The Humans of Agriculture with Oli Le Lievre

This week Mark is chatting to fellow podcaster, Oli Le Lievre. Raised in Sydney, Oli’s connection to agriculture was sparked by his family's farming roots in western Victoria, "I'm a city boy who fell in love with agriculture," he says. 

Oli, in his own words, “attempted” university twice, which changed his trajectory in the industry. “I began to gain exposure to the agribusiness and agriculture value chain aspects,” he explains. “I still had a deep love for farming, but the intricate complexities and pressures within the supply chain caught my attention. My career has taken various turns and has since evolved into what is now Humans of Agriculture today."

Oli’s passion now lies in sharing the stories of the fantastic people within the agricultural industry; he does this through the expanding empire of Humans of Ag. Oli stresses the need for positive storytelling in the sector. His approach with Humans of Ag is to highlight the often-overlooked, fascinating aspects of agriculture. The aim is to reshape the narrative around the industry, making it more positive and curating a genuine connection with the consumer.

So, he and his team spend their time trying to find the “extraordinary in the ordinary”, and opening up the farm gate to the wider community through videos, podcasts and social media content. In this conversation with Mark, Oli shares how he has built Humans of Agriculture into what it is today and the personal growth that comes from building your own business from the ground up. His positive vibes are infectious and that truly comes across in what is a great podcast! 

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited, we help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best - info@nextgenagri.com.

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These companies are leaders in their respective fields and it is a privilege to have them supporting the Head Shepherd Podcast. Please consider them when making product choices, as they are instrumental in enabling us to bring you this podcast each week.

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Transcript

Mark: 0:06

Welcome to the Head Shepherd Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Ferguson, CEO at Next Gen Agri International, where we help livestock managers to get the best out of their stock. I want to take this opportunity to thank our friends at MSD Animal Health in Orflex for sponsoring Head Shepherd again this season, and I'm also excited to introduce our mates at Heinegger as brand new sponsors of the show. Msd in Orflex, or perhaps better known as Cooper's Animal Health in Australia, offer one of New Zealand, Australia's, largest livestock product portfolios, with a comprehensive suite of animal health and management products connected through identification, traceability and monitoring solutions. Like us, they see how the wealth and breadth of information born out of this podcast can help their men and their farming clients achieve their mission of the science of healthier animals. Heinegger will need a little introduction to our audience. A market leader and one-stop shop for wool harvesting and animal fiber removal, together with an expanding range of agricultural products and inputs, the Heinegger name is synonymous with quality, reliability and precision. The Heinegger team have a deep understanding of livestock agriculture, backed by Swiss engineering and a family business dedicated to manufacturing the best. It's fantastic to have both of these sponsors supporting us and bringing Head Shepherd to each week, and now it's time to get on with this week's episode.

Mark: 1:17

Welcome back to Head Shepherd. This week we've got season podcaster Oli Lele Leivon, which is a great chat about all things humans in agriculture, which is all humans of agriculture is the topic of his own podcast, but it's been. It was a great chat that you'll I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing Oli's wise words. He's a young man who's going places in the industry, building that company up as a media company and an enjoyable podcast to listen to on Christmas Day. So, Merry Christmas all of you out there, happy holidays.

Mark: 1:47

If you are just finished off breakfast and bored enough, you'll be listening to this podcast, but maybe it's a couple of days after, after Christmas. And, yeah, have a great day with family and a safe holiday season. By the time this goes out, I'll be in Port Ferry at the East Beach. So if anyone's heading to Port Ferry for the summer holidays there's a few people around Victoria do it would be great to catch up for a, for a cool drink. So, yeah, definitely find us. Find us via any of the social channels. But yeah, thanks very much for listening and it's been a good year, Savi.

Sophie: 2:24

Yeah, it's been phenomenal. This is our first year that we've done an episode every week, which is a great accomplishment. We love to be in your ears every week and I'll be spending my Christmas in the middle of the North Island not anywhere near as exciting as Ferg, but yeah, I hope you all had a lovely day with friends and family and food, and we just really appreciate the support over the last year and can't wait to do it again.

Mark: 2:47

Excellent right out. We'll hear from Ollie the Leave. Welcome, ollie.

Oli : 2:50

Thanks, ferg, it's good to be here it's. It is nerve-racking on the other side of the mic, but looking forward to it, yeah, good.

Mark: 2:57

I do have to tell one story before we get underway, because I was, just as I do. Your name's not that easy as well, so I was Googling it just before I got underway. In the second Google search that comes up as Ollie the Leave's girlfriend. So I've obviously been a few ladies out there pressing Google on that mate, so I just sort of shared that. Did you have a look? No, I didn't say, I didn't actually do the search, I just saw that obviously it was number two. There's a few people that have been putting it in.

Oli : 3:26

Probably me, my mum and my dad.

Sophie: 3:30

Who's coming for Christmas?

Mark: 3:35

I just thought it was amusing. But anyway, we will get focused. We first met through the Xander McDonald Awards. I mean it's been awesome for me to be involved with for the last few years and obviously you were involved as well as a finalist. Finalists are we not finalists yet? Finalists? Yeah, we can quite get the chockies, yeah, yeah, but obviously it's a great award. But yeah, we came to hear your story how you ended up starting Humans of Ag, which is a sort of media company starting to grow and will continue to do so.

Oli : 4:10

Yeah, well, I guess it's an interesting one and probably like quite an interesting time, which I'm sure will get into a little bit today, because I think one thing I'm learning about business is I think the more you go into it in, the deeper you get there. Maybe more unsure and doubt comes into it. So I'm actually looking forward to a conversation today for probably flesh out, get out of my own head and chat through a few of these things. But for me, I guess, yeah, like it's taken me a long time to probably really own it, but I grew up in Sydney, so I'm a city boy that fell in love with agriculture and mum's family were farming down in western Victoria sheep and cropping and just loved everything about it. I used to count in Troy Dans, because Troy Dans was a TV show here in Australia. It was on once a week, so I'd count how many Troy Dans there was until I'd get back to the farm.

Oli : 4:58

Some of my best memories, I guess, as a kid, were on the farm, riding motorbikes, chasing livestock, whatever it was, and it was kind of, yeah, the whole way through high school. It was what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out and be a farmer and that was really the pathway I pursued. I did give university a crack a couple of times, the first time unsuccessfully and then went to Marcus Oldman. I guess for me that's where I really started to get that exposure to more of the agribusiness side and the value chain side of agriculture and I think absolutely still loved the farming side. But this kind of bit, all the moving pieces and the complexities that happen and pressures that happen along that supply chain, kind of caught me in my career, jumped around in a few, has jumped around in a few different ways there and has evolved into humans of agriculture today.

Mark: 5:47

Yeah, so now obviously I've got the staff and starting to wander into the business and I agree that the deeper you go, the further out of your comfort zone you get. And yeah, it becomes all sorts of different challenges that you didn't tell you about. Until you experience them you don't really take on full war. Yeah, it's obviously evolving and I think it's a really cool topic and you're interested obviously is pretty clear by the topic or by the name of the company humans of agriculture, and there are some amazing humans and I guess that's the value of our roles in doing these sort of podcasts and that sort of stuff is telling those stories and exposing those stories a bit, and you obviously do it much more of a human focus. You tend to get a bit technical, but each with a different focus. But yeah, there's some amazing stories out there.

Mark: 6:43

I guess we want to, yeah, talk a bit about that today but also talk about the sentiment that's out there and and what we're, what we're feeling it's been, it's been a tough enough year for most on on the ground in Ag and that's good to see. By time this goes to air, I think the north and half of New South Wales at least, and Queens then will have, will have been recovering from a Pretty handy drink over the last little while, which is which is good to see. The scream of El Nino was was a bit scary and, and I'll guess, and the result of that looking starting to look dry, but it's awesome to see a bit of moisture around again. The yeah, what are you? What are you seeing out there? It's, it is a tough time.

Oli : 7:21

Yeah, I think like it's been a really interesting year 2023. I think One the years flowing, but it kind of felt like, yeah, these different factors just Kind of felt what they came out of nowhere, but I think it they were coming for a while. For me, like up until this year, I spent the last couple of years in adoptions plus and had seen just the Record after record be smashed, whether it was stud sales, yeah, general livestock sales, like the ecchi just going through the roof, it was bananas, and I think I think my observation was things were going so well, high commodity prices and great seasonal conditions and it was sustained for a few years. And then it, I think, like the sentiment and conversations I got was nearly one of complacency, where people started to think, oh, this is the new normal, this is the new normal, and I think one of the very early blokes I worked with on farm would always talk about the importance of averages and and not looking at it year to year, but actually drawing out orders, your price per kilo, per ton, whatever it might be but looking at that over a three, five, ten year period and looking at your business in that sense, because I think in agriculture there's so many different Impacts and fluctuations that can happen that when you start to take a step back and start to average it and you can start to understand where we're at.

Oli : 8:38

So this year has been, yeah, really interesting and, I think, chatting to mate some of them got more rain over the last couple of weeks and what they've had for the last 12, 14 months and I think, yeah, very much welcome for so many people. The South, they've got a rod in the thicker there in their harvest, but I don't think too many people are complaining about it because it's amazing down here, even in Western Victoria, yeah, really felt like that spring hadn't arrived and just starting to get a bit of a, a drink in a bit of a trickle coming through now, which is really good.

Mark: 9:09

It is good and yeah, it's been. Yeah, I guess it was a really really interesting times at auction plus with, with watching those as prices and I think I used to there's a couple of road shows, had the pleasure of doing a couple road shows with Nathan Scott and he used to stand up in front of a and this was sort of when things were still going really well and saying, get, we've had Kind of record prices for a couple of years. It's fair enough to expect that that's not going to be the case next year and we've had record season for a couple years. It's fair enough to expect that. And I guess that's we as humans, we all I Think we're pretty pretty safe to say we if, yeah, when things are good we think they can only get better and when they're tough we think they can only get worse.

Mark: 9:44

And Our new members newsletter I sent out last week are kind of explored momentum, because I think really that's what we're dealing with is, is we get this sort of? We get a spiral, and sometimes that's a spiral up and sometimes it's bow down and and once it's amazing, once you see that momentum shift, how quickly it infiltrates everyone's thinking and and, yeah, I guess my fear Fear might might not be the right word, but yeah, my worry is that that people let that momentum take over and sort of stopped thinking that, stopped thinking about how to be smart with their investments. Just because things are Different, it doesn't mean you still still still can't work on and growing your business, and in different ways. Obviously you don't have the the free capital you might have had in other years, but you but you still got time and you still got and yeah, I guess sort of Just putting up the shutters and closing the business for a couple years isn't an option. So we've got to keep battling on. We might as well make good decisions.

Oli : 10:38

And I think probably, look, the thing which seemed to have really caught people by surprise, which is understand was just that the drastic change when it just moved so quickly and hopefully it's.

Oli : 10:47

It's bottomed out now but and I don't know, even though now, if it's through chatting with people on the podcast or Old bosses or whatnot but people talk a lot about cadence. I think that's something that I'm trying to bring in at humans Vagran. Obviously, right now, being a small business and trying to grow will actually probably more establish ourselves, try and work out where our, where our foundations and how do you set that up. Right now, our cadence is running really quickly, but I think if we start to look at how do we sustain that over a period of time, it's kind of like going out for a run, like we're gonna have to slow down for some of those hills and pace ourselves, and I think that's probably something which I really am trying to do as a business manager is how do we manage that cadence and and knowing when to pull back to make sure that we kind of get through to the other side with everyone on board. I think that an interesting juggling act today.

Mark: 11:39

Yeah, it is, and I guess I guess in our style of businesses it's yeah, you say yes to a lot of things and and then work out that some of them should, some of them weren't a great option and after all, and and Particularly early days, and that's yeah, that is a challenge. I guess Probably can be the case in a farm too. You can sort of you see some people who've sort of got a little bit of everything and and that certainly One of my weaknesses I like to dabble in stuff and like to, yeah, like to. So I say yes and then work out the details. But, yeah, that can. That can Change the kale rapidly, increase the curtains, make a pretty tough guy and make an unsettle a few people around you.

Oli : 12:24

Yeah, and, and I only well, I would pretend I've been doing a lot more. I think I've been keeping an eye on where we're at, but over the last couple of weeks, really sitting down, getting into the nitty gritty, and so we draw revenue from 10 different straights or have, over the last 12 months, three of them give us more than 70% of our, and it's like why are we doing some of these things where it's only 2% of revenue? And it's like it's actually insane when we look at it. We tie ourselves up, sometimes for Two, three weeks at a time for something that doesn't even register. Yeah, so that might be a little learning we can take into next year.

Mark: 13:00

Yeah, I guess it is always a trade off, I suppose, between stuff that might grow or suppose. But if it's always gonna stay the same and sometimes just giving back and it's, that's all good as well. But it's, yeah, it is a. It's an interesting challenge. What it was in like April, may, as soon as the nasty word of El Nino got mentioned like Before the rain stopped, before the season kicked in, it's almost people were kind of ready to go into a negative spiral. It was. Did you feel that at the time was In isolation, like it seemed. As soon as El Nino got mentioned, markets collapsed and everything, and I know Jason Strong spoke about that at the MLA thing of the day. So the weaponization of the word which is which is true of it and it's we have to be. I think we've learned a bit from well, hopefully, the forecast is a little bit, I think, equally us. Yeah, I guess we all need to learn to treat every day is it as it is, rather than what? What's anticipated?

Oli : 13:55

of it. It's interesting. I was at a wedding just over the weekend and chatting to a few mates who are farmers and things, and when it comes to where the where the hype comes from in terms of technology and things that are going to change and really benefit farmers, I'm surprised that we don't hear more happening in and around the weather space, like it's. It's bizarre because I think, yeah, chatting to people like the thing that would help them and give them more Sure and confidence is actually getting some confidence in what people are putting out there be a pretty pretty good little offering. I think, if those maybe I'm just in the in the dark there and the farms that I was chatting to in the dark as well, in terms of what's actually out there. But I think, yeah, there's a few people that there's a really only a small handful of Weather forecast that people seem to be. Yeah, I think it is somewhat reliable. Yeah, I think, yeah, like Jason Strong talked about it last week, I actually think in something that I'm I'm seeing more and more and I don't know now if maybe my bias is that I'm looking for a, hence why I'm seeing it even more. But I think when it comes to narrative there's.

Oli : 15:00

It's really interesting just how quickly narratives can become inflamed and at the moment, I think we've got a couple of campaigns that are being run and it seems to be very much the outcome or the target audience is actually politics, but what these campaigns are doing is trying to draw the everyday consumer in and and those narratives and messaging are being driven off guilt, like the consumers should feel sorry for farmers, and farmers are, yeah, not making money, this, they're struggling to get work as they're doing this, that the other, and I think so. Yeah, I'm dancing around your question, around the on the no peace, but I think there's this information that we're seeing around any sort of messaging, and it's the exact same thing that we see in mainstream media, where it's driven off shock, fear, and how do we get those messages in front of people consistently enough that they Feel, I guess, destined to do something about it? And and I think what we see really is like helplessness or rash decision making and I'm part of. I think we're human today can come in is Around this how do we actually shape a narrative of agriculture which is more positive, which is more progressive, because, at the end of the day, we know we need to feed people. We know that they're we're going to be around for a long time because there's no alternatives right now in terms of how you feed it and and close people in a sustainable way.

Oli : 16:22

But, yeah, I think there's media jump on these things, but I also think, as an industry, we really seem to inflame things a lot and I actually think, when you start to look at then and maybe I'm starting to clutch straws here but these correlations that exist between mental health, outcomes of people, if you're always pushing negative messages back up, people Stoking the fire of provocation, provocation around issues, whether it's El Nino, whether it's workers, whether it's politics yeah, then you do start to feel kind of helpless and in this absolutely downward spiral yeah, I think it's really interesting that bushfire creates its own wind and I think yeah, I definitely think that that we have to be careful about how those sort of campaigns, the impacts, like the unintended consequences of those campaigns, can be people selling their farms or leasing their farms out because it all just seems too hard or too difficult when really they weren't going too bad.

Mark: 17:18

They just needed to make a few time of decisions, and I guess neither of us are talking lightly of the circumstances that people find themselves in, but we have to be, I guess, get some data around that circumstance, make sure it is as bad as you think it is, or whatever.

Mark: 17:34

I'll start to draw some information around you and get some people around you to help clarify that, rather than sort of, I guess, make a decision based on what is largely emotion. And it is a tough gig in farming, where your livelihood and your social circle and your self worth and everything is all intertwined in. How well you play cricket or footy are all intertwined into the same thing, because often if you're an accountant in the city, you play footy with someone else and you socialize with someone different and then you go to work with some different people again, whereas in farming that tends to be all the same set and you only have one identity, and so it does make it a little bit different and a little bit difficult. But yeah, I think there's opportunities to change that narrative and it's great to see what human today are doing and making sure that there is that positive story out there and the stories of the fantastic people that we get to see on a daily basis get told to the general public.

Mark: 18:33

There's those awesome characters that you get to draw out and people doing amazing things, often without any real desire to be known for it or whatever just doing it, because that's what I do. A quick interruption here to remind you of Head Shepherd Premium and our consulting services at Next to Niagara International. If you love this podcast and want to hear more of them, visit the hubnexttoannagrycom and sign up for Head Shepherd Premium and get an extra podcast each week. If you're listening to this and thinking you really do want to maximize the genetic gain of your livestock and feel more confident around the decisions you're making on farm, then send me an email at mark at nexttoannagrycom and we'll get in touch and see where that takes us.

Oli : 19:15

A little slogan we've kind of coined internally is just how do you find the extraordinary in the ordinary? And it's funny it was actually a repost of someone else's video the other day and it was like a 40-day time lapse of a seed growing, but it was in a glass kind of container. So you see the roots, the tap roots shoot down and then you see the other ancillary roots go off and then breaks the surface and grows. It had like two and a half million views on Facebook. You just pick these things. But then I was chatting to someone in my team and they were like oh yeah, it was interesting. But it's kind of like, well, that's just what plants do. And it's like, yeah, what we see is ordinary, it's other people who wouldn't see it. They're like, oh my God, how good is that?

Mark: 19:59

Yeah, I mean, I am a sucker for a good time lapse. I would have definitely watched it. But yeah, I think that's 100% true. I often find myself taking photos on farms. I mean, we've got the added pleasure, I suppose, of crossing the Tasman fairly often and get to see some different, lots of different places. And yeah, I'm sure well I know that what we take a photo of, there's 10 people walk past every day and don't even see as beauty or as different or as unique, and I think that's yeah, I think we always have to think about the lens that we're viewing the world through. And just because it looks boring to you and all, or it's the same as yesterday was it, doesn't mean it's not amazing for someone else out there and can't change that perception a tiny bit of us on the land.

Mark: 20:47

I think there's amazing stuff that gets missed every millisecond on farms because people just see it as ordinary, 100%, and I think that comes to the people as well. Lots of people just think they're doing their job, but they're actually doing pretty amazing things. They're managing multi-million dollar businesses and while raising families and doing all the things. Yeah, there's some great stories out there, but yeah, I think we miss so much by them not being told, and so it's the quicker that happens the better. What's the? I guess it's okay us sitting around petting ourselves in the back, but I mean, how do you? What's your strategy for how you get to those consumers out there? Because really if we tell our story to ourselves, it's not that useful. But I'm sure your podcast in particular we started to cut through into like ours is very much focused on the talking to the converter, but you'd be starting to cut through into the consumer set into those young people out there.

Oli : 21:44

Well, I was just looking at one of your recent episodes, fergan. I was getting in the first four words. It's like you're chatting about all things testicles.

Mark: 21:54

Yeah, we tend to be pretty focused on egg.

Oli : 21:57

Which you never know. I don't know how many people are talking into Google Things about testicles and stuff.

Mark: 22:03

Not as many as a whole-of-a-loof girlfriend mate.

Oli : 22:09

I've got to stop searching that. There's Hoseys out there somewhere. I think for us yeah, that's like we see social media as a huge avenue for us. I think that it naturally is the challenge of how do you get outside the sphere of circles, sphere of comfort. I think for me and I don't know if it's an added edge it's just something that I'm quite conscious of, having grown up and spent 18 years in the city and, I guess, dancing between agriculture and whatnot, a lot of the people who I've become mates with from a city context are actually really interested in egg. They showed that when they'd asked questions, when I'd come back as kind of a wee-tacker. Then I think naturally I can still visualize and see my friends in the city who would ask those questions and who were interested and what were some of the things that they were interested in. I actually try and go. What parts of the story can we grab and take it back and talk to these people? I'm chatting to them one-on-one, I think. Probably the added benefit, having lived in Melbourne for a couple of years with a couple of roles and then I moved to Sydney as well when I was with Auctions Plus, it was having that interaction with those people. Sometimes it was actually one day I made a younger brother who I went through high school with. I wouldn't have seen him for 10 years. He was managing a pub in the eastern suburbs of Sydney of all places. He, as I said, gave it out to him. He was like I've been following humans of agriculture and the story of such and such that you shared recently was actually bloody cool. There's been these little glimpses where humans of ag cut through and got there. I think that's probably gives me the hope that okay one.

Oli : 23:51

We know that the way we're sharing these stories is actually of interest and relevance to these people if we can get the stories to them. And that's where social media is so powerful. We know that God, whatever it is, more than two-thirds of Australians I think it's like 17 million Australians are on Facebook. We know people are on Instagram. We know they're on TikTok. So how are we curating the content in a way that's interesting for them? And then, unlike, I guess, traditional ag media that are putting advertisements in ag newspapers or whatever it might be if you want to, we haven't gone down the paid advertising route just because it's an extra cost, but down the track it's like, well, if we want to chat to these people, we know that over the years we've learned how to create these stories, how to shape the narratives. That's of interest. So now if we actually put a bit of paid advertising behind it, then we know we can get that engagement with them.

Oli : 24:41

And for me I think yeah. So for us we absolutely want to work with the agriculture brands. But then, similarly, because we've built this community of people and I don't know if I'll be able to explain it very well, but I'd say for myself and the other people in the humans of ag team, we're the conjugate, we're the gateway. So kind of sitting behind us is all of agriculture and what we do. We sit down with people from that group of agriculture, work out a way that we can shape their narrative and then standing in front of us is this big audience of everyday Australians and we share those stories kind of to them. And so, because we've got that ag community behind us down the track, I'd love to work with food brands.

Oli : 25:22

We've got a lot of people with fashion businesses that are looking to. They're already consumer facing, so actually they're our perfect partners. But also what they want is that connection back into agriculture, that they're in touch with the grassroots, that they understand them. So the plan is the strategy in a nutshell is because we've got that and we've come from within the industry, we've got a really authentic and genuine connection to those people. When we go and find those businesses that we align with, that are doing good things at the food and fashion, or how do we bring the agriculture side and that storytelling to them and then go well, guys, you've got the platforms, you've got the consumers standing in front of you. It would be a pretty good partnership to create that content with you and that way we're actually bringing you back into the farm gate and into the farming community and vice versa. We're getting what we actually genuinely really need as an industry and that's access to that consumer audience. There you guys, all my IP.

Mark: 26:16

Good thing about, like we did just jump off the cliff and build the aeroplane on the way down. That helps to share the IP around, because then people often build on it rather than steal it generally.

Oli : 26:29

And at the end of the day, I think, well, if we became obsolete because agriculture was running really good connected campaigns, that people were feeling that they were connected to agriculture, I think that's going to create far more opportunities for me and people in my team than the other way.

Mark: 26:47

So, ideally, if we became redundant wouldn't be too bad yeah the sharing industry is still looking that, so there's always a job. I don't know if I'm tough enough for that.

Oli : 26:58

I'm back to that, yeah, excellent.

Mark: 27:03

I was just picking up on your weather concept and we've been following Google's what are they called? I mean, anyway, they've made a, they've got a, they're playing around with weather at the moment. But I 100% agree that if we put the power of official intelligence to better weather predictions, we're going to be, we surely are going to come up with better systems, and it's been interesting. We just there's an experimental system that I've been following last couple of weeks, literally, and, yeah, I don't know we'll see how it plays out, but but, yeah, that there will be.

Mark: 27:37

There's got to be a change in that space to help, because obviously, yeah, 97% of what matters on a farm is when the moisture falls out of the sky, Like it's a massive component of success, for otherwise, obviously, we manage lots of other things, but it can make your day or break it, depending on what it does, yeah, so, yeah, I think innovation in that space is sorely needed, and I know we all like to beat up the weather forecasters, but particularly my father. He's not a big fan of him, but I think they're probably using tools that yeah, I mean the investment in globally would have been way higher and random stuff that matters little like trying to replicate artists and all that sort of stuff compared to what what weather forecasting can do.

Oli : 28:23

Yeah, I think weather forecasts is probably up there with rugby referees and AFL. Yeah At the jobs that everyone needs and wants but no one actually wants to do it.

Mark: 28:35

You don't mention rugby referees in this country at the moment it doesn't get in too well. Yeah, so I guess strategy was. So I guess, thinking into the future, their plan is to continue to grow that space. Is it audio video? What's the? What are your main? What are you seeing as ways Ag need or what where humans of Ag going obviously across all all of those mediums really, but, and that's how you continue, yeah, video being a big focus.

Oli : 29:06

We're actually just hiring for a videographer now. It will stretch us a little bit.

Oli : 29:10

I saw that, so I thought I'd give you, give it a plug. Yeah, thank you. People can apply. I think. For us, yeah, and probably just trying to work it out now of going. So there's. There's the traditional media companies, which have been very, I guess, the newspaper heavy and then they've evolved the newspaper into a digital newspaper. The thing is they're behind. Often in Australia they're behind a paywall, so they're not actually accessible. And, and for me I think OK, well, if we've got a growing disconnect of people from agriculture, we can't put things behind a paywall. It has to be accessible.

Oli : 29:41

So we want to stay on on the social media space, and the way social media is moving is video as well. So for us it's video content. It's going to be short, sharper, tailored towards that social media piece, but obviously, looking at, yeah, how do we, how do we bring people in? I don't use the word educate very often, but really it is. It's it's to connect people, to inform them and inspire them in and around agriculture, and we can do that in multiple ways.

Oli : 30:05

This is where it probably gets a little bit more complicated and the team hate me for it. In my head I can see it that we, yeah, when we, we can work with an agriculture brand to create a campaign or video that they need. At the same time, too, it's like, well, let's get the snippets around it which is going to be applicable and relevant to the humans of our audience, because we've built up that audience across social media and the podcast. We can value by bringing them into the podcast as well as going well, yeah, how do we talk about things? We could actually work with an R&D body say, I don't want to use muscle, give them a shout out, msd, animal Health.

Oli : 30:40

So if we're working with them for a campaign, we could actually go well, if we can just chat with this research or this person on this specific topic, that actually would be a really good piece that we could target One to the ag community. But then two, we can create a separate piece that could be applicable for the broader audience of how do we give them that wow, a half moment through ag, and I think, yeah, that's where social media kind of comes into it. So our strategy is very much going to be video led. Podcast becomes complementary. We don't want to. People only have so much time that they can do long form content for and then off those hero pieces, podcast or video. How do we then really use social media as the funnel to do that with them?

Mark: 31:21

Excellent, yeah the shift to video and probably that's happened a while ago. But yeah, we're just catching up. But yeah, we definitely need to get more into that space as well to keep sharing the messages in different formats. But, yeah, we might pull it up there. Ollie, it's been good to have a chat and great to have a chat and great to hear what's going to happen in humans about coming up in 2024. Is there any other summaries of 2023? I reckon this will be our podcast we send out as our sort of Christmas gift to listeners, so maybe we'll be about that time.

Oli : 32:05

Oh, merry Christmas everyone. Any other things, no, I think. Like well, probably. Personally, I think 2023 has definitely been my most most challenging, but also most rewarding, I think, for me, between now and the end of the year, I am spending a week in and around Queenstown playing a bit of golf, so that'll be handy, but outside of that, yeah, taking a bit of time to actually think back. So I think it's been so, so easy to get back to that, so, so easy to get caught up in the doing. I think, yeah, highlights for me and for humans of ag have really been We've worked with nearly 50 different businesses, which has been huge. It's stretched us. We've got a team on board which is has taken a little bit of doing and throwing to get together, but our team is really awesome and we're trying to expand now to help us move in the way that we want to go, but actually the way that we think agriculture needs to go as well, to not just promote itself internally, but also externally to other people as well. So that's the road ahead.

Mark: 33:06

Excellent, so to make sure people can get in contact with you. So obviously they can. They can find humans of ag podcast anywhere they listen along. What are the other other best ways to get in touch?

Oli : 33:18

Yeah, probably Instagram's is, I guess, a bit of a hub. Just, we're at humans of agriculture with an underscore there, otherwise humansofagriculturecom, and you can either, if you want to get in touch with us directly, just plug in through there, and there's also links to our latest podcasts and stories and bits and pieces that we've been doing as well. Excellent.

Mark: 33:38

We'll put all those links in the show notes, including that Google search and how people spread all that.

Oli : 33:46

It's actually just bizarre. You know what it is. Ok, I've started them at the whole time. There's a bloke called Olly LaLive lives in Cross Church, new Zealand. I only know this because I've met a few Kiwi fellows from Cross Church Many moons ago and Whistler, and so I think they're probably googling him. I think he was a boxer or something, yeah right.

Mark: 34:06

That seems like a plausible story, so it was something I just couldn't help but bring up there. Yeah, it'd be definitely the boxer, so look out for him.

Oli : 34:20

It would be. It would also be located geolocation to New Zealand.

Mark: 34:24

Oh yeah, no, that's true, yeah, that probably I'll read you out to him later, now that there's a paper looking for it Excellent.

Mark: 34:33

Thanks, mate, thanks for your time and all the best for 2024. It's, yeah, I think we have to resist the urge for 2024 to be a bit of a holding pattern, which I think is what people can't think is price is going to be deck, but I think it's. It's the time to show up business and look forward to the everyone's prediction being right, which is that the end of 24 will see prices coming up and away. We go Looking forward to it. Thanks, virg Cheers mate. Thanks again to our mates in Hanega who are proud world leaders in the manufacturing and supply professional sheep shearing and clipping equipment. I understand that their customers rely on the quality and performance of their products each and every day. Also, thanks to our friends at MSD Animal Health and Orflix, they offer an extensive livestock product portfolio focused on animal health and management, all backed up by exceptional service. Both of these companies are wonderful supporters of the Australian and New Zealand livestock industries and we thank them for sponsoring the HLP podcast.