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Welcome to Humans of Agriculture. This podcast series is dedicated to discovering more about our food system, from the people involved in it.
Along the journey we'll be meeting people from all walks of life from Australia and from afar. Join us as we find out how our communities and our culture shape what we eat, and ultimately who we are.
More people, More often, Identifying with Agriculture
Oli Le Lievre 0:01
Hello, Ken Hey, welcome back. If it's your first time, welcome. In farming businesses, it can be common practice to have a husband and wife team leading the charge. In agribusiness, it's a little bit less common. In fact, I'd say it's actually by the unique in the lead up to this conversation. I've had the chance to chat to David, Edgerton-Warbuton on several different occasions. Thanks, Dave, for letting me pick your brain on all sorts of things, from strategy to staff to the early days of setting up your business, how you'd overcome it. And I was sitting there thinking, You know what I need to get Dave on the podcast. Dave then said, well, actually, what about if you get my wife not on as well? This is where the story I guess gets quite cool. So David, are the CO CEOs of agri master. They've been doing it the whole time while raising their family. And I thought, I really want to pick their brain and understand how have they done it in terms of keeping their personal lives, growing their business, managing their team, raising their family, and how on earth have they done all these things? So their little business started in a garden shed in a backyard in Perth? Well, in its early days, Dave's old man was actually a software developer on the side of farming. And he developed this little software product that it has evolved into agri master today. So it did technically start on the farm. But let's not get away from that good story. So their little business started in a garden shed in their backyard in Perth. It's where they began hiring their first staff and they even held the interviews in the garden sheds and people. So people knew what they were getting themselves in for. They then found a little office spot in their residential street before they outgrew this, moving the furniture and all their office things with shopping trolleys. It honestly sounds like a movie. In this chat. We cover a fair bit of country I mentioned. I wanted to pick Dave's brain and nuts brain on this strategy have employed staff how they've grown their business. But what I genuinely, truly admire is how Dave has been able to separate business and personal life. Both David had a really big on the family time and family values. And that ability to step away from their business has only been reinforced earlier this year when their son Ferg was diagnosed with a brain tumor, or Dave and him were on a father son hiking trip on the Kokoda track. It's true that single events can change your life. But I think what was amazing is just how optimistic and just the perspective that these two shows how they've been able to overcome adversity. And I think folks getting incredible treatment. And there was recently a little taco through the Ronald McDonald House to show a little bit of the journey that they have been on. But I think from a business perspective, what is truly remarkable is how agri Master has been able to remain relatively unchanged while David natto splitting their time to be beside folks bed. They've been able to empower their team. And at the core of all of this, they've been able to keep perspective on really what is just truly important. So let's get into this. So you don't know many podcasts?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 3:00
Not usually I'm always in the engine room. Oh, that's what I always say. You did the favorite business needs
Oli Le Lievre 3:05
one. Yeah, that's me.
David Edgerton Warbutton 3:07
But you were the first podcast was about you
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 3:10
was I did? Really? How'd that go?
David Edgerton Warbutton 3:13
We launched with number one. Did we Yeah, that's good.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 3:15
We sit at the kitchen table out there with you. Yeah,
David Edgerton Warbutton 3:18
we managed champagne. I had beers.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 3:21
I said, I think I need a drink for this.
Oli Le Lievre 3:24
What did you take away from it? Having the chance to sit down and get asked questions by Dave?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 3:29
Like, I don't actually ever mind it. It's just for me, I think because the role that I have, it's always on the go. Because it's obviously operations. So you know, it's helping all the teams obviously implement everything we do. So like, that's Dave's role. It's more the thinking. Whereas mine is very much keeping everything on the go and out the door. So I'm very reactionary.
David Edgerton Warbutton 3:54
Yeah, I couldn't afford her if I wasn't married to us.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 4:00
I might be nice to sit and like, contemplate a little bit more. But anyway, I'm not at that stage. And yeah. I don't know if it ever will be.
David Edgerton Warbutton 4:08
No, you won't be you're just like, give me a list. And let me smash this sort of a girl.
Oli Le Lievre 4:14
A real doer,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 4:15
but also to it's like about solving real world issues that we have to deal with every day. Yeah. And I think that's actually how I stay really in touch with, like the CES team, or even the marketing girls about like what we have to communicate to our customers. And obviously, that's where David I work really well. Like, I'll go we've got this root issue going on. And I might help Dave, write something but I generally will never deliver it, but I will definitely have a lot to do with what goes into what we deliver.
David Edgerton Warbutton 4:45
I think the time between that and I'd always been is I've always been a lot more, I suppose. Conceptual and strategic in the way that I approach everything. And net always been a lot more tactical and functional. Oh, whereas these are the steps we have to do. So we can both do each other's I suppose jobs, but not just 10 times better at that, you know, execution than I am, I can execute. But I'm much better in the white airspace, what's next base? How do we communicate this thinking about that joining the dots between different disparate data, that's my wheelhouse. Really, that's where I'm naturally my mind sets. And that's why we sort of as I suppose both as husband and wife, but also as business partners, for how long have we work it out? How many years 2525 years, we don't really tread on each other's toes, because we've learnt not to step into each other's wheel houses. Unless asked
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 5:44
my biggest thing with Dave, I always go, if you start stepping into my wheelhouse, and you start, you know, sending a different message, I'm gonna give it to you. And so they didn't very quickly, like, steps away.
David Edgerton Warbutton 5:58
Yeah. But I don't think it's any different to all of our customers, they're, you know, they're all the same. And really, you know, all our customers have have a very similar ish type of relationship, often, you know, the husband and wife team in, in a lot of cases, I suppose.
Oli Le Lievre 6:17
And I think that's what what I'm keen to flesh out with both of you today is this piece for agriculture or farming businesses, that husband wife combination is actually very common. But when it comes to, as soon as you step outside the farm gate, it's kind of like, and I know, when we were chatting, I was like, oh, like, I knew you were co CEO. But then I was like, oh, and that's your wife? Yes. I think it's funny, like how quickly it's normal in the farming partnerships. But when it comes to say, agribusiness, it's like, it's a little bit unusual. So let's unpack it
David Edgerton Warbutton 6:49
for our friends in the city. So probably the biggest thing so we met in the country, I was farming net was the local site manager at Westpac, managing the branch there. And we come from farm backgrounds ourselves. And so this idea of working in our business together wasn't considered to be even we didn't, it didn't even cross our minds to be quite honest. To our friends, when we moved to Perth, you suddenly surrounded by a whole cohort of friends that you make here, or any city, that half of them have never stepped on a farm don't know anything about agriculture, they're all do these really amazing. You know, they could be property developers or surgeons or, you know, cabinet makers. It doesn't you know, like, I'm
Oli Le Lievre 7:37
gonna say the M word here. Mining people.
David Edgerton Warbutton 7:44
Yeah, what do you do? I'm an oil and gas. What do you do? I mean, finance, what do you do I work with oil and gas and mining? Yeah, that's perfect. So yeah, so but to them was quite, I could never do that. Is that's the, that's the majors, I'd never do that. If I weren't my wife or husband, I'd kill them.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 8:04
I don't think what they don't realize though, the more you actually work together, the more deeply you understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. And you actually respect each other more. You know, like, you have to, you can't both be peacocks. If you're working together. Like, it's really nice that you have a different personality, because I think that's obviously the only way that it works. But yeah, you just you do very quickly realize what each other's strengths and weaknesses are. And then if he, you know, brave enough to run with that, and trust the other person, then it actually can work beautifully.
David Edgerton Warbutton 8:39
And I think that's where it goes, that's probably a great word for It's trust, you have to, you know, we throw these words around, about when you both husband and wife and business partners, there is no, if you don't trust it, you can go horribly wrong in every particular way. So you have to trust humility is you have to learn that really quick. You have to be really blunt about, I can't do this, or I can do that, or whatever, you have to almost draw these imaginary lines, and also have the confidence to call bullshit on each other. Right? Because otherwise, both everything again, it goes wrong if you can't call each other out. Yeah. So we sort of, in a funny way, it improves both the work relationship and your personal relationship having to go through that because you can't sort of just hide that ugly stuff away. You have to address it every day.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 9:33
You have to be brave enough to ask for help. If you're drowning in your work.
David Edgerton Warbutton 9:38
Yeah, I think I'd actually like our kids. We got three boys and I'd like them to do the same thing because I think I like the idea of you as a couple building something together. Right? And I think that's a one thing farming I hope it has and I hope it still keeps is this idea that you go out there, and you got nothing, which is, I mean, that was the advantage when people used to get married a lot younger. They had nothing. So anything they had was together. Yeah. Right. And so you'd build this thing together. And so building a business together building a farm together, I think it's actually good for people's relationship rather than bad. It's just unusual in an urban context.
Oli Le Lievre 10:21
Absolutely. So I just want to jump back a little bit to understand a little bit about both of you kind of pray over this. And then I think we'll chat about the business, but that I'm keen to understand for you, like, what are those early influences of agriculture in your life? And if you think of happy memories around agriculture, what could you trace it back to?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 10:40
Well, I mean, I was like, I grew up in farming. And, you know, I was like, a normal farm kid, I worked around the farm, I went to high school. And then when I finished high school, I left and I went to Perth, and I got into banking. And that's pretty much how I ended up in Kojonup. After 10 years, I ended up as a site manager. And that's actually how I met Dave. So even in all my career, in banking, I probably only spent two or three years in the city, the rest of it was all with egg. So I kind of never went far from it. Although I say that and I was very determined, I was never going to marry a farmer and ended up marrying one. But you know, yeah, and so then Dave, and I got married. But as we got married, the bank closed, so then I was out of employment. And then that's pretty much how this next chapter came about. So I started a professional training company in the use of Agra master and desktop banking. And so that company was called Nugee, which is one of the names of, you know, the rooms in the office. And yeah, I started a national training company, teaching farmers how to use agri master, and desktop banking back then. And also, we had some great alliances with places like CBH teaching farmers how to use the internet. So yeah, that's kind of my segue into what we're doing today. Yeah. And
David Edgerton Warbutton 12:09
the thing about like, you travel around, I think this is when when early staff members come in your travel anywhere, net knows, everyone, and I think this is the part from that's your superpower. But also that because you wanted to earn extra money all the time. So you always accepted jobs as site managers on all the different obscure country towns on relief stuff, do release staff. So you go to a town, I used to work in that town. I used to play netball in that town. And and so it's quite amazing. I mean, encoding up net was encoded for how many, three years and I was there my whole life. And she knew twice as many people as I did. But yeah, and funny enough, like, although NAT did this full circle, when and you ended up encoding, which is literally only 40 cars from the town from the farm that she grew up in.
Oli Le Lievre 13:03
It's amazing. Yeah. What about for you because we farming at the time when you two met?
David Edgerton Warbutton 13:07
Yeah, so I was. I mean, my life was pretty standard farm boy, up to that point like so. I went to got sent to Perth went to boarding school, I went traveling in England came back went to university. I did a Bachelor of Business at Muir ask when it was a big deal back then. And then just went home to the farm. I toyed with this idea of working in farm consulting, because I in my third year of uni, I worked for plan farm. And I really love that type of work. But eventually I decided I'd go back and go back to the farm. And so I was really lucky. So that was when I was about 22. And I was lucky because my father wanted to do other things, which was right software, pretty much a from 22 I got a free rein. And so I was able to change the farm and monitor and really have my head a lot. And then when my brother came home from Microsoft, and about three years later, or two, either two or three years later, it was really where he ate my Father allowed us to run it as our show. So from sort of 92 to 2000 I was always that's all I was ever going to do was fine. Right? I had no I didn't even think about doing what we do now hadn't even considered as an as an option.
Oli Le Lievre 14:26
I literally just had an epiphany I reckon I saw maybe your brother's speaking Canberra a few years ago. And if it was him he was talking about it was at a conference for the Australian farm Institute. And he was talking about, I guess animal welfare and that just how cruel nature can be. Yeah. And he told a story about what the role of farming is around, keeping the animals alive, making sure they're happy and healthy. But he gave this analogy of he was watching the magpie one day fly I think it was about fly from its nest for the first time and it took off and it was flying away. flyway and then it fell into the dam. Yeah. And he was saying like, this is the thing of nature like nature's a cruel, cruel base when it's actually OUT out there.
David Edgerton Warbutton 15:09
That would be my brother, because he does speak at a lot of conferences, especially around Nuffield, which are Yeah, because he was a Nuffield Scholar. I don't know how many years ago and, and he's on the border of RSPCA for a while and it still is, and even him, he was the I said, why did you join the board of RSPCA? And he goes, Well, they're talking about us without us having a seat at the table. So what they talk about us when we have a seat at the table, so it was really, yeah, say you would have seen him at a conference deadly.
Oli Le Lievre 15:38
Yeah. So tell me about that. Your dad was very keen on writing software. That decision was it when your brother came home that you decided to move away from the film? No.
David Edgerton Warbutton 15:47
So I suppose my, although I said I was very typical of most farming. Lads, oh, I didn't grow up in a typical household. So my father, we had a pretty nerdy family. And my dad was a really keen is farming, but he was also an really keen amateur photographer. So we had a dark room, and he studied different things. And his father was involved in a ton of research. And so when my father got his block down in mob rock, South Dakota and up and we started clearing land, his father, and so he has gone out and his own sort of thing. So with his Bush block, he introduced him to a few researchers at the University of Western Australia. And he enrolled in this thing called the farm management services, oratory, literally was a farm economics unit. So he had computerized cash flow forecasts and bookkeeping, since 1967, doing all of his finances through the computer at the UWA. As an experimental farmer, they used to have really established farmers, and then one clearing land like him, and I was studying them and before, so he had these computerized records. So he got really because he was a nerdy guy, he just got super keen on this computer thing. And then, in the late 70s, he saved up and eventually 980 bought himself a computer and a printer, which costs four grand in 1980. So it's like going and spending 20 grand on also on a computer now. And he wrote what became a grandmaster, because he wanted to write something. And he thought, I reckon I can do that. It was it didn't have this big. I think this is massive problem. And, you know, like you think in startups now, okay, you know, we got to do product market fit. And we got to do this. And we got to make sure that no, he just goes, it seems like a cool idea. And I think I'll just write these bits of software. And it was just a hobby. So right up until I came home in 1992. He just wrote it at night after the farm. So that's what he did. And it was just his nerd. So we'd be drenching sheep. And he'd just stop and he'd go, or just work something out. And he'd been writing code in his head. And then he'd go home at lunchtime, and he'd wash up, take his boots off and go into the office and start writing it down on his computer, because he just worked out how to solve a particular coding problem.
Oli Le Lievre 18:02
So it was his true passion. The software side do you still is
David Edgerton Warbutton 18:05
he's like he's 81 This year, as you know, yeah. 81. And he's just learned to write in a new set of codes. And he's writing a new website for both the Bowls Club and the Rotary Club. He's
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 18:17
very busy. We have to see him. Yeah, you
Oli Le Lievre 18:20
can't get to come in here much.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 18:21
No, no, not really. Interested, he's not interested. So not interested.
David Edgerton Warbutton 18:27
And the other thing, he built a really successful farm business. But this software business, he was never interested in the business or software he loved writing it like it was like, even now, it's a hobby. Now he, when he like when you walked in the office today, when he walked into the office for this office, for the first time was the only time I've ever seen my dad cry ever. It was just overwhelmed by the emotion of how this hobby of his that he had no intention of it being a business become what it
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 18:59
is. And I think because the thing is, he was so proud that because it was really quite funny how, how it all came about. So when when we got married, that was 97. And I'd done some work with Kent before we got married just because desktop banking was such a big thing, integrating it into Agra master. And I don't know but it just naturally kind of started from there where I started and then it sort of just ran its natural course didn't where I started this National Training Company had staff all across Australia. And then he was kind of like going on a no match longer he wanted to do it for and we just sort of like when will the Buy More farms or do we
David Edgerton Warbutton 19:39
so we'll right at that point. So my met net while my brother and I and dad were buying another farm. So everyone thinks I'm married my bank manager to get a farm but
Oli Le Lievre 19:50
but Bobby if you've been for taking some ideas, yeah, no, that's not the reason. Yeah,
David Edgerton Warbutton 19:54
everyone. Except us used to ring me up all the time it goes on going to bounce your check today.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 20:03
Bounce the reports again.
David Edgerton Warbutton 20:08
So it's really handy having a girlfriend ring you up before you get your checks bounced.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 20:12
You weren't special we serve everyone.
David Edgerton Warbutton 20:16
All right. So that room that story, okay, yes. So.
Oli Le Lievre 20:20
So yeah, so I want to know you've you've, your dad's created this bit of software. Yeah, that has been evolving. So I'm curious to know that that point of opportunity when it came to Yeah,
David Edgerton Warbutton 20:30
so the opportunity. So NAT started this training company, and it started getting BT in looking at in our newly married and we decided, okay, we want to have a family and this training company had become a bit of a thing. And we decided, okay, what do we do? How do we have a family and keep these companies so we decided, okay, the only way to do that is it has to transcend us a bit and always have to have staff and things like that. So we said, Okay, I will stop farming two days a week, and help build this business up. And we hired another person on the farm to help do the stuff that I was supposed to be doing to help my brother. And then it started going really well. We ended up having seven part time staff around Australia, we end up becoming the biggest. And this my father software at that point was being sold to another reseller, because he, like I was saying he wasn't interested in the business stuff. He just wanted someone else to do that stuff. And so because of the agreement, we had to have a distribution agreement through my father's reseller does to sell his software to our clients. Anyway, so eventually, we went up to him and he goes, Look is a bit silly. So net, and I went to him, he goes, Look, I reckon we could merge this training company of ours together and bring in all your software, and then put it all together. And then we could probably hire professional software writers to start taking over your role, because you're not you don't really want to keep going. And also the all the clients and accounting and consulting partners are worried about that, too, because dad would have been in his 60s by that point. And so they're worried, okay, we're all reliant on their software and this old farmer in CO writing it. Yeah, what's happening? So
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 22:07
59 or something? Yeah.
David Edgerton Warbutton 22:09
So it took a bit of convincing, but eventually, he said, he had no faith in us at all. He thought, What do you say? He said, Oh, can you go and learn how to fix computers? Because you're probably not going to have enough clients to pay someone to be able to do it for you.
Oli Le Lievre 22:22
So tell me about that first staff member that you guys hired who like not necessarily who was it? Why, what were their skill set? And why did you hire them?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 22:31
When what when we actually merged all the companies?
Oli Le Lievre 22:34
Yeah, when it all started to move, Paula,
David Edgerton Warbutton 22:37
Paula. Poor Paula, we had to do it twice. So we had all these part time staff,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 22:42
because we were operating from the farm. So the training company was all fully professional setup from the farm. But you know, we had a six month old child, we couldn't keep driving up and down the highway. So we had to make that decision. Do we stay trying to do it from the farm? Or do we move to Perth, so we moved to Perth, and we had to wind the training company down, and then we had to start the next one. So
David Edgerton Warbutton 23:01
start Aggramar sort of as it is today. We were running sort of both at the same time. And there was this six month period where we had to have both companies running before they became one. And so we had seven staff one full time Julie encouraging up and off the farm. So if you imagine what our business looked like on the farm, we had this little wooden cottage with four rooms and three of the rooms including our lounge room with offices and, and so and then we had this optic fiber cable, believe it or not, Doug with a with a, you know, the stuff that you lay poly part with behind the truck. So we we got a poly pipe digger and made this optic fiber up to the shed and we put a transport wall in the sheds. And so we had other staff there, and it was chaotic. And then we moved to Perth, and we didn't have office space yet. So we bought out a little house another little wooden cottage and Shenton Park, which again was smaller than their farm one. And at the back it had this potting shed with laid recycled brick floor. So I went to Bunnings and we put my sunlight on the brick floor and bought a bunch of those plastic back when plastic garden furniture was the big deal and they became our office Fendi. They were like cool at the time. And we got the we were before we got settlement on the house. We got permission from the current owner to run for phone lines. That is the potting shed. And we had a bunch of those old telephone lines in the filing shed. And poor Paula. She got How the hell why she took that job. I don't know. Anyway, she ended up getting working for us sitting in this potting shed on a garden chair here. Were these four manual vines. It wasn't even a switch fine. They're all separate phones.
Oli Le Lievre 24:43
Oh my god.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 24:44
I interviewed her in that office though. Like she was surprised what she was getting into.
David Edgerton Warbutton 24:49
Oh my God, I didn't know.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 24:51
Read it there for six months because at that stage, we didn't have the rights back. That was sort of like I don't know, in the June and we didn't take the aquamaster All rights over to distribute until the January, because the other companies still have the distribution rights. So we had to say, getting ready to start the new agri master company as it is today, running our training company as it was then. And then, basically in the January, we moved into offices, and so did Paula. And that's where we started employing more stuff. Yeah, but up to then it was like, and strapping everything
David Edgerton Warbutton 25:29
your boots over here and with us, and when we moved there, the weekend, we moved up to the farm. So we've got friends with all their horse trucks and horse floats. And we caught at our house and office. And our poor neighbors thought Who the hell's turned up, it's all there are little tiny Street in chin bar with all these trucks falling up. And Harrison was four months old. So our eldest son now who's 22, so he was a four month old baby the tongue. And so while doing all these, and our first offices, ended up being in our same street of our house, so I was getting my hair cut at the shops at the end of the street. And the end, the lady said, she just met a new guy, and she was heading off to Europe. And I said, Well, what do you do with your place and she goes on and I still got a year left on my lease not gonna cover. And so we ended up renting her hairdressers shelf and refilling it out. And that became our first office. And so it was literally 100 meters from our house.
Oli Le Lievre 26:27
Oh my god. That was like the most bizarre story bear just lock these things
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 26:33
up. Everyone looks at you know, Agra masks. And you know,
Oli Le Lievre 26:37
it was last office today. Yeah, no potting shed. Yeah.
David Edgerton Warbutton 26:40
But and then our first after Paula, we are next to staff, Ruth and Nola. And they both went for the same job. And we hired Ruth who stayed with us for 16 years.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 26:53
Not quite 15.
David Edgerton Warbutton 26:57
And she was our second employee in Perth. And then we interviewed all this, we had no money, literally, we'd borrowed everything. And we interviewed Nola. And we just really liked her. And she and so we didn't offer this job. But we got a call we saw like a we should offer her a job. So we just made this job up for Nola and Ida as well. And she for about four or five years, was like our mum, she just she ran the whole operation for us. She was amazing.
Oli Le Lievre 27:27
Because how will you guys go? Like it was a new business at this stage? How did you just put into like, What was your role in that versus yours, Dave? And then what was the rest of the team doing? Because I think and this is one thing I wonder like in it in our little business that humans bag like, how do you give stability, when there is actually so much uncertainty in the sense of its growing, evolving, and what you sign up for,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 27:51
because we already had run a really successful training company for a period. So we kind of from day one had our definite roles that we had. So I was still very involved in writing training product and training customers, as well as doing, you know, the finance side, and operational. And so, you know, we had very definite roles, whereas, and Dave was pretty much doing what he is today. Plus a lot more. Yeah, a lot more grantee work.
David Edgerton Warbutton 28:21
A lot more of that sales, marketing, you know, helping out with the software team. But I'm not a software developer.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 28:28
Writing code. We've done every job in this. And that's what
David Edgerton Warbutton 28:30
I said. So that's why I say whenever we hire someone, I go, I've done your job. And that's where I live every someone started up a company, your highest I want to go on when he said that job, right, because you've done it. But to answer your question a bit more, I will say that first year of our business was a siege mentality. So you weren't offering stability. It's like, I think it's the excitement that people do when they join startups. There is no stability, right? It's just chaotic excitement, right? So our days were literally they were like, because, uh, maybe we were excited about doing and exhausted and terrified, and all the normal emotions about having a young business, but it was like, Hey, guys, so we get another 100 clients. We can afford carpet. And that was the exciting thing in the month we get carpet this month, right? And then if we get another 300 clients, everyone gets a real chair.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 29:24
Did you get rid of plastic?
David Edgerton Warbutton 29:28
And then it was like, Okay, if we hit 1000 clients, we paint the office. It was no
Oli Le Lievre 29:33
we're doing it ourselves. We can just afford the paint. Yeah.
David Edgerton Warbutton 29:36
And but the thing is, people got around that, you know, so you you get a one hit at that. Really? Yeah, that whole. And the idea is, we just had to have enough. So most of our time, every night we'd go home to our little house and a little lean to kitchen. And I always say you don't know you've started a small business until you've been in the fetal position at least once a month. And most of it was like, how are we going to make payroll this week? So we didn't pay ourselves for a long time.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 30:08
We lived on savings. We're just lucky we sold
David Edgerton Warbutton 30:10
a car. We've done a bunch of other stuff. We'd borrowed some money. And we just lived on those savings
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 30:17
probably took 12 months. Yeah, in that like in the new world once we took over aggro master, but but there again, we actually used our product, we had budgets, we had cashflow projections, we knew exactly what we had to achieve. Yeah, because we'd already set those, you know, we had our strategy, we had our budgets in place. So we just had to, like keep our eye on the game, and just go for it, and back ourselves. And
David Edgerton Warbutton 30:43
we had some good luck. And some people in ag industry really helped us. So I remember going to Louis, he used to be the head of the condominium group. And I said, and we were struggling to get hold of all the aquamaster customers around Australia. So we had a bit of a database issue and a whole lot of stuff. And at that time the continental group had to at 26,000 members around Australia. So I went into it. And this is the brave stuff you do when you just need your business to work. And so you know, we were these nobody's really from cogent Apple would come up and I go, Okay, I'm gonna get an appointment with the CEO of the condominium group. And I'm going to ask him a favor. And so I went to Louis and I said, and that I think we both I can't remember we both went and I went and I went to Louis and I go, I need to contact all our customers around Australia. I want to write a letter to them, and telling them about the new business and what we're doing and the new distribution and everything. Can you put it in your magazine next month for me? And he goes, Yeah, sure. He goes, you pay for the printing and letter and I'll get it inserted into the magazine. So we got this open letter to all our customers in Australia, inserted into 26,000 magazines. We went from about 200 customers to over 3000 in eight months from now. And another sales guy from the farm. Wheatley rang us up when he just rang us up because he was desperate to he'd lost the front page. And he rang us up and he goes, Do you want to buy front page, he was just ringing up everyone an egg. And I said how much he goes three grand and three grand to us was like so much. It was just an immense amount of money. And we just said we'll have
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 32:23
a second fax machine to cope. Yeah, all the like customers that were signing.
David Edgerton Warbutton 32:28
So we just took really he worked. So we just took this picture. We've just asked a few little staff and everything. It's still thank you somewhere here and put that picture on the front of the phone. We'll just say this is our company. This is what we do. And that plus Louise letter together. Yeah, we had to buy online put in we had to buy another factor to to fax machines running with the amount of subscriptions coming through. It was just, yeah, it was two bits a lock. That meant we went from failing to that.
Oli Le Lievre 32:58
So just for for people who aren't aware, in layman's terms, what is the product that you guys were offering back then?
David Edgerton Warbutton 33:06
So agri master, the product itself has been around for 40 years last year. So So Agra Masti is still is today very much the same, the problem that solves is very much the same. So it's a farm financial management package, which means it's management accounting, that does tax plus, really industry leading cash flow forecasting, modeling, etc. So I'm very niche, very focused on ag. And at that time, it was, I suppose a bit of a younger product than it is now. But at that time, what we were offering was training and support. So we'd started up this new company. And there's always three elements to this. And we at the moment net called CS team, we call them the customer success team. So that's everything from once you buy software, you've got to be on boarded, you have to learn how to use it, you have to be supported in it. And so we had that's what when we joined those three companies together my father's software, writing our support, we had a support team. And we had the training team, which is really the brainchild of now together. So at that time, what we were selling was support and training, because we hadn't yet rewritten the software. And so we were selling it selling support to the existing product that was out in the market already. We were selling essentially improve support. So people didn't have to buy this because they already had product. It's not like subscription is these days. Yeah.
Oli Le Lievre 34:30
Obviously a desktop system. And you guys were giving people the support they needed to actually work through how do they actually
David Edgerton Warbutton 34:40
use that will selling for these fax machines, etc, was improved software that our team had started writing membership was selling them a membership. As part of that membership. You got support from our team, and you got the new updates as we wrote them. Gotcha. So that's what we're all selling. So yeah, God It was it was hard.
Oli Le Lievre 35:01
At what point did you guys realize that it was actually going from startup idea to being a real business?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 35:08
Definitely within the first 12 months, we got to the end of the first 12 months, and I think we had 1000 No, no 2000 3000
David Edgerton Warbutton 35:15
customers by the end of 12 months, like I think we had it all happened quite thick. We haven't really quickly I think by the first year and a half. I think by the time we hit about 12 staff members, and we were all starting to squeeze out of our little 90 square meter, you know, hairdressing salon.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 35:35
We had to move, but then engage over the road.
Oli Le Lievre 35:38
So did you want to go to
David Edgerton Warbutton 35:41
Chile? We did. We ended up with 12 people in this 90 square meters. And it was, I mean, we loved it. But looking back on it, it was pretty bloody awful. And these gates and parts warehouse across the road, were told they had to move out a shed and park because they didn't want trucks and couldn't pass like a lot of inner city suburbs. It was it had moved on in its days. It used to be a bit of mix of everything. Yeah. So anyway, so we went across and we just rented this warehouse, literally, we're talking like 10 meters from our office
Oli Le Lievre 36:16
will be shopping trolleys.
David Edgerton Warbutton 36:18
That's the biggest problem when you move you can't get a truck or move is literally you have to carry with you across the road.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 36:25
We didn't have that much of that stage. So it was actually right. When we went to move again, that was like
David Edgerton Warbutton 36:30
that was huge. But yeah, so we're lucky now. So we never stayed more than a couple 100 meters from the house probably for 17 years. So So but the advantage for now at 18. So the advantage there is one of the things I loved about the farm and I always wanted to farm and you grow up on a farm. One thing is, you go home and your mom and dad are just there, you get off the bus, they're there. And your mom goes, Oh, you dad's up at the sheds, and you you ride your bike up the sheds, and, and I thought our car, our kids aren't going to have that. But they got that they would our school was turned on medicine offers 100 miles from our house. So literally, we'd be in a meeting with the team. And I go, we got to go to assembly and we literally walk down the stairs, walk 200 meters, go to our boys assembly and then come back to the office. It was perfect. And so and they could run up and see us after work. Or we can go down to the thing. And so my sister quartered our little golden triangle. Yeah, it's amazing. But so we didn't really move into this nice new office until literally our boys were well. Fergus was year nine or 10. Yeah, so our boys were able to grow up. And we didn't never really missed out.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 37:41
And even like, when like, every time we had another child, the child virtually grew up in the training room, right? They'd sleep in the light because we were always working in there. And until they could run around, they came to it.
David Edgerton Warbutton 37:53
Yeah. And so they and they see I mean, our eldest son, he goes, he says, I see our officers as much as my home as my home is really weird. So when we moved offices, he was really, it's like he was moving his mom and dad and sold the family home. And I got no, we're just leasing another office, because he grew up in there and a plane paid and was running around. And like it's weird. But that's no different farm kids. So it's a very different experience. Oh, cool. Yeah. But I always say our kids didn't grow up on the farm, but they grew up in a very similar culture.
Oli Le Lievre 38:25
Yeah. Yeah. And also, like, it'd be very special for your staff. And you build a certain type of culture by being able to make sure that you guys aren't missing the athletics days, or whatever it is, you actually then prioritize in the family side, while building a business. Well,
David Edgerton Warbutton 38:42
I think that's really important for any, not just outside, that's an odd part. I'd encourage anyone to prioritize that. And regardless, you know, like, for example, we have this rule when you go on holiday, she can't be contacted. We can't be contacted. You can't if you don't care if you're the head of whatever, team, no one's low contact, you unable to contact the office, someone can always solve the problem. I think we're talking on the phone. I said, it's never that urgent. I think I've
Oli Le Lievre 39:04
always had that philosophy that always really, yeah. Been able to separate it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. So
David Edgerton Warbutton 39:09
when when we go on holidays, you cannot talk to us ever.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 39:14
Even now, Ruth, my offside. I was actually just planning with her then, you know, like, we're going away in January. What are all the things that we need to line up now, in order for me not to be contacted? It's always about planning.
David Edgerton Warbutton 39:26
And know that there's a couple of things trust in the people you've got. And secondly, it's never that urgent, ever. I mean, I was being a bit flipping on the phone the other day, but it's really not. It's, you know, like, for example, if the buildings on fire call. Yeah. What am I gonna do if a customer's got a problem? You're actually the customer problem solver. You ring me and I'm just gonna get stressed about something and unmask and I'm gonna ask you to solve anyway.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 39:54
Yeah. That's one of our things that we always laugh about. Sometimes. We all have angry customers. From time to time, and they want to speak to someone higher up the chain, and I always giggle, they always want to speak today. And I go, Oh, he's really not the person to talk to. Anyone wants to complain about, you know, it's not working the product, they probably should talk to me, but they don't even need to talk to me because you know, what? Drove and the customer success gang. They're phenomenal. They absolutely, that's their wheelhouse. They know, 100%, what to do. And I think that's one of the other things and we spend a lot of time mentoring them. Yes. So because the fact that we're not here all the time, and that's actually not good for customers, if we don't have other people to look after them. So yeah,
David Edgerton Warbutton 40:38
but I, you know, we grew up probably with different types of farming families, but mine was, my father was like that. He was like we used to, even as farmers, we used to go on holidays for a month, a year. And he literally used to lock the gate for a month, right? And just go and go to the beach, go sailing, do other stuff. And he used to drive about once a week, and he used to drive around the shape. Make sure everything was all good. Yeah, that was it. And weekends, never worked on the weekend on a farm. Right. So he was like, because he was the same thing. He goes, this time you can't. And we both really subscribe to that philosophy. You cannot be good at your work. If your personal life is not under control. That means you you need downtime. You need headspace, you need time to do that stuff. Otherwise, you're gonna what happens is otherwise you're at work thinking about that stuff, which means you're not really at work. Yeah, you know, you're you're doing it. You're split it. You have to split that time anyway. Yeah. You muscled up properly. Yeah.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 41:35
It's really important.
Oli Le Lievre 41:36
One thing that and we chatted about it a little bit. Dave, I don't know if you if you want to talk about it at all. But you guys have been through an event recently, which has probably really shaped but also reinforced. That was your son's health as well. I love that you guys talk about that. Court bound whatever just the boundaries actually more than balanced boundaries between work and life and whatnot. But you shared a story about tracking Kokoda with was it with your son? Yeah. Yeah.
David Edgerton Warbutton 42:03
So I have to go back to the beginning to make it a bit more sense. So not for my what birthday I can't remember what you fought here. So I always wanted to trick a coder. So for my 40th birthday present, she bought me one when he got the fee or whatever to track a coder so I eventually did it when I was 45 I think eventually so so
Oli Le Lievre 42:24
typically holidays book, they don't even know what
David Edgerton Warbutton 42:28
I've got in the way. Anyway, so by fortified anyway, and I went with adventure for Kota and now brilliant anyway. So on that track, that first trek I did, there were four teenagers who were had been supported to be there. So they'd come from difficult backgrounds, and they'd been sponsored to be there. And so you could see they were a bit insular, a bit angry and everything when they got there anyway, through the 10 days were on the track, I saw them just blossom as just humans, really. And I thought, That's my biggest memory for the whole track, apart from the fact that it's do it. It's the most amazing trick you'll ever do. But that experience of watching those teenagers just come alive from such a low point as well.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 43:08
But then there was other guys on there that were doing it with their sons.
David Edgerton Warbutton 43:12
Yeah, there was another dad ordered from Sydney, he was doing it with his son. And I was like, Oh, this is great. And our kids were a bit ly living at the time. So I came home to NetLogo. Net every time when our boys turned 16. I'm trekking through Kota with them.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 43:28
I've got lots of holidays stashed up
David Edgerton Warbutton 43:31
at jerawat. It's not a cheap exercise. So what happens is, every time it's coming up, you know, you get this a lot of training and all that so, but what I love about it is each of our boys is the trainer, you know, you got to train to go and so it's all that process, and they know so they're thinking about and it's just an amazing experience to do with the boys. So I'd obviously done it with two older boys. So this was track number four with Fergus. So track number four didn't go to plan. So it was pretty normal. Fergus and I were training we're in the hills every weekend we're doing everything and he was a bit clumsy and I thought I was a teenager. Anyway, so we flew over to p&g was an absolute mess up with flights and a whole lot of stuff was going wrong. Anyway, we got up the next morning about to head out I was cornered to start tracking starts warming up and I got on he's got a drunk something you know, we're in pain Jay everything wants to kill you. Like it's just you know, it's gonna be a bacteria or it's gonna be a worm or the you know, the tropics is you know, your medical case is bigger than everything else in your pack. Anyway, so gave him an anti nausea tablet. See how he started walking the first day from ours corner across the Goldie river to eat him orig campsite and he was one Walking like he was drunk, right? And I said, You're right. But yeah, I'm fine. Are you looking in you're not finding and he goes, how? And he goes off to me. Wait, I can see three of everything. All right, this is not good. So we thought he was overheating. So we'll strip it him down and actually soaking him in the cold rivers in the jungle and just thought he was overheating because there's a couple of other people who are in heatstroke. Anyway, go to the first camp and there and so to make it a much shorter story, he couldn't walk properly. They got up next morning was still sick, couldn't walk properly. And we decided to pull out and and pull it and walk him back, got back to the Port Moresby hospital, and eventually, through a whole lot of drama and everything, eventually convinced them to do a scan on him and found that he had a five centimeter tumor in his head. So then within three days, we're in a medivac jet back to Australia. And two days later, he was having a brain tumor removed from his brain at Perth Children's Hospital. So it was not the adventure we trained for. No, not at all. Yeah, so yeah, he's now well into his starts chemo again, tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow, he goes in for his second round of chemo, but he's in good spirits. And he,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 46:11
we've just like, come off the back and four months in PCH. So pretty much we've had to like coordinate. So is 16 Now 16? Yeah, so you turn left? 11? Yeah. So we've had to pull him out of sorry, last year? 11. Yeah. So yeah, so the for the last, you know, for months, we've just been going de about in pch like we sleep there overnight. And that's where we run business from. So you know, you attend to him, and all the appointments that have to happen. But if you're on roster, then you know, you're just working from pch, yes. And once in here, and,
David Edgerton Warbutton 46:49
and so that's really how we've been running the business. So since April 20, I think, April 20, when he went on the operation, so we just been rotating between one person at work one person in the hospital for since April. So yeah, and, and the kind of amazing staff and the team have just been amazing. And that's a thing. So I was talking to you about how we run the business and we run it with a team have a have a lot of autonomy. So we meet with them once a week, we have shared objectives and key results OKRs. And everyone knows what they've got to do. And we check in and we're there when we're when needed and available. But the advantage of that system has really come home when we're in this situation. So Nat and I, I think that's how staff would want us to be a bit more involved sometimes. But so generally, we try to work we're in the hospital, but you know, it's a hospital, you're interrupted all the time. You got doctors and nurses and, you know, so yeah, but the, you know, I think it's not perfect, but the business has run really well, in the meantime,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 47:55
really needs. So we work very closely with them, like Dave was saying, but ultimately, all of our staff can reach out to us on teams, and they're not scared to, nor should they be, but like, Do you know what I mean? We all work very collaboratively together.
David Edgerton Warbutton 48:11
Yeah. So I think and that's what I say, like I'll say to you know, peon or group, or any of them say, Okay, if you need me, like, if not saying that's in the office, and I'm in the hospital, vice versa. I said, Just whack it on teams. And if I can get to it today, I will. Right? And that's pretty much it is because some days you're doing the whole thing, and you can't get to it like
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 48:30
or if it's really urgent, send me your texts. Yeah. Because I can't actually get to my phone and see I don't have teams on my phone.
Oli Le Lievre 48:38
That part of your work boundaries. Yeah, because I actually have
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 48:41
no control. Like if I don't have work emails or teams on my phone, because I actually don't know how to stop
David Edgerton Warbutton 48:48
relies on me. So it's good. You get out your phone and reply.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 48:52
You're really good at boundaries, whereas I like if it's there. If it's pinging, I'll talk to him. Yeah. So I guess the
David Edgerton Warbutton 48:59
other difference is, we're so different. We've worked boundaries. So I have this ability, with net hates to go home and just done. Like, you know, home work. I'll just go to my workshop. Now go get any workshop. But net. Never you've never had that ability. Have you like you? Because I'm always thinking you're always on?
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 49:21
I think that's because it's my role. It's like it's always
David Edgerton Warbutton 49:25
because every time I'll retire one day and all her friends laugh because she only has two years. It's like flat out are asleep.
Oli Le Lievre 49:34
Fair. Oh, yeah. So are you the kind of person who when you have like your time off, you literally make no plans just because the rest of your life is so structured and plan.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 49:44
I don't know it depends if I'm booking a holiday. Like I like to be very organized to get there. And yes, when I'm there. Actually I become so vague. Don't I just go with the flow. In fact, sometimes we've been on holidays, and people have organized stuff with us. they've walked up to her door and I filming in my pajamas going.
David Edgerton Warbutton 50:06
Oh, that was so. Yeah, but yeah, I think that is your thing, isn't it? But so if you want natural x, we have to go away.
Oli Le Lievre 50:15
Yep. Can't be contacted. Yeah. Which is actually really cool.
David Edgerton Warbutton 50:18
Yeah. So but if we do go away, now it's just like 100% off. That's right. So but if she's in her home, we are home or in our business.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 50:29
But that's because when I'm on, it's all about planning. And, you know, nightmares do happen and things go wrong. But you can always get them back on track. Yeah, because you know, assess it, you know, replan, go again.
David Edgerton Warbutton 50:44
But I think, you know, going back to the farmers who, who might be listening is that I think this is really important that this this sort of role, this keeping each other accountable for different stuff. And often your partner hopefully, is going to be different. You know, and that's good. Because you might be a natural, you might be a David, or you might be an ally, you might be suddenly and someone's gotta go. Okay, that's good to a point. But this is the point. Yeah, where
Oli Le Lievre 51:13
there's always weaknesses,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 51:14
and you don't, and you don't want to box people in for roles. But we do generally find that it's the ladies who are championing like what I do, you know, and they take charge, and that's their wheelhouse, whether they want to be in there, or they just fall into it, or just gets whatever the reason is. Yeah, so we are very similar to our customers.
David Edgerton Warbutton 51:37
The end people downplay their roles. So this is stereotyping, and I think it runs through most of the time, guys are often I always joke to everyone that asked guys are just the workmen of ag now is that eggs ran by all the girls, right? And if someone rings up out of this place, turns up to a train day, more than 90% would be female. Always. Right. So anything that you go to a business function anywhere, most of the crowds female, yeah, right. So it's not like an urban, you go to a business function in the city. It's all guys. Yeah. Right. But this small little table of girls or one on you know, it's rare, enact completely opposite,
Oli Le Lievre 52:17
right? It's moved very quickly that way, like, yeah, and it's gone
David Edgerton Warbutton 52:22
and proactive and asking the tough questions. If I go to some function somewhere. The tough questions are from the ladies in the audience, the tough business questions are always and, and so we always say that is that is the business audience that we are writing for and talking to now, right? Except budgeting can be different kind of, but I think what we find is we want those people especially that same, this stereotypical case the females to own that that's their the CFO of that business. Right? And it's very, really important, and they shouldn't downplay it, no one else should downplay it. Actually, no matter what that farm business does, his success or failure is measured in dollars, ultimately. Right. And we know that we've got a lot of really big successful clients, and the difference between them and everyone else is St. E's. Financial Management. Yeah.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 53:15
Because and they actually really, really prioritize it. Yeah. And they see it is such an important function within the business, because no one can actually operate without it. I was
David Edgerton Warbutton 53:25
talking to the Curtin University students yesterday, and I was trying to find out an analogy to say about this financial management of your business stuff. And I said, Okay, think of it like fitness. Doing it really well is good for everyone. Period. Right. Some people are gym junkies, and they're just gonna be all over it. Right? And, and that's a finance gym junkie, right? So, so you know, you there's gonna be that, and I was talking to students, there's gonna be this someone in this room here. And you know who they are. They go to the gym every day, and they're doing protein powders, and they're drinking creatine. And, you know, they just love that stuff, right. And there's one of you in this room who thinks getting up from the couch to the TV is the most exercise you ever want to do in any one day, right? But, and this, most of you are somewhere in between, right? But doing the finance for your business, it like Fitness is important for all of you, right? So you don't have to be the gym junkie or the finance junkie, right? But you do have to turn up every day you do have to do your books, you do that
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 54:34
and you have to have a rhythm and you have to consistently do it well, and you'll find it
David Edgerton Warbutton 54:39
and your business, your farm business or any business really will be much healthier to keep the analogy going as a result. And you don't have to love it. And I think people will say that to themselves. Oh, it's often you've this is case and I don't know how many people you've interviewed in your day there's a someone's married into a farm Generally, one of the girls have married into a farm. And at some point she gets handled the books. Right? And she probably hates bookkeeping. Right? But it's just your farm wife. That's your job. Right? Okay. I'm not gonna get into the politics of that. But owner, right really owner, and you don't have to be in there someone who you're going to know as a friend he'd love and they'll wait. And they'll lecture about why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? You don't have to love it. But treat it like you've been to the physio they've given you a good program. Just turn up to the gym every day, do your thing. And eventually you'll feel better. You'll sleep well at night and the business will be happy to
Oli Le Lievre 55:39
know where you're at, don't you? Yeah,
David Edgerton Warbutton 55:42
we always say that. Go seeking the brutal truth. Right? Because your numbers, it doesn't matter if they're good or bad, right? But you have to know what they are. Because if you know what they are, you can make a decision. And you can make a real decision. And you have time to make a decision too early and know the more time you have to either grab hold of an opportunity or mitigate a risk. Yeah. But if you it scares you, and you don't want to look at them. Well, then you're just literally and we have written on Oh, yeah, hoping you say we've got it written you're not a strategy. It's not a strategy.
Oli Le Lievre 56:19
It's not. I've got well, a question. I'd love to finish on with both of you. I think we could definitely keep chatting and go down all kinds of routes, but a question which I find that our audience love, and that I actually love hearing from different people. So I'll ask each of you to answer separately. But if you had the chance to go and chat to your 10 students about careers in agriculture, what the industry looks like today in and kids in a metro school, what would you say to them about the opportunities in agriculture today, David, you go
David Edgerton Warbutton 56:49
I would say that get the idea of this, this what I call the Hollywood version of ag out of your head, right there red barns and the chickens. And this stuff is the most sophisticated industry and the most diverse industry, no way you can be an ag and you can be a chemist, you can be an ag and you can be an engineer, you can be in agony, you can be a commodities a derivative trader, you can be a nag. And you can be a soil scientist or an animal scientists or veterinary surgeon or, you know, and you're still an ag, right. And if you're in farming, you can be all of those things in one day. Right? You know, a lot of people, especially the young generation, don't defer to the young generation old generation, I think they're just a bit more honest about it than I think we have been, is that we call anyone young, anyone under 40. That people's I want variety, I don't want to be bored. And I'd say if you want variety, and you don't want to be bored, ever work in ag, right, and you don't have to crouch wet shape in the rain to be an ag. Right? If you want to get fresh from their own, from the Ryan, knock yourself out. But that is not about digging holes and shoveling, hey, you know, there's a bit of that. But only if you choose,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 58:10
um, I don't know, I think like you, they also should take the time to explore to find out what it is they want to do an egg, there's so many different opportunities where they can get work experience before they actually dive into one path. So it's like, you know, take the time to explore who you want to become. There. It's getting work experience and you know, on farm or in any of the areas that Dave just said, because you don't actually have to rush. I think the thing is, they spend like people rush. If you work out who you're sort of wanting to be by the time you're 30. Fantastic. That's actually really, really good. But it's going to change a lot even after that, but at least you're heading in the right direction. So it's Yeah, I guess it's just take the time, take your
Oli Le Lievre 58:57
time and try things and see what what works, what you do and don't like.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 59:01
Yeah, definitely. And
David Edgerton Warbutton 59:02
you don't have to do it like mum and dad did it? No, you know, like, and I think sometimes that puts us off. So, you know, we look at how our parents were they might we work and you go, Oh, man, I'd never want to do that. Yeah, well, you don't have to do that. You're gonna do it different. But yeah.
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 59:18
But like, as Dave said, you also need to take the time to actually learn what something's about well, because if you spend five minutes doing it, you won't know what it's about. So you kind of got to lean in a bit.
David Edgerton Warbutton 59:30
And I think people get surprised and I think it's, I'd say this to all year 10. Always take this to our boys all the time. So just okay. First of all, that whole concept about passion, the biggest load of BS ever, right? It's not a passion and what you end up loving something you're good at. Right? And you don't know what you're gonna love until you're actually good at it. So, just find something. Go hard at it. and get try and get good at it. Right? Even if it is crouching cheap in the rain, get really good at it, and then decide once you're good at it, then decide whether you like it or not, right? But if you fiddle around on the edges of everything, you're never going to like anything, I guarantee it. And you're going to be sitting there at 50 Go home discovered my passion is never lifted the hood up for anything, right? So you gotta go. You gotta go deep. You got to go hard on one thing, don't flip between one thing and another. Just and if and if that's one thing and ag or discover something and you know, and basically, if you find someone who's good at what they do shut up, listen, take notes.
Oli Le Lievre 1:00:43
Ask questions. Yes,
Nat Edgerton - Warbutton 1:00:45
lots.
Oli Le Lievre 1:00:46
Well dive in that. Thank you so much for sitting down having a chat. It's been good to sit down with you both and understand a little bit more of that journey that has been agri master to what it is today. So thank you. Thanks, Ollie. Well, that's it for another episode from us here at humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts. And well if you're not, let us know hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com. Get in touch with any guests recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it, any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe. stay sane. We'll see you next time. Say
Transcribed by https://otter.ai