What does moving from a ‘start-up’ to ‘significance’ as an entrepreneur take? Let’s 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 &amp; 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

What does moving from a ‘start-up’ to ‘significance’ as an entrepreneur take? Let’s 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: <ul><li>a shift in mindset from an operator to manager and strong leader;</li> <li>a long-term commitment to a clear and compelling vision;</li> <li>constant adaptation to your business model;</li> <li>immense persistence despite obstacles;</li> <li>a willingness to invest in and build people up; and</li> <li>a genuine care &amp; concern for the opportunities you can create for those you employ.</li> </ul> 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

Episode 124 - What does it take to SCALE?

Trevor Hendy

You don’t 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 – 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 &amp; Team

You don’t 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 – 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 &amp; Team

Episode 123 - Life Lessons from Aussie Icon Trevor Hendy

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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 &amp; Caroline.   Katy confirms that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. However, with deep determination, sheer ‘stubbornness’ (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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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: <a href="http://www.safeagsystems.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.safeagsystems.com</a> In this episode, it is great to connect with CEO &amp; 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 &amp; Caroline. Katy confirms that entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. However, with deep determination, sheer ‘stubbornness’ (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 &amp; Team

Episode 122 - The SafeAg Systems Story, with Founder Katy Landt

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 – RaboResearch, Australia &amp; New Zealand, to our podcast.   I knew this would be a compelling conversation… but Stefan’s 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 – 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 – simply search “RaboResearch” 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 &amp; 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 – RaboResearch, Australia &amp; New Zealand, to our podcast. I knew this would be a compelling conversation… but Stefan’s commentary and global perspective completely exceeded my expectation in so many ways. Thank you, Stefan, for your openness and your insight as we explore: <ul><li>global and local grain production estimations;</li> <li>the interplay of our overseas competitors;</li> <li>impediments and challenges we collectively face;</li> <li>the impact of trade barriers into China;</li> <li>the potential implication of an El Nino weather event;</li> <li>expectations given the Ukraine – Russia situation and current trade deal negotiations… and so much more.</li> </ul> Insightful is an understatement… valuable? ABSOLUTELY. Stefan and his team host their own podcast – simply search “<a href="https://research.rabobank.com/far/en/sectors/regional-food-agri/RaboResearch-Podcasts.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RaboResearch</a>” 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 <a href="https://file.ontraport.com/media/0ee94c9da5b24180adfaa6289be0b6b5.phpvoxcsc?Expires=1843709686&amp;Signature=WsklGmMyWuEhFG2UfykjplL69pQyudGnp7bQKRPL6MXGSfzx4WpCqBrXA08ut2XC26EnpkktsXDgJm~52w9As5fhHjBHDYymlOGhEgf60rynqx1fyVFayxUPXYFsSCE8azd4xSUqMG-qEKYJResQkxGEtQjmki5dW0MeRASSXZFhCmaM1lqv0t6YBptpm-5ty71HeF7a9WslY~T0~qjSuKjcZu11eTpDyQeo2R7qLkyBvz7fwAL9Mnk3gn-u7H2cSTfgnOjHCYZ7E8jCUDyEZZfrvJqmVRXC9vt5na7T4FyMzQNDdnZoasTDaqT8B5iAwTKAUoR-YKRKDKTRUVQ13w__&amp;Key-Pair-Id=APKAJVAAMVW6XQYWSTNA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HERE</a>. 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 &amp; Team

Episode 121- A Global Perspective on Grains

For many, the last few years have been unique and positive – 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 ahead…   The question we should ALL be asking is: Can my farm business model handle this new reality?   In this episode, I call on the “Brains Trust”, 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 &amp; prices; knowing your ‘new’ 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 &amp; 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 &amp; Team

For many, the last few years have been unique and positive – 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 ahead… The question we should ALL be asking is: Can my farm business model handle this new reality? In this episode, I call on the “Brains Trust”, 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: <ul><li>knowing your numbers;</li> <li>presenting proactively to your bank;</li> <li>developing a compelling economic model for your farm;</li> <li>stress-testing your farming system based on long-term average yield &amp; prices;</li> <li>knowing your ‘new’ cost of production; and</li> <li>being financially strong as a farm business owner.</li> </ul> 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 &amp; 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, <a href="https://lp.farmownersacademy.com/finance" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a>. 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 &amp; Team

Episode 120 - Will your BUSINESS MODEL stack up

At Farm Owners Academy, we help farming families create FREEDOM FARMS – 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 ‘Willandra’ 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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 &amp; Team

At Farm Owners Academy, we help farming families create FREEDOM FARMS – 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 ‘Willandra’ 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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 &amp; Team

Episode 119 -  A MAJOR DREAM REALISED, with Marina Gregor

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, Director and Lead Consultant 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 agriculture’s 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 Mike’s 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 Mike’s findings, click here.   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 &amp; 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, Director and Lead Consultant 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 agriculture’s 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 Mike’s 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: <a href="https://meridian-ag.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://meridian-ag.com.au/</a> 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 Mike’s findings, <a href="https://files.ontraport.com/media/25c8ef74aaab46e393d92b675e3ad555.phpoiy2nn?Expires=1840668215&amp;Signature=Pilftgo7A5NCatPnuZ8iBJHaNHBKj3FFoYbkU3f-NilM0N9gIC60uqN9SinjEkSTwY-dDvaO8e3mNoRGwNtpzkeu04bS9nitGyHs863uzx1VkvYUBRbsb8tEugdvVuPYc5Dftatm1dSYBCbEhr2ms~fG4SJFcmQcEbPKmtawEujsw3dHWIcwHsdRkWlBU78IE8~uP1bn4jW1fsnC8DxLFZRh96zAciS5J39s4qxXYoJpUNQnf2CmA7YrZua4e4abJPXxO4hSDxFklzPfohPB7mYdIkujfDuR2V~2PDfs5~IRAUUlsVMxGxUYqlhtvcfx-AaYIijccdgu~WCI5AoqPQ__&amp;Key-Pair-Id=APKAJVAAMVW6XQYWSTNA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a>. 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 &amp; Team

Episode 118 - The Worlds Largest Look into Farm Succession

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:   “We feel good about ourselves to the exact degree we feel in control of our lives.”   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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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 – you are a genius in this space.   Enjoy.   Hutch &amp; 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: “We feel good about ourselves to the exact degree we feel in control of our lives.” Three questions for you:  <ul><li>Are you feeling reactive or proactive in your leadership?</li> <li>Out of 10, how much control do you feel you have over the improvement of your plan?</li> <li>Out of 10, how aligned are your family &amp; team to a common goal and clear plan?</li> </ul> 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 &amp; engineering consultancy. In this episode, we explore: <ul><li>why people are feeling so reactive in their farms right now;</li> <li>where staying this way can take us; and</li> <li>the exact process we use and recommend to help people shift to proactive and take control. </li> </ul> 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 - <a href="https://file.ontraport.com/media/c38b4d8971ad48a987ac29fa3215d7a7.phpz40jsa?Expires=1837137967&amp;Signature=YlEdDwFjekl3fADnNgPYF7YjlDm9tnMMHWR~wk3dRIpdO841is0GXZ1mRFFTKroYSWSKHuekkqoI6IZF1U3gYmMCN41cfW8Ht9-VSZGQo4WJw2zIwHN3FKiMVSQhlIzb1QM8LBxvLxm-A429n1eo7BFddH~ykduFyswUXViQQbYN8z13SBzR0LMsWLWhYV6T6jeeE0hRBWGvFN6aOUoKjKMr0d~TkSj~8vwTcdTTwB878VSLtB4fpTuJPa9cvbjkL1TFcbFkcatlQQ21BQ-Wmlmv--uv2dznRH2MEwiaiaJmRH8XhwZO5KU5DN-x7giuOYhhW7ZvuUFx1gwNT6gatA__&amp;Key-Pair-Id=APKAJVAAMVW6XQYWSTNA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a>. To learn how to nail this - <a href="https://farmownersacademy.com/event" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a>. To book a free Strategic Roadmap Call to get direct support specific to your business from a Farm Owners Academy Coach - <a href="https://lp.farmownersacademy.com/strategic-roadmap" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a>. We care deeply about seeing farming families feeling aligned, in control, and working toward one clear, impactful plan. Thank you, Sam, as always – you are a genius in this space. Enjoy. Hutch &amp; Team

Podcast 117 - Are you Proactive or Reactive in Your Management?

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 – Tenacious Ventures) and I interview the impressive CEO and Founder of SwarmFarm Robotics – 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 ‘side-hustle’ 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&amp;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 &amp; the FOA Team   When you’re ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do:   1. Subscribe to our ‘Profitable Farmer’ podcast    This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom – Click here. 2. Join the Farm Owner Academy’s closed Facebook group ‘Profitable Farmer’    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   3. Work with us privately   If you’d like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a ‘freedom farm’ just email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and put “Private” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to improve and I’ll send you the information you need to get started!

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 – <a href="https://tenacious.ventures/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tenacious Ventures</a>) and I interview the impressive CEO and Founder of <a href="https://www.swarmfarm.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SwarmFarm Robotics</a> – 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 ‘side-hustle’ 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: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfA-nlj29s&amp;t=32s" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfA-nlj29s&amp;t=32s</a> I encourage you to check out their website: <a href="http://www.swarmfarm.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.swarmfarm.com</a> 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 &amp; the FOA Team When you’re ready to take the next step and work with us, here are three things you can do: 1. Subscribe to our ‘Profitable Farmer’ podcast  This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business, leading to more profit, control and freedom – <a href="https://farmownersacademy.ontraport.com/c/s/qW/lOkx/j/WkH/3O8/6gj1X3/zYMCNRZ1yW/P/P/1E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a><a href="https://farmownersacademy.ontraport.com/c/s/qW/lOkx/5/WkQ/3O8/6gj1X3/65KYgPXKbi/P/P/1E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">.</a> 2. Join the Farm Owner Academy’s closed Facebook group ‘Profitable Farmer’  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 – <a href="https://farmownersacademy.ontraport.com/c/s/qW/lOkx/5/WkQ/3O8/6gj1X3/65KYgPXKbi/P/P/1E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to join</a> <a href="https://farmownersacademy.ontraport.com/c/s/qW/lOkx/5/WkQ/3O8/6gj1X3/65KYgPXKbi/P/P/1E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">3. </a>Work with us privately  If you’d like our team to help you scale up your farming business or create a ‘freedom farm’ just email us at <a href="mailto:support@farmownersacademy.com">support@farmownersacademy.com </a>and put “Private” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to improve and I’ll send you the information you need to get started!

Episode 116 - Robotic Agriculture is now very much a reality

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 Terry’s 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 Kiyasaki’s Cashflow Quadrant (from the book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’) 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 &amp; 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 &amp; the Freedom Trader program highly, and encourage you to make this training a priority.   Thank you, and enjoy.   Hutch &amp; the FOA Team

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 Terry’s 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 Kiyasaki’s Cashflow Quadrant (from the book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’) 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: <a href="https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmownersacademy/</a> As Founder &amp; 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 &amp; the Freedom Trader program highly, and encourage you to make this training a priority. Thank you, and enjoy. Hutch &amp; the FOA Team

Episode 115 - Thinking like an Investor…

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.

Profitable Farmer

Are you frustrated because your vision for the farm is different to other family members and you can’t 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 you’re 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

Are you frustrated because your vision for the farm is different to other family members and you can’t 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: <ul><li>Different generations wanting different things from the farm.</li> <li>Why having written core values will give you more direction, clarity and motivation.</li> <li>Why understanding others values will improve relationships.</li> <li>Why judging and feeling judged is down to a lack of awareness. </li> </ul> 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 you’re going to have the best family Christmas ever!! We hope you find this episode valuable.  Feel free to head over to the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/profitable-farmer/id1309434515?fbclid=IwAR1BgllRwbrNIF3xLDdZt6mDpKpbSFCqC9goN-_DPk-aGkpjlXKC70rOeAQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Profitable Farmer Podcast</a> page to tell us what you think. Regards, Andrew

Episode 32 - A big reason why conflict occurs in family farms and how to fix it.

Episode 22 - How to create wealth off your farm and generate money while you sleep

In this Pod cast you will learn:  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

In this Pod cast you will learn:  <ul><li>How setting up your financial records will make you more money</li> <li>Why you need a budget (you can also download a great budget template)</li> <li>Why benchmarking will always help you improve your profit</li> <li>An unusual idea Andrew was taught by a billionaire which helped him generate more flow of money</li> <li>Understand how the law of vacuum effects you and what you can do about it</li></ul>

Episode 3: Generate more profit by getting your financial records in order

Episode 24: How Tim &amp; Cheryl are creating a Freedom Farm   Today we share an interview of Tim and Cheryl Freak that we did for our mastermind clients.  Tim &amp; 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 &amp; Cheryl’s children are not ready to work on the land at the present time so they’ve had to hire people to help them create this freedom farm. We explore how they did this during the interview…   Here is a bit of back ground about Tim and Cheryl Freak:     Location:    Background: 1982 – Tim’s parents purchased 485 ha &amp; share-farmed sheep 1990 – Tim joined the business.  Purchased 242 ha- very low equity 1992 – Cheryl joined the business 1998 – Purchased 380 ha 2002 – Share-farming extended to include cropping 2004 – Purchased airseeder and bar in a syndicate 2005 – Purchased 320 ha 2007 – Began share-farming 1347 ha 2008 – Purchased 410 ha 2011 – Began share-farming 185 ha 2013 – Purchased this 185 ha é 2014 – Purchased 805 ha 2015 – Joined Sheep Owners Academy (now Farm Owners Academy) 2018 – 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 – wheat, barley, hay, canola, lupins Sheep – approx 3000 ewes – 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 you’re ready...here are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business: 1. 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. 2. Join the Farm Owner Academy’s closed Facebook group ‘Profitable Farmer’  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. 3. Subscribe to our ‘Profitable Farmer’ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business - leading to more profit, control and freedom – click here.

Episode 24: How Tim &amp; Cheryl are creating a Freedom Farm Today we share an interview of Tim and Cheryl Freak that we did for our mastermind clients.  Tim &amp; 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 &amp; Cheryl’s children are not ready to work on the land at the present time so they’ve had to hire people to help them create this freedom farm. We explore how they did this during the interview… Here is a bit of back ground about Tim and Cheryl Freak:  Location: Background: 1982 – Tim’s parents purchased 485 ha &amp; share-farmed sheep 1990 – Tim joined the business.  Purchased 242 ha- very low equity 1992 – Cheryl joined the business 1998 – Purchased 380 ha 2002 – Share-farming extended to include cropping 2004 – Purchased airseeder and bar in a syndicate 2005 – Purchased 320 ha 2007 – Began share-farming 1347 ha 2008 – Purchased 410 ha 2011 – Began share-farming 185 ha 2013 – Purchased this 185 ha é 2014 – Purchased 805 ha 2015 – Joined Sheep Owners Academy (now Farm Owners Academy) 2018 – Continued on into Farm Owners Academy Alumni Program Farm Details: <ul><li>360mm rainfall ave</li> <li>Manage 5180 ha (own 2833 ha)</li> <li>3 full time, 2 part time employees, plus casuals</li> <li>Crop 3200 ha – wheat, barley, hay, canola, lupins</li> <li>Sheep – approx 3000 ewes – 50% mated to Merino, 50% WS </li> </ul> 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 you’re ready...here are 4 ways we can help you grow your farming business: 1. 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 - <a href="http://www.farmownersacademy.com/online" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here to grab your seat</a>. 2. Join the Farm Owner Academy’s closed Facebook group ‘Profitable Farmer’  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 - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitablefarmer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here to join</a>. 3. Subscribe to our ‘Profitable Farmer’ podcast This free audio podcast delivers ideas to help you run a great business - leading to more profit, control and freedom – <a href="http://farmownersacademy.pages.ontraport.net/subscribe-podcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a>.

Episode 24 - How Tim &amp; Cheryl are creating a Freedom Farm

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 ‘depression’.   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 it’s 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 – 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 life…  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.  It’s 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.  It’s like the quote by Helen Keller “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet”.  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 haven’t 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.   It’s 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 couldn’t 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.   It’s 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 down…WAY 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 didn’t 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 &amp; Yoga Health Centre  And rest I did.   I averaged 16 hours a day of sleep…I 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 couldn’t 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 – 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!!!!  I’ve been back to the same place 5 times (I like to go every two years if I can – 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 didn’t 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 – you can download it here: Self Esteem Booster  It worked for me…but I needed this as I didn’t 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).    I’m 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  It’s more common than you think, and I would argue 70% of business owners experience it at some stage.  Kind Regards,   Andrew

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 ‘depression’.   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 it’s 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 – 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 life…  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.  It’s 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.  It’s like the quote by Helen Keller “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet”.  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 haven’t watched it, I highly endorse a documentary called Status Anxiety. Here is the link to watch it free on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MqJPHxy6g" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Status Anxiety</a> LESSON 3: I learnt to start giving again.   It’s 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 couldn’t 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.   It’s 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 down…WAY 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 didn’t 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: <a href="https://www.amrtasiddhi.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Ayurveda &amp; Yoga Health Centre</a> And rest I did.   I averaged 16 hours a day of sleep…I 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 couldn’t 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 – 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!!!!  I’ve been back to the same place 5 times (I like to go every two years if I can – 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 didn’t 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 – you can download it here: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/uecrrf02vqawqng/Self-Esteem%20Booster.mp3?dl=0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Self Esteem Booster</a> It worked for me…but I needed this as I didn’t 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).  I’m 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.   <a href="https://www.aubreymarcus.com/blogs/aubrey-marcus/depression" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aubrey Marcus Depression Article</a> It’s more common than you think, and I would argue 70% of business owners experience it at some stage.  Kind Regards, Andrew

Episode 16: 5 ideas to help you through depression and sadness

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.  Enjoy it. And if you like it, Please share it with another farmer. Farm Owners Academy

In this podcast:- <ul><li>Greg and Andrew are going to help you understand that you can't free yourself from being busy while you are being busy.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>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.</li> </ul> So as you can see, this episode is Jam-packed.  Enjoy it. And if you like it, Please share it with another farmer. Farm Owners Academy

Episode 5: Why doing the technical work on your farm is most likely costing you a lot of profit

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)  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 – the person that has to set the direction of the business The Marketing Manager – manage the website, social media presence and finding customers The Operations Manager – ensure that all of the jobs get done on time The Human Resource Manager – ensure you hire the right people, keep the team motivated and doing the right things The Administration Manager – someone has to clean the sheds and maintain the yards and its often you The Finance Manager – you need to pay the bills, set budgets, read profit and loss statements  And somehow – 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 you’re not careful – the business takes control of you instead of you controlling it. In this week’s free podcast we explore  ‘How to build a team to get things done’. 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.

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 <ul><li>Ensuring you have the best forwards, midfield and back</li> <li>Ensure you have enough money to get the whole thing to work</li> <li>Ensure the players work as team</li> <li>Ensure they remain focused on training</li> <li>Ensure they focus on winning the game</li> <li>Ensure each player does their job properly and focuses on their job</li> <li>Ensure the fans keep showing up to cash flow your business</li> </ul> Running a farming business is no different to this. As the leader your goal is to:- <ul><li>Ensure you are clear on the objectives and goals of the business</li> <li>Ensure you recruit the right team</li> <li>Ensure each team member works together as a team</li> <li>Ensure you manage this process, and hire and fire accordingly.</li> <li>Ensure you have enough money to pay for everything</li> <li>Ensure things get done on time on budget</li> </ul> The problem is (more often than not)  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:- <ul><li>The CEO – the person that has to set the direction of the business</li> <li>The Marketing Manager – manage the website, social media presence and finding customers</li> <li>The Operations Manager – ensure that all of the jobs get done on time</li> <li>The Human Resource Manager – ensure you hire the right people, keep the team motivated and doing the right things</li> <li>The Administration Manager – someone has to clean the sheds and maintain the yards and its often you</li> <li>The Finance Manager – you need to pay the bills, set budgets, read profit and loss statements</li> </ul> And somehow – 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 you’re not careful – the business takes control of you instead of you controlling it. In this week’s free podcast we explore  ‘How to build a team to get things done’. 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. <a href="http://andrewroberts.ontraport.net/d/FOA%2BRoles%2Bof%2Byour%2Bbusiness.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download it here</a> 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.

Episode 4: Run your farm like a professional AFL team

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

Do you have a fear of failure? You know you do, IF - <ul><li>Ever worry about things not working out</li> <li>Put a lot of expectation on yourself to succeed</li> <li>Experience stress and anxiety about the future</li> </ul> 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 - <ul><li>What fear really is and how it is an illusion</li> <li>Why you need to embrace failure before you succeed</li> <li>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.</li> </ul> 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

Episode 7: How to deal with the Fear of Failure

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 you’re 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 you’d 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 you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

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 you’re 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. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=199093237491888" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here</a> p.p.s  If you’d 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 <a href="http://www.farmownersacademy.com/contact/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">contact us</a>.. tell us a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

Episode 6: Three things you need to stop doing on your farm

In this podcast, Andrew interviews Farm Owners Academy incoming CEO.  Jeremy Hutchings is an amazing coach who is a lot of experience in agriculture. Andrew and Jeremy have a discussion and cover a few really important topics that we are sure many of you can relate to In this podcast: 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    It’s a great relaxed discussion that we are sure you will relate to  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. Andrew and Jeremy have a discussion and cover a few really important topics that we are sure many of you can relate to In this podcast: <ul><li>Andrew shares some of the challenges he has experienced around burnout (and how normal this is when you run your own business)</li> <li>The importance of having an extended time out</li> <li>The difference between operating I your zone of incompetence v competence v excellence v genius</li> <li>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)</li> <li>The importance of having a strong strategic plan</li> <li>The definition of a business in becoming profitable but then also having your business work without you</li> <li>How ego can get in the road of your growth</li> </ul> It’s a great relaxed discussion that we are sure you will relate to  FOA

Episode 37 - How to handle burnout and stepping into your zone of genius

3 Ideas to Double your Productivity and Significantly Reduce your Stress Levels   When you think about, it’s not actually time management that you need to focus on.  It’s 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  2. 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  3. 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 won’t get done Remove stress by sticking to a simple system    Please share this podcast with other farmers.   We hope it helps,   Farm Owners Academy 

3 Ideas to Double your Productivity and Significantly Reduce your Stress Levels When you think about, it’s not actually time management that you need to focus on.  It’s 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. <ul><li>Andrew shares a link inside the pod cast where you can download this free template</li> <li>Your business will become so much more efficient once you fill this out</li> <li>Learn how to bring clarity to your company and how to increase the desire to want to operate at the next level</li> <li>Become significantly more focused</li> </ul> 2. The power of removing bricks, and why you need to do this every week. <ul><li>Set up a system to prioritise everything you do on your farm</li> <li>Learn to get everything out of your head and onto paper</li> <li>Understand why you stay awake at night and how to remove this for good</li> </ul> 3. The simple formula to maximise your week and your day. <ul><li>Learn how to plan your weeks and days</li> <li>Learn - if it's not scheduled, there is a good chance it won’t get done</li> <li>Remove stress by sticking to a simple system</li> </ul> Please share this podcast with other farmers. We hope it helps, Farm Owners Academy

Episode 8: 3 Ideas To Double your Productivity And Significantly Reduce Your Stress Levels

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

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

Episode 40 - Analysing Risk in Farming Systems

It’s really simple.  Asking a better question will lead to a better decision.   The problem is, we weren’t taught at school how to ask a great question.     We will help you learn how to do this in today’s podcast.   For example, just asking the simple question every hour or so “Is this the best use of my time?” 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).  It’s called zero-based thinking and I personally believe this is one of the best business strategies I have ever been taught.   Enjoy this month’s 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. 

It’s really simple.  Asking a better question will lead to a better decision. The problem is, we weren’t taught at school how to ask a great question.   We will help you learn how to do this in today’s podcast. For example, just asking the simple question every hour or so “Is this the best use of my time?” 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).  It’s called zero-based thinking and I personally believe this is one of the best business strategies I have ever been taught. Enjoy this month’s podcast and please share this with another farmer. Take it easy, Andrew PS: Super early bird tickets to our <a href="https://www.farmownersacademy.com/event/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop</a> are now on sale, offering a crazy saving of $1295! Come along and learn how to run a better farming business.

Episode 35 - Ask a better question, and the power of zero-based thinking

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 Table’s 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 &amp; 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, we’re sure Farm Table will become one of your 'go to' platforms to help you stay ahead of the game!   Regards, Jeremy

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! <a href="https://farmtable.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Farm Table’s</a> 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 &amp; gentlemen, meet Airlie Landale - Founder and CEO of <a href="https://farmtable.com.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Farm Table.</a> 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, we’re sure Farm Table will become one of your 'go to' platforms to help you stay ahead of the game! Regards, Jeremy

Episode 39 - An example of agricultural entrepreneurship at its finest

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 Australia’s 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 ‘top-end’ of our food &amp; fibre sector, and in businesses including Peters Ice-cream, Ingham’s 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 &amp; fibre sector and how they may impact / provide opportunities for farming businesses.  If it’s 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, 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 Australia’s 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 ‘top-end’ of our food &amp; fibre sector, and in businesses including Peters Ice-cream, Ingham’s Chicken, and Allied Pinnacle. Grab a coffee, tune in and learn: <ul><li>How major change is achieved in big business,</li> <li>The simplicity of strategy-setting and making the very complex simple,</li> <li>How to be objective in analysing the true performance of your business,</li> <li>The importance of getting the very best team around you,</li> <li>The importance of retaining your humanity whilst navigating through big change initiatives,</li> <li>A perspective on emerging trends in the food &amp; fibre sector and how they may impact / provide opportunities for farming businesses.</li> </ul> If it’s 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

Episode 38  - Learning from Big Business

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 – 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 – 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 Greg’s 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 it’s 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 – there are significant opportunities awaiting.  Ask yourself, “What is it that’s holding the business back?” Keep in mind, businesses that don’t 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, “Complexity is easy, simple you have to work at’. A common scenario in growing businesses is when you reach a point where it’s 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 what’s 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 – 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, I’ve 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 you’re 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, that’s all fine… BUT… 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 – Look at all the roles performed in the business – The tasks – 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 you’re at today BUT it is not going to get you to where you want to go in the future. Again ask yourself, “What is the simplest organisational chart that I need, to grow the business to the next level?” 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 –  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. It’s 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 can’t 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

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 – 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 – 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 Greg’s 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: <ul><li>When a farmer works so hard but not really getting the traction</li> <li>Business is progressing okay but it’s just getting complex</li> <li>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</li> </ul> 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 – there are significant opportunities awaiting.  Ask yourself, “What is it that’s holding the business back?” Keep in mind, businesses that don’t 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, “Complexity is easy, simple you have to work at’. A common scenario in growing businesses is when you reach a point where it’s 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 what’s 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 – 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, I’ve 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 you’re 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, that’s all fine… BUT… 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 – Look at all the roles performed in the business – The tasks – 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 you’re at today BUT it is not going to get you to where you want to go in the future. Again ask yourself, “What is the simplest organisational chart that I need, to grow the business to the next level?” 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 – 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. It’s 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 can’t 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

Episode 10: The 5 Ways To Break Through The Ceiling

Episode 14 - How freedom farmer David was able to enjoy a 9-week holiday with his family

How much do you need to achieve financial independence?  Do you have this written down?  Have you completed a capital allocation plan to map out what you need to make in order to reach your goals?  Do you pay yourself the recommended salary of $115k per annum? Is this being paid before you calculate your net profit?  Do you know your return on asset ratio?  Do you know why this is important?  Is your farm operating consistently at a 30% net profit figure, after paying yourself the $115k wage? Are you aware it’s very hard to run a business if your farm is not generating these returns.  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?  These are just some of the things we discuss in today’s podcast.  If you have a goal to reach financial freedom, then this podcast is for you.   Please share this with other farmers.    Andrew    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 – Take Control.

How much do you need to achieve financial independence?  Do you have this written down?  Have you completed a capital allocation plan to map out what you need to make in order to reach your goals?  Do you pay yourself the recommended salary of $115k per annum? Is this being paid before you calculate your net profit?  Do you know your return on asset ratio?  Do you know why this is important?  Is your farm operating consistently at a 30% net profit figure, after paying yourself the $115k wage? Are you aware it’s very hard to run a business if your farm is not generating these returns.  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?  These are just some of the things we discuss in today’s podcast.  If you have a goal to reach financial freedom, then this podcast is for you.   Please share this with other farmers.  Andrew  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 – Take Control.

Episode 19 - How much is enough

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 ‘The More You Learn, The More You Earn’.   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. ‘Learn’ (and if you notice, the L comes before the earn part) so learn, then we move into our ‘Earn’ phase. Then, eventually, I like this, we move into the ‘Return’ 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 ‘learn’. 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 today’s podcast.   The first thing that I wanted to talk about is “you need to be the dumbest person in the room”. 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 ‘I know nothing’ 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 do…and 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 ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’. 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. I’d 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, let’s 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 don’t, we just don't go back there again. They've got 20 years’ experience, but the problem is they’ve got 20 years’ 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 won’t 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 (let’s 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 ‘Earn’, there is a time and a focus when you move to ‘Return’, but I think we want to be on this Kaizen, which is “constant never-ending improvement”. 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 ‘implementation is power’. 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 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 ‘The More You Learn, The More You Earn’. 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 <a href="mailto:support@farmownersacademy.com">support@farmownersacademy.com</a>, 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 <a href="mailto:support@farmownersacademy.com">support@farmownersacademy.com</a>. 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. ‘Learn’ (and if you notice, the L comes before the earn part) so learn, then we move into our ‘Earn’ phase. Then, eventually, I like this, we move into the ‘Return’ 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 ‘learn’. 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 today’s podcast. The first thing that I wanted to talk about is “you need to be the dumbest person in the room”. 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 ‘I know nothing’ 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 do…and 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 ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’. 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. I’d 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, let’s 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 don’t, we just don't go back there again. They've got 20 years’ experience, but the problem is they’ve got 20 years’ 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 won’t 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: <ol><li>We can learn through reading books;</li> <li>We can learn through meeting up with people;</li> <li>We can learn through doing courses.</li> </ol>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: <ul><li>What 3 books can I read?</li> <li>Which 2 people can I catch up with and learn from?</li> <li>What is 1 course that I could do?</li> </ul> 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 (let’s 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 ‘Earn’, there is a time and a focus when you move to ‘Return’, but I think we want to be on this Kaizen, which is “constant never-ending improvement”. 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 ‘implementation is power’. 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 <a href="mailto:support@farmownersacademy.com">support@farmownersacademy.com</a>. Speak to you soon. Thank you. Take care.

Episode 15: The more you LEARN, the more you EARN

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 today’s 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 – let us know what you think!   FOA FACT: Sharing’s caring! 😉 Please share this with another farmer 👩🏻‍🌾👨🏼‍🌾   Regards 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 today’s podcast, we walk you through the steps involved to accomplish this. This episode shares lots of ideas to help you on your journey including: <ol><li>Why you need to become very profitable first (and what this looks like)</li> <li>The gap between being a farmer Vs running a farm business (and why this matters)</li> <li>The three skills you must have to create a freedom farm</li> </ol> We hope you enjoy this podcast – let us know what you think! FOA FACT: Sharing’s caring! 😉 Please share this with another farmer 👩🏻‍🌾👨🏼‍🌾 Regards FOA

Episode 36 - How to create a profitable freedom farm that can work without you there

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