Moira Desland: My name is Moira Deslands, and I'm very lucky.
And to be sitting up with these three and being able to look at all your
beautiful places for our session today this afternoon for the Festival of
Ideas, which is called tipping points per success,
we're going to have a conversation we've decided we've got some questions for
our panel.
I'll introduce them and they can say a little bit about themselves as well in a
moment. And then we'll have some time for some Q and a too.
So I'm suggesting that you cuddle up and that's,
if people want to come a little closer, you're very welcome to as well,
so that you feel like there is a sort of a community who's gathered together to,
to listen to our three panelists. And can you please welcome them?
So we have Max just next to me, he can wave so that everyone knows that's Max,
Max is passionate about agricultural investment,
and he's going to be talking to us and showing some of his thoughts around his
work, in that area and how he's been able to unlock,
or is planning to help unlock some of the benefits of sustainable production.
So he's got a background in brilliant in agriculture in the middle.
We have the lovely Manal Younus.
Some of you might've been here yesterday to hear her speak,
or perhaps have had that privilege.
And another time she's a south Australian based performer and writer and
creative producer, and she was a finalist and young Australian of the year,
this year, south Australia this year. And finally,
but certainly not last week,
got Daniels Lander Berg here on the very end of he'll give you a wave to he's
just recently, I think it was on Friday. Was the, was it Saturday,
the Friday runner up for the Adelaide a zero carbon emission
competition.
He's he's described himself as a dreamer and entrepreneur and urban designer and
photographer but where you probably know him best for the heat for his business,
eco caddy. So cycles and cycling is a big part of your life too.
So please enjoy this conversation and think of some
questions that you can put to the panel when that time comes.
So I'm going to start and any one of you can answer this question.
Have you got any advice that you'd like to have given that it might've come from
your younger years? What would your 15 year old self had said to you?
Max Toovey: Well, I can start I would, I would say that at a,
at a fifth as a 15 year old,
probably most important thing you can be doing is learning.
It doesn't matter what you're learning,
just learning something because there's a lot of people that don't quite know
what they want to do at a young age.
And if you're sitting there just doing the same old processes day in, day out,
you're not going to discover anything new.
So you're never going to be able to work out what you,
what you want to do and what you don't want to do. So to me, absolutely.
Just learn everything.
If you wanna get into a career like I would recommend going to university of
course and study overseas.
I reckon I did an exchange semester in China for,
in 2012 for about six months. And,
and that experience was unreal for me just rocking up to a country where I
couldn't speak the language and I'm going to a restaurant and just trying to
work out what the squeal was mentioned,
literally pointing at other tables of food to try and eat. But yeah,
that experience was just amazing.
And not just the fact that I learned how to speak Chinese,
but it was amazing to learn about the culture and just being thrown in the deep
end. So I would say that if you go to university,
why not do your entire degree overseas or at least the exchange semester. So.
Moira Desland: Now have you got a suggestion,
I mean that you came to Australia to have those experience,
some of those experiences. Yeah, well, it's.
Manal Younus: When you said that,
I actually just imagine this conversation between me now and my 15 year old
self. And I just imagined my 15 year old self being like, what are you doing?
This was not part of the plan. Because yeah,
I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do and that was going to uni and
pursuing further education and, and everything else.
But because that is the reason that my dad brought us to Australia. And
I guess now the fact that it's taken me five years already to do a three-year
degree is like one of the things that that I guess is just part
of not going according to plan and that always causes tensions.
And I guess what I would tell my 15 year old self is that you
don't have the answers and you can't predict these things,
and you're going to need to take every opportunity that comes along.
So you don't need to know things, but you need to keep on having the visions.
And there are different ways to come to these visions.
And it's not always going to be through, you know,
finishing your first degree in three years,
finishing your next one and two years later,
and then having your PhD and being a professor and having all the answers,
you know, cause that was what, what I always wanted. So for now it's just, yeah,
that's what I would say is just keep the vision in mind, but you don't,
you're not going to know the answers for a long.
Moira Desland: Time. It's a B be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
About you Daniel. So if you've got that kind of wisdom in your 15 year old self.
Max Toovey: I would agree with both Max and Manal and sort of put those two answers together
and say, learn to listen,
learn to listen to opportunity because opportunities are constantly
coming too. And you need to,
you need to be aware when those opportunities arise and really it's learning how
to feed your intuition and,
and learning to listen to your gut which is a real hard thing to do.
I didn't listen at all as a kid, by the way, it was a bit of a brat.
So yeah, those, those would be the two bits of advice and yeah, and just,
yeah, sort of learning how to learning to trust yourself, but you,
you learn from I think teaching yourself these things along the way
and having these little wins from taking these opportunities and going right
and it's really to do with risk. I think you know,
you sort of you're in these situations, you're like, should I do it?
Should I not as a kid, you don't, you sort of just do it in you,
you might make a mistake. And I think as you get older,
you get a little bit more risk averse. So to my future self,
I dunno if that's the next question I'd say, I'd say stay, stay naive.
Because naive, I think has a little bit,
or even a lot to do with the success of an entrepreneur as well. So.
Moira Desland: So if you did fast forward, you know, and you're in a great hail, I,
I have well, you know, what do you think your older self,
your 50, 60, 70 year old self might say to you now?
Yeah. Keep it real. I think.
Max Toovey: I think so. Just yeah, I think like I'm hoping that,
I mean the last, the last sort of five, six years,
I've really grown into myself and that's, that's been a cool process.
And I think my, my future self I'm hoping that as,
as I keep learning, you keep starting to,
I think you start to over rationalize and that night Vivity starts to come down
a little bit in business anyway. As things get a little bit more serious.
So it's, you know, I think it's, it's, it's learning feeding that gut,
but then really also, you know,
staying a little bit naive because that's where I,
I think the opportunity for disruption is if you,
if you're constantly thinking and trying to rationalize things,
particularly ideas into old ways then
it won't, it won't work obviously. And that's, yeah,
that's that thin little lines where disruption happens and I think you need a
bit of naivety to sort of push through all of that. Yeah.
Moira Desland: So you didn't want to turn into your dad or your grandfather or someone like
that. I.
Max Toovey: I didn't, I didn't know my grandfather or my real father very well.
But from what I hear from my mum, they were pretty cool guys. So yeah,
I mean, I'm hoping that I can, I can do something in my kids,
which I don't have at the moment can, can look up to that. I suppose.
That's one of the reasons why I'm doing all this, so.
Moira Desland: Yeah. Fantastic Manila. If you could a view about, you know,
what might be your 50, 60 year old self might want to tell you right now?
Manal Younus: I can't even imagine what my 50 year old self would want to tell me right now,
but maybe slowed down because are you going to feel the effects at some point,
then you're going to crash.
But I guess what I would say to my 50 year old self was just
similar to what Daniel's had to say.
But it would be to,
there's never going to be a point when you're going to know the answers to
anything that you want to do.
And so just kind of keep your mind open and keep on, keep on looking for it.
Cause I just had this obsession with wanting to know what the next step is and
what the next direction isn't. I think that as you get older,
you start thinking like I should be knowing these things by now. And so, yeah,
I guess I'd say you're never going to know. So.
Moira Desland: That's a good tip.
You're never going to know in the session previously in here was about aging.
Well, and one of the key messages was that, you know, from the day we born,
we started to age.
And so the lessons that we learn as we go along in life are all, does, you know,
if we use them well,
they will be designed to help us become more and more resilient.
And as we get older, that resilience will keep us strong and ready.
And do you think your 50 year old self will be able to say you're very
resilient, max? What do you think you will?
Max Toovey: Yeah, of course. Expanding on, on on what now Daniel said,
I think that first, if you're looking at 50 year old Warren buffet,
who's worth $64 billion,
he made 99% of his wealth after the age of 50 and he made 90% of his wealth
after the age of 60. And I'll, I'll give you another example,
Colonel Sanders founded KFC at the age of 66,
so there's no real limit to when you can actually succeed. And you know,
you shouldn't stop I suppose. You know, what,
what you got to do at that age though, is really adapt and embrace technology.
And Daniel brought that up as well because we're seeing technology evolve so
rapidly that it's actually becoming obsolete every 18 months. And if you're,
let's just say your attract driver and you think that your job's safe. Well,
think again,
because if you're not learning the technology around autonomous vehicles,
which are already being rolled out now, you know,
you're not going to be able to become or continue being relevant.
So it's,
it's a matter of challenging old ideas because what's right today could easily
be wrong tomorrow. You know, for instance,
we used to think the world was flat until Christopher Columbus came along,
right? So it's,
it's about embracing that technology and that change.
And, and in my industry and in farming,
I deal with older farmers and younger farmers on a daily basis.
And yeah, it's,
it's always painful when there's an older farmer who doesn't want that new piece
of technology because this is the way it's done.
This is how I've been doing it for the last three generations or, you know,
my family. And you know, it's those type of people who've been left behind.
Whereas you've got the younger generation who want to see what that new
technology is and apply it to their farm.
And they're the farms that really succeed. And the other businesses that, that,
that go above and beyond.
Moira Desland: Yeah, I think they're being left behind yesterday.
Some of you might've been there for a Barry Jones doing his Don Dunstan
aeration. And there were two parties.
He was canvassing the courage party and the left behind party.
And a lot of people who are in that group will get left behind.
I'm just going to take a quick straw poll of the audience.
How many of you have doing a job now or retired from a job
now that is different to the one that you first had when you left school?
So for radio Adelaide's sake, that is about a 97.5,
maybe 99.5 hands up in.
Max Toovey: The audience. I think that's a, that's a great call.
And going back to the question before,
about what advice would you give you 15 year old self,
just get into a job and don't think that you're gonna be doing that job forever.
Cause I've got a lot of friends who were kind of graduate graduating university
and they've got no idea what they want to do. And they're saying, well,
do I want to do that? Do I want to get into that job? And I go, yes,
just do it because you're not going to be there in 40, 50 years time,
you're going to be a completely different industry. So yeah, I've.
Moira Desland: Been doing a lot of research on what the future's going to look like in 2050.
And how many people here in the health industry one way or another.
So that's about 10 or 15% of the audience, or most of you,
those jobs that you're currently doing will not exist even in about three to
five years. So you know, it's, it's a very, quite,
quite extraordinary how fast change is happening.
Each of you have had enormous success in one way or another.
And sometimes, you know, there's success factors,
but I'm a big believer that there's some kind of X factor to success.
Something we can't actually name or tick in a box or go to university for,
or prepare for. Do you know what your X factor might be?
Max Toovey: And a X factor is bloody difficult. You can have an X, Y,
and Zed factor is your next one. Is it?
I would say an X would have to be having that right balance of emotional
question and intellectual question. You know,
you need book smarts and you need straight smarts you know,
businesses all about networking,
but you need the brains as well to get you there. The Y I would say,
would be being able to sell you gotta be able to sell yourself to set yourself
up in a career,
and then you gotta be able to sell products because you can be the best author
in the world, but if you can't sell your book, it doesn't matter.
And thirdly, the Zed would be being an effective leader.
You really, again, like life is all about working in a team.
And if you want to be really successful,
you gotta be able to be a leader and lead from the front. So, you know,
being a visionary, being a cheerleader and being a people, you know, it's all,
they're all important.
Moira Desland: Tenacity is with a smile on your face. Yeah, we,
we hearing from
CA Kevin calm during the open state lectures as well,
who is from tech ranch in Austin. And he was saying, well,
one of the factors is you've just gotta be bold and brave and have a huge ego
and a chip on your shoulder.
Cause it really helps you keep moving forward when you're a young entrepreneur.
And he sort of his first work was with Steve jobs as a guy you might've heard
of. So he, you know, it's just quite an interesting why, Hey,
put that forward to be, you got an X or a wire, or is it clear now? I would.
Manal Younus: Have to say that yes, definitely.
I would say vision and passion but also being able to work
out the practical steps to achieve what that vision is.
And then the passion would come in to, to be able to have the drive,
to do all of that. And I come from a very, very different industry.
So working in both the arts and the community engagement sector is,
so there are still a lot of the same key lessons,
but I would say more of the kind of being able to, to step back and,
and lead from the back and kind of create platforms and then make them available
for, for other people to, to step up onto,
because it is about community empowerment in the areas that I work in.
And yeah,
I think that being able to also express that vision and
allow other people to see it and to see how it can benefit them and how
working toward it will also be great for them and everybody else around them.
So yeah, having the vision, passion and being able to sell.
Moira Desland: And what does that look like? Like when, if I was just walking in, what,
how would I know that about your work? Like what,
what would be the things I would see?
Manal Younus: I, what do you mean if you were just walking? So.
Moira Desland: If I you know,
it could be 10 people in the spoken word community that I know of,
what is it that will make you shine out from those because you have that vision
and passion?
Manal Younus: I think simply what my work is about,
like when I read poetry or when I perform it it's,
it's very clear that I really believe the things that I'm saying. And it's,
it's always stories that have some kind of moral, you know,
even if it's not necessarily telling you to do anything,
it's whether it's simply preserving something that's from my ancestry that comes
out in, or whether it's about empowerment,
whatever else that that'll be really present in my work.
And then I think also because we lack voices
of color in a lot of places and especially in the art scene, I mean,
that's what I can speak about.
And so usually apart from in soul lounge, which has probably,
which just has like a, it's a, that's a poetry night,
by the way that some friends and I started up that one has a lot of diversity,
but all of the others,
like I would go up and I would possibly be the only brown person definitely be
only hijabi person and Muslim person. Who's there.
And so that already kind of makes you stand out.
And then also the things that I say and the way that I say them, you know,
when people don't have my don't associate much with, with people of color,
there's, there's this perception that you know about Muslim women and you know,
about about African women and immigrants and stuff like that.
And it already kind of like breaks those down.
And a lot of the time it leaves people confused.
So I think that already shows people something that they may not have been
expecting or may or may not have known was coming.
And so then when I do share what my visions are,
they can see it because I'm almost a demonstration of that vision of,
of creating spaces of empowerment and empowering young people. Yeah.
Young people.
Moira Desland: Of color. Yeah. So what was been invisible becomes visible. Exactly. Yeah.
Daniels, what is your invisibility super power with your X, Y, and Z factor.
Max Toovey: Visibility otherwise, yeah, I wouldn't be up here on stage. That would be cool,
but no, I I'd agree with both of these guys. You do need to sell yourself.
You definitely do need to have a vision. My X-Factor,
I think has been convincing other people in my vision to
believe in my vision and to help me build that. So bringing people with you,
I think is is, is the key to success.
You can't get there alone.
But it's probably a lonely path and it's probably a bit harder. So yeah,
what I realized with my vision with eco Katie is that I needed to have
people that shared my vision to make this thing actually come to life.
And so that we could convince the rest of the city that what we're doing is a
good thing for the city. So they, they themselves had to carry the message,
which I wanted to put out there, but they needed,
they need to believe in it as much as I do. So that's selling, you know,
when you're getting sold something that you don't really want. It's difference.
There's a difference when you're getting sold something by someone that believes
in it. I think that believes in its,
in its truths and in its in its benefits.
So it also helps if you're doing something good,
so try and try and do something good. So yeah,
I suppose the X-Factor was trying to look at the world and see
how, you know, what, what social innovation could I bring to life.
And yeah, that's, that's what I knew I needed if I was to get into business,
I needed to believe in that. So, but yeah. Bringing, bringing people with you.
Yeah.
Moira Desland: So that same question in a way what have you got a special
secret sauce that helps bring people along with you?
Max Toovey: Just communicating, just sharing, just talking with people all the time.
One of my one of my writers told me the other day you're doing all this cool
stuff, man, but I don't, I don't really understand like, what's going on.
And so I started blogging. So I've just, yeah, I've just started blogging,
which I hate the selfie camera sort of thing. Like but yeah,
I've been just literally walking between meetings and I'm like, guys,
this is what I'm doing. I'm heading into this meeting. I'm scared shitless,
but you know, if we get this, it's going to be great. And then,
and then you're walking out and you're sharing a blogging site.
We just totally smashed that, you know? And it's,
and you're carrying the team with you,
like they're right there in the meeting room with you, you know,
and you're getting all these messages.
So you have to be an effective communicator all the time to your team and to the
people that, you know, you're trying to do business with.
I think that's really key. And that's been a difficult thing. I mean,
I, yeah, I suppose I wasn't a complete extrovert.
I was sort of in between the intro and the extra. And I think what I,
what I needed to do was have that hard conversation with myself and say,
this is what I need to do. And this is sort of the, it's not really a sacrifice,
but this is something that I need to sort of, I suppose,
take myself to the next level.
One of those is getting out of that comfort zone and talking to people all the
time, which is yeah, it's, it's, it's getting more and more easy to do,
I suppose. That's, that's a good thing.
Moira Desland: Next.
Is there anything you've had to do for yourself to take you to the next level
and a particular tip for success to actually tip into that
space?
Max Toovey: Yeah, I, I think well growing ups at a young age,
it's about just doing things that are outside your comfort zone. It really is.
And that's, if that means just cold calling a company and saying, you know,
you want to work there unpack, just, just do it, you know,
and you might have no idea what you're doing. And, and I was in that position,
I went and worked at a law firm in Sydney and had no idea about law. Yeah,
I worked at a bank in Sydney as well,
and this is when I was kind of like you know, 17, 18. And,
but all those challenges are really what you need to do because then you,
you learn each time. And you know,
the more you learn the fast dealer and it's, it's not,
it's really not what you know,
but it's how fast you learn that separates you from the crowd. That's,
that's what I've learned. It gets, it gets addictive on that.
When you, when you get out of the comfort zone and you actually have this win
it's you can almost feel that level up,
I suppose it takes a couple of extra goes to sort of reinforce it,
but yeah, it's, yeah, it can be quite, quite a deal.
So it's a gamification of success.
3: You get to the next level.
Max Toovey: Being able to quantify it, but yeah, it's certainly it's it's yeah, it feels,
it feels good to be able to go in that comfort out of that comfort zone and
actually yeah. Be successful at it. Yeah. Calculating risks as well. Yeah.
Calculated risks.
Moira Desland: So what are the factors that you take into account when you're calculating your
risk? Yeah.
Max Toovey: Well, I mean, what's the potential upside. If there is,
if the upside is endless, then, then go for it. But if it's something that,
for instance,
you leave a job to go for another job and the job's not much better and it's you
don't see too much benefit from it, then there's not too much point,
but you know, I,
I had a cushy job at a big four accounting firm and got offered an internship in
Singapore and left the cushy big four job at KPMG to move to
Singapore and and start that job.
And I could have been out of a job after the internship, but fortunately for me,
I got the the grad offer after the internship. So yeah, that,
that was a calculated risk. And I knew that if I, yeah,
there was that potential to get a foot in the door. So, you know, so I took it.
Moira Desland: Did you want to say something about it calculated risks?
I actually.
Manal Younus: Want to comment on what was being said before that I think that one thing that,
that the three of us have in common and I that's part of the whole X-Factor
thing is that and I'm making this assumption about you guys,
but what you said already is that we're excited by challenges and risks
and kind of just that kind of thing. It's like being,
being asked that more difficult question and that,
that pushes us to go and to go and find out or to, you know,
search deeper in our heads about what the, what, what I can say to that.
And I think that that translates in all the, in the work that we do.
And then that's why we can constantly push boundaries or try something new and,
and and not be afraid to take those risks. And yes,
obviously calculated cause you don't want to make big losses you don't in my
case if you're bringing the rest of the community with you into a space,
you don't want to be putting them at risk in any way or,
you know kind of then making them afraid to ever do that again,
if it messes up or burning them out or anything like that. So yeah,
you do need to be very careful with those things,
but when it comes to to yourself and just pushing that little bit more,
that that's exciting for me. And I see that you guys as well.
Moira Desland: So I'm going to just do another little audience poll right now.
Hands up if you've taken a risk with yourself in the last
three months. So for radio national radio Adelaide,
they are almost national. That was about 80%. Would you agree? Yeah.
So those of the 20% who didn't take a risk in the last three months,
if I asked you that if you took a risk in the last year,
would your hands have gone up? I think that was a yes.
So time-wise are you taking risks every day? Every week,
every month, every year, I'd like to answer that.
Max Toovey: Well, you're not going out of your way to make a risk. You know,
you you'll take a risk as the opportunity comes and how often do
opportunities come? I mean, yeah, they might come on a weekly basis.
They might come on a yearly basis, but yeah, you're not going to say, okay.
I mean maybe you can,
maybe you can kind of find ways to improve your life and then bring an
opportunity to but you know, you're not making a say, oh,
I haven't taken a risk in six months. I'm going to do something stupid. I think,
I think though on that, yeah, it's, it's comfort. So if I'm, if I'm comfortable,
then I know I'm not taking enough risks and you don't really want to be in that
place if you're trying to grow something. I think you're always, I mean,
you're trying to mitigate risk all the time in business. So you,
you sort of assess the situation and try and reduce that risk, but yeah,
you must take some to move forward. So I haven't been comfortable for a while,
so that's, I think that's a good thing, but sometimes I yearn it, but that,
that comes later when hopefully I'm talking to that 50 year old guy a little bit
later on down the line.
Moira Desland: Okay. So I might stay with you, I'm an alphabet you know, disruption,
you know,
that's a lot of what if you just have to walk into a room and you're kind of
disrupting the status quo and things around giving.
3: Poetry, do you want to just say a little bit about.
Moira Desland: What you think you're doing in terms of being like a changemaker and how that's
disrupting some of the old systems and the ways people are thinking?
Yeah.
Manal Younus: I think because my kind of focus is
you know,
I always say my two favorite ones always meaning like this week in the talks
I've done this week my two favorite words are representation and ownership and
that they equal empowerment.
And my focus is to create that in in any kind of minority
communities in, in Adelaide or in Australia.
But for me,
because I come from the African community and the Muslim community,
they're the ones that I focused on because that's where my connections are and
that's where I can have the most impact.
And I think that the reason for focusing on those
particular words and those particular ideas is because if we want to see
the healthy growth of Australia,
where we no longer have these differences in levels of power,
based on race or ethnicity or religious background,
then then there needs to be
I guess, changed through representation.
So by occupying these kinds of spaces and, and, you know, coming,
coming to a panel where, you know,
I might be the only young woman and going to one where I might be the only
person of color or or anything else like that already,
that already makes it eight inviting for a person of color that,
that might want to come to this. Actually, I'm going to give you an example,
sorry to cut myself off.
But this week I spoke at open state and I spoke at the Ted
conference and both of them,
I had a moment where I was like about to cry because it was just a reminder of
the reason that I, I might attend four talks in a week,
even though like I'm stressed out of my brains because at open state,
at the end of the, at the end of the session,
the only girl with a scarf that came that came was just like, you know,
I came because Manal was speaking and she didn't know who I was.
It had nothing to do with my personality or anything like that.
But simply because she saw that there's a Muslim girl,
that's going to be speaking at this thing.
And so there might be something that's relevant to her.
And then at the Ted conference,
there was an Ethiopian man who came and he he's just like, you know,
I bought my ticket because I saw you on the, on the front page of the paper.
And I was like, I want to hear what this girl has got to say again.
He didn't know me. He didn't even know that I was you know,
from the same side of the world as of him or anything like that.
But he simply saw somebody that might be able to relate to him in some way.
And that has a huge impact for people of color.
I know that that affects the events that I go to when I see if I see
representation or not, because then I know if there's been any effort made.
So I tried to disrupt him that way just to make it more accessible for
people who are continuously left on the margins because we're always catering
the mainstream.
And then the other thing through ownership is by having initiatives that are
actually started off by people from minority communities.
So something like Seoul lounge, which, you know,
we've never marketed it as something for people of color, you know,
anyone's allowed to come up on the stage,
but we get like 80% people from really diverse backgrounds.
Whereas other,
other arts events don't and that's simply because it's owned and it's grown
by people from these communities. And then the people that we have on stage,
like our feature performers,
the ones that we invite from interstate are actually representative of these
communities. And so they actually want to come and they want to hear,
and then they participate and they get up on the open mic.
People who've been like we only ever started writing since we came to soul
lounge and it brings out a lot of creativity.
And so these two things are so important and that's how we're shaking up these
structures by creating a creating our own things that then
everybody's welcome to come along to none of it's exclusive,
but at least we have some feeling of like, okay, actually,
like we're planning our feet here in some way.
We're not just being given things where people don't have to shift things to
accommodate us because that's how we're constantly made to feel.
Moira Desland: Yeah. Great answer. Max.
You've been disrupting your part of the world and agribusiness what
what's happening, what are you doing to disrupt them?
Max Toovey: Yeah. but before I get to that specifically,
I want to just talk a bit about something called exponential growth,
which you have an interest in as well. I imagine.
So humans are naturally wired to think of growth in a linear fashion.
So when, when one thing grows at the same rate,
so like your hair growing or your nails growing or something like that,
but what we find hard to comprehend is it is a thing called exponential growth.
Now exponential growth is when something doubles each time step.
So I'll give you an example. So let's just say we're in this hole.
And it's 11 o'clock every minute there's a drop of water, which strips down.
So it's 11 o'clock, there's 1 11 0 1, there's two drops, 1102 there's,
four drops and then eight then 16.
And it doubles until we get to 12 o'clock right. So question,
if anyone wants to answer it at what time between 11 and 12 or this room be half
full with water 1159. Correct.
So it takes 59 minutes to feel half the room and just one minute to fill the
remaining half.
Now we're seeing that applied to the human population with technology,
but in regards to the human population, that's enormous for, for agriculture.
So that's why it's so important for us.
So if you think where it's about 7.3 billion people right now,
and we're forecast to get to 10 billion people by 2050.
So that's 34 years away.
Now the first few modern human evolved about 200,000 years ago and
took us until 1900 to get to 2.7 billion people says
199,900 years to get to 2.7 billion people.
Whereas the next 2.7 billion peoples only going to take 34 years. So that,
that means that in agriculture,
we're going to have to actually double our production of food in order to feed
this growing population. So in Australia alone,
what needs to be done by,
but by 2050 is we're going to actually have to invest about a trillion dollars
in agriculture. So that works,
works out to be about $30 billion on an annual basis.
At the moment we're investing collectively about $16 billion on an annual basis.
So we nearly need to double our investment in agriculture in order to,
to meet the production requirements for the dining boom,
which you may have heard of now what are we investing in and what are we
disrupting as well? It comes down to technology.
So if you look at all the technology coming out there and you would have heard
of these things, so the internet of things,
which is converging with existing technology.
So that's the interconnectivity of devices that is going to have a huge
impact in agriculture. So we're seeing, yeah,
you might have internet of things impact your life by an alarm waking up in the
morning and all of a sudden your coffee machine downstairs that's brewing the
coffee. Okay. But what about a farmer who, when he wakes up in the morning,
he's, he's drawing starts firing up, you know, that type of stuff is,
is the internet of things, and we're seeing big data,
artificial intelligence and,
and we're investing specifically in in precision ag and drone technology.
And you know,
if you've got a farmer sitting on a front porch and he's harvesting his paddock
on his iPad, you know,
those types of things is what's required for us to meet these production
requirements. So, I mean, for us, it's,
it's all about technology. And I think that you know,
the theme around the youth for this talk is important too,
because you need to going to the advice,
go back to that advice to my 50 year old. So you need to grab this technology.
And because you've got the youth who naturally want this new technology, you've,
you've got kids outside comparing our phones and should they get the Google
people's pixel? Should they get the Samsung edge or the iPhone seven,
they naturally want to get that new piece of technology. And they want that.
Whereas the older generation, not so much, I mean, my grandparents,
they've got a phone for like three, four,
five years ago when technology becomes obsolete after 18 months,
they're going to get left behind. So yeah, F for us,
it's about investing in technology and educating, not just the younger farmers,
but the older farmers that this technology is actually required because if we
don't, then we're going to be pretty hungry in 2015. Hm.
Moira Desland: And the disruption around sustainability and environment.
Yeah. We're.
Max Toovey: Just trying to make sustainability. Cool. I suppose,
that's and bring it to the forefront. That's what eco Katie's trying to do.
Making it accessible and palatable.
And the way that we're doing that is basically just normalizing. What has,
well, it's been, it's been a novelty really, which is taking, it, took,
took across the city. You know,
it's a 200 year idea and we've just bolted on some great
technology to sort of to augment it, to make it more accessible,
to to better utilize the asset so that we can put supply in
in contact with demand and our writers can be as comfortable as possible.
That's the idea it's, it's, you know, it's,
it's very w we're in the same sort of disruption that Uber is trying to
do, except we're, we're doing it in a complimentary way.
So we're trying to compliment the existing systems of the city and,
and trying to solve the last mile gap or the last mile problem,
which is prevalent in every single city.
And the way that we're doing that at the moment is by using a petty cab,
which is a bamboo bodied tricycle it's electric assisted,
it's the most advanced of its type in the world. And we took that.
And the reason I picked that particular truck is that it's a good looking thing.
It's a, it's a well-designed bike,
just like Ikea has changed the way that we look at designed objects.
And I think it's lifted designing in, in, in,
in the modern cities or in in the developed, in the developed world,
similar eco Katie's trying to do that as well as trying to make cycling
and in and,
and and ecological businesses look,
look good and be like, I want to invest in that, or I want to,
I want to use that product. I want to use that service. So, yeah, that's,
that's where our disruption is. Yeah.
Moira Desland: And this is what, you know, that famous quote that youth is wasted on the young.
Have you experienced much ages in your endeavors, any of you.
Max Toovey: Katie? We use we get used by, by everyone particularly the elderly.
They love us because we can, we can make them more mobile.
Essentially they jump in the back and they get to experience the world on a
cycle, but they don't have to exert any, any effort at all. And interestingly,
when we've canvas them, we've, we've asked, you know,
why do you use our service? And it's you don't realize how small their,
their footprint is. They get, we,
we I asked a six year old couple the other day and they they had,
they hadn't gone down Rundle street in 30 years.
And the reason for that is because they had I think one had a hip replacement
and the other one had foot surgery like the older than 60, sorry.
But they hadn't then actually walked down there cause they just, they couldn't,
they couldn't access it. They all,
they can afford us to catch the tram in or catch the train maybe once or twice a
week.
And they would walk as far as they could until they they experienced pain and
then they would get back.
So we actually got them in the back of the eco catty and they,
they got to go around the city and see,
see the city that they hadn't seen for 30 years, which was amazing. So yeah,
it's great to have you know, the elderly on board,
but we're also very popular and Friday and Saturday nights. Yeah,
it's pretty good. I'm, I'm actually the oldest in the team at 30 31.
And then we had the youngest, which is about 19. We are I think in,
in most modern cities and most modern countries is an aging
population and keeping the young in the city,
particularly in Adelaide with the brain drain and everything everything else
shifting over to the east coast. I think it's important to give you know,
the youth,
a platform put them right out in front and make them interact with the city.
It's a, it's a shame. The skate park got taken away and sort of shifted to the,
you know, into the outskirts of the city.
I think it's really important to bring that youth back in and,
and have that mix. That's,
what's so great about the universities when they're on. So.
Moira Desland: Yeah, yeah. Either beat, you had an experience with ageism, you know,
Richard at you because of what are you doing here? You were so young. I.
Manal Younus: Know, actually, I usually that works to my benefit.
Often people assume I'm a little bit older than I am as well. So I don't know.
Maybe that's ageism just like young people can't be like this. I don't know.
But yeah, no, I think it's been a good thing. Cause again, like I said,
it's kind of an embodiment of my vision.
So when people do see somebody speaking for themselves, who's young.
Like I think we feel that when we see anybody who's young and empowered and
everything that you're kind of just like, Hey, like, you know,
I want to know what's up. I want to know your story. So yeah,
I think it's it's bonus and official. Yeah.
Moira Desland: Maximum that you, have you ever experienced that?
Max Toovey: Oh, well, I mean, I've got some, some,
some very good mentors and obviously my company as well. I've, I've got a very,
very well-respected boss who is very hands-on as well. So he's all about,
he's providing a lot of experience and directing me he's he's kind of
putting the ideas in my head and then just letting me kind of execute it.
So yeah, I mean, I'm doing a fair bit at a young age,
but yeah, it's, there's a lot of guidance along the way.
Moira Desland: That's great. This is a chance for some questions,
cause I've been hogging all the questions and I'm sure there's a few out there
in the audience. Has anyone wanted to make their way to the microphone?
It'd be great to hear a question.
And if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself,
say hello and give us your name because it's always nice for people in
radio land to know who you are too.
Max Toovey: Well, hello everyone. My name is Josiah.
You mentioned just mentor ship just before.
My question is someone like myself,
who's grown up without a father and has enormously large family.
So my mum can't really help out too much.
I've had to work out a lot of stuff throughout life myself.
And I read an article about mentorship and they said the trick of a mentor is to
never ask them to be your mentor. Like it's sort of good to grow naturally.
And I,
I'm just wondering how have you guys gone about seeking a mentor in a
inappropriate way.
That's helped you to sort of guide you throughout your working
careers?
Moira Desland: Say that it's something about, you know,
cause you were saying before not having some of those adult male role models in
your own family. Yeah.
Max Toovey: It's yeah. It's, it's interesting. I, yeah, I didn't know my dad,
I had a good stepfather, but then my parents got divorced when I was 17.
So sort of right in my you know, my my aging or my growing years,
I suppose he stepped out.
But I had mentors all around me and I suppose they came early from my my mate's
dads. And they,
they were the first ones that sort of gave me a little bit of guidance.
You know,
it might've been a book or just a sentence and talking about what I was
speaking about before I sort of started to pick up at 17 and 18 that these
opportunities were were being given to me. So this book, you know,
what is this book? It was about property investment.
That one of my mate's dads gave me I think it was,
it was a book by Robert Kiyosaki. Who's Donald Trump's best mate, but he's he's
[inaudible] Yeah, he was a pretty interesting guy. And anyway,
that got me interested in property.
And my mom's my mom's an artist.
So one thing that I always wanted was to be self-sufficient and financially
sustainable, and I thought property was the vehicle that would get me to that.
But what it actually did was it got me into a property investment course.
And then that the, the professor there,
I was doing urban planning and then I got into urban planning and studied at uni
say then did urban design at Melbourne. And then came back here. I started,
went to China and was in China for three years.
And that's what got me involved in bikes. So that one little idea, or that,
that book which was handed to me became a thing that sort of paid my whole
career and got me to, I suppose, where I am now with eco catty.
But yeah,
I haven't actually had a formal mentor at all.
I think answering question a good way to go about it is to reach out to someone
who you think would be a role model or you aspire to,
and just ask for a catch up because yeah,
they should give you the decency to just catch up for a coffee. And,
and that's what I've done. And yeah, I mean, I get, in fact,
I get a fair few LinkedIn messages from people who are still say studying
finance, and they just, they want to catch up and talk about how they,
how I got into my industry and, and how they can,
and having an effective mentor is about the mentor and the mentor re actually
getting along.
And so if you catch up for coffee and then all of a sudden there's that
connection,
then you don't have to specifically ask if they want to be a mentor.
It's it's about, well,
you're getting along now and then they'll be willing to catch up for another
coffee and then another coffee after that or whatever.
And then before you realize you're naturally moved into that mentor relationship.
Moira Desland: [Inaudible] what about Yuma now have had a, had,
you've probably been mentoring other people as well.
Manal Younus: Informally. I guess I'm pretty a lot like you,
so in terms of just having kind of informal relationships with people but I
think that based on what you're asking and where they are in their career and
where you are, like,
it's very clear it's almost like an unset agreement that just
kind of evolves naturally where they know that they are able to assist you in
some way. And they know that you're their go to person one time.
I remember a friend of mine was trying to get me an official mentor,
like a few years ago. It did not work out. It was just weird.
It ended up being a very structured thing and it wasn't working for me. So yeah,
I think that just developing very natural relationship with somebody,
who's kind of doing some of the things that you want and don't be afraid to have
more than one. Like it's not like a, you know, a monogamous relationship.
You can just Jordan's curation from anybody and have those conversations from
anybody and they can cater to many different aspects of whatever it is that you
want to do or whoever you want to be.
Moira Desland: I feel like I might start a business flirtatious mentors or something like that.
Sounds very good. Thanks for your question.
And there's another one on its way by the look of it.
Would you mind just saying your name as well, please?
Max Toovey: Okay. Hi guys. My name's David. So I work in tech,
but I guess my question is generally across.
I feel Adelaide's probably quite well poised to deal with, as you mentioned,
disruption, and I guess especially young people,
but I guess I wanted your thoughts on how you think Adelaide is doing at the
moment dealing with that and moving into, I guess,
a different kind of economy perhaps, and where you think it will go from now.
Moira Desland: It's a great question. I'm going to just frame it up a little weeny bit.
If you had to give Adelaide a score out of 10,
how would you score? I mean, I'm going to ask a couple of questions.
How would you score us on supporting a young entrepreneurs
and just a score E I'd give it a 6.5,
6.5. I have no comment. So as a no comment.
Max Toovey: Yeah, I'd say it's around a five or a six.
Moira Desland: Okay. So I'm going to see if in a 2018, how,
what score might you give Adelaide?
Max Toovey: Well with the current trends with universities taking up entrepreneurial
programs with the state government and the Adelaide city council recognizing the
importance of entrepreneurs and that way of thinking as in innovation from
not just from young, but young, young people with young ideas.
So you could, you could be a, you know, a 50 or a 60 year old person with a,
with a young idea that hasn't been tested them actually now creating the support
systems for that is, is being addressed, which is great.
And the fact that Adelaide is looking beyond for, for answers.
Moira Desland: Building of the CA at some scaffolding around that to build the,
to help that happen.
Max Toovey: And that's, and that's, what's needed, you know, it's, it's the support system.
Yeah.
Moira Desland: Is there any one or two things you think they're doing really well in that
space? That's helping.
Max Toovey: We're talking about a lot, which is good.
Moira Desland: I think this is the point. There's a lot of talk.
That's kind of what I was getting. Yeah.
So any hints or advice that you want to give,
should there be someone in the audience today who could make the talk in terms
of talking to action? What would you suggest? Don't wait for.
Max Toovey: It, then wife fad, light to catch up, go somewhere else and then come back.
Cause that's, that's what I did. And I think, yeah, so,
so did you max but come back,
that's the important thing you need to, you need to go to,
you need to experience the world anyway because every place is completely
different and the people in those places are wired completely differently.
So the more you can understand and the more you can empathize with these other
ways of thinking will help you.
You got to build this toolkit of experience and you can't do that in one place.
So when you're young or if you, you know,
people go through sort of waves where they're,
they have less liabilities or less responsibilities, you know,
you might've broken up out of a relationship. You might've sold a house,
take that as an opportunity to say, right. I don't have these anchors.
I'm going to get out of here and I'm going to learn. I'm going to, you know,
I'm going to experience something differently. And then yeah. And then bring,
bring that back because Adelaide,
I think has all the right conditions to be a great city to, to grow an idea.
And those support systems are growing, like luck was saying, so, yeah,
but don't wait.
Moira Desland: Don't wait. We'd be going to hit further advice either of your time.
Max Toovey: Yeah,
I think it's good that it's being recognized that obviously
there is that potential for fostering entrepreneurs and ensuring that, you know,
we can provide for them.
So that's step one is that we're recognized it.
Step two is actually implementing it.
I gave it a 6.5 because of that recognition.
And I think potentially could go up to two, a distinction, a 7.5 by 2018.
I'd rank it based on the university scout
and I had markers.
And so I think there's that potential Adelaide as a city is
lacking in a lot of ways.
It's by no means a finance hub by no means a hub in many aspects of business.
But then if you look at technology and entrepreneurship,
there is no real hub in Australia for that.
So I think there's a massive opportunity for Adelaide to grab that
and then be the technology be that entrepreneur hub for,
for Australia and, you know, I've, I've spoken to some politicians and some,
some business people who have recognized that. And yeah,
I mean, there's, I'm not an entrepreneur. So I mean, I, I mean,
I know there's grants given out and, and all that type of thing, but yeah,
if they could do, if they could act on what they recognizing then yeah.
Hopefully there's some change by 2018.
Moira Desland: And the Adelaide, an arts and ideas hub.
How are we going there?
Manal Younus: I think, again, it is growing. It's not necessarily a hub,
but I think that the 2.2 points that I want for me to be,
that I picked up was about not waiting and then also
opportunity like if we are going. So for me,
I often travel interstate and each time that I go overseas,
challenges me further and brings ideas that I can then implement.
And then I'm re empowered as well,
because often it feels like kind of lonely doing the this kind of thing.
But as soon as you kind of bring in these ideas and you show that there's a
need, you start running and you show that there, then you need support,
then that's when it will come.
And then also any time that you don't see something happening that you think
should be happening,
that's an opportunity for you to do it and to do something amazing.
So I just wanted to reiterate those two points.
Moira Desland: It's kind of a, just do it moment, right. Thank you.
Is there another question out there? Thank you. You just say your name too,
please. This will be our last question.
Max Toovey: Hi, I'm Dave.
I can resonate with a re Robert Kiyosaki book because I actually read it through
and some of the stuff in it was very competitive capitalist.
I thought in terms of the way that housing in the U S is on sold
after people go bed lead bankrupt, but that said
who might be one of your heroes and why?
Moira Desland: Okay, great question. Who would like to start with that one?
You can have a hero or a shoe. Yeah, sure. I never, yeah.
3: Yeah.
Max Toovey: Funnily enough,
I never really had a hero until recently and that would have to be Elon Musk
he's he is a source of inspiration,
I think for humanity. And he's also happens to be in the transport space,
which is where I am, which is really cool.
So to see him disrupting in a way that is
inspiring entire industries is really cool, you know,
starting a space program just to inspire the world
on math or yeah, they, yeah, they might need some rovers. So yeah,
we always joke that we would make some Hobbit trucks, so yeah, it might.
3: Have to call up a loan. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. What about.
Moira Desland: The other two? Who is your hero as she wrote? I.
Manal Younus: Don't really have heroes or sheroes here or
genders, gender neutral. I would say.
I think it comes down to the whole just like constantly be opening,
open to learning from everybody. And I think that throughout history,
I've seen people kind of doing the disruptive work that that I'm doing.
And I've just kind of read up about as many of them as I can.
And then they kind of lead me to another person and then I find them and I'm
like, oh, they're amazing. They want them to be my hero,
but I never quite settle it. So it can range from, you know,
historical figures to a producer in Melbourne
that had pretty much, like I feel has paved the way and is one of my mentors.
So I wouldn't say that I have a hero just drawing inspiration and power from
everywhere and everyone. Yeah. Thank you.
Max Toovey: A hundred percent agree with that,
but I'm also gonna answer the question a bit differently. A quote from Matthew,
McConney my heroes me 10 years from now,
and then in 10 years, your heroes, 10 years from then. And I think that's,
that's that resonates a lot with me because if you picture yourself 10 years
from now, you, if you've got ambition, you think possibilities are endless,
right?
So every 10 years you're going to keep striving for that next 10 years and that
next goal. And I, to be honest, that's how I frame my, my,
my hero. It's it's it's may 10 years from now.
Moira Desland: Well, on that note can we give these wonderful crew of B the ground.
4: [Inaudible].