for small-scale, paddock-to-plate farming operations to contribute to the national and global economy, despite the challenges they face.
Chapters:
- 00:00:00 - From Farm to CEO: Jim Gall's Journey
- 00:02:54 - Farming Entrepreneurship: Diversifying and Telling Your Story
- 00:08:16 - Building an Iconic Australian Clothing Brand
- 00:13:41 - Aligning Team and Strategic Planning at RB Sellers
- 00:17:54 - Navigating Feedback and Conflict in Family Businesses
- 00:21:13 - Shared Success and Customer Focus: Turning Around Businesses
- 00:27:37 - Growing Our Online Presence for the Next Generation
- 00:31:45 - Transforming Rural Marketing: Respecting Farmers as Entrepreneurs
- 00:35:52 - Transitioning from Entrepreneur to Corporate Leader
- 00:42:16 - Sustainability and the Evolution of Australian Agriculture
- 00:44:43 - Optimism in Farming: A Sustainable Career Choice
- 00:49:05 - Embrace Innovation, Trust Instincts for Growth
- 00:56:04 - Embracing Short-Term Wins for Long-Term Success
Summary:
Jim Gall, an old school friend and successful entrepreneur, shares his insights on running a farming business and the importance of storytelling and authenticity in marketing. Growing up on a farm, Jim learned the value of diversifying enterprises and the need to sell what you produce. He believes farmers are in a strong position to share the authentic stories behind their products, which is increasingly important for consumers today. Jim's diverse career, including founding and selling a creative agency and leading a major marketing firm, has given him a unique perspective on effective leadership and business strategy that he now brings to his role as CEO of the iconic rural brand RB Sellers. The speakers discuss the challenges and opportunities of running a small-scale, paddock-to-plate farming operation in regional Australia. The farmer, Jeremy, shares how his business, Faithful's Creek Lamb, sells prime lambs to local butchers and directly to consumers in Melbourne. He emphasizes the importance of having a distinctive brand story that resonates with customers. The new CEO of RB Sellers, Ben, highlights the potential of rural-based businesses to contribute to the national and global economy, and how the clothing brand aims to serve its customer base with quality, durable products that connect to the country. Both speakers provide valuable insights on building successful regional businesses. RB Sellers, an iconic Australian rural apparel brand, has built a strong foundation with 22 stores across the country, its own distribution center, and a thriving e-commerce business. The brand's success can be attributed to its founder, Richard Sellers Jones, who had a deep understanding of the Australian farmer customer base and developed products that fit their needs in terms of durability, style, and affordability. The Burton work shirt, named after an adventurous friend who passed away, has become an iconic product, with the company selling over 200,000 units annually. RB Sellers aligns its team through a strategic planning process involving the board of directors and the executive team, ensuring a clear vision and direction for the business to continue growing its customer base and product offerings. Jim and the speaker discuss the importance of culture and radical candor in business, particularly in the context of a large retail company like RB Sellers. The speaker emphasizes the value of direct, honest feedback, even if it can be challenging, as it fosters psychological safety and drives growth. They also explore how this approach can be applied in a family business or farming context, where conflict avoidance may be more common. The key is to focus on clarity and constructive feedback, rather than taking it personally, in order to facilitate open communication and continuous improvement. The speakers discuss the importance of radical candor - being direct and specific with feedback, while maintaining trust and focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. Jim, an experienced CEO, emphasizes the value of shared success and building a team culture where people feel they are growing together. He describes his leadership approach as direct, purposeful, and inclusive, aiming to align people around the company's core vision and values. The key is establishing trust and having the courage to address issues head-on, rather than ignoring problems that don't make sense for the business. Tomer, the speaker, emphasizes the importance of staying focused on the core customer and business model. He advocates a back-to-basics approach, ensuring the product meets customer demands, the pricing is right, and the company doesn't stray into unfamiliar territory. Jim, the other speaker, is excited about RB Sellers' future, with plans to grow the brand's accessibility through more physical stores in regional areas and by strengthening their online presence. They also aim to connect with the next generation of customers through initiatives like sponsoring events and partnering with a dating app for young farmers. Jane and Jim discuss the success and growth of RB Sellers, a dependable brand that has occasionally taken risks and made mistakes, but remained focused on continuous improvement and expansion. Jim then reflects on his earlier entrepreneurial venture, Red Handed Creative, which he co-founded to provide respectful and positive communication for rural Australian businesses. Despite the challenges of running a creative agency, Jim is proud of building a successful business over 12 years before ultimately selling it, as that was always part of the plan. Jim and his creative partner Paul built a successful business, Red Handed, that was acquired by Clemenger BBDO in 2012. The business helped clients, including large companies and government agencies, drive behavioral change and effectively market their products, whether it was fertilizers, chemicals, or tractors. Transitioning from being an entrepreneur running his own company to becoming part of a larger organization was a significant adjustment for Jim, as he had to adapt to a more structured and corporate environment, rather than the hands-on, daily grind of running his own business. However, the acquisition allowed Jim to take on senior executive roles at Clemenger BBDO, where he eventually became the company's leader, showcasing the successful outcome of the acquisition for both parties. The speaker shares his experience transitioning from a hands-on, customer-facing role to a more corporate environment, which he initially found challenging. However, he emphasizes the importance of staying connected to the core business by getting involved in day-to-day operations, like working in the warehouse. He advises others making a similar transition to focus on developing new skills, being open to advice from mentors, and embracing the discomfort of trying new things, rather than reverting to familiar tasks. Overall, the speaker emphasizes the need for leaders in the agricultural industry to maintain a well-rounded understanding of their business. The speakers discuss the growing interest and optimism in the agriculture and agribusiness industries, particularly among the younger generation. They highlight how farmers today can confidently encourage their children to return to the family farm, knowing it can provide a sustainable and viable career. The speakers also emphasize the diverse opportunities within the broader agricultural supply chain, from trading to secondary and tertiary industries. One speaker reflects on the pride and connection he feels in buying back his family's farm, and the joy of his children growing up in a rural community, learning valuable life lessons. Overall, the conversation celebrates the positive trajectory of the agriculture sector and the meaningful legacies that can be passed down through generations. Jim, the speaker, shares his pride in finding a "center of gravity" in his life by balancing his professional roles with the joy of returning home to his farm and tending to his sheep. He credits a mentor named Rod Bennett for providing invaluable wisdom and advice, particularly on dealing with competitors and staying focused on innovation rather than looking back. Jim emphasizes the importance of trusting one's instincts and abilities to navigate challenges and pursue the next big idea. When it comes to building professional farm businesses, Jim advises developing strong personal leadership skills to clearly articulate one's vision and inspire others to follow. The speakers discuss the importance of clarity, vision, and momentum in leadership and business growth. They emphasize the need for leaders to have a clear understanding of their market, product, and competitive differentiation, and to effectively communicate this vision to their team. The speakers also advise breaking down long-term goals into achievable short-term objectives, celebrating small wins, and building momentum through job satisfaction and a growth mindset. They caution against getting distracted by the distance to the final destination, and instead focus on the incremental progress that can compound over time. In this podcast discussion, Jeremy, a part-time farmer, shares his struggles with the financial realities of farming, despite his passion for it. He emphasizes the importance of having a job off the farm to fund the farming activities. The speakers, including Jim, a successful entrepreneur, discuss the value of celebrating short-term wins with the farming team and family to build momentum and motivation. They also highlight the importance of learning from success stories outside of farming and recognizing one's own achievements, even when it may feel uncomfortable. The conversation underscores the challenges and rewards of being a farmer and the importance of maintaining a balanced and supportive approach.
In my last episode introduction I asked - who here has felt real financial duress and overwhelming stress or hardship in this game called farming?
In this episode, I explore this theme further with an in-depth interview with Sarah Crossthwaite. Sarah lives and works with her husband and family on a dairy farm in Northeast Victoria. She has an impressive career as an accredited mental health social worker, actively supporting men and women of our industry through times of hardship.
Recently Sarah made the decision to complete a Nuffield Scholarship, and embark on a global research project exploring the impact that financial duress, market volatility and government interventions can have on the mental health and well-being of farming families.
To say this is an important research piece is an understatement, and I commend Sarah for her dedication and commitment as an advocate for the mental strength and well-being of our industry and rural communities.
In this podcast, we explore what it is Sarah sees, what it is she is hoping to achieve through this research, and the impact she hopes her research might have.
The Nuffield Foundation is an incredible organisation and global network, committed to supporting research projects like this one that can have an impact of significance on the farming sector â both locally and globally.
In this podcast we also explore the process that Sarah has moved through to be accepted as a Nuffield Scholar, and what it is like to be part of that great organisation and global network.
You can learn about Sarahâs research project here.
You can learn more about and apply for a Nuffield Scholarship here.
Also, for support more personally around mental health and well-being â for you or someone you know â we provide some links that might help you:
TIACS : https://www.tiacs.org/
Rural Health Connect : https://ruralhealthconnect.com.au/
Rural Aid : https://www.ruralaid.org.au/counsellors/
Congratulations Sarah, thank you for your time, and I look forward to a follow-up conversation once your research and global tour on this topic is complete.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
Here are the show notes for the podcast episode:
Sarah Crosthwaite, a mental health social worker and dairy farmer, shares her journey and passion for supporting the wellbeing of farming communities. As a Nuffield scholar, she is researching how financial stress, climate variability, and government policies impact the mental health of farmers and their families.
Sarah reflects on her transition from dairy farming to social work, driven by her interest in understanding human development, trauma, and the power of listening without judgment. She discusses the rewarding yet challenging experience of supporting farmers during the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires, emphasizing the need to focus on people's strengths rather than just promoting resilience.
Through her Nuffield project, Sarah aims to explore how other countries address mental health challenges in agriculture and uncover best practices to improve support for Australian farmers and rural communities. She shares insights into the rigorous application process, the supportive Nuffield network, and her research focusing on key themes like financial stress, unpredictable weather, and regulatory changes.
Sarah also discusses the importance of financial literacy for farmers, as those with better understanding are better equipped to navigate stressful events. She is working to synthesize her findings and present a report to share insights on enhancing mental health support and financial education for the agricultural sector.
The 3 key learnings that are likely surprising to the reader are:
- Sarah Crosthwaite, a mental health social worker, is also a dairy farmer, highlighting the unique challenges and perspectives she brings to her research.
- She is advocating for sustainable practices and holistic approaches to mental health care, rather than just traditional methods.
- She has launched a counseling service specifically tailored for rural communities, recognizing the unique needs and challenges faced by farmers and rural Australians.
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Exploring Farming Family Resilience
00:05:16 - From Dairy Farm to Social Work: Sarah's Journey
00:10:07 - Exploring Mental Wellbeing Support for Farmers
00:14:26 - Exploring Agriculture Through Nuffield Scholarship
00:18:28 - The Nuffield Network: A Supportive Family for Farmers
00:25:13 - Improving Financial Literacy for Farmers
00:32:48 - Overcoming Barriers to Strategic Farming
00:37:25 - Adapting to Technology for Mental Health Support in Rural Communities
00:43:01 - Addressing Concerns with Compassion
00:45:07 - Overcoming the Fear of Reaching Out for Support
00:50:10 - Persevere Through Challenges: Overcoming Dyslexia and Achieving Dreams
Summary:
Sarah Crosthwaite, a mental health social worker and dairy farmer, has committed to a Nuffield scholarship to research the impact of financial stress, climate variability, and government intervention on the mental health and well-being of farming families. As a farmer representative on the National Centre for Farmer Health Advisory Board, Sarah advocates for sustainable practices and holistic approaches to mental health care. She has recently launched her own counseling service tailored specifically for farmers, their families, and farm workers, aiming to bridge the gap between mental health support and rural communities. Sarah, a social worker and counselor, shares how she transitioned from a dairy farm background to pursuing a career in social work. She found her passion in understanding human development, trauma, and the importance of listening to people's stories without judgment. Sarah reflects on the rewarding yet challenging experience of supporting farming communities during the 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia, highlighting the resilience and strength of these individuals. She emphasizes the need to focus on people's abilities and strengths rather than just telling them to be more resilient. Sarah's interest in research and a Nuffield project stemmed from her desire to better understand the wider community's perceptions of farmers and their experiences. Sarah, a healthcare professional, was curious about the availability of mental health services for farmers and rural communities, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. She felt there was support available, but wondered if people were not reaching out or if the services were not being promoted well enough. Intrigued by this, Sarah applied for the prestigious Nuffield Scholarship, which will allow her to travel internationally and explore how other countries are addressing mental health challenges in agriculture. Her goal is to uncover insights and best practices that can be applied to improve mental wellbeing support for farmers and rural Australians. Sarah, a Nuffield Scholar, shares her experiences navigating the rigorous application process, which involved state and national interviews, networking with other scholars, and attending conferences. She highlights the supportive Nuffield network, which has provided her with opportunities to travel and conduct research on her topic of mental health and wellbeing in farming communities. Despite the initial challenge of feeling responsible for solving the mental health crisis in regional Australia, Sarah has focused her research on key themes such as financial stress, unpredictable weather, and changes in government regulations, and their impact on farmers. The Nuffield program has been a transformative experience, allowing Sarah to build connections, explore new perspectives, and pursue her research goals. The speaker discusses their research into the connections between mental health, financial literacy, and supporting farmers. They have been interviewing a range of people to understand the major issues and ways to address the accumulated stress that can arise from financial situations or changes in rules and regulations. The speaker highlights the importance of financial literacy, noting that many farmers lack a strong understanding of their business finances. They've found that farmers with better financial literacy are better equipped to respond to stressful events in a more positive way, as they have the knowledge and plans in place to navigate challenges. The speaker is now working to synthesize their findings into a report to be presented at an upcoming conference. The speakers discuss the importance of financial literacy and support for farmers, particularly in New Zealand and Australia. They note that while some farmers struggle with financial management, there are initiatives underway to provide education and one-on-one assistance to help them better understand their finances and make more informed decisions. The speakers emphasize the need to continue addressing this challenge, as improved financial literacy can lead to better relationships, less stress, and more successful farming operations. The discussion highlights the importance of balancing the practical and strategic aspects of farm management. While bookkeeping and compliance tasks are necessary, the speakers suggest that farmers should delegate these to specialists, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities like budgeting, benchmarking, and strategic decision-making. This can help farmers develop their leadership skills and move their businesses forward. Additionally, the speakers acknowledge the need to support farmers' mental health, noting that while awareness has improved, the delivery of mental health services in rural communities remains a challenge that requires further attention. The speakers discuss the challenges of accessing mental health services in regional and rural communities, where there is often a lack of consistent healthcare providers and limited local resources. They highlight the potential of telehealth and technology to improve access, but acknowledge that barriers still exist, especially for those with poor connectivity. The speakers emphasize the importance of promoting and raising awareness of the mental health services that are available in local communities, tailored to the unique needs and experiences of farmers and rural residents. Overall, the discussion focuses on finding innovative ways to better support the mental health and wellbeing of people living in regional and rural areas. The speakers emphasize the critical importance of supporting the people who work in the agriculture industry, as they are the industry's most valuable asset. They note that while technology and mechanization can help, human labor and expertise are essential for the industry to thrive. The speakers encourage more collaboration and open dialogue across the agriculture sector to better support farmers, farm workers, and others, as this will benefit the entire industry and the country as a whole. They also provide advice for individuals who may be struggling, encouraging them to reach out for help and support, even if it's difficult to do so within their immediate circle. Sarah, a guest on the podcast, shares her inspiring story of overcoming dyslexia to pursue challenging research work. Despite the difficulties, she has embraced her learning difference as a strength, finding great reward in pushing herself to achieve her goals. Sarah encourages others with learning challenges to not let them hold them back, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and the sense of accomplishment that comes from facing and overcoming obstacles. The host expresses admiration for Sarah's commitment and looks forward to discussing the key insights from her research project in the future. Sarah Crosswhite, a pioneering researcher, discusses the critical issue of mental health and well-being among farmers. The podcast explores how financial stress, climatic variability, and government regulations impact the lives of farmers. Sarah's work aims to provide valuable insights and support to this essential community, and the host looks forward to a follow-up discussion to share key takeaways from the ongoing research. The episode encourages listeners to engage with the Profitable Farmer podcast and community to continue the important conversation around supporting the mental health and success of farmers.
Who here has felt real financial duress and overwhelming stress and hardship in this game called farming? I feel this is relevant and real for so many - it isnât always an easy game to play.
In this podcast it gives me great pleasure to interview FOA Alumni Members Cassandra & Andrew (Rusty) Kath.
From start-up to established, from 50 cows to 500 cows, and from financially and personally broken to a professional and lasting success, the Kathleigh Farms story is now just as much one to watch as it is one to appreciate for their achievement so far.
Years ago, Andrew & Cassandra found themselves in a destructive share-farming relationship, placing immense pressure them financially and personally. At rock-bottom, Andrew & Cass dug-deep, focused on themselves and on making meaningful change. They made a massive commitment to join the FOA Community, and with grit, learning and determination have transformed their business and lives.
Over the last 5 years, we have seen Kathleigh Farms grow from humble beginnings to being a truly high-performing and professional farm business. We now see this emerging business with the systems, business model, foundations and team to support continued profitability and sustained growth.
In this interview we explore:
- the importance of focusing on our MINDSET as farmers;
- how scarcity and fear-based thinking can limit us;
- why doing business with people with similar values is so important;
- how surrounding yourself with good people can be a catalyst for change; and
- how making our own growth can change everything for the better.
We are proud of the resilience, optimism and confidence Andrew & Cassandra both now enjoy, the way in which they have overcome adversity on their journey, and the results they now enjoy.
In this interview there is mention of Mark Kluwerâs âBreath & Breakthroughâ Menâs Retreat and Tracy Secombeâs Soul Pleaser Program â two programs we recommend to those interested.
Thank you Cass & Rusty for your openness and willingness to share. We feel fortunate to have you such active and generous members of the FOA Community, and such valued members of the FOA Team.
There are some incredible insights in this â for the first generation farmer and for those feeling real stress and pressure in terms of your reality right now.
Use this as inspiration that with focus, better thinking and deep determination good things can come.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
So many farming families we meet have businesses that are completely dependent on them. In addition, so many farm owners across Australiaâs have business models that are not risk-aware, sufficiently profitable, sustainable, or optimal over time.
Is your business model delivering you the outcomes you want from your farm?
So often we see farmers ârinsing and repeatingâ business models that have worked in the past, only to find they are not optimal or even relevant in our current economic climate.
To quote Einstein: âDoing the same thing over and again and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.â
With inflation, increased interest rates and softening commodity prices, it has never been more important to actively stress-test the potential and resilience of the business model you have, then seek to refine, re-engineer and adapt it to ensure it is profitable long-term AND relevant in the current economic climate.
The question is, HOW?
In this podcast, I speak to this, then advocate for a 90-minute webinar that Farm Owners Academy developed, revealing, âSimple Budgeting for a Profitable Farmâ.
For anyone wanting to learn how to review, critique and refine their business model⊠AND master the key skills needed to set down a meaningful budget or cashflow forecast for their business, then click here and watch (a recording of) this webinar:
www.farmownersacademy.com/businessmodelling
There were over 1,100 farmers registered for this event, and so I feel it is relevant for so many of you right now!
Thank you to Greg Johnsson, Sam Johnsson and the FOA Team for the significant effort you have put into making this webinar possible.
Enjoy, and I look forward to hearing the change you make on the other side of this significant session.
Hereâs to the crafting of new, current, and winning farm business models across this community!
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. Did you know that our core program â the Platinum Mastermind was created to help you maximise the profitability of your farm? We now benchmark over $2bn in farm assets annually and we work with over 150 farm owners to help them improve their financials. Please email support@farmownersacademy.com or head to our website https://www.farmownersacademy.com/ for more information
I love the concept that perhaps our subconscious programming is the thing that is holding us back.
I also like the concept that money is just a tool to give us what we want in life.
However, I believe that many of us have a SCARCITY or ABUNDANCE mindset toward money.
I like the idea of visualising money as âfun ticketsâ to be used and enjoyed for me and others, now and in the future.
Throughout my journey, I have gotten comfortable with the fact that money:
- Is not hard to come by
- Is not beyond my control
- Is not the âroot of all evilâ and
- that it CAN âgrow on trees!â
How is your mindset toward money serving you?
In this episode, I call on Investment Specialist and Freedom Trader Terry Tran, to explore:
- How his attitude toward money has changed.
- Where the previous money mindset he inherited might have taken him.
- How to think like an INVESTOR rather than a worker.
- His beliefs around and approach to making money and investing now.
- What it means to create a truly abundant, fulfilled and wealthy life.
As a first-generation Aussie who came here as a refugee on a boat as a child, I feel Terry is a true example of how we CAN change our lives by changing our psychology. He has a great insight into what is holding the âaverage Aussie farmerâ back from creating off-farm wealth.
Terry has a FREE LIVE online training exclusive for our Farm Owners community called âHow to Create Off-Farm Wealth Consistently and Safelyâ on Tuesday the 5th of March. I recommend you make this a priority â register here: https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/
It is always great to connect with Terry, have him on our podcast, and see him support farming families across our community.
I hope there is something in this episode of substance for those of you who enjoy it with us.
Thank you.
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. - a reminder about Terryâs upcoming webinar âHow to Create Off-Farm Wealth Consistently and Safelyâ - register here: https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/
P.P.S - We warmly invite you to join us for our FREE webinar âSimple Budgeting for a Profitable Farmâ on the 13th of March to equip yourself with the tools and knowledge for creating an accurate budget - that you can actually stick to! Reserve Your Seat Now. https://www.farmownersacademy.com/simple-budgeting-for-a-profitable-farm
When people succeed at the highest level, often all we see of them is their endeavour and their achievement.
We never really get to hear of the challenge, the hardship or the immense struggle that is behind the enduring success.
There can be so many lessons relevant to how, as farmers, we can better face the challenges that come our way and overcome adversity and change.
In this episode, I feel deeply privileged to interview Anna Meares â 11-time world champion and the greatest female track cyclist of all time.
Throughout Annaâs sporting career, she achieved:
- 2 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze over four consecutive Olympics
- 11 gold, 10 silver, 6 bronze at World Championships
- 5 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze at Commonwealth Games
Anna also has many titles including the Institute of Sportâs "Best Of The Best" inductee and is a Hall of Fame recipient, flag-bearer and Captain at our 2016 Olympic Games. She is now a 2024 Chef de Mission, coach, mentor and teacher to our current era of Olympian legends...
What impressed me the most about my time with Anna was her courage, grit, strength and sheer determination. With all of this, I am in awe of her humility, her generousness, her vulnerability, and her authenticity.
After an unmatched career as an athlete, Anna now finds joy and fulfilment in her endeavour to stand behind people, be in service and support others to achieve at their highest levels.
So many great lessons for all of us on what it takes to lock in meaningful goals and achieve our best.
Thank you, Anna, you are truly a great Australian.
Jeremy Hutchings & The Farm Owners Academy Team
P.S. We warmly invite you to join us for our FREE webinar âSimple Budgeting for a Profitable Farmâ on the 13th of March to equip yourself with the tools and knowledge for creating an accurate budget - that you can actually stick to!
Click HERE to Reserve Your Seat Now.
Throughout our lives, and often at this time of year, we can find ourselves reflecting and asking important questions like;
- Why am I here?
- What am I doing this for?
- What is it that is my purpose in life?
- What do I want for my life?
- How do I want to be remembered?
Over my business journey, I have been lucky enough to study with and learn from one of the great business minds of our time, Marshall Thurber. In his teachings, Marshall emphasises that there are universal laws (laws of nature) that, when applied to our businesses and lives, can offer us so much certainty and confidence and set a robust foundation on which to see our results grow exponentially.
In this episode, and in my attempt to answer these questions, I offer an insight into the Law of Precession - how we can apply it to our lives, how to set down major, definite goals, and make a more meaningful impact as leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs.
Linked with this, I share some lessons learned from one of my favourite books, âThink and Grow Richâ by Napoleon Hill â a read I recommend highly to you.
From these teachings, I believe that we all have the opportunity to tap into a higher universal power if we are open. We all have access to infinite intelligence. This can help us achieve âmore with lessâ, experience abundance (over scarcity), and, importantly, make more of an impact with the time we have - in family, community and industry.
I hope you find my ramblings and reflections in this episode valuable. I hope it helps you answer these questions and set compelling goals for your new year. I look forward to hearing from you and receiving your feedback.
To one unsuspecting Farm Owners Academy farmer member⊠thank you for this question, which prompted this episode.
As we arrive at a new year, I want to thank you for tracking with us and for your loyalty to this podcast. It is a privilege for us to provide it.
If you know someone we should interview, let us know via the Profitable Farmer Facebook Group or by emailing support@farmownersacademy.com.
What we can achieve for our families and in our lives can be beyond our comprehension if we learn and apply the generalised principlesâŠ!
With gratitude,
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team
As farm business owners, we can often be operating at intense and unsustainable levels for extended periods of time. Many times, the farm comes first, and so many other important things take the back seat.
Our farms can be under-resourced, our teams insufficient, our realities out of control and operations completely dependent upon us. Our plans are in our heads, marriages out of alignment - husbands, wives and families missing out on what life and family are truly meant to be about.
That is where Platinum Mastermind members Sam & Carla Armytage found themselves.
Letâs be very real for a minute: the pressures of owning and running a significant farm business can be immense. Even for the super-human, at times, this can all become too much.
In sharing their genuinely inspirational story, in their usual humble and understated ways, Sam & Carla explain where their life was at, consumed by the pressures of putting the farm first. They outline the very real impact this was having on their marriage and family.
To their credit, and 5 years on, Sam & Carla have completely transformed their business, farm, team and lives. They own and manage a truly successful and highly scalable business with the capacity to grow and support their next generation of passionate young farmers in Charlotte, Will & James.
Breakthroughs can follow breakdowns. Transformation can come from acknowledging burn-out and then giving yourself permission to take a break, re-claim perspective and go again with renewed energy, different priorities and a more meaningful and common plan.
Sometimes, we need education and support to change direction, not motivation to speed up.
I want to acknowledge you, Sam & Carla, for your willingness to share your journey and for the immense, often quiet and in-the-background contribution you make to other members of our Farm Owners Academy community.
Well done for the grit and sheer commitment you have led with, the love and loyalty you consistently extend to each other, and congratulations on the transformations you have achieved â personally, as a couple, as parents and as business leaders â for your commitment to change and your success truly now speaks for itself.
For all the challenges and hardships, we are all so very proud of you and excited for you.
Hereâs to a very bright future!
Hutch & the Farm Owners Academy Team
As the finish line to another calendar year arrives, I cherish the opportunity to share the stories of some of our incredible community members - to celebrate their success in all they do as business owners and farmers.
Martin & Hayley Grosser own and operate MHG Farming Enterprises, a mixed sheep and dryland cropping operation at Kaniva in Victoriaâs Western Wimmera. Their success in farming over the past 10 years, to say the least, is deeply impressive.
From a standing start to over 5,000 acres under management, Martin & Hayley have been stand-out members and incredible contributors to the Farm Owners Academy community.
In this interview, we share their story and reflect and celebrate:
- the courage they have shown to scale in todayâs climate successfully;
- their ability to back themselves and make bold growth decisions;
- the importance of strong financial acumen AND a positive money mindset;
- the value of benchmarking and regular farm performance analysis;
- the power of a concise strategic plan and feeling aligned as a family and on-farm team; and
- the confidence that strong mentors, coaches and community can play in supporting your success.
Whilst very different in personality, I am always so impressed by the love and strength shared between Hayley & Marty. They truly make a fantastic team.
Marty & Hayley, congratulations on your success over the last 5 years, for your courage, optimism and determination. You deserve all the success that comes your way.
Your comments in this podcast are worthy of bottling and will offer genuine inspiration to so many husband & wife farm teams across our industry.
Thank you for your openness and reflecting with me on your journey.
We value you greatly and cannot wait to see what the future brings as you build from the incredible farming platform and leadership capability you have created.
Congratulations, and thank you.
To your success,
Hutch & Team
We can survive 3 weeks without food...
3 days without waterâŠ
But only 3 minutes without breathing.
As for parenting, our body, mind and many other critical life functions, we have never been taught HOW TO BREATHE.
As a result, and over time, most of us are immensely inefficient with our breathing, leading us to a long list of health conditions that keep us from living our best lives.
In this episode, I speak with my wonderful wife, mother of four, high-performance physiotherapist, and now breathing re-training specialist, Jane Hutchings - to explore the importance of LEARNING TO BREATHE WELL.
Anxiety, stress, depression, asthma, hay fever, insomnia, sleep apnoea, restless legs, snoring, excess sweating, brain fog, mental fatigue and burnout are just some of the conditions we face when we breathe poorly.
Rather than medication or physical interventions, focusing on learning to breathe properly can see all these health challenges vastly improved and even overcome for any or all of us.
With a 25-year+ high-performance physiotherapy career, 6 years of focused training & research, Founder - Mint Condition Breathing Retraining, and facilitator of a proven short course now available to everyone, I find it incredible the results Jane is achieving with boys & girls and men & women of all ages across Australia and beyond.
I see so many farmers struggling to sleep well. I see so many farmers fatigued by the stress and pressure of this game we choose to play. I also see so many in our families challenged by hay fever, asthma and related respiratory conditions.
For more information on Jane and her programs, go here: www.mintcond.com.au
Jane & I truly believe that breathing well is the essential piece that links a commitment to fitness, mindset, diet, learning, entrepreneurship⊠and achieving a balanced, healthy, high-quality life.
Jane, congratulations on the difference you make to so many.
We are very proud of you.
Jeremy & the Farm Owners Academy team
P.S. Tracy Secombe & I are hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, 29th November, on âBeating Burnout & Increasing Resilienceâ â I hope to see you online for this important topic. You can secure your seat here: https://learning.farmownersacademy.com/burnout
Leadership is about giving those around you certainty.
Making strong predictions based on quality information and taking proactive action in tough times is a hallmark of strong leadership.
Many Aussie farmers have experienced a marked drop in meat prices in recent months, impacting their realities and outlook significantly.
As in Episode 121 with Grain & Oilseeds Lead Analyst - Stefan Vogel, I once again call on the elite Rabobank Research team and Senior Analyst â Animal Proteins Angus Gidley-Baird to help us understand what has happened and what to expect in the red meat markets in the near to medium term.
In addition, I call on the experience of Farm Owners Academy Co-founder and Director Greg Johnsson to offer his insights on this important topic and some guidance on where we need to focus as farmers to best navigate this period in our industry strongly and strategically.
In this episode, Angus, Greg & I explore:
- what has happened;
- why it has happened;
- recent supply chain dynamics;
- consumption trends, locally and globally;
- how this will impact us;
- meat price predictions; and
- where we should be focusing as farmers.
It is time to focus on what we can control, accept what we cannot, and be proactive in challenging our business models, our production costs, and their suitability for what lies ahead.
We need to be right on top of our budgets and cashflows and proactive in our conversations with suppliers, clients and financiers.
I hope insights from this interview support you to make clear predictions, take decisive action and look for the opportunities available to us all at this time.
All the best, and sincerely,
Hutch & Team
At Farm Owners Academy, we are big believers that our mental well-being is closely linked to our physical health AND positive social interactions.
I am delighted to interview Active Farmer Founder and Director Ginny Stevens in this episode. Over eight years, Active Farmers has grown from an idea and one weekly fitness class in Mangoplah, NSW, to a significant and important national charity supporting thousands of farmers' physical health and mental well-being across 65 rural communities.
It is an incredible story, and one Ginny Stevens, her family, and her team can feel immensely proud of.
Now, with a team of 40 fitness trainers, an operational unit of 6 supported by a compelling board and a long list of sponsors and partners, Active Farmers is poised for its next growth step and the opportunity to make an even greater impact on the resilience of our great industry.
In this episode, I ask Ginny to share her back story and offer an insight into the Active Farmers journey.
For me, it is a healthy reminder of the importance of making a stand for what you believe in - finding a meaningful social problem to solve, having the courage to pursue your greatest passion, setting down a selfless and inspiring vision, backing yourself⊠and then just the sheer grit, persistence and determination needed to create something meaningful.
When we do these things, the âuniverseâ can conspire in our favour, we attract all the people and resources we need, and the impact we can together have can be beyond our comprehension.
Ginny, thank you for Active Farmers. Thank you for your hard work and commitment to your cause over 8+ years. Thank you for the genuine impact you and your team are having on the health and well-being of Australian farmers AND the impact you are having on the resilience and vibrancy of our rural communities.
www.activefarmers.com.au
I look forward to tracking with you and supporting your next chapter across our Australian Farming Landscape.
Sincerely,
Hutch & the FOA Team
One of the best bits about being part of Farm Owners Academy is the life-long friendships we see being fostered across our incredible and growing community.
One of the greatest privileges of being a Coach is supporting great people to make meaningful and lasting changes in their personal and business development journeys.
Our members achieve huge amounts in their 3-year Platinum Mastermind journey. Sure, their business profitability grows, their farms expand, their families become more aligned, and they set up teams and more professionally lead their farms.
But what inspires me the most is seeing the personal growth that so many individual members achieve and how this can completely change their lives.
In this episode, I am pleased to introduce you to Peter Moloney, one of our recent Platinum Mastermind graduates. Peter, his wife Kate and their 3 young men own and operate a 50,000 acre property and successful beef operation at Auguthella, north of Charleville in Western Queensland.
In this episode, and from his speech at our recent graduation ceremony in front of 400 people, we learn about Peterâs life-long struggle with dyslexia. We learn how this has limited him, impacted him and challenged his sense of self and mental well-being. We learn how he did all he could for over 40 years of his life to keep this a secret from everyone in his world, ashamed and in fear of being called âdumbâ and made âlook stupid.â
More importantly, in this conversation, we see how â with courage and a commitment to deeper self-work â Peter has shown the courage to be vulnerable about his reality, face his fears, overcome limiting childhood conditioning, let go of ego, realise he had more potential, face head-on all that was holding him back, change some limiting beliefs, create a new and more meaningful personal story and ultimately find a level of peace and happiness he has strived for, for so long.
Peter, I commend you on the strength you have shown through this process and the courage you show now in standing up in front of hundreds and thousands and sharing your story in the hope it might just make a positive difference to someone who might hear it.
You are a good man, Pete. An inspiration. Thank you, and well done.
Hereâs to a very bright future full of love and happiness.
In friendship,
Hutch & the Farm Owners Academy team.
Often, it is my observation that succession is made to be a bigger and more complex issue than it needs to be.
Often, in my opinion, good business practice applied to family business can be the key to aligning a family to a common goal and plan; creating meaningful, regular and proactive communications; providing financial clarity and control for all parties; delivering structures and systems to support all team members in their roles; and helping ensure all expectations relating to succession are understood and clear.
Let me be clear, I am not saying succession is easy. What I am saying, is that the timely and proactive application of good business practices have proven to help farm business families be more effective, and then make succession a more palatable and constructive process.
Four weeks ago I was asked to be part of the Annual Pooginook Client Field Day, and be interviewed alongside succession specialist Isobel Knight, Proagtive on the topic of Business & Succession, by interviewer and journalist David Cussons.
Such an important topic, and I hope you find this valuable.
I commend the Pooginook Team, led by John Sutherland (Genetics & Sales Manager) and Andrew Glover (Station Manager), for both the genetic and productive performance advancements they are making for the dual-purpose merinos of Australia, AND also for the innovation they show in facilitating conversations like this one so relevant for their extensive, national client base and so many in our industry.
Based in the Riverina NSW, Pooginook Merino and Poll Stud is one of Australiaâs largest and most innovative producers of advanced, highly productive, dual-purpose, mules-free merinos, backed by +80 years of breeding experience and data.
www.pooginoook.com.au
To the Pooginook Team, thank you for having Isobel & I â a compelling event for all attending. Well done on your pioneering and leadership, and a special thank you to David Cussons (Director, Cussons Media) for your approach to this interview, and to John Sutherland (Genetics & Sales Manager, FocusAg) for making this happen.
To all, be kind to each other in this process, and be open to doing the deeper work personally, so you can arrive to succession with the compassion, love and respect that each of our families deserve.
Sincerely,
Hutch & Team
P.S. For those who are interested, we will be hosting a free webinar on September 20th â all about how to create a winning team. You can register for the webinar here: Team Webinar Registration
Farmers can be a humble bunch, perhaps in part a function of a certain âtall poppy syndromeâ that exists across our landscape. As a result, as well as the fact that most of us are production-focused and not necessarily marketing-trained, we are not always great at telling our unique stories or promoting our own business âbrand.â
Taking this further, globally, there seems to be an ever-increasing gap and misunderstanding between the food consumer and the farmer producer.
Simply, there are so many great Australian agricultural stories that need to be shared and so many good things happening in our industry that our food-consuming society needs to hear, understand, and appreciate.
Farmers, if we donât tell our story, someone else will beâŠ
In this episode, I am pleased to spend time with the Founder of Humans of Agriculture, Oli Le Lievre. Oli & his team are dedicated to bridging this gap and walking alongside people in our industry to help them uncover and share their unique stories.
Personally, I feel this is important work on so many levels. I commend Oli & his team for their endeavour, commitment and pioneering.
Whilst a new and emerging project for our industry, it is my prediction that the Humans of Agriculture movement will make an impact of significance for farming families, for food supply chains and in enhancing both awareness and appreciation for the good work we all do in helping to âfeed the world.â
For our listeners, who do you have around you helping to uncover your uniqueness â as a business, family, employer and contributor?
www.humansofagriculture.com
Well done, Oli. Keep up the great work, and thank you for all you do!
Keep making great stories.
Hutch
We find ourselves in an economic environment very different to 12 months ago - now characterised by high inflation, rising interest rates and an uplift in unemployment in most of our trading nations across the globe.
On the back of a compelling quarterly economic review to our Members, I have invited Terry Tran â Freedom Trader â to join me again to make sense of it all. To give us a no BS take on what is happening in our world, what it means, how to play (as an investor), and to understand where the opportunities (in the investment landscape) lay.
Terry now predicts a high chance of global recession, resulting from a marked economic slowdown in the USA, Europe and China. This requires us all to think deeply about our business models and our approach to business and investing in the years to come.
Overnight the US has seen a credit downgrade - itâs first since 2011 following a close call on a debt ceiling default. This follows its 11th consecutive rate rise since March 2022 to a 22-year high, forcing other countries, including Australia, to follow suit to maintain strength in our domestic currency.
A change in the company regulatory environment and a policy reversal directly impacts foreign investment inflows into China, sparking a slowdown in the Chinese economy.
And a disparate and fragmented Europe is likely the major trading nation to be most adversely impacted in years to come...
Itâs refreshing to sit with Terry and have him lay it all out for us and offer a view of the globe we can all make some sense of.
Itâs compelling to sit with Terry and explore what this means and where the opportunities are for the proactive and strategic investor.
While Ted Lasso is telling us to âbe the goldfishâ⊠Terry recommends we âbe the whaleâ.
Thank you for your brilliance, Terry.
Enjoy everyone.
Hutch
PS â To learn how to take advantage of our new reality as investors, join Terry for a FREE & FOA EXCLUSIVE INVESTMENT MASTERCLASS Wednesday, 23rd August⊠register now: https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy
What does moving from a âstart-upâ to âsignificanceâ as an entrepreneur take? Letâs find out.
In this episode, I am delighted to reconnect with my past business coaching client, now successful entrepreneur Steven Mirtschin.
Leaving a successful banking career to back himself in business, Steven now leads over 13 businesses and a team of over 150. Over 15 years, Steven has successfully scaled a combination of franchise-based businesses in the fitness and hospitality sectors. He has sought out team members and others to partner with, created immense opportunities for those within his team, established a small business empire that delivers first-class service to those he serves, and proven results for all involved.
There are so many insights to come from this discussion. For me, Steven shows us that successfully scaling up in business requires:
- a shift in mindset from an operator to manager and strong leader;
- a long-term commitment to a clear and compelling vision;
- constant adaptation to your business model;
- immense persistence despite obstacles;
- a willingness to invest in and build people up; and
- a genuine care & concern for the opportunities you can create for those you employ.
Steven has always been an impressive, confident, humble, and thoughtful business leader. He is also a deep-thinking and highly strategic business mind.
Working with him over 13 years ago was a pleasure, and it is no surprise that Steven now arrives to lead a group of high-performing businesses that prides itself on excellence and growth.
It is also great to see him turn his attention back to agriculture and to helping families become more aligned as they consider succession and their business improvement.
Thank you, Steven. Some cracking insights within this conversation, and well done on all it is you have achieved.
Sincerely,
Hutch
You donât achieve greatness without first being a very special individual.
In this episode, I am pleased to introduce to you Aussie sporting icon Trevor Hendy, renowned as the greatest ironman on earth.
A former professional athlete having won six Australian Open Ironman titles and four consecutive World Ironman titles, Trevor has become a coach, role model, teacher and mentor to sporting and business elite across Australia and worldwide.
Now a member of the Order of Australia and an inductee into the World Surf Life Saving, Australian Life Saving and Australian Sporting Halls of Fame, Trevor has become as revered as much for the impact he has made to helping people live their best life, as he has as a sporting great.
What I love about Trevor is his openness and his willingness to share his experiences, his successes and challenges, in his heart-filled intention to selflessly serve others and teach those he connects with how to find calmness, contentment, presence, fulfilment and joy in our lives.
In this episode, Trevor reminds us that we are spiritual beings living a human experience.
He shares his tips on how we can pursue our potential, get out of our heads, let go of EGO, remove judgement and comparison, find peace in the moment, and accept and take responsibility for our reality to find more joy and happiness in our busy lives.
He speaks of his experiences of burnout, anxiety and depression and offers up some tips on how to navigate these life challenges and move forward strongly.
It is a privilege to come to know Trevor and to have him now contributing to our community.
This is a conversation that could have lasted for days. It is my hope we can extend on this with a follow-up with Trevor at another time. For now, enjoy this for what it is â an incredible, heartfelt, spiritual conversation.
Thank you to David Westbrook for making this possible and for being part of this conversation.
If open and willing, I encourage you to listen to this 2-3 times - to take the lessons and apply them to your life.
I believe we all have more potential within us and perhaps a bigger game to play. I hope this inspires you to be courageous and responsible in pursuit of your best life.
Thank you, Trevor.
What a truly great Australian.
Keep being incredible.
Hutch & Team
We all now know that safety on-farm is an important issue. We also know that most farm businesses have more to do in this area, and it is pleasing to see so many farming families prioritising farm safety as a core part of the business improvement strategies.
SafeAg System is presently leading the way in helping farming families create safer and more professional workplaces; their App & offering are now in place on over 15,000 farms in Australia and overseas.
What I like most about SafeAg Systems is that their solution also helps farm teams operate more effectively AND be safer. Their platform caters for machinery maintenance scheduling, inventory management, human resource management, contractor management, on-farm communications and systems improvement, AS WELL AS safety practices. This App solves a real business management and HR problem for farming businesses, large and small⊠almost as if a safer farm becomes the outcome.
For more information, click here: www.safeagsystems.com
In this episode, it is great to connect with CEO & Founder Katy Landt. I appreciate her openness and the opportunity to share the entrepreneurial back story to the growth of the SafeAg Systems business.
Succeeding in the tech start-up space is incredibly challenging. Now seven years old and with a dedicated team of over 25 employees, Safe Ag System looks toward its first capital raise and next expansion step.
We can learn so much from people who are courageous and determined enough to pursue this path.
The SafeAg Systems story is compelling and a real credit to Katy, her husband Drew, and her co-founding parents Mark & Caroline.
Katy confirms that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. However, with deep determination, sheer âstubbornnessâ (as she puts it!) and a genuine passion to make an impact, anything is possible.
Congratulations, Katy and the SafeAg Team. Keep up the great work.
Stay safe, everyone!
Hutch & Team
I have always been intrigued by Rabobank as a business.
A 120-year-old Dutch cooperative founded by farmers for farmers, now a global sensation specialising in agribusiness lending from over 1,000 offices across 38 countries, serving over 9 million customers... I think their Australasian Team are to be commended on the passion, dedication and quality support they provide to farming families across our region.
Just as interesting is the fact that their global research team spans over 140 leading analysts⊠all focused on finance and agri-markets⊠imagine the intelligence and insights available on navigating our local and international trading landscape!
In this episode, I am pleased to welcome Stefan Vogel, General Manager â RaboResearch, Australia & New Zealand, to our podcast.
I knew this would be a compelling conversation⊠but Stefanâs commentary and global perspective completely exceeded my expectation in so many ways.
Thank you, Stefan, for your openness and your insight as we explore:
- global and local grain production estimations;
- the interplay of our overseas competitors;
- impediments and challenges we collectively face;
- the impact of trade barriers into China;
- the potential implication of an El Nino weather event;
- expectations given the Ukraine â Russia situation and current trade deal negotiations⊠and so much more.
Insightful is an understatement⊠valuable? ABSOLUTELY.
Stefan and his team host their own podcast â simply search âRaboResearchâ on all major podcasting platforms to start listening.
In addition, their recently released 2023/24 Grain Production Outlook is a valuable resource and can be found HERE.
The next few years will likely differ greatly from those we have just experienced. We need to adapt accordingly. I hope this interview provides a compelling global perspective for those of you on tractors as we get our new season underway.
All the best for this season, given the global market in which we operate.
Best,
Hutch & Team
For many, the last few years have been unique and positive â resulting from low inflation, low-interest rates, above-average commodity prices and above-average production.
Now, our current reality is very different.
We will likely see an extended period of increased inflation, increasing interest rates and softening commodity prices. In addition, from a production standpoint, there is talk of El Nino weather patterns aheadâŠ
The question we should ALL be asking is: Can my farm business model handle this new reality?
In this episode, I call on the âBrains Trustâ, inviting Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder Greg Johnsson and Executive Director at RLS Agribusiness Jeff McDonald to join me to explore this question in detail.
We discuss the importance of:
- knowing your numbers;
- presenting proactively to your bank;
- developing a compelling economic model for your farm;
- stress-testing your farming system based on long-term average yield & prices;
- knowing your ânewâ cost of production; and
- being financially strong as a farm business owner.
In this, we share 2-3 key performance ratios we each need to be aiming for and emphasise the importance of considering these in confirming you have a business model that is agile, flexible, profitable (in most years) and resilient.
For more on this important topic, join Greg Johnsson & me on Wednesday 7th, June for a 90-minute webinar where we will dive deep into the core numbers you need to know and insight into what the top 20% of farmers are doing differently to adapt and thrive in this new agri-economic climate. For more information or to secure your seat, click here.
As always, a compelling conversation when I bring these two incredible minds together.
Enjoy, and all the best as you stress-test the strength of your business model.
Best,
Hutch & Team
At Farm Owners Academy, we help farming families create FREEDOM FARMS â that is a highly profitable business with the systems, structures, team AND performance to be able to work without dependence on you!
As a team, we feel proud of the results that hundreds of farming families are achieving in their pursuit of this reality. Over the coming months, I will share some of these outstanding stories with you.
In this episode, I speak with Marina Gregor, who, along with her husband Brett, run a high-performing wool sheep enterprise âWillandraâ on Kangaroo Island, about their journey to create a FREEDOM FARM.
We explore the wins, challenges and numerous changes they have made along the way as well as how the FOA Community & Team have helped them. We also explore how benchmarking, budgeting, a shift in mindset and business coaching have helped them drive the performance of their farm and build out their business and on-farm team.
Eight years ago, Marina and Brett set down a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG):
Four months living as a family in Canada.
I am delighted to share that this interview is an international one! Navigating a 14-hour time difference as I speak with Marina, she is now two weeks into that four-month family holiday⊠their farm is under management and functioning strongly while they are away.
It is a great story and, importantly, a real example of what is possible when we get our mindset right and truly commit to a significant and meaningful goal.
Congratulations, Marina and Brett, on achieving a significant life-long dream.
I get that the road has not always been easy and that you have had to overcome some real challenges in pursuit of the goals & dreams you now enjoy.
Marina, we are delighted now to have you as an Accountability Coach on our team, sharing your experience and helping others achieve the success you now enjoy.
On behalf of the FOA Team, we are proud of all you have achieved.
To an incredible time for you and your family, and to realising important dreams!
Thank you.
Hutch & Team
In life, we have the opportunity to meet some remarkable people. Those individuals are often quietly determined to serve others and make a meaningful impact.
I met Mike Stephens, Founder & Chairman of Meridian Agriculture, as an overly enthusiastic and bullish 25-year-old. I have regarded him as a role model and mentor ever since.
One of Australian agricultureâs truly great personalities, Mike has dedicated his career to farmers, to families getting on and to effective farm succession.
Two and a half years ago, he completed the largest piece of research into farm succession globally. The insights from this are significant, and Mike shares some of them with us in this interview.
Combined with this is Mikeâs incredible ability to communicate and facilitate. As others committed to helping with succession, the depth and accuracy of the questions he asks of individuals and families and the process he takes you through to optimise a succession outcome for you is deeply impressive.
Mike and his team at Meridian Ag are experts in this space and are available to help you move through the succession planning process.
You can find them here: https://meridian-ag.com.au/
I think it is fair to say he and they are qualified to do so!
Congratulations, Mike, on a lifetime of work helping farming families across Australia and overseas to create legacies that can transcend generations. Congratulations also on 40 years in farm consultancy.
For an article overviewing Mikeâs findings, please email to support@farmownersacademy.com and request for it.
Thank you for your contribution, hard work and quiet, respectful determination to make an impact.
It is always great to connect with those that have in some way shaped you.
To all of you, I hope that this serves you.
Hutch & Team
So many farming families I meet feel completely REACTIVE in managing their farms. On so many levels, we often are left feeling like the business is running you, not you it. With all that is going on in a typical week, the long list of improvements to make, the complexities of programs and rotations, the changes of the season⊠for me, it is easy to see why so many arrive here.
One of my favourite quotes is from global personal performance expert Brian Tracy:
âWe feel good about ourselves to the exact degree we feel in control of our lives.â
Three questions for you:
- Are you feeling reactive or proactive in your leadership?
- Out of 10, how much control do you feel you have over the improvement of your plan?
- Out of 10, how aligned are your family & team to a common goal and clear plan?
In this episode, I speak with Farm Owners Academy CEO Sam Johnsson. Sam commenced with us two years ago, following a highly successful corporate leadership career in a large design & engineering consultancy.
In this episode, we explore:
- why people are feeling so reactive in their farms right now;
- where staying this way can take us; and
- the exact process we use and recommend to help people shift to proactive and take control.
The power of a concise, agile and actionable STRATEGIC PLAN is key in helping farming families make the shift.
The Farm Owners Academy team recently met in the Barossa Valley for two days to reset our Strategic Plan. During our conversation, we share the process we went through, the same process we coach EVERY farm business that commits to our three-year Platinum Mastermind Program.
To download a copy of our 3 Page Planning Template - Click here.
To learn how to nail this - Click here.
To book a free Strategic Roadmap Call to get direct support specific to your business from a Farm Owners Academy Coach - Click here.
We care deeply about seeing farming families feeling aligned, in control, and working toward one clear, impactful plan.
Thank you, Sam, as always â you are a genius in this space.
Enjoy.
Hutch & Team
Technology can be pretty incredible. With its exponential advancement, there is no doubt we are on the cusp of unprecedented change on-farm and across our industry.
Our game is rapidly changing, allowing us to achieve much more with much less.
For me, our future is very exciting.
In this episode, I invite you to join me and an audience of 350 progressive, growth-oriented and passionate farmers at one of our Deep Dive conferences (usually exclusively for our Platinum Mastermind members).
In this, Matthew Prior (Managing Partner â Tenacious Ventures) and I interview the impressive CEO and Founder of SwarmFarm Robotics â Andrew Bate.
Based on-farm near Emerald in Queensland, Andrew and his family run a highly efficient, large-scale broad-acre cropping operation. In 2012, as a âside-hustleâ to their farm, SwarmFarm Robotics was created. Now, some 13 years later, this incredible Ag Tech business employs over 25 staff and is firmly placed as one of the pioneers and world leaders in Autonomous Vehicle platforms for Agriculture.
Enjoy this interview, with questions coming from many of our Platinum Mastermind audience members throughout.
Undoubtedly, Andrew Bate and his team are transforming how we think about how we farm. To frame up this interview, you can watch this short video (also shared within the podcast) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfA-nlj29s&t=32s
I encourage you to check out their website: www.swarmfarm.com and consider how their technology might have a place on your farm sometime soon!
Congratulations, Andrew and team, for your pioneering and for the contribution you make to our industry.
Wow.
Hutch & the FOA Team
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast
This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ
Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join
- Work with us privately
If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Throughout each year, I value the opportunity to invite our Investment Specialist Terry Tran to join us on Profitable Farmer.
With rising inflation, increasing interest rates, ongoing supply issues and softening commodity prices we are potentially entering a new agri-economic landscape, different from all we have experienced in recent years.
In this podcast we explore how Terry sees the investment landscape at this time. We discuss the important of being proactive and creating diversification with a strong, well-structured, risk-aware off-farm investment portfolio, especially on the back of strong on-farm results.
We discuss in detail Terryâs investment philosophy, his track-record, and how he helps hundreds of farmers and investors across Australia to learn important, value-based investment skills, then take control of their investment portfolios.
Importantly, we explore Robert Kiyasakiâs Cashflow Quadrant (from the book âRich Dad, Poor Dadâ) and how each of us can create more wealth with a move over-time from being Employed or Self-Employed to being leveraged and focused as Business Owners and Investors.
For those interested, Terry will be running an Investment Masterclass from 7:30pm on Wednesday 5th April, exclusively for our FOA Community.
You can register for this here: https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/
As Founder & CEO to his business Freedom Trader, Terry is a great example of how to create financial freedom and an incredible leveraged lifestyle through strategic investing. We recommend Terry & the Freedom Trader program highly, and encourage you to make this training a priority.
Thank you, and enjoy.
Hutch & the FOA Team
It is so easy in this game to constantly put in massive hours, ensure everyone around you has what they need, and focus intently on getting the job done.
An extended finish, a challenging season and ALREADY the urgent requirement to get set to âgo againâ⊠I hear of many farming families feeling they must sacrifice their holiday plans to stay on top of production imperatives.
Right now, it is critical we stop, take stock, and be reminded of the importance of putting ourselves first.
Following a cracking session with Andrew Roberts last episode, I am delighted to invite Farm Owners Academyâs Director of Well-being and Mindset Specialist, Tracy Secombe, to once again join me on the Profitable Farmer Podcast.
In this episode, we explore:
- what is well-being, and what are the key elements;
- the importance of well-being for each of us;
- how we can make this a priority, even in intently busy times; and
- the significant impact this can have on your overall ability to function, lead and succeed.
We also discuss three valuable programs that support this:
- Tracyâs People Pleaser to Soul Pleaser Program
- Tracyâs 7-Day Calmness Code Challenge
- Farm Owners Academyâs Take Control Program
We recommend these programs to you⊠highly.
Tracy, we are delighted to have your involvement with us expanded and taken the lead in supporting the overall well-being of our team, our members and our entire community.
I cannot think of a more perfect person to take on this role with us all. Thank you once again.
In putting ourselves firstâŠ
Enjoy.
Hutch & the FOA Team
So often in this game, we attend only the training put on by the R&D extension agencies or free events by our advisers.So often, we wait for a grant to become available before we commit to a course, or we focus on improving our skills ONLY when there is a subsidy or sponsorship toward the funding of it. My point is: So many farmers donât invest enough in themselves!In this episode, Andrew âRobboâ Roberts (Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder) & I re-connect and focus on the impact of making a significant investment in your own development. We reflect on how a commitment of $25,000 toward a business coaching certificate changed everything for each of us.In farming, we will buy flashy cars, new Utes and all the plant & equipment we might need, yet neglect one of the single best investments we can make!In this episode, Robbo & I explore the following:
- the importance of investing in ourselves;
- why people donât do this and what this can mean;
- why people can be closed to learning new concepts & principles;
- why we seem to prefer to âdefend what we knowâ;
- the value of making this your priority; and
- the results that can come in so doing.
We also talk about the TAKE CONTROL Program, why we created it, and the campaign we are running now for our 2023 intake. Information here for those interestedI am constantly so immensely impressed by the investment our Farm Owners Academy Members make in their own development - time & money. I respect just how committed they are to their own growth and improvement. The results they achieve truly speak for themselves.Make an investment of significance in your own growth this year - I promise, the rest will take care of itself!!In learning & growth âŠHutch & the FOA Team
There are some genuinely impressive Australian stories of entrepreneurial success in our industry â true, unsung, modern examples of courage, initiative, determination and pioneering.
For me, Dwain Duxson and the Farm Tender story is one of those.
Founded in March 2012, Farm Tender is Australiaâs pre-eminent online buying and selling marketplace for farmers and associated agricultural companies, facilitating sales of grain, hay, farm machinery and agricultural equipment.
With over 62,000 farming members, Farm Tender transacted sales of over 100 million in the 2022 calendar year, providing a valuable, efficient, dependable service to our industry.
Success like this doesnât come easy. Achievement of this sort follows countless mistakes, multiple failures, immense effort and sheer determination.
From humble farm beginnings to real momentum in the online, two-sided marketplace space, Dwain and his team offer us inspiration as to what is possible when as business leaders, we see a small opportunity, commit completely and then determine personally to succeed no matter what.
My key takeaways from my time with Dwain:
- back yourself on your ideas â perhaps playing it safe âisnât itâ
- be willing to try, and fail, on multiple ideas until you find the one that will thrive
- genuinely care for your people and look for the one-percenters that will support your culture
- invest intently in your network, actively nurture relationships and build trust with people
- be passionate about what you do, and be determined to stay the course.
For more information about Farm Tender and DelayPay CLICK HERE.
To register for Farm Tenders annual conference, âThe Business of Farmingâ in Bendigo on Friday 3rd, March, CLICK HERE.
Congratulations, Dwain, on all you have achieved. Well done on the service you provide to our industry and the genuine, high-quality way you deliver it.
Your story is one worthy of sharing â I just hope we have done it justice.
Hutch & the Farm Owners Academy Team
We are excited to be kicking off our first podcast of 2023, we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break. May 2023 be your best year yet!
One of the great things about this time of year is friends dropping in on their holiday travels.
There truly is nothing like old friendships. Whilst visiting us, I am delighted to once again welcome great mate James Kelly to our podcast. As Managing Director to Alchimie Management Consulting, James and his team dedicate much of their focus to helping high-performing teams overcome communication challenges and aligning executive teams leading major construction and corporate projects.
The other great thing about this time of year, is the opportunity to reflect on the season just gone, and then dedicate real time to setting down the plan for the new year.
In this podcast, and over a coffee, he and I explore the importance of planning, and the keys to aligning a team to a common plan.
At FOA, we recommend getting off-site for ideally two full days, with a clear agenda, and all key decision-makers. We see this as a critical step in moving from reactive to proactive in your business leadership. This brings on-farm business teams together and on to the same page.
In this interview, James shares some compelling insights as to how he facilitates workshops designed to overcome relationship issues, help team members see a higher perspective, and re-align common goals.
There are so many insights here, especially for those working with that important on-farm blend of family and non-family teams.
Enjoy, and share with me your insights in our Profitable Farmer Facebook Group.
Sincerely,
Hutch
Business can be a very lonely place. Farming can be isolating.  Sometimes⊠no, often⊠we can feel like we are âgoing it aloneâ.  Our challenges, failings, and issues can feel unique to us.  In my experience, when you commit to joining a Mastermind Group, everything can change. There is much wisdom to call on from those around us, and we quickly realise we are not alone and our issues are not our own.  In a Mastermind, we get to surround ourselves with like-minded, growth-oriented peers. We get to stand on the sturdy shoulders of giants.  As we arrive at the end of 2022, it gives me great pleasure to reflect on the year that was with four incredible families and Platinum Mastermind Members.  In this episode, I invite Michael & Simone Hughes, James & Kylie Armstrong, Luke & Betty-Lou Haydon and Luke & Danielle Wiese to join me for a chat and to reflect on their journey with Farm Owners Academy so far.  Four great Australian families and four simple questions:Â
- Where were you, and where are you now?
- What have you achieved?
- What are you most proud of?
- How has the Farm Owners Academy community helped you?
⊠and so many great lessons and incredible insights.  Simply, Business Coaching works. Accountability helps. Being part of a Mastermind Group can change everything.  We are proud of what our members achieve, and these members are no exception. Congratulations to you all.  Enjoy hearing this episode's stories and how being part of our program and community can genuinely help you thrive.  For those interested in commencing a journey with Farm Owners Academy in 2023, our TOP Producers Program 2-Day workshop is a great place to start. We highly recommend this to you.  This will be our last podcast for 2022. We will be back for more from January 15, 2023, after a well-earned break for our entire team.  Thank you all for being so loyal to our podcast. Thank you for all you do and for the contribution you each make to our industry and our rural communities.  All the best for the end of this season, for a wonderful Christmas and a rich and rewarding festive season. I hope Santa is kind to you.  Merry Christmas,From Hutch & the entire FOA Team
It has once again been a unique farming season - perhaps one like no other!
In this episode, and once again, I call on Brett Stevenson, Managing Director & Founder of Market Check â the most influential, independent grain marketing and education service for Australian farmers.
Together we explore:
- an assessment of the current season;
- advice on the importance of proactive grain marketing at this time;
- an estimation of short-term grain price movements;
- a perspective on medium and longer-term price expectations;
- a view on the key influencers right now for local and global grain markets; and
- a reminder of the importance of thoughtful price discovery, offering a commodity at a value and then asking the buyer to arrive to it.
Brett provides some incredible insights, which confirms for me why Market Check continues to be the most respected and credible grain marketing firm in Australia.
In the closing, we touch on Brettâs personal story of adversity. Through this, Brett offers us some important comments on what can help support us through times of challenge, how to keep a deep sense of personal strength and how to find positivity through periods of challenge.
Brett, thank you for your time and generosity. As always, an absolute pleasure.
All the best to you as we move into a harvest season like no other!
Sincerely,
Hutch
Right now, there are many farming families facing real challenges.
Extended rains, widespread flooding, the prospect of failed crops, wet paddocks and the complexities all this brings for hay carting, harvest and the end of our season.
A season that promised so much.
A cost-base inflated by the aftermath of a global pandemic.
Seven years ago, Platinum Mastermind members Troy and Nette Fisher, Ashmore Rams (Woolshed, SA) were decimated by the Pinery Fires.
Three years ago, Farm Owners Academy Coach David âWestyâ Westbrook dedicated months on Kangaroo Island, supporting fire-affected members of our community with their recovery efforts.
I asked them to join me for this episode to offer some hope and inspiration to those experiencing challenges and their own version of adversity â large or small.
In this episode, I reflect with Troy and Nette on where they have arrived to on the other side of their adversity. I also ask Westy to reflect on what our Farm Owners Academy community on Kangaroo Island did in the weeks and months that followed the fires that not only inspired him, but allowed them to recover and thrive.
Where Troy and Netteâs business Ashmore Rams is now, is incredible. Their mindset, determination, decision-making and their results speak for themselves. For more information on Ashmore Rams, Click Here.
I hope the insights shared in this episode on gratitude, perspective, calmness, kindness, planning, decision-making, and massive action offer some clarity and direction for all of you as we arrive at the end of a very unique season.
Troy & Nette remind me that there is always a silver lining and that âgoodâ things can come from the âbadâ if you stay the course and choose to own the situation we find ourselves in.
Thank you, Troy, Nette and Westy â an uplifting and important conversation.
Be kind, everyone, and letâs nail the end to this season!
Best,
Hutch
Dave âWestyâ Westbrook here â and I have hijacked this episode of the Profitable Farmer Podcast!
For me, true wealth is about the inner success or the âinner heroâ that we all have inside us, and, at the end of the day, our farming businesses are tools to help us create the life we desire.
I am so incredibly excited to welcome three special guests to the podcast - Ironman world champion Trevor Hendy, AFL legend Kane Johnson and breath and Ice bath guru Mark Kluwer.
Recently, 16 men from our Platinum Mastermind community and I attended the âBreath and Break Through Retreatâ hosted by Mark, Trevor and Kane at Elevated Springs in Hepburn, Victoria. It was an incredible few days together, focusing on self-awareness, connection, personal growth and a deeper understanding of yourself.
âWe want to call ourselves successful, but to be successful requires strength and courage, and the biggest strength and courage we can have, is to be our true self.â
In this episode, we explore some important themes in more depth on creating the life you desire, including:
- Itâs not what you do but who you are that matters.
- How vulnerability opens you up to new opportunities.
- Why most of us are in burnout.
- Breathing and how it scientifically impacts us.
- How to stay calm in high-stress environments.
- Plus much moreâŠ
Make sure you stick around to the end, where we run an activity to help you identify and make desired changes in your life.
We hope you enjoy this episode!
Thanks again for having me,
Westy
P.S. Find out more about Mark Kluwer & upcoming retreats at Elevated Springs by clicking here.
As Part III on the important topic of RESILIENCE, I speak with the incredible Maria Ruberto â specialist in the neuroscience and deep psychology of human resilience.
Her official definition: Advancing despite adversity.
Love this.
I find how our mind works so fascinating. Recent advances in neuroscience continue to help us more deeply understand this area and seem to favour the more innate and humanistic practices advocated for mental well-being, personal development, self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
In fact, there is now a transformational model â the PR6 FACTOR â that outlines the six core domains underpinning human resilience⊠who knew!!
In this episode, Maria and I explore:
- what is it to be resilient;
- how the mind works from a scientific standpoint;
- how our mind, when left unchecked, can work against us;
- how we automatically respond when faced with adversity;
- how we can self-regulate in order to enhance our response & realities;
- how big of an issue mental âill-healthâ (as the opposing side to resilience) is for us as a community; and
- how resilience is something we can work on and build over time.
This podcast references Episode #104 âWhat is it to be resilientâ, and connects with Episode #105 âResilience in Family Relationships.â I encourage you to listen to these prior to enjoying this one.
Importantly, and as Maria suggests, be kind to yourself as you listen to this. If you feel these podcasts âtrigger youâ or raise issues for you, we urge you to reach out and speak to a professional on any one of these related support lines:
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636
- Mensline: 1300 789 978
- Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
- Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
- Blue Knot Helpline: 1300 657 380
Resilience is an immensely important topic - especially as farmers and valued participants in families and rural communities.
For those interested in deepening your ability in this area, please consider Mariaâs training series: Resilience First Aid â click here to discover more!
Thank you, Maria, for the work you do, for your commitment, and for your unwavering dedication to helping individuals, families, and teams be better â for themselves and each other.
I so very much value your time and insights in this conversation.
Be well, everyone and thank you!
Sincerely,
Hutch & Team
P.S. Discover more about the six domains of resilience â click here
P.P.S. Find out more about Maria Ruberto and her incredible work â click here
P.P.P.S. If you think this episode or podcast series would benefit someone else, please forward this on to them!
To speak plainly, family relationships need to be resilient in family business.
To be honest - so often, behind closed doors, simply, they are not.
As Part II on the topic of RESILIENCE, I speak with Farm Owners Academy Director and Soul Pleaser Program Founder, Tracy Secombe â our resident authority on this topic.
In this episode, Tracy & I more deeply explore:
- how families can compromise an individualâs resilience;
- how we can improve family relationships and strengthen their resilience; and
- for family relationships to change, first, I must change how I turn up to those relationships.
So often, we find ourselves in an unhealthy dynamic, whereby the strength of family relationships are left unchecked.
Tracy is a true genius in supporting individuals to reflect on, review and transform important family relationships. Her program âPeople Pleaser to Soul Pleaserâ, and now her recently released best-selling book, is dedicated to helping people do the deeper work on this - creating opportunities for new, vibrant and more resilient family relationships.
To support our discussion, please find a related article from Tracy that might assist you â Click Here to access.
Tracy, on behalf of our entire community, thank you for all you do and your support in helping people foster stronger and more resilient family relationships. Farm Owners Academy is lucky to have you.
Enjoy this podcast and use it as your opportunity to make meaningful changes for the better within your families.
With respect,
Hutch
With R U OK Day taking place last week, I wanted to take a few moments to share a business coaching principle that changed my life.
In my younger years, I constantly struggled with poor self-esteem, low confidence, anxiety and, at times, depression. In addition, I was plagued by an active mindset of sabotaging my own sense of self.
Left unchecked, I hate to think where life might have taken me and where I might be right now.
One of the greatest gifts in my life has been to learn how to do âthe deeper workâ. Focusing on changing my psychology, strengthening my resolve and building my resilience has been an active process that has helped me immensely for over 20 years.
In this episode, I share the concept of the IDENTITY ICEBERG and (hopefully) provide you with a model and process that you can work through to help build your resilience and be at your best.
I talk about the self-development work we need to do around the skills, values, priorities, beliefs and identity that define who we are and who we strive to become.
This is my way of reaching out to our loyal listeners.
I value you greatly, and ask R U OK?
Take care, stay strong and thank you.
Hutch & team
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast
This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ
Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join
- Work with us privately
If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Hi [First Name],
In leadership, sometimes it pays to take the highest perspective possible.
Today, as we find ourselves navigating global political unrest, war, pandemic recovery, disease threat, rising interest rates, inflation and significant seasonal volatility, this has never been more important.
For an incredibly insightful global perspective and a highly considered and passionate interpretation tailored just for us â as Australian Farmers â it gives me great pleasure to introduce one of the most brilliant individuals I have ever met!
Simon Kuestenmacher is the Co-founder and Director of The Demographics Group based in Melbourne, Australia. Simon holds degrees in geography from leading universities in Berlin and Melbourne and has worked as a business consultant with KPMG Australia for several years. In 2017 Simon, with Bernard Salt, co-founded The Demographics Group. The group provides specialist advice on demographic, consumer and social trends for business. Simon has presented to numerous corporate and industry audiences across Australia and overseas on demographic trends, consumer insights and cultural change in Australia.
For a pragmatic, optimistic and insightful view of Australiaâs place in the world and a cracking reminder of what is important for our farms, employees, communities and regions⊠ladies & gentlemen, I give you the outstanding Simon K!
Enjoy!
Hutch & Team
P.S. Want to learn the 6-step system that the top 5% of farm owners follow to run their business? Join us for our one-day virtual Business Summit â click here to learn more.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
As our world continues to change, our commodity and investment markets continue to be impacted by an ongoing series of externalities.
To help us understand the current market conditions and to offer direction on navigating a significant recent market correction, I invite our resident investment specialist, Terry Tran, back to the Profitable Farmer Podcast.
As always, it is great to connect with Terry and, importantly, understand:
- whatâs happening in the equities markets at present;
- how best to navigate a current market correction;
- whatâs driving this,
- political pressures from major global players; and
- how to make the most of the opportunities presented.
As leaders, business owners, investors and exporters, it is important to take a global perspective and understand the new dynamics at play.
From Ukraine & Russia to Taiwan, China & the USA, increasing interest rates, inflation, currency and COVID, as always, Terry, it is so valuable to get your insight across all things impacting the investment market.
Importantly, we will be hosting an exclusive 2-hour Investment Webinar with Terry on Wednesday the 24th of August 2022, from 7:30 to 9:30pm. We welcome you to join us as we focus in more detail on how to navigate the current major market correction â click here for more information.
Keep winning.
Hutch & Team
P.S. Want to learn the 6-step system that the top 5% of farm owners follow to run their business? Join Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder Andrew Roberts and Managing Director Jeremy Hutchings for this one-day, one-off business summit on the 15th of September that you can join online from the comfort of your home! Andrew and Jeremy will share the best strategies they have picked up from three decades of coaching and working with hundreds of farm owners. Learn more or secure your seat: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/business-summit/
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Succession is often described as a complex, challenging, confronting, highly emotional and intense process.
At its worst, succession can tear families apart, damage relationships and be the demise of significant farming dynasties. We have all seen this.
In this podcast, I interview succession specialist and ProAgtive Co-Founder Isobel Knight, for another look at this important topic.
âDone well, and applying sound business management fundamentals, succession can be a very positive and creative problem-solving process⊠one that creates very real and significant opportunities for all involved.â
This is how succession should be.
Over the past 18 years, I have always admired Isobel and the quiet determination she has extended in making a difference for Australian farming families around succession.
I love Isobelâs perspective on succession and how she reminds us to focus on the future and create new opportunities for all involved - finding a way to be respectful, empathetic and grateful in how we arrive at the process.
Now, leading a team of succession specialists and serving farming families across Australia, we can learn a lot from the process Isobelâs team work through as they facilitate farm family succession meetings.
Thank you Isobel, for so openly sharing your view on this important topic and your insight as to how families can set the foundations, through good business management, to do this well. I commend you on a highly successful career and for the impact you have made on our industry.
I hope you find this valuable.
Hutch & Team
P.S. Want to learn the 6 step system that the top 5% of farm owners follow to run their business? Join Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder Andrew Roberts and Managing Director Jeremy Hutchings for this one-day, one-off business summit on the 15th of September that you can join online from the comfort of your home! Andrew and Jeremy will share the best strategies they have picked up from three decades of coaching and also working with hundreds of farm owners. Learn more or secure your seat: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/business-summit/
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Growing up, like most kids, I had three heroes:
- Mel Gibson,
- Greg Norman, and
- Phil Kearns.
All Aussies. All champions in their own way in their chosen field.
To celebrate our 100th Profitable Farmer Podcast episode, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Wallaby great Phil Kearns (OAM).
Phil is without question one of Australiaâs greatest ever Rugby Union players. With 67 tests as #2 for the Australian Wallabies,10 as Captain and 73 games for the NSW Waratahs, Phil was a key contributor to 3 successful Rugby World Cup campaigns, including the memorable 1991 and 1999 victories over England and New Zealand, respectively.
Beyond Rugby, Phil is a thoughtful, composed and genuine leader. A true gentleman of sport, business and philanthropy.
I was lucky enough to meet Phil recently when he opened the new clubhouse at the local Cootamundra Rugby grounds. The time he openly shared with my family, the kids of the Club and their families was incredible.
His passion for Australian Rugby, grass-roots footy, local communities, and youth development is inspiring. His contribution to the game of Rugby and its future in Australia is significant.
Enjoy this conversation where we connect and discuss:
- the past and future Australian Rugby landscape;
- the process to win the recent Rugby World Cup bid, what this means for Australian Rugby;
- his career as a Wallaby; and
- his take on leadership and how to get the best for & from individuals and teams.
There is always so much we can learn from spending time with people like Phil. His outlook is clear, concise and refreshing.
Again, I hope you enjoy this interview just as much as I did recording it.
Thank you, Phil, and congratulations on an incredible career and contribution.
Thank you, everyone, for being part of the Profitably Farmer journey â bring on our second century!
Hutch & Team
P.S. Click here to learn more about Farm Owners Academy. You can also click here to book a time to âHave A Yarnâ with an FOA coach about how we might best support you on your journey.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Eight years ago, Farm Owners Academy (FOA) was just an idea shared by two incredible visionaries, Greg & Deb Johnsson.
Six months later, and following some time with Business Coach Andrew Roberts, the business we see and cherish today was born.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
As this is our 99th Profitable Farmer Podcast, I thought it appropriate to reflect on this journey with FOA Co-Founders Greg Johnsson & Andrew Roberts.
From that initial idea, now to an incredible community of over 500 farm businesses progressing through our various programs and a team of 20 dedicated business coaches and highly professional support personnel, the FOA Story is one worthy of sharing.
As a team and community, we can all be proud of what we have together created. I personally feel this project will make an impact of significance on our industry, as it has for the hundreds of farming families who have already completed our various programs.
Iâd like to dedicate this interview to Greg, Deb and Robbo. Your Vision, intent, enterprise, dedication and tireless effort have delivered a Business Masterclass and Coaching Program to Australian Agriculture that is like no other.
To our team of incredible coaches and those in support, thank you for your unwavering loyalty and commitment to supporting our farming families to learn, grow and achieve their potential.
And finally, to all of you in our community â our podcast listeners, Take Control and Farm Financial Framework Members, TOP Producer Program event attendees, our Platinum Mastermind Program and our Alumni, thank you for your openness and your willingness to lean in, improve and be part of our growing community.
I hope you enjoy this podcast just as much as I enjoyed reflecting with two incredible individuals, Andrew Roberts and Greg Johnsson.
Keep winning, everyone!
Hutch
P.S. Click here to learn more about Farm Owners Academy. You can also click here to book a time to âHave A Yarnâ with an FOA coach about how we might best support you on your journey.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Let me be straight for a moment.
Many of us are making tax âminimisationâ decisions at tax time that constrict our growth.
Many of us are expecting more of our Accountants than they are equipped to offer.
Finally, many of us do not have the people around us that can truly support our professional and business advancement.
These three things, especially at tax time, can be costing us a fortune.
In this episode, I welcome farm finance specialist Jeff McDonald, Executive Director at RLS Agribusiness, back to the show. I also speak with two FOA Platinum Mastermind graduates and leading farm financial controllers, Emma Strong and Mel Crockett. They share how investing in their financial development has forever changed their farm business performance.
In this important conversation, we explore:
- how Super, FMDâs and spending money at tax time can, in fact, impede your progress;
- how to turning a profit and paying tax is a good thing (that should be celebrated);
- how as farm owners, WE need to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for how we present to the banks and do the âheavy liftingâ for our bankers; and
- how building your financial acumen is CRITICAL to your success and advancement.
Speaking plainly once again, perhaps this is you holding your business back?
Perhaps a stronger advisory team AND an investment in yourself can be the key changes you can make to move your business forward.
Perhaps there are some better, higher-level questions we can each be askingâŠ
Perhaps the Farm Financial Framework is for you: www.farmownersacademy.com/fff
Thank you all. Thank you, Jeff, Emma & Mel, and enjoy.
Hutch
P.S. You will hear me speak about the Farm Financial Framework course during this episode. A program I believe deeply in that has helped so many and can create long-lasting change for farm business families. To learn more about the program or join our upcoming our next intake, please CLICK HERE.
It is always a pleasure to catch up, shoot the breeze and reflect on all things finance, farming and family with Tony Catt, Director at Catapult Wealth.
Tony and the team at Catapult Wealth specialise in accounting, wealth creation and succession planning for Australian farming families. As one of FOAâs referral partners AND as our resident succession planning specialist, we recommend Tony and his team highly.
In this podcast, Tony and I take the opportunity to re-connect and reflect on a range of important topics impacting farming families, including:
- the current state of our economy,
- interest rate expectations & inflation,
- property prices & land value,
- financing, funding & the banks,
- professionalism in farming,
- families in farming, and
- Tonyâs latest thoughts & insights on navigating succession in this new climate.
Tony is a rare and engaging individual with a deep passion for helping farming families create wealth and thrive!
Itâs always a lot of fun and incredibly insightful sharing some time with him.
Enjoy.
Hutch
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
For a vision to be compelling AND create meaningful change, it has to enrol and inspire.
Well-designed, a compelling vision can align people from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds, varying persuasions, and even competing preferences.
To me, it seems that for Australian Agriculture, this has been achieved thanks to Tony Mahar and the National Farmers Federation (NFF).
In 2018, NFF sought to prepare a shared vision for Australian Agriculture.
A sixth-month consultation process with the industry, some deep thinking, a host of critical conversations and input from key players, and a supporting roadmap to 2030 was born. Within it, an overview of important mega-trends to impact us all, five pillars to focus their effort, and a shortlist of major projects to initiate and impact.
NFFâs 2030 Vision and Roadmap can be found by clicking here.
I speak with Tony Mahar, CEO of National Farmers Federation in this podcast.
We explore what is unique about the economic climate of today and the vision and roadmap they have pioneered for Australian Agriculture. Finally, we touch on some key issues impacting our industry, including supply shortages, labour shortfalls and trade challenges.
Importantly, we also connect on what is good about being in this industry at this time and how fortunate we are as farming families and business owners to be part of a nation and industry with so much to look forward to.
Thank you, Tony, for your openness, transparency, overview, and insight.
A very interesting conversation.
Enjoy!
Jeremy
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
You will have heard me say this before: Time is our greatest asset.
So many of us feel SO BUSY. We operate in CHAOS. We are REACTIVE rather than proactive.
There is just not enough time in the day!
Putting it simply, I believe that farmers (as a rule) DO NOT VALUE THEIR TIME.
So many of us are STUCK in our business - âsaving a wageâ by doing the LOW-VALUE tasks on our farm. And this is âcosting us a fortune.â
In this podcast, I speak with two of the most professional and highly effective individuals I know â FOAâs General Manager, Sam Johnsson and FOAâs Business & Administration Manager, Michaela Malicki.
In this podcast, we explore how they manage their time and the tips & tactics they recommend to help you become more effective. We discuss email management, diary management, scheduling, planning, to-do lists, meeting management and quarterly planning.
In life, no one (necessarily) has any more time than anyone else. We all experience time the same way.
The key to TAKING CONTROL and being highly effective comes down to how we value and prioritise our time.
I hope this podcast is helpful to you. I hope it inspires you to make meaningful changes and apply professional time management practices to your lives and your farms.
Please share your key take-aways and wins on the Profitable Farmer Facebook group, and reach out with any comments and questions on this.
Finally, FOAâs Take Control Program delves deep into this topic and offers some powerful training to help you implement this and be more effective. For more details, go to: www.farmownersacademy.com/takecontrol
Well done. Thank you, and have a PRODUCTIVE few weeks!
Hutch
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Once again, we are reminded that no two seasons are the same.
Distinct from prior seasons, we find ourselves in a new business environment where, like diesel prices, the cost of many farm inputs has increased by 30% plus.
The result of COVID and fuel prices on freight, combined with the Russia - Ukraine conflict, we may be looking at a situation where some inputs are in short supply at the farm gate.
In this podcast, and on the back of a local meeting with a buying group I am part of, I invite local Cootamundra Nutrien Branch Manager, Timothy Callan, to join Greg Johnsson and me to discuss this issue.
In this, we explore:
- what Nutrien are seeing in terms of input pricing and availability;
- what is causing these issues;
- where the problems are (Urea in particular);
- what is the outlook for this, and how long might it last; and
- what to do about it.
In addition, I ask FOA Co-Founder Greg Johnsson to discuss:
- the mindset we need to have around this;
- the need to keep perspective and see the whole picture when making decisions;
- the concept of farming for margin at this time;
- understanding the law of diminishing returns;
- using the analytical tools available to support decision-making; and
- the value of quality agronomic / business advisers at this time.
A relevant topic and an important conversation.
With favourable prices across most commodity categories at present, there is an immense opportunity this year IF we analyse well, make strong and early decisions and farm for margin and not yield.
Thank you all, and all the best as we get underway with this unique and new season.
Keep winning!
Hutch
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Letâs be real for a moment; business ownership is one of the world's toughest assignments. Even more so is farm business ownership, with its numerous complexities and subtleties. At the same time, business ownership AND farming can be very lonely places.
In our roles on-farm, and as we all know, we have âups and downsâ.
And so, my question is:
who do you have in your corner?
⊠who do you have around you helping you be at your best?
⊠who do you call on to ensure you are resilient, confident and competent?
Engaging a psychologist was a turning point for me - one of the greatest choices and changes I have made. Truly a life-or-death decision. A very real âsliding doors momentâ for me.
As a result of my decision to seek professional help and get my head right, my life now is beyond my wildest dreams.
Given this, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr Dave Anthony to our podcast.
Dave is a registered psychologist with an impressive list of qualifications, affiliations and experience under his belt. He is passionate about changing the way men engage in therapy and improving their quality of life.
Dave is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mantle - a national, confidential, virtual mental health service for men. Their mantra is to see men across Australia move from âbelow average to goodâ and from âgood to greatâ⊠to help them grow and be better versions of themselves.
Join us for this incredible interview in which we explore:
- how are men wired;
- what drives us?;
- what is it we actually want?; and
- where we need to focus to be at our best.
Dave, congratulations to you and your team for all you are pioneering and achieving in support of the great men across Australia - our landscape is better for your efforts.
To make contact with Mantle Health, visit: www.mantlehealth.com.au
- Click on the green âBOOK A TIMEâ button
- Select service type (Clinical or Performance)
- Then âAny practitionerâ to find next available (you can check out the team bios first, by clicking the âOur Teamâ page).
Alternatively, call 1300 646 753, or submit an enquiry via email info@mantlehealth.com.au. Regardless of how contact is made, Mantle Health will respond to all enquiries within one business day
NB: if you donât have a treating GP, Mantle can assist you in accessing a Mental Health Plan through their partner GP telehealth service for a Medicare rebate of part of the session cost.
Stay strong, everyone.
Jeremy
P.S. for a link to âsupporting the men in your lifeâ conversation guide and 4 Râs we referenced during this podcast, click here!
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Once again, our world has taken a surprising and unprecedented turn - on the back of fires, COVID, floods⊠and now war.
After a period of economic expansion and optimism, we now find ourselves experiencing a global shift to the market we operate in.
To explain and explore this highly significant shift, I am delighted to welcome back our resident investment specialist Terry Tran, founder of The Freedom Trader.
In this episode, we explore the likely combined impacts of:
- inflation,
- interest rates,
- recent government stimulus,
- gross indebtedness,
- corporate earnings activities, and
- the liquidity cycle.
Importantly, and as Terry does so well, we unpack what this means for you as an investor in the stock market. How to be proactive in reviewing and re-shaping your off-farm investment portfolio, and how to position yourself to take advantage of the very real opportunities that now present.
For those wanting more in-depth insight and training on this topic, as well as strategies for creating real wealth through off-farm investing, we highly recommend registering for Terryâs upcoming, FREE & LIVE online wealth creation Masterclass - âHow to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm Safelyâ being held on Wednesday 23rd March 2022.
Thank you, Terry, once again for your brilliance and your insight.
I trust this discussion is of value to you.
Enjoy!
Jeremy
P.S. For more information about Terry Tranâs free online training event, âHow to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm Safelyâ or to register â click here!
In this Podcast, I am delighted to interview my good friend and FOA Business Coach Sam Pincott, sharing with you the story of Holbrook Paddock Eggs.
With so many emerging businesses, especially those that dare to be different, we face a multitude of headwinds, challenges and even criticism. In their careers, Sam and his wife Prue have faced their fair share of all of these. I have genuinely admired the true commitment, determination and persistence they have shown over their 13-year journey.
It is an absolute credit to them to now see their business is really hitting its straps. With a dedicated and loyal team, a strong brand and client base, a scalable business model supported by strong systems, Holbrook Paddock Eggs is now firmly placed as a great example of the âpaddock to plateâ concept we so often hear about.
With over 15,000 free-range chooks and leading a team of 10, Sam and Prue are a great example of a farming family who have dared to be different while remaining true to their values and pioneered a new and different means by which to succeed in this game of Agriculture.
Importantly, it is also an example of how we can CREATE NEW VALUE by building a business system that works to complement the farm.
We are proud to have Sam as a Coach at Farm Owners Academy, helping other farming families dare to be and do the same!
Congratulations, Prue and Sam, and thank you for openly sharing your story.
Jeremy
P.S. You can learn more about Holbrook Paddock Eggs by clicking here.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Some important constructs that have changed my life:
- âA business will never out-grow its ownerâ;
- âIf you do what you have always done, you will get what youâve always gotâ;
- âFor things to change, FIRST I must changeâ;
- âThe hardest part to learning is letting go of what you think you knowâ;
- âThoughts are things, and it is in taking control of our mind, that personal transformation can occurâ; and
- âWork harder on yourself, than you do on your âJOBââ
This morning I arrive back to my farm and office, having had a week away, at a resort on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, hosting both our 2 Day TOP Producers Workshop, and then one of FOAâs Deep Dive Conferences with over 300 of our Platinum Mastermind Members.
What an event! What an incredible community. What a life-changing experience for so many farming families.
To see so many farm owners so completely engaged, so committed to their own growth, and so open to personal development and a focus on mindset mastery, was incredible.
To all of you who attended, my sincere thanks for your significant part in making both events very memorable and transformational for so many.
Farmers are incredible people. Determined beyond belief. A work ethic without equal. A resilience beyond words.
At the same time, so many BELIEVE that they have to âwork hard to get aheadâ, that âmoney is hard to come byâ, that âitâs hard to find good peopleâ, and that âour results are out of our controlââŠ
In this Podcast, I âshoot the breezeâ with FOA Team Members Sam Johnsson (General Manager), David Westbrook (Senior Coach & Community Manager) and Sam Pincott (Farm Business Coach). We reflect on our amazing week just gone, the importance of working on our MINDSET, and the POWER â if we are to truly succeed in business & life â of being part of a community of like-minded, growth-oriented, passionate farm owners.
It is weeks like that just gone that define why FOA exists â to offer a MASTERMIND Community for farming families wanting to achieve their potential, improve their lives and create FREEDOM FARMS.
I feel honoured & proud to be part of this team, to teach & apply the entrepreneurial principles we get to teach & share, and to have the opportunity to experience the strength of this community.
To those who joined us, thank you. To our graduates, to our award nominees and award winners â CONGRATULATIONS on your success. Thank you for trusting in us, being leaders in this, and thank you for inspiring those around you.
We hope to see you at one of our future FOA events⊠soon ! đ
Sincerely,
Jeremy
PS â Enrol in Take Control Program before 27th February 2022 and save $1,000 PLUS get these awesome bonuses. You will receive:
-
Immediate access to the Take Control program. 5 self-paced online learning modules that will completely transform your skills as a farm business owner giving you more profit, more control and more freedom.
-
A Take Control workbook with all the templates you need succeed in your business. This is a practical course and when complete you will have created new systems to help you move forward as a business owner.
-
A payment plan to spread out your investment.
-
A 14 Day Money Back Guarantee. If you arenât completely satisfied we will give you your money back, no questions asked.
PLUSâŠ
-
BONUS 1:2x Tickets to the TOP Producers 2 Day Workshop â rated 5 stars on Google and Facebook.
-
BONUS 2: 12 months access to the online Take Control community where you can ask any question and get help as you learn and be part of a group of positive, like-minded farm owners wanting to do better.
-
BONUS 3: 12 months access to monthly coaching calls to help you implement the learnings into your business.
CLICK HERE to enrol in TAKE CONTROL today to save $1,000
P.P.S The books Hutch mentioned & recommended were:
â The Law of Attraction, by Michael Losier, and
â The Keys to Living the Law of Attraction, by Jack Canfield.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
- Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
- Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
- Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Every business needs a CEO - including our farm businesses!
As Part II of our Take Control Client spotlight, in this episode, I am delighted to share an interview with Farm Owners Academy (FOA) Member Ben Taylor.
Ben is a valued Take Control Program Graduate and now, a genuine high performer within the FOA Platinum Mastermind Program. Along with his wife Kate, his parents and brother Sam, Ben runs an extensive fourth-generation cropping operation at Condamine in southern Queensland, focusing on wheat & chickpeas in winter and sorghum & cotton in summer.
When Ben & his family started the Take Control Program, they had no shared focus and no real plan. Family members were not always âon the same pageâ, and succession was a real challenge.
Today is a very different story.
Three years on from committing to their Take Control journey, Ben (along with Kate) has lead the charge of applying professional business management practice to their farm. They now operate a very strong plan and are all focused, engaged and clear on their roles. The results being achieved are exceptional. The business is now highly systemised, and importantly, a significant family succession has now successfully been achieved.
Ben is an optimistic character and a natural leader. Through this interview, I am pleased to acknowledge the significant effort Ben, Kate & the Taylor family have made to come together and make their family business work for the long term.
Congratulations, Ben, for how you have grown as a leader to make this happen.
Please note that this interview took place as part of our monthly Coaching Call offerings included with the Take Control program.
As such, Ben references the strategic plan that he was sharing (that you will not see!) and speaks to an audience of current Take Control clients (that you will hear communicated with!). Please enjoy this interview for the compelling learnings and inspiring insights Ben shares about his FOA journey so farâŠ
I hope this serves as an inspiration to you as you take the steps necessary to set down a compelling plan for this coming season.
All the best to you for 2022!
Hutch
P.S. Our Take Control program is where Jack first started his journey! Click here to learn more information about this program.
P.P.S think someone you know might be interested in listening to this episode? Click the link to forward to a friend!
Facebook: https://bit.ly/34nK31l Twitter: https://bit.ly/34n4efP LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3rcUca6
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Happy New Year, and may 2022 be your best year yet!
Up to 85% of our success is determined by the QUALITY of our plan and our ability to implement it consistently â It has been proven!
In this episode, I am delighted to share an interview with Farm Owners Academy (FOA) Member Jack Owen. Jack is a valued Take Control Program Graduate and a current FOA Platinum Mastermind Program member. He runs a high-rainfall, meat sheep operation at Smythes Creek (west of Ballarat) in Victoria with his partner Bonnie.
Jackâs story is a compelling one. From a standing start and with a trade background, Jack has embraced the principles and methods taught by the Take Control Program and is now an incredible example of what can be achieved â currently enjoying a highly profitable, well systemised, organised and focused farm with a very bright future.
Thank you, Jack, for sharing your story so openly. You have added immense value to those moving through their Take Control Program and business development journey.
Please note that this interview took place as part of our monthly Coaching Call offerings included with the Take Control program.
As such, Jack references the strategic plan that he was sharing (that you will not see!) and speaks to an audience of current Take Control clients (that you will hear communicated with!). Please enjoy this interview for the compelling learnings and inspiring insights Jack shares about his FOA journey so farâŠ
I hope this serves as an inspiration to you as you take the steps necessary to set down a compelling plan for this coming season.
All the best to you for 2022!
Game on.
Hutch
P.S. Our Take Control program is where Jack first started his journey! Click here to learn more information about this program.
P.P.S Think someone you know might be interested in listening to this episode?
Click the link to forward to a friend! Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
So much of our focus AND the advice we receive is centred around optimising our Farm Businesses.
When we think about off-farm investing, we look to shares and real estate as our primary options.
Remember the small business. Often, the small business we run as a âside-hustleâ beside our farms get little attention and are often left to play âsecond fiddleâ.
In this podcast, I propose that perhaps our greatest opportunity is in the small business that sits beside our farm business â perhaps there is MORE value to create there? Perhaps your small business may hold the key to helping you achieve expansion, bolster cash flow and move you to the next level!
Do not underestimate the importance and power of a cash-rich business that complements the farm business you have. AND, as farmers, donât underestimate your business acumen and your entrepreneurial ability.
The business principles and entrepreneurial skills we teach at Farm Owners Academy â when applied to your farm AND non-farm businesses â can together be the perfect combination to set you free! I suggest it just takes a shift in thinking, focus, and a stronger strategic plan to make this happen and THRIVE.
I see so many great examples of this in David & Bianca from âOur Cowâ, Tom & Phoebe from LambPro, Neil & Coral from the Junee Licorice Factory, Juliet & Huw from the Long Track Pantry, and Sam & Prue from Holbrook Paddock Eggs (just to name but a few)! They have found a way to SCALE with a focus on BUSINESS just as much as FARMING.
If they can do it, why not you?
Remember, TIME is our greatest asset. So if you are squandering time and focusing on low-value activities, I encourage you to STOP, RESET and FIND A WAY to allocate one day per week to working ON YOUR BUSINESS, not in your business⊠this could be the thing that makes all the difference for you.
I hope this challenges your thinking and offers you some different and BETTER questions over the Christmas and festive season to turn your mind to.
Hereâs to the importance of good business practice â applied both ON and OFF farm!
Keep winning!
Hutch & the FOA Team
P.S. To speak with us about how we can help you scale your non-farm business⊠book a âletâs have a yarnâ call with Westy by clicking HERE.
In this episode, I welcome Andrew Roberts back for an interview he coordinated with Bianca & David McGiveron, Founders of âOur Cowâ.
This is a genuinely inspiring Australian success story.
Just three years ago, David and Bianca were engulfed by prolonged droughts AND wiped out by fires. They were broke, tired, and forced to do something else⊠to think âoutside the boxâ.
They asked themselves: how can we re-invent to make our small farm viable long-term? And from a standing start⊠âOur Cowâ was born.
Just three years on, Dave & Bianca now employ over 25 people in Casino, in a business currently grossing $8m plus per year. Last month, they delivered over 2,800 boxes to almost every part of Australia. Their monthly recurring revenue for their meat subscription alone is now over $650k per month.
Their passion now is to scale, and for âOur Cowâ to see hard-working Aussie Farmers get a fair and stable price for their livestock.
Remember: doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
How are you innovating and pioneering to create a business model with the capacity to scale?
We hope this episode inspires and motivates you, and we canât wait to see what is next for our friends at Our Cow.
Hutch, Robbo & Team
P.S. If you want more information about investing in the âOur Cowâ journey, click here, and they will send you more information. If you want to supply to Our Cow (meat), then send them an email at admin@ourcow.com.au
P.P.S. Our Take Control program is where Our Cow first started their journey! Click here to learn more information about this program.
Land Prices are through the roof, bank lending policies continue to tighten, and the red tape is getting thicker for all across our industry.
If we are serious about farm expansion, inter-generational transition and driving new & improved operating performance, we need to be looking and thinking âoutside the boxâ now more than ever.
With these realities in mind, I call on Collaborative Farming Expert, Jeff McDonald, to explore the benefits of this Farming option.
Jeff is the Founder & Managing Director of Riverland Lending Services and Collaborative Farming Australia. He is also the Chair of many highly successful collaborative farming ventures across Australia â including Bulla Burra, Sherwood Estate and River Wine Collaboratives.
In this discussion, I expected to explore what underpins successful collaborative farming; to learn about some compelling case studies of farming families doing it well and the benefits of this approach to farming... what I didnât expect, and thoroughly appreciate, is Jeffâs candour and willingness to explore in detail his comment that:
âGood business governance is critical to collaborative and family farming equally. If you are not full bottle on this, you are already on your way out of farming.â
You might not like all that Jeff has to say. You might find it challenging. But in reality, he speaks a truth that farm owners can no longer deny â be professional or perish.
Jeff, thank you for your openness, straight-talk, and insightful explanation of how a collaborative approach to farm business expansion can see everyone involved achieve more.
Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I have.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Hutchings
Managing Director, Farm Owners Academy
P.S. If you would like to explore this topic further, you can get in contact with Jeff directly (E) jeff@rls.net.au
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
And so, I continue my series of interviews with remarkable rural Australian women.
Ladies & gentlemen, meet Lyn Sykes.
Spending some time in nursing and counselling in her early career, Lyn found herself invited to help a group of farmers better manage family communication⊠and the rest, as they say, is history!
Thirty years plus and a highly successful career later, Lyn has become an icon in our industry on all things family alignment, communication and succession.
Having studied with Lyn over 20 years ago as a âwhipper-snapperâ farm consultant, it is with great pleasure that I re-connect with her to discuss a host of critical family farming topics, including:
- where and why farm succession goes wrong;
- how communication can fall apart;
- what helps make it right;
- Lynâs process for fostering good outcomes; and
- the role you best play as the mother, father, son, daughter, in-law or out-law to each succession conversation!
As you will glean, I have a lot of respect for Lyn. I see her as a true pioneer of this space and someone who has had a significant and understated contribution to our industry.
I hope that this podcast does her career justice whilst helping you check in and make improvements to how you are navigating this important conversation.
Thank you, Lyn - enjoy all, and keep winning!
Jeremy Hutchings
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Strong Commodity Prices, a favourable season (for many!), low interest rates and strong capital gains⊠have you EVER seen such optimism?
In Greg Johnssonâs opinion â this is (for most!) about as good as it gets.
And he is right â if you are not making solid profits now, there could be something wrong in your farm business.
In this Podcast, I call on FOA Founder and fellow Director Greg Johnsson to answer three key questions:
- What do we do to make the most of the optimism we are experiencing?
- How can we justify an expansion step given the current land values?
- What are the key financial metrics I need to be monitoring to make the best on-farm decisions at this time?
Greg is second to none in the on-farm analysis space and shares the importance of knowing your numbers, benchmarking, and making robust, confident decisions based on the numbers in front of us.
Importantly, for those wanting to develop your financial skill-set, I give a real insight into FOAâs Farm Financial Framework program.
This program is 40 years of Gregâs experience condensed into a practical, applicable finance program designed to help you get the skills & tools you need around you to make the very best farm expansion decisions.
Simply, there is nothing like it in the industry.
We are offering this program at an incredibly favourable price of $1,500 (plus GST), but be quick as this intake (and the last for 2021) will close on Friday 22nd October 2021.
Click here to learn more about the Farm Financial Framework Program.
Your time on the header or in a chaser bin could be very well spent this harvest⊠focused on this course and on getting the âshot in the armâ you need on this important topic of farm finance.
The formula is simple:
Step 1: Learn financial management.
Step 2: Optimise the farm you have.
Step 3: Expand your optimised farm across more area.
Donât miss MAJOR expansion opportunities because of a lack of financial management skills. Instead, take yourself and your development in this area seriously.
Your success (in my humble opinion) truly starts here.
Thanks once again, Greg, and well done.
Keep winning, and all the best in this cracking business environment!
Hutch
P.S Donât miss out on joining our 14-week Farm Financial Framework Program. This course is designed to help you profit more and become a stronger farm business owner by learning the language of finance. Please click here to learn more.
*Registrations close 22nd October 2021 or until sold out.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.comand put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Do you have an overly active mind and struggle at times with overthinking ??
Trust me on this. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
As farmers, we often work alone and have a heap of time to think⊠deeply⊠about things that serve us AND things that may not.
This interview with FOA Head Coach Tracy Secombe reminds us that we are trained to be âin our headsâ and logically problem-solve to âmanufacturerâ our goals, plans, and futures. This can become exhausting, and perhaps there is an alternative way of creating your future you might like to exploreâŠ
I used to overthink intensely, and it has taken me to a chapter in my life where I suffered from low self-esteem, depression and burnout. Learning to take control of this has been a major turning point in my life.
As farm-focused entrepreneurs, being aware of, being able to slow down and then master our thoughts is fundamental to our success.
Not doing this can be a significant contributor to mental fatigue, burnout, low self-esteem and depression.
In this podcast, Tracy & I explore overthinking in detail. The specific things you can do to bring awareness to this and proactively take steps to âunclutterâ, slow down and move from negative and busy self-talk. And how to reach a calm, composed, positive and even powerful internal thought-process and narrative.
If this is relevant for you, and in the spirit of this month being Mental Health Month, I can personally recommend Tracyâs 7 Day Calmness Code Challenge to help you make a very positive first step in a new and life-changing way forward.
https://go.soulpleaser.com/7-day-calmness-code-challenge41824999
Congratulations on becoming a Director at Farm Owners Academy Tracy, we are delighted to have you part of our Leadership team !!
Thank you, Tracy â incredible as always!
Jeremy
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
If you love food & cooking, Maggie Beer is Australiaâs much-loved national icon and go-to authority.
If you love your kids, itâs Maggie Dent!
Well-known to many of you and revered as the âThe Queen of Common Senseâ, Maggie is an absolute champion on all things parenting.
Maggieâs roots are very strongly tied to Agriculture. She is passionate about this community â our strength, endurance, resilience, and success for our families.
She gets it. She gets us.
Maggie has so SO much to offer. During this episode, we scratch the surface on how to be:
- Better husbands and wives;
- mainstays for our boys;
- carers to our daughters;
- rocks in our families; and
- great citizens within our communities.
Maggie has changed Jane & my life, and helped us immensely as we navigate what it takes to raise four little people in our world.
We love her books, we value her courses, and I highly recommend her Podcast â Parental As Anything!
As we navigate COVID restrictions, lockdown challenges and all things involved with remote learning, I hope this Podcast helps you at this time.
I also hope it gives you some inspiration â as she does me â on how we can be a better life partners to that one person we love most in this world.
Thank you, Maggie, for all you do for Australian families and our children.
Simply, WOW.
Jeremy
PS. CLICK HERE to learn more about Maggie and the amazing work she does (including upcoming events and online courses) or dive straight into Maggieâs Podcast â Parental as Anything! By clicking HERE.
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
My podcast has been hijacked!!!
In this Episode, Farm Owners Academyâs Farm Business Coach, David Westbrook, takes the reins and interviews an extraordinary woman making a big, big difference in the lives of thousands of families.
Back in 2016, David experienced a life-changing lesson.
That lesson?
âHumans sacrifice their health in order to make money. Then they sacrifice money to recuperate their health.â - Dalai Lama
Through the curiosity of this lesson, David & his wife Becky went searching for mentors to improve their health. Thatâs when they came across Jo Whitton.
Jo is best known for helping people journey to good health through healing foods and âfood as medicineâ. She has over 270,000 Facebook followers and uses her social media platforms along with her cookbooks and retreats to educate people to a better way of living using a healing, whole food diet without the overwhelm.
In this episode, you will learn how you can change your life through some simple lessons. This is a game-changer where David & Jo exploreâŠ
- their personal stories and how Gut Health has impacted them;
- how to get started with gut-healing foods;
- what is the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet;
- how you can take steps towards a better way of living; and
- why fad diets have confused us all.
We hope this podcast will impact you and help you make meaningful and lasting changes in your and your families health, just as these lessons have for the Westbrook family.
Hereâs to good, wholesome health.
Well done Westy!
Hutch
PS. Interested in learning more? You can listen to Joâs A Quirky Journey podcast, join in conversations on the Quirky Cooking Facebook pageand Instagram, as well as in the Quirky Cooking Chat Group
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
In this episode, and building upon our last Profitable Farmer conversation on âpeople wranglingâ with FOA General Manager Sam Johnsson, I have the privilege of interviewing the Managing Director and Head Recruiter at DroverAg Recruitment, John Boote.
John arrives into HR Management & Ag Recruitment with over 20 yearsâ experience in farm management on the Cattle Stations across the Northern Territory & Western Australia. Sitting at the helm of this specialist Agricultural Recruitment agency, John and his team deliver employment solutions to primary producers, property owners and farmers all over Australia. âââââââ Being on the frontline of the agricultural employment marketplace, John is acutely aware of the very real challenge of matching (young) talent and agri-employees with our nationâs farming businesses.
The thing I like about John is that he is pragmatic and a straight talker. He calls it as he sees it. Like me, he has observed a number of issues at play in our industry all around what it takes to find and keep good talent on our farms and in our communities, especially at this time.
In the spirit of speaking plainly, as farm business owners, we often suck at recruiting, building up and keeping good people.
In this podcast, John & I attempt to discuss these issues and propose some solutions. We suggest that perhaps, the change needs to start with the mindsets we have as farm owners towards our people.
John and I seem to agree that: we need to pay them well, treat them fairly, recruit average people and build them up from where they are (rather than make them wrong). In addition, we need to learn how to communicate better; how to include; how to manage; how to develop; and how to create the strategies, structures and systems that support attracting and retaining good people, so we can succeed in the process of building high-performing farm teams long term.
Good people ARE out there, even at this time. They are just not working for you⊠YET!
There are farms in your community that do not have challenges with finding good people â what are they doing that you might learn from?
This is a topic I feel very passionate about, so thank you for listening. I hope this is of value to you.
Whether you agree or feel challenged by how we navigate this very real issue â Iâd love to hear your feedback!
Jeremy
PS: Did this episode resonate with you? Click here to learn more about John and the team at DroverAg!
PPS: Weâd love your ideas and introductions for future Podcast interviews - share your suggestions with us by clicking here!
PPPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
- Over 15,000 kilometres of new fencing completed
- More than 16,000 kilometres of old fencing cleaned up or restored
- In excess of 11,000 farming families lifted from adversity
- Many thousands of communities deeply impacted
- The lives of so many completely transformed
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Kevin Butler to share his BlazeAid Story.
In the aftermath of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, after a simple request for help to an iconic national community including over 30,000 volunteers⊠this is truly one of Australiaâs greatest regional & rural stories.
The reach and impact BlazeAid has, and will continue to have, on the lives of those adversely affected by fire, flood and the vagaries of our incredible landscape - in terms of both physical farm and individual farmer recovery - is immeasurable.
It is now not surprising to me that when I first called BlazeAid to ask for help on behalf of two of our members, Kevin - its Founder and Chairman - answered my call. On top of that, he was generous enough to take my call only moments before walking into Parliament House to be awarded the Australian Farming Legend of the Year 2021/2022.
Finally, it shouldnât now surprise me that within 48 hours of that call, a BlazeAid Camp had landed, set up and started operations in Heyfield Victoria. A team of volunteers at the ready to help local farmers conquer their journey to flood recovery.
Kevinâs tireless enthusiasm and deep passion speaks for itself. His determination and commitment to serving others in need and seeing BlazeAid make an impact when it matters to as many as possible is incredible.
Kevin, thank you for your time. We honour the contribution you, Rhonda and your team make to the Australian farming community.
To all those BlazeAid volunteers who dedicate their time to help farmers in need â rural Australia honours you.
To follow the BlazeAid story or join their community, you can connect with them via their website or Facebook page. You can also read Issue One of the BlazeAid Post here - issue two will follow soon, which will include the first of Kevinâs memoirs!
Finally, to those in recovery, all of rural Australia is here for you should you need us.
Thank you.
Jeremy & the Farm Owners Academy Team.
When youâre ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Managing people, both family and in farming business, can undoubtedly be one of our greatest challenges.
Not only do we have to navigate delicate working relationships with our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers â grandmothers and grandfathers for some too! But, equally, we have casual, full-time, part-time, contractor, client and supplier relationships to âwrangleâ, navigate, manage, influence and inspire.
With this in mind in this podcast, I ask Sam Johnsson, the new General Manager here at Farm Owners Academy (FOA), to share his experience and insight into all things leadership.
Sam is a cracking bloke â calm, composed, thoughtful, measured, pragmatic, collaborative yet decisive. He joins FOA after ten highly successful years in management with the leading Australasian advisory & building engineering firm, Aurecon.
Over the past three years, Sam progressed to becoming one of the youngest Directors at Aurecon, responsible for the results and performance of over 65 professionals within his region.
Quite simply put, he has been responsible for managing a diverse range of personalities and individuals, from 18 to 60 years of age, from varied cultural backgrounds, and spanning all abilities.
In this podcast, I ask Sam to share his experiences as a leader of people and performance at Aurecon, speak with me on the subject of people leadership and explore how to:
- manage diverse personalities;
- have straight-up conversations;
- deal with under-performers;
- hold people accountable;
- handle conflict and tension;
- attract good talent;
- off-load the wrong people;
- challenge constructively;
- inspire positive change;
- handle career progression;
- uplift individual performance;
- and so much more!
I highly respect all that Sam has achieved in his professional career to date. I appreciate his authentic approach to dealing with people, managing teams and leading growth in businesses.
For me, this interview emphasises the importance of giving the people management component of our business real time, energy, thought, care and attention.
His quiet passion for business and teams speaks for itself, and I am delighted to welcome Sam into our business as General Manager. We are in safe hands, and our future is bright.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you Sam Johnsson.
Keep on leading! Jeremy
PS: Heard me speak about DISC Personality Profiling in this episode and want to learn more about individual Personality Type and Behavioural Traits? Click here to listen to Episode 67!Â
PPS: Did you enjoy this topic? I encourage you to listen to Episode 57 with James Kelly on Aligning Elite Teams â click here!
PPPS: Weâd love your ideas and introductions for future Podcast interviews - share your suggestions with us by clicking here!
PPPPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
For me, Farm Owners Academy is a strong example of good business practice, well-applied.
We are seven years old and have enjoyed significant growth year on year. We are an expanding team, all well-aligned to a common goal and cause. We deliver results, adding real and lasting value to the lives of those we serve.
I am immensely proud to be part of this team and community.
I am also very pleased that we are congruent;Â we practice what we preach.
Farm Owners Academy and the Profitable Farmer Podcast succeed because we apply the very business principles we teach - impeccably and with real intent. For this, I thank the WHOLE FOA team.
In this podcast, I ask that you humour me as I:
- reflect on our growth and our results, particularly over the last 18-months;
- share key elements of our strategic plan - our new vision and roadmap and explain how it sets the foundations now for further growth and expansion;
- explore an important construct about âHow to Avoid The Business Price Trapâ, and
- outline the steps you can take (that we have taken) to ensure your business model is set to (potentially) not compete on price!
I feel proud and humbled to have led this podcast series over the last 18-months, exploring so many important business principles and interviewing so many incredible leaders and legends of their respective fields.
I share the FOA story not to boast or show-off, but in the hope that this inspires you to take action and dedicate the necessary time to creating a compelling and unique Vision and Strategic Plan for your business and family;Â as we have for ours.
Finally, I officially welcome our new General Manager in Sam Johnsson to FOA and our new Board of Advisors. I cannot wait to see where this new and expanded leadership team can take us.
Thank you for listening and for being part of this project and our community.
Sincerely, Jeremy
PS: Weâd love your ideas and introductions for future Podcast interviews - share your suggestions with us by clicking here!
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and beyond. We'd also be grateful for your reviews on either Facebook or Google âŠthank you!
It is rare to meet true game changers and genuine leaders of Commerce & Industry, let alone get to interview two!
In this episode, we meet Gaethan Cutri and Salah Sukkarieh - both pioneers in their own right.
Salah Sukkarieh is the Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney and CEO of Agerris, a new Agtech startup company from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, developing autonomous robotic solutions to improve agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability. Salah is an international expert in the research, development and commercialisation of field robotic systems and has led a number of robotics and intelligent systems R&D projects in logistics, commercial aviation, aerospace, education, environment monitoring, agriculture and mining.Â
More detail here:Â Â The University of Sydney - Salah Sukkarieh
Gaethan Cutri is Owner and Managing Director at Cutri Fruits. Under his leadership, and over the past 15 years, Cutri Farms has increased its fruit production and operating scale near ten-fold, expanded its reach globally, and has pioneered the application of intelligent systems and robotics in intensive agriculture. Cutri Farms is now the largest stone fruit producer in Australia, a respected global player, and has the vision of being the first fully automated stone fruit business in the world.Â
More detail here:Â Â https://www.cutrifruit.com.au
I have been looking forward to this interview for a long time!Â
I am delighted to introduce both Gaethan and Salah, two very humble and unassuming Ag Tech champions, to Profitable Farmer and to you all.
In this episode we explore:
- where Ag Tech, open air robotics, and on-farm automation has arrived to over the last 10 years
- the current advancements most impacting our industry
- what we can expect in technological advancement on-farm over the next 10 years
- what is required to make it a commercial reality; and (perhaps)
- how we each need to change our mindset and perspective in order to embrace the incredible change that awaits us.
Importantly, we get to hear how these two great, passionate, pioneering individuals have come together to apply the latest Ag Tech advancements to Cutri Fruit, and the undeniable impact this is having on driving performance, efficiency, quality, cost-saving and growth in that incredible Australian business.
This is a cracker! I hope you enjoy it.
Here's to an amazing future in Australian farming.
Thank you.
Jeremy
PS: Interested to make a shift and want to learn how to create freedom in your business? Join Take Control 2.0 Program Now. Click here!
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google ⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome Andrew Roberts âRobboâ back to the Profitable Farmer podcast.
Not only is Robbo one of the founders of Farm Owners Academy and the previous host of this Podcast, but he has also been my Business Coach and great friend for over 15 years. It is always compelling to catch up with Robbo and âshoot the breezeâ.
In this conversation, we explore the definition of a successful business, the construct of being FREE from your business â having it resourced and set up so that it can work without you! This is ultimately what investors are looking for, and this is, in my opinion, the ultimate legacy we can pass on to future generations.
Importantly, we explore what needs to happen both in business and on farms in order to move in this direction. We touch on the strategy, systems, structures and resources required to get there, and we explain the set path to follow to make this a reality.
We also discuss the MINDSET and IDENTITY SHIFT needed to move from being a busy technical farmer to a Freedom Farmer and the CEO of a growing farm business. This shift starts with a clear intention and a strong goal and then requires a change in mindset, beliefs and focus.
I am proud that Robbo has enjoyed 12 months free from business, entirely focused on all things freedom and family. I am also proud that Farm Owners Academy exists to help farming families achieve the same.
Robbo, as always, it was great to connect and incredible to have you back on Profitable Farmer and the FOA Freedom Farmer Movement.
Thank you.
Jeremy
PS: Interested to make a shift and want to learn how to create freedom in your business? Join Take Control 2.0 Program Now. Click here!
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google ⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
Every six months, I like to check in with Terry Tran, our resident investment specialist and founder of the Freedom Trader, to get his insights into the global marketplace, our local economy and investing in the equity market and off-farm.
In this interview, we explore:
- the global economy given the ongoing pandemic;
- the impact that significant government intervention might have;
- what we might expect in terms of inflation, interest rates and economic recovery;
- Terryâs investment philosophy; and,
- his recent client and personal investment results.
We also explore Terry's passion for teaching farming families how to become competent, disciplined and successful investors in an ever-volatile and often unpredictable economic environment.
An essential component of running a successful farming business involves diversifying your asset-base, cashflows and wealth off-farm. Successful intergenerational change and creating meaningful legacies for future generations often depend on this. Terry reminds us why we need to make this a priority to support our farms and families, and why getting started now (or early!) is so important.
We endorse Terry and his Freedom Trader program. We do this because we feel that our values are aligned with Terry and his team, and we like seeing our clients get results! We respect that Terry teaches people to be successful investors in their own right, with first-class mentoring, decision-support and guidance.
Finally, we discuss the Freedom Trader Blueprint version 2.0 - Terry's new program to help people construct growth-oriented, diversified investment portfolios for the long term.
Terry, thank you for your time, your openness and for all you do in support of the growth and advancement of our Farm Owners Academy client community.
To all of you, enjoy, and happy investing!
Thank you.
Jeremy
PS: For more information about Terry and his programs, click here!
PPS: To download an exclusive free giveaway - the Freedom Trader Stock Checklist, click here!
PPPS: Interested in understanding more about Farm Owners Academy? Click here!
PPPPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google ⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
Our work ethic is legendary. No question.
Our ability to handle volatility, variability, risk, genuine adversity, constant change, and daily corrections is to be truly admired.
Equally, business ownership AND farming can be a lonely place.
Many of us have been here â playing full tilt, often without regular breaks for years.
It is no wonder so many of us, over time, become tired, stressed, overwhelmed, and fatigued.
Ladies & gentleman, BURNOUT in business is a very real thing!
Many of us are so entrenched in the busyness of our farms and lives that we donât stop to check-in, or even acknowledge it.
Let me be clear: burnout is the single biggest reason for small business failure GLOBALLY. It is why only 6% of businesses that start do not get to celebrate their tenth birthday.
Where are you in relation to burning out?
I have been there â and itâs not much fun.
In this important podcast, Farm Owners Academyâs Head Coach and Personal Development Guru, Tracy Secombe, and I discuss burnout:
- What it is
- What causes it
- How to self-assess
- How to overcome it
- How to support others you might be concerned about
I predict many Aussie farmers are somewhere on the burnout scale and that this reality has just become our new norm.
We cannot be effective when weâre burnt out. We cannot be at our best when wrestling this; and we cannot lead our families and farms when this is our reality.
That is why all Farm Owners Academyâs programs start with MINDSET. Click here to learn more.
Please take time to stop, grab a cuppa or sit under your favourite tree and really listen to this episode. If there is someone in your life that you are concerned about, I encourage you to share this with them.
Tracy is incredible in this space, and we are proud to have her as part of our team.
Thank you.
Jeremy
PS: Interested in a journey with us to help you make a shift? Click here.
PPS: Interested in understanding more about Tracy? You can find her on the Farm Owners Academy website or Tracyâs Realise Your Potential website.
PPPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google ⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
I have heard it said in my travels that success leaves clues.
I have also heard it said that history often repeats itself.
In this podcast, we hear the story of a 95-year-old gentleman - also a great Australian businessman and entrepreneur.
This story is told through the eyes of his now 62-year-old son â also a great Australian businessman and entrepreneur. This is a story of initiative, passion, grit, determination and persistence.
We hear how important traits of success in leadership and life can be passed down through generations, and how these traits are perhaps the most important things we can wish to inherit from the generation before us or provide to the generations that follow.
We hear about dedication to making a significant difference to an industry that he and his incredible wife genuinely love.
We hear of how it feels for that same husband and wife team to see their 38-year-old vision and dream become a reality.
In this Podcast, we also get to learn about:
- what it takes to truly succeed in business;
- what is missing in most Australian farming businesses that truly holds them back;
- what it means to identify âa gapâ in the marketplace; and
- what it takes as an entrepreneur to back yourself and those around you to fill âthat gapâ and create something truly meaningful that adds real and lasting value to those you choose to serve.
A highly compelling story, from a man I am now proud to call my friend, mentor and business partner.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Greg Johnsson and the Farm Owners Academy story.
Thank you.
Jeremy
PS: Interested in the Take Control Program mentioned in this Podcast? To learn more and get involved, click here.
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google ⊠and thank you for helping us share stories like these more broadly.
PPPS: Know a regional legend we should interview? Get in touch via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page. We are always looking to share compelling success stories.
So the saying goesâŠ
The first generation starts a business.
The second generation builds it up.
The third generation ruins it.
I am sure we have all heard this bandied around over the yearsâŠ
In my estimation, the Hutcheon & Pearce story, led by Arron Hutcheon, is a great rural and regional example of how to buck this trend, and thrive.
In this episode, I am fortunate to speak with Arron Hutcheon, third generation Managing Director to the highly successfully Hutcheon & Pearce John Deere Dealership to the Riverina and beyond.
Arron is a young, genuine, authentic and confident business leader. Under his watch and over 20 years, the H&P business has grown from 60 to 300 employees. The business how operates across 14 locations, and is recognised for excellence within the global John Deere franchise, now delivering the latest and most sophisticated machinery and in-paddock production service & technologies to thousands of farm businesses across southern New South Wales.
In this podcast, and with their business as the example, we explore:
- how to get the right people around you;
- how to align them to a common vision;
- the importance of core values and clear company performance standards;
- how to be unique in how you attract and then retain talent;
- how to lead change and align teams;
- communication rhythms; and
- what makes for successful succession.
We also get a glimpse of the next technologies to transform our enterprises and production systems.
From a business many Riverina families have been dealing with for three generations, we learn what it takes to deliver world-class service locally and lead a company through genuine growth and significant change⊠confirming for me that there is no âsilver bulletâ, just good, old-fashioned determination, innovation and genuine care.
Thank you Arron, and Congratulations!
Hutch
PS: Got questions about this topic? Feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page to ask clarifying questions. Iâd love to hear from you.
PPS: Please share this with others in our industry and give us a review on Facebook or Google to go in the draw to win our Farm Financial Framework training program worth $1,000! Thank you for helping us spread the word.
PPPS: Know a regional legend we should interview? Get in touch via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page. We are always looking to share compelling success stories.
In our estimation, less than 5% of farming families have documented, accurate and meaningful family and business plans.
In this episode, I speak with Farm Owners Academy (FOA), Farm Business Coach, David âWestyâ Westbrook about the importance of strategic planning and the method FOA recommend in making our farm business plans compelling, actionable and highly effective.
As Westy and his family embark on their FOA National Farm Client Tour over 12 months, and as they visit and support over 100 of our farming clients on this specific process, I saw it as perfect timing to dig a little deeper on:
- why planning is important;
- what makes up a world-class strategic plan;
- how to keep it from collecting dust in a cupboard somewhere;
- how to bring it to life;
- how to use it as a core leadership tool in aligning and inspiring your team to greater levels of achievement; and
- how this can enrol powers greater than you to see you achieve more in life than you can imagine.
Becky and Westy have been stand-out clients of our program. Westy is now a compelling coach & mentor to FOA Members. We are proud to have him as part of our team, and I appreciate him sharing some fantastic insights as to how to plan in farm business effectively, through our CLARITY ACTION PLANNING methodology.
Out of 10:
⊠how do you rate your farm business plan?
âŠ. how aligned are your family and team to one clear vision and direction?
I trust you will find this valuable, and I look forward to your feedback and insights on our Profitable Farmer Facebook feed.
Thank you, and all the best in planning!
Hutch
PS - You can follow FOA On Tour, and to share in Becky, Westy & their families farming tour of Australia this year by jumping onto the Farm Owner Academy Facebook page!
PSS - Got questions about this topic? Feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page to ask clarifying questions. Iâd love to hear from you.
Are you open to explore a deeper meaning to life?
In this episode, I let you in on a secret and introduce you to an important man in my life.
Over the last 5 years, I have enrolled the support of Diego (Dig) Bortolin.
Dig has been a great friend, confidant, mentor and spiritual guide to me. He has supported me to face my fears; explore my self-doubt; move through my anxieties, challenge my limiting beliefs; work on my primary relationships, develop as a human, and then find my flow, set-down compelling and meaningful intentions and live a rich and fulfilling lifeâŠin the moment.
Over that time, my life has changed dramatically.
I used to try and control and command, out-smart the universe, win at life intellectually, suppress, ignore or avoid my emotions, and not trust my intuition and instinct.
I am proud to share that my spiritual journey has been deeply fulfilling and significant for me. I am so very grateful to have an amazing man like Dig in my corner, helping me be at my best as I turn up to my family, my friends, business, farming, the FOA team and this community.
I can only advocate the immense value of having a mentor you can call on, depend on, and completely trust.
I hope you enjoy this interview and get a glimpse of this for yourself.
Sincerely,
Hutch
PS - Got questions about this topic? Feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page to ask clarifying questions. Iâd love to hear from you.
I have heard it said that there is no such thing as a 'perfect family'.
Who can relate to this?
In business, and within our families, there are so many different personalities⊠so many complex people that we have to deal with, work with, and lead.
For many, THIS can be our greatest challenge!
In this podcast, and to complement my prior two episodes on Planning & Negotiation, I explore DiSC Personality Profiling. We will discover how a deeper understanding of our individual Personality Type and Behavioural Traits can see us better communicate and manage our team and families, and help us adapt and overcome the various relationship challenges we may be experiencing.
In this episode, I:
-
introduce you to DiSC Personality Profiling
-
describe in detail the 4 distinct personality types we each fall into
- explore where conflict and lack of cohesion can come from
- explain how we can better understand each other
- how we can better adapt our communication to lead each and every member of your team more effectively.
It is my view that being in business with family can be a real gift. Incredible things can happen when families align, unite and work together constructively in order to pursue a shared Vision in business. What a privilege to be in business with those you love!
There are compelling examples of this in so many multi-generational, iconic family brands across the Australian business landscape (the Ray White story comes to mind!)
At the same time, it is clear to me, that this is often very difficult to achieve; and in reality, quite rare long-term.
It is my hope that this podcast invites a deeper understanding and appreciation for our respective personality profiles and behavioural styles to help you navigate this challenge and help create your own iconic family farm and high-achieving business team.
Thank you, and enjoy. Jeremy
PS - Â Got questions about this topic? Feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page to ask clarifying questions. Iâd love to hear from you.
Negotiation is not what we think it is.
Negotiation is a skill that all successful business minds and influencers in society learn, master and successfully apply.
Yet at the same time, it is a crucial skill very few of us are ever taught.
As a result, most of us battle through life and business⊠âwinging itâ, getting it wrong, damaging relationships, âsettling for lessâ, missing out and often making a massive mess along the way.
How to get the very best outcome requires, in my experience, an approach that is counter-intuitive to how we have been taught to play.
In this episode I explore both the art and science of negotiation.
We explore:
- what is a negotiation and why it is not what we think!
- how so many âget it wrongâ
- how careful preparation will avoid costly mistakes
- specifics on what that careful preparation looks like
- how to initiate and enter into the conversation strongly
- how to lead the process well
- how to navigate what can play out
- how to reduce the likelihood of unfavourable outcomes
Iâll also share a series of incredibly powerful tools & techniques that can assist you to improve and develop as a compelling & successful negotiator.
The art & science of negotiation, applied well, can have significant impact on each and every relationship you have.
As leaders in business, family, and life, strengthening outcomes and improving relationships is such a critical part of how we succeed and grow.
Once again, enjoy and I look forward to hearing of your successes!
Sincerely,
Jeremy
PS - Got questions about this topic? Feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page to ask clarifying questions. Iâd love to hear from you.
PPS - Go to our Profitable Farmer Facebook page to access the workbook I created to help you navigate and best prepare for important negotiations in your life.
PSS - Only 15 seats left at our TOP Producers Workshop in Adelaide next month! Secure yours now by clicking here: TOP Producers Program 2-Day Workshop
During my business and entrepreneurship journey, I have been lucky enough to study with and learn from some incredible minds. Through Marshall Thurber, and his âMoney & Youâ course, I have been introduced to the truly profound business thinkings of both W Edward Deming and Buckminster Fuller.
In this episode, and as we collectively set down our plans and priorities for the new year, I share some of the most compelling entrepreneurial philosophies and principles pioneered by the great âBuckyâ Fuller!
In this conversation we explore:
- why goal-setting is so important
- why being in motion towards your goal is more important than the goal itself!
- why trying to âfind your purposeâ isnât it!
- why selfless goals & objectives are so much more impactful
- why adding value into the lives of others is so very important, for you and them!
- how the setting up of your plans to achieve your goals increases the likelihood of their attainment
- why regular reconnection with your goals is imperative, for you, your family and your team
- how your vision, goals & unique plans can set you apart as a business AND see you attract and retain great people and talent
- how to create a legacy and truly pioneer in your lifetime
- why innovating and inventing in order to solve broader social issues and specific industry problems can see you make an impact on the planet beyond your comprehension!
The brilliance of âBuckyâ is that we get to explore all of these very important elements of business and life simply by applying generalised laws of nature to how we lead and do business.
I hope my ramblings this time have a meaningful impact for you.
If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to reach out via the Profitable Farmer Facebook page. Iâd love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
PS - Only 80 seats left at our TOP Producers Workshop in Adelaide next month! Secure yours now by clicking here: TOP Producers Program 2-Day Workshop
2020, for a range of reasons, will be a year weâll never forget.
Yet, at the same time, I feel it will also be a year many of us will cherish and be proud to remember.
- Adversity has been prominent.
- Families have come together.
- Communities have rallied.
- Hard work has been at the fore-front.
- The important things have been re-established.
- Simplicity has been remembered.
- Self-mastery a requirement.
As we round out this crazy year and complete on a unique season, it is important to take time to rest, reflect, reenergise, and reset.
In this final podcast episode of the year, I invite our Senior Farm Business Coaches to reflect on the year that was, share some of the big wins they observe across our community, and provide some key tips on how to set 2021 up to be our best year yet.
Tracy Secombe, Cheryl Freak and David Westbrook are incredibly passionate and dedicated business coaches to the Farm Owner Academy community. Their support to our members is outstanding.
The transition into the new year is an important time to come together as a team to review the year and then lock in the goals, plans and priorities for the coming year. This is when alignment can happen.
Enjoy hearing how our coaching team do this, and their tips on how to establish a strong plan for 2021.
As promised, we also share our âWheel of Lifeâ review format AND our âFinish the Year Before It Startsâ training. To access these incredible free resources, please click through using the links below:
Download the âWheel of Lifeâ Review
Download the âFinish the Year Before It Startsâ Training
Congratulations for your determination and resilience this year â especially those fire and drought affected. Your efforts are inspiring and will see you recover and thrive in years to come.
All the best for a fun-filled and prosperous Christmas and festive season!
Sincerely,
Jeremy
PS - tickets for our TOP Producers Workshops next year are filling up fast! Secure yours now by clicking here: TOP Producers Program 2-Day Workshop
A mate of mine described Brett Stevenson as âa legend in our industryâ.
In 1996, Brett founded Market Check, now Australiaâs most highly respected and widely used independent grain marketing company for Australian farmers.
Having navigated 3 years of very challenging seasons, like many farming families, Market Check is now a growing team of 15+ representatives supporting a client base of over 1,000 farming families â equally one of Australiaâs real recent success stories.
In this interview with Brett, we get his helicopter view of how harvest is unfolding across Australia; what prices have done and will do; the impact of China at this time; his view on global grain production this year; and what all that might mean for farming families this year and into the new season.
With a successful career as Founder & Managing Director to Market Check, Brett is sharing his reflections and some valuable insights on his last 25 years in building that national & independent business and team, and how they have navigated the volatility and vagaries of domestic and global commodity markets.
Resilience personified. Business and life.
In 2010, Brettâs life changed forever, when on a beach family holiday, he dived into the ocean and broke his neck. Brett is generous enough to share his personal story of overcoming that significant adversity, and how perhaps that challenge has played its part in underpinning his life and business over the last decade.
Some valuable business insights, and a wonderful discussion, with a modest and very impressive Australian Business Leader.
Brett, I thank you for your time. To find out more about Market Check, visit their website: www.marketcheck.com.au
Sincerely, Jeremy
PS - tickets for our TOP Producers Workshops next year are filling up fast! Secure yours now by clicking here: TOP Producers Program 2-Day Workshop
Hi [First Name],
12 years ago, as I hung my shingle as the first business coach in regional Australia, Danny Russell, then a 28-year-old budding entrepreneur with a small cleaning company knocks on my door to tell me he is going to be my first client!
âŠand the rest is history.
A cracking entrepreneur and now emerging property developer, Danny & his wife Jill, have become life-long friends and truly inspirational peers and mentors to both Jane & I.
In this episode, Danny and I discuss:
- the humblest of beginnings
- a global search
- finding family
- valuing the little things
- being grateful for what we have
- nailing entrepreneurship
- being resilient and stating the course
- fearlessness & being courageous
- playing the long game
- leadership
- making a difference - to your team and to the community you serve
During our business coaching journey together, Danny has taught me so much more than I have him⊠of that I am sure.
For me, he is the most inspirational âcleanerâ in Australia.
Simply put, Danny Russell is a wonderful human, making a difference through business.
It gives me great pleasure to share Dannyâs story and link it back to leadership lessons for farming families.
Thank you all once again and enjoy.
Sincerely, Jeremy
PS - tickets for our TOP Producers Workshops next year are filling up fast! Secure yours now by clicking here: TOP Producers Program 2-Day Workshop
Leadership according to one of the all-time greatsâŠ
In this podcast, I share some of the most compelling business leadership training I have ever learned.
Several years ago (and 7 times since!), I attended an incredible Entrepreneurial Training Program called âMoney & Youâ.
It was here that I was first introduced to W. Edward Deming. Deming was once the revered global authority on driving efficiency and quality in business.
Many of the greatest companies in the world today are underpinned by Deming Leadership Principles.
If these Leadership Principles are good enough for big-players like Toyota, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Ford and Gillette, then perhaps they are equally relevant for our family farming businesses?
They certainly underpin the key principles we now teach at Farm Owners Academy, and I will welcome your feedback on the key points I cover.
So join me on this episode as I reveal a different spin on leadership, and perhaps a new place to focus, as you embark on truly scaling your farm business over time.
Enjoy!
Jeremy
PS -Â Know of someone worth interviewing? This podcast is all about uncovering the very best business principles to support success and growth in your farm business. Please email us at support@farmownersacademy.com if you have success stories in your network who you think would be great for Jeremy to interview. Thank you!
Hello and welcome to our 60th episode!
WOW! We are so proud to reach this milestone in the Profitable Farmer journey.
Over the past 3 years, the previous 59 Profitable Farmer episodes have been downloaded over 151,000 times and we have steadily built up a loyal fanbase and thousands of subscribers. The topics we discuss each fortnight are even appealing to listeners outside of agriculture, which is surprising and reaffirming all at once.
Thank you for the support, feedback and reviews you have provided along the way.
As the traditional gift given to celebrate a 60th anniversary is diamond, we have lined up a true Aussie diamond to commemorate this milestone.
In this special edition podcast, we are joined by self-proclaimed âordinary Aussieâ, this man is grounded, humble, and a true gent⊠Michael Crossland.
Michael has lived a life full of adversity, pain and suffering yet is one of the most positive people I have ever encountered.
In todayâs episode, Michael shares his unbelievable story from surviving a rare form of aggressive, life-threatening cancer as a child and spending a quarter of his life in hospital to becoming a professional sportsman, businessman, one the most in-demand and highly respected speakers in Australia, and now a number 1 bestselling author across 6 different countries.
Despite repeatedly being told what he would never be able to do, Michael continues to defy the odds and show the world absolutely everything that he can accomplish.
Michaelâs raw story will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your heart as he discusses the keys to success, the importance of embracing change and the mindset needed to achieve your goals. Once you hear him speak, you will have a renewed perspective on life (and youâll discover that you have little to complain about ever again).
If you would like to find out more about Michael Crossland, or purchase his new book âEverything Will Be OKâ please visit: https://michaelcrossland.com/
We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as our Platinum Mastermind members enjoyed Michaelâs key-note at a recent Deep Dive. It is nothing short of electrifying â be prepared for goosebumps!
âWhen you become a diamond, youâll see why life had to pressure youâ
Enjoy.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
PS â We have just 6 spaces remaining in our Platinum Mastermind Program this year! Applications will close on 31st October or when these last 6 spots are filled.
To learn more, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/
In the second of this important two-part series, I interview another small group of Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Members.
This time the wonderful Women of FOA....
Across our community there are some incredible transformations occurring, and some incredible results being achieved â be they financial, on-farm, in-family or individually.
It truly is a unique, positive, supportive and completely dedicated community of over 120 like-minded, growth-oriented farming families, each intently committed to an intensive 3-year business & personal development journey, and on making more money, building better businesses, stronger teams and achieving more fulfilment in their families and lives.
In this podcast interview, I speak with Carissa Schneider, Marion Drew and Shaana Williams and ask them to share:
- their wins,
- their challenges,
- the results theyâre getting,
- what they like most,
- what they value most, and
- why they joined in the first-place.
As we invite just 12Â more farming families to join our Platinum Mastermind Program this year, I felt it timely and valuable for you to hear straight from the horseâs mouth what our Members are valuing and achieving from their significant time and money investment within the Platinum Mastermind Program.
Applications close on 31st October or when the remaining spaces are filled. At the time of publishing this episode, there are only 12 spots left.
To learn more, go to: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/
To hear more case studies, go to: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/reviews/
To any listeners wanting to level-up, we welcome your application before 31st October.
I hope you enjoy these discussions.
Sincerely, Jeremy
In an important two-part series, I interview two small groups of Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Members.
Firstly, the Men of FOA, and then the Women of FOA.
Across our community there are some incredible transformations occurring, and some incredible results being achieved â be they financial, on-farm, in-family or individually.
It truly is a unique, positive, supportive and completely dedicated community of over 120 like-minded, growth-oriented farming families, each intently committed to an intensive 3-year business & personal development journey, and on making more money, building better businesses, stronger teams and achieving more fulfilment in their families and lives.
In this first podcast interview, I speak with Nick Cook, Ben Taylor and Mark Carter and ask them to share:
- their wins,
- their challenges,
- the results theyâre getting,
- what they like most,
- what they value most, and
- why they joined in the first-place.
As we invite just 25 more farming families to join our Platinum Mastermind Program this year, I felt it timely and valuable for you to hear straight from the horseâs mouth what our Members are valuing and achieving from their significant time and money investment within the Platinum Mastermind Program.
Applications close on 31st October or when the remaining spaces are filled.
To learn more, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/
To hear more case studies, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/reviews/
To any listeners wanting to level-up, we welcome your application before 31st October.
And⊠on a promise to Nick Cook: a massive shout-out and endorsement to Kingsway Welding for their incredible Agri - innovation â I recommend these guys highly!
Celebrating a Kingsway-built FOA Sign and an example of Kingsway Welding world-class
I hope you enjoy these discussions.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
How important is your language as a farmer?
And how important are your words in enrolling your family & team to achieve all you hope & dream of in your life?
Have you ever really stopped to think about it?
In this episode, I interview another great mate of mine, James Kelly. âJKâ is Managing Director of Alchimie â a global management consulting and leadership training organisation.
Having worked in, coached and trained the pinnacle of leadership teams within some of the largest construction projects across Australia and oversees, he is more than qualified to speak about how each of us can better communicate as leaders.
What JK shares with us is equally applicable within our farming teams, just as much as it is at the highest levels of commerce.
In this interview, JK & I explore:
- how to align teams to a common goal,
- how to bring multiple families and businesses together,
- what tangible things we need to do in order to make our future a reality, and
- how to engage with our team deeply, and lead with conviction.
Importantly, we explore how to change our language as leaders, in order to inspire better outcomes, and the importance of accountability (and being coached!) in delivering an effective business result.
We also explore how the mind works, scientifically, and how we can train it to perform better under pressure and be more effective in truly connecting with our people.
For me, this has been one of the most enlightening podcasts I have recorded to date. The fact that this is with my best mate is a true privilege.
I hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I did creating it.
Sincerely,
Jeremy
Out of 10,âŻhow do you rate your companyâs culture, and what do you do in order to enhance & optimise it?
Team and family culture is at the essence of how well our farming teams perform and achieve.
Team and family culture can be the thing that truly sets you apart as a business in both your area and market.
Itâs ultimately an extension of you, and a legacy you can leave.
At the same time, culture is intangible, and as a result so often neglected in our own leadership.
In this podcast, we give you a taste of the type of training we provide to our clients as we take a sneak peek into our Take Control Program monthly business coaching session. This month, we explored:
â what is team and family culture;
â how good is your culture;
â how do we rate it;
â what are the 4 core strategies you can focus on to enhance it; and
â what can be done to see you create a truly high-performing team and environment.
There are 4 core areas of business that can set the foundations for a great companyâŻand truly unique family and team culture.
You can download the handouts I refer to in this recording by clicking here.
I hope you enjoy this rare insight into our clients monthly training session and learn how to bring these ideas to life for you and your business.
Thank you!
Jeremy
I used to think being a leader meant that I had to know it all, have all the answers, control every decision, and work the hardest. I used to think leadership was an âintellectual gameâ and mindfulness had no place in business⊠or leadership⊠or success in most things for that matter.
I certainly didnât make any time for itâŠhow wrong I was! Â
On my journey in business and leadership, I now understand that our mental health and strength is of the utmost importance. I appreciate that removing the busyness, being able to truly focus, quietening the mind and looking after my mental wellbeing and mindset is fundamental to being a composed, confident and successful leader.
In this podcast, I interview FOA Business Coach and founder of the Soul Pleaser Program, Tracy Secombe who is an irrefutable authority on this topic. I am also joined by FOA Platinum Mastermind Member and founder of The Abundant Farmer, Hayley Grosser who is an equally capable mentor and educator in this space. Together, we discuss the importance of MINDFULNESS in farming and business leadership.
To explore the topic of âmindfulnessâ further, Tracy Secombe is launching a 7 Day Calmness Code Challenge on Wednesday 13th August 2020.
This program is designed to give us all a head start in becoming mindful, and to help busy people feel calmer - to worry, stress and overthink less in their roles and in their lives.
Tracy and her programs are highly recommended amongst the FOA community. For more information, and to register for Tracyâs 7 Day Calmness Code Challenge, please click here.
For now, enjoy exploring the benefits of a more conscious approach to business and leadership, and all things mindfulness.
Kind Regards,
Jeremy
We all have 2 or 3 people who truly inspire us, for me Ricky Dumigan is one of those people.
An incredibly disciplined, dedicated, and resilient high-performance specialist; Ricky has trained elite military teams, the highest echelons of rugby and sport and some of the most significant executive leadership teams in our country.
He is passionate about what it takes to nurture and create true cohesion and alignment within elite teams, and he has a wonderful ability to condense that down into bite-size chunks for people to learn from and use.
Equally, he has achieved some amazing life challenges, including running Kokoda, kayaking Sydney to Brisbane, running marathons and extensive remote leadership retreats.
In all of his accomplishments, Ricky has established a determination and mindset that supports incredible achievement for himself as a human.
It is with real pleasure that I introduce a very good friend of mine to you, where we chat about what it takes to be at your best and lead great teams.
Enjoy!
Kind Regards,
Jeremy
Covid-19 has had a profound effect on so many small business owners, big businesses, and economies across the globe. It has been fascinating to watch the markets over the past 4 months as this pandemic unfolds.
In this podcast, I am delighted to welcome back our investment specialist, Terry Tran, founder of Freedom Trader. We discuss what has happened, how itâs impacted the stock market and his prediction for our recovery in the short and long-term.
Terry provides us with a valuable insight on what do, where to look and how to make the most of opportunities for value-based investing in and around Australia and the global markets recovery.
Terryâs an authority on value-based investing, mentoring hundreds of family businesses across Australia helping them truly diversify their interests and generate wealth off-farm. We hope Terryâs insights in this podcast help you navigate the Covid-19 recovery.
If you would like to see for yourself what The Freedom Trader program is all about, Terry is hosting a live training on Tuesday 14th July and itâs completely FREE for our valued podcast listeners! You need to register ASAP (as space is limited) by clicking here:  How to Create REAL Wealth Outside Your Farm SAFELY
Enjoy!
Regards,
Jeremy
In a special edition interview with Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder, Andrew Roberts, we explore the topic of MONEY in detail.
So many of us have inherited negative mindsets and beliefs around money that are limiting and holding us back.
Many of us donât fully understand what money really is, and as a result, have a certain disrespect towards earning it, creating wealth, and achieving freedom.
This is such an important topic, but so often NOT talked about.
Andrew shares his experience of âgetting it wrongâ in his younger years, then committing to learning the essential skills and disciplines needed to creating wealth long-term.
Andrew also shares what you need to focus on to achieve base-level financial mastery, and introduces FOAâs Farm Financial Framework, and how to be part of this first-class training that launches on Friday 3rd July (limited spaces remaining).Â
You can learn more by clicking here.
Enjoy!
Jeremy
Wool prices have been adversely affected in recent months by the Covid-19 pandemic, no doubt with the potential to severely impact wool producers in the short-term.
In this interview, I speak with leading fine wool producer Cameron England, owner of Lyndall Park near Kingston, SE South Australia.
Cameron and his incredible family have been members of the Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Program (an exclusive farm-business masterclass) for the past three years. During that time, they have invested heavily in their own development, embraced their learning, and have established themselves, not only as leading members of our growing community, but also within Australiaâs elite farming community.
Their inter-generational story speaks for itself, and the benchmark performance results they are achieving, both production and financial, are a credit to Cameron and Katie, and their farm business team.
Importantly, Cameron and Katie prioritise family and freedom. Their focus is on building a legacy for future generations whilst establishing the time, team, systems, and financial freedom to be able to cherish the journey with them. They are intent on building a highly profitable farm business that works for them, not the other way around.
Lyndall Park is a shining example of how good business, strong strategy, great planning and real focus on key numbers can see you profit and thrive even in times of very real industry uncertainty.
To find out more about the Farm Financial Framework please click here.
A cracking story from a wonderful family.
Enjoy!
Kind Regards Jeremy
There is no doubt a ground-swell of real confidence across our industry is increasingâŠabout bloody time!
Much of this, I believe, is the result of real optimism and a positive outlook for the red meat sectors.
In this podcast I interview Tom Bull, founder of Lambpro. Based at Kinross Station in Holbrook NSW, Tom and his family are great friends to Jane & I, dating back to intense games of touch footy on the beach over summer holidays at the coast as kids.
The Lambpro story is significant and compelling, beginning 35 years ago when Tom was just eight.
A self-starter, big-thinker, compelling leader, and outstanding businessmanâŠTom and Lambpro's contribution to sheep-meat advancement and the Australian Lamb Industry is significant and inspiring.
With over 2,500 premium ram sales annually (with the goal to reach 3,000 this year), and 900,000 lambs to be born this year across his national sheep-meat producing client base, the Lambpro business continues to break new ground and lead the industry with and for its clients.
Tom and I explore his outlook for emerging trends for the sheep- meat sector and discuss the following:
- the prominent genetic and on-farm advances leading to greater producer profitability,
- the global consumption trends for lamb,
- the importance of a new focus on lamb branding,
- Tom's predictions as to where we need to focus as a sheep-meat sector, AND
- how Lambpro is innovating to deliver on-scale, premium, and highly marbled lamb products to affluent consumers globally.
A cracking story of genuine Australian entrepreneurship.
Enjoy!
Kind Regards Jeremy
The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting our communities and our economy in ways we have never experienced before. All experts agree, we are in largely un-chartered waters⊠in comparison to the GFC, the recession, wars and even the depression.
Only time will determine the extent of this global crisis, and how quickly Australia can bounce back and recover compared to other nations within our global economy.
In this podcast, Greg Johnsson and I speak with Peter Koulizos â a renowned property market analyst, researcher, investor, developer, author, academic and educator.
As a property expert and active participant, Peter explores:
- the impact of Covid-19 on residential, commercial and property development markets â supply and demand predictions at this time,
- how it is affecting the various categories of individual investors,
- his take on the flow-on effect this will have within the property sector and beyond,
- the harsh reality of what these outcomes will mean for the broader economy,
- the importance of a prompt and proactive return to recovery, and
- for active investors - what to do right now and what to look out for.
The Australian property market and its recovery is pivotal to our local and national economies. Peterâs perspective on how it will navigate Covid-19 is outstanding and immensely informative.
Enjoy!
Kind regards
Jeremy
I was chatting to a farmer the other day, who in conversation made 3 bold and cocky statements⊠saying them as if he had some badge of honour:
âI donât have time for office workâ,
âI have no interest in the numbers⊠I leave that to the missusâ, and
âItâs all another language to me⊠I leave it to the pen-pushersâ.
At the same time, he was commenting about how chaotic their life was⊠and how he⊠âmakes decisions based on instinct & gut-feel rather than on analysis & ânumber-crunchingâŠââ.
I didnât say it⊠perhaps I should have⊠but all I was thinking was âwhat a bloody peanutâ.
If you are serious about business and dedicated to being the absolute best farm owner you can be, then being financially illiterate is a sure way to NEVER get there.
NOW MORE THAN EVER FARMING IS A BUSINESS.
CEOâs of ALL successful companies study financial management constantly. Intense analysis, feasibility studies, financial performance monitoring, decision-modelling, forecasting and benchmarking is one of the largest and most important activities they do.
Successful farm owners are across their numbers AND dedicate time in the office to analysing their performance AND making numbers-based performance decisions.
Like it or not, and as Greg points out, "the language of business is finance".
In this important podcast, I interview Farm Owners Academy co-founder, long-time financial analyst and farm financial specialist, Greg Johnsson. We explore the critical reports you have to establish then proactively monitor, AND we explore the core ratios you must measure and benchmark in order to be in control and making meaningful, measured and robust decisions on your farm.
In this webinar, I do not apologise for making an unashamed plug for our new financial literacy training program being launched right now by Farm Owners Academy. It is called the Farm Financial Framework and it commences on 3rd July as a live online in-depth training initiative.
To learn more, CLICK HERE.
If you are serious about profit and creating wealth and, then this is an essential training program I urge you to prioritise.
Itâs time to get serious!
Sincerely, Jeremy
We find ourselves in unprecedented times, like no other in recent history. Crazy, in many ways... following prolonged drought and recent fire events.
It is our view that we will navigate this well as a nation. We will handle this strongly as an industry. We are resilient and fortunate at this time to be farmers. Please be sure to look out for those around us more adversely affected.
In this Podcast, I interview Managing Partner & Financing Specialist, David Charge from Sprout Agribusiness.
David and his team are Commercial Financing Specialists to Australian Agribusiness, supporting farming families across Australia. David is measured and pragmatic, and his advice and assessment of this current crisis is both thoughtful and thorough. He offers us some strong support and guidance as farmers at this time.
In this interview, David & I explore:
- The impact of Covid-19 on Agriculture,
- How to best navigate this crisis as a farming business,
- State and federal assistance / concessions now available to you,
- How the financing sector is responding,
- The challenges our local bank managers face (post royal commission),
- How to proactively engage with your lender,
- The role and benefit of an independent finance specialist in your business,
- How to make the most of the current low interest rate climate, AND
- How to take greater responsibility for your financial situation and your long-term financial success.
My learnings from this discussion with David is to stay focused, plan proactively, build your financial management skillset, and make the most of financing and other opportunities that now exist.
Another great interview with another emerging leader in our industry.
Once again, enjoy!
Jeremy
Simply this is a MUST LISTEN TO Podcast.
Right now, FEAR and ANXIETY is at a peak, and very real for many / most of us.
Fever pitch even... and only amplified by media at this time.
How we manage our own mental state and deal with the emotions of fear and anxiety is so very important at this time - for us, for those around us and as a local and national community.
I interview our Head Coach and Mindset Specialist Tracy Secombe and we explore this important issue. Importantly Tracy shares with us:
-
What fear is and how it turns up for us,
-
How we experience anxiety, and
-
How we can manage both of them and change our state of mind.
More deeply we explore how we can find gratitude, optimism and meaning at this time, and what tools we can use to remove fear and anxiety from our current reality.
The most important thing we can do right now is to be self-aware, manage our own energy, and ensure we turn up to our family and loved ones with perspective and strength.
As parents, sons & daughters and friends, now is our time to lead and love.
Tracy is simply incredible. Her message so very important at this time.
This one is important - for you and for those around you.
Stay safe, stay strong and enjoy!
Jeremy
Trust is critical to any high-performing team. Â Equally, it is essential to effective family-farming businesses... Â
Do you have a strong basis of trust and mutual respect within your farm team? Â
Like a muscle, trust can be worked on and strengthened over time. Â
Most of us just donât know how, or where, to start. Â
To expand further on the topic of farm succession, I once again speak with Tony Catt, Director of Catapult Wealth, and we explore:
- why trust is essential to effective succession planning,
- how trust is broken,
- the 3 communication and trust âkillersâ,
- how to build trust where it has previously been absent,
- the important roles each of us play within the family to nurture a culture of trust and respect.
Tony suggests that sometimes our focus should temporarily move away from important succession conversations until a basis of trust is re-established. Â
We also explore the notion that all of this is just good, professional business practice. Again, we have so much to learn from businesses who achieve a strong and powerful culture of trust within their teams. Â
An open dialogue as a family around this sensitive topic is a great place to start. Â
Grab a cuppa, wrangle your family and enjoy!
Regards,
JeremyÂ
Succession is a misunderstood and very challenging issue for many Australian farming families. Many of us have tried this and had a negative experience and therefore choose to lock it down, not discuss inter-generational transfer at all and get on with running the farm... rather than constructively planning for the future together.
In this podcast, we interview Managing Director of Catapult Wealth, Tony Catt. Tony is an expert on farm succession and is passionate about helping farming families proactively develop a plan for their futures together.
Tune in as we explore:
- Why this is so challenging for so many,
- What farm succession really is,
- Through good business practice and 'governance' we can make succession more successful for families,
- The 4 clear, written plans we really need to make this truly effective in practice,
- Why the younger generation might need to be respectful and patient in the process,
- How to include family members and bring them along for the ride,
- How frequently to be discussing this and refining your plan, AND
- How to get started.
At Farm Owners Academy, we recommend Tony and Catapult WealthâŠwe believe that proactive business planning can complement and form the basis for stronger succession planning and more meaningful intergenerational transitions for all.
Enjoy this interview... ideally over a cup of tea, and as a family. We hope this enables you to reflect on where you are at on this journey, agree how to move forward together, and also, who you need around you to give yourselves every chance of success.
The key is to come together and get started!
I look forward to hearing your familyâs success stories in all thingâs succession.
Kind Regards,
Jeremy
Implementation is the key to success!
In todayâs podcast, I chat with Andrew and discuss the importance of realising, accepting and overcoming your fears in order reach your potential in all areas of your life. We explore the concept of fear and how this holds us back, especially the fear of failure in business.
Join us as we dive deeper into:
-
How perfectionism can hold you back - most people tend to procrastinate because of this, as they worry about making the wrong decision
-
How you can set up systems to help you make concise decisions, this requires thinking, which most people donât like to do â most farmers prefer to DO rather than THINK!
-
Implementation is the key to success, not the decision making however this is still a very critical part.
-
Never allow a year, a quarter, a week or a day go by without planning it first - this is the KEY to succeeding - yet most people donât do this.
-
Stop using excuses to set your goals later - do it NOW!
-
The power of 10-year, 3-year and 12-month goals, quarterly rocks, weekly & daily goals â If you make time to write these down, you will become unstoppable.
-
How taking control of your business and developing systems will help you make more profit and allow your team to become more focused and efficient.
-
If you donât set goals, your team is winging it which will cost you lots of money, for little return.
Your greatest life is on the other side of fear! We hope you enjoy this podcast and identify the fears which might be holding you back.
To find out more about our Take Control Program, please click here... take advantage now before the price increase!
Enjoy,
Jeremy
Time to diversify...
Creating balance sheet wealth long-term must be our primary focus, even when challenged in the here-and-now. Success in anything starts with KNOWLEDGE. It is with this in mind that I interview Terry Tran, CEO & Founder of The Freedom Trader.
Terry Tran is a good (and perhaps unlikely) friend to Farm Owners Academy and the Profitable Farmer podcast. We recommend his investing program - The Freedom Trader - and know many of our clients continue to get great training and real results from his mentoring and methodology.
In this podcast, Terry shares his story with us, his passion to help people create wealth through direct share investing, his investment philosophy and his view on why farming families make such good investors. We uncover some very real myths about the share market and explore how to create wealth through a strong analysis and risk-aware investment strategy.
I encourage each of you to listen to this and consider, even in times of dry seasons and tight cashflows, whether now is a good time to be learning HOW to strengthen your wealth creation capacity through robust and measured share investing.
If youâd like to see for yourself what Terryâs âFreedom Traderâ program is all about, he is hosting a live training on Tuesday 18th February and its completely FREE for all our podcast listeners! You can register by clicking here: How to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm SAFELY but do it now as space is limited!
Enjoy!
Jeremy Hutchings
2020 has arrived to us in a way that no one wished for or expected. Adverse and extreme fires threaten farming families and rural communities across Australia.
To those of you directly affected, our thoughts and prayers are with you. To our clients, please know you have our support and that of the FOA Community.
In this important podcast we interview remarkable clients Troy & Nette Fischer, 'Ashmore', Wasleys, South Australia.
On the 25th November 2015, Troy & Nette lost everything except their family home and 600 trade lambs in the Pinery fires of South Australia. Their entire farm, including their white suffolk stud and all farm infrastructure burned completely.
Their story and recovery effort is remarkable. How they have responded and the results they have achieved in the 12 months, 2 years and now 4 years since that event is nothing short of incredible.
Hindsight can be a wonderful thing. As they reflect on their personal experience, Troy and Nette share some wonderful tips and very thoughtful insights on how to navigate these intensely tough times, as well as how to best support those directly affected.
To those of you who are affected directly at this time, I hope by sharing Troy & Nette's story, they can serve as inspiration and encouragement to you. We hope this interview can help you in some small way to navigate the hardship you feel and the road to recovery ahead.
To those exploring how best to support loved ones, friends and family directly affected - now and ongoing - Troy and Nette share some very real and meaningful actions you can take that can truly make a difference and add value to those in need.
Thank you Troy & Nette - I am grateful for your willingness to help others by sharing your story.
This is the time when communities rally and remarkable growth and recovery can happen... as it did for the Fischer Family.
Regards, Jeremy
Tracy Secombe is incredible. Plain and simple.
Her support to her Farm Owners Academy clients once again this year has been astounding.
Her contribution to our community continues to inspire.
Our clients just get so much value from her outlook on life and the coaching she can provide.
As we bring a close to 2019, it is my great pleasure to connect with and interview Tracy, and to explore how to make this Christmas season an important moment in time to deeply reflect, clearly check-in, fully self-assess, and completely set down more powerful intentions and enriching habits in the new year to come.
A cracking conversation. An amazing lady.
Enough said...enjoy!
Jeremy Hutchings
How exposed am I? Assessing and managing risk within our farming systems.
I love the principle that in order to succeed, it is the business with the most robust and strategic business model that gets the results. Often it is the quality of our business model and how we execute on this model that is the difference between the average and the top 20%.
With this in mind, and based on your most recent years of performance, how robust and risk-aware is your business model? We operate in a unique climate, with unique economic factors, relative to farmers in other countries, and a high exposure to price variability and international markets. We operate businesses based on biological systems often exposed to the vagaries of our environments and the markets.
In this podcast, I am pleased to interview my father, Tim Hutchings, and discuss risk and volatility in Australian Agriculture. We explore the importance of designing risk-aware and long-term sustainable farming systems that have inherent flexibility, focused on minimising losses as much as pursuing windfall profits.
Dr. Tim Hutchings is a successful farmer and farm consultant in the Riverina, NSW. He is a Nuffield Scholar and Researcher and has recently completed his PhD analysing and (for the first time) quantifying risk and volatility of our farming systems.
As we dust ourselves off from the challenges of a dry season, reflect and reset for a new season, I encourage you to use this podcast as your opportunity to deeply interrogate the appropriateness of your current farming system, and as a catalyst to ask better questions and consider making some deliberate and measured changes.
Enjoy this podcast!
Regards,
Jeremy Hutchings
From a desire to find useful farm research and analysis tools for her own family... to Australia's number 1 online resource hub for farmers and agribusiness!
Farm Tableâs story is a compelling reminder how we all can find a problem and seek to solve it in order to make our industry stronger and better for everyone.
Ladies & gentlemen, meet Airlie Landale - Founder and CEO of Farm Table.
Airlie is an incredible next generation champion for Australian Agriculture, doing her bit to make a very real and tangible difference for farming families nationally. From a small idea, Airlie has dedicated herself to solving a problem for the betterment of all farmers.
In this podcast we interview Airlie, understand her background, learn about the Farm Table story, and get a real insight into what can be achieved when a strong vision, deep passion, real commitment and sheer determination all come together around one simple idea.
Farm Table is Australia's one-stop farming hub online to connect producers, farmers and fishers to agricultural resources, information, opportunities, and, to each other.
In doing so, this agricultural platform's suite of services saves you time, improves information flows across the industry and contributes to a connected, collaborative, and innovative Australian agriculture sector.
Enjoy this podcast, weâre sure Farm Table will become one of your 'go to' platforms to help you stay ahead of the game!
Regards,
Jeremy
In this podcast, we explore the way in which strategy, change, leadership transition, people management and business transformations are achieved at the top end of town, and within some of Australiaâs largest, most iconic agribusiness brands.
In a compelling interview with Jonathan Hutchings, ex-management consultant and now private equity and business transformation specialist, Jeremy explores how fundamental change is made at the âtop-endâ of our food & fibre sector, and in businesses including Peters Ice-cream, Inghamâs Chicken, and Allied Pinnacle.
Grab a coffee, tune in and learn:
- How major change is achieved in big business,
- The simplicity of strategy-setting and making the very complex simple,
- How to be objective in analysing the true performance of your business,
- The importance of getting the very best team around you,
- The importance of retaining your humanity whilst navigating through big change initiatives,
- A perspective on emerging trends in the food & fibre sector and how they may impact / provide opportunities for farming businesses.
If itâs good enough for the elite leaders in our sector, perhaps there is a lot we can learn and apply in our own family businesses.
Enjoy!
Kind Regards,
FOA
In this podcast, Andrew interviews Farm Owners Academy incoming CEO. Jeremy Hutchings is an amazing coach who is a lot of experience in agriculture. Â
Andrew and Jeremy have a discussion and cover a few really important topics that we are sure many of you can relate to Â
In this podcast: Â
- Andrew shares some of the challenges he has experienced around burnout (and how normal this is when you run your own business)
- The importance of having an extended time out
- The difference between operating I your zone of incompetence v competence v excellence v genius
- The value in building a dream team around you to help your business grow (and how investing in the right people will drive your business forward)
- The importance of having a strong strategic plan
- The definition of a business in becoming profitable but then also having your business work without you
- How ego can get in the road of your growth
Itâs a great relaxed discussion that we are sure you will relate toÂ
FOA
One of our main aims here at Farm Owners Academy is to teach you how to create a profitable farming business that can work without your constant presence, allowing you more time and freedom to live the life you choose.
In todayâs podcast, we walk you through the steps involved to accomplish this.
This episode shares lots of ideas to help you on your journey including:
- Why you need to become very profitable first (and what this looks like)
- The gap between being a farmer Vs running a farm business (and why this matters)
- The three skills you must have to create a freedom farm
We hope you enjoy this podcast â let us know what you think!
FOA FACT: Sharingâs caring! đ Please share this with another farmer đ©đ»âđŸđšđŒâđŸ
Regards
FOA
Itâs really simple. Asking a better question will lead to a better decision.
The problem is, we werenât taught at school how to ask a great question. Â
We will help you learn how to do this in todayâs podcast.
For example, just asking the simple question every hour or so âIs this the best use of my time?â can help you improve your productivity.
I will open you up to the power of asking better questions AND the impact this can have on your business.
I will share a strategy I learnt from a very successful mentor of mine that saved my business and helped me bring in an additional $150k in revenue (in just one month). Itâs called zero-based thinking and I personally believe this is one of the best business strategies I have ever been taught.
Enjoy this monthâs podcast and please share this with another farmer.
Take it easy,
Andrew
PS: Super early bird tickets to our TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop are now on sale, offering a crazy saving of $1295! Come along and learn how to run a better farming business.Â
RUOK?
The 10th annual RUOK Day takes place on Thursday 12th September 2019.
Farm Owners Academy wholeheartedly supports the RUOK initiative because we recognise the prominence of mental health issues within farming.
In a bid to raise awareness, we are dedicating this episode of the Profitable Farmer podcast to this poignant cause.
Today, I have an in-depth discussion about mental health within the farming community with Tracy Secombe, renowned mindset coach and creator of Soul Pleaserâą
For the past 3 years, Tracy has been leading our team of Platinum Mastermind coaches which has given her a unique insight into the personal lives of hundreds of farmers, their struggles, issues and fears.
There is so much wisdom in this interview.
Tracy explains why so many of us âpeople pleaseâ, and the impact this has on our mental health.
We also discuss:
-
Why male farmers carry so much fear of failure and how anxiety is created from losing the farm
-
How so many people put on a brave face but are actually really suffering at home
- Why depression is created by analysing the past, and anxiety is worrying about the future
- Why we avoid communicating what we truly want in order to avoid potential conflicts
- Why many family-run businesses have issues with communication
-
The underlying reasons for arguments within families
-
Why succession planning has become taboo
We hope this podcast resonates with you on some level; or at the very least, encourages you to ask âRUOK?â
Please, share this with another farmer today đđŒ
Take it easy,
Andrew
PS - if you would like to connect with Tracy, please click here to email her.
In this weekâs podcast we interview Terry Tran.
Terry shares with us how investing is just like planting a crop and the power of timing.
Thereâs some great content in this podcast including:
- Why now is amazing timing to pick up some stock opportunities
- Does Terry believe we are heading for a recession
- Terryâs thoughts on the value of land and if he would be trying to buy more farm land right now
- Some insight into how he values a business to invest in and what you need to know to invest.
Take it easy,
Andrew
PS: if you are interested in registering for a free online training coming up with Terry, please click here.
P.P.S Whenever youâre readyâŠhere are 3 ways we can help you grow your farming business:
-
The founders of FOA run a special free online training to show you how to create a profitable business that has the ability to work without you (creating a freedom farm) â Click here to register for the next one.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â click here to join.
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â click here.
Are you frustrated because your vision for the farm is different to other family members and you canât agree on the way forward?
In this podcast, David Westbrook and I discuss one of the BIGGEST issues affecting family farms.
Disagreements between generations, parents and/or siblings is a real issue and an unbelievably common occurrence in the farming sector.
In this episode we explore the importance of core values and how to get everyone on the same page.
Here are some of the things we discuss:
- Different generations wanting different things from the farm.
- Why having written core values will give you more direction, clarity and motivation.
- Why understanding others values will improve relationships.
- Why judging and feeling judged is down to a lack of awareness.
We want to help you work through these issues and enable you to live the farm life that you all want⊠because why would you allow someone else to dictate your future?
We hope this podcast answers some questions and helps you encourage every member of your family to work towards a common goal.
After this youâre going to have the best family Christmas ever!!
We hope you find this episode valuable. Feel free to head over to the Profitable Farmer Podcast page to tell us what you think.
Regards,
Andrew
Do you think that you might have a negative association to money?
If you get stressed, angry or you find yourself complaining about money, you might be surprised to hear you could have a limiting belief around it.
We address this in this weekâs podcast and you can listen by clicking here.Â
Here is a list of some common limiting beliefs:Â
- Money is hard to make
- Money comes in one hand and out the other
- Money is difficult to make, particularly as a farmer
- Money is scarce and hard to come by
- Money doesnât grow on trees
- There is not enough money to go around
- I donât have enough for later on in my life
- Paying for my kidsâ education is expensive
Many of these beliefs were created when you were a child and were most likely passed onto you by your parents, your community and even your teachers.Â
Itâs very hard to get ahead and go for what you want when you carry these beliefs.Â
In todayâs episode, we explore these limiting beliefs and what you can do to remove them.Â
Itâs a really important podcast and we hope you enjoy it.Â
Andrew
Do you ever get distracted?
Do you often have ideas but sometimes lack the ability to implement or see them through to completion?Â
Do you feel crystal clear on where you are going and how to get there?Â
Todayâs podcast âIf you chase two rabbits, you will catch neitherâ will help you focus on less, and simplify how you run your business.
Andrew will open you up to:
- The Entrepreneurs Curse and why you need to be aware of this;
- Magnifying Glass Theory and how you can use this to explode your business growth;
- The power of FOCUS and how it will help you profit more whilst working less;
- Discipline to not get caught up in ideas;
- Why breaking your goals into 90 days is such a powerful thing to do.
Enjoy the podcast.
FOA
Today we discuss how The Vacuum Law can be used to create prosperity in your life.
The Law of the Vacuum is a universal law and is one of the main reasons why you may always feel busy and never have time do to the things you want. Â
It could also be the reason why you feel you donât get ahead as quickly as you would like to. Â
Andrew will share with you how this effect:Â
- Money;
- Time;
- Health;
- Relationship.
âŠ.and most importantly, how to change this! Â
Enjoy this free podcast. Â
Regards,
FOA
One of our clients, David Westbrook, shared an article that heâd written recently.
It really inspired me, so I decided to interview him for this monthâs podcast.
David has agreed for me to share his article with you:
What advice would I give to an up and coming farmer?
Simple... just smile more.
We worry about everything and this creates resistance to what we truly want.
We need to read, we need to journal, we need to get educated on our core focus and we need to implement, but if we just smile every now and then.... we will get there so much quicker and happier.
We worry about the rain, we worry about the markets, we worry about what others think of us.
Where does this worry get us? Nowhere, in fact it makes us go backwards.
We do our due-diligence on the markets, we have a risk mitigation strategy for a drought, and you know what? Other people arenât even thinking about us anyway. Do you know why? Because theyâre too busy worrying about what you think of them!
We spend so much time in fear of these things happening. We are continuously telling ourselves âwhat if I stuff this upâ but just imagine if you said âwhat if I nail thisâ?
Remember when you were a kid?... Before school and all the expectations on you and your future? You just played and life was a game.
Why do we change from that childlike mindset? That child isnât thinking about all the âwhat ifsâ that are irrelevant to the current moment. Theyâre living in the now, having funâŠ
So just smile. If you f**k up, learn the lesson and donât take life so bloody serious.
Just have fun.
- David Westbrook
I know you will get a lot from hearing this.
If you know a farmer that would also benefit from this, please share it with them.
Many Thanks,
Andrew
Being an entrepreneurial farmer today can be tough.
There seems to be more work and less time to get things done...and you need to devote even more energy into running your business than ever before.
And despite all that...most farmers are barely getting by financially. They still worry about:
How theyâll make it through the current season
Whether theyâll lose the farm thatâs been in their family for generations, and
If theyâll be able to retire, of theyâll have to keep working until theyâre 99 to pay the bills
Thatâs why I want you invite you to a free podcast interview called âThe three main reasons farmers make world class investorsâ, where I had an honest chat about money and âgetting aheadâ with my friend and investment mentor, Terry Tran. (Heâs the guy on the right in the photo below.)
Terryâs the best guy I know when it comes to money advice. His system is simple but genius: minimise risk to maximise profits.
Terryâs all about protecting yourself FIRST, eliminating the normal risks associated with the stock market, so that youâre only choosing from the safest, securest, most âsure thingâ stocks.
And he makes it all so easy to understand...
I donât know about you, but I can find stock market talk overwhelming. Dividends, position sizing, shorts...all of it makes my head spin.
But Terry talks in plain English. He takes the complexities of the stock market and breaks it down so normal people like you and me can actually understand it!
In this environment â as crazy and hectic as it can be sometimes â thereâs more opportunity than ever for financial freedom. You've just got to know where to look.
I know you're gonna love this special podcast because it's jam-packed with ideas, inspiration, and guidance about how you can create real wealth off the farm through investing safely.
I already know itâs going to be one of our most popular podcasts (just like his last was)!
On the episode, youâll also hear us talk about Terryâs upcoming FREE LIVE online training exclusive for our farm owners community called âHow to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm Without Taking Silly Risksâ. Itâs the perfect next step if you want to learn the steps to create a consistent income stream thatâs not dependent on the farm.
Cheers, Andrew
Gâday,
In this weekâs episode, Andrew walks you through the steps to hire a GUN worker.
Here are some of the things that you will learn:
- One good person will beat three average
- Hire slowly, fire fast
- Donât just look local
- Start with the job ad
- Hire more on traits than skills
- Listen to hear the rest!
If you need help when it comes to finding and hiring strong team members, this podcast is for you!
Feel free to share this with any other farmers that could use these tips!
Cheers
FOA
Do you put the âProâ in Procrastination? Then this podcast is for you!Â
This podcast will teach you:Â
- What a major dominant goal is;
- Why we think you are smart having one;
- How this will beat procrastination and get you moving;
- How this will get you focused;
- Why this is necessary if you want to be a TOP Producer.
We hope you enjoy this podcast. Â
Kind Regards,
FOA
Episode 24: How Tim & Cheryl are creating a Freedom Farm
Today we share an interview of Tim and Cheryl Freak that we did for our mastermind clients. Tim & Cheryl are an amazing couple who are very passionate about farming.
In this interview, we explore how they are setting up their business to create a Freedom Farm. This is a profitable company that continues to work without their presence. Tim & Cherylâs children are not ready to work on the land at the present time so theyâve had to hire people to help them create this freedom farm.
We explore how they did this during the interviewâŠ
Here is a bit of back ground about Tim and Cheryl Freak:
Location:
Background:
1982 â Timâs parents purchased 485 ha & share-farmed sheep
1990 â Tim joined the business. Purchased 242 ha- very low equity
1992 â Cheryl joined the business
1998 â Purchased 380 ha
2002 â Share-farming extended to include cropping
2004 â Purchased airseeder and bar in a syndicate
2005 â Purchased 320 ha
2007 â Began share-farming 1347 ha
2008 â Purchased 410 ha
2011 â Began share-farming 185 ha
2013 â Purchased this 185 ha Ă©
2014 â Purchased 805 ha
2015 â Joined Sheep Owners Academy (now Farm Owners Academy)
2018 â Continued on into Farm Owners Academy Alumni Program
Farm Details:
- 360mm rainfall ave
- Manage 5180 ha (own 2833 ha)
- 3 full time, 2 part time employees, plus casuals
- Crop 3200 ha â wheat, barley, hay, canola, lupins
- Sheep â approx 3000 ewes â 50% mated to Merino, 50% WS
Net Profit Results:
Return on Capital:
Their Goal:
To create a freedom farm and enjoy helping other farmers (they currently sit on some farm boards and also coach with Farm Owners Academy).
A HUGE thank you to Tim and Cheryl for allowing us to share their interview on this podcast.
P.S. Whenever youâre ready...here are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business:
-
Attend to our free online training - "Nail It Then Scale It. Take Control of your farm today, and become the profitable business owner you deserve to be!" We will show you how we help farmers become 200% more productive every month by becoming laser focused and highly-organised business owners - click here to grab your seat.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners - click here to join.
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business - leading to more profit, control and freedom â click here.
The quality of your business and life is in direct response to the quality of the questions you ask.Â
Todayâs podcast takes you through 10 key areas and gets you to question how you are performing in life and business.Â
There are 30 questions in total. Â
We recommend you do this twice a year. It wonât take long, but it will help you look at ways to make your business and life better.Â
We also give you the questionnaire inside, so click here to access and enjoy this podcast.Â
Have a great day,Â
AndrewÂ
PS - Early bird tickets are now available for our TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop in Canberra on 30-31 May. Itâs a smaller space and this event will fill out quickly so click here to book your ticket now.
"HOW TO CREATE WEALTH OFF YOUR FARM AND GENERATE MONEY WHILST YOU SLEEPâ
âDonât work for money, make it work for youâ â Robert Kiyosaki
Transcription:
Andrew: Welcome to this podcast and we have a special guest on here today, Terry Tran. I want to firstly make sure you can hear me okay Terry?
Terry: I can Andrew.
Andrew: Welcome mate. Thank you very much for coming on board the âProfitable Farmer Podcastâ, sharing your story and educating our farmers about investing and creating freedom and wealth off their farm. Terry, let's just take a step back. I'd love to share with everyone how you and I met. I was trying to contemplate our first meeting. When was it? I think it was on a webinar that I ran? Would that be a fair assumption?
Terry: The very first time we met probably was on a webinar, because at that time, I know you were teaching people how to run webinars. You are my mentor on how to utilise the webinar platform, and over time I also attended a couple of the business live seminars. This is going back, probably almostâŠ
Andrew: Several years.
Terry: Yes, many years. At least over five, six, seven years ago now. It was actually awesome. You were mentoring me on how to create a profitable business, from the business point of view.
Andrew: Yes, isn't it funny? Because I know you were at one of our events and you spoke about what you do. Something about it Terry, really piqued my interest. I remember many years ago I thought âWe've just got to get Terry in front of business ownersâ. Because as a business we work so hard, right? We work so hard for our money and I think we forget that we need to turn around and get our money working hard for us. I remember Terry, I was teaching you a system on how to run a business and you said, "Look, this is what I do. I just have a system to help people create wealth."
Let's just personally talk a little bit about your background. How did you get into trading shares? Why shares? And obviously, your business âFreedom Traderâ.
Terry: Sure. My background is I came from corporate years ago. I was doing the 70-80-hour weeks and over time, my health deteriorated. I was with one of the big four banks. I was going up the ranks, promotion after promotion, so that was fine. But 5Âœ years in, one day going out to lunch, I literally blacked out at the top of a staircase. This is in Sydney. I rolled down two flights of stairs and ended up in the hospital. I realised that doing the 80-hour weeks wasn't sustainable long term. I was working hard for my money, getting my promotions, but I needed something else that could give me the freedom. Because I didnât have any, I was not really having the family life I wanted. I thought "Okay, let's have a change. Let's see if I can give this a goâ.
I was always interested in investing but didn't know where to start, so I attended seminars to learn as much as I could. The first 2 years actually I didn't do well at all. I basically lost quite a fair bit of money, because I attended the wrong seminars, people who were teaching for a living rather than doing for a living. It wasn't until I went out and sought the best fund managers around the country and learnt from them, the Warren Buffets of the world, a lot of the Australian fund managers that do very well and have great track records. Really learning from them and realising the mistakes I made and from there I slowly retrained myself and started again.
Once I became quite successful on my own, I thought, "Okay, why not now help other people by managing their money?". I went out there and I raised capital quite quickly. I was running the fund very similar to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company, where I wanted to be fair, where I don't charge any management fees. I'll just charge based on profits, and I'll be the largest fund holder of the fund as well. Therefore, we have our interests aligned and it just grew from there. Literally, it's been about 15 years now and a good track record.
Then about three years ago, I decided to teach what I do to help people, especially in Australia. I thought people might be interested to learn how to invest safely, just like a fund manager. Where the first and foremost priority is protecting the capital you have, and once youâve protected it, how do you then grow it? At all times, you basically minimise the risk to almost zero. Then grow the wealth from that foundation. Too many people come to markets and they lose what they have. I didn't want that to happen.
Andrew: I'm a client of Terry's. He was working as a client of mine and it switched and I'm now learning Terry's Freedom Trader system. It's interesting Terry, because if somebody says you should be buying, for example, Apple, Iâd assume "Right, I'm going to have to get a big chunk of money that I've worked hard for and put it into Appleâ, It's almost a bit of impatience or risky. I know thatâs a component that I've really learnt from working with you, that that's quite risky.
Terry: Yes, it is.
Andrew: Putting too much money into one stock is risky so you've completely changed the rules. You've changed how I go about trading and investing. Not just in shares, you've also opened me up to investing in property as well.
Let's just talk a little bit about this Terry. How easy is it for farmers to get really caught up in working hard for their money and not really thinking about "Well you can learn these skills to get your money working for you"?
Terry: Yes, that's correct. I learnt that from the corporate life and now also seeing many businesses, especially hardworking farmers that slave away so many hours a day, at least 10-12 hours a day on their farms. Yes, you are working hard for the money but why not take the profits that you make from the farm, put that to work and allow the cashflow to accumulate and grow a portfolio that will sustain you long term as well?
For me, I actually see investing as very similar to farming, itâs literally like a seed. The job is to find a great seed, plant it and then allow time for it to do its thing, water it, prune out anything that's bad and then allow that plant to slowly grow and then at the end you harvest it. It's all about patience, yes.
Andrew: Yes, it's a great metaphor. I just want to talk about working really hard for your money. Something that was taught to me many years ago is that âpeople who just buy stuff, end up with stuff allâ. It's interesting because a farmer might do well in a year so go and buy a new ute or a nice holiday, for example, which is fine. However, one of the great paradigm shifts that I had many years ago, which you've just amplified since learning from you, is this concept of using your profits to create wealth and then buy your stuff from the returns of that wealth. It's such a powerful thing and that's one component. Building wealth outside the farm.
I know that you've previously worked with farmers and you've got this big mission to help a farmer mitigate risk, correct? Because a farmer is so weather dependent that really if they learn to create money outside of their business, then this is a massive risk mitigation strategy. Can we talk a little bit more about that, aligned with your mission and the importance of creating wealth outside of your business?
Terry: Definitely. Like you said I've got a number of farmers that I teach now. Just from talking to them I realised there are 3 core risk components:
The 1st risk is definitely the weather. Currently of course, you hear about the drought. Potentially from time to time there's flooding as well. From one year to the next you have no idea what the weather will be. That can wipe out a farmer's financial stability in one go.
The 2nd risk is fluctuating commodity prices. I know a lot of farmers lock in their potential prices for the future in case it drops. This also happens with supply and demand for the crops.
Then the 3rd risk is the big grocery chains squeezing the farmers, especially on the food stuff.
For a farm to carve out a profit with all those three risks, it's actually quite dangerous. Why not mitigate that risk and slowly build up a portfolio on the side?
Eventually, that grows to a certain size that the farmer, plus their family is always safe no matter what happens on the farm. Thatâs now what I see as my mission; I really want to help these hard-working farmers, make sure that they build this portfolio so going forward whatever the weather, whatever the commodity prices, whatever Woolies or Coles throws at them it doesn't matter, that portfolio can now sustain them. In good times, both do well, great! But in bad times on the farm, this portfolio will always look after them. That's my mission now.
Andrew: It's such a great mission. Just for a moment, I want our listeners to imagine waking up in 10 years, imagine returning more money than what you can return off your farm. What you do, Terry, is help all of us, myself included, substitute our income. Not only that, substitute our income whilst working significantly less because I'm putting my money into companies where everyone else is doing the hard work. Additionally, I'm putting my money into successful companies and leveraging that. It's just such a brilliant thing you do.
Now, I want to talk about your results. Because you have achieved a return that's been greater than 20% per year on average over the last 15 years. Is that a fair call?
Terry: Yes, correct. We've been doing about 22.5% per year.
Andrew: 22.5% on average. Now, I just want to put this into context a little bit, Terry, you took, I think, $30,000?
Terry: Yes, from $30,000 after about six months, I thought "Okay, this system works now" so I added an extra $20,000 so it ended up being a $50,000 account.
Andrew: Okay. Let's hypothetically say a farmer has $50,000. They might not have that available in cash but they might be able to borrow it as equity against their farm. A lot of farmers actually have what I call 'lazy equity'; they're not using leverage well enough. Let's, for example, take $50,000 and compound that at your average 22.5% return Terry. I think you showed us 15 years later⊠what was the money in the account?
Terry: That one account ended up being about $1.5million.
Andrew: One and a half million dollars.
Terry: Yes. That was at 22%. We withdrew about half a million to pay taxes and also, obviously living as well. Basically, the seed that I planted 15 years ago slowly and consistently grew and over time we harvested $1.5million.
Andrew: It's extraordinary Terry. That is the power of this compounding effect.
Terry: Correct.
Andrew: Now, I'm probably putting you on the spot here, but I'll test your mathematical brain. The difference between compounding at 10% versus 20%, just approximately, what's that worth in 15 years?
Terry: Massive. For example, a lot of people think if you go for 7% but you actually do 20% or 21% that it's triple the return at the end. But over a long period of 20 years, in actual fact, it's not triple the return, your end result is about 20, just over 20 times the return, so thatâs a massive difference.
Say hypothetically, a $50,000 account compounded at that 20% mark, by year 17, that $50,000 is now worth over a million dollars. It's about 1.1 million. It's logarithmic. Next year, it's no longer $10,000 that you began with per year. It's now $200,000 a year. In actual fact, by the year 17, say you get to a million. All it takes now is three and a half more years from that one million to now double itself to $2million.
It took 17 years to grow to a million dollars from 50 grand but now, only an extra three years to take it to $2million. Another three years to double that again to $4million. This compounding effect is very powerful⊠That's why Einstein quoted it as the 8th Wonder of the World. Because it just grows logarithmically. Time allows us to grow things. Also, this is why I always say, don't procrastinate and don't wait. Start, no matter how small, just start and let that seed slowly grow. You'll be surprised at the end result.
Andrew: I'm going to ask the direct question Terry; how do you get 20% returns? If you could offer three lessons from what you've learnt from this share trading. I know that I'm putting you on the spot, but what would be some great tips that you could offer to start getting returns up there?
Terry: The first thing is definitely having a systematic approach. Systematic means that it has to have what they call a positive edge. Every time you put a dollar in, you know systematically what type of average return you'll be able to take out. For example, we've got 10 criteria's and just utilising those 10 fundamental criteria's of being able to methodically select the companies based on the criteria's, you'll literally wipe out 99% of the listed stocks or investments around the planet.
Just imagine, using the 10 criteria's, only 1% actually passed all 10 criteria's, only 1%. Then that makes our job quite easy. There are so many thousands of companies around the world but because only 1% pass, our universe now shrinks to only the best of the best companies that grow year in, year out. The Microsoft's, the Google's, the Facebook's, they get selected and then only invest in those long term.
Once you've invested in them, of course, you need time.
I think the second lesson will probably be patience to allow it to do its thing and not rush it.
Then the third lesson would probably be temperament. Being unemotional about it. You're almost robotic where you know when to buy, you know what to buy, take the action, buy it, allow time and when you make a profit, there's no need to be ecstatic about it. When you make a small loss, it's also no need to be depressed about it. The day goes on and you just go about your activities. Go about basically looking after the land on the farm and going about your day, simple as that.
Andrew: Follow the system. We teach this in business. In Farm Owners Academy we call it the 'TOP Producers Program' and when a farmer follows it and doesn't muck with it, then they get the returns and they get the success.
Terry: Correct.
Andrew: What you've done is you've created a system that when implemented and followed, you get high returns.
Terry: Another thing I want to say Andrew, this is why farmers are so good at investing, because they straightaway already have the patience. The farmers know it's a patience game when they plant the crops, and they allow time to do its thing. That's already a great trait, automatically, all farmers have it. Another is the following a system part.
We've got a number of farmers on our program and I look at their results and I'm wondering why is it that the farmers do so well? It's because they follow the system and they've got the patience which a lot of city folks don't.
Andrew: In addition to that, Terry, and this is a generalisation but I would say that farmers are so good at working in isolation. They are so good at being focused, they've got the logical mindset to implement and follow a system: step one, step two step three. I just think with that mindset, they have a much higher chance of succeeding with this.
Terry: I canât agree more.
Andrew: Yes, it's very cool. You mentioned a couple of stocks before Microsoft, Apple etc.
Terry: Yes.
Andrew: I couldn't help but notice they're US stocks and this has been a big eyeopener for me, Terry. Coming into your program and having no idea how to buy a share on the US stock market. I canât believe how simple it is to do this. Let's just talk a little bit more about the US stocks versus Australian and why you primarily trade in the US markets?
Terry: I migrated to the US in the stock point of view well over a decade ago. The reason being is if you look around Australia, first of all, we are very tiny in terms of the economy, less than 2% of the global economy. In terms of the actual number of companies, you can easily count on one hand the Australian companies that have been able to operate in Australia well but also go overseas and grow. Most companies that need to grow do need to go global. A lot of our companies like Telstra, ANZ, they've gone overseas, lost a bunch of money, theyâve come back.
There are very few Australian companies that actually make it globally, for example, Cochlear or CSL. Most of them actually fail and come back. The US, however, it just opens you to a massive amount of opportunities with all the global companies. I mean, just think about it. Day to day what services and what products do we use right now that you think is only Australian. Thereâs not many. Every day we turn on a computer and we do our searches on Google, we use Microsoft or Apple as an operating system. Then you go on to the supermarket and you buy say baby powder or whatever - Johnson & Johnson. These are the global companies that are all listed in America.
That's the main reason as most of the great companies are there. The other reason is in terms of available data. The US market is very transparent. You can easily see all the data that's available for free, whilst in Australia, you actually have to pay for it. It's cheaper just operating in the US markets and even brokerage, for example, is literally a small account, it's a dollar to start buying your shares versus if you were to use some of the major brokers in Australia. To go overseas it costs you $30 to $70 per trade whereas in the US you can pay $1. You're literally paying a fraction of it.
This is why I don't even care about my brokerage I pay anymore because itâs just a dollar or two versus what I used to pay, in the hundreds and thousands every single year.
Andrew: Yes, it's opened my eyes and the advice you gave me Terry, to "start owning the companies you're consumingâ. It blew me away! I think that particular day I was on Google, I was using Facebook with Microsoft open on the side. Thinking also about buying a book off Amazon.
All of a sudden, I'm like "These companies are mega companies compared to what we're doing in Australiaâ. I wish that we had more ability to grow companies like they can in the States. Of course, I want to be part of these companies and not only that, Terry, they've got cash enabling them to acquire the next big companies. Theyâve got big growth plans.
Terry: Yes, correct. Just look at Apple, for example. Apple itself, as it currently stands, has got about $250billion in cash sitting in the bank. With that cash, they could literally come into our country and easily acquire two of our major banks and have spare change. You can imagine the size of their cash position, not including the business itself, which is basically a trillion-dollar company now.
Even from the risk mitigation point of view, with these major companies, you canât see them really having a major problem. In other words, going bust, because of their size and their dominance in the industry. Just from the safety aspect, investing in these global giants is actually safer compared to investing in the smaller Australian companies.
Andrew: Yes. There's one more thing I want to talk about which really annoyed me when I first learned it from you, if Iâm being really honest. The reason it annoyed me is I am a bit of a risk-taker; I think all business owners are to some degree. There's a bit of risk in buying a farm or there's a bit of risk starting a company because it could go wrong and youâve put so much effort into one thing.
When I first started your program, I thought âRight! here I am with some money and I want to put the whole lot into, for example, Apple and Facebookâ but you taught me about âPosition Sizeâ â investing small percentages, for example, 2-5% of your entire portfolio. You also teach, âfollow a company, wait for some negative news to hit and then buy some stockâ. It was really annoying at first but I'm so grateful for it now. Can you talk a little bit more about position size, what that means, and why that's so important in investing?
Terry: âPosition Sizeâ is just one of my five risk mitigation strategies; no matter how good or how excited you are about the company, we only invest 1-1.5%. People ask âhow can you make money from only putting 1-1.5% of your account into that one stock?â
Andrew: Sorry to interrupt. Just put that into context. If you have $100,000 you'll literally only buy $1,000 worth of shares. So, youâll own 90-odd stocks.
Terry: People say "Oh, that means you're going to have potentially a lot of stocks" but that's not true because when you buy the 1% in that stock sometimes you might get lucky and it spikes straight away, you make your money and away we go.
Sometimes it has further drops and this is why we position size; you never know, even great companies still have bad times. If it drops further, we actually want to buy more so we don't mind stocks dropping. It's like going shopping and you see groceries on sale. It's great, things we know we need and we know we want, now it's gone down a little bit more, weâll buy more of it.
You're slowly building up that portfolio with that one stock. We take multiple positions in that one stock and when we get to about 3-5% we stop on that one and now weâre happy. Then we move on to another company that we want to acquire.
Andrew: You mention selecting position size but also learning to value a company. Letâs just put this into context with farming for a moment. I want you to imagine that you know the value of some land to be $2000/acre. All of a sudden your neighbour rings you to say âWe really want to sell. We're desperate. We're going to sell it to you at $1,000/acreâ. You see this opportunity and you're like, âWow, I need to buy thisâ. Terry, this is essentially what you do.
You taught me to value a company and then have the patience to wait for the news or media to create a push down on that product/business, thatâs when I can say âHang on this business is valuable. This is a no-brainer. This business is doing very well based on your criteria. This is a top 1% business, it's just undervalued right nowâ.
That's the game-changer, when you understand that youâre just having patience to buy undervalued companies that have potential big upside.
Terry: Yes. Correct. The example you use is perfect. You know the value of the land is $2,000/acre. If someone offers you it for $3000/acre you wouldn't buy it because now its over-value. Yes, you might have cash in the bank, but why would you even think about buying it? Normally, rationally, we wouldn't, but a lot of people do that in the stock market. They get excited about a company's prospects and they overpay for it. Whereas our job is to wait for that neighbour to finally want to sell the land for $1000 then we go "Okay, if it's worth $2000 and they are selling for a $1000, we'll take it." No different to buying stocks that's listed or a company.
We know what something is worth and then we patiently wait for the value to drop, which it will, it's eventual and when there is some negative news or bad press we know it's only temporary and it's still a great business, that's when we go in and we buy it undervalue. By doing that, not only will you make more money but in actual fact you are taking much less risk.
Andrew: Just to summarise what we've spoken about so far Terry, investing is a risk mitigation strategy. Respect the power of compounding over a 15-20 year period and respect the difference between a 10% return and a 20% return, it's significant. Respect the US market and understand there are big companies over there to invest in. Respect position size. Learn how to value a company and buy it when it's undervalued.
Now, is there one last tip or advice you could share with our farmers, Terry?
Terry: One last tip is definitely starting that investment strategy, no matter how small. The reason being, without starting it you'll always be subject to the risks we spoke about; weather dependent, commodity price dependent, grocery store dependent and we want to get rid of those risks. Therefore, it might take time, but at least start the process, no matter how small because that seed will grow to become the oak tree that one day you are going to relax under.
Andrew: Yes, that's great mate. How can our listeners learn more about Freedom Trader and what you do, Terry?
Terry: Usually, like you Andrew, we hold live online webinars or classes.
Andrew: Yes, come along to our webinar. I'll put the details below this. Is that the best way for people to come and learn more?
Terry: Yes, or they can contact me via email but I think to learn more Iâd recommend the webinar because it's 90-minutes of pure gold education. It literally allows you to put everything we spoke about today into action. That 90-minutes is definitely worth the time. You can register at www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmwealth and I really look forward to being able to help the farmers on a big level as well.
Andrew: I really appreciate your time today. You're gifted at what you do, you're passionate about what you do. Putting it into context as closing thoughts, Terry is able to get a higher return than the likes of Warren Buffet. I remember when I asked you how, you just said because you're moving such smaller money but you implement what these top people do Terry. You study them. You study more than anyone I know in this space. I feel like I'm sitting next to Warren Buffet.
Terry: Thank you.
Andrew: That's what it feels like for me having access to your teachings. I think what you are doing is amazing and I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much Terry.
Terry: No, thanks Andrew for having me.
Andrew: Thank you, take care.
Terry: You too.
What would happen if you grew your business by 10x?
What would need to change?Â
Do you think itâs even possible?
What if you knew it was easier to 10x your business rather than 2x it?
In this weekâs podcast Andrew will walk you through how to 10x your business.
He shares how he did it with his first business, and the steps you need to go through to achieve it.
In this podcast we explore:
- How 10x thinking is easier than 2x thinking.
- Why 10x thinking will break all previous beliefs holding you back.
- Why you need to let go and be very trusting to 10x.
- How to use leverage to scale your business up.
- The glue that ties everything together and why without it, itâs almost impossible to scale.
Enjoy this weekâs free podcast.
FOA
Who sets the vision for your business? Who is in charge of that?
Is it clear who is in charge, and does this person have clarity on where your business is going?
Is this person clear on their role, and are they good at enrolling the rest of the team towards this vision?
In the episode, Andrew will help you: Â
- Learn about the personality traits you need to run a business.
- Why you need a visionary and what this role is.
- Learn what separates small companies from larger companies.
- Why you need a clear vision to attract great people.
- Why itâs difficult to grow without a strong clear vision.
- Why you need high standards to run a great business.
- Why strong leaders play to win and go for what they want.
Andrew will walk you through the below traits, which are all relevant to run a great business. This was taught to Andrew from a mentor, Creel Price. Creel built and sold a business for $110m and Andrew was fortunate to be in business with Creel for a year following this.
Enjoy the podcast and please share this with other farmers
Thanks
Farm Owners Academy
How much do you need to achieve financial independence?Â
Do you have this written down?Â
Have you completed a capital allocation plan to map out what you need to make in order to reach your goals?Â
Do you pay yourself the recommended salary of $115k per annum? Is this being paid before you calculate your net profit?Â
Do you know your return on asset ratio? Do you know why this is important?Â
Is your farm operating consistently at a 30% net profit figure, after paying yourself the $115k wage? Are you aware itâs very hard to run a business if your farm is not generating these returns.Â
Do you have an investment plan to reach financial freedom? Do you know what return you need from these off-farm investments to reach your goals?Â
These are just some of the things we discuss in todayâs podcast.Â
If you have a goal to reach financial freedom, then this podcast is for you. Â
Please share this with other farmers.Â
AndrewÂ
PS - If you are ready to Take Control of your financial situation and make change, email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and we will send you some more information about our signature program â Take Control.
The more energy you have, the easier it is to get things done. âââââââ We often procrastinate when we donât feel great.
In this podcast Andrew explores:
âą A list of things that will steal your energy âą A list of things that will give you energy
We think you will find this pod cast very useful. It will give you a few shortcuts to maximise your energy to help you become a better business owner. âââââââ Enjoy this podcast and please share this with other farmers.
Click here to listen to the podcast
Enjoy this weekâs podcast. âââââââ Farm Owners Academy
P.S. Whenever youâre ready...here are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business - leading to more profit, control and freedom â click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners - click here to join.
-
Grab an early bird ticket to our TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop We will teach you how to earn more money and run a better farming business. The early bird offer expires 15th December - buy now and save $300! - click here to learn more.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just reply to this message and put âPrivateâ in the subject line... tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
Are you disciplined at focusing on one thing until completion?
Do you remove things around you that cause distraction?
Does saying 'no' come easy to you?
Todayâs podcast is all about removing distractions.
Andrew will help you learn how to do this and the power of playing snakes and ladders (hint: this will help you shift the way you set up your environment to remove distractions and allow you to be more effective).
Enjoy this weekâs podcast.
How I Dealt with Depression
Please note, this is what worked for me, this may not work for you. You need to find the best path for you and please seek help from a medical professional.
LEARNING 1:
My coach challenged me on the use of the word âdepressionâ.
I was challenged to not refer to myself as having depression. He showed me that the word in itself is sad and heavy. So when you refer to yourself as having depression, you feel heavy and down. He shared a great story with me about a war veteran that was diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) versus another war veteran diagnosed with PTG (Post Traumatic Growth). The second person was taught by his doctor to look at what he was feeling (the depressed thoughts) as something to grow/learn from. I wish my father was diagnosed with PTG!!!!
My coach helped me do the same. He allowed me to consider that maybe this sadness/loneliness was an opportunity to heal myself from the wounds from my youth.
To let go of the scared child that never feels safe.
So maybe consider the fact that right now, your depression is actually an opportunity for you to grow/learn something about yourself.
Maybe itâs a blessing in disguise?
Maybe there is something amazing about to come your way?
What might happen if you stop seeing yourself as someone who is depressed and start seeing someone who is going through a growth/learning phase?
LEARNING 2:
I learnt to embrace my life for what it was, not what I thought it should be.
WOW â this changed everything for me. I realised that the current life I was living was not the life that I expected.
I thought at 25 I would be madly in love, have a pumping business, be super happy and just kicking butt in lifeâŠ
How wrong I was!!!
In fact, I was $300k in debt, my girlfriend had just cheated on me and I was single. I felt isolated and alone.
My coach really helped me understand that I was not accepting this current reality. I was rejecting it. This just made everything feel worse for me.
I worked very hard at letting go of the expectation that I had created, and started to embrace my new current reality.
This was hard work but it made a big impact for me. Itâs not easy falling in love with the life that I was living at 25, but I did it.
I started laughing at my situation and realised that I was a very lucky person.
Itâs like the quote by Helen Keller âI cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feetâ.
I got over my misery and came back to a place of ease.
I had to spend a full day on the beach writing out everything in my life that I love.
I became grateful again.
I also lowered my expectations and let go of the goal that I was going to be retired by 30.
If you havenât watched it, I highly endorse a documentary called Status Anxiety.
Here is the link to watch it free on YouTube: Status Anxiety
LESSON 3:
I learnt to start giving again.
Itâs amazing how caught up in myself I had become over the previous three years (22 to 25).
Everything was about me, me and me!!!
I stopped caring about my friends and family, then I couldnât understand why they stopped calling me (it felt like they had stopped caring for me).
I began to make an extra big effort to go and focus on others. To see if there was someone else I can add value to and help.
Itâs amazing how quickly you can feel great when you actually add value to someone else.
I started concentrating more on others than myself, and this was just bloody brilliant.
LESSON 4:
I slowed downâŠWAY DOWN.
Please consider this one.
I had been going full throttle for 3 years.
Yes, I had a few holidays, but all I could think about was work.
This just created more stress on myself. My system was run down. I was cooked!!!!
I didnât want to do it, but my coach advised I take a 10-day retreat and heal my body. Just like a car goes in for a major service, this was a major service for my mind and body and boy, did I need it!
I signed up for a retreat in Bali at an Ayurveda Centre. Here is a link to it if it resonates: The Ayurveda & Yoga Health Centre
And rest I did.
I averaged 16 hours a day of sleepâŠI was exhausted. Mentally and physically.
When I came back to Australia, I felt like I had a new lease of life!
I was so excited, youthful and even playful.
I couldnât believe how much I needed this break (again I did not want to do this).
Please note, I took 10 days out away from the world â no telephone, no coffee, no alcohol, no friends, no family. Just me and loads of rest (and multiple massages every day).
Sometimes we confuse depression with just being exhausted!!!!
Iâve been back to the same place 5 times (I like to go every two years if I can â it keeps me in check). I know the feeling now when my body and mind tire and I need the space to reset.
LESSON 5:
Finally, I did a lot of work on my mindset.
(This is what I teach in Flip Your Life).
By changing my thinking from scarcity to abundance, changing my energy from focusing on what I didnât want to what I did want, and becoming super clear on all of the fears that were trapping me (fear of failure, fear of being a fraud, fear of losing control) allowed me to realise that it was the fears that were making me feel so small and trapped.
I did a lot of work rebuilding my self-esteem (I felt like a loser so I needed to work on my mindset again to feel better).
I listened to a self-esteem booster almost every day for 12 months â you can download it here: Self Esteem Booster
It worked for meâŠbut I needed this as I didnât really like myself.
I also started scheduling things that give me joy (hanging out with my old mates who make me laugh was a BIG one).
Iâm sure there were more, but the five lessons above really helped me. Please note, it took me approximately 3 months to feel like the table had turned. I also exercised and looked after myself - and stopped drinking (not completely but I pulled back from the bottle of rum a night).
I still get the blues, but I am quick now to see it for what it is, and make the necessary changes (implementing some of the above always works for me).
As I mentioned in the introduction, I feel this article is amazing and will really help you if you are going through any form of mental health issues right now.
Aubrey Marcus Depression Article
Itâs more common than you think, and I would argue 70% of business owners experience it at some stage.
Kind Regards,
Andrew
Episode 15: The More You Learn, The More You Earn
Hi there, it's Andrew here. This is going to be a short podcast, but I'm going to give you some great tools that you can put around your learning and really align with this topic âThe More You Learn, The More You Earnâ.
Before I dive into it, please continue listening to these podcasts and share them around if you're open and interested to ways to generate more profit on your farm and live a better life. If you'd like to fast-track that, please reach out to us at support@farmownersacademy.com, tell us a bit about your farm and we'll get back to you. We have a couple of mentoring programs where we can help fast-track your success, so just keep that in mind. It's support@farmownersacademy.com.
This podcast is really about learning. The more we invest into learning, the more you earn, and the better you'll do in your business. I mean, think about it. An entrepreneur may have spent 50 years studying what they do and achieving a lot of success and then they write a book that you can buy for $30, and you can really tap into their wisdom for $30. I just find that amazing. The more you understand and the more time you spend getting clarity around what it is that you need to know to become a really highly profitable and successful farmer.
I just love the saying of the three stages to life. âLearnâ (and if you notice, the L comes before the earn part) so learn, then we move into our âEarnâ phase. Then, eventually, I like this, we move into the âReturnâ phase. We have a mission at Farm Owners Academy to help farmers earn and become really successful and very wealthy, but also helping you get your time back.
Eventually, you will use everything that you've learnt to then contribute back to your families, contribute back to your society, back to your local environment. That's what we get a really big kick out of. It really does start with âlearnâ. We're going to cover off on three key things today. I'm going to give you a fantastic system that will help you set up a simple system enabling you to focus on what it is that you need to learn and implement from todayâs podcast.
The first thing that I wanted to talk about is âyou need to be the dumbest person in the roomâ. In fact, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're actually the dumbest. I think there's such a great saying that "We want to walk around and stop pretending we know everything". I see so many business owners doing this, that they protect their-- It's like an ego, they protect how much they know. They're constantly believing that they've got all the answers when, in fact, they really don't.
If they were just to drop what they think they know and embrace an attitude of âI know nothingâ then you can become so much more effective in life, that your goal is to be the dumbest person in the room. Most successful leaders do this. If you were to study the top business owners, the top CEOs, the top leaders, they surround themselves with people smarter than them. In fact, if you're the smartest person within your business, then I think you've got a real problem.
You ultimately want to hire people smarter than you. You want to engage mentors and people around you that know more than you. That's how you will actually grow as a person and have others, if you like, doing the work for you. Clearly, one of those methods is by learning from others through books, and CDs, and courses.
A bit of history for you here. Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, I'm sure you know the name, Albert Einstein. For those that don't know Thomas Edison, he invented the lightbulb. I studied these guys, again, just through reading books and watching documentaries because I find them really fascinating. Albert Einstein would say that whenever he came across a new topic, the first thing he would doâŠand Thomas Edison did the same thing⊠they'd go to a library and they'd spend a whole week in the library studying that topic.
They would read every single book on the subject before they would even attempt to add anything new or to learn anything new. They call it âstanding on the shoulders of giantsâ. They knew that if they could grasp all the teachings that the people prior to them had, it would catapult their chances of success. It really is true that if we can firstly learn from others that have been doing these things for years, then we can learn from their mistakes.
I know when I first started out as a business coach, I was in a position where I really didn't know anything at all. I made the decision right from those early days that I'm going to study the most successful coaches and learn from them. We should all get this, that there's so much to be learned from people doing things smarter than us. I can promise you, there's someone else out there right now doing things significantly smarter than you. If you don't believe that, then that's an ego. There's always someone doing it better or smarter than you. There are people that have cracked better ways to make money. There are people that have cracked better ways to save time and put in better systems.
There's a great story that I share as well. I laugh at it because it is humorous when I look back on it, but I used to get up many years ago three mornings every week to go exercising with a group of friends. Iâd drive halfway across Brisbane to get to my exercise. It would take me about half an hour, this particular trip. After about eight months, one of the guys said, "which route do you take here?" I told him the route I took and he said, "Mate, you need to take this road" he showed me a shortcut. I had no idea, but this little shortcut knocked about seven minutes off my trip both ways.
Fourteen minutes a day, three times a week, it might not sound like much, but when you weigh this up over a year, it's a lot of time every week. 14 minutes, three times a week is 42 minutes, letâs say an hour every week, multiplied over a year, that's 52 hours. Just that little shortcut saved me an entire week a year, which in the scheme of things allocated to a higher use of time. Now, it only took this person 10 seconds to tell me the shortcut⊠You'd agree with me that I'd be totally foolish continuing to take the longer route. From that day forward, I decided to take the shortcut.
We all do this. We are guilty of getting trapped doing stuff that we've been doing for years and years. We actually don't stop and challenge, is the way we're doing it, the right way? That's where I believe learning comes in. The point that I'm making here is experience is important. There's no doubt about it, experience is important. What is more important than experience is the right theory. If we were to take the right theory and apply the experience to the right theory, this is what leads to profound results.
I'll give you an example outside of farming. I want you to imagine there's a cafe in the town somewhere near you and they've been pouring coffee for 20 years. Now, I'm sure you'd agree with me that they have a lot of experience in pouring coffee, 20 years of experience. What if they were only ever taught how to pour bad coffee. I'm sure you've been to a cafe where you bought a coffee, I know I have, and it's just disgusting. What feedback do we give a cafe that makes bad coffee? We donât, we just don't go back there again.
They've got 20 yearsâ experience, but the problem is theyâve got 20 yearsâ experience of pouring a bad coffee. What we want to do in business is learn the right theory first and then gain experience using the right theory. In fact, we're far smarter starting the right theory before we apply the experience.
Many farmers learn from their parents and their experience came from their parents⊠Third and fourth generation farmers are often applying experience from maybe 50-60 years ago which can still work, but I can guarantee you that somewhere along that 50-60 years, someone else has found a better way to do it. Just like someone else has found a better way to pour coffee, someone else has learned there's better beans, there's a better machine, there's a better method that produces a better coffee, a better product.
This is absolutely true because innovation's happening everywhere. Every single industry is innovating and improving. If you're not learning the new and improved ways you get left behind. You're applying experience to old pieces of theory. Which means that the results wonât be anywhere near as successful as what they could be.
Goal number one is we want to be the dumbest person in the room and we want to understand what's the right piece of theory that I need to learn to apply my experience to? When I apply my experience to the right theory, this is what will produce a profound result. This is why in our Take Control Program we provide the theory of here's how you plan your time from 10 years all the way back to 90-day planning.
I've studied for 15 years on what's the best method to do this (and I'm sure there's a better way, by the way, I would hate to say that the way that we teach is the perfect way. I'm sure there's a better way and I'm very open to learning that.) However, I do know that it's fine-tune, fine-tune, fine-tune and when you apply experience to the way that you plan your time, in this particular system, it will lead to profound results.
That's the first point to understand and for you to constantly question, is this the right theory? Is this the right theory? To constantly look at, is there a smarter way that I could be doing this?
This is what segues into point number two. I think all of us need a simple system to learn. We can really learn through three key ways:
- We can learn through reading books;
- We can learn through meeting up with people;
- We can learn through doing courses.
A very simple formula which I want you to consider is the 3-2-1 Formula.
We want to apply this to a 90-day block. I think it's too broad looking at 12 months, so I like to break everything down into what I'm going to focus on for the next quarter. The system is:
- What 3 books can I read?
- Which 2 people can I catch up with and learn from?
- What is 1 course that I could do?
Just to say that again, three books that I can read, two people that I could learn from, and one course that I could do? Now, I also think it's important to choose your books, people you are going to catch up with, and courses wisely.
For example, if I'm wanting to work on time management, I want to choose my 3 books on time management. I want to meet with 2 people that I think are really effective with their time management, and I want to do 1 course on time management. If I really need to look at maximising profitability (letâs say I've got a weak understanding of financial literacy) then I'll choose 3 books I could read on the subject (I can guarantee there's books on everything out there), who are 2 people I could meet and what's 1 course that I could do?
There are so many places for you to uncover this information but it's just a great formula to focus on. I just know in my early days of being a business coach it was all about learning for me. I've invested over $500,000 in my education. I wouldn't be able to count how many books I've read now, how many courses I've been to, and how many people that I've made the effort to go and meet. It's endless and it's never going to end. It's not something that I will ever sit back and feel that I've done enough because the minute I do that, I shoot myself in the foot because I'm now assuming that I've learnt everything.
There is a time and a focus when you move to âEarnâ, there is a time and a focus when you move to âReturnâ, but I think we want to be on this Kaizen, which is âconstant never-ending improvementâ. It's a Japanese word. I'm constantly thinking what else could I be learning this quarter that's going to help me become, in my case, a better mentor, a better coach, a better business owner, a better husband, a better parent? All of these areas.
In the last 12 months I've been putting a huge amount of learning back into health. Therefore, I've been reading a lot more books and courses on health and I've really enjoyed that because it's also rolled through to me being more effective with business and a better family member as well.
This segues into point number three, which is another simple formula called 30:10. That means for every 30 minutes of reading I do, I like to summarise in 10 minutes what I just learnt and how can I apply what I just learnt to my life?
There is this saying that âimplementation is powerâ. Knowledge is not power, implementation is power. I could read 40 books and apply nothing. That's really pointless, right? I try to apply 3 things I learn from each book I read.
When I'm reading, I think it's powerful to underline or highlight key parts. Then I'll just sit down and document what I learnt from that.
In my early days, my mentor held me accountable for reading a book a week. It sounds like a lot, but it's what I needed to do because it really speed tracked my knowledge on business. I just read every book you can imagine on business and I really got into the discipline of that 30:10 rule. In fact, 30:10 was a formula that I applied on a daily basis. I just read for 30 minutes a day and then spent 10 minutes implementing. Not every day, but probably four days out of five.
Sometimes I would sit and read for 3-4 hours on a weekend. The key to learning is to schedule it. If you don't schedule it into your day, you most likely won't do it. Scheduling really helps build a habit. I don't read a book every week at the moment, but it would be at least one book a month. I'm in the habit of summarising in my journal what I've learnt from that book and how I can apply it.
I think setting up that little system will really help you. I used to have a piece of paper stuck on my desk in front of my computer that said 30:10 and I stuck another one on the door in my bedroom that said 30:10. It just reminded me to invest some energy on a daily basis in learning something and then applying it.
I will finish by saying this, the most successful people that I've met on my journey of coaching businesses, both in and outside of farming, have an insatiable knowledge to learn more. They are by far the biggest learners. They study the product. In the case of farming, they read every single book on the topic. They'll find out all the mentors in that area and they won't just focus on farming, they'll read every single book on business that they can get their hands on.
There's no question that there's a correlation between the biggest learners and the most profitable, successful people. In the brackets of success, I'm referring to the ones that make the most money and also live the most, I call it wealthy life. It's not just about the money, they also recognise that they have a mission to become the best person that they can be, which means they also want to be a great husband or wife. They want to be great for their kids, they want to be great at time management, they want to create wealth outside their farm, or whatever it is. It's not just about money.
I see the correlation between happiness and learning. That's because they're tapping the wisdom of others that know stuff that they don't. It's that simple. Just remember that none of us know everything. We need to put that ego aside and pretend we know nothing. We want to be the dumbest person in the room. We want to focus on what's the best piece of theory that I can apply my experience to which will bring me my profound results.
I like the simple 3-2-1 Formula. It's not much if you think about it. 3 books, catch up with 2 people, do 1 course. When you do learn, please spend a little bit of time afterwards to document it⊠what did I learn and how can I apply this into improving my business?
Thanks for listening to this. Please share this around if you feel this would value other farmers. As I mentioned earlier, if you want to fast-track your results, we are mentors and coaches. We exist to bring out the best in business owners in the farming space, so reach out. Let's have a chat and see if we can help you. Just send us an e-mail at support@farmownersacademy.com.
Speak to you soon.
Thank you.
Take care.
Episode 14: âHow freedom farmer David was able to enjoy a 9-week holiday with his familyâ
In this podcast I interview David Westbrook, a member of our very first Platinum Mastermind Program.
By following our proven system over the past 3 years, David is well on his way to achieving a âFreedom Farmâ. He was recently able to âtest the watersâ by enjoying a 9-week holiday with his wife and 3 young children.
David very kindly agreed to speak to the members of our newest program âTake Controlâ and this podcast is a snippet of that interview.
Andrew: Firstly, mate, thank you for coming on and sharing a bit of your story. Just a bit of background, David and his wife Becky have been clients of ours for three years, they're a part of what we call a âPlatinum Mastermind Programâ. He's very much gone through this âTake Controlâ journey and is very aware of the mindset required to not just make more money on the farm but also have more time with family.
I really wanted to bring Westy onto this as he's got so much to offer because he's done a lot of work on his mindset. He's been able to set his business up so he can take a lot more time out with his family. He's got a very inspirational story. He's just been on a 9-week holiday with three young children.
Do you want to start by sharing a little bit more about you, what you farm, where you're based? I wanted to dive in a little bit about what life was like for you before you made that commitment to âTake Controlâ.
Westy: We're based on Kangaroo Island, which is an amazing place to farm. I came from a cropping farm on Yorke Peninsula. It wasn't my cup of tea, so I decided I wanted to get into livestock. I had absolutely no clue about any of it, I just jumped in really in 2010, and our first son was born in 2010.
Livestock farming on Kangaroo Island, life on Kangaroo Island and becoming a father all happened at the same time. Definitely, a steep learning curve. We probably went through that first 5-6 years just unconscious, really, just doing the day-to-day stuff.
We had some great people around us in the community that helped me understand livestock farming. There was a lot of things that I just didn't know and wasn't implementing, so I just didn't have the freedom to do anything. People would ask me to go fishing or surfing and I just couldn't do it. And obviously, just wasn't having that family time.
Andrew: Yes. Let's go back to that. I just wanted you to really share a bit more about this. Let's keep it in line with this message of âTake Controlâ. Did you feel like you had control back there?
Westy: Funnily enough, I probably did, Andrew, because that was my mindset. I thought if I made a conscious effort to always be home at 5-5:30pm to have dinner with Becky and the kids. Then, make sure the batteries on the torch were good and go back out to work for 3-4 hours after dinner.
I believed I had control, because that's how I thought I had to operate. I was getting plenty of work done but just didn't have any clarity on the next day or the future going forward. I definitely had that 2-hour bracket with the kids and Becky over dinner, which is what I thought was good. Eventually, I realised that's not how it should operate.
Andrew: Let's talk about that, too, because I'm assuming you got most of your experience or knowledge from your parents, correct? They teach you a certain way of what you need to do to be a successful farmer; which is work hard?
Westy: Absolutely, yes. I've put a lot of thought into this over the last few years, Andrew. Why is it that they had to work hard and we can actually reap the rewards a little bit, and delegate, plan and run a better business? Absolute credit to my parents and everyone that's a bit older than me.
2010 was the start of good land prices. Thatâs given me the opportunity to make more profit definitely from the way that the commodities have gone and to be able to set up this âfreedom lifestyle and a freedom businessâ.
That way of thinking of those older generations was not their fault by any means. That's just how farming was. There wasn't much money in farming. To be able to learn off of it and to be able to now adapt to what farming offers, and create an amazing business and amazing lifestyle is great because there's not too many jobs out there that give you the freedom of a farm.
If you can get your mindset in the right spot and set up your system, set up your business, and your visions to allow yourself the money and the time to be able to actually live that life that you want.
Andrew: I want to drill into that a little bit deeper. Particularly, that word you just said before which is mindset. Particularly, starting with âTake Control of Youâ. I just want, from your perspective, to share how important it's been for you to work on your mindset.
What are some of the shifts that you've had to make in your thinking to start reaping the rewards of, not only just increasing profitability on your farm, but also having extended holidays with family and taking a significant amount of time off.
I want to talk about the âhowâ. Some of the decisions you've made that have helped you set things up. I know you've employed people. Let's just start with the mindset. How important has this been for you?
Westy: Massive, and through the tools that you've given us through programs like this, Andrew, it's allowed me to actually have the mindset to do it. That comes back to mindset and allowing yourself to do it. I used to feel really guilty if I was in the office. Now I feel guilty if I'm out working after dinner.
That mindset of thinking I was proud of working hard in the dark with a head torch on; now I feel guilty doing that. I feel prouder if I'm in the office doing those more important jobs. It's allowing that mindset to say "Right, I can do this. This is my vision, and I'll make that workâ.
Andrew: I completely understand, from a business owner perspective, this guilt that comes when we're not working. This feeling that in order to get ahead, I have to work harder. How did you start changing that mindset to "You know what? I'm allowed to have more time out with my family. I'm allowed to work less and work smarter as opposed to harderâ?
Westy: It comes back to your belief. If your belief is that you need to be in the sheep yards drenching sheep or on the track ploughing paddocks and you believe that its wasting your time being in the office, it was definitely a massive challenge for us to overcome that.
Through what you've taught us and slowly, gradually, building that belief to be able to say "Okay, actually, I can live the life that I want. I can work out a plan to fill in the gaps that I can't be doing".
Another big struggle for me was getting my workmen to move sheep or to drench sheep or plan shearing whilst I was in the office marketing lambs or writing my 10-year business plan, which initially, I felt really guilty doing. He was out doing the labour and I was inside having a cup of coffee with my feet up on the computer. It's a hard mindset to get your head around.
The best way for me for that that scenario was to get him clear on my business values and our business direction. Then he understood how important it is for me to be in here, and for him to be outside making sure those sheep are in good health and that all those other general day-to-day jobs are getting done.
Andrew: When you use the word âbeliefâ do you find that you needed to believe that you could take time out with your family before you actually did it?
Westy: Yes, absolutely. Initially we had planned four weeks to go away and do the Red Centre and then come back. It then turned out that we needed to be on the Sunshine Coast and a week or two after that, we needed to be on the Gold Coast. I just thought, "why don't we just extend it, we'll take the caravan and the car, and we'll keep going from the Red Centre."
I had absolutely no idea how that was going to happen, but I had belief that I could make it happen. I just had to let go of control of the farm and stop my mind from thinking âI need to be on the farm because we're lambing; we've had a late start and pasture's going to be tight; and everything needs to be implemented perfectlyâ.
Once Iâd controlled my thoughts, I had the belief that it could work. That was step one.
Andrew: I want to talk about that a bit deeper because as a coach working with clients outside of farming, the first stage is âif you don't believe something can happen it never willâ. You've got to at least entertain the idea that something's possible.
There's that great saying that âsome people need to see and they'll believe, but successful people get that they first need to believe, and then they'll seeâ.
So, you had to change your mindset from "I have to be doing everything" to "maybe it's possible that I can actually improve the profitability of my business and work lessâ, correct?
Westy: Yes, absolutely. When we first learnt that concept through yourself and Greg, it was very hard to get your head around. How can you pay someone to do your fencing? How can you pay someone to do your landmarking etc and still make more money? It didn't make sense, but when you actually free up that time to make better decisions, our business completely changed.
Three years down the track, I'm working a lot less and profiting a lot more.
Andrew: That is a big breakthrough that I believe business owners need to reach. Itâs quite extraordinary and very hard to get your head around, but often the lesser you work, the more you can make.
I want to come back to the conversation that you and I have regularly around, I call it âvibrationâ. A certain energy that we're giving off and when you're giving off a good energy, good things seem to happen. When you're giving off a negative energy, bad things seem to happen. I'm sure you can relate.
So, when you're working really hard, and you're not spending any time with your family and you're stressed, what sort of energy can you be giving off?
Westy: Poor energy, and then that's when things start to go wrong, sheep get mixed up, gates get left open. All those sorts of things. A lot of them are based around your energy. I think you talked about morning rituals in the webinar, didn't you, Andrew?
Andrew: Totally, one of the main things that creates the fastest change in you is implementing a morning routine. Let's just talk a bit about yours. What are some of the things that you've changed to start that morning in a positive frame?
Westy: Getting back to your vibration there, my morning routine has a massive impact on the vibration that I give throughout the day and how my day unfolds. For example, we're all human, we all have lapses in the structure in our life.
When morning routines don't happen for me, for whatever reason, I just feel "something's not right hereâ. But when I get back to my morning routine it all starts to fall back into place for me.
Your morning routine has to have that structure; you have to have it on paper. You can't just set your alarm and say "right, I'm going to get up and do a morning routine" if it's not written down its an excuse to just press the snooze button on your alarm. You have to be clear when you get out of bed, be clear on what your objectives are.
Basically, I get up early. We've got kids and sometimes it changes, but usually 5.30-6am rise. Firstly, I'll make sure Iâm hydrated so I get up and have some water. Then I'll journal; I'll go through my to-do list and match that up on my calendar; I plan my day and then I'll go out to the shed and make sure I spend 30-45 minutes in the gym.
There's so much science behind morning exercise to set yourself up for a great day. I think it's Tim Ferriss or Tony Robbins who says "If you win your mornings, you win your day".
Andrew: I think there's a direct correlation between your motivation for exercise and your motivation for life and business. I personally find that if I rate my exercise out of 100, often my motivation for work matches that number. If I'm a 50 out of 100, I also have just 50% motivation for work, because exercise gets the blood moving, gets us pumped, gets everything happening. It's so easy to use the excuse "Well I've got three young kids" or "I don't have enough time, I'm too busy.â
How do you find the time and what have you done to set things up so you can exercise? You're working on an isolated farm; how do you do this? How often do you exercise? I know you've been traveling for the last nine weeks, but in general, how you do it?
Westy: I would exercise pretty much 7-days a week, but that's not all physical exercise. A lot of that is yoga or stretching. At the moment, just to frame it up, Iâll do 3-days cardio, 2-days strength, and the other two days it could just be taking the dogs for a jog; 6:30am just a 10-minute jog down the laneway and I come back feeling pretty amazing. Fitness-wise, it's not much, but it's giving you the mindset and energy to get through the day.
To create that time initially, our kids used to wake early, so I used to take in turns with my wife. Our morning rituals would be one day on, one day off. I would get up with the kids while she went in the gym and did her journaling, etc. Then the next day would be my turn. That was one way of getting through it when our kids were younger, but now our kids can get themselves out of bed. They're happy to go down to the lounge room and play with their toys for half an hour. Basically, 7am is when we start cooking breakfast and getting organised for school. We make sure the kids know that before 7am is their own time and we know that our morning rituals are done and dusted by 7am.
Andrew: If I was to take away your exercise, if I was to take away your morning routine, if I was to take away the time that you've been spending with your family what would your energy levels be like?
Westy: I'd be very drained. You end up being the mouse on the wheel or chasing your tail and not really getting anywhere. You might feel like you are, but you don't have the time to step back and look into your life from a distance and see where you're going wrong and where you're going right.
Andrew: In your experience, work on yourself has to come first, correct? You've learnt this has to become the highest priority?
Westy: Absolutely, yes. You might think it's hard to get up at 6am and go to the gym, but it's a lot easier to get up at 6am than crawl out of bed and go through a day without having the exercise under your belt. That's been my key. Even Becky, sheâs always been a healthy person but she's never exercised daily. Now she's doing that, she absolutely loves the benefits of it. Once you start, you can't stop.
Andrew: Would you say compared to the person you were 3-years ago, you're happier now?
Westy: Absolutely, yes.
Andrew: Would you say you're a more confident person?
Westy: Absolutely, yes.
Andrew: Would you say that you've got way more belief in your abilities when it comes to growing a successful career?
Westy: Yes, and that comes back to confidence. Confidence and belief are your two biggest drivers really. When you're happy and healthy, you're unstoppable.
Andrew: The reason I wanted to interview you is because Westy is also one of the coaches that works with us in our Farm Owners Academy program. The reason we've chosen Westy is because he implements. He hears what we teach and rather than âums and ahsâ about it, he just implements it.
That's one of the biggest takeaways for this program is we don't want you just listening to this stuff, we want you to, actually, give it a go and see what happens.
Westy, it's not like you can start training, and then the next day everything changes. There's quite a delay from working on yourself to when you start reaping the rewards. Would that be a fair call?
Westy: Absolutely. There's 60 days or something to be able to create a habit. For example, there's been a few people in our group that had some habits they wanted to change, whether it was stop drinking coffee or start exercise in the mornings. It's making sure you get those 50 to 60 days under your belt so it just becomes normal to you.
Journaling was a big one for me. Journaling was something you opened me up to. I didn't understand the benefits of it, initially. But people like Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Michael Jordan, all the superstars in the world, they all journal.
That was my biggest eye opener to say "If they're journaling there's obviously a reason to do it", that's why I stuck at it and eventually it cracked for me, it was just a lightbulb moment. It's not just journaling, it's everything.
That initial period is the hardest bit. That's where we fall into the trap of "Itâs too hard; Nothing's happening, Not getting results". They shut the door on it, rather than just persisting. Then all of a sudden, it becomes easy.
Andrew: I think it's like the farming analogy of you plant a seed. You need to water the seed and have the patience for it to grow. I think that's the key thing, a lot of people might start planning a week. They do it for two or three weeks. They think "Nothing's happening" and they quit. Then, unfortunately, that seed dies, but if you persist, the breakthrough seems to come three months down the track. That's when you really reap the rewards of working on yourself.
Westy, I really want to talk about this nine-week holiday, which in many people's worlds would be just like "How do you do that? How do you take 9-weeks off and pack up the family and off you go?" Of course, it's not something that three years ago you could have dropped in two weeks later. This did need some work. This did need some planning. This did need your business to get to a certain level to enable you to do that.
Let's just talk a little bit more about that. What was some of the work you had to do to make that happen? You've obviously worked on the mindset. You had to plan that trip in to make it happen. I'm assuming there was a lot of fear around "Can I really take that time outâ?
Westy: Absolutely. Fear is the biggest one.
Andrew: Yes, and then a lot of questioning going on "I probably shouldn't. It's bad" or whatever that thought process is that challenges you on it. What are some of the things that you had to put in place that gave you more peace of mind to take that trip?
Westy: We obviously talked about it earlier, the belief. The belief of being able to do it, and we didn't exactly know the how. This trip was actually planned about three years ago, just not down to the finer details. It was a vision for us and then we needed to work out what those steps were to get there. To be able to create the freedom to be able to do it.
When we first started 3-years ago, I was running this farm on my own and working two and a half labour units which was quite embarrassing when those figures come out and we had to put them up on the big screen in front of the rest of the group!
Then I needed to work out the scale of my business to be able to set up the freedom business and all the little one percenters that had to be put in place. I couldn't afford to go out and put a full-time workman on. What I did is I manifested, in a way, a part-time workman and got clear on what I needed him to do, and how it was going to work out, and then that fell into place. I found a local guy that could do three days a week for me which was perfect.
He worked for me for a couple of years, then I needed to take the next step. We up-sized our business labour-wise to be able to get to a full-time workman which, for me, was downsizing my cattle enterprise and increasing my sheep numbers. These is just a few of the little things that had to happen along the way. This was getting the scale right to be able to afford a full-time workman.
Then that was just the perfect balance. He'd been working for me four months before I set him up for us to go away. He wasnât a highly skilled technical farmer, but a good, passionate farmer with good stock skills is what I needed. Then everything else had to get into place, got your shearing times, you had lamb-marking times, you had ram-joining times, all those business structures throughout your yearly calendar, you could just simplify.
You don't want to have five different enterprises happening, so we simplified. We went to a more of a meat, a prime lamb enterprise...
Andrew: You focused.
Westy: âŠand ran bigger mobs was one of the things to allow us simplify. Some fencing, new sheep yards, sheep handlers, all these sorts of things that had to come into place for him to be able to manage a farm on his own.
Andrew: Then, of course, the learning of the skills on how to induct and train this farmer on what you needed him to do, so you had the confidence to let that farmer get on with the job. Would that be a fair call?
Westy: Yes, definitely. For me to have a clear 10-year plan, broken down to a 3-year, 1-year, and then 90-day plan on paper, that I could show him to give him a clear vision of where we were going. Then, obviously, the systems that go into place around that.
Andrew: So, youâre traveling around Australia⊠How did you find the confidence that you've got a guy back on the farm handling things while you're away? You'd agree with me that without that Westy, people won't do it. They have too much fear to step away?
Westy: Yes, absolutely. It was definitely something I had to work through. Having the confidence to let myself go from the farm was a big challenge. It took a good couple of weeks into my holiday. Basically, I had all the systems in place and weâd obviously walked through it before I left. We touched base once a week just to make sure he was on track, but probably three weeks in, I just instantly noticed a big relief. I just let go.
I told him "Ring me if you've got any troubles". The one time I heard from him was just to reassure me that everything was good; it was raining and dams were filling up and the sheep were goodâ. It was believing in him and believing in myself that I'd put the systems in place for him to implement it. He had some pretty significant roles. He had to set up all their lambing paddocks and all our ewes were still on grain, still sup-feeding by that time. He had to divide all them up, and put them out into all their lambing paddocks and make decisions on pasture management.
The first couple of weeks, I was going to bed worrying "what if he's got sheep on 500 kilos a hectare and they need to be on 1500 kilos a hectare with twin bearing ewes?" and all that sort of stuff. But in the end, I just completely let it go. I really enjoyed my holiday and started getting clarity on some other ideas and some other thoughts.
The great reward was to come home and drive around the farm and see that everything he had done was pretty much better than what I would have done. All the pastures were amazing. The sheep were in amazing health. We actually broke records this year with our lamb-marking percentages, through what he had implemented while I was away.
Andrew: Wow, I mean it's a great story. Greg, do you have any comments right now around this mindset or questions for Westy?
Greg: Yes, thank you very much. Good day, everybody. Nice to be on the call.
Westy's story is a fantastic story. When I first started working with David a number of years ago, he was flogging himself as most young farmers do. He came from a position where he believed that the way to get ahead was to work yourself into the ground. I come from that background as well. I know exactly what it's like; and to see the transformation in him and Becky and his family.
When David & Becky started with Farm Owners Academy, one of Becky's issues was that he just wasn't spending enough time with the family. Good on him for at least coming home to have dinner with them, but she wanted more than that, obviously. Young family, she needed support. She needed time for herself away from the family, so that she could refresh her mind and so forth.
To watch the transformation from where he was at 3-4 years ago to where he's at now is quite mind-blowing really. It's just come on the back of having a much better understanding of what he's doing, what's driving the productivity and profitability in his business, understanding which levers to pull and really having the confidence and the mindset to move forward and pursue the type of business that he wants.
He wants a business thatâs not reliant on him being there all the time. So, if you want to create that type of business you have to make it a priority. You have to do the things that need to be done to allow that outcome to manifest. If you just say it and don't take action towards making it happen, then it never will happen.
Andrew: It's so much about firstly, making the decision and believing that it's possible. Correct, Greg? If you don't make the decision or believe it's possible you'll never do it.
Greg: Absolutely, you have to believe that you can do it. A classic example, 10 years ago, my whole mindset and target around my veterinary business was to gross a million dollars. I kept telling myself "if I can gross a million dollars, then I'll be happy. I can retire and I'll be happy. That's what I want to achieve." I had a radical change in my own thinking and my own vision about what was possible. I'm in the business now, grossing over three times that much.
It all comes from just changing the way that you view the world, and you view your capability and understand what it is that you actually can do. We all tend to put limits on ourselves. We have limiting beliefs in terms of what we think we can achieve, and what we think we are capable of doing, and what we think we deserve. Those things do hold us back in a lot of spaces.
Dave, just thinking back now, how would you feel if you had to go back to the way it was three, four years ago?
Westy: Stress. That's what it was, it was stress but you don't realise it at the time, you just think that's what life is. You don't realise that there's a better and easier way of doing it. It's just letting yourself; allowing and actually believing you are capable of that.
I remember right back in the early days, Greg, some of things that you and Andrew were saying we should be doing. I was thinking "well, imagine how good that would beâ but I just couldn't see it happening. That's now what day-to-day life is for us.
Greg: Just to be clear about that, you'd would probably never allow yourself to go back to the way it was, would you?
Westy: No. When things do go wrong or you are busy or something doesn't happen the way it should, then you've got to take responsibility. We create our own reality, so everything that goes wrong - your truck breaks down, or you get a flat tyre or your sheep get out because your fence is not quite right; you have to take responsibility for all of those things and work out the solution. There's got to be a better way of doing it.
For example, if you're busy, you've got to take responsibility for being busy. Maybe your business is too complex. Maybe you need to simplify. Maybe you need to bring in extra help.
There's always an answer. It always comes back to not blaming others. Blame yourself, and then work out why it's not happening like it should.
Greg: What you raised there is great, let's bring it back to the seasons. Obviously, quite a few people that are on the call here might be experiencing drought or less than average seasonal conditions.
Bottom line is there's nothing you can do about that. That's what it is. That's the environment that you're working in. The environment isnât always perfect. All you can do is the best you possibly can. It's the decisions you make. It's the mindset you have and the decisions you make when times are tough that actually define who you are as a business owner.
Anyone can run a business when it's going well. When everything's fine, it's easy to run a business, but it's when things get tough, when things happen that are out of left field that's what really defines who are very good at running a business and who aren't.
Westy: Absolutely. I discovered that last year. We've never been through a drought, but we had a really late start. We actually started lambing ewes in July on dirt before our opening rain. There's two ways I could have looked at that. This is where I really noticed my mindset had changed. I could have got stressed everyday feeding sheep grain and having skinny ewes and lambs on dirt. The massive positive for me, it gave me an opportunity to speak to other people around Australia. I made an emphasis to call people around Australia that had been through this before and learn what ways to handle it. I learned a lot about myself and a lot about how to handle stock in tough situations which is a massive positive for me out of a negative situation.
Can I just touch on a couple of things that might help as well? Probably one of the fundamental beginnings for me that freed up time was actually writing down what was in my head. Iâd go to bed with a job list in my head, but one day I just wrote down everything because I thought I had so much to get done before shearing came. When I got all those jobs out on paper, I just crossed off all the ones that weren't important. I thought I had to get all these jobs done, but in reality, they could be done next week, or even next year. There were things I thought had to happen like putting a fence up to make a big paddock, split it in half. That can happen in 10 years' time. Yes, it's an advantage and beneficial, but it doesn't have to happen tomorrow. I didn't see that until I put all the jobs that were in my head on paper.
The other one was just being super clear on what we want. What do we want to be doing? How much time do we want to spend with our families? What jobs do we want to be doing on the farm? I could walk off the farm tomorrow and never have to do a day's work. I could bring in another employee and completely set it up, so I don't have to work on it but that's not really what I want. It's getting clear on what we want to be doing on our farms. If we want to be doing those labour jobs, we'll make sure we're doing them first.
Understanding what we want to do personal-wise and business-wise and making sure if you picture them on a see-saw that they're working together, making sure they're level and your business isn't outweighing your personal life.
If something is happening in your business that's having implications on how much time you get to spend with your family you need to work out what that is and adjust it, so then you can get that balance right.
Episode 13: âHOW TO BUILD CONFIDENCE AND GO FOR WHAT YOU WANTâ
âCONFIDENCE drives SUCCESSâŠâ
How much do you like yourself?
Do you have a fear of walking up to people?
Are you afraid of being rejected?
Do you doubt yourself?
Statistics prove that confident business owners succeed more in both commerce and life.
This podcast explores:
- What is confidence?
- Why do we lose confidence?
- What can we do to regain confidence?
In a farming business, possible factors affecting confidence could be:
- Market condition.
- Succession issues.
- Family/Team member conflicts.
As a resultâŠ
You forget to focus on the goals you set when you first started out in business.
âObstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goalâ
- Henry Ford
Confidence is easily lost on a business journey because of all the moving parts of running a business.
Confidence is an inner liking of YOURSELF.
The more you like yourself, the more confident you become.
The more confident you are, the better decisions you make.
âThe speed of success that you will have in business is directly related to the speed in which you are able to make decisionsâ
The truth is, you start acting very defensively when you lack confidence;
You stop taking risks;
You stop taking the steps that need to be taken to help you succeed in business and in life.
âWe need to spend more time un-learning before we learnâ
Un-learn all the negative drama from parents, teachers and peers.
Re-wire your brains to the positive.
How can you do this?...
Here are 3 ways to effectively un-learn the negative and learn the positive:
- Be kind to yourself
- Treat yourself extremely well.
- Take pressure off yourself.
- Accept failure as feedback - an opportunity to do better next time.
âItâs what you say to yourself, when you are by yourself, and about yourself that matters mostâ
- Bring more awareness to your thoughts
- You are just a manifestation of your thinking.
- Your thoughts of you create YOU.
- Train your brain to let a negative thought go.
- Re-fuel the belief that you are good enough.
- Write down your thoughts and assess if it is serving you, or sabotaging you.
- Find gratitude around you whenever negative thoughts strike.
âGratitude fuels self-esteem and confidenceâ
- Implement a morning routine
- Commit to doing this daily.
- Train your brain to say positive things to yourself every morning.
- Build the habit of positive affirmation - âI am worthyâ, âI like myselfâ.
- Visualise yourself being successful - think of yourself like a champion.
- See your success even before you have it.
- Write a small note about how amazing you are and read it to yourself daily.
- Create a journal - write down your goals and why you want them.
âJust one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole dayâ - Dalia Lama
FinallyâŠ
Maintain a strong confidence in yourself or youâll end up as a victim to the external circumstances that can influence your beliefs.
Invest in your own self-confidence and assure yourself that there will be a return on that investment.
You will see amazing things happen.
What's stopping you from deciding to be a confident person right now?
âWith confidence, you have won before you startedâ
- Marcus Garvey
Marketing your way to new markets
In todayâs episode, we are joined by Tim Young, a farm marketing expert, author, and founder of the Small Farm Nation Academy; an online resource that teaches farmers the marketing skills required to grow a profitable farming business.
The first question Tim asks his clients is:
Are you running a hobby, or are you running a business?
FARMING IS A BUSINESS.
A business needs customers. If you need customersâŠ.
YOU NEED MARKETING.
Farmers need to be clear that they are running a business, not just a farm.
80% of your business success is marketing.
You need to have the skills to be an effective marketer.
Here are the Top 3 Methods:
- CREATE A BRAND FOR YOUR FARM
It is critical to maintain consistency in Branding. Repetition makes people associate the Brand with the product.
Build the habit of highlighting the BENEFITS of your products/services rather than the features.
Great brands introduce their values into a simple benefit-oriented tagline that resonates with people.
Keep in mind that if consumers do not remember you, they are not going to choose your product.
As mentioned, farming is a business that requires market exposure like all other businesses.
STEP UP from being a TECHNICAL FARMER and become a FARMING BUSINESS OWNER.
- TRANSPARENCY â Tell people What, Why and How!
What do you stand for? Show them what your decisions are and why.
Transparency has a huge influence in brand awareness.
- COMMUNICATE WITH CONSUMERS â reach out to the market!
Cultivate a dialogue with your customers to create a two-way discussion.
With the help of consumer reviews, you create products that are high MARGIN for you and high VALUE for them.
Many Thanks to Tim Young, founder of Small Farm Nation Academy.
www.smallfarmnation.com / www.smallfarmnationacademy.com
See you all in the next episode!
âItâs HOW YOU REACT to the Drought that MATTERS MOSTâ
In this episode, we aim for all of us to not overlook the benefits of the drought situation and how our span of control plays a huge part in real-life challenges.
What can you do to control your reaction in regards to this present drought condition?
What can you do in all other areas of your business to get through these tough times?
We all know drought has been occurring for a long time now and certainly has a significant impact on large areas of the country.
Australia has had long droughts in the past, we have to accept that as part of the country we live in.
You canât control the weather, but you can control the way you respond to whatâs going on in your farming business.
Spend your time and energy focusing on the things you can control in a drought situation and not the drought itself.
Andrew is reminded of a fantastic story about one of Australiaâs greatest Iron Men:
Trevor Hendy was about to take off on a competition day at Port Macquarie when the weather was crazy, the sea was huge and the wind was howling. The organisers thought of cancelling the event but decided to push through.
Trevor was sitting overlooking the ocean and a journalist spotted him and asked, âWhat is running through your mind?â Trevor, who was listening to some music, pulled out his earplugs and responded to the journalist, âThe environment is always perfectâ.
Clueless, the journalist asked, what do you mean by that? Trevor said, âI canât do anything about the size of the ocean today⊠I canât change the wind⊠I know for a fact that Iâm not going to get my best time because the condition isnât great. But the only thing I can promise you today is that, I can do the best that I can regardless of the weather. Iâm going out there and will give it my allâ.
We canât change the weather but there certainly are things that farmers can be doing during drought times.
All you can do is your best â and you can control what your best looks like.
Letâs now look at the 4 areas to support farmers dealing with drought:
-
LET GO OF THE VICTIM MENTALITY
-
Victim mentality is a state where you start thinking that everything that happens to you is someone elseâs fault.
- You blame the weather or other circumstances.
- Being a victim means you do not have power over anything that is going on and you are just on the receiving end.
But you are in control of your business.
You are in control of how you react to the current situation.
And if you move into the victim mentality, it makes it very difficult to make strategic decisions.
When a business is in a period of adversity, as the ownerâŠ
YOU MUST LEAD, STEP UP and MAKE GREAT DECISIONS.
The drought should not make you feel like you are a failure or any other negative self-talk.
If you are locked into a mental framework of being a victim, you are totally un-empowered and unable to make the decisions to improve your situation.
-
MINDSET: DROUGHT IS TEMPORARY
-
Drought is never great, but as a professional farmer, your responsibility is to maximise the good times and minimise the bad times.
- Drought is a bad time. The actions that you take right now, the decisions that you make will be just as influential on the long-term prospects for your farming business as the decisions that you make when times are really good.
Mentality directly affects decision-making.
We can never appreciate the good times without the bad.
Look at the fortunate aspects of the current drought.
-
COMPLETE THE RISK PROFILE OF THE BUSINESS
-
Drought only illustrates all businesses have a risk profile. There are certain risks that we all face as business owners.
- Having a good understanding of what the risk profile of your business is.
- Attempting to put in place strategies, systems and processes to mitigate risk is just part of very sensible strategic thinking that should go on in all farming businesses.
Your business risk profile should always be part of your annual planning.
How do we mitigate the potential risks of drought?
Here is a highly effective tool for you.. Click here to download
If we do â Iâd suggest a hyperlink to the document if possible?
-
THE GREATEST BUSINESSES ARE CREATED AT THEIR MOST CHALLENGING TIMES
-
A great principle to always remember is:
The best time to be looking at your business critically, analyse efficiency and structure, is in periods of adversity.
- Itâs almost a requirement for businesses to go through tough times to centre the focus back on ways to streamline and steer it back to profitability.
During tough times, use every single opportunity to analyse what is going on with the business.
Think of how the business will do at the good times when you are successful in going through the bad.
Being a business owner, you need to wear your âadventure hatâ. Imagine how boring the journey will be if you always take the easy roadâŠ
Learning the skills to become a technical farmer is challenging.
Learning to run a farming business is challenging.
Getting through this drought is challenging.
Our greatest success is often above or below of where we are currently looking.
Farm Owners Academy continues to look for ways on how to address the real issues affecting Australian farmers.
Thank you for joining us in this special edition episode!
Farm Owners Academy
P.S. Whenever youâre readyâŠhere are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business:
-
Subscribe to our âProfitable Farmerâ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business â leading to more profit, control and freedom â Click here.
-
Join the Farm Owner Academyâs closed Facebook group âProfitable Farmerâ Our new Facebook community is where smart farm owners learn how to get more profit, control and freedom, and you can connect with like-minded farm owners â Click here to join.
-
Join our âTake Controlâ Program â and be a case study We have an amazing program called âTake Controlâ that helps you run a world-class business. Click here to learn more.
-
Work with us privately If youâd like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a âfreedom farmâ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put âPrivateâ in the subject line⊠tell me a little about your business and what youâd like to improve and Iâll send you the information you need to get started!
In this episode, Greg and Andrew will be educating on what to do when you or your business hits a ceiling.
Thanks to the Entrepreneur Organization System (EOS) who helped create this content
Having been involved in businesses for a long time now, we are very familiar with this topic.
To begin with â
HITTING THE CEILING OCCURS WITH ALL BUSINESSES
Eventually, you will reach a point where something in the business is basically stuck.
Your business is either not going forward at the rate that it was -
Or, you feel the business is just overly complex.
There might be individuals in the business that are feeling things are just too difficult for them within their current roles or there are divisions or areas in the business that are not progressing as well as they should.
Hitting the ceiling can occur at an organisational level,
Can occur at an enterprise-specific level,
Or can occur at a personal or people level.
Understanding that the business is just not progressing or not moving ahead as it was, or you get a feeling that things are just going to be complex and difficult to handle â THIS IS HITTING THE CEILING!
We are not an exception, it occurs to us too.
Greg and his wife have gone on a rapid expansion of their business over the last 8 years. Their business expanded in terms of revenue by 400%. In staff terms, it has tripled in size in that period
They were hitting the ceiling, about every six months throughout that period of growth.
The business was growing so fast that it took a lot of effort, on Gregâs behalf mostly, to visit the 5 disciplines that we are going to talk about in this episode.
How did Greg hit the ceiling?
At that particular time, everything had to change within his business
The systems that they had in place, the structure - the team, the way that the team was positioned and the way they managed them. Everything had to change on a constant basis to allow them to continue to grow and achieve that rate of growth.
Greg strongly points out, all businesses that grow, hit the ceiling at some stage and,
There are only 3 things you can do when you hit the ceiling:
First, PUT IN PLACE THE PRINCIPLES THAT WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT TODAY, restructure the business and move it through that ceiling and get on to the next phase of growth.
Second, stay at that level and just bounce around and not go anywhere. Eventually leads the business to reducing profitability and ultimately at the end, would cause demise of the business.
Third, you can actually recognize that the business has stagnated and you can elect to reduce the size of the business and move it back down to a smaller business.
Some of the ways a farm owner might know that have hit the ceiling:
- When a farmer works so hard but not really getting the traction
- Business is progressing okay but itâs just getting complex
- When you sit back and reflect on your business and you know that when you get sick, the business has a high chance of falling over
HITTING THE CEILING IS OFTEN AN OPPORTUNITY DRESSED AS A DISGUISE...
SLOW DOWN IN ORDER TO SPEED UP.
SOMETIMES WE NEED THE EDUCATION TO CHANGE DIRECTION INSTEAD OF MOTIVATION TO SPEED UP.
After all, hitting the ceiling means the business is growing â there are significant opportunities awaiting. Ask yourself, âWhat is it thatâs holding the business back?â
Keep in mind, businesses that donât grow never hit the ceiling.
And now,
THE 5 PRINCIPLES:
Simplify
As the business grows, it becomes more complex. As human beings, we seem to like to make things more complex. Quoting Steve Jobs, âComplexity is easy, simple you have to work atâ.
A common scenario in growing businesses is when you reach a point where itâs become far too complex - too many balls in the air and too many things going on that make it hard to streamline and well-manage operating machines.
The task of a business owner is to look at whatâs going on in the business and simplify as much as possible. Run the simplest systems.
Delegate
As the business grows organically, the owners get to a point where they are working beyond their physical capacity and the business is being constrained. The labour being supplied by the principal owners becomes a constraint for the business to grow.
The obvious solution is to DELEGATE.
Look at the workforce and the tasks that need to be done. Leverage your time so that you can bring somebody in to more effectively work on tasks and allow you space and time to work on the things that are going to help you grow the business beyond the ceiling.
Predict
Prediction allows us to see where the business is going and what needs to happen. We have the short-term prediction and the long-term prediction.
Short-term prediction is knowing that you are on top of your business â that nothing is going to happen in the next 1, 2 or 3 weeks that will cause you putting out the fire and chasing your time all the time.
Unfortunately, Iâve seen mostly the farm is running the business owner rather than the business owner running the farm. This happens because the owners do not have strategies and processes in place.
One very effective way of prediction is having short meetings with your team, say, weekly, half an hour. Discuss all the current issues that are on the table, solve for the longer term good. Once current issues are solved, these are not going to come up anymore in the next few weeks.
Long-term is all about looking at the business over 12 months down to 3 months window. Understanding where the business is going and what the possibilities are.
Like a cash-flow budget. Make it a realistic cash-flow budget, you are confident the budget can be achieved and then start tracking them.
If you set a cash-flow budget and it is realistic, and you track it and you achieve the outcome for that budget, then you know exactly where the business is going to be in the next 12 months.
Systemise
When youâre working on your own, then you have the repository of all the information, you do things the way you do them because that is the way you develop the processes and procedures for getting particular jobs done, thatâs all fineâŠ
BUTâŠ
You get into a situation where you want all of the tasks done within the business.
The only way to do this if you are not doing it yourself is to have written systems in place, documented systems, that somebody else can follow and achieve exactly the same outcome.
Remember that 80% of your income comes from 20% of the activities that you undertake on the farm.
Identify all the important activities that occur and systemize, have written procedures, you can then have somebody else come in and you start delegating those tasks. All they have to do is follow the systems you have written and know that the outcome will be achieved to the level that you want them achieved.
According to studies, 9 out 10 problems in business are system-related not human related.
The natural tendency when there is a problem in the business is to blame the person, but the FIRST step that you should look into is, what system do you have to get this job done?
Build the habit of having a checklist for all the systems and tasks associated with the systems.
Structure
This is such an important one.
Look at all the people that are in the business â
Look at all the roles performed in the business â
The tasks â
Create a visual of your current organization.
And then,
Look at the growing business to the next level.
You will realise your current structure is not satisfactory.
Your current structure got you where youâre at today BUT it is not going to get you to where you want to go in the future.
Again ask yourself, âWhat is the simplest organisational chart that I need, to grow the business to the next level?â
This means you start identifying who in the current team has a lot of tasks to do. Then you create new opportunities within the business and split out tasks for people who are over capacity.
Delegate tasks that suit their natural abilities and/or going out and seeking further members of the team with specific skill sets to take on tasks you identified to be delegated.
Having the right people in the first place â
Having them in the right seats, and
Doing the right thing matching their natural talents and abilities.
Next time you reach the ceiling, just apply any or all of the 5 ways and you will be able to break through.
Itâs all about taking control of your business.
You can allow the business to take control of you or you can take the range and take control of it.
You canât control the weather but you CAN certainly control a whole lot of variables in running a fantastic business.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THINGS THAT YOU CAN CONTROL.
Please share this podcast with other farmers.
We hope it helps,
Farm Owners Academy
The 1st Component: CLEAR JOB DESCRIPTIONS
It has to be written up. Making a clear job description for each team member has to be in writing â enumerate the tasks for clarity and better understanding. I endorse a great book called âThe E-Mythâ by Michael Gerber. Itâs a fantastic book to read if you are a business owner. The author talks about the importance of having an organisational chart, applying to every single business.
Overview of Departments:
CEO
- Responsible for setting the vision and direction of the business
- An excellent leader
- Thinks strategically about the future of the business
Marketing Department
- Takes care of effective branding and presence of the business
- Website maintenance as you need a method to reach new clients
- Open up new markets
- The brain of marketing
- This position needs energy to take charge of the marketing tasks
- Innovative
- Iâd like to call it the Production Line of the business
Sales Department
- They find the clients
- Highly essential in growing the business
Operations
- Ensures every single task on your farms gets DONE
- Ensures all systems are functional and effective|
Human Resource
- This is not applicable for small farms but certainly becomes an area as you get bigger
- The department that looks after the team
- Makes sure everyone is happy
- They facilitate performance reviews
- Takes care of the recruitment and motivation systems
- Manages training systems
IT Department
- Sets up email addresses for each team member
- Makes sure everyone can communicate and connect
- Maintains all technical systems
Administration Department
- Administration behind the book work
- Filing
- They work hand-in-hand with the Operations team
- Takes care of all the back-office tasks
- They are the behind-the-scene machine of a business
Finance Department
- Responsible for budgeting
- All other business financial matters
It is imperative that you split out these roles and get a lot of clarity as to what are all the tasks that need to be done to run your farming business.
What typically occurs is, you being the business owner are also the busiest person doing everything that nothing really gets done well.
And I find it humorous because you get to a stage where you feel you cannot do everything
OR,
You hire someone but not sure what you want them to do, resulting to them making a lot of mistakes
And then,
You start fixing all the mistakes and end up making a decision that no one can do the tasks as well as you. You take back all the jobs you have delegated which causes chaos because you failed to sit down and actually write out a list.
THE REAL FIX:
- Have a concrete list. Write it out clearly.
- What tasks do you want team/family members to do for you?
- How do you want the tasks done?
- When do you expect results?
Break the business up.
Bring accountability and responsibility to certain components in running your business.
START YOUR LIST NOW!
Once you have your tasks list, think of a team/family member best suited for the work and write the name next to it.
This is the easiest method to create a job description.
The 2nd Component: GWC
G â they Get it
W â they Want it
C â they have the Capacity to do it
In running a world-class team, it is critical to make sure that the person you choose for each job âgets and understandsâ the details of each task.
I have had a number of examples on this in my career in running businesses and working with team members. Once I delegated a detailed job to a person that has an outgoing personality. This person doesnât get detail. I was giving the wrong task but also this person may be way more suited in Marketing, as an example.
Lesson here is, align the job description to the right personality.
Kolbe.com is a fantastic tool I highly recommend. Get the team member do a personality profile. The results will tell you if a person is outgoing or an introvert, detail-oriented or people-oriented, and it effectively helps you to determine if the person gets it and wants it.
It is pointless giving someone a job they do not want and then later on find out that there is a passionate person out there to do the job for you.
In my case, I do not like doing the books for my business. This is why I outsource to someone who will do it. Someone who loves doing the books, wants it, is really good at it and can do the job quickly.
Now on capacity, I make sure I do not overload their back. Never assign a task to someone who does not really have room to do it. Obviously because when they do not have the capacity, the results are substandard.
SoâŠ
Now that you have identified the person who gets the job, wants the job, has the capacity to do the job â
It is critical that they are aligned with the values within your business.
Take some time to listen to my podcast on getting more organized. I talked about having a strategic plan and getting clarity on your values.
A lot of issues in business are actually related to you hiring team members that are not aligned to your business values.
Do your part â document your values.
Have clarity and documentation of your values. For example, reporting to work on time is one of your business values. This is already very clear but you have to make sure the team member also clearly understands and most importantly, shares the same value. For the documentation part, make sure it is written somewhere in the job description.
The 3rd Component: SET VERY CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Honestly, how do you feel when your expectations are not met?
In a performance review, how would you rate a team member who does not meet work expectations?
A world-class business team sets very clear expectations and take note that this has to be a two-way relationship. Being the business owner, you have to clarify what you expect from the team and vice-versa.
Again, write it down. With your expectations written down, it makes it easier to deal with conflicts for existing members, and it clarifies expectations for the new hires.
As an example, in a case where I am employing a new team member, I would be clear right at the onset about the following:
- I want you to arrive 10 minutes before work starts
- I want you to not touch social media during work hours
- Personal calls have to be made during breaks only
- Every Friday, summarise what you have done for the week
- Every Monday, plan your week out
- Update your task list regularly and prioritise
Notice the clarity of expectations in the given example. As a business owner, you would like your team members to maximize the week and this happens when you clearly tell them what you want, as they are not mind-readers.
CLEAR COMMUNICATION GETS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE.
The 4th Component: HAVE A WEEKLY, QUARTERLY and YEARLY PLANNING
When was the last time you went out on a team-building activity?
Or strategy-planning?
Get away with your team for:
- 1-2 days a year
- Half a day to a day every quarter
- At least 30 minutes every week
Brainstorm time
Ask the questions:
- What are our goals for the year?
- What do we want to achieve on a yearly basis?
- What strategies could we keep or replace to achieve our goals?
Try the ârapid fireâ activity. This is when you get to ask each of your team members in random order about your goals and they have to have an immediate answer.
You would easily find out who among the team members do not know what your 9-year goals are, your next 12 months, etc. Everyone in the team has to know your business goals by heart.
Imagine driving without any direction, you may still be able to continuously drive
But,
Where will you end up?
It is very crucial for a team/family member to know your business goals, otherwise, those who do not will just wing it.
Track your success. How did we go last week? Last quarter?
Then plan strategically. What can we do better? What are we going to focus on next week?
Are there any issues we need to resolve? This is the very time that team members should practice open communication and honesty.
The more you communicate, the smoother your team works.
There is more energy, more clarity, more professionalism in the team.
As a business owner, you cannot go wrong doing this because, if you want to be a profitable farmer â
YOUR TEAM IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET
And ultimately, often your biggest expense, so â
If you can help your team become more productive, you will generate more profitability.
Get more out of your team â having ONE great team member will beat THREE average.
The 5th Component: PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE AND TRAIN YOUR TEAM
Food for thought: You are better off training a team member and they leave, then not training them and they stay.
The very first thing you should do, even before training, is to put some basic systems in place. The top producing farmers that we currently work with have systems for everything:
- Systems for operational duties
- Systems for books and finance
- Systems for administration
- Systems for maintenance
A system is simply a checklist of what needs to get done into the standard that you want as the business owner.
The reality is, if you donât put up systems in place, then the team members wing it.
And if they wing it â
Mistakes are made in tasks, it costs you time fixing errors - which ultimately leads to reduced profitability.
THE REAL FIX:
- Get systems in place
- Train the team on the systems
- Maintain the systems
- Keep systems up-to-date
THE RESULT:
- Highly efficient team
- Tasks are accurately completed in a timely manner
- Team members become more energetic
- You embrace new learnings and continue to look at what you need to continuously train the team on
- You become a master in delegating tasks
- You become overly comfortable in handing out the control and letting others do the work for you
You can never run a freedom farm if you are doing everything yourself.
You have to slowly let goâŠ
As a matter of fact, the most successful farming business owners slowly hand over every task that they are doing on their farm to team/family members.
With the systems and proper training in place, they are able to maximise the team.
The 6th Component: REWARD and RECOGNISE YOUR TEAM. PROVIDE FEEDBACK. LOOK FOR PRAISE
Notice that in this current generation, service surveys are just everywhere. From text messaging to online surveys, hard-copy feedback sheet and of course, the infamous social media.
It just proves the power of giving feedback.
You do need to go out of your way and give that feedback to each team member for a job well done. A lot of farmers are a little bit guilty about this. Unfortunately, farmers that I meet are pretty hard on themselves.
Not to blame them completely because they were brought up in a very tough environment and because they are hard on themselves, they become hard on their family or team members (this is just a bit of generalisation from me).
As a business owner, you would want to be the very first person to praise your team. Just imagine how doing so extensively motivates and renews the energy of your team.
As a business owner, you would want your team members to see where they can improve. Then use the systems to train them. Make them feel that youâve got their back!
I grew up in a farming community and looking back, there was not a lot of reward and recognition going on.
In my career as a business coach for 19 years now, I have seen the huge impact on business owners when they focus on rewards and recognition to teams and team members.
So, take the time to provide feedback â
Both positive and negative.
The 7th Component: YOU NEED TO TRUST
Where there is no trust, there is no team.
I remember when I was younger and played Rugby Union, was always in the forwards then moved to the backs when I got older. I was a breakaway â meaning I was like a defender and covered mistakes being made at the backs. My goal was to defend and also be there in attack.
But later in my career, I moved out into the backline and became an inside centre. I was so busy focusing on helping out others do their jobs having this breakaway mentality. Until I realised I was the one creating the holes in the backline. I was the one who allowed people to break through the backline and score thrice. This is all because I wasnât trusting the people around me.
The loss of trust is very true in the business world. There are those who hand team members tasks but really do not trust that they will do the task well or might do it the exact same way they do.
As a resultâŠ
They become controlling as a business owner.
You can never grow as a world-class company if you are like that.
You have to be comfortable handing over tasks to others and TRUST them to do the work.
TRUST that they can perform the same way you do, if not better.
Besides, how can you run a freedom farm if you are doing all the tasks yourself?
This is why you have to:
LET GO
SLOWLY DELEGATE WITH TRUST
GRADUALLY HAND OVER RESPONSIBILITY
Because of trust, some of our top performing farmers in our coaching groups now go on holidays during the busiest times of the year. 3-4 weeks of vacation and come back to see for themselves that their team actually has done a better job than what they could.
THE ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE OF BEING A WORLD-CLASS FARMING BUSINESS OWNER IS NOT ABOUT BEING THE BUSIEST PERSON
But,
BEING THE MOST LAID-BACK AND HIGH YIELDING BUSINESS OWNER
Let go of your fear of control â
A lot of people fear that when they hire someone else, they make less money â
Hang onâŠ
TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET
âŠIT IS OKAY TO LET GO.
_________________________________________________________________________
For your quick reference â the 7 Components are:
- Clear Job Descriptions
- GWC
- Set Clear Expectations
- Have a system for yearly, quarterly, weekly Planning and Communication.
- Put Systems in place and Train your team
- Reward and recognize your team. Provide feedback, look for praise
- Trust and let go
Again, if at any stage youâre interested in having a conversation about our coaching and mentoring programs, please feel free to reach out.
We run the most incredible Program that helps farmers profit more, work more efficiently and run a world-class business.
Hear the extraordinary results straight from our members and we are also very happy to send information about how the program works.
Email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and a team member or even myself will be in touch.
Click here to join our closed Facebook group
3 Ideas to Double your Productivity and Significantly Reduce your Stress Levels
When you think about, itâs not actually time management that you need to focus on. Itâs priority management.
Your time is the one resource that once spent, you will never get back.
You can spend some money and then go and make more money, but not your time.
In this Podcast, you will learn -
1.The power of a two-page strategic planner that aligns your entire business to the goals and objectives over the next 10 years.
- Andrew shares a link inside the pod cast where you can download this free template
- Your business will become so much more efficient once you fill this out
- Learn how to bring clarity to your company and how to increase the desire to want to operate at the next level
-
Become significantly more focused
-
The power of removing bricks, and why you need to do this every week.
-
Set up a system to prioritise everything you do on your farm
- Learn to get everything out of your head and onto paper
-
Understand why you stay awake at night and how to remove this for good
-
The simple formula to maximise your week and your day.
-
Learn how to plan your weeks and days
- Learn - if it's not scheduled, there is a good chance it wonât get done
- Remove stress by sticking to a simple system
Please share this podcast with other farmers.
We hope it helps,
Farm Owners Academy
Do you have a fear of failure?
You know you do, IF -
- Ever worry about things not working out
- Put a lot of expectation on yourself to succeed
- Experience stress and anxiety about the future
This fear is very real, and many people have it.
The Pod Cast is here to help you deal with it.
Andrew Roberts (one of the founders of Farm Owners Academy) shares his story of how he was coached through dealing with his fear of failure.
In addition to this, you will also learn -
- What fear really is and how it is an illusion
- Why you need to embrace failure before you succeed
- Four really powerful tools that when applied, will help you knock the fear of failure on the head - and get exactly what you want from your business and your life.
Enjoy this episode and please share this with other farmers if you can.
Thanks,
Farm Owners Academy
p.s. Your greatest success is just on the other side of your greatest fear
Successful people are always looking to offload tasks to get back their time.
Unsuccessful people take on every task in order to save money. In this free audio podcast, founders of farm owners academy, Andrew Roberts, and Greg Johnsson discuss that your stop doing list is more important youâre your to-do list. Successful owners are constantly delegating and constantly letting go of low-value tasks.
Greg will share with you how he grew his business by 400% by letting of administration and the veterinary work at his vet clinic.
You will learn three very simple things that you should stop doing, to help you make more profit and scale your business.
Farm Owners Academy
p.s Join the Profitable Farmer closed Facebook group and connect with farmers who want to learn how to get more profit, more control, and more freedom. Click here
p.p.s  If youâd like to work directly with us and our team to help you significantly improve the profitability of your farm, and run your farm like a real business just contact us.. tell us a little about your business and what youâd like to work on together, and Iâll get you all the details!
In this podcast:-
- Greg and Andrew are going to help you understand that you can't free yourself from being busy while you are being busy.
- They're going to open you up to the importance of changing environments that you can't solve a problem in the same environment where you created the problem.
- They then go to really talk to you about the importance of knowing your hourly rate. Most top producers are operating at an hourly rate of $600 or higher, and if you get stuck doing a $20 to $30 an hour work, then you're going to struggle financially. You are also going to be working extremely hard.
- And finally, they're going to take you through a number of examples of what is a $600 an hour job and how you can apply to get to the next level. This will give you the confidence you need to let go of the low-value technical work.
So as you can see, this episode is Jam-packed. Â Enjoy it. And if you like it, Please share it with another farmer.
Farm Owners Academy
Imagine you are the manager and coach for the Adelaide Crows AFL team.
Your role is simple. Hire and train the best team to win the premiership.
You have to focus on
- Ensuring you have the best forwards, midfield and back
- Ensure you have enough money to get the whole thing to work
- Ensure the players work as team
- Ensure they remain focused on training
- Ensure they focus on winning the game
- Ensure each player does their job properly and focuses on their job
- Ensure the fans keep showing up to cash flow your business
Running a farming business is no different to this.
As the leader your goal is to:-
- Ensure you are clear on the objectives and goals of the business
- Ensure you recruit the right team
- Ensure each team member works together as a team
- Ensure you manage this process, and hire and fire accordingly.
- Ensure you have enough money to pay for everything
- Ensure things get done on time on budget
The problem is (more often than not)Â YOU are the leader and the PLAYER of ALL positions.
Can you imagine being the manager of an AFL team AND being ALL players on the field? You really would become the jack of all trades and the master of none.
While you are doing the job in the attack, who is looking after protecting your goal posts?
As an owner, you wear so many hats. You are:-
- The CEO â the person that has to set the direction of the business
- The Marketing Manager â manage the website, social media presence and finding customers
- The Operations Manager â ensure that all of the jobs get done on time
- The Human Resource Manager â ensure you hire the right people, keep the team motivated and doing the right things
- The Administration Manager â someone has to clean the sheds and maintain the yards and its often you
- The Finance Manager â you need to pay the bills, set budgets, read profit and loss statements
And somehow â you need to fit this in ALL while still being a parent, friend, look after your health and have a relationship!!!!
Just by writing this I feel burnt out!!!!
If youâre not careful â the business takes control of you instead of you controlling it.
In this weekâs free podcast we explore âHow to build a team to get things doneâ.
We have also included a really good resource here where we outline every job that gets done on a farm so you can see what each role on your farm needs to do.
Download it here
See you next time,
Andrew Roberts
p.s take some time to clarify all of the roles in your business. It will really help you look at your business just like an AFL manager/coach would. It will help you see ways to create more efficiency.
In this Pod cast you will learn:Â
- How setting up your financial records will make you more money
- Why you need a budget (you can also download a great budget template)
- Why benchmarking will always help you improve your profit
- An unusual idea Andrew was taught by a billionaire which helped him generate more flow of money
- Understand how the law of vacuum effects you and what you can do about it
Summary of Episode 2
- Why working harder is NOT the answer
- Having goals is important, but there are many other things you also need to work on
- If you donât believe you can ever run a great farm, you won't
- The number one thing you need to work on to be a highly successful farmer.
- The habits of a top performing business owner
Summary:Â
- Why you need to learn business skills to be a top 5% farmer
- The definition of a real business and why most farmers never achieve this
- A summary of the skills that you need to master to run a great business
- Why you need to think very differently if you want to run a great business
- The steps you need to take to get your farm to operate without you there