A simple idea to see significant growth in your business…

A simple idea to see significant growth in your business…

My first business (22 years ago now) was a business coaching franchise (called Action Coach). I was part of a global franchise group, and there were about 400 of us in the franchise in Australia.  

It cost me $80k to buy and then $1,500 a month plus 5% of my revenue. 

It was expensive, but I was an apprentice in business coaching and business. 

As part of the franchise, we would attend a 3-day business conference twice a year. 

I would hear what successful coaches were doing, and it was a great way to listen to the latest and greatest ideas. 

After every one of these, the average billing per coach across the board would increase by at least 20%.  

When reflecting, I realised that these conferences were essential. 

It was a considerable effort (expensive and time-consuming) to get to these conferences, but you would leave feeling really motivated, and you would learn from the best. 

During my time at Action Coach (5 years in total), the benchmark of an average coach grew from a billing of $12k per month (per coach) to over $25k per month five years later.   

This is thanks to innovation and people working out how to work smarter. 

Interestingly, the average coach outside of Action Coach was lucky to make $70k a year. 

The thing is, this is available to you… 

Most of you are innovating and finding smarter ways to do things.   

The problem in Ag is this information is often kept to yourself and just not shared. But there are farm owners out there running their business in a way that would cause you to question if it’s even possible. 

When I saw a coach earning $200k a month at Action coach, I was doing maybe $20k a month at the time. So seeing this just made me go ‘wow!’ And then I followed this up with ‘How can I do this myself?’ 

In my last year at Action Coach, I was able to achieve this myself. I did not think I could in my wildest dreams when I first started, though. 

There are three stages to belief: – 

  1. Hear about it 
  2. See it 
  3. Do it

How can you get yourself into a coaching or mastermind program or something where you get to surround yourself with farm owners doing a lot better than you? 

So, you can hear their story, which will shift your paradigm of what is possible. 

It’s vital for you to get out there and attend industry and business events, particularly events where people are encouraged to share and give back and pass on their success (rather than keeping to themselves). 

I would argue that this is your highest priority and would lead to more success than almost anything else. 

Regards, 

Robbo 

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Taking Red Days

Taking Red Days

What I have experienced (meaning this might not be true for you) is my greatest growth has occurred when I have stopped (work), and I am doing nothing.

One of the world’s best coaches is a guy called Dan Sullivan.

I listened to him many years ago, and he said that for a business owner to have maximum impact, they need to be taking a minimum of 7 weeks’ holiday each year.

And his idea of a holiday is completely away from work (not even checking an email). He said this was even more important for a business owner because we work way more than the average 40-hour week (always thinking about the business and what we need to do).

He refers to having a holiday or time away from business as red days.

He explained that you don’t get growth by going to the gym.  


The growth occurs in between sessions (when you are resting).

This is why someone going to the gym less can actually have more growth than someone working the same muscle groups daily.

When you are well-rested, you just feel better.

When you feel better, you do better quality work.

Dan Sullivan talks about good productive days as green days.

Orange days are when you are working but are not super productive.

He argues that it is wiser to do more green days (fully productive) and red days (not doing anything) and aim to remove the orange days (those days where you do stuff, but you are not really into it).

He argues that you are smarter taking more red days, as this will lead to more green days (having experienced this myself, I would say this is 100% true for me).

I’ve also found that amazing ideas come to me when I have red days. And it’s usually after a two or 3-week break.

I just seem to find something to get really excited and motivated about, so I feel energised when I come back to work.

It really is true that one hour of inspired work beats 6 hours of uninspired work. So, often after an extended break, I will achieve more in that first month than in the five months leading into the break.

I’m not sure if you can relate to this?

When you feel deeply rested and have had a break for a good three weeks, do you get excited about getting back into it?

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that as a coaching company, one of our BEST strategies to help a farm owner is to tell them to STOP.  


Go and do nothing for a while and give your body and brain a break. Then, recharge, and watch what happens when you come back. 


I hope this motivates just one person that it’s ok to STOP and let your body heal, and you will come back supercharged and ready. 

 

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Our succession meeting with Dad lasted less than 1 minute

Our succession meeting with Dad lasted less than 1 minute

Our succession meeting with Dad lasted less than 1 minute… 

I remember the day when Dad called my brothers and me into the office. 

‘We need to talk about money’, he said. 

I was 17 at the time, and I thought I was about to hit a bit of a jackpot. 

I was wrong. 

We all sat down facing his office desk, and he started: ‘your mother and I have made a decision. We are not going to give you boys any money or any inheritance. In the next year or so, we will sell this farm and need the money to live. We have educated you, but it stops there.’ 

We all just nodded, and that was the end of the meeting. 

You would think that I may have felt rather upset that day, but instead, something magic happened to me. I have spoken to my brothers about this, and they also agree. 

That was when each of us decided:  

‘if it is to be, it is up to me’ – William Johnsen

I knew from that day that I was responsible for my destiny, and there was no plan B. 

Mum and dad have since sold the farm and moved to the Sunshine Coast, and true to their word, there has never been a payment or handout. My brothers and I couldn’t be happier about this – we also all live here, catch up regularly, and don’t ever have any issues with money or fighting over inheritance.  

Don’t get me wrong, we still have our differences, but it’s nice knowing we have our own independence and are trying to do the best we can. 

There is an excellent story of a child that finds a butterfly struggling to fly. It has just emerged from its cocoon, and the child wants to help. So he tries to straighten the butterfly’s wings. After a few hours, the butterfly is still struggling, so he takes it to his dad, who is a vet. The dad explains to the child that the butterfly needs to be left alone – it needs to find strength in its wings to fly, and trying to help it will actually hurt it. 

I love this story, and I have found that some of the greatest lessons I have learned have come in my most challenging times.  

In my early days of running a business, I rang dad and asked to borrow $5k. He said no. It hurt me at the time, but I spoke with him about this later, and he did this to me as a favour. He helped me access another layer of creativity and resourcefulness by saying no. I had to think outside the box to find that money, and I could.  

The fact that mum and dad helped us with our education was, in hindsight, the best inheritance we could have ever had. 

Robbo 

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[Free Download] our money mastery checklist used to create a freedom farm

[Free Download] our money mastery checklist used to create a freedom farm

The first time my Dad taught me how to shear a sheep is a day I don’t want to remember.

… dragging it out of the pen
… trying to hold it still
… getting my head around how to grip the handpiece


The whole thing ended in a mess, and let’s just say that was the most unlucky sheep in the shed – to have me as its shearer that day!


I was 14, and I thought shearing a sheep would be easy. But instead, dad just laughed and invited me to have a go.


My confidence didn’t last long.


If there was a record for the slowest sheep shorn, I would have won (and I had probably left 80% of the wool on).


By the time I finished (at least an hour later), highly frustrated and very angry at the sheep, I vowed never to do it again. Dad laughed again as I walked off, sneering, ‘stupid handpiece, stupid shear, stupid idea.’


There is a skill to it – there is more to it than first meets the eye.


Making a profit is no different. It’s a skill.


It’s a skill that anyone can learn, and there are 3 phases to achieve what we call ‘Money Mastery.’

1. Base
2. Intermediary
3. Advanced


If you lack the skill, you can still make a profit – but like how I left 80% of the wool on the sheep that day, you could also be leaving 80% of the profit on the table. AND you could be more frustrated and stressed than you need to be.


Farm Owners Academy has an excellent  Base, Intermediary, and Advanced money mastery checklist. If you can place a tick next to the 27 items on the list, you will be highly advanced and maximise your profit targets.


If you want the checklist, just click here and you can download it.


It’s great to have handy when you set your goals for the year.


I have complete respect for people that can shear.


Robbo

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Could you take 18 months off from your business? This is how I did it…

Could you take 18 months off from your business? This is how I did it…

G’day there,

Andrew (Robbo) Roberts here.  I helped co-found Farm Owners Academy with Greg Johnsson.

I’ve recently returned after 18 months off (I took some time out to deal with two little boys under 2). Here I am with my family – Oscar, me, Jamie and my wife Sonja (Sunny).

I will be sharing my experiences with you each week with a blog post, so please stick around as I want to add as much value to you as possible.

The focus of these posts is to help you realise the mission that sits behind Farm Owners Academy – which is helping you run a freedom farm.

A freedom farm is a highly profitable business that can work without you.

I feel I have a lot of experience in this area, as I have now built three companies that have achieved this.

But please note…I am still a student, still learning, and I am certainly not a know it all, but I do want to share some insights into how you can also create this for you and your family.

I love business.

For me, it’s a game (a very hard game to play).

I love the challenge of business, and I love the growth you can go through as a person. However, business really tests you and can knock your confidence if you are not careful, leading to excess stress and unhealthy patterns and behaviours (I’ve been there and done all of this).

But if you can master it, I believe you can really master your life.

Growing a great company gets you to look in the mirror and helps you look for ways to become a better person. And this is what drives me to keep coaching and helping you.
It’s helping you become the person that you were born to be.

So I am going to start with my first tip.

A goal is simply a dream with a deadline.

If you want to run a freedom farm, the first thing you need to set is the date by which you want to achieve this goal.

For example:

It’s July 1, 2030, and our farm is running completely without me. We are profiting [insert your dream profit goal here], and I can comfortably take six months off to travel with my family [or you can change this part].

That’s it.

Have this written down, and stick it somewhere so you see it daily. 

Don’t worry about how you will achieve this. You don’t need to know.

The goal is nothing but a stamp in the ground that now tells your brain you are on a journey to something great.

And notice how I have written this as though it has already happened? This is important. 

You need to write down your goals as though you already have them. The more specific you are with your goal, the higher your chance of getting it.

Look out for the posts I will be sharing over the next few months.

We will be diving into the world of money and what holds you back from having all the wealth you ever thought was possible so you can live a happy and abundant life.

Thanks for being part of the Farm Owners community

Regards

Robbo

P.S. I am now on Twitter… please follow me https://twitter.com/robbofoa

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Interview with Greg Johnsson

Interview with Greg Johnsson


Greg Johnsson – veterinary business owner and specialist sheep consultant.  Greg’s passion for improving enterprise productivity and profitability for commercial sheep farmers has spanned for almost 40 decades through the activities of his consultancy group, the Kangaroo Island Sheep Production Group.

In this video, Greg explains why he developed the Farm Owners Academy, talks through some of the modules covered in the program and the benefits you will get from attending our event.

  • How your attitude can impact your business outcomes
  • Achieving breakthroughs to get a high profit business with less stress and input
  • Optimising productivity

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