Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Robbie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're very welcome.
Let's start with your name,where you're from and a little
bit about what you do.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Robbie Romano.
Originally from Cairns, I livein Airlie Beach now in the
beautiful Whitsundays.
Day was great, Beautiful dayhere in Brisbane.
Appreciate you having me downhere.
No, it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And it's currently nighttime and you've had a late
coffee, so you're doing reallywell.
Now you're a business owner.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I am recently, Recently, the last 12 months.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Let's delve right in.
Let's start with the name ofyour business, and then I want
you to take me back to when youfirst said to yourself you know
what I want?
To start a business.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Perfect.
The name of the business isElevate Innovations.
At the moment I'm doing a lotof agricultural stuff but I
didn't want to tie it into justdoing the agricultural stuff.
Agricultural stuff, but Ididn't want to tie it into just
doing the agricultural stuff.
I've got some plans and somevisions of where I want that
(01:12):
business to go and I didn't wantto restrict it with a name by
calling it something that wasgoing to restrict it.
So I've gone with innovationsbecause I think that's where I'm
going.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Love it, and then you're always evolving, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Because you're always innovating.
That's the plan.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now give me an overarching brief of sort of
maybe, what you're currentlydoing, and then we're going to
talk about straight we're goingstraight into it maybe the next
two to three years.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah cool, into it, maybe the next two to three
years?
Yeah cool.
Uh, right now it's a very solotype affair.
It's me in a cane paddock withmy drones uh, spraying cane for
for vine and sickle pod, whichare just a pest that grow in the
(02:05):
cane, and what happens is, asthe vine grows and takes the
nutrients out of the soil, thesugar cane itself loses sugar
content and struggles to grow toits full potential.
So what we do is we come inthere and we spray that to kill
that weed, and traditionallyfarmers would be doing that on a
(02:28):
tractor.
Or you pay for a helicopter,which is pretty inefficient and
with emerging technologies we'rein there making it work.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Wow, I've never met anyone that does that.
Now tell us about your drone.
I'm very interested and I'vewanted to ask you questions
about the drone because I workin the creative space and we use
drones for film.
But tell me about your droneshow big they are, the
capabilities.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
They are massive.
It's ridiculous.
When I first saw my firstagricultural spray drone, I was
blown away by the size of it andjust went this is a couple of
meters by a couple of meters.
And I was like, well, this isjust crazy.
And that was the, the dji t30s.
(03:19):
When they were first came out,that was the what they were
using, and then along came the40s, and then along came the 50s
and at the moment I'm rockingtwo dji t50s which are even
bigger again.
They're just a massive airframebecause they're basically
carrying up to 50 kilos or about40 litres of fluid when you're
(03:44):
spraying.
So they've got to have bigpropellers, big motors and a big
airframe to carry that weightaround.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So let's give the people at home some perspective.
So when they see drones theysee filmmakers, hobbyists,
videographers, and they have alittle Mavic Pro, something like
this big right, maybe somethinghere when they get a little
bigger, let's give them a bit ofscale.
(04:14):
So I'm going to have one handhere of one side of the drone.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
All right.
Well, we might have to movechairs because we're going to
keep going About there, I wouldsay 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'spretty much square.
So imagine that distancesquared and that's the area it
takes up.
And then, obviously, with itsproximity sensors and radars,
(04:42):
you probably need that again oneither side to land it.
Otherwise it won't take off orland because it won't do
anything with people orstructure around it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So they're literally like the size of a small car.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, pretty big.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Big toys.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
They're a big toy, a noisy, dangerous toy.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, and how do you go with the insurances and any
sort of licensing to pilot thatdrone?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So licensing is an interesting one.
You go through CASA, so civilaviation, same as you would for
any pilot's license.
So you can do a commercialdrone license which will let you
fly your normal size drones Ithink these days it's 250 grams.
So anything over 250 grams thatyou're using in any commercial
(05:36):
sense needs to be licensed.
Um, which cuts you down tonothing.
I think the dji Mavic Minis arethe only ones that are under
that weight specifically forthat.
And then, once you scale upfrom there, you do your
commercial license.
There's a 25 kilo license,there's a 50 kilo license,
(06:00):
there's a 100 kilo license.
So you do those brackets oflicensing, all with their
separate trainings, all withtheir separate practical exam.
So the practical exams change.
Since I did it, I used to haveto do all these different
manoeuvres for the CASAinspector to say, yep, you can
do that, you can fly that,because obviously when you're
(06:22):
going up in size you get a shiftin momentum like a container
ship going through the sea.
You turn and it takes sixminutes before you do anything.
A bigger drone and a biggerweight in the air is exactly the
same.
So as you turn and go to turnthe other way, it's going to
(06:45):
drift a bit further and move abit further and takes a lot of
getting used to.
After flying little drones, togetting onto the bigger ones,
they don't stop.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, as well as you'd like, no no, I can't
imagine how hard it is, becauseI only navigated small ones.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's lucky because they're very clever.
So a lot of what I do at themoment 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,
(07:26):
when it needs a battery changeor it needs more juice, it'll
bring itself back to homelandland, exactly where it took off
from, and swap some batteries,put some more fluid in it, press
the button and away it'll goagain.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, that's really cool and big film cameras fit on
those things pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
We'll have that discussion after the podcast.
How did you get the idea forthis business?
Did you start somewhere elseflying drones?
Did you work in the caneindustry?
How did it come about?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I've always had a need, a want.
I wanted to be an Air Forcepilot as a kid.
That was all I wanted and Ihave a mutated sinus which
excluded me from that and thatwas devastating.
As a kid you know what it'slike when that's what you want
(08:19):
to do and they go.
Well, you can't do that becauseof this and I'm like, oh, so
that ruined me.
But I've always had a thingabout just things that fly.
I'm fascinated by it.
And then, getting a bit olderand these drones started coming
along.
I think the first one I boughtwas one of the Phantom 1s.
I loved it, I could fly, Icould see.
(08:40):
You couldn't actually see whatyou were doing, you had to watch
the drone, but when you gotdown you could see the footage
that you were recording and itwas amazing to me.
I was like this is justridiculous, and I've been onto
it ever since, like, oh, what'snext?
What's?
What else is out there?
What else can we do?
And uh, a buddy of mine does alot of music industry production
(09:05):
stuff and he and I had seen andI don't know whether you've
seen them, you know the showdrones where they draw the
shapes and pictures in the skyand that was my initial draw to
it as a commercial business, asa going concern, as I gonna, I'm
gonna, rather than just do thisfor fun.
(09:27):
I want to.
I want this to be my businessand my first thought was that
because I was doing part-timework in the music industry and
some festivals and things likethat and I was like this could
be huge.
Um, and at the time this issort of a couple of years ago
when we looked at it,unfortunately the financials
(09:51):
didn't quite stack up to what itwas to get that technology in
the country to start with.
There's some companies inAustralia that do it now, but at
the time it was.
I think the quote that I gotwas about €600,000.
(10:12):
It was in euros, so you do theconversion of that.
It was ridiculous money.
So that's a lot of festivalsand a lot of shows drawing
pictures in the sky to to payback that kind of money.
It wasn't a going concern thatwas going to make money.
Um, but during that process offiguring out that that wasn't
(10:32):
going to work, I went and did mydrone license.
Um, and it turns out that anold school friend of mine was
doing it at the same time and hewas like, oh, let's go to the
same guy, we'll do the course.
And he was doing it because heis a well, not a practicing cane
(10:54):
farmer, but he was a canefarmer, his parents were cane
farmers and he was a harvesterdriver who'd gone out to the
mines and he'd come home andhe'd do the cane season and he'd
drive harvesters and was in theindustry and he he'd been put
onto it by.
He at the time had a, aslashing and mowing business, um
(11:18):
, with a heap of sort ofgovernment contracts, council
contracts for slashing and weedcontrol and that kind of stuff.
And he'd seen the potential ofthese drones and went I think we
should do this.
And while we were doing thecourse was when I sort of
figured out that this otherthing wasn't going to be
completely viable.
And he went well, why don't youdo this with me?
(11:40):
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 seewhat's going on.
Uh, so we both did the thecourse and then did the, the
bigger drone, pass out and, uh,my mate had already purchased
(12:01):
two t30s and a batching plantand a trailer to run it all.
So between the pair of us wefigured it out, basically
because nobody was doing it forsugarcane at the time.
So they were doing it broadacrestuff in grain, they were doing
orchards, they were doing spotcontrol, that kind of thing.
(12:24):
No one was was doing sugar caneas such.
So we sort of had to figure itout from scratch and go what's
going to work, what's not?
We did some farms aroundProserpine that Mick knew the
guys that owned the farms andsaid, hey, can we try this out?
If it works, it works.
(12:45):
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
The beauty of it was thefarmers are paying for chemical
anyway.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So they went look, we'll pay for the chemical.
If we get it right, then youpay for the chemical.
If we get it wrong, we've paidfor the chemical, you've lost
nothing.
We'll make sure the rates areright because you sort of the
chemical rates are all dictatedby the agronomists.
They come and assess your sugarcane and go this is the rate at
(13:13):
which you need to apply on,given your soil.
What's going on?
So it was interesting to gothrough that process and learn
it and then, like I said,through a bit of trial and error
and figuring out what sort ofwater rates we needed to apply,
at what range the drones hadover the cane and how tied in,
(13:34):
how wide apart the runs neededto be and to make it work in
sugar cane, and over the courseof about 12 months we figured
that out and my mate decided itwasn't for him.
He didn't like the idea ofbeing alone in a cane paddock,
(13:56):
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 inthe middle of a cane paddock
with nothing but the stars aboveyou and the buzz of your drones
flying around over your head.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Those big ones must be loud.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
They are very loud, very loud.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And I'm trying to think of when you were young and
you had a maybe a fascinationwith flying.
Was there a moment where youknew you were going to be a
business owner, or was itsomething that evolved after you
left school and just got intothe workforce?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I think as a kid you have big visions.
Like I said, after the AirForce thing fell away, I was
like, right, well, I alwaysthought I don't want to work for
someone, I want to work withsomeone or I want to work for
myself.
I don't want to be.
(15:02):
I saw my mum, as a single mumworks 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 upthere, I never want to be at the
will of your boss.
Who's telling you?
(15:22):
So there was always a piece ofme that went I want to do
something for myself.
At the time I didn't know whatit was, I was clueless as to
what it was going to be, but Ireally knew that there was
something, something had toclick and I knew that something
(15:43):
would click.
That part I did know.
I knew eventually I was goingto find what I wanted to do and
I knew that something wouldclick.
That part I did know.
I knew eventually I was goingto find what I wanted to do and
I'd do it.
And I went down plenty of pathsalong the way to finding what
that thing was.
But, like I said, eventually Ifound it and to me, this is what
(16:03):
I'm doing at the moment is just, it makes sense where it is now
as a viable business, and thenthe potential of what's out
there in that space, of theavionics, the technology of
(16:24):
what's happening in that space,and you throw AI into that, mix,
mix, and it's limitless.
There's nothing that can'thappen 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 themoment and, like I said, the
agriculture stuff is a goodearner.
(16:45):
It's manually hard becauseyou're out there in it and it's
hard to.
It's one of those things whereit's hard to let go of.
I couldn't go and train someoneand say, hey, this is how you
fly the drone.
I'm going to let you go and doit now.
(17:06):
It's something you could do,but it takes a long time to
figure out and I think by thetime someone figured it out,
they'd be like all right, thisis probably not for me.
Again, you've got to find theright person in the right
headspace to go and do that.
So, like I said, at the momentthe agricultural stuff's a
(17:27):
stepping stone.
I think I'm building thebusiness from there.
Stuff's a stepping stone.
I think I'm building thebusiness from there, um, and,
like I say, the, thepossibilities are, are
everywhere there's.
There's bits and pieces and it'sjust 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, wedo some looking at lidar drones
(17:49):
at the To do bits and pieces ofground penetrating radar and
LiDAR.
I'm doing a.
I bought a survey drone or it'sa search and rescue drone,
really it's emergency services,but I'm doing a dugong survey
for JCU at the moment where it'sjust mapped this section of
(18:11):
ocean for us and at a specifictime on a specific tide, because
the drone will fly at about 30kilometers an hour and do a grid
and then give you a full imagethrough dji terra of that, so
it's like.
And then you add it tobasically google maps as a layer
, so where you zoom in on GoogleMaps and you can only zoom in
(18:34):
so far.
Once you stitch that togetherthrough DJI Terra, you then add
it to Google Maps as a layer andyou can zoom in to a high-res
picture right on the water andyou get a snapshot of that time
that you mapped that.
So that's what they were after.
So little bits and pieces likethat that come along.
(18:54):
And there's silly insurancejobs where they want roofs
mapped before they'll insurepeople, especially around the
Whitsundays where we get ourNorth Queensland with those
swirly things that come and messeverything up up there.
So there's little bits andpieces like that.
Every time you think ofsomething, you go oh, we could
be doing that.
(19:14):
Why then you go and track themdown?
I've been onto ergon because Iwas spraying in a paddock one
day and there was a chopperbuzzing around.
So I'm like, oh, put my radioon 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.
(19:36):
But I was like what's going onhere?
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, weout of your way.
(19:58):
And he was like, yeah, cool,we're just doing some power line
inspections.
And I was like power lineinspections, huh.
So I was straight on ergo and Isaid, oh, what are you?
What are you paying for achopper to do power line
inspections, and do you, do youhave a person in there?
Is it trying to feel my waythrough that?
So again there's another onethat pops up.
There's applications in theother half of my life where I
work in the mines at the momentin a coal mine in the Bowen
(20:19):
Basin.
There's applications out therewhere I've got people saying,
hey, can you bring your dronesand do this?
We've got rehab and seating.
We've got cable inspections forelectric shovels and drag lines
, and we've got this and we'vegot that and we've got this, and
we've got cable inspections forelectric shovels and drag lines
, and we've got this and we'vegot that and we've got this,
we've got that, and there's awhole suite of work out there
that I'm not that interested inbecause I'm out there seven days
(20:41):
a week at the moment anyway.
So I do seven days out thereand then I come home and do
seven days in a cane paddock andsomewhere in the middle I
squeeze in my partner and mykiddo.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, and, like you said, just the nature of
innovation and AI, it's reallyendless.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's the direction, like I say, the agricultural
stuff.
I think that is absolutely thedirection there and I've got
some plans in motion at themoment to automate a lot more of
what I do around that space,and that again frees me up to
concentrate on the rest of thebusiness.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Let's talk about when you first started your business
?
And when you first started thebusiness business, how did you
hear about IBA?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
IBA was one that actually popped up on my radar.
My partner is, uh, works ineconomic development at the
Whitsunday Council so she does alot of grant writing and bits
and pieces and she, throughother bits and pieces, had had a
(21:55):
little bit to do with IBA andknew about it and knew of it.
And uh, I've never through mylife because of the way I was
sort of not separated from butmy mum and dad split and I never
really got to know my dad'sside of the family until much
(22:18):
later in life when I wenthunting for them and on my mum's
side of the family it wasdifferent.
I wasn't in touch with thatkind of thing.
So I never grew up with any ofthat kind of influence in my
(22:39):
life, any attachment to thatculture or to.
So it was not until I got a bitolder that I was like really
wanted to go hunting for thatstuff and try and get some
connection to country, to people, to something I knew something
was missing there and I justwanted to find something that
(23:03):
fitted in that space and thenI'd done so.
Then I started.
At the time I was working for adifferent mining company in a
different role and they it wasduring that phase of I don't
know.
I like saying it, but it wasvery cool to be doing stuff in
(23:26):
the indigenous space suddenlyfor these mining companies, and
so I was like, right, I want tojump on board with that because
there's a ticket right there forme to try and get in touch a
bit more.
I'm still at work, that's right.
I did some mentoring courses, Idid some bits and pieces in
(23:48):
that space and got to know a lotof people in that space, which
was really cool.
And there's so many greatpeople in the business space, in
the Indigenous space, in thebusiness world, that are doing
great work.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's a great place.
There's so many blackbusinesses around.
It's a great place.
There's so many blackbusinesses around and during
those business events andopportunities, you're meeting
and connecting and reconnecting.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, it's a great.
The collaboration is ridiculous.
You think about, you know,cutthroat business.
It's us against them, but it'snot like that in that space it's
everyone's like.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So there was an opportunity for you to connect
and to do something for yourselfwith your business.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, exactly.
And I got in touch with theguys from IBA and sort of it was
funny.
I had the initial phone calland said, hey, I want to start a
business.
I've got some money savedtowards it because I was saving
(24:58):
for the other piece.
And I said, and they sort ofwent what kind of business are
you looking at?
And I went, well, it'sagricultural spray drones.
And they went you what, whatare you doing?
I said.
I said, oh, it's drones thatspray sugar cane.
And they went what do you mean?
And then I had to go throughthe process to explain what it
(25:20):
was and what was happening.
And and they went oh, oh, we'venever done anything like that
before.
So it was a bit of a processbecause and I get it they went
look, you've not had a business.
This is not a business we knowabout.
We need you to go and and seesomeone sit down and go through
(25:43):
a process of, uh, assessing yourfinancials, how the business is
going to work, what it's goingto look like.
And they put me onto a gentlemannamed Rob Coco in Townsville
Legend, absolute legend.
That guy was amazing.
So we sat down with him, mypartner and myself, and he
(26:07):
started at the beginning andworked his way through.
We were there for a few hoursand then backwards and forwards
over the next few weeks waythrough.
We were there for a few hoursand then backwards and forwards
over the next few weeks and heput it all together and it just
made perfect sense at the end ofit and I went he's nailed this,
it's right.
And IBA thought the same thing.
They went this makes sense.
(26:28):
And poor Sharon from theTownsville office she was
backwards and forwards and phonecalls 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 getstarted.
They're not cheap drones andit's not a cheap business to set
up.
But eventually it all cametogether and it seemed to work
(26:54):
and everything just sort ofclicked.
And then suddenly they rang andsaid Sharon rang me and said
hey, it's, it's gone through,you need to go and buy some
drones.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So they saw something innovative and instead of just
saying hey look, we don't knowthis business model, they
provided support and then usedworked through it step by step
to look at what it would looklike some forecasts Really good
(27:30):
support in that it gave them theinformation they needed that it
was a viable business.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It gave me the information that I needed that
it was a viable business and Iwasn't just chasing my tail like
a weirdo and stuff from thosemeetings and that information
I'm still using now.
I'm still using some of thosespreadsheets.
I'm still using some of thosebits and pieces that he put us
onto.
So it wasn't just tick this boxand we'll do this.
(28:03):
It was really handy to actuallyget into and go right.
I mean, I've worked on an ABNand, you know, tried to do my
own taxes and that kind of stuff.
And hardly a business as a, asa contractor, doing bits and
pieces on an ABN to oppose tolike actually committing to it
(28:25):
and going this is this is mybusiness and I have to make it
work, is a completely differentthing.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
So IBA had your back.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
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 thingwith was, you know, we were
(28:56):
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, weworked 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 (29:16):
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 (29:27):
There was plenty of follow-ups and some feedback.
I did some photos and stuff forSharon 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 itdoing something.
It's hard to how big is it,what are you doing with it?
(29:50):
Something it's hard to how bigis it, what are you doing with
it?
So we went through that and itwas like I said, it wasn't hard
it was.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's good.
That's great because just youtalking to someone there that
you know is supporting you aboutyour idea even if you think
it's well, other people maythink it's crazy.
Your idea IBA, you're chatting,so together you're
collaborating on bringing thisbusiness to life.
And now here you are, doingLIDAR readings to help inform
(30:26):
global networks of data forpeople, infinite information.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, works of data for people.
Infinite information yeah.
And again, what's possible isastounding.
There's so much going on inthat space.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Hi everyone.
I hope you're enjoying thepodcast.
Just wanted to take a quickbreak to let you all know that
next month, October, isIndigenous Business Month.
So during the month of October,we are celebrating First
Nations businessesAustralia-wide.
If you are a First Nationsbusiness owner, collaborator or
partner, or looking to networkwith Indigenous businesses,
(31:04):
please get in touch via oursocial media channels and we'll
be sure to put you in the rightdirection.
Back to the podcast, and we'llbe sure to put you in the right
direction.
Back to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I'm planning on taking a trip hopefully early
next year to China, to a coupleof the tech expos over there and
just immerse in it for a weekand go.
This is where they're up to andwhat they're doing, and get on
the catch-up wagon.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
The technology over there would be crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Now to date.
What is one or maybe a coupleof milestones so far for the
business?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think milestone number one was actually getting
the drones and taking them.
I still vivid memories of myfirst flight of the new drones
that I'd just paid for and wentokay, let's go and away.
(32:08):
We went.
That was a pretty big milestonein my head, yeah.
And then, because they'reclever, it just took off and did
its thing and I went I knowthis isn't hard.
And then, because I'd beenflying the smaller ones and
flying other people's my mate'sdrones and learning the industry
(32:31):
, so to speak.
But yeah, big tick in the boxwas flying my own drones for
once.
The first time was amazing.
Then I guess little pieces,little things that flag as
milestones for myself, likegetting the truck.
(32:53):
I had a truck, decked it outwith a big generator, because
you need a massive generator tocharge the batteries.
So, decked out, a truck with agenerator and a water tank and a
batching plant and aself-sufficient unit I could
drive to a job and be done andnot be towed on a trailer, was a
big milestone for me.
Tell you, what's a weird one isputting in that first invoice.
(33:19):
No, that's a big one.
Sending off that first invoiceis one half of it.
And then seeing the money landin 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 amazingfeeling to go.
I mean, fair enough, we all goto work every week and you get
(33:42):
paid for going to work, andthat's great.
But I went to work all thatweek and I was working for
myself and then I got paid andthat was.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
It's a different feeling, huh.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
A very different feeling, a very elevating
feeling.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I like what you did there, I see you Now.
How important do you think itis to empower our men to?
Not about starting a business,but just doing something for
themselves, whether it bestarting a business or, you know
, following that dream ofwanting to be a pilot.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Or anything.
You've just got to take thestep.
It's one of those things.
And again, we were talkingabout being younger and I often
think if I could go back in timeand meet my younger self.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yes, I agreed.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I'd give myself a slogan and go what are you doing
, man?
Let's go.
Because when I look back nowand I go, not so much the drones
but just life in general, theoutlook you have on life as a
sometimes as a young man, yourpriorities in life are not ideal
(35:04):
.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Misguided.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Misguided.
Again, I feel like I was a shitkid, just saying but, and I
played silly games and did sillythings, as you do as a young
man, you know.
And again, like I said, if Icould go back I'd slap myself
(35:28):
silly and go.
What are you doing?
Straighten up, let's go.
But you can't be told at thatage, unfortunately.
And the problem is, it'sfinding that thing.
If it's a business, if it'ssport, if it's your personal
health yes, if it's, you know,getting up and going to the gym
(35:50):
every morning, it's whatever itis it's just take that first
step, make it happen and have ago at it, because that's a big
thing.
You, you, you go through lifeand you get into your routine
and you're in the grind.
It's just happening.
It's happening, life'shappening.
You're not living it, it's justhappening around you.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, Now you touched about health.
Now balancing a business,working in the mines, being a
dad what are some of thechallenges that you found with
business balance?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Balance is a tough one in my world at the moment.
We've got, like you say, sevenon seven off at a coal mine.
Like you say, seven on sevenoff at a coal mine.
I come home and I fly dronesand I try to give my family as
much time as I can.
I think I'm lucky in that spaceat the minute because I've got
(37:00):
a very understanding partner whobasically lives like a single
mum at the moment, basicallylives like a single mum at the
moment, and because we knowwhere we're together.
We have a goal that is based on, you know, getting to that
point where it's a bitcomfortable in life.
You don't want to get toocomfortable, but we want to get
(37:22):
to that point where maybe I doget to eventually get the
business to the stage where Ican go right, I'm done with this
mining lark, a seven and sevenbusiness, I mean.
Even when we were trying toarrange the podcast, I was like
oh, I can't come that daybecause I'm actually home for my
daughter's birthday and it'sthe first time I've been home.
(37:43):
I think it's probably the ninthbirthday and I reckon it's
probably the second one I'vebeen home for.
For the actual date, yeah, Imean, you know we'll do a little
party or a little, we'll dowhatever while I'm home, yeah,
but the actual birthday.
It's probably the second timethat I've been there in the
morning when she woke up on herbirthday, which is hard.
(38:04):
It's probably the second timethat I've been there in the
morning when she woke up on herbirthday, which is hard.
It takes its toll on youMentally.
You get a bit.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yes, because you're trying to build something bigger
than yourself, something, alegacy to leave.
And when you're in it, you'rein 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 hardfor people to understand, and
you've got someone whounderstands that sacrifice and
sees the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
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 ofpeople that have tried to do
things similar, whether it's abusiness or something similar,
and they don't have that samesupport that I'm lucky enough to
have and that would make ittwice as hard, twice multiples
(38:58):
harder, to try and achieve whatyou want to achieve.
And then it's a case of, youknow, knuckle down and go even
harder or try and find thatmagic balance between what you
want to achieve, how you'regoing to get there, and what
(39:18):
keeps your home life happy aswell.
Yeah, because between, if youdon't have that happy home life,
you're not going to be happywith anything else you're doing.
So there's got to be.
You know, even even if I didn'thave a partner that was
supportive of my business, Iwould have to say the business
(39:41):
wouldn't get as far as it'sgotten now because, at the end
of the day, family has to comefirst.
I didn't have a mum and dadwhen I was growing up and I
think a lot of people are in thesame boat and a lot of people,
rather than repeating the cyclelike myself, where they're like
(40:04):
right, well, my family's stayingtogether.
We're going to make it work,yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
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'shelping you stay strong?
Work on that balance and keepthat focus.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It's funny because I'll go through cycles where it
is a podcast, or I'll havepodcasts going in the background
or I'll have audio books goingin the background or I'll have
music.
Just depends on audio booksgoing in the background or I'll
have music.
Just depends on I'll go and doa week in a paddock and, like I
say, a lot of it's at night time, which is great for me because
(40:54):
I really like being out there inthe dark under the stars, with
a bit of connection, and I'lljust have one headphone in and
because've got to listen to theremote talking to you, sometimes
in Chinese, but the remote'stalking to you saying what's
going on, and so I'll have onein and, like I said, depending
(41:16):
on the mood and what time in theam it is, get to that 3.30, 4
o'clockclock in the morning andyou've been out there all night.
Sometimes it's like some somebanging tunes to keep you away,
oh yeah, whereas at the start ofthe night it might have just
been an audio book.
Yeah, and it'll be.
(41:40):
The audio books are funnybecause, again the same thing
you go through phases.
Sometimes I want to listen tocrazy stories about UFOs and
unsolved mysteries, and othertimes I want straight
motivational rich dad, poor dad,100%.
The secret, the this, the thatBeen through them all multiple
(42:02):
times.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, it's like your favorite song.
Sometimes you skip it, it'sjust when you're in a mood, it's
seasonal.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Very seasonal.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
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 startinga business.
Any advice that you could givesomeone out there that maybe
hasn't taken the leap workingfly in, fly out anything.
They're thinking about startinga business.
Any advice that you could givesomeone out there that maybe
hasn't?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
taken the leap but wants to start a business, but
wants to start.
I think the best advice I cangive is identify what it is that
you want to do.
Identify what it is that youwant to do.
Identify what it is that youwant to do.
Make sure that that's a viablething, because there's a lot of
(42:53):
people that go.
I'm going to do this as abusiness and it's not something
that actually makes money.
It's not something that's aviable business that they can do
.
I think that's a big part ofwhat you need to identify at the
start is that it's a businessthat's going to make you money,
not cost you money.
And that's a hard thing ifyou're passionate about
(43:16):
something.
And if you're passionate aboutsomething and it's just not a
thing.
I've been down that road, like Iwith the with the show drones.
I was super passionate about it.
I thought it was the greatestthing ever.
But at the end of the day, whenyou do the maths to work out
how much, how much you've got tospend to to make that just a
(43:42):
thing, and then go okay, I'd becharging this much a show how
many shows is that to pay thosedrones off before?
And it's all technology.
This is a thing.
By the time you're starting topay those drones off.
There's better drones andthere's cheaper drones and
there's ones that do better jobs, like my spray drones at the
(44:05):
moment, my T-50s.
They're about to release aT-100 that drops in Australia
very soon.
It's probably going to be about70 litres.
I think Wow, and bigger again,right.
So bigger, cleverer than thesuper clever big drone that I'm
(44:25):
flying now.
So it's like, right, do Iupgrade?
The drone I have does the job,but the technology moves so
quick that you pretty quicklyget left behind and someone can
do it more efficiently with anewer piece of equipment, yep.
So I think, all in all, you'vegot to identify that it's a
(44:48):
moneymaker.
You've got to be passionateabout it, because if you're not
passionate about it and you'renot committed to what you're
going to do, you're going tofall on your ass, yep, like
Jim's mowing.
If you're passionate about racecars, for example, and you go
(45:11):
well, I'm passionate about racecars, but I'm going to mow lawns
it's not going to, moneymakeror not, it's not going to stack
up.
You're not going to be able tocommit to it properly.
Moneymaker or not, it's notgoing to stack up.
You're not going to be able tocommit to it properly.
And then if you're notcommitted to it, your family's
(45:31):
not committed to it, it's notgoing to work.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Great advice, and it's very easy to not think
about viability because peoplearen't trained in business.
Therefore, they don't havepeople around them asking them
the right questions.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Correct, and that was the beauty of going through
that process with IBA and goingto see the guy in Townsville
that went through, like I said,from start to finish.
He went what are you going todo?
And he said you need to explainit to me piece by piece by
(46:04):
piece, of how you're going to doit, 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 tohim.
And he went right now I getthat.
What do you charge?
How you make your money?
What are you?
What do they provide?
What do you provide?
(46:25):
What are you?
And all stuff that I hadthought about but I hadn't, you
know, necessarily put on paperand said this is how my business
is going to work, sitting downwith him and putting it on paper
, made it all right there infront of you.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You can see it and go right it's tangible, it's real,
it's tangible, it's real, it'sachievable.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, this is the steps, and if I follow the steps
, I can get to the goal, whichis, if you're not breaking it
down into achievable goals alongthe way, that end goal is
unachievable.
You can't just expect to gofrom zero to hero.
There's got to be steps.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I agree.
Now where can people find yourbusiness?
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 (47:23):
Yeah, at the moment it is a very word-of-mouth
business and, to be honest, likeI said, I've got people saying,
hey, can you come and do thisout of the mines?
Can you come and do that, canyou?
And it's a case of well,because I'm still doing, I
(47:57):
haven't quit and commit, so tospeak, into what I'm doing,
which it's hard because I'mpretty damn busy most of the
time.
When the weather's right, whichis 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.
And I've got sort of in theregion there's sort of six to
eight decent-sized farms that Ican come home on my break from
the mine and go, I'm goingspraying I know he needs this,
(48:20):
done this, done this done, andI'll go and spray paddocks for
six or seven days or try toavoid the weekends, so sort of
four or five days and spend theweekends with the family, punch
out what I can in that time.
But to be doing it like thatfor me at the moment is working.
(48:43):
So the business is paying foritself and making a little bit
of money and I'm still payingthe 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 (49:03):
That's right.
Building it so it can.
This is not me trying to be apun, but it can fly on its own
and be its own sort of businessand then step away and then
create the website when it'stime and then use the work with
those clients that you've gotthe six farms to.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
And this is it like.
It'll get to a point where I'llwant to expand.
I'll be eventually.
It'll be there where I'm gonnahave 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 Igenerally can't keep up with
(49:43):
what's coming in.
So I think that'll be the nextphase where, if I'm 100% honest,
I think I'll go back to.
It was Angelo Coco sorry, Isaid Rob Coco earlier Angelo in
Townsville and sit down and sayright, angelo, we went through
(50:06):
this 18 months ago and now Iwant your help to go to the next
level.
How do we get to the next step?
And again, I think sitting downwith someone and going through
it because I don't know how todo it.
I get, this is my firstbusiness.
(50:27):
I don't know how to make thatbusiness go to the next step and
if you trust the telly, thenthe bank will do it for you.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
And they're business specialists as well.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Yeah, you need someone to give you that
guidance.
You don't know what you don'tknow, right?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yes, Well, I'm here for it and next year we'll do a
follow-up.
We might get you on one of ourmovie sets and we'll coordinate
a drone and get some cool shots.
Yeah, absolutely We'll get youin and talk about that later.
And you know, I just want tosee these things in action
because I get pretty excitedabout them, because I've seen
(51:04):
some big ones on film sets.
But you're getting the T-100,am I correct?
Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, brother, thank you for your time, thank you for
sharing, and we'll be chattingagain soon.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Again, thanks for having me man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
You're welcome.
Robbie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're very welcome.
Let's start with your name,where you're from and a little
bit about what you do.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Robbie Romano.
Originally from Cairns, I livein Airlie Beach now in the
beautiful Whitsundays.
Day was great, Beautiful dayhere in Brisbane.
Appreciate you having me downhere.
No, it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And it's currently nighttime and you've had a late
coffee, so you're doing reallywell.
Now you're a business owner.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I am recently, Recently, the last 12 months.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Let's delve right in.
Let's start with the name ofyour business, and then I want
you to take me back to when youfirst said to yourself you know
what I want?
To start a business.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Perfect.
The name of the business isElevate Innovations.
At the moment I'm doing a lotof agricultural stuff but I
didn't want to tie it into justdoing the agricultural stuff.
Agricultural stuff, but Ididn't want to tie it into just
doing the agricultural stuff.
I've got some plans and somevisions of where I want that
(01:12):
business to go and I didn't wantto restrict it with a name by
calling it something that wasgoing to restrict it.
So I've gone with innovationsbecause I think that's where I'm
going.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Love it, and then you're always evolving, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Because you're always innovating.
That's the plan.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now give me an overarching brief of sort of
maybe, what you're currentlydoing, and then we're going to
talk about straight we're goingstraight into it maybe the next
two to three years.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah cool, into it, maybe the next two to three
years?
Yeah cool.
Uh, right now it's a very solotype affair.
It's me in a cane paddock withmy drones uh, spraying cane for
for vine and sickle pod, whichare just a pest that grow in the
(02:05):
cane, and what happens is, asthe vine grows and takes the
nutrients out of the soil, thesugar cane itself loses sugar
content and struggles to grow toits full potential.
So what we do is we come inthere and we spray that to kill
that weed, and traditionallyfarmers would be doing that on a
(02:28):
tractor.
Or you pay for a helicopter,which is pretty inefficient and
with emerging technologies we'rein there making it work.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Wow, I've never met anyone that does that.
Now tell us about your drone.
I'm very interested and I'vewanted to ask you questions
about the drone because I workin the creative space and we use
drones for film.
But tell me about your droneshow big they are, the
capabilities.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
They are massive.
It's ridiculous.
When I first saw my firstagricultural spray drone, I was
blown away by the size of it andjust went this is a couple of
meters by a couple of meters.
And I was like, well, this isjust crazy.
And that was the, the dji t30s.
(03:19):
When they were first came out,that was the what they were
using, and then along came the40s, and then along came the 50s
and at the moment I'm rockingtwo dji t50s which are even
bigger again.
They're just a massive airframebecause they're basically
carrying up to 50 kilos or about40 litres of fluid when you're
(03:44):
spraying.
So they've got to have bigpropellers, big motors and a big
airframe to carry that weightaround.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So let's give the people at home some perspective.
So when they see drones theysee filmmakers, hobbyists,
videographers, and they have alittle Mavic Pro, something like
this big right, maybe somethinghere when they get a little
bigger, let's give them a bit ofscale.
(04:14):
So I'm going to have one handhere of one side of the drone.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
All right.
Well, we might have to movechairs because we're going to
keep going About there, I wouldsay 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'spretty much square.
So imagine that distancesquared and that's the area it
takes up.
And then, obviously, with itsproximity sensors and radars,
(04:42):
you probably need that again oneither side to land it.
Otherwise it won't take off orland because it won't do
anything with people orstructure around it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
So they're literally like the size of a small car.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, pretty big.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Big toys.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
They're a big toy, a noisy, dangerous toy.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, and how do you go with the insurances and any
sort of licensing to pilot thatdrone?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So licensing is an interesting one.
You go through CASA, so civilaviation, same as you would for
any pilot's license.
So you can do a commercialdrone license which will let you
fly your normal size drones Ithink these days it's 250 grams.
So anything over 250 grams thatyou're using in any commercial
(05:36):
sense needs to be licensed.
Um, which cuts you down tonothing.
I think the dji Mavic Minis arethe only ones that are under
that weight specifically forthat.
And then, once you scale upfrom there, you do your
commercial license.
There's a 25 kilo license,there's a 50 kilo license,
(06:00):
there's a 100 kilo license.
So you do those brackets oflicensing, all with their
separate trainings, all withtheir separate practical exam.
So the practical exams change.
Since I did it, I used to haveto do all these different
manoeuvres for the CASAinspector to say, yep, you can
do that, you can fly that,because obviously when you're
(06:22):
going up in size you get a shiftin momentum like a container
ship going through the sea.
You turn and it takes sixminutes before you do anything.
A bigger drone and a biggerweight in the air is exactly the
same.
So as you turn and go to turnthe other way, it's going to
(06:45):
drift a bit further and move abit further and takes a lot of
getting used to.
After flying little drones, togetting onto the bigger ones,
they don't stop.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, as well as you'd like, no no, I can't
imagine how hard it is, becauseI only navigated small ones.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's lucky because they're very clever.
So a lot of what I do at themoment 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,
(07:26):
when it needs a battery changeor it needs more juice, it'll
bring itself back to homelandland, exactly where it took off
from, and swap some batteries,put some more fluid in it, press
the button and away it'll goagain.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, that's really cool and big film cameras fit on
those things pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
We'll have that discussion after the podcast.
How did you get the idea forthis business?
Did you start somewhere elseflying drones?
Did you work in the caneindustry?
How did it come about?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I've always had a need, a want.
I wanted to be an Air Forcepilot as a kid.
That was all I wanted and Ihave a mutated sinus which
excluded me from that and thatwas devastating.
As a kid you know what it'slike when that's what you want
(08:19):
to do and they go.
Well, you can't do that becauseof this and I'm like, oh, so
that ruined me.
But I've always had a thingabout just things that fly.
I'm fascinated by it.
And then, getting a bit olderand these drones started coming
along.
I think the first one I boughtwas one of the Phantom 1s.
I loved it, I could fly, Icould see.
(08:40):
You couldn't actually see whatyou were doing, you had to watch
the drone, but when you gotdown you could see the footage
that you were recording and itwas amazing to me.
I was like this is justridiculous, and I've been onto
it ever since, like, oh, what'snext?
What's?
What else is out there?
What else can we do?
And uh, a buddy of mine does alot of music industry production
(09:05):
stuff and he and I had seen andI don't know whether you've
seen them, you know the showdrones where they draw the
shapes and pictures in the skyand that was my initial draw to
it as a commercial business, asa going concern, as I gonna, I'm
gonna, rather than just do thisfor fun.
(09:27):
I want to.
I want this to be my businessand my first thought was that
because I was doing part-timework in the music industry and
some festivals and things likethat and I was like this could
be huge.
Um, and at the time this issort of a couple of years ago
when we looked at it,unfortunately the financials
(09:51):
didn't quite stack up to what itwas to get that technology in
the country to start with.
There's some companies inAustralia that do it now, but at
the time it was.
I think the quote that I gotwas about €600,000.
(10:12):
It was in euros, so you do theconversion of that.
It was ridiculous money.
So that's a lot of festivalsand a lot of shows drawing
pictures in the sky to to payback that kind of money.
It wasn't a going concern thatwas going to make money.
Um, but during that process offiguring out that that wasn't
(10:32):
going to work, I went and did mydrone license.
Um, and it turns out that anold school friend of mine was
doing it at the same time and hewas like, oh, let's go to the
same guy, we'll do the course.
And he was doing it because heis a well, not a practicing cane
(10:54):
farmer, but he was a canefarmer, his parents were cane
farmers and he was a harvesterdriver who'd gone out to the
mines and he'd come home andhe'd do the cane season and he'd
drive harvesters and was in theindustry and he he'd been put
onto it by.
He at the time had a, aslashing and mowing business, um
(11:18):
, with a heap of sort ofgovernment contracts, council
contracts for slashing and weedcontrol and that kind of stuff.
And he'd seen the potential ofthese drones and went I think we
should do this.
And while we were doing thecourse was when I sort of
figured out that this otherthing wasn't going to be
completely viable.
And he went well, why don't youdo this with me?
(11:40):
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 seewhat's going on.
Uh, so we both did the thecourse and then did the, the
bigger drone, pass out and, uh,my mate had already purchased
(12:01):
two t30s and a batching plantand a trailer to run it all.
So between the pair of us wefigured it out, basically
because nobody was doing it forsugarcane at the time.
So they were doing it broadacrestuff in grain, they were doing
orchards, they were doing spotcontrol, that kind of thing.
(12:24):
No one was was doing sugar caneas such.
So we sort of had to figure itout from scratch and go what's
going to work, what's not?
We did some farms aroundProserpine that Mick knew the
guys that owned the farms andsaid, hey, can we try this out?
If it works, it works.
(12:45):
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
The beauty of it was thefarmers are paying for chemical
anyway.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So they went look, we'll pay for the chemical.
If we get it right, then youpay for the chemical.
If we get it wrong, we've paidfor the chemical, you've lost
nothing.
We'll make sure the rates areright because you sort of the
chemical rates are all dictatedby the agronomists.
They come and assess your sugarcane and go this is the rate at
(13:13):
which you need to apply on,given your soil.
What's going on?
So it was interesting to gothrough that process and learn
it and then, like I said,through a bit of trial and error
and figuring out what sort ofwater rates we needed to apply,
at what range the drones hadover the cane and how tied in,
(13:34):
how wide apart the runs neededto be and to make it work in
sugar cane, and over the courseof about 12 months we figured
that out and my mate decided itwasn't for him.
He didn't like the idea ofbeing alone in a cane paddock,
(13:56):
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 inthe middle of a cane paddock
with nothing but the stars aboveyou and the buzz of your drones
flying around over your head.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Those big ones must be loud.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
They are very loud, very loud.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
And I'm trying to think of when you were young and
you had a maybe a fascinationwith flying.
Was there a moment where youknew you were going to be a
business owner, or was itsomething that evolved after you
left school and just got intothe workforce?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I think as a kid you have big visions.
Like I said, after the AirForce thing fell away, I was
like, right, well, I alwaysthought I don't want to work for
someone, I want to work withsomeone or I want to work for
myself.
I don't want to be.
(15:02):
I saw my mum, as a single mumworks 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 upthere, I never want to be at the
will of your boss.
Who's telling you?
(15:22):
So there was always a piece ofme that went I want to do
something for myself.
At the time I didn't know whatit was, I was clueless as to
what it was going to be, but Ireally knew that there was
something, something had toclick and I knew that something
(15:43):
would click.
That part I did know.
I knew eventually I was goingto find what I wanted to do and
I knew that something wouldclick.
That part I did know.
I knew eventually I was goingto find what I wanted to do and
I'd do it.
And I went down plenty of pathsalong the way to finding what
that thing was.
But, like I said, eventually Ifound it and to me, this is what
(16:03):
I'm doing at the moment is just, it makes sense where it is now
as a viable business, and thenthe potential of what's out
there in that space, of theavionics, the technology of
(16:24):
what's happening in that space,and you throw AI into that, mix,
mix, and it's limitless.
There's nothing that can'thappen 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 themoment and, like I said, the
agriculture stuff is a goodearner.
(16:45):
It's manually hard becauseyou're out there in it and it's
hard to.
It's one of those things whereit's hard to let go of.
I couldn't go and train someoneand say, hey, this is how you
fly the drone.
I'm going to let you go and doit now.
(17:06):
It's something you could do,but it takes a long time to
figure out and I think by thetime someone figured it out,
they'd be like all right, thisis probably not for me.
Again, you've got to find theright person in the right
headspace to go and do that.
So, like I said, at the momentthe agricultural stuff's a
(17:27):
stepping stone.
I think I'm building thebusiness from there.
Stuff's a stepping stone.
I think I'm building thebusiness from there, um, and,
like I say, the, thepossibilities are, are
everywhere there's.
There's bits and pieces and it'sjust 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, wedo some looking at lidar drones
(17:49):
at the To do bits and pieces ofground penetrating radar and
LiDAR.
I'm doing a.
I bought a survey drone or it'sa search and rescue drone,
really it's emergency services,but I'm doing a dugong survey
for JCU at the moment where it'sjust mapped this section of
(18:11):
ocean for us and at a specifictime on a specific tide, because
the drone will fly at about 30kilometers an hour and do a grid
and then give you a full imagethrough dji terra of that, so
it's like.
And then you add it tobasically google maps as a layer
, so where you zoom in on GoogleMaps and you can only zoom in
(18:34):
so far.
Once you stitch that togetherthrough DJI Terra, you then add
it to Google Maps as a layer andyou can zoom in to a high-res
picture right on the water andyou get a snapshot of that time
that you mapped that.
So that's what they were after.
So little bits and pieces likethat that come along.
(18:54):
And there's silly insurancejobs where they want roofs
mapped before they'll insurepeople, especially around the
Whitsundays where we get ourNorth Queensland with those
swirly things that come and messeverything up up there.
So there's little bits andpieces like that.
Every time you think ofsomething, you go oh, we could
be doing that.
(19:14):
Why then you go and track themdown?
I've been onto ergon because Iwas spraying in a paddock one
day and there was a chopperbuzzing around.
So I'm like, oh, put my radioon 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.
(19:36):
But I was like what's going onhere?
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, weout of your way.
(19:58):
And he was like, yeah, cool,we're just doing some power line
inspections.
And I was like power lineinspections, huh.
So I was straight on ergo and Isaid, oh, what are you?
What are you paying for achopper to do power line
inspections, and do you, do youhave a person in there?
Is it trying to feel my waythrough that?
So again there's another onethat pops up.
There's applications in theother half of my life where I
work in the mines at the momentin a coal mine in the Bowen
(20:19):
Basin.
There's applications out therewhere I've got people saying,
hey, can you bring your dronesand do this?
We've got rehab and seating.
We've got cable inspections forelectric shovels and drag lines
, and we've got this and we'vegot that and we've got this, and
we've got cable inspections forelectric shovels and drag lines
, and we've got this and we'vegot that and we've got this,
we've got that, and there's awhole suite of work out there
that I'm not that interested inbecause I'm out there seven days
(20:41):
a week at the moment anyway.
So I do seven days out thereand then I come home and do
seven days in a cane paddock andsomewhere in the middle I
squeeze in my partner and mykiddo.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, and, like you said, just the nature of
innovation and AI, it's reallyendless.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's the direction, like I say, the agricultural
stuff.
I think that is absolutely thedirection there and I've got
some plans in motion at themoment to automate a lot more of
what I do around that space,and that again frees me up to
concentrate on the rest of thebusiness.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Let's talk about when you first started your business
?
And when you first started thebusiness business, how did you
hear about IBA?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
IBA was one that actually popped up on my radar.
My partner is, uh, works ineconomic development at the
Whitsunday Council so she does alot of grant writing and bits
and pieces and she, throughother bits and pieces, had had a
(21:55):
little bit to do with IBA andknew about it and knew of it.
And uh, I've never through mylife because of the way I was
sort of not separated from butmy mum and dad split and I never
really got to know my dad'sside of the family until much
(22:18):
later in life when I wenthunting for them and on my mum's
side of the family it wasdifferent.
I wasn't in touch with thatkind of thing.
So I never grew up with any ofthat kind of influence in my
(22:39):
life, any attachment to thatculture or to.
So it was not until I got a bitolder that I was like really
wanted to go hunting for thatstuff and try and get some
connection to country, to people, to something I knew something
was missing there and I justwanted to find something that
(23:03):
fitted in that space and thenI'd done so.
Then I started.
At the time I was working for adifferent mining company in a
different role and they it wasduring that phase of I don't
know.
I like saying it, but it wasvery cool to be doing stuff in
(23:26):
the indigenous space suddenlyfor these mining companies, and
so I was like, right, I want tojump on board with that because
there's a ticket right there forme to try and get in touch a
bit more.
I'm still at work, that's right.
I did some mentoring courses, Idid some bits and pieces in
(23:48):
that space and got to know a lotof people in that space, which
was really cool.
And there's so many greatpeople in the business space, in
the Indigenous space, in thebusiness world, that are doing
great work.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's a great place.
There's so many blackbusinesses around.
It's a great place.
There's so many blackbusinesses around and during
those business events andopportunities, you're meeting
and connecting and reconnecting.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, it's a great.
The collaboration is ridiculous.
You think about, you know,cutthroat business.
It's us against them, but it'snot like that in that space it's
everyone's like.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
So there was an opportunity for you to connect
and to do something for yourselfwith your business.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, exactly.
And I got in touch with theguys from IBA and sort of it was
funny.
I had the initial phone calland said, hey, I want to start a
business.
I've got some money savedtowards it because I was saving
(24:58):
for the other piece.
And I said, and they sort ofwent what kind of business are
you looking at?
And I went, well, it'sagricultural spray drones.
And they went you what, whatare you doing?
I said.
I said, oh, it's drones thatspray sugar cane.
And they went what do you mean?
And then I had to go throughthe process to explain what it
(25:20):
was and what was happening.
And and they went oh, oh, we'venever done anything like that
before.
So it was a bit of a processbecause and I get it they went
look, you've not had a business.
This is not a business we knowabout.
We need you to go and and seesomeone sit down and go through
(25:43):
a process of, uh, assessing yourfinancials, how the business is
going to work, what it's goingto look like.
And they put me onto a gentlemannamed Rob Coco in Townsville
Legend, absolute legend.
That guy was amazing.
So we sat down with him, mypartner and myself, and he
(26:07):
started at the beginning andworked his way through.
We were there for a few hoursand then backwards and forwards
over the next few weeks waythrough.
We were there for a few hoursand then backwards and forwards
over the next few weeks and heput it all together and it just
made perfect sense at the end ofit and I went he's nailed this,
it's right.
And IBA thought the same thing.
They went this makes sense.
(26:28):
And poor Sharon from theTownsville office she was
backwards and forwards and phonecalls 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 getstarted.
They're not cheap drones andit's not a cheap business to set
up.
But eventually it all cametogether and it seemed to work
(26:54):
and everything just sort ofclicked.
And then suddenly they rang andsaid Sharon rang me and said
hey, it's, it's gone through,you need to go and buy some
drones.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
So they saw something innovative and instead of just
saying hey look, we don't knowthis business model, they
provided support and then usedworked through it step by step
to look at what it would looklike some forecasts Really good
(27:30):
support in that it gave them theinformation they needed that it
was a viable business.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It gave me the information that I needed that
it was a viable business and Iwasn't just chasing my tail like
a weirdo and stuff from thosemeetings and that information
I'm still using now.
I'm still using some of thosespreadsheets.
I'm still using some of thosebits and pieces that he put us
onto.
So it wasn't just tick this boxand we'll do this.
(28:03):
It was really handy to actuallyget into and go right.
I mean, I've worked on an ABNand, you know, tried to do my
own taxes and that kind of stuff.
And hardly a business as a, asa contractor, doing bits and
pieces on an ABN to oppose tolike actually committing to it
(28:25):
and going this is this is mybusiness and I have to make it
work, is a completely differentthing.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
So IBA had your back.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
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 thingwith was, you know, we were
(28:56):
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, weworked 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 (29:16):
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 (29:27):
There was plenty of follow-ups and some feedback.
I did some photos and stuff forSharon 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 itdoing something.
It's hard to how big is it,what are you doing with it?
(29:50):
Something it's hard to how bigis it, what are you doing with
it?
So we went through that and itwas like I said, it wasn't hard
it was.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's good.
That's great because just youtalking to someone there that
you know is supporting you aboutyour idea even if you think
it's well, other people maythink it's crazy.
Your idea IBA, you're chatting,so together you're
collaborating on bringing thisbusiness to life.
And now here you are, doingLIDAR readings to help inform
(30:26):
global networks of data forpeople, infinite information.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, works of data for people.
Infinite information yeah.
And again, what's possible isastounding.
There's so much going on inthat space.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Hi everyone.
I hope you're enjoying thepodcast.
Just wanted to take a quickbreak to let you all know that
next month, October, isIndigenous Business Month.
So during the month of October,we are celebrating First
Nations businessesAustralia-wide.
If you are a First Nationsbusiness owner, collaborator or
partner, or looking to networkwith Indigenous businesses,
(31:04):
please get in touch via oursocial media channels and we'll
be sure to put you in the rightdirection.
Back to the podcast, and we'llbe sure to put you in the right
direction.
Back to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I'm planning on taking a trip hopefully early
next year to China, to a coupleof the tech expos over there and
just immerse in it for a weekand go.
This is where they're up to andwhat they're doing, and get on
the catch-up wagon.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
The technology over there would be crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Now to date.
What is one or maybe a coupleof milestones so far for the
business?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
I think milestone number one was actually getting
the drones and taking them.
I still vivid memories of myfirst flight of the new drones
that I'd just paid for and wentokay, let's go and away.
(32:08):
We went.
That was a pretty big milestonein my head, yeah.
And then, because they'reclever, it just took off and did
its thing and I went I knowthis isn't hard.
And then, because I'd beenflying the smaller ones and
flying other people's my mate'sdrones and learning the industry
(32:31):
, so to speak.
But yeah, big tick in the boxwas flying my own drones for
once.
The first time was amazing.
Then I guess little pieces,little things that flag as
milestones for myself, likegetting the truck.
(32:53):
I had a truck, decked it outwith a big generator, because
you need a massive generator tocharge the batteries.
So, decked out, a truck with agenerator and a water tank and a
batching plant and aself-sufficient unit I could
drive to a job and be done andnot be towed on a trailer, was a
big milestone for me.
Tell you, what's a weird one isputting in that first invoice.
(33:19):
No, that's a big one.
Sending off that first invoiceis one half of it.
And then seeing the money landin 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 amazingfeeling to go.
I mean, fair enough, we all goto work every week and you get
(33:42):
paid for going to work, andthat's great.
But I went to work all thatweek and I was working for
myself and then I got paid andthat was.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
It's a different feeling, huh.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
A very different feeling, a very elevating
feeling.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I like what you did there, I see you Now.
How important do you think itis to empower our men to?
Not about starting a business,but just doing something for
themselves, whether it bestarting a business or, you know
, following that dream ofwanting to be a pilot.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Or anything.
You've just got to take thestep.
It's one of those things.
And again, we were talkingabout being younger and I often
think if I could go back in timeand meet my younger self.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yes, I agreed.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I'd give myself a slogan and go what are you doing
, man?
Let's go.
Because when I look back nowand I go, not so much the drones
but just life in general, theoutlook you have on life as a
sometimes as a young man, yourpriorities in life are not ideal
(35:04):
.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Misguided.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Misguided.
Again, I feel like I was a shitkid, just saying but, and I
played silly games and did sillythings, as you do as a young
man, you know.
And again, like I said, if Icould go back I'd slap myself
(35:28):
silly and go.
What are you doing?
Straighten up, let's go.
But you can't be told at thatage, unfortunately.
And the problem is, it'sfinding that thing.
If it's a business, if it'ssport, if it's your personal
health yes, if it's, you know,getting up and going to the gym
(35:50):
every morning, it's whatever itis it's just take that first
step, make it happen and have ago at it, because that's a big
thing.
You, you, you go through lifeand you get into your routine
and you're in the grind.
It's just happening.
It's happening, life'shappening.
You're not living it, it's justhappening around you.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, Now you touched about health.
Now balancing a business,working in the mines, being a
dad what are some of thechallenges that you found with
business balance?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Balance is a tough one in my world at the moment.
We've got, like you say, sevenon seven off at a coal mine.
Like you say, seven on sevenoff at a coal mine.
I come home and I fly dronesand I try to give my family as
much time as I can.
I think I'm lucky in that spaceat the minute because I've got
(37:00):
a very understanding partner whobasically lives like a single
mum at the moment, basicallylives like a single mum at the
moment, and because we knowwhere we're together.
We have a goal that is based on, you know, getting to that
point where it's a bitcomfortable in life.
You don't want to get toocomfortable, but we want to get
(37:22):
to that point where maybe I doget to eventually get the
business to the stage where Ican go right, I'm done with this
mining lark, a seven and sevenbusiness, I mean.
Even when we were trying toarrange the podcast, I was like
oh, I can't come that daybecause I'm actually home for my
daughter's birthday and it'sthe first time I've been home.
(37:43):
I think it's probably the ninthbirthday and I reckon it's
probably the second one I'vebeen home for.
For the actual date, yeah, Imean, you know we'll do a little
party or a little, we'll dowhatever while I'm home, yeah,
but the actual birthday.
It's probably the second timethat I've been there in the
morning when she woke up on herbirthday, which is hard.
(38:04):
It's probably the second timethat I've been there in the
morning when she woke up on herbirthday, which is hard.
It takes its toll on youMentally.
You get a bit.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yes, because you're trying to build something bigger
than yourself, something, alegacy to leave.
And when you're in it, you'rein 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 hardfor people to understand, and
you've got someone whounderstands that sacrifice and
sees the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
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 ofpeople that have tried to do
things similar, whether it's abusiness or something similar,
and they don't have that samesupport that I'm lucky enough to
have and that would make ittwice as hard, twice multiples
(38:58):
harder, to try and achieve whatyou want to achieve.
And then it's a case of, youknow, knuckle down and go even
harder or try and find thatmagic balance between what you
want to achieve, how you'regoing to get there, and what
(39:18):
keeps your home life happy aswell.
Yeah, because between, if youdon't have that happy home life,
you're not going to be happywith anything else you're doing.
So there's got to be.
You know, even even if I didn'thave a partner that was
supportive of my business, Iwould have to say the business
(39:41):
wouldn't get as far as it'sgotten now because, at the end
of the day, family has to comefirst.
I didn't have a mum and dadwhen I was growing up and I
think a lot of people are in thesame boat and a lot of people,
rather than repeating the cyclelike myself, where they're like
(40:04):
right, well, my family's stayingtogether.
We're going to make it work,yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
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'shelping you stay strong?
Work on that balance and keepthat focus.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It's funny because I'll go through cycles where it
is a podcast, or I'll havepodcasts going in the background
or I'll have audio books goingin the background or I'll have
music.
Just depends on audio booksgoing in the background or I'll
have music.
Just depends on I'll go and doa week in a paddock and, like I
say, a lot of it's at night time, which is great for me because
(40:54):
I really like being out there inthe dark under the stars, with
a bit of connection, and I'lljust have one headphone in and
because've got to listen to theremote talking to you, sometimes
in Chinese, but the remote'stalking to you saying what's
going on, and so I'll have onein and, like I said, depending
(41:16):
on the mood and what time in theam it is, get to that 3.30, 4
o'clockclock in the morning andyou've been out there all night.
Sometimes it's like some somebanging tunes to keep you away,
oh yeah, whereas at the start ofthe night it might have just
been an audio book.
Yeah, and it'll be.
(41:40):
The audio books are funnybecause, again the same thing
you go through phases.
Sometimes I want to listen tocrazy stories about UFOs and
unsolved mysteries, and othertimes I want straight
motivational rich dad, poor dad,100%.
The secret, the this, the thatBeen through them all multiple
(42:02):
times.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, it's like your favorite song.
Sometimes you skip it, it'sjust when you're in a mood, it's
seasonal.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Very seasonal.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
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 startinga business.
Any advice that you could givesomeone out there that maybe
hasn't taken the leap workingfly in, fly out anything.
They're thinking about startinga business.
Any advice that you could givesomeone out there that maybe
hasn't?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
taken the leap but wants to start a business, but
wants to start.
I think the best advice I cangive is identify what it is that
you want to do.
Identify what it is that youwant to do.
Identify what it is that youwant to do.
Make sure that that's a viablething, because there's a lot of
(42:53):
people that go.
I'm going to do this as abusiness and it's not something
that actually makes money.
It's not something that's aviable business that they can do
.
I think that's a big part ofwhat you need to identify at the
start is that it's a businessthat's going to make you money,
not cost you money.
And that's a hard thing ifyou're passionate about
(43:16):
something.
And if you're passionate aboutsomething and it's just not a
thing.
I've been down that road, like Iwith the with the show drones.
I was super passionate about it.
I thought it was the greatestthing ever.
But at the end of the day, whenyou do the maths to work out
how much, how much you've got tospend to to make that just a
(43:42):
thing, and then go okay, I'd becharging this much a show how
many shows is that to pay thosedrones off before?
And it's all technology.
This is a thing.
By the time you're starting topay those drones off.
There's better drones andthere's cheaper drones and
there's ones that do better jobs, like my spray drones at the
(44:05):
moment, my T-50s.
They're about to release aT-100 that drops in Australia
very soon.
It's probably going to be about70 litres.
I think Wow, and bigger again,right.
So bigger, cleverer than thesuper clever big drone that I'm
(44:25):
flying now.
So it's like, right, do Iupgrade?
The drone I have does the job,but the technology moves so
quick that you pretty quicklyget left behind and someone can
do it more efficiently with anewer piece of equipment, yep.
So I think, all in all, you'vegot to identify that it's a
(44:48):
moneymaker.
You've got to be passionateabout it, because if you're not
passionate about it and you'renot committed to what you're
going to do, you're going tofall on your ass, yep, like
Jim's mowing.
If you're passionate about racecars, for example, and you go
(45:11):
well, I'm passionate about racecars, but I'm going to mow lawns
it's not going to, moneymakeror not, it's not going to stack
up.
You're not going to be able tocommit to it properly.
Moneymaker or not, it's notgoing to stack up.
You're not going to be able tocommit to it properly.
And then if you're notcommitted to it, your family's
(45:31):
not committed to it, it's notgoing to work.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Great advice, and it's very easy to not think
about viability because peoplearen't trained in business.
Therefore, they don't havepeople around them asking them
the right questions.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Correct, and that was the beauty of going through
that process with IBA and goingto see the guy in Townsville
that went through, like I said,from start to finish.
He went what are you going todo?
And he said you need to explainit to me piece by piece by
(46:04):
piece, of how you're going to doit, 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 tohim.
And he went right now I getthat.
What do you charge?
How you make your money?
What are you?
What do they provide?
What do you provide?
(46:25):
What are you?
And all stuff that I hadthought about but I hadn't, you
know, necessarily put on paperand said this is how my business
is going to work, sitting downwith him and putting it on paper
, made it all right there infront of you.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
You can see it and go right it's tangible, it's real,
it's tangible, it's real, it'sachievable.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah, this is the steps, and if I follow the steps
, I can get to the goal, whichis, if you're not breaking it
down into achievable goals alongthe way, that end goal is
unachievable.
You can't just expect to gofrom zero to hero.
There's got to be steps.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I agree.
Now where can people find yourbusiness?
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 (47:23):
Yeah, at the moment it is a very word-of-mouth
business and, to be honest, likeI said, I've got people saying,
hey, can you come and do thisout of the mines?
Can you come and do that, canyou?
And it's a case of well,because I'm still doing, I
(47:57):
haven't quit and commit, so tospeak, into what I'm doing,
which it's hard because I'mpretty damn busy most of the
time.
When the weather's right, whichis 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.
And I've got sort of in theregion there's sort of six to
eight decent-sized farms that Ican come home on my break from
the mine and go, I'm goingspraying I know he needs this,
(48:20):
done this, done this done, andI'll go and spray paddocks for
six or seven days or try toavoid the weekends, so sort of
four or five days and spend theweekends with the family, punch
out what I can in that time.
But to be doing it like thatfor me at the moment is working.
(48:43):
So the business is paying foritself and making a little bit
of money and I'm still payingthe 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 (49:03):
That's right.
Building it so it can.
This is not me trying to be apun, but it can fly on its own
and be its own sort of businessand then step away and then
create the website when it'stime and then use the work with
those clients that you've gotthe six farms to.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
And this is it like.
It'll get to a point where I'llwant to expand.
I'll be eventually.
It'll be there where I'm gonnahave 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 Igenerally can't keep up with
(49:43):
what's coming in.
So I think that'll be the nextphase where, if I'm 100% honest,
I think I'll go back to.
It was Angelo Coco sorry, Isaid Rob Coco earlier Angelo in
Townsville and sit down and sayright, angelo, we went through
(50:06):
this 18 months ago and now Iwant your help to go to the next
level.
How do we get to the next step?
And again, I think sitting downwith someone and going through
it because I don't know how todo it.
I get, this is my firstbusiness.
(50:27):
I don't know how to make thatbusiness go to the next step and
if you trust the telly, thenthe bank will do it for you.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
And they're business specialists as well.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Yeah, you need someone to give you that
guidance.
You don't know what you don'tknow, right?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yes, Well, I'm here for it and next year we'll do a
follow-up.
We might get you on one of ourmovie sets and we'll coordinate
a drone and get some cool shots.
Yeah, absolutely We'll get youin and talk about that later.
And you know, I just want tosee these things in action
because I get pretty excitedabout them, because I've seen
(51:04):
some big ones on film sets.
But you're getting the T-100,am I correct?
Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, brother, thank you for your time, thank you for
sharing, and we'll be chattingagain soon.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Again, thanks for having me man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
You're welcome.
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