Episode 45 - Alice Mabin on her Clarkson's Farm like moment.....

Alice Mabin has done a lot in the Ag space, a hell of a lot. It would almost be safe to say more than anyone her age, and she's still only young. She has a creative mind, and she gets the Ag and Farming thing. 

Alice has a saying she keeps telling herself: "What would I be doing if I only had 6 months to live?" She builds her life around this statement. It stems from having a horse accident at 15, where she was resuscitated 3 times, spent 3 weeks in a coma and 4 months in hospital. In typical Alice style, she said it was the best thing that had happened to her because it changed the course of her life. And what a life it has been. 

She started her working life in the Ag corporate space, working for Zoetis, selling Animal Health products to Farmers. It was in this role that she saw a gap in the market: that our promotion of Ag and storytelling was really poor and needed improvement. So she started her own business called Agrishots, where she tells the story of Ag through photography, and now something else. That something else has led Alice to her biggest project yet. Film. And this is where she had her big Clarkson's Farm-like moment, but she is doing it in a different way. 

This is a documentary series about Farming's relationship with the non-Farming society. It's food-related, and I will let her explain the narrative. This could be huge for Ag (take a look at the trailer here), it could change the way we tell our stories, it could be how we get cut through to our city cousins. It's an 8-part series that Alice hopes will be released in the middle of 2026, with series 2 and 3 to follow. 

This is a fantastic interview that I think you will enjoy. End of message.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi everyone, Dwayne Duckson here with the Farmers Club Private Podcast. We do these podcasts in conjunction with our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for farmers. Go to farmtender.com.au and sign up from there. This interview is with Alice Maven. Alice has done a lot in the ag space. A hell of a lot. It would be safe to say more than anyone her age, and she's still only young. She has a creative mind and she gets the ag and farming thing. Alice has a saying, she keeps telling herself, what would I be doing if I only had six months to live? She builds her life around this statement, and it stems from having a horse accident at 15 years of age, where she was resuscitated three times, spent three weeks in a coma, and four months in hospital. In typical Alice style, she said it was the best thing that had happened to her because it changed the course of her life. And what a life it's been. She started her working life in the ag corporate space, working for Zoetis, selling animal health products to farmers. It was in that role that she saw a gap in the market. That our promotion of ag and the storytelling was really poor and needed improvement. So she started her own business called AgriShops, where she tells the story of ag through photography and now through something else. That something else has led Alice to her biggest project yet. Film. This is where she had her big Clarkson farm-like moment, but she's doing it in a different way. This is a documentary series about farming's relationship with the non-farming society. It's food related, and I will let her explain the narrative. This could be huge for AG. It could change the way we tell our stories. It could be how we get cut through with our city cousins. It's an eight-part series that Alice hopes will be released in the middle of 2026. And then there's series two and three to follow. This is a fantastic interview that I think you will enjoy. End a message. Welcome along, Al.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

Hi, how you going?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Going well, thanks. Now we start our podcast with this question. And where where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Um well you'll pick it really quickly from my accent from New Zealand. I grew up um uh in Hawke's Bay, which is on the east coast of the North Island in New Zealand, um, on a sheep uh beef and deer farm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

And I heard the other day that there's over a hundred thousand people in came migrated from New Zealand to Australia in 2025. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

They're intelligent people.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yes, must be.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

So I actually don't identify anymore. I I I'm now, after 20 years, I'm now a citizen of Australia. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, right. Well done. And where did you go to school? And what sort of things were you interested at uh school?

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Um, I went to school at at Hastings Girls High School, so just a public school education, and I was horse mad. So yeah, growing up from before I could walk, um, I rode horses. Thankfully, my grandfather um really saw that I was into it, and he brought me my first pony, which her name was actually Vodka. And uh she was just an incredible horse that taught me so much, and I was really fortunate to end up riding for a uh a stud. And I had a coach that was, you know, an Olympic grade coach, and I did a lot of show jumping. So I was sort of known as the girl that went to school three days a week because four days a week I was away somewhere in the country riding horses and competing. And um, and you know, before school I would uh I would get up at sort of half past three in the morning and I'd be at the race course by 4 a.m. and I'd ride racehorses till about eight o'clock, and then I'd go and have a shower at a friend's place and go to school. So it was just horses, horses, horses for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

And are you still mad on horses?

SPEAKER_04 4:58

No. No, I grew out of it. Yeah, thankfully I left that behind. And I guess I'm pretty lucky that, you know, as I said, I rode for a stud, so thankfully I didn't have the um the costs associated with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

That those who do it uh for themselves do.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Very expensive these days, isn't it? Um and we're talking before, and you said you had an accident. What happened there?

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Yeah, I did. When I was 15, um, I was trialing for um the New Zealand venting team and I had an accident on the on the cross-country course, and um I actually don't remember a lot uh about it. I've got very little memory of life before my accident, but um I the horse flipped and landed on my head, and so I spent um three weeks in a coma and about four months, yeah. The whole first term of school in uh in hospital and rehab learning to you know walk and talk again. I was resuscitated three times in the first week. And yeah, it's um I actually I actually got my um medical records back, oh, it must have been about 20 2018, I decided to find them. You know, one of the things I hated the most about um after my accident was when I, you know, got to go back to school. There was rumors I'd lost limbs and died and all these things, you know, and and um I went back to school and I was always I was always a different thinker at school. And so when I would say something that would be different to the masses, my teachers used to say to me, Oh, that's just your head injury talking, Alice. And I'm like, no, it's not.

SPEAKER_05 6:33

Like I'm fully aware of what I'm saying and I, you know, I'm allowed to have a different opinion on something. And so it just really frustrated me because I got wrapped up in cotton wool and you know, they would literally blame my head injury.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

So I I just vowed to myself that the minute I left school, I would never ever mention it to anyone again because you know, I didn't want to be put in a box or to have or whatever. So I never talked about it. And then um, when I uh was on the cattle drive, you know, the the Brinkworth cattle drive back in 2013, there was a young kid there that had had a head injury and you know he was he'd been given a diagnosis and believed the doctors and all these things and said he couldn't do this and couldn't do that. And I was just like, nah, you're all right, mate. You you're fine. And and that's when I told him about mine, and it was really the first time I spoke about it. And um, and so then yeah, I actually um you know went back to the hospital and said, Could you send me my medical records? And you know, it was quite the journey to unpack what uh what was said and what went on and you know look at look at all of that stuff, which has been a it's probably been a really therapeutic journey for me too to to look at it and to listen to other people's recollection, you know, recollection of that day and what they saw and how it was for them. And you know, obviously there's been a lot of years since it, but yeah, it was scary for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

I bet. Um do you reckon it changed the way you looked at things after the accident? Like something like when something like that happens, do you do you know change go in a different direction to what you were before?

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Yeah, 100%. Like um I I'm almost really glad it did happen in a in a weird sort of way because if it hadn't, who would I be today? What would I be doing? Would I still be living in the small town that I grew up in? You know, what would I have done? Whereas for me, you know, when I got out and and I was rebuilding my life, it was like, hey, I'm I'm I'm being given a second chance here. I'm gonna do everything I can to um, you know, to to live life to the fullest, you know, and I sort of created this line that I would ask myself, you know, whenever I got too comfortable, it's like, hey, if you were told you had six months to live, what would you do with your life? And, you know, I'd ask myself that question. I'm like, oh, I want to go and live in Canada, I want to go and do this, I want to go and do that. Right, let's make it happen, you know, and so I did. I just, you know, kept kept doing those things. So it, yeah, it certainly did give me a really different appreciation. And and often actually in all of the years that I've been traveling in Australia, you'll meet lots of people, especially older people doing the standard got to 65, retire, go and travel Australia thing. Um, you'll meet them and they'll say, Yeah, no, my husband or my wife had a stroke or a heart attack, and we realise life's too short just to work for someone else. We're gonna go and, you know, see Australia and do these things. And I think to myself, like, that's really awesome that you finally worked that out. But a lot of them are at the point in their life where their bodies are starting to, you know, not be as good. So they can't walk down into King's Canyon or they can't walk up into the Quanis Plains and the Quanis Museum and in Winton and things, you know, and you just go, or long reach, sorry. And um, and you just think, you know, if only you'd worked that out a bit earlier. And and I think we are seeing a lot more young people now that are going, we're gonna take our kids around Australia young and we're gonna go and see this stuff now while while we can.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Like that sort of adversity is not great at the time, but yeah, it sounds like you know, good things come of it.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

Absolutely. And I think, you know, yeah, at the time I was like, you know, why me? This is all the classic stuff that we go through. Um, but yeah, when I look back at it, I just think I'm really, really fortunate. I, you know, I could have taken a different path as well. I could have taken the path of, oh, you've got a head injury, you know, you know, clip a ticket with with a system for the rest of your life and you know, not do a lot. But uh that just thankfully that was never never my MO. And here we are.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, yeah. And tell us about your early working life. What what did you do when you left school?

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Um, so I went to university to um to study and I just did a Bachelor of Science there. Um, but I was really just really passionate about agriculture. You know, I grew up on a farm, loved helping on the farm, you know, working, would always be out riding and helping with mustering and things. And it was really my thing. And I also loved working dogs, you know. So I um when I was at uni, I actually used to go through to um to Wanaker and work at a station there on the weekends, and I found a way to actually live at the station and just come back to uni for the things that I had to, and I'd take all my courses online. And so I spent most of my time farming and I, you know, slowly brought a team of dogs and working dogs, and then I went, you know what, this is like it's not for me. I don't want to do the university thing, I don't want to go and you know do all of these uh different things. I had considered, you know, going and doing vet, um, but by the time we got the chance to cross-credit over, they actually stopped that process. So I was like, Bachelor of Science will do me. I'm going farming. So um, so yeah, that that's what I did. And I I just fell in love with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Really? And and you you had spent a bit of time in the corporate world, did you, doing in the agricultural corporate world?

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Yeah, I did. So when I was in New Zealand and I was working on a station, um, I actually saw a job advertised um for a Jillaroos role here in Australia, and I rang up about it and I flew over and I interviewed for the job, you know, and I've come from the steep mountains of central Otago, and I got this job, and I came to Australia, and it was, you know, the hay plains, the flattest, most treeless place on earth. So um it was a really stark uh change for me and for my dogs, and I just loved it. I absolutely loved working on the land here. Um, but unfortunately, I had uh came off a motorbike one day and broke my leg, and the doctor said, no, you'll never farm again. And I don't know why I listened to them, but I sold all my dogs and um went about, you know, trying to find a new job. And I thought, well, I still want to be in agriculture. So what can I do? So I actually started applying for a heap of jobs at like landmark and CRT and elders, and I kept getting knocked back. You know, I got the line of, oh, you know, um, thank you for your application, but we've taken someone with, you know, seven years experience. And I got to the point where it was just happening so often that I said to one of them, I was like, that's fine, but what are you gonna do when that generation of people runs out and you haven't bothered to train anyone new, you know? And uh and and I just left it at that. It was pretty frustrating because we were heading into the recession, it was like 2007 then. And um, anyway, I got a call from from Pfizer at the time, who are now Zoetis, and someone had sort of yeah, given them a tip-off about me, and they wanted me to go back to New Zealand, but I just was not interested in leaving Australia, like I'd just fallen in love with the red dirt, and I was here to stay. But anyway, they came over and they interviewed me in Australia and uh offered me the job, and so I took it and I said, but with the proviso that the first point that a job comes up in Aussie, I want to go back.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

Um, you know, which they said yes. And so yeah, I ended up going back to New Zealand and and working in um, you know, animal health um products and uh reproductive diseases and in cattle and genetics and all of that. So I launched quite a few really cool uh products through New Zealand and then ended up doing a bit overseas for them and then yeah, came back to Australia. So it went around eventually, but it took a while.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

No, that's the way you went around to farms when you were doing that, sort of was it more like a sales role or was it just an education about the products?

SPEAKER_04 14:39

Yeah, it was yeah, it was very much a sales role. But I think because the company um, you know, really cottoned on to my engagement and my my interaction and you know my deeper involvement in agriculture, I ended up, you know, running a lot of trials and things like that for products and and um you know doing a lot of um yeah, pharma campaigns and different things. So yeah, I I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. But I I just got to the point where I again I asked that question, if you had six months to live, what would you do? And it was like, you know what, I don't want great Pfizer rep written on my gravestone. And one of the um one of the things that frustrated me the most about working for for the company, you know, like it it was a fantastic ground for learning how a business runs, you know, playing with someone else's money, you know, running campaigns, doing really cool things and and yeah, getting a really great business foundation. But one of the things that really frustrated me was that they had such poor marketing materials, like everything we had to show the farmer, I was really embarrassed to show them because it just wasn't Australian, it wasn't indicative of how we farm here. And so I went, I just thought to myself, you know, there's a gap here. And and Pfizer's not the only one with this issue. All of these companies use all these Americanized images or images that aren't actually, you know, indicative of what we do here. I'm like, I reckon, I reckon I could fill this gap and start a business, you know. So yeah, I I took a um, I did a diploma in photography and started teaching myself. And I got back from a big trip that I'd won overseas with Pfizer and went, that's it. I quit.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

And then you went out on your own and started your own business.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Yeah, so my initial plan was actually to um to do sort of like stud stock photography because a lot of my customers were studs, and I could see, you know, they put so much work and effort into breeding these wonderful rams and wonderful bulls, and and then the marketing really falls away at the side. And I thought, you know, I could help these clients do this, and I could actually still do what I do for Pfizer. So I have, you know, two lots of skills that I can offer um these guys, and um, and so that was my initial initial plan was to do that and have a stud stock photography business. But then um the the Brinkworth cattle drive was happening. So, you know, Tom Brook Brinkworth brought the 18,000 head of cattle and was walking them down, you know, from Winter to Hay. And um, and I just went out one weekend to take some photos for the weekend, you know, practicing with my new camera and getting going. And um, I got thrown on a horse and uh I never came home. So yeah, staying with him and rest is history. Yeah, yeah. I ended up taking all these photos and and then you know the concept came up about, you know, why don't you do a book about it? So so I did and you know put it together and and yeah, then started the self-publishing journey because the the publishing model was just, you know, they said the first email I got back from them was, you know, who wants a book about dirty old drovers? No, we don't want to publish this for you. And um by that stage I'd gone, you know, I'm not gonna let someone else dictate, you know, my success here. I'm gonna take the ball by the horns. And I knew that um like Landline and 60 Minutes were doing stories on it. So I thought, I've got to get this out before they bring out their show because that's gonna help my marketing. It's gonna, you know, refresh it in people's minds and they're gonna remember it. And then I've got the the book to go with it, so yeah, I I worked really hard to to get that out.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

And yeah, that feels like it feels like so long ago that journey.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

And what was the idea behind a book and how did you how did you market it? Like, how did you get it out there?

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Um I guess you know, a a picture says a thousand words, and and uh it was in an era where you know people would say to me, no one reads books anymore, Alice, and I'm like, yeah, I I I get where you're coming from, you know, audiobooks were coming out and people are just busy and things. And I was like, but I think I think this has got, I think this has got a place, you know. So I um, as I said, yeah, I tried with um publishers, they didn't want to know me, which also then sort of meant that um your major book chains wouldn't have anything to do with me because they normally do a consignment type deal with publishing houses. So I I had to go about it a different way. So I actually started marketing the books and going back down the stock route through all the towns where the cattle went past because they had a direct affiliation with the story. And um I would, you know, try and put it in a pharmacy or a news agent or a coffee shop or a butcher shop or the supermarket or the local, you know, Mita 10 or wherever people went on a daily basis, you know, even saddleries, because that's the type of people who would have been into the book, you know, that's where they shop. And um, it it sounded like a great idea at the time, yeah. But um, when I started this process, no, I got absolute shutdown. You know, we're not a bookshop, we don't we don't stop books, people don't read books, we didn't appreciate those cows coming down here, you know. Um, no one buys books anymore, that's too expensive, no one's gonna pay for it.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

You know, all of the things came out, and I I probably did this for about three days, and I, you know, the energy and the motivation really started to fall, and I thought, shit, what have I done here?

SPEAKER_04 20:11

What was the turning point? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

What was the turning point?

SPEAKER_04 20:15

What um I just decided the best thing I could do was give them all away. Yeah, I went, okay, I've really stuffed up here. This isn't gonna work, people don't want it. My old boss was right, you can't make a living out of photography. Um, you know, but I I'm I'm a person that can live and learn, and I'll pick myself up and I'll go again. So let's just get rid of all of these books. And so I just gave them all away to the shops. I said, Oh, look, here's a poster, here's the books, do what you want. No one says they want to be here, give it a go. And, you know, I'd get between towns, like you'd get sort of 20, 30ks out of a town, as you know, in the bush, and there'd be no reception. Starlink wasn't a thing back then, and um, you'd lose, lose reception, but they've already rung you going, Hey, we've run out of books, have you got more books? You know, so you'd get to the next town and you've had this voice message saying, We've already sold out, and so all of a sudden it just went absolute gangbusters and boom, and so I had to print more books, which I had no money, so I had to sell my car to pay to print more books, so I've got no car, no job, no books, you know, no money still. It was it was pretty it was pretty hectic. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Did you did you keep giving them away or did you eventually put a price on them?

SPEAKER_04 21:29

Yeah, so no, after after people realized that it was something that people would really like and that it would sell, um, yeah, I did uh I did sell them to to shops and away it went. And then, you know, and then the next question, what's your next book, Alice? What are you doing next?

SPEAKER_00 21:44

And I'm like, And what do you do next?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

I haven't thought about that, you know. Oh well, next I was hit by a truck in my car on the Sunshine Coast.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

So I thought, G trucks are really important. No, no one has any appreciations. How everything in their house, everything they deal with, is delivered on the back of a truck. What a great subject for a book. So then I spent 18 months hitchhiking around Australia, learning to drive trucks and you know, documenting the whole paddock-to-plate process of why trucks are important and uh and put the driver together. And then when I went back to all of those shops to try and sell it to them, here's my second book, you've asked for it. They all went, No way. We don't want that. We don't like trucks. No one likes trucks. Trucks are terrible, you know, like trucks get a bad rat, that's all we see.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

And I went, Oh, I can't win. So then I had to implore, you know, the next tactics.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

And I said, Well, just do me a favor. Every time someone comes in the door today to buy their lotto ticket or their newspaper or whatever, just ask them if they know someone who drives a truck. And just make a dash on a sheet, yes or no. And same thing. Within an hour, they're ringing me going, You're right, Alice. Everyone knows someone who drives a truck. People really want this. And they do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

We we write about it a bit, how like it complements agriculture, the freight industry so much, and we'd be stuffed without it. So we sort of put it in the same bracket.

SPEAKER_04 23:13

Yeah. But it was so amazing that you know, people's perception of that was, oh, no one wants to talk about trucks because I don't like trucks. And their shop owners who deal with trucks every day delivering the stock that they sell. It was quite amazing to look at, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Yeah. Um, and your business evolved from there, like you, you know, from books to photos and stories?

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Yeah, well, then then there was the grower series. So I was then commissioned to do the two books about the entire agriculture industry. So I covered, you know, everything that we farm and grow, and the project got so big I had to turn it into two books. Um, so one became about everything livestock, and one became about everything cropping and everything growing out of the ground. And so it was an amazing learning curve. And yeah, the the stories that farmers told me and the connections are they just were so inspiring.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

And why do you think it's important to tell stories about agriculture and who who should we be targeting those stories at?

SPEAKER_04 24:17

I think that you know, there's there's multiple layers to that. You know, we've got within our industry, it's important to tell stories, you know, and and share our journeys and share our successes because it helps to motivate other people. And as you know, Australia is a really big place. And so sometimes we're in drought here and we're in flood here and it's on fire there, and someone's always having a rougher trot than someone else. And some of those inspirational stories about how people overcame something and you know, showing our resilience can really pick someone else up within our industry. So I think it's really, really important that we continue to tell our stories within our industry. But then when it comes to, you know, connecting with the masses that we as a small industry actually feed, it's really important that we're learning to tell our stories and the stories of how we produce what we produce in a way that you know, city people and and people not related to agriculture understand so that we still remain connected to our food and and we don't take it for granted. You know, sadly it's one of those things that when you're in a in a country where food is abundant, we we do start to take it for granted and we think it's just going to always be there. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Do you reckon we tell our story well? Um I reckon we don't.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

No, I I don't I don't think we do tell our stories very well, you know, and and it's this journey that I'm I'm now on, which I'm sure you're gonna ask me about, um, is really highlighting that. And when I, you know, last year I took the time to actually step away from social media and not post and just step back to to observe and watch what others are doing and see how things are happening. And, you know, when I looked at various things that, you know, companies put up or industry put up and different things, I thought to myself, who are they targeting this at? Who who's this post aimed at? Because if it's aimed at you know, just internal stuff with industry, great, like you're you're hitting your points, you're doing that. But if people outside of industry see it, we just look at like a bunch of whinging farmers. Yeah, we look like we've got a chip off our shoulder. And you know, we're we're we're chasing appreciation and thanks. And I think if we even got it, we probably wouldn't be able to hold that and it wouldn't actually be enough.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

No, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

So I I yeah, there's there's a couple of ways to look at it. Internally, I think we do do a really good job at sharing stories. You know, you go to any major ag events, Evokag, you know, the food futures. There is some incredible stuff that's being done. And those types of events are so invigorating if you're within the industry to go, wow, look at the progression, look at what we're doing, you know, the technology we're using, the AI, the way we're embracing things to be more efficient, which we've got to, let's face it. You know, costs are going up, we've got to find ways to do this. So internally, I think we do a really good job at it when it comes to speaking to the masses. I think there's a lot of work we could do.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah, I agree. And tell us about AgriShots. It's a business you started, and just tell us how that works and what you do in that business.

SPEAKER_04 27:43

Yeah, so um AgriShots is uh probably you'd call it the COVID baby. Um, I I did actually have the concept in my head way back at the beginning when I first started my business, but I probably had a few too many control issues back then. Um, and also the the lack of you know, headspace to understand how you set something like that up. I I, you know, you you're only as good as as the the knowledge you have. Or, you know, when you don't know what you don't know, it can be your biggest barrier to growing things. And and that was my issue back then. But in COVID, we couldn't go anywhere. Um, you know, lots of companies actually started contacting me saying, hey, you know, you're you're a um independent. Can you go and photograph this for us? We need a picture of this, whatever. I was like, Yep, I I could go and do that for you, no worries. But I've got something that I think might actually fit the bill on file here. Is this is this gonna work for you? And they're like, oh, yeah, that's great. Yes, perfect, cool, thank you. And so I looked at it and I went, maybe now's the time to put this together. I can't travel, I can't go anywhere. So I did. I I found some people um and uh and started to build the platform. And you know, we're actually just about to launch a new version of the platform. So we've built AI into it now, and you know, we're training the AI models because agricultural language is really different. Um, but essentially AgriShots is a is a giant library, online library. Um I haven't I haven't recreated anything new here. It's a very similar model to Shutterstock or Getty Images or you know, iPhoto images, all those platforms out there that you know have stock imagery and video footage. AgriShots is is that purely for the agricultural industry.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

And people subscribe or businesses subscribe and they can go and grab the photos. And yeah, what what sort of businesses uh you know use agriShots?

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Yeah, that's a um great question, and and it's it's been an interesting journey um, you know, with that side of things as well, because the the companies that I thought would be naturally the ones to pick it up haven't necessarily been the ones that pick it up, but we've got things like you know, HR companies, um training companies, we have um most of all of the safety um businesses across Australia subscribe to it, you know, FarmSafe, all of those types of companies. Um you have animal health companies that subscribe to it. The company I left have been one of my biggest supporters, which is really lovely. Um, you know, we have uh lots of um recruitment agencies use it for you know putting imagery um with job adverts and things like that. So, you know, banks, you know, marketing agencies, food um type businesses, accountants, that pretty much any business that is where their clients are the rural industry, they're the ones that um you know that are using it. Yeah. And so they they either subscribe and have unlimited access to download images and videos, or they can just buy individual files. So you can you can take your pick.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Because I like you view a lot of agriculture when we um agricultural people are marketing to agricultural people, you see a lot of terrible image images, and you know, some from America or overseas and things like that, and and it just doesn't get any cut through that. People can like the people in agriculture can see through that.

SPEAKER_04 31:14

So yeah, and it it that's that is one of the biggest challenges I have as a business, and businesses have doing what what they do, is that it is very difficult to measure the loss of opportunity by using imagery that doesn't connect with people, you know, like social media is just so heavy in post after post, and they're putting things in front of you and they're scrolling, and the algorithms are, you know, measuring you all the time. To, you know, I actually always said this even before life got as fast as it is now. I used to say back at the beginning when I started my photography, you know, I've learnt in the digital world, not the not the film world. But I always taught myself that treat what I'm doing like film. So don't take a million photos and you know, try and find the best one with it. Like get it right in camera the first time and treat it like you would would if you were having to do it with film, because that would have been really expensive in the day. But to get someone, my idea of success as a photographer is that if you can stop someone in their tracks for just a second and they feel something, they connect with that image and they go, Wow, or they yeah, you know, gee, I've never seen it like that. Isn't that interesting? Like just a split second, to me, that's success. Because we're scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Exactly. Um, so you do you take all the photos yourself, or like are you tripping around all the time doing, you know, getting all these photos together?

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Yeah, I I am. I actually I worked out in COVID that I had spent um nine weeks at home in five years. Um yeah, I'm constantly um on the road. And it's a wonderful thing because the platform is actually driven by the demand of the customers. So they tell me what they want. They say, hey, we need more of this, or we'd really like to see this stuff, or we need new visuals in this space. And so as the seasonalities happen and those different things happen across the agriculture sectors, I go out and capture those bits and pieces. Or there's clients that, you know, really want um, you know, tailor-made stuff, they want testimonials and things. So I'll go and work with the farmers to capture that. And, you know, it it's a it's a wonderful thing because I understand how to present the industry authentically and in a way that's that's real. So I've never had a customer actually come on a shoot yet because they have the confidence that they know I know agriculture, I'm there representing them, you know, as a member of their business that day when I'm doing it. Um, you know, they always get really wonderful feedback, that it's a great interaction. And because I know how to work with the farmers so that we're not actually taking up their time in the day, um, we get something that's really natural.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

And you get to be creative too.

SPEAKER_04 34:14

Yeah, yeah. I love that side of it. I I actually often think to myself, God forbid the day where I run out of ideas, where I can't see anymore, you know, where I can't see a way to make something, you know, look different or show it in an angle that we're not used to seeing.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

You'll never run out of ideas.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Because um I I write a newsletter or we write a newsletter as well, and we send it out daily. So you're always looking for subjects to write about because we write three or four stories a day, and and I follow the creative uh community in the US, and that's just that's just massive. Like this is a this is a new media we're talking about here, so it's great to be a part of, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 34:57

Oh, absolutely. Like it's it's so invigorating. You know, people often say to me, I'm sure if you wanted to diagnose me, I'd have ADHD and all the things, but I see it as an absolute gift. Um, and people always say, like, why are you so driven? I'm like, what's not to be driven about? Like just everyone's story. You you learn something and you just go, that just really invigorated me. And you take that energy to the next thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

And tripping around, going around to lots of these different farms and stations and things like that, you'd be constantly learning things and it's probably taught you to be really curious, has it?

SPEAKER_04 35:35

Yeah, I I I think I've always been that kid. I I will put my hand up and say, I was the kid in school that used to ask, but why? But why? Um, and and I I guess that has carried through um, you know, into what I do. In this journey that I'm sort of you know embarking on now, I I do identify though that you know, we all have biases, we all think something, and sometimes I forget to ask a question because I just assume something's gonna be a particular way, and you know, I may forget to ask that question, and then it comes out in conversation and I'll catch myself going, why did I assume that would be that? Yeah, you know, so even when we're in the industry, um, we can think, oh yep, it would just go naturally down this path. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

And how do you sort of gain your knowledge? Is it something that you do through reading or actually doing things like going out to these farms and stations and talking to the farmers?

SPEAKER_04 36:38

For me, it's um it's probably a real mixture, you know. If I am learning something, you know, online or to how to do something, I'm a real hands-on person. I it locks into my brain by doing by you know doing those things. So, you know, same with you know, if I'm learning to drive a tractor or, you know, use a piece of equipment because I want to film it, like it's that's one of the coolest things I think I have is that you can throw me in a machine and I'll put cameras up everywhere and film at the same time as you know, doing what I'm doing, or I can get on a horse and film at the same time as mustering and things. And so it's for me, it is it's immersing myself into the environments. Um, I do uh I do acknowledge that I do love driving time. So driving time I love when I can switch off from the the day-to-day, you know, everything's going on my in my head, here's what I have to do, and I'll put a book on, and I can just take a book in, and um I'll often stop a book, you know, where it'll bring up a concept and I'll want to reflect on that concept or think about how could I apply that and what I'm doing, and you know, I'll make a ton of voice notes as I'm driving, you know, to go back to later, and then I'll get back into the book. So I I it's that balance of you know, knowing, okay, I'm too bogged down at the computer, you know, you've got to get out and do some stuff.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

So it's yeah, it's it's a real mixture. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

And driving too, you're observing things all the time. So things come into your head that you never, you know, you never would have sitting, would have seen sitting in front of a computer or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

Yeah, it's for me, it's almost a bit like my meditative space, you know, it's where I can and the further west I go, the more my mind expands. I think because the sky expands.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Like Right. Yeah. That's interesting. Um and did you have mentors or are you sort of an independent person that, you know, make your own decisions?

SPEAKER_04 38:34

Um, no, absolutely. I've had a lot of mentors on my journey. I wouldn't be where I where I am without lots of the mentors that I've had. So yeah, I, you know, I think it was probably one of the things that I did first when I started my business was I'd observe friends that had businesses, and I wasn't sitting there for a minute criticizing and judging what they did, and I knew that business wasn't easy. But I said to myself, you know, if I'm going to do this, I want to have a business coach because I want to set myself up for success here. I don't want to be robbing Peter to pay Paul to do it. What's the word for it? Sadly, my business is very much like farming and agriculture, is that you have, you know, times where it's spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, you know, to make books, to produce it. And then, you know, you've got to invest even more to get it there and market it. And then it's this make, make, make journey.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

So my peaks and troughs are very similar to the agricultural, the farming sector, um, you know, which does make it um a bit of a rocky ride.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

But um, yeah, I've I've had a lot of mentors and and even just, you know, the people that you meet on your journey when they tell you their stories and you learn something, you go, like that that little piece of nugget, that gold nugget there, how can I, you know, take that and apply it to what I'm doing? Or yeah, there's a lot of people that I'd be here forever if I started to list them.

unknown 40:01

I bet.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Um, just thinking about my um story, like I'm 56 now, and at 54, I started this newsletter thing, and I've started businesses before, and they're they're still going, going well, and I've been a farmer and things like that. But at what 54, I found what I want to do for the rest of my life. I found my legacy. So started this the farmers club business, and it's just amazing. Like, yeah, do you reckon you've found your legacy in this business?

SPEAKER_04 40:30

That's a um a really great question. You know, I I can't see myself doing anything else. You know, I often look at other people and their successes in businesses and what they're doing, and sometimes I think, why did I pick such a tough road? Why did I pick the artist creative road? You know, but I'll then, you know, look at some of those businesses. And, you know, like as I said, I don't regret my time with Zoetis or Pfizer in the corporate world. It was a fantastic learning platform for me. But I don't miss the red tape. I don't miss the the corporate barriers, the the chat the the way that things move so slowly. You know, that being a small business, you're so much more agile and you can change and move and and you know adjust a lot quicker in the marketplace than you can with others. And, you know, for me, I guess it's it's a journey of, okay, so I've started with books, I've branched out into Agua Shots, you know, I've really then taught myself all this video stuff, so I'm really into the moving visuals now as opposed to just the statics. The statics still have a place, but you know, the world is really moving into the the the realm of video, and you know, now I'm producing a documentary series. So, you know, I too am taking those next steps. So I'm learning and growing and and having more belief in myself to to go to the next phase with that. So um who knows? Who knows where I'll be. But I I think um, you know, as a kid I could never draw a stick figure. Um, but I seem to be able to make Cowshit look good with a camera.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

So tell us a bit about this documentary. This is your new project, even though you I think you said you've been thinking about it for like five or so years. Just explain what that is and you know what you're so excited about that.

SPEAKER_04 42:25

Yeah, so um it it it has been a huge work in progress for a lot of years, and um, you know, it is really about connecting city and rural people together, um, you know, in a way that we can, as I said earlier, um, before we started the interview, where you know, we can hold two truths at once and still be connective and and not cancel each other and see the bigger systems. And, you know, when I really looked at it, I was like, I don't want to jam agriculture education down people's throats. That's not what this is. So, yeah, the series is called Revealed. Um, not a farming show, it's a human behavior show that actually uses food as the lens. So it's not about telling people what to think, it's about letting people discover how complex the food system really is, you know, at their own pace, on their own journey. So we are taking city people on a journey through a series of behavioral science experiments that really look at how they buy, what they, you know, what they're thinking when they're doing their shopping, you know, where do their beliefs come from? Are they, you know, driven by price? Are they driven by the label? You know, it's really looking at human behavior to start with and and unpacking why they buy what they buy and what's behind that. And then we take them to the farm to see the various systems and see how those systems actually work.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Fantastic. And where where are we going to see this? Where Where's it? Is it going to go on Netflix or something like that or YouTube?

SPEAKER_04 44:03

What um I I would love for it to end up on Netflix. Um initially we will launch through YouTube. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that's been really important on this journey is to ensure that we maintain control of the narrative, ensuring that agriculture is represented, you know, accurately. Um, you know, on this journey, we don't with we're not here to create drama, we're here to to create connections. So by by being able to keep it in-house to start with and produce the whole series ourselves, that'll that enables us to make sure that that happens and that builds the trust with you know the farmers and agriculture in that process. And then, yeah, so we will launch first um through YouTube and um and then hopefully um it will get picked up by um a streaming platform or a channel. And yeah, I mean at the end of the day, what we're doing here is is not just an Australian story, this is a global conversation.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_04 45:07

You know, food should connect people, but it tends to divide them more than anything, and and the processes and and things like that. So, you know, what we want to do is we want to show the gap between what people believe about food and how they actually actually the system works. You know, and we're not here to to um say something is right or wrong. We're not here to criticize the system, you know, we're here to show all of the systems. Every system has pros and cons, but every system fits into the bigger system, which means that, you know, all of the various foods are available at a at a price range that everyone can afford.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

I I think our I think agriculture will pick it up because they'll learn how to tell their stories better after watching this.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Yeah, hopefully. I mean that that's a that would be you know what we're aiming for. And the types of people that we're taking from the cities on this journey, they're really curious people. They're interested in looking at their themselves first and what they buy and how they shop, and then being open to having their assumptions um, you know, challenged when we go on farm, but not challenged in a way that agriculture's here defending what they do. It's like, hey, here are all the things that go on, and you know, yeah, okay, I can see how you would have a perception about um, you know, chickens being in cages, and you know, but here's all of the wonderful things that happen, or you know, you have challenges with um feedlots and animals being on dirt, but you know, here are the trade-offs, here are the things that go on to just say, here is the system, here's how this works, you know, this is what is going on. So we're not here to to lecture them or correct them or argue with them. It's allowing people to discover for themselves. And and so far the people that have um come on the journey have said it's absolutely life-changing that you know, they had no idea about how you know various foods were produced, or the process to get them to market, or the scale at which these farmers operate to grow what they grow, or the risks that they take to produce these products, or the fact that they have no control over, you know, what they're gonna get paid for the product when they sell it. Um, you know, there was just so much more awareness and um, you know, appreciation for that because they'd seen it without having it, you know, jammed down their throat. Like it was fascinating on one of the journeys when the farmer and the participants got there and the farmer, you know, first meets them and he's got his arms folded. So all of the, you know, all of the um physical attributes of being shut off and all these things, and you saw them look them up and down and what they were wearing, going, them white shoes are gonna get really dirty here, love, you know, and all these things. So, you know, you get the guardedness, and then slowly but surely as we navigate the questions and we start to have these conversations and you know, talk about what we knew or what we thought, or uh, you know, ask different questions, they start to, you know, un you know, disarm themselves and realise these people are really interested in hearing about how they do it. And um, towards the end of one of these particular journeys, you know, the farmer says to the girls, so what do you do for a living? So all of a sudden the whole thing switched around. And he wanted to know about how they make a living in the world. And then he says to them, you know, when we harvest, we'd love you to come back and see that process. And you know, one of the girls says, Would you teach me to drive a tractor? And he's like, Absolutely, you know, we'll give you a job if you want a job. And and it was like, wow, we've gone from shut down to, you know, this completely open environment where, you know, the farmers also realize that city people don't understand what they understand. And it's so both parties have to realize we've all got a lot to learn about each other, but we actually all eat really similarly.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

So you it's too it's a two-sided thing, isn't it? You're changing perceptions on both sides for the farmer and the city person.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

Yeah, absolutely. And and the the point of starting with food is that um food is really connective. Everyone has to eat every day, everyone goes and does their shopping and you know, they buy what they buy, and they have all of their you know, beliefs and rationales behind it that most often we don't even consider um, you know, when we're doing our shopping. Like when we were doing some experiments the other day in the supermarket, um uh a participant picked up a tomato and he was asked, you know, why would you buy that tomato? It's got a blemish on it, you know, and the the participant says, Well, you won't see that when it's cut up in a sandwich, will you?

SPEAKER_02 50:01

But it's not on, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 50:03

And yeah, and so you know, we we go into the supermarket, right? That that's pretty much the front-facing side of agriculture for for consumers, city people or or anyone else, but for consumers, the supermarket is the front-facing side of agriculture. It's presented to us in perfection. So we've got this ideal and these things with it. We we have no concept of what goes on behind the scenes. They have the ugly bunch or the imperfect, you know, bunch there, and they're still selling it to you, you know, at a at a pricey price, but they've probably paid absolutely nothing for it. And it's like there is so much more to this than meets the eye. But all of that marketing and that branding and the labeling and the pricing, that's where we build our beliefs from about what goes on on farm. So what we're trying to really, you know, unpack here is the complexity of agriculture, the trade-offs that have to happen, the unseen work, you know, the supply chains, the the farming realities and you know, things like the waste. And and farming is anything but perfection. But that's what we're presented at the supermarket when we do our shopping.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

So, what do you think's the most misunderstood thing about our food system?

SPEAKER_04 51:23

Oh, where do you start? I think it's absolutely just the complexity of it and what's involved. You know, even on the journey so far, you know, lots of our team are not agricultural people. In fact, I'm the only one that's from agriculture in our team. Everyone else comes from a non-ag background. And I've chosen it to be that way because they see through city eyes. So that is capture, and they're gonna see things through the eye of the city person who are the people we're taking on this journey. Whereas I like I still see and I'm very creative and I see all of those things, but I'm also numb to things and I have my biases because I am ag. And in this journey, we're here to be neutral in the process. It's about creating a space for the farmer and the city person to go on these journeys together to, you know, to see it. And, you know, even when we left one of the orchards the other day, you know, the farmer was thanking the participants for taking the time out of their life to come and see what they do. Like they felt so seen and so heard and so appreciated because someone from outside of agriculture had come to understand what that is about. It was it was so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

That's amazing. And how big's your production team? And you're funding this all yourself, are you?

SPEAKER_04 52:52

Um, we've got, yeah, we've got some backing to to do it, but we we're maintaining control of you know of what is produced and how that's put together to make sure that you know we are presenting the industries um authentically and properly. Yeah. So um we have uh about four camera crew and and a sound crew. So yeah, and then you know, my production uh people and the editors, and yeah, so there's there's a good team of us that are that are pulling it all together, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

So this is going to be the Clarkson's Farm of Australia.

SPEAKER_04 53:28

Oh, I don't know if I can fill his boots. Um it's a very different concept to Clarkson's farm. You know, I think Clarkson has done a wonderful thing to again highlight the complexities and the challenges within agriculture to people. Um, and so you know, it's it's been a wonderful show for people to yeah, really be a bit more exposed to what it takes to do things. And he's been really vulnerable and you know, um documenting his learning journey on that path and and the challenges to doing what he needs to do and the bureaucracy that comes behind it, which you know we also have. Um, so you know, yeah, it's it's a it's a wonderful platform. And and I think, you know, I guess I've always said it with everything, you know, everyone in this space in in agriculture that are telling stories, I don't see them as competition or, you know, we should we should be banding together. We're all we all have the same end goal, and that is about connecting people, you know, with food and fiber, where it comes from, what's involved in it, connecting with each other, you know, that that's what we're all involved in. And everyone consumes things differently. Some like books, some like audiobooks, some like podcasts, some like, you know, TV, some like YouTube, some like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, you know, everything has a place. And we're all, we should all be united in that front. You know, hopefully there'll be a bunch of people that really love to follow the journey of what we're putting together and will see themselves in the participants because we're just taking everyday Australians on this journey. We're not, we're not here, you know, we're we're taking a lot of people who are new Australians that have come in from other countries. So they've got different belief systems, they've experienced different things in their life, they have different habits around their shopping. You know, we've got blended families, you know, we've got people of all different demographics and walks of life coming on the journey so that when people watch it, they connect with, you know, one or more of the participants and go, oh, I think like that, or yeah, I would have done that. Or, you know, when they're watching some of the experiments, they'll be going, oh, I'd pick that one over that one, or I'd do this. And so they're actually learning themselves whilst watching it. So I'd say it's more like um part goggle box, um, you know, where they they get to watch the watcher um in that journey and and then and then part sort of, you know, outback adventure.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

And are you in front of the camera yourself?

SPEAKER_04 56:16

Um no, we've got a we've got a separate narrator that we're going to use for that. So yeah, I won't be um I won't be uh in in in the front of the camera. Yeah. It's more it's about the participants and the farmer, right? That they're the they are the stars of the show and the food.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

Exactly. And how many, like is it, is it a series and how many part series is it?

SPEAKER_04 56:41

Yes, it is a series. So we've got eight episodes in the in the first series, and then um, you know, I've got series two and three uh already planned and you know, know what I want to cover. And you know what this was one of the things that again has been a really big learning journey for me, and through being mentored has helped to get it to where it is. Is that my original idea was, you know, create this documentary that shows people the entire process to, you know, how your steak is produced and things. And and the more we unpacked this and looked at things and you know, watched different things and and learnt and saw what's been done out there, we're like, you know what? If we try to do all of that in one episode, we're actually going to overwhelm people because it's too much to take in, it's too complex, there's too many moving parts to this. So what we've done is we've broken it down to just really small focuses for each one so that in season two, we can come back and talk about a different part of the system. So, you know, there's we're taking a particular focus with the cropping industry this year, and next year we can talk about a different focus of that industry, you know. So just small bite-sized chunks that start to, you know, deliver, you know, little nuggets of knowledge and information to people that we're not overloading them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

I know it'll all be good, but is something really resonated from you from the series so far?

SPEAKER_04 58:11

Uh something that's really resonated for me. Something the the most common bit of feedback that we're getting from the participants is, you know, that they had no idea about the complexity and the scale at which we farm. You know, what's involved in creating the apple, growing the carrot, you know, the growing the potatoes. They had no idea about the bureaucracy in the potato world or the apple world or you know, these different things. They had, you know, they had their perceptions around the the free range industry and just weren't even open to looking at what does the cage industry mean? Or, you know, they they've believed everything they've seen that's been marketed to them about the feedlot world, never considered what the positive elements, you know, to that were, or you know, the dairy industry and the way in which those animals are, you know, looked after and things. So yeah, there's there's um it it really it really is the humanness, you know, and and I think the other really amazing piece of feedback that's come through from all the participants so far is that they've said I've never met a bunch of people who are so passionate about what they do for a living.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

Really?

SPEAKER_04 59:30

As fathers.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

Yeah, that's fantastic. And when's it going to come out? So when can we sort of in anticipation? And I'll put the link to it in the show notes, but yeah, when's it coming out?

SPEAKER_03 59:44

Um, yeah, that's a really great question.

SPEAKER_04 59:47

Now you're putting the break on up. Look, we're hoping to have, you know, the first four episodes out, you know, by the middle of the year. That's that's our game plan at this point in time. But yeah, feel free to put the link into the show notes. People can jump on, they can actually throw, they can watch the trailer for it, and they can throw their email address into the platform, and then they'll be automatically um, you know, uh informed as soon as it is coming out so that um they can track it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Fantastic. And this is gonna be huge.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:20

I hope so. Yeah, I mean, it's it's been a really, really big learn.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:27

I mean, it's still a learning curve. I'm I'm learning every day. It's an incredible journey. You know, the it's it's vulnerable, everyone's really vulnerable. That you know, the participants come from different walks of life, they learn about each other, they learn about what they do, you know. You watch the farmers have their guards up and then bring it down that this, you know, they they fear are you gonna capture this right? So even on the journey for the farmers, they're unpacking their um their biases and their beliefs, and and you know, they're having a fresh experience that says maybe it is safe to deal with people in, you know, media. I think what's lucky for me is I obviously have a ton of relationships in agriculture. The people that we're working with understand that I understand their industry and I'm gonna, you know, present it accurately. Um, but hopefully that you know shows other people in the industry that um we've we've gotta we've gotta open our doors and we've got to open our gates and we've got to tell our stories and you know think about it from the perspective of how can we connect this with you know people that are not from agriculture.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

Bloody exciting. And I know I know you're doing another couple of series after this, but but what what's next for you, Al?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

Um I'd love to spend some time at home. I I built a house a couple of years ago and um I designed it myself and I love it. It's my dream home, and I just don't get to be there. So look, I mean, I I am thoroughly enjoying the journey, and you know, there's lots of little challenges.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:04

Gosh, I never thought we would have to navigate the cost of fuel that we're navigating. I never thought we would have to navigate not being able to find hard drives for storage. Like there's some things that are popping up that, you know, didn't weren't on my list of, hey, here are some challenges we might have to navigate on this journey that um, you know, that we are having to navigate. So yeah, it's um it's challenging times, but we're not gonna let that, you know, pull us up.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

And Starlink would be your friend too, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:38

Oh, I love it. Starlink's been fabulous for agri shots because I can um literally do a shoot and I can um tag everything up. And now that we've obviously got the AI built into it, so we're, you know, you're able to use organic language to shoot for things, uh, to search for things, and it's looking at the images and can read what's going on to create the descriptions and things. Um, I can literally leave a farm and upload in the car on my way to the next job. So, you know, it's instant um turnaround for the customer and yeah, get stuff straight onto the onto the platform.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

And talking about AI, where do you think that's gonna, you know, where do you think it's gonna go in agriculture and what what are you using AI for?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:19

Yeah, so um AI, it's a really interesting conversation because when you know when it was first becoming a really big thing and it's being talked about out there, and then people are going, oh, your post is written by AI, so I'm cancelling you because and I looked at it and I went, huh, we've all got we've all got an issue with AI and using it. And we think that because if someone's used it, that you know, it's not authentic and it's not real, and you know, that's a that's an internal, you know, relationship issue that we have with this whole automation world. And so I looked at that and I went, yeah, okay, I've got a problem with it, so I've got to do some work on this. So I actually paid to do a course on it. Um, and it was the best thing that I ever did because the first session that our coach did with us on this course was around our relationship with time. And the minute that she framed it that way and she said, AI is not about using something to remove people out of a job or you know, not have to use humans or to do this or to do that, it's about freeing up your time, it's about what how you value your time and can get something done. And I was like, the minute I reframed it to that, I had a completely different relationship with it. And I was so open and I learned, you know, and and then, you know, the more we learn how to build custom GPTs and all the things that we're doing and use the different platforms because they, you know, they really hone in on different areas. Um, you know, I started to realize more and more I'm the weakest link yet. The way in which I ask the question limits the type of result that I get out of this. I've got to learn to ask better questions. And I learned to reverse engineer it in a way that was like, well, ask the GPT what I should be asking it to get the best result, you know, and and so then it expands the way you think and it expands the way that, you know, you conceptualize the things that you're, you know, working on and how you utilize that. And yeah, I I mean I still see the posts go up all the time now, especially on LinkedIn, where people go, oh yeah, all my news feed is full of people's posts that are written by AI. I'm like, well, you've probably got some work to do on your relationship with AI.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

I think AI is great, and it's you know, I I use it for you know my bad spelling mistakes and things like that through Grammarly, but um, I think it'll make human content, be the people who do it well, more valuable.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:45

Absolutely, and I think it will help farmers, you know, be more efficient with their time and free things up. And you go and add Starlink on the land and and AI to something, you know, you can I'm forever talking to my AIs and saying, Saying, hey, what about this? Or think about that, or you know, pull this concept into into this episode. How would this play out? And and you, you know, I can do it while I'm out walking, I can do it while I'm driving, I can, you know, it's yeah, it's I just think it's incredible. It creates efficiency, you know. I'll hop on the bike in the morning and cycle for an hour and I'll have, yeah, thrown a ton of things in there, and then it's just already on my computer to go when I'm hopping into the office. So I I just think it's um it it really does. It comes back to, you know, if it's I think that the key takeaway is if people are having judgment on it, where people are using it and things, it's actually a a mirror to yourself that um you need to go away and do some work on yourself with it around how you value your time and what actually this can do to help improve your efficiencies.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

So you'd recommend people do a course on it if they can find something and sort of get to know it a bit better.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:57

Absolutely, yeah. And and you know, learn to ask better questions and um yeah, just it's you know, it's not there to replace people and it it doesn't, we don't have to, you know. I think I've had this issue as well at times where that where sometimes I can get really frustrated with it, I'll put something in, and it's just so wrong. And then I'm like, oh like and and then you go, oh, AI knows nothing, don't use that for a while. You know, like it's it's not perfect, like it just because it's a a bot and whatnot, like it only knows based on what it's drawing from, and a lot of the time it actually falls back on me and how I've asked the question. I'll go away and I'll have the shits with it, and I'll think about framing the question differently, and I'll come back and ask it differently, and bang, I get something really good.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:46

Amazing. Well, we'll leave it there. Just where do people go to find this uh the trailer for this series? Just um what website?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:54

Thisisreveed.com.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:57

Perfect, and we'll put that in the show notes. I'm sure it's gonna be a massive hit, and I'm bloody super, super excited about it because anything we can any way we can promote agriculture to the wider audience is just uh going to be fantastic. So congratulations on it, and um, I hope it goes really well for you, and thanks for explaining it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:16

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

End of message.