0054: Livestock Profiting Strategies with 4th Generation Sheep and Wool Producer, Trainer, Speaker, Mastermind Leader, & CEO Grahame Rees

Intro  [0:00]  

EA Interviews Episode 54. Inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round, seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview.

Mario Fachini  [0:13]  

Expert Authority world I’m excited to be here with you for another great episode. I have Grahame Reese who is a fourth generation sheep and wool producer, he’s going to be sharing with us from the Australian outback. Now, the reason I wanted Grahame on the show is, he doesn’t just know what he’s doing with farming. He knows what he’s doing with producing, and with marketing. He was showing me some things before we started filming. And I am excited for him to share with you how you can profit from livestock. Because he’s not just doing one part of it. He’s doing the whole spectrum of it. And he’s going to be sharing with you the inside secrets. So I’m excited to bring them up right after we thank our sponsor

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Mario Fachini  [1:13]  

All right, ladies and gentlemen, here he is Mr. Grahame Reese. Graham, how are you feeling today?

Grahame Reese  [1:19]  

I’m really great, Mario. It’s great to talk to you across the pond. And you know, what I’m really excited about is that I’m already in tomorrow here in Australia and you’re just, you’ll catch up.

Mario Fachini  [1:32]  

I love it here and when you talk about that and say across the pond, you know, a little bit about a body of water in there. But I want to ask you, why did you get into doing what you do, what inspired you to start your company?

Grahame Reese  [1:47]  

You know, Mario, I had actually grown up in a farming family and spend all my life farming and thought that’s what I was going to do. You know, just round up sheep and run a sheep and wool business. However in 1999, a US gentleman by the name of Bud Williams came out here to Australia and Bud had spent all his life studying the way animals work. And also studying marketing and I was lucky enough to get four days with him on my farm. And that changed my life and my wife’s life in terms of thinking about how we’d work animals in a low stress way. And then also learning about his marketing knowledge. And so what happened is we needed to educate our kids. And so we moved away for a little bit and had to do something, so I got teaching low stress stock handling and also teaching or developing the livestock marketing school with two other partners and teaching that for the last 15 years.

Mario Fachini  [2:51]  

So tell us about who you help and how you’re helping them.

Grahame Reese  [2:55]  

Okay, so the people that I work with are livestock producers. And one of the biggest challenges in what I call the commodity market, which is where, you know, most ranchers, most producers produce their livestock or their produce, and they just put it off to the market. And they’re at the whim of market prices. And we can’t control that, we’re price takers when we’re in the commodity arena. And so what we do is we teach people that it’s more about knowing what their cost of carriers, knowing how to when they need to keep animals, when they need to sell animals, and the thing they can control is their costs. And so that’s… we spend two and a half days teaching people there, really helping them to build a more profitable business and how to make really good decisions.

Mario Fachini  [3:49]  

Are all of your clients local to your area? Are they all over Australia? Who are you helping geographically?

Grahame Reese  [3:59]  

Yep. So we’ve got clients right across Australia, I’ve just come back from Perth, which is Western Australia. So that’s like going from LA to New York, it’s just this bigger country. And then in Brisbane, we had people come out from South Africa, we’ve had someone from the US come out. So we’ve got people sort of all over the world. And actually, we’re looking to bring that program to the US next year, where we want to bring it home too, because Bud’s passed away to date, but his wife’s still around in the US. We want to bring that back.

Mario Fachini  [4:32]  

So the principles that you’re teaching with your schooling really are essentially universal, that you can take this globally correct?

Grahame Reese  [4:41]  

They are, and that’s a really good point, Mario, there’s a lot of people teach.

Mario Fachini  [4:46]  

Well, I’m glad you’re agreeing to it, because it sounded like it. But I was like, I hope he doesn’t say no.

Grahame Reese  [4:53]  

Well, you see a lot of people out there and doesn’t matter what training arena it is, people would go to a course with a silver bullet. A lot of people teach silver bullets. However, when you teach the principles, so both programs we teach, the stock handling has seven principles, and the marketing has five principles. And the thing about principles is that they are universal all around the world; doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter where you are. Those principles will work even in real estate, because fundamentally, it’s about knowing the price of what you’re going to sell, what it’s going to cost you to say renovate that real estate, and what it’s going to cost you to buy that new one. And so we’re trading the margins, we’re not worried about what the markets going to do something that’s totally out of their control.

Mario Fachini  [5:40]  

Can I get you to share a couple of those principles with us?

Grahame Reese  [5:43]  

Well, yeah. So the farming one is, the first principle is the most important one. It’s called balance your inventories of livestock, grass, and money. And if you know for those people listening, that maybe aren’t a farmer, it makes logic that, you know, most farmers or ranchers think they’re livestock producers, but actually they’re grass produces, and we need to make sure we’ve got enough grass for the animals, we have or all we’re going to get into trouble. So if we buy animals, in effect, with sold grass, and we’re sold money to those animals we bought. So that’s principle one. And it’s fundamental to how you run a ranch or a livestock business. I want to mention them all. But the fifth principle is known as understand yourself. And actually, it is the most important principle. Because everybody, when you work with principles, everybody’s different. There’s no, you know, people bring us up all the time. And I was, I had someone ring me the other day. And they said, I went to your course for two and a half days, and you got a lot of questions. And you never answered one of them. All you did was ask a question back. And I think that’s the whole point, we have to become more independent.

Mario Fachini  [6:56]  

I love that. So if someone wants to know, I mean straight up, you’ve piqued my interest, where can we find the other principles at? Are they on your website? Do you have a checklist?

Grahame Reese  [7:08]  

Like to come to the school? Haha. No, no, they’re simple principles like every day we sell or buy, know the price relationship between what we have to sell and buy today. So that’s in the marketing. In the stock handling, you know, again, I won’t go through all those principles, because that’s a whole call in itself. But the one principle I would always say to people is when pressure is applied, it must be released. The stock handling will work just as much with people. As you know, maybe you’re probably a bit like me, you didn’t work for anyone for very long, because you just got…

Mario Fachini  [7:45]  

What gave that away?

Grahame Reese  [7:48]  

That’s right. Well, you’re not going to be near Chicago, if you don’t visit Chicago, you’re going to be mayor of…

Mario Fachini  [7:58]  

Detroit.

Grahame Reese  [7:59]  

Detroit. Yeah, you’re not going to be mayor of Detroit, if you just go and work a job. So but in the workplace, you know, let’s just apply it to people. If your bosses like this, what if you haven’t done this, you haven’t done that, you haven’t done this, you know, really putting pressure on, then eventually you just bile and livestock are the same. Whereas when pressure is applied, you know, I say, “Hey, Mario, how you going on that project?” And you give me an answer, and I go, “Okay, do you think you’ll have it done by Tuesday?” Okay, I’ll see you Tuesday. So I’ve just put a bit of pressure on that, then I’ll released it, and let you work away. And livestock are the same. You see, the problem with livestock is that, you know, for 10s of thousands of years, we’ve been predators wanting to eat them. And so they see us as a predator.

Mario Fachini  [8:49]  

And I take it that part of it is you have to train them that, you know, you’re there to help them and take care of them at least for a little bit.

Grahame Reese  [8:57]  

Uh, well the livestock program is a two day physical program. But it’s not about, it is partly about training animals, but it’s actually about training people to work around animals, unlike a predator.

Mario Fachini  [9:14]  

So it’s not training the animals to trust us more, it’s being respectful towards them. So that way, you know, you communicate on their natural level.

Grahame Reese  [9:27]  

It’s a mutual thing, it’s a mutual thing. And why I keep bringing it back to people is a lot of people listening to this may not be livestock producers or ranchers. But…

Mario Fachini  [9:40]  

But at the core of it, it’s that mutual respect. And you know…

Grahame Reese  [9:43]  

Absolutely.

Mario Fachini  [9:44]  

The same way you treat people. There’s a lot of people that look at others as predators and you know, let’s throw ourselves at the will of here, you know, how many people look at “marketers” and go, “Oh, they’re just out to get something or they’re just here to sell me.” It’s like, no marketing is storytelling, to get you educated, to go, “Hey, is this a good decision or not?”

Grahame Reese  [10:07]  

That’s a really good point, Mario. And I think we’re marketers. You know, I did a program a long time ago called the Landmark Forum. And, they teach you about, there’s two conversations, there’s an enrollment conversation, and there’s a registration conversation. And enrollment conversation is leaving somebody touched, moved and inspired. And registration conversation is, “Hey, buy this thing.” You know, most people just go out there and have a registration conversation. But my belief is, if you don’t do the enrollment conversation properly, they’ll actually ask, Where do I register? And I think that’s so, so important in marketing.

Mario Fachini  [10:46]  

I would have to agree I’ve been using an enrollment process for a couple of years with qualifying for my masterclass and all that and I’m hearing certain words, you’re saying in a new light that I’ve honestly never heard before. Because right now, when you said enrollment versus registration, I just thought it’s what everyone used. But I’m noticing more and more word specifically, you know, enrollment has a different connotation than registration is that is connotation or denotation, I have no clue.

Grahame Reese  [11:16]  

Well, we are. And I think it’s about being interested in the person. You know, as I heard recently, the other day, you know, somebody said, when you meet somebody, just ask them five questions about themselves, you know, don’t talk about the weather and the ridiculous stuff. Ask them five serious questions. And you’ll build rapport very, very quickly. And I think that’s, I guess I don’t know whether that’s something I kind of have naturally or develop. But, you know, my wife and I fly fishing, you would have no idea how many times we’ve been out fishing and talking to the guy next to us. And before long, we’re actually staying at their house that night, you know, it’s just because we build it, we’re just able to build that connection, whereas lots of people don’t want to build those connections.

Mario Fachini  [12:03]  

And that’s one of the reasons I invited you on the show, because I knew you had heart, I knew you were a great people person. And it’s frankly, one of the things I’m looking forward just with people to even know is do they actually care about other people? Because I’ve ran into that in the past. You know, not everyone does. And I’m glad you touched upon asking them about themselves. Matt, if you’re listening, my friend, Matt Lang, I’ve told him this story. And one of the things I tell people is, when you’re talking to someone for the first time, I’ve played a game to see how long I can go without talking about me. Because I don’t really care about me. I care about you, I want to know about you. And some people, you’ll go a minute or two and they get like, you can watch their body language just get jittery. Like, why are they asking me questions, because they’re so used to surface stuff, other people, they’ll go 35 minutes just talking about themselves, they won’t ask one question about you. And it’s not that I’m hiding anything. It’s more of a – do they even have the foresight to realize it’s been 10, 15 minutes, they haven’t asked me anything. I mean, I generally do care, but it’s also somewhat of a qualifier to go. Are you just going to be talking about you the whole time? Do you even care? And there’s been people that are like, “Oh, I need your help, we need to talk. Here’s my number, give me a call.” And they never even asked my name.

Grahame Reese  [13:40]  

Yes.

Mario Fachini  [13:41]  

I’m like, what do you think the likelihood I’m going to stop everything I’m doing, stop helping all the people I’m helping, stop all the interviews I’m doing to help even more people, to call them to help them and they didn’t ask my name.

Grahame Reese  [13:57]  

Yeah. It is building that trust. You know, one of the things we offer our graduates of the marketing school  is the ability to join the mastermind. And you know, our mastermind, we’ve been running that since 2006, I think it is. It’s made up of a lot of tools and products, but it also is very much about a support network. And, you know, when I’m actually, you know, sharing it at a school, I say to them, “Look, you can call me 24/7.” And they look at me like, “What?” And I go, “Well, it doesn’t mean call me 24/7.” But if you found yourself in a situation where you didn’t have anyone to talk to, and you needed to call me at two o’clock in the morning, then you call. Now, no one ever has, and I’m genuine about that. And and it’s amazing actually, people have called me about situations and they say, “I’ve called you because I don’t have anyone else to ask this question to, you know, a personal question.” So it’s not what we aim for, but it’s about building, when you have that trust with people, you just know you’re doing the job right.

Mario Fachini  [15:07]  

Yeah, it’s about that core relationship. You know, being a human. I put something out earlier talking about, when you’re around impressive people, you have to be more than just impressive. So many people aim for just that. And it’s like, be human, build a connection with them, find out what they’re really about. Anyone can buy clothes, or do their hair differently, but what is at their core? What are their dreams? So do you touch that in your two day training?

Grahame Reese  [15:35]  

Well, I’ll tell you what, we were very transparent, so two of us do actually run the training program together. So one will teach and then the other one teaches and so that’s good, because you can bounce off each other. And so we’re very transparent about stuff, we’re not hiding behind smoke and mirrors, we tell the good, the bad, the ugly about ourselves, and the things that worked, and what didn’t work. And I think that’s important as well to be transparent. And we really do build that rapport with people. And what’s fun is when people get in the mastermind, because we’ve got people that have been in there since 13 years, actually the other day in Perth, there was a guy there. And he’s been in there the whole time 13 years, and you know, they’ve become like family, because you get to know a lot about those people. But you also know that you’ve actually been able to give some tools and principles to help them change their business and change their lives.

Mario Fachini  [16:41]  

That’s huge. And I’m so glad you’re doing it. Let me ask you, what’s the biggest transformation you’ve seen from one of your clients or students, let’s say who came through your school?

Grahame Reese  [16:52]  

Look, I think there’s various ones. But I think the fun one is, there was a young guy who was a web designer. But he had this dream that he wanted to earn some cattle. And I’d met this guy on Twitter, actually. And he had a bit of a go at marketing with me. And I said, “Well, you can’t really say that until you come into one of my schools.” And so he actually paid his money and came to the school. And at the end of the school, he came up to me and he said, “Do you give 100% money back guarantee?” And I said, “Well, yeah, I do.” And he said, “Well, I think I need to get my money back.” Because he said I got no land. He said, I’ve got no cattle. I don’t know what I’m going to do this knowledge. I said, “Well, how much money have you got?” And he said, “I’ve got $7,000.” And I said, “Okay, what if I give you an honorary member, be an honorary member of the mastermind?” And I can tell you a story as we go along. And so he became a member, he found some some custom grazing adjustment with one of our mastermind members. And with that $7,000, he went out and bought 10 heads of cattle. And over three years, he didn’t take any money out, he just kept putting his profits back in over three years, he built that to 70 on head of cattle. And I don’t know what that would have been worth, but probably somewhere around $100,000. So there’s a guy who didn’t didn’t even know anything about livestock, but found a way to do it. And I think it just shows the exponential value of what we do. And he did do everything right. Because you know, I made sure. That’s quite an amazing story. And if you take that out to a normal livestock producer, you know, they can have huge, huge benefits.

Mario Fachini  [18:43]  

And what’s the timeframe on that, because that is a huge ROI. Three years?

Grahame Reese  [18:48]  

About three years.

Mario Fachini  [18:49]  

And how old was he?

Grahame Reese  [18:52]  

He’s probably 25, 26.

Mario Fachini  [18:54]  

So he essentially has his entire life ahead of him to continue to generate more ROI on the initial investment. But even with that, it sounds like he 10 or 12X has returned.

Grahame Reese  [19:06]  

He did and to be fair, some of that was gifted by the market, the market rose. So some of it was, but most of it was done just in selling 10, buying 15, selling 15, buying 24, selling 24, buying 35. So that’s what’s really helped him. The other, probably just another quick example of what’s really helped people. Here in Australia right now we’ve got a pretty big drought areas, some have been in drought for seven years, but some for a couple of years. And the difference, you know, I mentioned that principle, balancing grass, money and livestock. So when they ran out of grass, they actually just sold their livestock and put the money in the bank, contrasting that with some people who, when they ran out of grass, they then took some of their money and went and bought high end grain and feed their livestock, and then they’ve run out of money. And so the people that adjust, balancing that grass, money and livestock, especially through the drought are in way better shape than people that are probably following a lot of the traditional ways of thinking.

Mario Fachini  [20:13]  

Let me ask you about reaping and sowing, because it’s absolutely a biblical principle and scriptural and, you know, people hear different variations, you get what you give and stuff like that. But, I don’t know a ton of farmers in the US, but let me ask you about that. Because you just gave a good example about it. Tell me of your perspective on reaping and sowing.

Grahame Reese  [20:40]  

Well, on reaping and sowing, I’m not into producing grains or crops. However, you don’t reap anything, if you don’t sow something. And so if we think about it in terms of marketing, it’s the work we do, whether it be on social media, whether it be on branding, whether it be on this show, this show is a good example. Here you are sowing the seed, you and I we’re having a discussion, both of us, and we’re actually sowing the seed, and that’s the important thing there is, you just can’t go out and harvest. You know, that’s that registration conversation, “Hey, let’s go and get some clients.” Now, we’ve got to till the soil, we’ve got to fertilize the soil, we’ve got to sow the seeds, we’ve got to water those seeds, we’ve got to take the weeds out. It’s a process that over a period of time, depending on the plant, or depending on what we’re doing, in order to reap that harvest. And I think farming can be used in all analogies in marketing, in any business. Because when you sow that seed and you fertilize it and you look after that plant, especially if it was a fair fruit plant, then it’s going to give you fruit for years and years and years to come.

Mario Fachini  [22:03]  

Well, I appreciate your perspective on it, because it’s so fitting. And you’re right, you don’t need to be a farmer to realize it. But too many people are the takers in to touch upon the transformational story with the gentleman. Maybe the market did rise a little bit, but you said the key he bought 10, invested in 10, bought 15, invested in 20, bought 24. Now, maybe that would have taken him four or five years. But what I heard is he started, he said I had nothing, but he started and there’s people that will go, “Well, this might take me eight or 10 years.” Well, maybe the market four years from now will fluctuate. And because you decided to start paddling, at surfing – a wave analogy, because you decided to start paddling and just get on the board, it will carry you a little bit more, there are these little boosts that you don’t expect. But even if nothing does happen, hey, maybe it would have taken five years. And now you did in 3, 4 and a half.

Grahame Reese  [23:06]  

A rancher shared that with me in the US last year. He said, “Just start something and then manage it.” You know, we were actually very good at managing things once we get out, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad. We manage our way through situations. But we’re really poor at starting, you know, “I can’t start until I’ve got this done.” “I’ve not gotten my logo down.” “I can’t start until till I know I’m perfect.”  Look I talked to 3000 sheep for for most of my life. And then here I am teaching and you know, the first livestock marketing school I taught, if I’d have taken any notice of the comments I have given up because you know, people basically said I probably would never make a teacher. But today, I don’t know, you could put me in front of 1000 people, it doesn’t bother me, I’ll just talk. So you just start and you just keep on growing and learning and you’ll build your skills over time because you’re managing your growth.

Mario Fachini  [24:07]  

I can relate that to when I’m helping my clients with their books and their videos and all of that stuff. “What about this?” “The light’s off.” “The covers not done.” What’s the biggest impact that your book has made for your business?

Grahame Reese  [24:21]  

Well, I haven’t actually done a book myself. But I have a book here that my wife has created. It’s a 243 page recipe book. Which, you know, there’s a good example, she had no idea how to put together a recipe book. So much so, she’s an intuitive cook. So she doesn’t measure anything when she cooks, she just keep stuff in and cooks these amazing, amazing things. And so when she was asked to put a recipe book together, there she is with sticky notes all over the kitchen, because he had to write down everything she did. Then she didn’t know how to use Facebook. And so she actually was posting those in a Facebook group and the pictures. She didn’t know how to do photographs. And so what did she have to do? She had to go and learn how to do photographs. I was just looking here to find a photograph for you. I don’t know if you can see, if anyone can see that. Look at that amazing photograph. And then on the other side is that, now she didn’t know how to do photographs, but she found an app called Foodie App. She photographed all those on her own with her iPhone.

Mario Fachini  [25:35]  

There’s an app for a foodie?

Grahame Reese  [25:37]  

Yeah, Foodie App. It’s a photographing app. And so there we are, you know, I’d be holding the light up here. And she’s got her phone. So every one of those photos was taken there. So she put all those recipes together. And then she’s like, “Well, now it’s going to go into a book. What do you know about that?” I don’t know anything. And we have a mutual friend, Bruce Jones. And so I tapped into Bruce and he showed me how to use InDesign. He showed me how to use LightRoom. And, you know, just got started. And we figured out how to put that book together and we launched, we launched Be Inspired. It’s gluten free, grain free, dairy free, refined sugar free recipes book. And the first print run of 750 went out, we actually only got a couple left. And we haven’t even launched it International. It’s only launched in Australia right now.

Mario Fachini  [26:31]  

Wow, that’s impressive. Let’s talk about your training. How has your CDs DVDs, all your training materials like you were holding up? How have those impacted your students?

Grahame Reese  [26:44]  

Well, one of the things Mario, that I’ve done ever since 2006 is interview experts around those three things grass, money, livestock, and people. And so I’ve been able to interview experts all around the world. And when I get those, I just do them on a teleconference system. But then, because a lot of my clients are farmers, guess what farmers spend a lot of time in their track of their tractor, and don’t necessarily have good internet coverage. And back in the day, there wasn’t iTunes anyway. But so what I did is I turned them into into CD packs. So inside there is four audio CDs, and I have over 80 hours, I’ve put all the best ones on CD and I’ve over 80 hours on audio CD and so people in my mastermind, they get access to those. I send out a pack every month and you know, that’s a couple of years, isn’t it? Then we got the live ones. I mean, later on today, I’m interviewing somebody that’ll go on a CD.

Mario Fachini  [27:50]  

Interview is a pretty fun processes isn’t it?

Grahame Reese  [27:53]  

Look I I’ve met some amazing people and learned so much. Suppose I’m a bit selfish in that way. You know, I do these interviews because I interviewed the people I really want to listen to. But the other thing, and I did the same last year, I took a trip to America and visiting a regenerative agriculture, visiting 16 ranchers. We started in Dallas, Texas, and we ended up right up on top of Montana and finishing in Jackson Hole. And it was an amazing, amazing trip. But the places we went to visit were the people I wanted to visit and that’s the same this year, I’m going back again this year and guess what? We’re going to the people I want to visit, but I’m taking a group of people with me and how much fun is that?

Mario Fachini  [28:40]  

That sounds like a lot of fun. I’m going to call Audible here. Are you ready for a challenge?

Grahame Reese  [28:46]  

I’m ready for the challenge.

Mario Fachini  [28:48]  

How are you interviewing the people you’re with in person? You said you normally do a teleconference line, how are you doing it?

Grahame Reese  [28:58]  

Very few, because usually they’re not close by, but I do occasionally like at the end of the trip. Which one? This one is CD pack 20, I sat down with one of the guys on the trip, we sat down actually on Island Park Idaho and we just had two microphones and we said let’s make a CD of the trip. Four hours later we had four CDs.

Mario Fachini  [29:25]  

So here’s the challenge for this year’s trip.

Grahame Reese  [29:30]  

Yeah.

Mario Fachini  [29:31]  

What if I say you should do it on camera?

Grahame Reese  [29:35]  

Well, that’s something that I intended to do last year, and I did day one, and then it just kind of didn’t work because we just got too busy. But one of the reasons was that the people we visited were so personal in their sharing. That was for us and not for the public.

Mario Fachini  [29:58]  

But you turned into a CD, right? Or you edited that out?

Grahame Reese  [30:01]  

Yeah, that interview was just with one of the guys that were traveling with me. And so we shared the things we thought were fine to share. So I actually recorded that whole trip and I have that for the group that went, but I think, I’ll tell you what I will do in what I’m going to do is I’ll revisit those people on a teleconference, I intend to do a tele summit and revisit those people. Because that’s what’s great is, is when you get with someone, and they share deep, deep, some of the challenges, you know, it’s just for us, it’s not for the public. And so, you know, you kind of got to get that balance there, it’s not just for everybody.

Mario Fachini  [30:49]  

So the reason I was bringing that up is because you’re with them in person.

Grahame Reese  [30:55]  

Yeah.

Mario Fachini  [30:57]  

That’s the biggest hurdle to get over doing something on video is how do I do this if you don’t have both people in the shot, but since you’re there, you could very easily just have a camera or a couple. Now, I’m encouraging you, do it on video. That doesn’t mean you have to stream it live, you can always edit the footage before it goes public, if they get into something, if they don’t consent to it, if they don’t want to do it. But I was just saying the benefit you have is, you know, I would love to have you in person, like we’ve been at different events in the past. But when you have that live nature, I mean when you have that proximity, by all means, it’s like, I always keep a camera with me that you can just shoot something real quick if you need to.

Grahame Reese  [31:43]  

Yeah. Definitely. And I’ve got a lot of that, but it’s something that I like to do. It’s not difficult to do, but yeah, and I think that’s what I love, you know, let’s take regenerative agriculture, because it is important. It is important for everybody, for everybody to understand what’s happening in our whole food system, everything people are eating there in Detroit comes from a farm somewhere. And is it coming from a farm that’s being managed in a healthy way? Is that food healthy or not healthy? And so that’s something that I think is really, really important and how we get those messages out. You know, the guy I’m interviewing today is a guy called Fred Provenza, look at all my tabs here.

Mario Fachini  [32:39]  

Wow.

Grahame Reese  [32:41]  

And, so Fred, it’s an amazing book. It’s called Nourishment. I recommend you read that, everybody should read that book. Because what he says at the end of the book is really quite amazing.

Mario Fachini  [32:55]  

So I got a question for you. We’re going to jump into the Imperfect Action Round in just a second, but going to do another Audible. What is your what is a favorite movie or song you’d recommend to someone?

Grahame Reese  [33:10]  

Favorite movie or a song? Well, I tell you what…

Mario Fachini  [33:14]  

I actually have another question for you. I’ll let you use one of those. But the real question I want to ask you is, tell me something you haven’t told anyone?

Grahame Reese  [33:24]  

Tell you something I haven’t told anyone? Gosh. That’s a big question. I’m so..

Mario Fachini  [33:37]  

I know it’s loaded. I have about a dozen of these. And I’m like, I’m going to ask Grahame this one. Let’s see if I can do it.

Grahame Reese  [33:44]  

Well, something I haven’t told anyone really, is that I do have this goal to run a big telecom and linking human health back to soil health. And doing something similar to what we’re doing here talking to about all the experts around the world, and pulling that together into probably, you know, 20 or even maybe 30 different speakers

Mario Fachini  [34:09]  

Wow. Well, thank you for sharing that sincerely. I would have let you use the movie or whatever, the first thing I asked was as a backup. But I sincerely thank you. I would love to see that come to life.

Grahame Reese  [34:20]  

Well, yeah. And you know, the movie I’ve just watched. What’s the movie with Lady Gaga? That the one that’s going on right now? It’s um…

Mario Fachini  [34:31]  

With Bradley Cooper?

Grahame Reese  [34:32]  

Yeah, yeah. I just love that. I think it just brought forth Lady Gaga’s story of somebody telling her she wouldn’t, you know, an ex boyfriend telling her she’d never make a singer and the fact that she didn’t just make a singer, she made an amazing actress as well. And my song, John Lennon’s Imagine, I think that says a whole lot of especially in the world we live today.

Mario Fachini  [35:02]  

You know, there’s a new movie coming about, I thought it was going to be a documentary about the Beatles. It’s more of like a comedy thing. But it’s called the Yesterday coming out some time soon.

Mario Fachini  [35:16]  

So we’re going to go to the Imperfect Action Round, and we’re going to come back. And I’ve got some really pointed questions you can answer in 60 seconds. We’re going to come back for the imperfect action round, I got some questions you can answer in 60 seconds or less.

Grahame Reese  [35:33]  

I’m going to get my pencil shot here.

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Mario Fachini  [36:48]  

All right, we’re back with the Imperfect Action Round. Grahame, are you ready to take Imperfect Action?

Grahame Reese  [36:54]  

I’m ready to take Imperfect Action.

Mario Fachini  [36:56]  

All right, first question, what is the fastest path to the cash?

Grahame Reese  [37:01]  

The fastest path to the cash is look at cutting costs. Lots of people try and figure out how they’re going to get more customers, how they’re going to make more money. But a lot of times, especially in a business,  there’s a lot of costs there and every dollar you save is a dollar added in profit. That’s the fastest way to cash.

Mario Fachini  [37:20]  

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way they can fix it?

Grahame Reese  [37:31]  

I think the biggest problem that most people have is the ability to make a decision. Now lots of people, when they’re confronted with a difficult decision, they don’t make one and I always say, “Well, that was a decision.” And so it’s it’s our ability, we need to grow. I don’t think school professor is very well for that. And so we need to grow and learn that in life, how to make a decision, how to let something go and do something new.

Mario Fachini  [38:03]  

Very good. Number three, what is the question? Oh, I know. Number three, what is the fastest way… What is the number three… What is the greatest way… How was the question?

Grahame Reese  [38:28]  

You want me to read you the question?

Mario Fachini  [38:31]  

Holy smokes, I’ve only done this dozens and dozens of times. It’s about customer lifetime value. Oh, maximizing it. That’s the key word. Okay. All right. Number three, Third time’s a charm. All right, number three, what is the greatest way to maximize your customer lifetime value?

Grahame Reese  [38:50]  

That’s a great question. And I think it starts right at the start, how you brand yourself  is very important. You know, in this day and age you need to be very transparent and be really clear when you’re branding yourself in social media or however you’re branding yourself. So that’s the first thing. And then, you know, when you’ve got, say a membership site, like our mastermind, you’ve got a subscription program or something, people join for the program, but they stay for the community. And so how you develop that community is so, so important. Because if we don’t develop a community in and around that, eventually, you know, the products fade away and people leave.

Mario Fachini  [39:36]  

I love it. Last thing I was second from Lastly, what is the number one book you could recommend?

Grahame Reese  [39:45]  

Well, I know my daughter Ashley was on here and she recommended Big Magic and I gotta say, you know  for everybody that is an amazing, amazing book. I’ve got the audio book, it’s by Elizabeth Gilbert. She wrote Eat, Pray, Love. And I listened to the audio book. Everybody that I have got to listen to it, when we have conversations, something happens. They go, “Wow, that’s Big Magic of work.” You know, it’s about creativity, and I highly recommend that. But also, I really, really have loved this book, I did a series of quotes, 30 quotes are quite a day because we have a book club called the Region A book club. And I did a quote a day and you know what he says at the end of the book, he basically says, you know, we come from the earth, and then when we die, we basically have are there to fertilize the earth and the plants and we become the plants and we become the animals. And I think we kind of got isolated from that, especially in the last probably few hundred years.

Mario Fachini  [40:54]  

Well, I appreciate you for playing along because right when I was going hey, what’s a book you’d recommend? I’m sitting here thinking he already recommended a book.

Grahame Reese  [41:03]  

Yeah, yeah. Get the audio book, it is applicable no matter who you are, to listen to that book. She reads it beautifully. And it’s just an amazing book. Actually, it’s all about writing a book. So people you work with would get a lot out of that.

Mario Fachini  [41:24]  

Well, I appreciate the recommendation. So where can people find more on you?

Grahame Reese  [41:30]  

Well, the KLR Marketing School, it’s on a website KLRmarketing.com.au. So I’m on that website. People can email me, there’s the contact details there. That’s probably the best place, I think you’ll probably have… I sent you a bio, which will probably be in the show notes.

Mario Fachini  [41:53]  

Absolutely.

Grahame Reese  [41:54]  

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, all of those places I am, and that’s how I’ve built hundreds of friends around the world on social media.

Mario Fachini  [42:08]  

Excellent. Well, Grahame, thank you so much. It has been a pleasure and look forward to connecting with you further.

Grahame Reese  [42:14]  

So great to talk to you. And you know, it’s been a pleasure to meet the future mayor of Detroit and I love to talk to people with dreams.

Mario Fachini  [42:26]  

I appreciate that. Well, see you soon.

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