Do you love to work hard?  
 
Do you see yourself as a doer?  
 
Do you have the attitude, ‘If there is a job to be done, then get out of my way and let me do it?’ 
  
This attitude has served you because things get done. 
  
A real theme in the Agriculture industry is to be a hard worker. This was most likely passed down from the generations before you. Farmers are incredibly proud people and will often find pride in being hard workers.  

Whilst this has served you, it’s also essential to look at some of the challenges if you have this attitude. For example:  

• Do you feel guilty when you are not working?
• Do you feel there is always more to do? 
• Is it hard for you to stop and slow down, even on holidays? 
• Do you work a little longer and, consequently, see a little less of your family? 
• Do you occasionally have a conflict with your partner because they want you around more to help out around the house and the family? 
• Do you find it hard to employ people because most can’t do the job as well as you?
• Do you get frustrated with lazy people and think they are hopeless? 

To become a true business leader, you must challenge your identity and belief system. There is no other way around it.

Working hard is an ingrained belief system that took years to create, so it can take a little while to undo.   
  
We are not saying that working hard is wrong – but more an opportunity to challenge your beliefs and your identity and to realise that possibly there is a different way to go about things.     
  
Great business leaders lead from the back of the ship, not the front.  
 
In other words, they understand that it’s okay not to be that person that is first in to get things done.  
 
To run a great business, you need to start sacking yourself from most things that need doing.   
  
Hire great people, then get out of their way.  
  
It’s important to let others have a go, and it’s okay to be the lifted, not the lifter.   
  
Sometimes you need to stand back and let others do the work, so you can let go and free up some time. 

Your guilt is fear and is something that can be removed if you do a little bit of internal work.  
  
This is not always about you working less. We know many of you hate this idea.  However, learning these skills will allow you to work on higher priority things OR take a bit more time off and learn to relax and enjoy life more. 
  
Charlie Mort from Mort and Co has never worked a day in his life in a feedlot. Yet he is still a busy and productive entrepreneur. This has helped his business move to annual revenue of over $700 million.  If he was trapped in the feedlot as a worker, then it would be impossible to create something at this scale.   
  
More than 90% of your success is a mindset. This is what we mean by sometimes you are smarter to be educated to change direction rather than motivated to speed up. 
 
Robbo 

• An accountant spends three years studying their craft 
• A lawyer spends five years studying their craft 
• A doctor spends seven years studying their craft

• They haven’t been shown how to lead a business and make strategic decisions.
• They don’t know how to think and plan strategically and work out the highest priorities (the 20% of tasks that bring them their biggest results).
• They have no idea how to recruit staff, write job roles and then retain and lead their employees.
• Marketing is foreign to them, and they neglect it.
• They have no clue about creating systems to maximise efficiency and get team members to follow these systems.
• They were not aware of the rigour you need in financial management and how to budget and make good decisions from interpreting the numbers
• And they certainly weren’t prepared for all of the administration that comes with running a business!

• The better this is for the agriculture industry;
• The more the younger generation of farmers will want to get involved;
• The better your community functions (more money always brings greater opportunities);
• The more jobs are created and people are employed; and
• The more you can have an incredible life making good money and enjoying some much-deserved time off doing what you love.

• A proven system to help run your business;
• More clarity and excitement about the future and lots of energy to implement what you have learned;
• An annual audit of what you need to work on each year to keep your business running at maximum efficiency;
• A solid understanding of business mastery. We call this TRANSFORM, and it’s all about getting the basics in place, which gets you out of ‘winging it’ and into you taking complete control and knowing what you are doing;
• A great understanding of what makes money in farming and what you could look at delegating (and how to do this); and
• How to enjoy more time off without it costing your bottom line!

I had a really interesting chat with a client last week about why we don’t always do what we know we should when we run our own business. I told him why I think this occurs by relaying the story below from when I was an employee. 

Many years back, I was a sales executive with Telstra and had a monthly sales budget (I needed to make $120k of new sales every month). 

What motivated me to achieve this budget was simple; If I didn’t reach it, my job was in jeopardy, and if I did reach it, I was rewarded with bonuses (which multiplied each time I exceeded my target).  

Catching the train to work one morning, I was listening to a CD by Brian Tracy.   

He said, ‘Why don’t you go to work today and ask your boss; what it would take for them to pay you twice as much and give you a promotion?’  

I remember the excitement and fear that built up inside me when I heard this. Could I really go and ask my boss this question?  

I decided to face my fears and booked a meeting with the boss that day. 

I swallowed, smiled, and with a nervous touch to my voice, asked, ‘What will it take for you to pay me twice as much as you do now and give me a promotion?’ 

Steve (my boss) looked quite shocked at this question.   

After what felt like ten minutes of silence (but was probably only thirty seconds), Steve replied, ‘Andrew – give me 200% of your sales budget for the next six months and I will double your pay and ensure you get a promotion within the company.’  

I was so excited; I could hardly believe it could be so simple. Finally, we confirmed the agreement in writing, and my 6-month goal was set to begin the following week. 

Six months later, I achieved my goal and was so pleased when my boss honoured his side of the deal, and I received a 100% pay increase and a promotion.  

Within two months of taking the promotion and with growing confidence, I decided to quit my job and start my own business as a coach.

And this is where the trouble started.   

Like most people, I started my business journey full of excitement, believing I would now ‘live the dream.’ 

The problem was, I didn’t have anyone giving me a set target, nor did I have a structure that said, ‘make this X calls, and you will get these results.’   

I didn’t have a plan describing what activity I would do to get results.
  
If I didn’t do the work, there was no one to tell me my job was in trouble because I wasn’t doing the work. 

There was no one to keep me accountable, ensuring that I hit my budgets and goals.  As a result, that first year in business was one of the toughest years I have ever been through.   

My plans completely backfired.   

Like many people, I went into business because I wanted the freedom to do what I wanted in my own time.    

The truth is, running your own business sounds great, but it can create a BIG PROBLEM. By taking advantage of this freedom, I almost went broke in the process. 

I see the same scenario being played out all the time.   

Farm owners can move from being an employee, where they have a set of KPIs and objectives, to running their own business because they want the freedom to live a great life.   

The problem is, they, like me, don’t hold themselves accountable and therefore don’t do the things that MUST be adopted to run a successful company.   

We ALL get caught up doing the things that are EASY but not $$ productive and then wonder why we haven’t achieved the initial dreams we set out with.

Did you know that people who are held accountable are 90% more likely to achieve their goals than people who aren’t?   

That is why I decided to invest in accountability from my 2nd year.   
I couldn’t afford it but knew that was the exact reason I needed to do it.  
My first accountability mentor knew what KPIs I needed to set and what activities I needed to do. 

Very quickly, my business had positive results because I was doing the right things again. I was back on track. Nine years later, I still invest in accountability and always will. There are three types of accountability in my life;

I believe a psychological shift happens when people move from Employee to Business Owner.  

We need to re-create our role as if we are still employees, i.e. write our job description and put some KPIs around our role.  

We then need to get someone to help us review this and help us stick to it. The results will come quicker than you can imagine.

Have a profitable week, 

Andrew

19 Tips From 22 Years of Coaching… 

Have a great week,

Robbo

We all have an identity, and we all operate from a set of beliefs. 
 

These have been built up over many years, and most of it is now operating from your subconscious – which means that you might not even be aware of them. 
 

The ego is why so people don’t like to receive critical feedback. The ego feels attacked, but the person often giving the feedback just wants to help you. 
 

The ego also wants to figure everything out by itself. So it feels guilty asking for help because it might send a ‘signal’ out that you don’t know, and the ego thinks it should. 
 

Far out, I have battled a lot with this over the years. 
 

Growing up on a farm, I always wanted to prove myself to my dad. I wanted to prove that I could do any job, and I got really angry if I couldn’t do it. So at times, I would not listen to dad as I believed I knew what needed to be done (I didn’t).   
 

I carried this into business, and for the first two years, I really thought I could figure everything out. 
 

The reality was completely different. These ended up being two of the toughest years of my life. It ended in a complete emotional meltdown for me.   
 

But then I just surrendered (it’s funny how this can happen when you reach a breakdown). 
 

In other words, for the first time ever, I did exactly what my coach told me. Usually, I wanted to do it my way (ego), but this time I put my ego to one side and trusted.  
 

And this really was the turning point for my business and my life. After that, I trusted him (he was much more successful than me), I did everything he said, and a few years later, I was running a great business. 
 

When you work on your business, you need to disconnect yourself from your ego and your past beliefs and make decisions for the greater good of the company. 

Sometimes, you may have to realise that you are not the best person to lead your company (this can be a tough decision).
 

Running your business is not about you.   
 

It’s a separate entity to you that should be treated very differently and as such, decisions need to make for its greater good (not always your greater good). And often, these decisions mean you admitting you don’t know it, aren’t the best person etc.
 

Once you learn to drop your ego, your business has a chance of reaching its potential. 
 

It takes a lot of courage for someone to do this (drop their ego). 
 

Robbo 
 

P.S. Please ensure you get a coach to help you navigate this process, as it makes it much easier. Let us know if you want to see if we can help you by emailing [email protected] and put in the subject line ‘interested’ and we can make contact. 

Farm owners are some of the richest people in the world. Many are in the top 1% when it comes to wealth.
 
In the end, you only need so much money, and many farm owners now have more wealth than they will ever spend. 
 
If you have a net worth of more than 3 million dollars, please know… you are rich.   
 
What are you going to do about this? 
 
Are you going to allow your wealth to keep growing (and risk being the richest person in the graveyard), or are you going to find ways to use this wealth for good use?   
 
I believe that wealth and money bring responsibility.  
 
Excess wealth can offer you a way to look for how you can use this to benefit your community or the world in some way. 
 
So many farm owners have a lazy balance sheet. That is, they have more than enough equity that can be used for adding value. But they fear losing it OR get too focused on simply getting bigger (often driven by an ego). 
 
If you are sitting on a massive asset and it’s not being used, then wouldn’t you also agree that this is a slight waste of resources?  
 
Using your wealth could be as simple as investing your money.   
 
Buying a house and renting it out is at least allowing someone else to live under a roof.  
 
There are also other ways to use the wealth:  
 

• Could you loan it out to someone that needs a leg up? 
• Could you help someone start or buy a business to use these funds productively (maybe it also allows you an opportunity to add value outside of your farm)? 
• Where can you donate some of your wealth to help people in need? 

Ultimately, our lives are measured by how much we give, not by how much we get, and it’s easy to get tricked into chasing even more wealth (when we really don’t need it).  Go after it for sure, but I think the trick is to link this extra growth with adding more value in whatever way you can to society. 
 
The time to give and helps others is when you are alive. 
 
Oh – if you have a large asset but lack the cash flow (asset rich but cash poor), then speak to us. This is what we do, and we are experts at helping you maximise your returns to make your asset as productive as possible. Reply to this email if you want further information about our Platinum Mastermind Program. 
 
Robbo