The New Dreaming Podcast
The New Dreaming is more than just a podcast - it’s a truth-telling movement. A space for real, meaningful conversations that empower, challenge and inspire. Through the voices of those who have broken barriers, found their purpose and reclaimed their stories, - we uncover the truths that shape who we are.
For those ready to listen, learn and be part of something bigger - each episode is a step towards truth, healing and collective empowerment.
The New Dreaming Podcast
The sky is no longer the limit - with Roberto Romano
Robbie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Let's start with your name, where you're from and a little bit about what you do.
Speaker 2:Robbie Romano. Originally from Cairns, I live in Airlie Beach now in the beautiful Whitsundays. Day was great, Beautiful day here in Brisbane. Appreciate you having me down here. No, it's great.
Speaker 1:And it's currently nighttime and you've had a late coffee, so you're doing really well. Now you're a business owner.
Speaker 2:I am recently, Recently, the last 12 months.
Speaker 1:Let's delve right in. Let's start with the name of your business, and then I want you to take me back to when you first said to yourself you know what I want? To start a business.
Speaker 2:Perfect. The name of the business is Elevate Innovations. At the moment I'm doing a lot of agricultural stuff but I didn't want to tie it into just doing the agricultural stuff. Agricultural stuff, but I didn't want to tie it into just doing the agricultural stuff. I've got some plans and some visions of where I want that business to go and I didn't want to restrict it with a name by calling it something that was going to restrict it. So I've gone with innovations because I think that's where I'm going.
Speaker 1:Love it, and then you're always evolving, correct.
Speaker 2:Because you're always innovating. That's the plan.
Speaker 1:Now give me an overarching brief of sort of maybe, what you're currently doing, and then we're going to talk about straight we're going straight into it maybe the next two to three years.
Speaker 2:Yeah cool, into it, maybe the next two to three years? Yeah cool. Uh, right now it's a very solo type affair. It's me in a cane paddock with my drones uh, spraying cane for for vine and sickle pod, which are just a pest that grow in the cane, and what happens is, as the vine grows and takes the nutrients out of the soil, the sugar cane itself loses sugar content and struggles to grow to its full potential. So what we do is we come in there and we spray that to kill that weed, and traditionally farmers would be doing that on a tractor. Or you pay for a helicopter, which is pretty inefficient and with emerging technologies we're in there making it work.
Speaker 1:Wow, I've never met anyone that does that. Now tell us about your drone. I'm very interested and I've wanted to ask you questions about the drone because I work in the creative space and we use drones for film. But tell me about your drones how big they are, the capabilities.
Speaker 2:They are massive. It's ridiculous. When I first saw my first agricultural spray drone, I was blown away by the size of it and just went this is a couple of meters by a couple of meters. And I was like, well, this is just crazy. And that was the, the dji t30s. When they were first came out, that was the what they were using, and then along came the 40s, and then along came the 50s and at the moment I'm rocking two dji t50s which are even bigger again. They're just a massive airframe because they're basically carrying up to 50 kilos or about 40 litres of fluid when you're spraying. So they've got to have big propellers, big motors and a big airframe to carry that weight around.
Speaker 1:So let's give the people at home some perspective. So when they see drones they see filmmakers, hobbyists, videographers, and they have a little Mavic Pro, something like this big right, maybe something here when they get a little bigger, let's give them a bit of scale. So I'm going to have one hand here of one side of the drone.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, we might have to move chairs because we're going to keep going About there, I would say is probably where we're at. To keep going about about there, I would say is probably where we're at, and and the same again. Once it's folded out, it's pretty much square. So imagine that distance squared and that's the area it takes up. And then, obviously, with its proximity sensors and radars, you probably need that again on either side to land it. Otherwise it won't take off or land because it won't do anything with people or structure around it.
Speaker 1:So they're literally like the size of a small car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty big.
Speaker 1:Big toys.
Speaker 2:They're a big toy, a noisy, dangerous toy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how do you go with the insurances and any sort of licensing to pilot that drone?
Speaker 2:So licensing is an interesting one. You go through CASA, so civil aviation, same as you would for any pilot's license. So you can do a commercial drone license which will let you fly your normal size drones I think these days it's 250 grams. So anything over 250 grams that you're using in any commercial sense needs to be licensed. Um, which cuts you down to nothing. I think the dji Mavic Minis are the only ones that are under that weight specifically for that. And then, once you scale up from there, you do your commercial license. There's a 25 kilo license, there's a 50 kilo license, there's a 100 kilo license. So you do those brackets of licensing, all with their separate trainings, all with their separate practical exam. So the practical exams change. Since I did it, I used to have to do all these different manoeuvres for the CASA inspector to say, yep, you can do that, you can fly that, because obviously when you're going up in size you get a shift in momentum like a container ship going through the sea.
Speaker 2:You turn and it takes six minutes before you do anything. A bigger drone and a bigger weight in the air is exactly the same. So as you turn and go to turn the other way, it's going to drift a bit further and move a bit further and takes a lot of getting used to. After flying little drones, to getting onto the bigger ones, they don't stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as well as you'd like, no no, I can't imagine how hard it is, because I only navigated small ones.
Speaker 2:It's lucky because they're very clever. So a lot of what I do at the moment they do themselves. It's a press button operation. Once you've mapped out a field, it's bang away. It goes on task doing its job, on task doing its job and then, when it needs a battery change or it needs more juice, it'll bring itself back to homeland land, exactly where it took off from, and swap some batteries, put some more fluid in it, press the button and away it'll go again.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's really cool and big film cameras fit on those things pretty easy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:We'll have that discussion after the podcast. How did you get the idea for this business? Did you start somewhere else flying drones? Did you work in the cane industry? How did it come about?
Speaker 2:I've always had a need, a want. I wanted to be an Air Force pilot as a kid. That was all I wanted and I have a mutated sinus which excluded me from that and that was devastating. As a kid you know what it's like when that's what you want to do and they go. Well, you can't do that because of this and I'm like, oh, so that ruined me.
Speaker 2:But I've always had a thing about just things that fly. I'm fascinated by it. And then, getting a bit older and these drones started coming along. I think the first one I bought was one of the Phantom 1s. I loved it, I could fly, I could see. You couldn't actually see what you were doing, you had to watch the drone, but when you got down you could see the footage that you were recording and it was amazing to me.
Speaker 2:I was like this is just ridiculous, and I've been onto it ever since, like, oh, what's next? What's? What else is out there? What else can we do? And uh, a buddy of mine does a lot of music industry production stuff and he and I had seen and I don't know whether you've seen them, you know the show drones where they draw the shapes and pictures in the sky and that was my initial draw to it as a commercial business, as a going concern, as I gonna, I'm gonna, rather than just do this for fun. I want to. I want this to be my business and my first thought was that because I was doing part-time work in the music industry and some festivals and things like that and I was like this could be huge. Um, and at the time this is sort of a couple of years ago when we looked at it, unfortunately the financials didn't quite stack up to what it was to get that technology in the country to start with. There's some companies in Australia that do it now, but at the time it was. I think the quote that I got was about €600,000. It was in euros, so you do the conversion of that. It was ridiculous money. So that's a lot of festivals and a lot of shows drawing pictures in the sky to to pay back that kind of money. It wasn't a going concern that was going to make money.
Speaker 2:Um, but during that process of figuring out that that wasn't going to work, I went and did my drone license. Um, and it turns out that an old school friend of mine was doing it at the same time and he was like, oh, let's go to the same guy, we'll do the course. And he was doing it because he is a well, not a practicing cane farmer, but he was a cane farmer, his parents were cane farmers and he was a harvester driver who'd gone out to the mines and he'd come home and he'd do the cane season and he'd drive harvesters and was in the industry and he he'd been put onto it by. He at the time had a, a slashing and mowing business, um, with a heap of sort of government contracts, council contracts for slashing and weed control and that kind of stuff. And he'd seen the potential of these drones and went I think we should do this.
Speaker 2:And while we were doing the course was when I sort of figured out that this other thing wasn't going to be completely viable. And he went well, why don't you do this with me? And I went well, I'll try it, said I'm not. And I went well, I'll try it, said I'm not, I'm no farmer, you're the farmer I'm. I'll, I'll tag along and see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Uh, so we both did the the course and then did the, the bigger drone, pass out and, uh, my mate had already purchased two t30s and a batching plant and a trailer to run it all. So between the pair of us we figured it out, basically because nobody was doing it for sugarcane at the time. So they were doing it broadacre stuff in grain, they were doing orchards, they were doing spot control, that kind of thing. No one was was doing sugar cane as such. So we sort of had to figure it out from scratch and go what's going to work, what's not? We did some farms around Proserpine that Mick knew the guys that owned the farms and said, hey, can we try this out? If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. The beauty of it was the farmers are paying for chemical anyway.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So they went look, we'll pay for the chemical. If we get it right, then you pay for the chemical. If we get it wrong, we've paid for the chemical, you've lost nothing. We'll make sure the rates are right because you sort of the chemical rates are all dictated by the agronomists. They come and assess your sugar cane and go this is the rate at which you need to apply on, given your soil. What's going on?
Speaker 2:So it was interesting to go through that process and learn it and then, like I said, through a bit of trial and error and figuring out what sort of water rates we needed to apply, at what range the drones had over the cane and how tied in, how wide apart the runs needed to be and to make it work in sugar cane, and over the course of about 12 months we figured that out and my mate decided it wasn't for him. He didn't like the idea of being alone in a cane paddock, which takes some getting used to, but for me I was like this is great, this is it. I really like it. I quite enjoy sitting out in the middle of a cane paddock with nothing but the stars above you and the buzz of your drones flying around over your head.
Speaker 1:Those big ones must be loud.
Speaker 2:They are very loud, very loud.
Speaker 1:And I'm trying to think of when you were young and you had a maybe a fascination with flying. Was there a moment where you knew you were going to be a business owner, or was it something that evolved after you left school and just got into the workforce?
Speaker 2:I think as a kid you have big visions. Like I said, after the Air Force thing fell away, I was like, right, well, I always thought I don't want to work for someone, I want to work with someone or I want to work for myself. I don't want to be. I saw my mum, as a single mum works so bloody hard and still to this day works so bloody hard, and she that to me as a kid I was like I never want to end up there, I never want to be at the will of your boss. Who's telling you? So there was always a piece of me that went I want to do something for myself. At the time I didn't know what it was, I was clueless as to what it was going to be, but I really knew that there was something, something had to click and I knew that something would click. That part I did know. I knew eventually I was going to find what I wanted to do and I knew that something would click. That part I did know. I knew eventually I was going to find what I wanted to do and I'd do it. And I went down plenty of paths along the way to finding what that thing was. But, like I said, eventually I found it and to me, this is what I'm doing at the moment is just, it makes sense where it is now as a viable business, and then the potential of what's out there in that space, of the avionics, the technology of what's happening in that space, and you throw AI into that, mix, mix, and it's limitless. There's nothing that can't happen in that space. That's endless and it's like, right, well, I'm a foot in the door doing what I'm doing at the moment and, like I said, the agriculture stuff is a good earner. It's manually hard because you're out there in it and it's hard to. It's one of those things where it's hard to let go of. I couldn't go and train someone and say, hey, this is how you fly the drone. I'm going to let you go and do it now. It's something you could do, but it takes a long time to figure out and I think by the time someone figured it out, they'd be like all right, this is probably not for me. Again, you've got to find the right person in the right headspace to go and do that. So, like I said, at the moment the agricultural stuff's a stepping stone. I think I'm building the business from there. Stuff's a stepping stone. I think I'm building the business from there, um, and, like I say, the, the possibilities are, are everywhere there's.
Speaker 2:There's bits and pieces and it's just oh well, I'm gonna need to get a drone for this now, because I'm gonna start doing that and we do some mapping, we do some looking at lidar drones at the To do bits and pieces of ground penetrating radar and LiDAR. I'm doing a. I bought a survey drone or it's a search and rescue drone, really it's emergency services, but I'm doing a dugong survey for JCU at the moment where it's just mapped this section of ocean for us and at a specific time on a specific tide, because the drone will fly at about 30 kilometers an hour and do a grid and then give you a full image through dji terra of that, so it's like. And then you add it to basically google maps as a layer, so where you zoom in on Google Maps and you can only zoom in so far. Once you stitch that together through DJI Terra, you then add it to Google Maps as a layer and you can zoom in to a high-res picture right on the water and you get a snapshot of that time that you mapped that. So that's what they were after. So little bits and pieces like that that come along. And there's silly insurance jobs where they want roofs mapped before they'll insure people, especially around the Whitsundays where we get our North Queensland with those swirly things that come and mess everything up up there. So there's little bits and pieces like that. Every time you think of something, you go oh, we could be doing that. Why then you go and track them down?
Speaker 2:I've been onto ergon because I was spraying in a paddock one day and there was a chopper buzzing around. So I'm like, oh, put my radio on because I don't know what's going on there and I don't know. He was nowhere near me. I'm flying at about five meters, he's at about 50 meters. But I was like what's going on here? And he called up and said, oh, a drone operator. And I was like, hey, mate, yep, gotcha, I see you there Should be out of your way. And he was like, yeah, cool, we out of your way. And he was like, yeah, cool, we're just doing some power line inspections. And I was like power line inspections, huh. So I was straight on ergo and I said, oh, what are you? What are you paying for a chopper to do power line inspections, and do you, do you have a person in there? Is it trying to feel my way through that? So again there's another one that pops up.
Speaker 2:There's applications in the other half of my life where I work in the mines at the moment in a coal mine in the Bowen Basin. There's applications out there where I've got people saying, hey, can you bring your drones and do this? We've got rehab and seating. We've got cable inspections for electric shovels and drag lines, and we've got this and we've got that and we've got this, and we've got cable inspections for electric shovels and drag lines, and we've got this and we've got that and we've got this, we've got that, and there's a whole suite of work out there that I'm not that interested in because I'm out there seven days a week at the moment anyway. So I do seven days out there and then I come home and do seven days in a cane paddock and somewhere in the middle I squeeze in my partner and my kiddo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and, like you said, just the nature of innovation and AI, it's really endless.
Speaker 2:It's the direction, like I say, the agricultural stuff. I think that is absolutely the direction there and I've got some plans in motion at the moment to automate a lot more of what I do around that space, and that again frees me up to concentrate on the rest of the business.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about when you first started your business? And when you first started the business business, how did you hear about IBA?
Speaker 2:IBA was one that actually popped up on my radar. My partner is, uh, works in economic development at the Whitsunday Council so she does a lot of grant writing and bits and pieces and she, through other bits and pieces, had had a little bit to do with IBA and knew about it and knew of it. And uh, I've never through my life because of the way I was sort of not separated from but my mum and dad split and I never really got to know my dad's side of the family until much later in life when I went hunting for them and on my mum's side of the family it was different. I wasn't in touch with that kind of thing. So I never grew up with any of that kind of influence in my life, any attachment to that culture or to. So it was not until I got a bit older that I was like really wanted to go hunting for that stuff and try and get some connection to country, to people, to something I knew something was missing there and I just wanted to find something that fitted in that space and then I'd done so. Then I started.
Speaker 2:At the time I was working for a different mining company in a different role and they it was during that phase of I don't know. I like saying it, but it was very cool to be doing stuff in the indigenous space suddenly for these mining companies, and so I was like, right, I want to jump on board with that because there's a ticket right there for me to try and get in touch a bit more. I'm still at work, that's right. I did some mentoring courses, I did some bits and pieces in that space and got to know a lot of people in that space, which was really cool. And there's so many great people in the business space, in the Indigenous space, in the business world, that are doing great work.
Speaker 1:It's a great place. There's so many black businesses around. It's a great place. There's so many black businesses around and during those business events and opportunities, you're meeting and connecting and reconnecting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great. The collaboration is ridiculous. You think about, you know, cutthroat business. It's us against them, but it's not like that in that space it's everyone's like.
Speaker 1:So there was an opportunity for you to connect and to do something for yourself with your business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And I got in touch with the guys from IBA and sort of it was funny. I had the initial phone call and said, hey, I want to start a business. I've got some money saved towards it because I was saving for the other piece. And I said, and they sort of went what kind of business are you looking at? And I went, well, it's agricultural spray drones. And they went you what, what are you doing? I said. I said, oh, it's drones that spray sugar cane. And they went what do you mean? And then I had to go through the process to explain what it was and what was happening. And and they went oh, oh, we've never done anything like that before. So it was a bit of a process because and I get it they went look, you've not had a business. This is not a business we know about. We need you to go and and see someone sit down and go through a process of, uh, assessing your financials, how the business is going to work, what it's going to look like.
Speaker 2:And they put me onto a gentleman named Rob Coco in Townsville Legend, absolute legend. That guy was amazing. So we sat down with him, my partner and myself, and he started at the beginning and worked his way through. We were there for a few hours and then backwards and forwards over the next few weeks way through. We were there for a few hours and then backwards and forwards over the next few weeks and he put it all together and it just made perfect sense at the end of it and I went he's nailed this, it's right. And IBA thought the same thing. They went this makes sense.
Speaker 2:And poor Sharon from the Townsville office she was backwards and forwards and phone calls and a whole lot of messing about because again, they'd never done anything like this. I was just starting to do this. It was a lot of money to get started. They're not cheap drones and it's not a cheap business to set up. But eventually it all came together and it seemed to work and everything just sort of clicked. And then suddenly they rang and said Sharon rang me and said hey, it's, it's gone through, you need to go and buy some drones. Wow.
Speaker 1:So they saw something innovative and instead of just saying hey look, we don't know this business model, they provided support and then used worked through it step by step to look at what it would look like some forecasts Really good support in that it gave them the information they needed that it was a viable business.
Speaker 2:It gave me the information that I needed that it was a viable business and I wasn't just chasing my tail like a weirdo and stuff from those meetings and that information I'm still using now. I'm still using some of those spreadsheets. I'm still using some of those bits and pieces that he put us onto. So it wasn't just tick this box and we'll do this. It was really handy to actually get into and go right. I mean, I've worked on an ABN and, you know, tried to do my own taxes and that kind of stuff. And hardly a business as a, as a contractor, doing bits and pieces on an ABN to oppose to like actually committing to it and going this is this is my business and I have to make it work, is a completely different thing.
Speaker 1:So IBA had your back.
Speaker 2:They did. Indeed, it was really good. Like I said, a process, yes, but a well-managed process. A process where, like I said, that Sharon, the lady that I went through the whole thing with was, you know, we were we're best mates by the end, because we were just on the phone nearly every day, yeah, for a few months, and just trying to make it work. She'd ring me with an update, I'd ring her with an update and eventually, like I said, we worked our way through the process and at the end of it, everyone was happy to move forward and we went let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 1:I love it. And then, once you got rolling, you got those drones and how was the support moving forward? Let's say, the first six months, some follow-ups.
Speaker 2:There was plenty of follow-ups and some feedback. I did some photos and stuff for Sharon to put through and to get an idea of what was going on, because, again, we'd just sort of spoken about it. And it's one of those things, unless you see it, you see a picture of it or a video of it doing something. It's hard to how big is it, what are you doing with it? Something it's hard to how big is it, what are you doing with it? So we went through that and it was like I said, it wasn't hard it was.
Speaker 1:It's good. That's great because just you talking to someone there that you know is supporting you about your idea even if you think it's well, other people may think it's crazy. Your idea IBA, you're chatting, so together you're collaborating on bringing this business to life. And now here you are, doing LIDAR readings to help inform global networks of data for people, infinite information.
Speaker 2:Yeah, works of data for people. Infinite information yeah. And again, what's possible is astounding. There's so much going on in that space.
Speaker 1:Hi everyone. I hope you're enjoying the podcast. Just wanted to take a quick break to let you all know that next month, October, is Indigenous Business Month. So during the month of October, we are celebrating First Nations businesses Australia-wide. If you are a First Nations business owner, collaborator or partner, or looking to network with Indigenous businesses, please get in touch via our social media channels and we'll be sure to put you in the right direction. Back to the podcast, and we'll be sure to put you in the right direction. Back to the podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm planning on taking a trip hopefully early next year to China, to a couple of the tech expos over there and just immerse in it for a week and go. This is where they're up to and what they're doing, and get on the catch-up wagon.
Speaker 1:The technology over there would be crazy.
Speaker 2:Ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Now to date. What is one or maybe a couple of milestones so far for the business?
Speaker 2:I think milestone number one was actually getting the drones and taking them. I still vivid memories of my first flight of the new drones that I'd just paid for and went okay, let's go and away. We went. That was a pretty big milestone in my head, yeah. And then, because they're clever, it just took off and did its thing and I went I know this isn't hard. And then, because I'd been flying the smaller ones and flying other people's my mate's drones and learning the industry, so to speak. But yeah, big tick in the box was flying my own drones for once. The first time was amazing.
Speaker 2:Then I guess little pieces, little things that flag as milestones for myself, like getting the truck. I had a truck, decked it out with a big generator, because you need a massive generator to charge the batteries. So, decked out, a truck with a generator and a water tank and a batching plant and a self-sufficient unit I could drive to a job and be done and not be towed on a trailer, was a big milestone for me. Tell you, what's a weird one is putting in that first invoice. No, that's a big one. Sending off that first invoice is one half of it. And then seeing the money land in the bank and go. I made money. Look at me, it's massive. It's massive, it's huge. It's a huge, it's an amazing feeling to go. I mean, fair enough, we all go to work every week and you get paid for going to work, and that's great. But I went to work all that week and I was working for myself and then I got paid and that was.
Speaker 1:It's a different feeling, huh.
Speaker 2:A very different feeling, a very elevating feeling.
Speaker 1:I like what you did there, I see you Now. How important do you think it is to empower our men to? Not about starting a business, but just doing something for themselves, whether it be starting a business or, you know, following that dream of wanting to be a pilot.
Speaker 2:Or anything. You've just got to take the step. It's one of those things. And again, we were talking about being younger and I often think if I could go back in time and meet my younger self.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agreed.
Speaker 2:I'd give myself a slogan and go what are you doing, man? Let's go. Because when I look back now and I go, not so much the drones but just life in general, the outlook you have on life as a sometimes as a young man, your priorities in life are not ideal.
Speaker 1:Misguided.
Speaker 2:Misguided. Again, I feel like I was a shit kid, just saying but, and I played silly games and did silly things, as you do as a young man, you know. And again, like I said, if I could go back I'd slap myself silly and go. What are you doing? Straighten up, let's go. But you can't be told at that age, unfortunately. And the problem is, it's finding that thing. If it's a business, if it's sport, if it's your personal health yes, if it's, you know, getting up and going to the gym every morning, it's whatever it is it's just take that first step, make it happen and have a go at it, because that's a big thing. You, you, you go through life and you get into your routine and you're in the grind. It's just happening. It's happening, life's happening. You're not living it, it's just happening around you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now you touched about health. Now balancing a business, working in the mines, being a dad what are some of the challenges that you found with business balance?
Speaker 2:Balance is a tough one in my world at the moment. We've got, like you say, seven on seven off at a coal mine. Like you say, seven on seven off at a coal mine. I come home and I fly drones and I try to give my family as much time as I can. I think I'm lucky in that space at the minute because I've got a very understanding partner who basically lives like a single mum at the moment, basically lives like a single mum at the moment, and because we know where we're together. We have a goal that is based on, you know, getting to that point where it's a bit comfortable in life. You don't want to get too comfortable, but we want to get to that point where maybe I do get to eventually get the business to the stage where I can go right, I'm done with this mining lark, a seven and seven business, I mean.
Speaker 2:Even when we were trying to arrange the podcast, I was like oh, I can't come that day because I'm actually home for my daughter's birthday and it's the first time I've been home. I think it's probably the ninth birthday and I reckon it's probably the second one I've been home for. For the actual date, yeah, I mean, you know we'll do a little party or a little, we'll do whatever while I'm home, yeah, but the actual birthday. It's probably the second time that I've been there in the morning when she woke up on her birthday, which is hard. It's probably the second time that I've been there in the morning when she woke up on her birthday, which is hard.
Speaker 2:It takes its toll on you Mentally. You get a bit.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you're trying to build something bigger than yourself, something, a legacy to leave. And when you're in it, you're in it and you're all in and you're in a growth phase in it, and you're all in and you're in a growth phase, and it's hard for people to understand, and you've got someone who understands that sacrifice and sees the bigger picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like I said, I'm pretty lucky in that sense it could be, and I mean, not everyone gets to have that. You know, I know plenty of people that have tried to do things similar, whether it's a business or something similar, and they don't have that same support that I'm lucky enough to have and that would make it twice as hard, twice multiples harder, to try and achieve what you want to achieve. And then it's a case of, you know, knuckle down and go even harder or try and find that magic balance between what you want to achieve, how you're going to get there, and what keeps your home life happy as well. Yeah, because between, if you don't have that happy home life, you're not going to be happy with anything else you're doing. So there's got to be.
Speaker 2:You know, even even if I didn't have a partner that was supportive of my business, I would have to say the business wouldn't get as far as it's gotten now because, at the end of the day, family has to come first. I didn't have a mum and dad when I was growing up and I think a lot of people are in the same boat and a lot of people, rather than repeating the cycle like myself, where they're like right, well, my family's staying together. We're going to make it work, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that, and is there anything that you're absorbing, whether it be music, podcast, you're out in that cane field. Is there something that's helping you stay strong? Work on that balance and keep that focus.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I'll go through cycles where it is a podcast, or I'll have podcasts going in the background or I'll have audio books going in the background or I'll have music. Just depends on audio books going in the background or I'll have music. Just depends on I'll go and do a week in a paddock and, like I say, a lot of it's at night time, which is great for me because I really like being out there in the dark under the stars, with a bit of connection, and I'll just have one headphone in and because've got to listen to the remote talking to you, sometimes in Chinese, but the remote's talking to you saying what's going on, and so I'll have one in and, like I said, depending on the mood and what time in the am it is, get to that 3.30, 4 o'clockclock in the morning and you've been out there all night. Sometimes it's like some some banging tunes to keep you away, oh yeah, whereas at the start of the night it might have just been an audio book. Yeah, and it'll be.
Speaker 2:The audio books are funny because, again the same thing you go through phases. Sometimes I want to listen to crazy stories about UFOs and unsolved mysteries, and other times I want straight motivational rich dad, poor dad, 100%. The secret, the this, the that Been through them all multiple times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like your favorite song. Sometimes you skip it, it's just when you're in a mood, it's seasonal.
Speaker 2:Very seasonal.
Speaker 1:Now anyone out there that wants to start a business. They might be working a job. They could be working, fly in, fly out anything. They're thinking about starting a business. Any advice that you could give someone out there that maybe hasn't taken the leap working fly in, fly out anything. They're thinking about starting a business. Any advice that you could give someone out there that maybe hasn't?
Speaker 2:taken the leap but wants to start a business, but wants to start. I think the best advice I can give is identify what it is that you want to do. Identify what it is that you want to do. Identify what it is that you want to do. Make sure that that's a viable thing, because there's a lot of people that go. I'm going to do this as a business and it's not something that actually makes money. It's not something that's a viable business that they can do. I think that's a big part of what you need to identify at the start is that it's a business that's going to make you money, not cost you money. And that's a hard thing if you're passionate about something. And if you're passionate about something and it's just not a thing.
Speaker 2:I've been down that road, like I with the with the show drones. I was super passionate about it. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. But at the end of the day, when you do the maths to work out how much, how much you've got to spend to to make that just a thing, and then go okay, I'd be charging this much a show how many shows is that to pay those drones off before? And it's all technology. This is a thing. By the time you're starting to pay those drones off. There's better drones and there's cheaper drones and there's ones that do better jobs, like my spray drones at the moment, my T-50s. They're about to release a T-100 that drops in Australia very soon. It's probably going to be about 70 litres.
Speaker 2:I think Wow, and bigger again, right. So bigger, cleverer than the super clever big drone that I'm flying now. So it's like, right, do I upgrade? The drone I have does the job, but the technology moves so quick that you pretty quickly get left behind and someone can do it more efficiently with a newer piece of equipment, yep. So I think, all in all, you've got to identify that it's a moneymaker. You've got to be passionate about it, because if you're not passionate about it and you're not committed to what you're going to do, you're going to fall on your ass, yep, like Jim's mowing. If you're passionate about race cars, for example, and you go well, I'm passionate about race cars, but I'm going to mow lawns it's not going to, moneymaker or not, it's not going to stack up. You're not going to be able to commit to it properly. Moneymaker or not, it's not going to stack up. You're not going to be able to commit to it properly. And then if you're not committed to it, your family's not committed to it, it's not going to work.
Speaker 1:Great advice, and it's very easy to not think about viability because people aren't trained in business. Therefore, they don't have people around them asking them the right questions.
Speaker 2:Correct, and that was the beauty of going through that process with IBA and going to see the guy in Townsville that went through, like I said, from start to finish. He went what are you going to do? And he said you need to explain it to me piece by piece by piece, of how you're going to do it, what you're going to do. Do you do these drones? Do this? Do they do that? Do you stand next to him? Do you go there? Do you go and watch? Do you? How does it work? And explain the whole thing to him. And he went right now I get that. What do you charge? How you make your money? What are you? What do they provide? What do you provide? What are you? And all stuff that I had thought about but I hadn't, you know, necessarily put on paper and said this is how my business is going to work, sitting down with him and putting it on paper, made it all right there in front of you.
Speaker 1:You can see it and go right it's tangible, it's real, it's tangible, it's real, it's achievable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the steps, and if I follow the steps, I can get to the goal, which is, if you're not breaking it down into achievable goals along the way, that end goal is unachievable. You can't just expect to go from zero to hero. There's got to be steps.
Speaker 1:I agree. Now where can people find your business? I'm assuming there's a website, or there's a website that you're currently developing. We had this chat. I just remembered.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the moment it is a very word-of-mouth business and, to be honest, like I said, I've got people saying, hey, can you come and do this out of the mines? Can you come and do that, can you? And it's a case of well, because I'm still doing, I haven't quit and commit, so to speak, into what I'm doing, which it's hard because I'm pretty damn busy most of the time. When the weather's right, which is a big part of it, but when the weather's right I'm flying, which is a big part of it. But when the weather's right, I'm flying.
Speaker 2:And I've got sort of in the region there's sort of six to eight decent-sized farms that I can come home on my break from the mine and go, I'm going spraying I know he needs this, done this, done this done, and I'll go and spray paddocks for six or seven days or try to avoid the weekends, so sort of four or five days and spend the weekends with the family, punch out what I can in that time. But to be doing it like that for me at the moment is working. So the business is paying for itself and making a little bit of money and I'm still paying the bills for my family by going to work and we're building it, growing it, getting it to that point where I can go. This is it.
Speaker 1:That's right. Building it so it can. This is not me trying to be a pun, but it can fly on its own and be its own sort of business and then step away and then create the website when it's time and then use the work with those clients that you've got the six farms to.
Speaker 2:And this is it like. It'll get to a point where I'll want to expand. I'll be eventually. It'll be there where I'm gonna have to do employees, I'm gonna have to do a fleet of vehicles, I'm gonna have to do more drones, I'm gonna have to. It'll happen. It's it's happening now where I generally can't keep up with what's coming in. So I think that'll be the next phase where, if I'm 100% honest, I think I'll go back to. It was Angelo Coco sorry, I said Rob Coco earlier Angelo in Townsville and sit down and say right, angelo, we went through this 18 months ago and now I want your help to go to the next level. How do we get to the next step? And again, I think sitting down with someone and going through it because I don't know how to do it. I get, this is my first business. I don't know how to make that business go to the next step and if you trust the telly, then the bank will do it for you.
Speaker 1:And they're business specialists as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you need someone to give you that guidance. You don't know what you don't know, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, I'm here for it and next year we'll do a follow-up. We might get you on one of our movie sets and we'll coordinate a drone and get some cool shots. Yeah, absolutely We'll get you in and talk about that later. And you know, I just want to see these things in action because I get pretty excited about them, because I've seen some big ones on film sets. But you're getting the T-100, am I correct?
Speaker 2:It's coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brother, thank you for your time, thank you for sharing, and we'll be chatting again soon.
Speaker 2:Again, thanks for having me man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.