Running a farm comes with its fair share of challenges, and it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. But some of the biggest opportunities for growth come from stepping outside our own operations, connecting with others, and learning from those facing similar challenges. Stronger businesses, smarter decisions, and a more resilient industry all start with farmers coming together and sharing knowledge. 

This episode is all about the power of grower groups - why they matter, the impact they have, and why getting involved can be a game-changer for your farm and business. 

I'm joined by Pippa Jones, who, alongside her husband, runs a mixed farm near Goondiwindi, QLD. Beyond the farm, Pippa has played a key role in the Macintyre Ag Alliance, helping to drive innovation and support for local farmers. She also works as an extension officer with NSW Local Land Services and represents the Northern NSW Drought and Innovation Hub. On top of that, she’s a 2024 Nuffield Scholar, exploring how carbon farming can be both a profitable opportunity for farmers and better supported on a global scale. 

Together, in this episode, we explore: 

• The critical role of grower groups like Macintyre Ag Alliance and the impact they're having in southern Queensland and northern NSW. 

• Why getting involved in these networks goes far beyond just improving technical farming skills. 

• How simplifying your farm business model can give you the time and space to pursue off-farm interests, leadership roles, and industry impact. 

• Why we should all back ourselves as leaders, even if we don't see ourselves that way just yet. 

At Farm Owners Academy, we're proud to be partnering with Macintyre Ag Alliance and other grower groups across Australia to help farmers connect, learn, and thrive. 

If you haven't yet, I encourage you to seek out your local grower groups and engage with your regional drought and innovation hubs-they offer invaluable resources and networks that can help you navigate challenges and future-proof your farm business. 

You can access more information about the items discussed in the episode below: 

• Macintyre Ag Alliance – click here https://www.macintyreagalliance.com/  

• Drought and Innovation Hubs – click here https://www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/drought/future-drought-fund/research-adoption-program/adoption-innovation-hubs  

• Nuffield Scholarships – click here https://www.nuffield.com.au/  

Pippa, thank you for your time, your insights, and your leadership. I hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as I did. 

Keep winning. 

Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team 

If something happened to you tomorrow, would your farm keep running? Would your team know what to do? Would your business continue to operate, or does it all rely on you? It’s one of those things we don’t like to think about, but it’s critical — not just for succession planning or long-term growth, but for building a farm business that’s resilient and can operate without you. Today, I have the pleasure of sitting down with two of the best people to have this conversation with — Tim and Cheryl Freak. Tim and Cheryl have been with Farm Owners Academy from the very beginning. They’ve spent the last 10 years transforming their farm into a ‘Freedom Farm’ but also, travelling the country in the Farm Owners Academy caravan, working alongside farmers to help them create farm businesses that thrive without total dependence on them. This is a powerful conversation because it challenges the traditional mindset in farming — the idea that working harder is the only way forward. Tim and Cheryl show us the alternative way. In this episode, we unpack:

• How they transitioned from a business that was completely reliant on them to one that now operates smoothly without them being hands-on every day.

• Why they chose to bring in business partners — giving key team members skin in the game, rather than just employing a farm manager.

• How they’ve structured their operation with clear roles, responsibilities, and systems that ensure everything runs efficiently — whether they’re there or not.

• The impact of their farm visits with FOA members — where they ask the tough questions and help these incredible people work through challenges that they often don’t talk about anywhere else.

We also talk about Freedom Farming — what it really means and why it’s different for everyone. For Tim and Cheryl, their definition of freedom farming means they now have the flexibility to travel, spend quality time with family, and step into roles where they’re mentoring and coaching other farmers. There’s so much wisdom in this conversation, and if you’re feeling stuck — if you’re working harder but not seeing the freedom, security, or lifestyle you want to achieve — then this episode will give you plenty to think about. Sincerely, Jeremy Hutchings and The Farm Owners Academy Team P.S. Inspired by Tim and Cheryl’s journey to creating a Freedom Farm? Ready to take your farm business to the next level? Our Complimentary Coaching Calls are designed to give you the clarity, tools, and strategies you need to succeed. Book your spot here and start making real progress today.

We all have a role to play in inspiring our next generation of farmers – now there is a compelling program and pathway to make this happen. In this episode, Hutch speaks with Chloe Smart, Training and Career Development Coordinator at AgCareerStarts. As Chloe explains, AgCareerStarts provides on-farm employment opportunities for 17 to 24 year olds interested in pursuing a career in agriculture. Backed by the National Farmers Federation (NFF), the initiative provides the link between a recent school leaver or ag college/university graduate with a professional farm business owner, keen to nominate themselves as an AgCareerStarts Host Farmer. In addition, we speak with Host Farmer Simon Cameron, a fine wool merino producer from the Northern Midlands of Tasmania. Simon’s farm, ‘Kingston’ comprises 3125 ha of which about 12% is developed with introduced grasses. The rest is split between lightly timbered bush country and native grasslands. Their wool production is accredited under SustainaWOOL Gold and the Responsible Wool Standard, making Simon a great example of the on-farm opportunities we can create for young people wanting to forge a career in our industry. Post university, Chloe travelled across Northern SA and Western NSW as a contract musterer and senior station hand on a 280,000-acre Merino Sheep property in Hay, NSW. She understands on-farm roles and the challenges associated with farm life, as well as how difficult it can be for young people to shape their early careers in our industry. This is an important and highly professional initiative I am only too happy to advocate for. I commend Chloe and her team and NFF for pioneering this initiative, and congratulate the many host farmers already active in helping our next generation to positively enter our industry. For more information, click here. The deadline for applying to secure an AgCareerStarts Team Member for 2025 is Friday 4th October 2024. I am sure Chloe and her team will be only too happy to speak with you and answer any questions you have. Thank you, Simon, for sharing your experience, and congratulations to Chloe and your team on the great work that you do!! Here’s to the next generation! Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team P.S. If you're also looking to tackle stress and improve your well-being, our FREE 2024 Edition of The Low-Stress Farmer’s Handbook is now available. Discover essential strategies for reducing stress, avoiding burnout, and building resilience. It's packed with practical advice tailored to farmers' unique challenges. Click here to get your copy now: Download the Handbook.

Hello and welcome to our 60th episode! WOW! We are so proud to reach this milestone in the Profitable Farmer journey. 

Over the past 3 years, the previous 59 Profitable Farmer episodes have been downloaded over 151,000 times and we have steadily built up a loyal fanbase and thousands of subscribers.  The topics we discuss each fortnight are even appealing to listeners outside of agriculture, which is surprising and reaffirming all at once. Thank you for the support, feedback and reviews you have provided along the way.

As the traditional gift given to celebrate a 60th anniversary is diamond, we have lined up a true Aussie diamond to commemorate this milestone.

In this special edition podcast, we are joined by self-proclaimed “ordinary Aussie”, this man is grounded, humble, and a true gent… Michael Crossland. Michael has lived a life full of adversity, pain and suffering yet is one of the most positive people I have ever encountered.

In today’s episode, Michael shares his unbelievable story from surviving a rare form of aggressive, life-threatening cancer as a child and spending a quarter of his life in hospital to becoming a professional sportsman, businessman, one the most in-demand and highly respected speakers in Australia, and now a number 1 bestselling author across 6 different countries.

Despite repeatedly being told what he would never be able to do, Michael continues to defy the odds and show the world absolutely everything that he can accomplish.

Michael’s raw story will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your heart as he discusses the keys to success, the importance of embracing change and the mindset needed to achieve your goals. Once you hear him speak, you will have a renewed perspective on life (and you’ll discover that you have little to complain about ever again).

If you would like to find out more about Michael Crossland, or purchase his new book ‘Everything Will Be OK’ please visit: https://michaelcrossland.com/

We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as our Platinum Mastermind members enjoyed Michael’s key-note at a recent Deep Dive.  It is nothing short of electrifying – be prepared for goosebumps! 

‘When you become a diamond, you’ll see why life had to pressure you’

Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

PS – We have just 6 spaces remaining in our Platinum Mastermind Program this year! Applications will close on 31st October or when these last 6 spots are filled.

To learn more, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/

In the second of this important two-part series, I interview another small group of Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Members.

This time the wonderful Women of FOA....

Across our community there are some incredible transformations occurring, and some incredible results being achieved – be they financial, on-farm, in-family or individually.

It truly is a unique, positive, supportive and completely dedicated community of over 120 like-minded, growth-oriented farming families, each intently committed to an intensive 3-year business & personal development journey, and on making more money, building better businesses, stronger teams and achieving more fulfilment in their families and lives.

In this podcast interview, I speak with Carissa Schneider, Marion Drew and Shaana Williams and ask them to share:

• their wins,
• their challenges,
• the results they’re getting,
• what they like most,
• what they value most, and
• why they joined in the first-place.

As we invite just 12 more farming families to join our Platinum Mastermind Program this year, I felt it timely and valuable for you to hear straight from the horse’s mouth what our Members are valuing and achieving from their significant time and money investment within the Platinum Mastermind Program.

Applications close on 31st October or when the remaining spaces are filled.  At the time of publishing this episode, there are only 12 spots left.

To learn more, go to: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/

To hear more case studies, go to: https://www.farmownersacademy.com/reviews/

To any listeners wanting to level-up, we welcome your application before 31st October.

I hope you enjoy these discussions.

Sincerely, Jeremy

In an important two-part series, I interview two small groups of Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Members.

Firstly, the Men of FOA, and then the Women of FOA.

Across our community there are some incredible transformations occurring, and some incredible results being achieved – be they financial, on-farm, in-family or individually.

It truly is a unique, positive, supportive and completely dedicated community of over 120 like-minded, growth-oriented farming families, each intently committed to an intensive 3-year business & personal development journey, and on making more money, building better businesses, stronger teams and achieving more fulfilment in their families and lives.

In this first podcast interview, I speak with Nick Cook, Ben Taylor and Mark Carter and ask them to share:

• their wins,
• their challenges,
• the results they’re getting,
• what they like most,
• what they value most, and
• why they joined in the first-place.

As we invite just 25 more farming families to join our Platinum Mastermind Program this year, I felt it timely and valuable for you to hear straight from the horse’s mouth what our Members are valuing and achieving from their significant time and money investment within the Platinum Mastermind Program. 

Applications close on 31st October or when the remaining spaces are filled.

To learn more, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/platinum-mastermind/

To hear more case studies, go to https://www.farmownersacademy.com/reviews/

To any listeners wanting to level-up, we welcome your application before 31st October.

And… on a promise to Nick Cook: a massive shout-out and endorsement to Kingsway Welding for their incredible Agri - innovation – I recommend these guys highly!

Celebrating a Kingsway-built FOA Sign and an example of Kingsway Welding world-class

I hope you enjoy these discussions.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

How important is your language as a farmer?

And how important are your words in enrolling your family & team to achieve all you hope & dream of in your life?

Have you ever really stopped to think about it?

In this episode, I interview another great mate of mine, James Kelly.  ‘JK’ is Managing Director of Alchimie – a global management consulting and leadership training organisation.

Having worked in, coached and trained the pinnacle of leadership teams within some of the largest construction projects across Australia and oversees, he is more than qualified to speak about how each of us can better communicate as leaders.

What JK shares with us is equally applicable within our farming teams, just as much as it is at the highest levels of commerce.

In this interview, JK & I explore:

• how to align teams to a common goal,
• how to bring multiple families and businesses together,
• what tangible things we need to do in order to make our future a reality, and
• how to engage with our team deeply, and lead with conviction.

Importantly, we explore how to change our language as leaders, in order to inspire better outcomes, and the importance of accountability (and being coached!) in delivering an effective business result.

We also explore how the mind works, scientifically, and how we can train it to perform better under pressure and be more effective in truly connecting with our people.

For me, this has been one of the most enlightening podcasts I have recorded to date. The fact that this is with my best mate is a true privilege.

I hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I did creating it.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

Out of 10, how do you rate your company’s culture, and what do you do in order to enhance & optimise it?

Team and family culture is at the essence of how well our farming teams perform and achieve.

Team and family culture can be the thing that truly sets you apart as a business in both your area and market.

It’s ultimately an extension of you, and a legacy you can leave.

At the same time, culture is intangible, and as a result so often neglected in our own leadership.

In this podcast, we give you a taste of the type of training we provide to our clients as we take a sneak peek into our Take Control Program monthly business coaching session.  This month, we explored:

– what is team and family culture; 

– how good is your culture; 

– how do we rate it; 

– what are the 4 core strategies you can focus on to enhance it; and 

– what can be done to see you create a truly high-performing team and environment.

There are 4 core areas of business that can set the foundations for a great company and truly unique family and team culture.

You can download the handouts I refer to in this recording by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy this rare insight into our clients monthly training session and learn how to bring these ideas to life for you and your business.

Thank you!

Jeremy

I used to think being a leader meant that I had to know it all, have all the answers, control every decision, and work the hardest. I used to think leadership was an ‘intellectual game’ and mindfulness had no place in business… or leadership… or success in most things for that matter. I certainly didn’t make any time for it…how wrong I was!   On my journey in business and leadership, I now understand that our mental health and strength is of the utmost importance. I appreciate that removing the busyness, being able to truly focus, quietening the mind and looking after my mental wellbeing and mindset is fundamental to being a composed, confident and successful leader. In this podcast, I interview FOA Business Coach and founder of the Soul Pleaser Program, Tracy Secombe who is an irrefutable authority on this topic. I am also joined by FOA Platinum Mastermind Member and founder of The Abundant Farmer, Hayley Grosser who is an equally capable mentor and educator in this space. Together, we discuss the importance of MINDFULNESS in farming and business leadership. To explore the topic of ‘mindfulness’ further, Tracy Secombe is launching a 7 Day Calmness Code Challenge on Wednesday 13th August 2020. This program is designed to give us all a head start in becoming mindful, and to help busy people feel calmer - to worry, stress and overthink less in their roles and in their lives. Tracy and her programs are highly recommended amongst the FOA community. For more information, and to register for Tracy’s 7 Day Calmness Code Challenge, please click here. For now, enjoy exploring the benefits of a more conscious approach to business and leadership, and all things mindfulness.

Kind Regards,

Jeremy

We all have 2 or 3 people who truly inspire us, for me Ricky Dumigan is one of those people. An incredibly disciplined, dedicated, and resilient high-performance specialist; Ricky has trained elite military teams, the highest echelons of rugby and sport and some of the most significant executive leadership teams in our country. He is passionate about what it takes to nurture and create true cohesion and alignment within elite teams, and he has a wonderful ability to condense that down into bite-size chunks for people to learn from and use. Equally, he has achieved some amazing life challenges, including running Kokoda, kayaking Sydney to Brisbane, running marathons and extensive remote leadership retreats. In all of his accomplishments, Ricky has established a determination and mindset that supports incredible achievement for himself as a human. It is with real pleasure that I introduce a very good friend of mine to you, where we chat about what it takes to be at your best and lead great teams. Enjoy! Kind Regards,

Jeremy

Covid-19 has had a profound effect on so many small business owners, big businesses, and economies across the globe. It has been fascinating to watch the markets over the past 4 months as this pandemic unfolds.

In this podcast, I am delighted to welcome back our investment specialist, Terry Tran, founder of Freedom Trader. We discuss what has happened, how it’s impacted the stock market and his prediction for our recovery in the short and long-term.

Terry provides us with a valuable insight on what do, where to look and how to make the most of opportunities for value-based investing in and around Australia and the global markets recovery.

Terry’s an authority on value-based investing, mentoring hundreds of family businesses across Australia helping them truly diversify their interests and generate wealth off-farm. We hope Terry’s insights in this podcast help you navigate the Covid-19 recovery.

If you would like to see for yourself what The Freedom Trader program is all about, Terry is hosting a live training on Tuesday 14th July and it’s completely FREE for our valued podcast listeners! You need to register ASAP (as space is limited) by clicking here:  How to Create REAL Wealth Outside Your Farm SAFELY

Enjoy!

Regards,

Jeremy

In a special edition interview with Farm Owners Academy Co-Founder, Andrew Roberts, we explore the topic of MONEY in detail. So many of us have inherited negative mindsets and beliefs around money that are limiting and holding us back. Many of us don’t fully understand what money really is, and as a result, have a certain disrespect towards earning it, creating wealth, and achieving freedom. This is such an important topic, but so often NOT talked about. Andrew shares his experience of ‘getting it wrong’ in his younger years, then committing to learning the essential skills and disciplines needed to creating wealth long-term. Andrew also shares what you need to focus on to achieve base-level financial mastery, and introduces FOA’s Farm Financial Framework, and how to be part of this first-class training that launches on Friday 3rd July (limited spaces remaining).  You can learn more by clicking here. Enjoy! Jeremy

Wool prices have been adversely affected in recent months by the Covid-19 pandemic, no doubt with the potential to severely impact wool producers in the short-term. In this interview, I speak with leading fine wool producer Cameron England, owner of Lyndall Park near Kingston, SE South Australia. Cameron and his incredible family have been members of the Farm Owners Academy Platinum Mastermind Program (an exclusive farm-business masterclass) for the past three years. During that time, they have invested heavily in their own development, embraced their learning, and have established themselves, not only as leading members of our growing community, but also within Australia’s elite farming community. Their inter-generational story speaks for itself, and the benchmark performance results they are achieving, both production and financial, are a credit to Cameron and Katie, and their farm business team. Importantly, Cameron and Katie prioritise family and freedom. Their focus is on building a legacy for future generations whilst establishing the time, team, systems, and financial freedom to be able to cherish the journey with them. They are intent on building a highly profitable farm business that works for them, not the other way around. Lyndall Park is a shining example of how good business, strong strategy, great planning and real focus on key numbers can see you profit and thrive even in times of very real industry uncertainty. To find out more about the Farm Financial Framework please click here. A cracking story from a wonderful family. Enjoy! Kind Regards Jeremy

‘Farm Systems’ or ‘Grower Groups’ play a pivotal part in our farming landscape.    Of these, Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) is the pinnacle.    Providing large-scale, in-season crop & pasture production trials, the latest research intelligence and important production improvement training to progressive farmers across Victoria’s Wimmera & Mallee for over 30 years, BCG is one of our nation’s major contributors to in-paddock production advancement.    Perhaps equally important is the community assembled, the farm management support provided, the collaboration now possible, and the knowledge-sharing and the boundary-pushing outcomes achieved for bringing many hundreds of passionate, forward-thinking farm owners together.    In this episode, I speak with Harm van Rees, a legend and gentleman of our industry, who has been part of the BCG story since its inception.    With BCG Founders Ian McLelland and John Ferrier, and as an independent agronomist for over 30 years, Harm has pioneered countless research and extension projects that help farming families push the boundaries of production. He has consulted directly to many hundreds of farming families over his career, and travelled the world on behalf of GRDC, CSIRO and other research institutes always with a dedication to pushing production boundaries.    Farm Owners Academy is proud to be partnering with leading Grower Groups across Australia, and bringing our business education and coaching capability to their communities. If you are part of a leading Grower or Farming Systems Group in Australia or New Zealand, please reach out to us here to explore opportunities to collaborate.    I hope this discussion with Harm van Rees does both his important career and the BCG story justice.    To CEO Fiona Best and the entire BCG team, and on behalf of our industry (if I may be so bold), I want to say thank you, well done and congratulations on your passion, dedication and support to Australian Farming Families.    Thank you Harm, wonderful to connect, and here’s to a positive finish to this production season!    Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team    P.S. If you're looking to tackle stress and improve your well-being, we have just released our FREE 2024 Edition of The Low-Stress Farmer’s Handbook. Discover essential strategies for reducing stress, avoiding burnout, and building resilience. It's packed with practical advice tailored to farmers' unique challenges . Click here to get your copy now: Download the Handbook. 

There is no doubt a ground-swell of real confidence across our industry is increasing…about bloody time! Much of this, I believe, is the result of real optimism and a positive outlook for the red meat sectors. In this podcast I interview Tom Bull, founder of Lambpro. Based at Kinross Station in Holbrook NSW, Tom and his family are great friends to Jane & I, dating back to intense games of touch footy on the beach over summer holidays at the coast as kids. The Lambpro story is significant and compelling, beginning 35 years ago when Tom was just eight. A self-starter, big-thinker, compelling leader, and outstanding businessman…Tom and Lambpro's contribution to sheep-meat advancement and the Australian Lamb Industry is significant and inspiring. With over 2,500 premium ram sales annually (with the goal to reach 3,000 this year), and 900,000 lambs to be born this year across his national sheep-meat producing client base, the Lambpro business continues to break new ground and lead the industry with and for its clients. Tom and I explore his outlook for emerging trends for the sheep- meat sector and discuss the following:

• the prominent genetic and on-farm advances leading to greater producer profitability,
• the global consumption trends for lamb,
• the importance of a new focus on lamb branding,
• Tom's predictions as to where we need to focus as a sheep-meat sector, AND
• how Lambpro is innovating to deliver on-scale, premium, and highly marbled lamb products to affluent consumers globally.

A cracking story of genuine Australian entrepreneurship. Enjoy! Kind Regards Jeremy

The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting our communities and our economy in ways we have never experienced before. All experts agree, we are in largely un-chartered waters… in comparison to the GFC, the recession, wars and even the depression.

Only time will determine the extent of this global crisis, and how quickly Australia can bounce back and recover compared to other nations within our global economy.

In this podcast, Greg Johnsson and I speak with Peter Koulizos – a renowned property market analyst, researcher, investor, developer, author, academic and educator.

As a property expert and active participant, Peter explores:

• the impact of Covid-19 on residential, commercial and property development markets – supply and demand predictions at this time,
• how it is affecting the various categories of individual investors,
• his take on the flow-on effect this will have within the property sector and beyond,
• the harsh reality of what these outcomes will mean for the broader economy,
• the importance of a prompt and proactive return to recovery, and
• for active investors - what to do right now and what to look out for.

The Australian property market and its recovery is pivotal to our local and national economies. Peter’s perspective on how it will navigate Covid-19 is outstanding and immensely informative.

Enjoy!

Kind regards

Jeremy

I was chatting to a farmer the other day, who in conversation made 3 bold and cocky statements… saying them as if he had some badge of honour:

“I don’t have time for office work”,

“I have no interest in the numbers… I leave that to the missus”, and

“It’s all another language to me… I leave it to the pen-pushers”.

At the same time, he was commenting about how chaotic their life was… and how he… “makes decisions based on instinct & gut-feel rather than on analysis & ‘number-crunching…’”.

I didn’t say it… perhaps I should have… but all I was thinking was “what a bloody peanut”. If you are serious about business and dedicated to being the absolute best farm owner you can be, then being financially illiterate is a sure way to NEVER get there.

NOW MORE THAN EVER FARMING IS A BUSINESS.

CEO’s of ALL successful companies study financial management constantly. Intense analysis, feasibility studies, financial performance monitoring, decision-modelling, forecasting and benchmarking is one of the largest and most important activities they do.

Successful farm owners are across their numbers AND dedicate time in the office to analysing their performance AND making numbers-based performance decisions.

Like it or not, and as Greg points out, "the language of business is finance".

In this important podcast, I interview Farm Owners Academy co-founder, long-time financial analyst and farm financial specialist, Greg Johnsson. We explore the critical reports you have to establish then proactively monitor, AND we explore the core ratios you must measure and benchmark in order to be in control and making meaningful, measured and robust decisions on your farm.

In this webinar, I do not apologise for making an unashamed plug for our new financial literacy training program being launched right now by Farm Owners Academy. It is called the Farm Financial Framework and it commences on 3rd July as a live online in-depth training initiative.

To learn more, CLICK HERE.

If you are serious about profit and creating wealth and, then this is an essential training program I urge you to prioritise. It’s time to get serious! Sincerely,  Jeremy

We find ourselves in unprecedented times, like no other in recent history. Crazy, in many ways... following prolonged drought and recent fire events.

It is our view that we will navigate this well as a nation. We will handle this strongly as an industry. We are resilient and fortunate at this time to be farmers. Please be sure to look out for those around us more adversely affected.

In this Podcast, I interview Managing Partner & Financing Specialist, David Charge from Sprout Agribusiness.

David and his team are Commercial Financing Specialists to Australian Agribusiness, supporting farming families across Australia. David is measured and pragmatic, and his advice and assessment of this current crisis is both thoughtful and thorough. He offers us some strong support and guidance as farmers at this time.

In this interview, David & I explore:

• The impact of Covid-19 on Agriculture,
• How to best navigate this crisis as a farming business,
• State and federal assistance / concessions now available to you,
• How the financing sector is responding,
• The challenges our local bank managers face (post royal commission),
• How to proactively engage with your lender,
• The role and benefit of an independent finance specialist in your business,
• How to make the most of the current low interest rate climate, AND
• How to take greater responsibility for your financial situation and your long-term financial success.

My learnings from this discussion with David is to stay focused, plan proactively, build your financial management skillset, and make the most of financing and other opportunities that now exist.

Another great interview with another emerging leader in our industry.

Once again, enjoy!

Jeremy

Simply this is a MUST LISTEN TO Podcast.

Right now, FEAR and ANXIETY is at a peak, and very real for many / most of us.

Fever pitch even... and only amplified by media at this time.

How we manage our own mental state and deal with the emotions of fear and anxiety is so very important at this time - for us, for those around us and as a local and national community.

I interview our Head Coach and Mindset Specialist Tracy Secombe and we explore this important issue. Importantly Tracy shares with us:

- What fear is and how it turns up for us,

- How we experience anxiety, and

- How we can manage both of them and change our state of mind.

More deeply we explore how we can find gratitude, optimism and meaning at this time, and what tools we can use to remove fear and anxiety from our current reality.

The most important thing we can do right now is to be self-aware, manage our own energy, and ensure we turn up to our family and loved ones with perspective and strength.

As parents, sons & daughters and friends, now is our time to lead and love.

Tracy is simply incredible. Her message so very important at this time.

This one is important - for you and for those around you.

Stay safe, stay strong and enjoy!

Jeremy

Trust is critical to any high-performing team.  Equally, it is essential to effective family-farming businesses...  

Do you have a strong basis of trust and mutual respect within your farm team?  

Like a muscle, trust can be worked on and strengthened over time.  

Most of us just don’t know how, or where, to start.  

To expand further on the topic of farm succession, I once again speak with Tony Catt, Director of Catapult Wealth, and we explore:

• why trust is essential to effective succession planning,
• how trust is broken,
• the 3 communication and trust ‘killers’,
• how to build trust where it has previously been absent,
• the important roles each of us play within the family to nurture a culture of trust and respect.  

Tony suggests that sometimes our focus should temporarily move away from important succession conversations until a basis of trust is re-established.  

We also explore the notion that all of this is just good, professional business practice. Again, we have so much to learn from businesses who achieve a strong and powerful culture of trust within their teams.  

An open dialogue as a family around this sensitive topic is a great place to start.  

Grab a cuppa, wrangle your family and enjoy!

Regards,

Jeremy 

Succession is a misunderstood and very challenging issue for many Australian farming families. Many of us have tried this and had a negative experience and therefore choose to lock it down, not discuss inter-generational transfer at all and get on with running the farm... rather than constructively planning for the future together.

In this podcast, we interview Managing Director of Catapult Wealth, Tony Catt.  Tony is an expert on farm succession and is passionate about helping farming families proactively develop a plan for their futures together.

Tune in as we explore:

• Why this is so challenging for so many,
• What farm succession really is,
• Through good business practice and 'governance' we can make succession more successful for families,
• The 4 clear, written plans we really need to make this truly effective in practice,
• Why the younger generation might need to be respectful and patient in the process,
• How to include family members and bring them along for the ride,
• How frequently to be discussing this and refining your plan, AND
• How to get started.

At Farm Owners Academy, we recommend Tony and Catapult Wealth…we believe that proactive business planning can complement and form the basis for stronger succession planning and more meaningful intergenerational transitions for all.

Enjoy this interview... ideally over a cup of tea, and as a family. We hope this enables you to reflect on where you are at on this journey, agree how to move forward together, and also, who you need around you to give yourselves every chance of success.

The key is to come together and get started!

I look forward to hearing your family’s success stories in all thing’s succession.

Kind Regards,

Jeremy

Implementation is the key to success!

In today’s podcast, I chat with Andrew and discuss the importance of realising, accepting and overcoming your fears in order reach your potential in all areas of your life. We explore the concept of fear and how this holds us back, especially the fear of failure in business.

Join us as we dive deeper into:

• How perfectionism can hold you back - most people tend to procrastinate because of this, as they worry about making the wrong decision

• How you can set up systems to help you make concise decisions, this requires thinking, which most people don’t like to do – most farmers prefer to DO rather than THINK!

• Implementation is the key to success, not the decision making however this is still a very critical part.

• Never allow a year, a quarter, a week or a day go by without planning it first - this is the KEY to succeeding - yet most people don’t do this.

• Stop using excuses to set your goals later - do it NOW!

• The power of 10-year, 3-year and 12-month goals, quarterly rocks, weekly & daily goals – If you make time to write these down, you will become unstoppable.

• How taking control of your business and developing systems will help you make more profit and allow your team to become more focused and efficient.

• If you don’t set goals, your team is winging it which will cost you lots of money, for little return.

Your greatest life is on the other side of fear! We hope you enjoy this podcast and identify the fears which might be holding you back.

To find out more about our Take Control Program, please click here... take advantage now before the price increase! Enjoy,  

Jeremy 

Time to diversify...

Creating balance sheet wealth long-term must be our primary focus, even when challenged in the here-and-now. Success in anything starts with KNOWLEDGE. It is with this in mind that I interview Terry Tran, CEO & Founder of The Freedom Trader.

Terry Tran is a good (and perhaps unlikely) friend to Farm Owners Academy and the Profitable Farmer podcast. We recommend his investing program - The Freedom Trader - and know many of our clients continue to get great training and real results from his mentoring and methodology.

In this podcast, Terry shares his story with us, his passion to help people create wealth through direct share investing, his investment philosophy and his view on why farming families make such good investors. We uncover some very real myths about the share market and explore how to create wealth through a strong analysis and risk-aware investment strategy.

I encourage each of you to listen to this and consider, even in times of dry seasons and tight cashflows, whether now is a good time to be learning HOW to strengthen your wealth creation capacity through robust and measured share investing.

If you’d like to see for yourself what Terry’s ‘Freedom Trader’ program is all about, he is hosting a live training on Tuesday 18th February and its completely FREE for all our podcast listeners! You can register by clicking here: How to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm SAFELY but do it now as space is limited!

Enjoy!

Jeremy Hutchings

2020 has arrived to us in a way that no one wished for or expected. Adverse and extreme fires threaten farming families and rural communities across Australia.

To those of you directly affected, our thoughts and prayers are with you. To our clients, please know you have our support and that of the FOA Community.

In this important podcast we interview remarkable clients Troy & Nette Fischer, 'Ashmore', Wasleys, South Australia.

On the 25th November 2015, Troy & Nette lost everything except their family home and 600 trade lambs in the Pinery fires of South Australia. Their entire farm, including their white suffolk stud and all farm infrastructure burned completely.

Their story and recovery effort is remarkable. How they have responded and the results they have achieved in the 12 months, 2 years and now 4 years since that event is nothing short of incredible.

Hindsight can be a wonderful thing. As they reflect on their personal experience, Troy and Nette share some wonderful tips and very thoughtful insights on how to navigate these intensely tough times, as well as how to best support those directly affected.

To those of you who are affected directly at this time, I hope by sharing Troy & Nette's story, they can serve as inspiration and encouragement to you. We hope this interview can help you in some small way to navigate the hardship you feel and the road to recovery ahead.

To those exploring how best to support loved ones, friends and family directly affected - now and ongoing - Troy and Nette share some very real and meaningful actions you can take that can truly make a difference and add value to those in need.

Thank you Troy & Nette - I am grateful for your willingness to help others by sharing your story.

This is the time when communities rally and remarkable growth and recovery can happen... as it did for the Fischer Family.

Regards, Jeremy

It’s incredible seeing the results members of our Platinum Mastermind are achieving, their commitment to the program and the progression of their business and personal development.

FOA Alumni Members David (Diesel) & Rhianne Low, make a great example of this.

Commencing the program in July 2017, Diesel & Rhianne have become valued members and real contributors to our growing community. Starting as a mixed farm struggling for profitability, the operation was completely dependent on them, with Diesel typically working 80 hours per week. It is fair to say that they have completely transformed their business and lives.

Benchmarking and the support of our Analytics Team helped them decide to focus on ONE enterprise to achieve more focus and scale.

Forecasting and Decision Support Tools have allowed them to set down a financial roadmap that provides them more confidence in the resilience and performance of their business model for years to come.

Their 2 Page Strategic Plan helps them remain aligned and focused together as they prioritise business improvement through structured annual and quarterly meetings.

Having a Business Coach dedicated to their success has helped them navigate some challenging business and personal times, and consistently held them accountable for the implementation of their plan and toward their compelling goals.

FOA’s Personal Development Training has helped them together move from a mindset of blame, lack and hardship to one of positivity, abundance and gratitude.

The Business Development Training has supported them to set down structures, systems and professional disciplines that drive on-farm efficiency, and support an on-farm team that helps them get it done and enjoy more balance, fun and freedom in their lives.

Last, but certainly not least, the friendships and the community they are now part of is a highlight of their 7-year journey with FOA.

The FOA Team are delighted to welcome Rhianne Low into our Team as an Accountability Coach. We also highly value Diesel’s contribution as a mentor to others in the program.

Diesel & Rhianne, thank you for your positivity and for being such dedicated members of the FOA Alumni & Community. And thank you for sharing your story and FOA journey with us.

Simply, incredible.

Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team

Tracy Secombe is incredible. Plain and simple.

Her support to her Farm Owners Academy clients once again this year has been astounding.

Her contribution to our community continues to inspire.

Our clients just get so much value from her outlook on life and the coaching she can provide.

As we bring a close to 2019, it is my great pleasure to connect with and interview Tracy, and to explore how to make this Christmas season an important moment in time to deeply reflect, clearly check-in, fully self-assess, and completely set down more powerful intentions and enriching habits in the new year to come.

A cracking conversation. An amazing lady.

Enough said...enjoy!

Jeremy Hutchings

How exposed am I? Assessing and managing risk within our farming systems.

I love the principle that in order to succeed, it is the business with the most robust and strategic business model that gets the results. Often it is the quality of our business model and how we execute on this model that is the difference between the average and the top 20%.

With this in mind, and based on your most recent years of performance, how robust and risk-aware is your business model? We operate in a unique climate, with unique economic factors, relative to farmers in other countries, and a high exposure to price variability and international markets. We operate businesses based on biological systems often exposed to the vagaries of our environments and the markets.

In this podcast, I am pleased to interview my father, Tim Hutchings, and discuss risk and volatility in Australian Agriculture. We explore the importance of designing risk-aware and long-term sustainable farming systems that have inherent flexibility, focused on minimising losses as much as pursuing windfall profits.

Dr. Tim Hutchings is a successful farmer and farm consultant in the Riverina, NSW. He is a Nuffield Scholar and Researcher and has recently completed his PhD analysing and (for the first time) quantifying risk and volatility of our farming systems.

As we dust ourselves off from the challenges of a dry season, reflect and reset for a new season, I encourage you to use this podcast as your opportunity to deeply interrogate the appropriateness of your current farming system, and as a catalyst to ask better questions and consider making some deliberate and measured changes.

Enjoy this podcast!

Regards,

Jeremy Hutchings

From a desire to find useful farm research and analysis tools for her own family... to Australia's number 1 online resource hub for farmers and agribusiness!

Farm 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 & 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

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 & 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 & 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, 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

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:

1. Why you need to become very profitable first (and what this looks like)
2. The gap between being a farmer Vs running a farm business (and why this matters)
3. 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

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. 

RUOK? 

The 10th annual RUOK Day takes place on Thursday 12th September 2019. 

Farm Owners Academy wholeheartedly supports the RUOK initiative because we recognise the prominence of mental health issues within farming. 

In a bid to raise awareness, we are dedicating this episode of the Profitable Farmer podcast to this poignant cause. 

Today, I have an in-depth discussion about mental health within the farming community with Tracy Secombe, renowned mindset coach and creator of Soul Pleaser™

For the past 3 years, Tracy has been leading our team of Platinum Mastermind coaches which has given her a unique insight into the personal lives of hundreds of farmers, their struggles, issues and fears. 

There is so much wisdom in this interview.

Tracy explains why so many of us ‘people please’, and the impact this has on our mental health. 

We also discuss: 

• Why male farmers carry so much fear of failure and how anxiety is created from losing the farm 

• How so many people put on a brave face but are actually really suffering at home 

• Why depression is created by analysing the past, and anxiety is worrying about the future 

• Why we avoid communicating what we truly want in order to avoid potential conflicts 

• Why many family-run businesses have issues with communication 

• The underlying reasons for arguments within families 

• Why succession planning has become taboo 

We hope this podcast resonates with you on some level; or at the very least, encourages you to ask “RUOK?” 

Please, share this with another farmer today 🙏🏼 

Take it easy, 

Andrew 

PS - if you would like to connect with Tracy, please click here to email her.

In this week’s podcast we interview Terry Tran.

 Terry shares with us how investing is just like planting a crop and the power of timing. 

There’s some great content in this podcast including: 

• Why now is amazing timing to pick up some stock opportunities
• Does Terry believe we are heading for a recession
• Terry’s thoughts on the value of land and if he would be trying to buy more farm land right now
• Some insight into how he values a business to invest in and what you need to know to invest.

Take it easy, 

Andrew

PS: if you are interested in registering for a free online training coming up with Terry, please click here. 

P.P.S Whenever you’re ready…here are 3 ways we can help you grow your farming business:

1. The founders of FOA run a special free online training to show you how to create a profitable business that has the ability to work without you (creating a freedom farm) – Click here to register for the next one. 

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.

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

In this episode, I am delighted to introduce to you Zoe Lamont, owner of Farm Door Riverina, a growing regional food business providing ready-made, wholesome meals to busy families, retirees and the elderly across Australia.

Growing up on a farm near Junee, Zoe has deep ties to the land and a vision for bringing high-quality, wholesome, locally sourced food to families across Australia.

Zoe shares her journey from farm life to buying and then building a highly successful business, with her husband Frank, that not only supports local producers but also brings the best of what we grow directly to people's tables. We explore:

• The origins of Farm Door Riverina • Frank & Zoe's mission to bridge the gap between farm and table • The challenges and triumphs of scaling a food business • The importance of innovating and adapting your business models in order to grow • How Farm Door is providing wholesome food solutions to busy urban families, retirees and the elderly alike.

A team now of over 30 providing over 3,000 meals per day, Zoe & Frank’s story is a powerful reminder of how good quality food can change lives and bring happiness and wellness to households across Australia. 

It is also a reminder to us all to stay true to our values, even when the chips are down, and put integrity and a commitment to quality at the forefront of everything we do.

If you are looking to provide farm produce more directly to the consumer or explore new ways to diversify your farm's income, this episode will leave you inspired to think bigger about the impact you can have.

More information about Frank, Zoe and the Farm Door story can be found here: https://farmdoor.com.au/pages/our-story

Thank you, Frank, Zoe and your team for all you do. I appreciate you sharing your story.

Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team

Do you think that you might have a negative association to money?

If you get stressed, angry or you find yourself complaining about money, you might be surprised to hear you could have a limiting belief around it.

We address this in this week’s podcast and you can listen by clicking here. 

Here is a list of some common limiting beliefs: 

• Money is hard to make
• Money comes in one hand and out the other
• Money is difficult to make, particularly as a farmer
• Money is scarce and hard to come by
• Money doesn’t grow on trees
• There is not enough money to go around
• I don’t have enough for later on in my life
• Paying for my kids’ education is expensive

Many of these beliefs were created when you were a child and were most likely passed onto you by your parents, your community and even your teachers. 

It’s very hard to get ahead and go for what you want when you carry these beliefs. 

In today’s episode, we explore these limiting beliefs and what you can do to remove them. 

It’s a really important podcast and we hope you enjoy it. 

Andrew

Do you ever get distracted?

 Do you often have ideas but sometimes lack the ability to implement or see them through to completion? 

Do you feel crystal clear on where you are going and how to get there? 

Today’s podcast ‘If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither’ will help you focus on less, and simplify how you run your business.

Andrew will open you up to:

1. The Entrepreneurs Curse and why you need to be aware of this;
2. Magnifying Glass Theory and how you can use this to explode your business growth;
3. The power of FOCUS and how it will help you profit more whilst working less;
4. Discipline to not get caught up in ideas;
5. Why breaking your goals into 90 days is such a powerful thing to do.

Enjoy the podcast.

FOA

Today we discuss how The Vacuum Law can be used to create prosperity in your life.

The Law of the Vacuum is a universal law and is one of the main reasons why you may always feel busy and never have time do to the things you want.  

It could also be the reason why you feel you don’t get ahead as quickly as you would like to.  

Andrew will share with you how this effect: 

• Money;
• Time;
• Health; 
• Relationship.

….and most importantly, how to change this!  

Enjoy this free podcast.  

Regards,

FOA

One of our clients, David Westbrook, shared an article that he’d written recently.

It really inspired me, so I decided to interview him for this month’s podcast.

David has agreed for me to share his article with you:

What advice would I give to an up and coming farmer?

Simple... just smile more.

We worry about everything and this creates resistance to what we truly want.

We need to read, we need to journal, we need to get educated on our core focus and we need to implement, but if we just smile every now and then.... we will get there so much quicker and happier.

We worry about the rain, we worry about the markets, we worry about what others think of us.

Where does this worry get us? Nowhere, in fact it makes us go backwards.

We do our due-diligence on the markets, we have a risk mitigation strategy for a drought, and you know what? Other people aren’t even thinking about us anyway. Do you know why? Because they’re too busy worrying about what you think of them!

We spend so much time in fear of these things happening. We are continuously telling ourselves “what if I stuff this up” but just imagine if you said “what if I nail this”?

Remember when you were a kid?... Before school and all the expectations on you and your future? You just played and life was a game.

Why do we change from that childlike mindset? That child isn’t thinking about all the ‘what ifs’ that are irrelevant to the current moment. They’re living in the now, having fun…

So just smile.  If you f**k up, learn the lesson and don’t take life so bloody serious.

Just have fun.  

- David Westbrook

I know you will get a lot from hearing this.

If you know a farmer that would also benefit from this, please share it with them.

Many Thanks,

Andrew

Being an entrepreneurial farmer today can be tough.

There seems to be more work and less time to get things done...and you need to devote even more energy into running your business than ever before.

And despite all that...most farmers are barely getting by financially. They still worry about:

How they’ll make it through the current season

Whether they’ll lose the farm that’s been in their family for generations, and

If they’ll be able to retire, of they’ll have to keep working until they’re 99 to pay the bills

That’s why I want you invite you to a free podcast interview called ‘The three main reasons farmers make world class investors’, where I had an honest chat about money and “getting ahead” with my friend and investment mentor, Terry Tran. (He’s the guy on the right in the photo below.)

Terry’s the best guy I know when it comes to money advice. His system is simple but genius: minimise risk to maximise profits.

Terry’s all about protecting yourself FIRST, eliminating the normal risks associated with the stock market, so that you’re only choosing from the safest, securest, most “sure thing” stocks.

And he makes it all so easy to understand...

I don’t know about you, but I can find stock market talk overwhelming. Dividends, position sizing, shorts...all of it makes my head spin.

But Terry talks in plain English. He takes the complexities of the stock market and breaks it down so normal people like you and me can actually understand it!

In this environment — as crazy and hectic as it can be sometimes — there’s more opportunity than ever for financial freedom. You've just got to know where to look.

I know you're gonna love this special podcast because it's jam-packed with ideas, inspiration, and guidance about how you can create real wealth off the farm through investing safely.

I already know it’s going to be one of our most popular podcasts (just like his last was)!

On the episode, you’ll also hear us talk about Terry’s upcoming FREE LIVE online training exclusive for our farm owners community called ‘How to Create Real Wealth Outside Your Farm Without Taking Silly Risks’. It’s the perfect next step if you want to learn the steps to create a consistent income stream that’s not dependent on the farm.

Cheers, Andrew

G’day,

In this week’s episode, Andrew walks you through the steps to hire a GUN worker.

Here are some of the things that you will learn:

• One good person will beat three average
• Hire slowly, fire fast
• Don’t just look local
• Start with the job ad
• Hire more on traits than skills
• Listen to hear the rest!

If you need help when it comes to finding and hiring strong team members, this podcast is for you!

Feel free to share this with any other farmers that could use these tips!

Cheers

FOA

Do you put the ‘Pro’ in Procrastination?  Then this podcast is for you! 

This podcast will teach you: 

1. What a major dominant goal is;
2. Why we think you are smart having one;
3. How this will beat procrastination and get you moving;
4. How this will get you focused;
5. Why this is necessary if you want to be a TOP Producer. 

We hope you enjoy this podcast.  

Kind Regards,

FOA

Episode 24: How Tim & Cheryl are creating a Freedom Farm

Today we share an interview of Tim and Cheryl Freak that we did for our mastermind clients.  Tim & Cheryl are an amazing couple who are very passionate about farming. 

In this interview, we explore how they are setting up their business to create a Freedom Farm.  This is a profitable company that continues to work without their presence.  Tim & 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 & 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.

The quality of your business and life is in direct response to the quality of the questions you ask. 

Today’s podcast takes you through 10 key areas and gets you to question how you are performing in life and business. 

There are 30 questions in total.  

We recommend you do this twice a year. It won’t take long, but it will help you look at ways to make your business and life better. 

We also give you the questionnaire inside, so click here to access and enjoy this podcast. 

Have a great day, 

Andrew 

PS - Early bird tickets are now available for our TOP Producers 2-Day Workshop in Canberra on 30-31 May.  It’s a smaller space and this event will fill out quickly so click here to book your ticket now.

"HOW TO CREATE WEALTH OFF YOUR FARM AND GENERATE MONEY WHILST YOU SLEEP” 

“Don’t work for money, make it work for you” – Robert Kiyosaki

Transcription:

Andrew: Welcome to this podcast and we have a special guest on here today, Terry Tran. I want to firstly make sure you can hear me okay Terry?

Terry: I can Andrew.

Andrew: Welcome mate. Thank you very much for coming on board the ‘Profitable Farmer Podcast’, sharing your story and educating our farmers about investing and creating freedom and wealth off their farm.  Terry, let's just take a step back. I'd love to share with everyone how you and I met. I was trying to contemplate our first meeting. When was it? I think it was on a webinar that I ran? Would that be a fair assumption?

Terry: The very first time we met probably was on a webinar, because at that time, I know you were teaching people how to run webinars. You are my mentor on how to utilise the webinar platform, and over time I also attended a couple of the business live seminars. This is going back, probably almost…

Andrew: Several years.

Terry: Yes, many years. At least over five, six, seven years ago now. It was actually awesome. You were mentoring me on how to create a profitable business, from the business point of view.

Andrew: Yes, isn't it funny? Because I know you were at one of our events and you spoke about what you do. Something about it Terry, really piqued my interest. I remember many years ago I thought “We've just got to get Terry in front of business owners”. Because as a business we work so hard, right? We work so hard for our money and I think we forget that we need to turn around and get our money working hard for us. I remember Terry, I was teaching you a system on how to run a business and you said, "Look, this is what I do. I just have a system to help people create wealth."

Let's just personally talk a little bit about your background. How did you get into trading shares? Why shares? And obviously, your business ‘Freedom Trader’.

Terry: Sure. My background is I came from corporate years ago. I was doing the 70-80-hour weeks and over time, my health deteriorated. I was with one of the big four banks. I was going up the ranks, promotion after promotion, so that was fine. But 5½ years in, one day going out to lunch, I literally blacked out at the top of a staircase. This is in Sydney. I rolled down two flights of stairs and ended up in the hospital. I realised that doing the 80-hour weeks wasn't sustainable long term. I was working hard for my money, getting my promotions, but I needed something else that could give me the freedom. Because I didn’t have any, I was not really having the family life I wanted. I thought "Okay, let's have a change. Let's see if I can give this a go”.  

I was always interested in investing but didn't know where to start, so I attended seminars to learn as much as I could. The first 2 years actually I didn't do well at all. I basically lost quite a fair bit of money, because I attended the wrong seminars, people who were teaching for a living rather than doing for a living. It wasn't until I went out and sought the best fund managers around the country and learnt from them, the Warren Buffets of the world, a lot of the Australian fund managers that do very well and have great track records. Really learning from them and realising the mistakes I made and from there I slowly retrained myself and started again.

Once I became quite successful on my own, I thought, "Okay, why not now help other people by managing their money?". I went out there and I raised capital quite quickly. I was running the fund very similar to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company, where I wanted to be fair, where I don't charge any management fees. I'll just charge based on profits, and I'll be the largest fund holder of the fund as well. Therefore, we have our interests aligned and it just grew from there. Literally, it's been about 15 years now and a good track record.

Then about three years ago, I decided to teach what I do to help people, especially in Australia. I thought people might be interested to learn how to invest safely, just like a fund manager. Where the first and foremost priority is protecting the capital you have, and once you’ve protected it, how do you then grow it?  At all times, you basically minimise the risk to almost zero. Then grow the wealth from that foundation. Too many people come to markets and they lose what they have. I didn't want that to happen.

Andrew: I'm a client of Terry's. He was working as a client of mine and it switched and I'm now learning Terry's Freedom Trader system. It's interesting Terry, because if somebody says you should be buying, for example, Apple, I’d assume "Right, I'm going to have to get a big chunk of money that I've worked hard for and put it into Apple”, It's almost a bit of impatience or risky. I know that’s a component that I've really learnt from working with you, that that's quite risky.

Terry: Yes, it is.

Andrew: Putting too much money into one stock is risky so you've completely changed the rules. You've changed how I go about trading and investing. Not just in shares, you've also opened me up to investing in property as well.

Let's just talk a little bit about this Terry. How easy is it for farmers to get really caught up in working hard for their money and not really thinking about "Well you can learn these skills to get your money working for you"?

Terry: Yes, that's correct. I learnt that from the corporate life and now also seeing many businesses, especially hardworking farmers that slave away so many hours a day, at least 10-12 hours a day on their farms. Yes, you are working hard for the money but why not take the profits that you make from the farm, put that to work and allow the cashflow to accumulate and grow a portfolio that will sustain you long term as well?

For me, I actually see investing as very similar to farming, it’s literally like a seed. The job is to find a great seed, plant it and then allow time for it to do its thing, water it, prune out anything that's bad and then allow that plant to slowly grow and then at the end you harvest it. It's all about patience, yes.

Andrew: Yes, it's a great metaphor. I just want to talk about working really hard for your money. Something that was taught to me many years ago is that ‘people who just buy stuff, end up with stuff all’.  It's interesting because a farmer might do well in a year so go and buy a new ute or a nice holiday, for example, which is fine. However, one of the great paradigm shifts that I had many years ago, which you've just amplified since learning from you, is this concept of using your profits to create wealth and then buy your stuff from the returns of that wealth. It's such a powerful thing and that's one component. Building wealth outside the farm.

I know that you've previously worked with farmers and you've got this big mission to help a farmer mitigate risk, correct? Because a farmer is so weather dependent that really if they learn to create money outside of their business, then this is a massive risk mitigation strategy. Can we talk a little bit more about that, aligned with your mission and the importance of creating wealth outside of your business?

Terry: Definitely. Like you said I've got a number of farmers that I teach now. Just from talking to them I realised there are 3 core risk components:

The 1st risk is definitely the weather.  Currently of course, you hear about the drought. Potentially from time to time there's flooding as well. From one year to the next you have no idea what the weather will be. That can wipe out a farmer's financial stability in one go.

The 2nd risk is fluctuating commodity prices. I know a lot of farmers lock in their potential prices for the future in case it drops. This also happens with supply and demand for the crops.

Then the 3rd risk is the big grocery chains squeezing the farmers, especially on the food stuff.

For a farm to carve out a profit with all those three risks, it's actually quite dangerous. Why not mitigate that risk and slowly build up a portfolio on the side?

Eventually, that grows to a certain size that the farmer, plus their family is always safe no matter what happens on the farm. That’s now what I see as my mission; I really want to help these hard-working farmers, make sure that they build this portfolio so going forward whatever the weather, whatever the commodity prices, whatever Woolies or Coles throws at them it doesn't matter, that portfolio can now sustain them.  In good times, both do well, great! But in bad times on the farm, this portfolio will always look after them. That's my mission now.

Andrew: It's such a great mission. Just for a moment, I want our listeners to imagine waking up in 10 years, imagine returning more money than what you can return off your farm. What you do, Terry, is help all of us, myself included, substitute our income. Not only that, substitute our income whilst working significantly less because I'm putting my money into companies where everyone else is doing the hard work.  Additionally, I'm putting my money into successful companies and leveraging that. It's just such a brilliant thing you do.

Now, I want to talk about your results. Because you have achieved a return that's been greater than 20% per year on average over the last 15 years. Is that a fair call?

Terry: Yes, correct. We've been doing about 22.5% per year.

Andrew: 22.5% on average. Now, I just want to put this into context a little bit, Terry, you took, I think, $30,000?

Terry: Yes, from $30,000 after about six months, I thought "Okay, this system works now" so I added an extra $20,000 so it ended up being a $50,000 account.

Andrew: Okay. Let's hypothetically say a farmer has $50,000. They might not have that available in cash but they might be able to borrow it as equity against their farm. A lot of farmers actually have what I call 'lazy equity'; they're not using leverage well enough. Let's, for example, take $50,000 and compound that at your average 22.5% return Terry. I think you showed us 15 years later… what was the money in the account?

Terry: That one account ended up being about $1.5million.

Andrew: One and a half million dollars.

Terry: Yes. That was at 22%. We withdrew about half a million to pay taxes and also, obviously living as well. Basically, the seed that I planted 15 years ago slowly and consistently grew and over time we harvested $1.5million.

Andrew: It's extraordinary Terry. That is the power of this compounding effect.

Terry: Correct.

Andrew: Now, I'm probably putting you on the spot here, but I'll test your mathematical brain. The difference between compounding at 10% versus 20%, just approximately, what's that worth in 15 years?

Terry: Massive. For example, a lot of people think if you go for 7% but you actually do 20% or 21% that it's triple the return at the end. But over a long period of 20 years, in actual fact, it's not triple the return, your end result is about 20, just over 20 times the return, so that’s a massive difference.

Say hypothetically, a $50,000 account compounded at that 20% mark, by year 17, that $50,000 is now worth over a million dollars. It's about 1.1 million. It's logarithmic.  Next year, it's no longer $10,000 that you began with per year. It's now $200,000 a year. In actual fact, by the year 17, say you get to a million. All it takes now is three and a half more years from that one million to now double itself to $2million.

It took 17 years to grow to a million dollars from 50 grand but now, only an extra three years to take it to $2million. Another three years to double that again to $4million. This compounding effect is very powerful… That's why Einstein quoted it as the 8th Wonder of the World. Because it just grows logarithmically. Time allows us to grow things. Also, this is why I always say, don't procrastinate and don't wait.  Start, no matter how small, just start and let that seed slowly grow. You'll be surprised at the end result.

Andrew: I'm going to ask the direct question Terry; how do you get 20% returns? If you could offer three lessons from what you've learnt from this share trading. I know that I'm putting you on the spot, but what would be some great tips that you could offer to start getting returns up there?

Terry: The first thing is definitely having a systematic approach. Systematic means that it has to have what they call a positive edge. Every time you put a dollar in, you know systematically what type of average return you'll be able to take out. For example, we've got 10 criteria's and just utilising those 10 fundamental criteria's of being able to methodically select the companies based on the criteria's, you'll literally wipe out 99% of the listed stocks or investments around the planet.

Just imagine, using the 10 criteria's, only 1% actually passed all 10 criteria's, only 1%. Then that makes our job quite easy. There are so many thousands of companies around the world but because only 1% pass, our universe now shrinks to only the best of the best companies that grow year in, year out. The Microsoft's, the Google's, the Facebook's, they get selected and then only invest in those long term.

Once you've invested in them, of course, you need time.

I think the second lesson will probably be patience to allow it to do its thing and not rush it.

Then the third lesson would probably be temperament. Being unemotional about it. You're almost robotic where you know when to buy, you know what to buy, take the action, buy it, allow time and when you make a profit, there's no need to be ecstatic about it. When you make a small loss, it's also no need to be depressed about it. The day goes on and you just go about your activities. Go about basically looking after the land on the farm and going about your day, simple as that.

Andrew: Follow the system. We teach this in business. In Farm Owners Academy we call it the 'TOP Producers Program' and when a farmer follows it and doesn't muck with it, then they get the returns and they get the success.

Terry: Correct.

Andrew: What you've done is you've created a system that when implemented and followed, you get high returns.

Terry: Another thing I want to say Andrew, this is why farmers are so good at investing, because they straightaway already have the patience. The farmers know it's a patience game when they plant the crops, and they allow time to do its thing. That's already a great trait, automatically, all farmers have it. Another is the following a system part. 

We've got a number of farmers on our program and I look at their results and I'm wondering why is it that the farmers do so well? It's because they follow the system and they've got the patience which a lot of city folks don't.

Andrew: In addition to that, Terry, and this is a generalisation but I would say that farmers are so good at working in isolation. They are so good at being focused, they've got the logical mindset to implement and follow a system: step one, step two step three. I just think with that mindset, they have a much higher chance of succeeding with this.

Terry: I can’t agree more.

Andrew: Yes, it's very cool. You mentioned a couple of stocks before Microsoft, Apple etc.

Terry: Yes.

Andrew: I couldn't help but notice they're US stocks and this has been a big eyeopener for me, Terry. Coming into your program and having no idea how to buy a share on the US stock market. I can’t believe how simple it is to do this. Let's just talk a little bit more about the US stocks versus Australian and why you primarily trade in the US markets?

Terry: I migrated to the US in the stock point of view well over a decade ago. The reason being is if you look around Australia, first of all, we are very tiny in terms of the economy, less than 2% of the global economy. In terms of the actual number of companies, you can easily count on one hand the Australian companies that have been able to operate in Australia well but also go overseas and grow. Most companies that need to grow do need to go global. A lot of our companies like Telstra, ANZ, they've gone overseas, lost a bunch of money, they’ve come back.

There are very few Australian companies that actually make it globally, for example, Cochlear or CSL. Most of them actually fail and come back. The US, however, it just opens you to a massive amount of opportunities with all the global companies. I mean, just think about it. Day to day what services and what products do we use right now that you think is only Australian. There’s not many. Every day we turn on a computer and we do our searches on Google, we use Microsoft or Apple as an operating system. Then you go on to the supermarket and you buy say baby powder or whatever - Johnson & Johnson. These are the global companies that are all listed in America.

That's the main reason as most of the great companies are there. The other reason is in terms of available data. The US market is very transparent. You can easily see all the data that's available for free, whilst in Australia, you actually have to pay for it. It's cheaper just operating in the US markets and even brokerage, for example, is literally a small account, it's a dollar to start buying your shares versus if you were to use some of the major brokers in Australia.  To go overseas it costs you $30 to $70 per trade whereas in the US you can pay $1. You're literally paying a fraction of it.

This is why I don't even care about my brokerage I pay anymore because it’s just a dollar or two versus what I used to pay, in the hundreds and thousands every single year.

Andrew: Yes, it's opened my eyes and the advice you gave me Terry, to "start owning the companies you're consuming”. It blew me away! I think that particular day I was on Google, I was using Facebook with Microsoft open on the side. Thinking also about buying a book off Amazon.

All of a sudden, I'm like "These companies are mega companies compared to what we're doing in Australia”. I wish that we had more ability to grow companies like they can in the States. Of course, I want to be part of these companies and not only that, Terry, they've got cash enabling them to acquire the next big companies. They’ve got big growth plans.

Terry: Yes, correct. Just look at Apple, for example. Apple itself, as it currently stands, has got about $250billion in cash sitting in the bank. With that cash, they could literally come into our country and easily acquire two of our major banks and have spare change. You can imagine the size of their cash position, not including the business itself, which is basically a trillion-dollar company now.

Even from the risk mitigation point of view, with these major companies, you can’t see them really having a major problem.  In other words, going bust, because of their size and their dominance in the industry.  Just from the safety aspect, investing in these global giants is actually safer compared to investing in the smaller Australian companies.

Andrew: Yes. There's one more thing I want to talk about which really annoyed me when I first learned it from you, if I’m being really honest. The reason it annoyed me is I am a bit of a risk-taker; I think all business owners are to some degree. There's a bit of risk in buying a farm or there's a bit of risk starting a company because it could go wrong and you’ve put so much effort into one thing.

When I first started your program, I thought “Right! here I am with some money and I want to put the whole lot into, for example, Apple and Facebook” but you taught me about ‘Position Size’ – investing small percentages, for example, 2-5% of your entire portfolio. You also teach, “follow a company, wait for some negative news to hit and then buy some stock”.  It was really annoying at first but I'm so grateful for it now. Can you talk a little bit more about position size, what that means, and why that's so important in investing?

Terry: ‘Position Size’ is just one of my five risk mitigation strategies; no matter how good or how excited you are about the company, we only invest 1-1.5%. People ask “how can you make money from only putting 1-1.5% of your account into that one stock?”

Andrew: Sorry to interrupt. Just put that into context. If you have $100,000 you'll literally only buy $1,000 worth of shares.  So, you’ll own 90-odd stocks.

Terry: People say "Oh, that means you're going to have potentially a lot of stocks" but that's not true because when you buy the 1% in that stock sometimes you might get lucky and it spikes straight away, you make your money and away we go.

Sometimes it has further drops and this is why we position size; you never know, even great companies still have bad times. If it drops further, we actually want to buy more so we don't mind stocks dropping. It's like going shopping and you see groceries on sale. It's great, things we know we need and we know we want, now it's gone down a little bit more, we’ll buy more of it.

You're slowly building up that portfolio with that one stock. We take multiple positions in that one stock and when we get to about 3-5% we stop on that one and now we’re happy. Then we move on to another company that we want to acquire.

Andrew: You mention selecting position size but also learning to value a company. Let’s just put this into context with farming for a moment. I want you to imagine that you know the value of some land to be $2000/acre. All of a sudden your neighbour rings you to say “We really want to sell. We're desperate. We're going to sell it to you at $1,000/acre”. You see this opportunity and you're like, “Wow, I need to buy this”.  Terry, this is essentially what you do.

You taught me to value a company and then have the patience to wait for the news or media to create a push down on that product/business, that’s when I can say “Hang on this business is valuable. This is a no-brainer. This business is doing very well based on your criteria. This is a top 1% business, it's just undervalued right now”.

That's the game-changer, when you understand that you’re just having patience to buy undervalued companies that have potential big upside.

Terry: Yes. Correct. The example you use is perfect. You know the value of the land is $2,000/acre. If someone offers you it for $3000/acre you wouldn't buy it because now its over-value. Yes, you might have cash in the bank, but why would you even think about buying it? Normally, rationally, we wouldn't, but a lot of people do that in the stock market. They get excited about a company's prospects and they overpay for it. Whereas our job is to wait for that neighbour to finally want to sell the land for $1000 then we go "Okay, if it's worth $2000 and they are selling for a $1000, we'll take it." No different to buying stocks that's listed or a company.

We know what something is worth and then we patiently wait for the value to drop, which it will, it's eventual and when there is some negative news or bad press we know it's only temporary and it's still a great business, that's when we go in and we buy it undervalue. By doing that, not only will you make more money but in actual fact you are taking much less risk.

Andrew: Just to summarise what we've spoken about so far Terry, investing is a risk mitigation strategy. Respect the power of compounding over a 15-20 year period and respect the difference between a 10% return and a 20% return, it's significant. Respect the US market and understand there are big companies over there to invest in. Respect position size. Learn how to value a company and buy it when it's undervalued.

Now, is there one last tip or advice you could share with our farmers, Terry?

Terry: One last tip is definitely starting that investment strategy, no matter how small. The reason being, without starting it you'll always be subject to the risks we spoke about; weather dependent, commodity price dependent, grocery store dependent and we want to get rid of those risks. Therefore, it might take time, but at least start the process, no matter how small because that seed will grow to become the oak tree that one day you are going to relax under.

Andrew: Yes, that's great mate. How can our listeners learn more about Freedom Trader and what you do, Terry?

Terry: Usually, like you Andrew, we hold live online webinars or classes.

Andrew: Yes, come along to our webinar. I'll put the details below this. Is that the best way for people to come and learn more?

Terry: Yes, or they can contact me via email but I think to learn more I’d recommend the webinar because it's 90-minutes of pure gold education.  It literally allows you to put everything we spoke about today into action. That 90-minutes is definitely worth the time.  You can register at www.thefreedomtrader.com/farmwealth and I really look forward to being able to help the farmers on a big level as well.

Andrew: I really appreciate your time today. You're gifted at what you do, you're passionate about what you do. Putting it into context as closing thoughts, Terry is able to get a higher return than the likes of Warren Buffet. I remember when I asked you how, you just said because you're moving such smaller money but you implement what these top people do Terry. You study them. You study more than anyone I know in this space. I feel like I'm sitting next to Warren Buffet.

Terry: Thank you.

Andrew: That's what it feels like for me having access to your teachings. I think what you are doing is amazing and I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much Terry.

Terry: No, thanks Andrew for having me.

Andrew: Thank you, take care.

Terry: You too.

In complement to our last two episodes that focus on on-farm culture and team, in this episode, I explore a question we receive often:             When is the right time and how do we best establish an Advisory Board?

There is an important set of business practices and disciplines that need to be in place and effective prior to establishing a Board. It is important that as business owners we retain ownership and full responsibility for key elements of our businesses’ strategic plan, performance analysis, budgets and operational plans. It is important we have reasonable expectations of Board Members and do not expect them to do the ‘hard work’ on these important elements of business leadership for us. It is also important to be very careful who we invite onto our Board, and what we should reasonably expect from them.

Let’s be real for a moment, farm business ownership is a very complex assignment. We are exposed to the vagaries of the season and the markets. We run complex businesses in isolated settings with our families.

To be in the top 20% of our industry – like the elite athletes we see achieving so much presently at the Olympics – it is important that we have the right advisers around us and that we engage with them in a proactive and highly professional way. It is also important that we immerse ourselves with peers and in a community that is growth-oriented, open-minded and committed to excellence.

I feel privileged to be part of the Farm Owner Academy team and community, and I thank all of our Platinum Mastermind and Alumni Members for their contribution to our elite and high-performing community of farming families.

I hope this episode adequately answers these important questions, and challenges you to ensure you have the people you most need around you to support your success. Keep winning!

Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team

What would happen if you grew your business by 10x?

What would need to change? 

Do you think it’s even possible?

What if you knew it was easier to 10x your business rather than 2x it?

In this week’s podcast Andrew will walk you through how to 10x your business.

He shares how he did it with his first business, and the steps you need to go through to achieve it.

In this podcast we explore:

• How 10x thinking is easier than 2x thinking.
• Why 10x thinking will break all previous beliefs holding you back.
• Why you need to let go and be very trusting to 10x.
• How to use leverage to scale your business up.
• The glue that ties everything together and why without it, it’s almost impossible to scale.

Enjoy this week’s free podcast.

FOA

Who sets the vision for your business?  Who is in charge of that?

Is it clear who is in charge, and does this person have clarity on where your business is going?

Is this person clear on their role, and are they good at enrolling the rest of the team towards this vision?

In the episode, Andrew will help you:  

• Learn about the personality traits you need to run a business.
• Why you need a visionary and what this role is.
• Learn what separates small companies from larger companies.
• Why you need a clear vision to attract great people.
• Why it’s difficult to grow without a strong clear vision.
• Why you need high standards to run a great business.
• Why strong leaders play to win and go for what they want.

Andrew will walk you through the below traits, which are all relevant to run a great business.  This was taught to Andrew from a mentor, Creel Price.  Creel built and sold a business for $110m and Andrew was fortunate to be in business with Creel for a year following this.

Enjoy the podcast and please share this with other farmers

Thanks

Farm Owners Academy

How much do you need to achieve financial independence? 

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.