The AgriCoach Podcast by The Financial Bloke

Everyone’s working hard. Everyone wants the family farm to succeed. So why does moving forward feel so bloody difficult?

You don’t need a family feud to get stuck. Sometimes you get along well, but every conversation about the future ends with, “We’ll tackle that next month.”

In this short, sharp Mini Episode, Ben Law takes a lesson from a good team of working dogs and puts a question to farming families: are you actually working together, or just working hard alongside each other?

If the kids are c...

When someone marries into a farming family, they bring more than a new surname to the table. They bring different experiences, different questions and a fresh view of how things are done.

So why can that feel so threatening?

In Episode 137 of the AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law is joined by Josh and Steph Borowski, the farming couple behind the Hard Ground Podcast, for a frank and often funny conversation about in-laws, family relationships and family farm succession.

Josh and Steph know these dynamics from both sides: growing up within a farming...

You know what makes a good farm. But would you know what makes a good investment property two hundred kilometres away?

Building wealth off-farm takes more than finding a house in a good suburb. A property can look the part, fit the budget and still come with compromises you’ll pay for years later.

In Episode 136 of The AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with Scott McGeever, buyer’s agent and property valuer at Property Searchers. With around four decades in property and more than 2,000 transactions behind him, Scott brings an experienced eye to w...

You’ve seen the accountant. Spoken to the lawyer. Sorted some paperwork. Finally, succession feels like it’s moving. 

That relief feels bloody good. But what if it’s letting you off the hook too early? 

In this short, sharp Mini Episode, Ben Law tackles a trap he sees farming families fall into: taking some action on farm succession planning, then assuming the hard work is handled. 

Using a rusty truck chassis as his starting point, Ben challenges you to look beneath the tidy finish. 

What’s actually been addressed—and what’s still q...

Family conflict doesn’t stay at the kitchen table. It follows you into the boardroom, the paddock and every important decision the business needs to make.

A farming family may look productive from the outside while resentment, avoidance or unresolved tension quietly slows decisions and limits what the business could become. The cost is not always a failed deal or a lost property. Often, it is years of lost momentum that never appears on the balance sheet.

In Episode 135 of the AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben speaks with family business psychotherapist Tom Skotidas, director of ev...

Most farming families have thought about wills, powers of attorney and succession. Far fewer have answered the more uncomfortable question:

If you carked it tomorrow, would your family actually know what to do?

Not just who gets what.

Who do they call? What did you want to happen? What happens with the business? Did you want the farm kept together? And what are the hundreds of smaller decisions your family will suddenly be forced to make at one of the worst possible times?

In Episode 134 of the AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast...

Sometimes the dads doing the most for their family are the ones who feel they’re getting it most wrong.  

In this Father’s Day Mini Episode, Ben gets personal about a moment with his daughter that landed harder than he expected — and the uncomfortable contradiction a lot of driven dads know well.  

You work flat out to provide for the people you love. You carry the responsibility. You try to give your kids every opportunity you can. Then some days you walk through the front door with almost nothing left to give the actual people y...

Australia is heading into one of the biggest beef production years in its history — record tonnage leaving the gate. By every rule the market has ever run on, that wall of supply should be dragging the price down. It isn't. So what's quietly holding the floor up, and how long can it hold?

That's the puzzle at the centre of Episode 133, recorded live on the ground at the 3R Beef pre-sale dinner at the historic Goonoo Goonoo Station in Tamworth. Ben Law sits down with Angus Gidley-Baird, Senior Animal Protein Analyst at Rabobank — a man whose job is t...

What if the moment you've quietly dreaded for years is actually the one you've spent your whole life training for?

Most farming families treat succession like a storm on the horizon — something to brace for, delay, and hope passes without taking the roof off. Ben Law sees it differently. After two decades sitting at kitchen tables across rural Australia, first as a financial adviser to some of the country's most successful farming families and now as the founder of AgriCoach, he's watched the same quiet pattern play out again and again: families who love each other, want th...

Two people can shake hands, nod, and walk away completely certain they agree — and only discover, years later when it truly matters, that they never did. That quiet gap is where family fortunes quietly come undone.

In Episode 132 of The AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with Susanne Bransgrove, Partner in Family Office Advisory at Mutual Trust — a firm that has looked after some of Australia's wealthiest families since 1921, including founding families now in their seventh generation. Susanne grew up inside a 380-year-old family business, and she has spent her career on the part of succ...

Most farming families aren't avoiding the hard conversations because they don't care. They're avoiding them because there's always something more pressing — a pump to fix, a mob to shift, a season to get through first.

But here's what that costs you.

In this mini episode, Ben Law draws on one of the oldest lessons in grazing country to reframe something that quietly unravels even the strongest family operations. It's not dramatic. It doesn't announce itself. It just keeps running in the background while everyone stays busy doing real work.

If you've ever had th...

There's a particular kind of farmer Paul Omodei can spot from across the kitchen table. Calm, clear-eyed, and somehow sleeping well at night while diesel prices spike and margins tighten. What separates them from the families quietly unravelling isn't luck, and it isn't the size of the balance sheet. It's a single mental shift Paul has watched play out again and again, sitting at the table with some of the country's highest-performing farming businesses.

In this episode of The AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with Paul Omodei, Farm Business Consultant and Director at Planfarm...

The best young operator in your district has already decided whether they'd work for you — and they made that call from their phone, long before any job ad went live.

In Episode 130, Ben Law sits down with Lavinia Wehr, Founder and Creative Director of AgSocial, the socials-first agency built specifically for agricultural businesses. Lavinia grew up on a sheep and broadacre property in Esperance, backed herself into business at 22, and now works alongside some of the country's most ambitious farming enterprises to shape how they're seen online — and who they attract because of it.

This conv...

You've built something worth protecting. You've made the sacrifices, reinvested when others spent, and stayed the course when the easier path was right there. That discipline shaped everything. But what if the very thing that made your operation extraordinary is quietly becoming the thing that holds it back?

In this mini episode, Ben Law opens with a moment that will feel uncomfortably familiar to anyone sitting on either side of the generational fence — a conversation that started with a Landcruiser and a bull bar, and ended somewhere most farming families never quite manage to go.

Be...

Ask most farming families when succession actually begins and you'll hear a number — fifty-eight, sixty, "once the debt's down." In Episode 129 of The AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, succession facilitator James Hamilton of Cultivate Advisory offers a very different answer, and it reframes almost everything families think they know about handing on the land.

James isn't a consultant who parachutes in with theory. He's a farmer first — twenty-five years on the land at Narromine with his wife Amanda — who lived through his own family's succession and came out the other side with relationships stronger, not strained. That lived experi...

What if the reason you can't find good people has nothing to do with where your farm is — and everything to do with how you're showing up?

Finding and keeping top talent in agriculture is one of the most pressing challenges facing farming families today — and it's only getting harder. With a retirement cliff looming, a shrinking pool of skilled workers, and a generation that thinks and works differently than any before it, the old ways of hiring simply don't cut it anymore. But here's the thing: the farms that are winning this battle aren't necessarily the bigg...

Most farming families have a good year, watch the money come in — and then quietly wonder, sometime in March, where it all went. Not because anyone was reckless. Not because anyone wasn't working hard. But because profit without a plan doesn't stay put. It gravitates toward whatever's urgent, whatever's default, whatever no one got around to deciding.

In this mini episode, Ben Law — The Financial Bloke — puts a name to something that happens quietly on farms across the country: the gap between what a family earns and what it actually decides to do with that money. It's a gap...

What separates the farming families who build something that lasts from those who simply survive? If you're honest about it, the answer rarely comes down to rainfall averages or commodity prices. It comes down to the decisions made by the people running the show — and the mindset they bring to every one of them.

Tim McGavin grew up off-grid in western Queensland, raised by a semi-literate father who could barely read but understood hard work, thrift, and responsibility better than most MBA graduates ever will. From aerial mustering in the outback to founding Laguna Bay — one of Aust...

Markets are behaving in ways that don't seem to match the headlines. Conflict in the Middle East, the Strait of Hormuz under threat, oil briefly pushing $120 a barrel, inflation creeping back, interest rates moving the wrong way — and yet equity markets keep printing fresh all-time highs. If you've been watching your superannuation balance climb while quietly wondering what on earth is actually holding the whole thing together, you are not alone. In Episode 126 of The AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with David Berthon-Jones, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner at Aequitas Investment Partners, for a candid co...

Most farming families don’t fall apart because of one bad decision.
They fall apart because of a conversation that kept getting put off.

In this short, straight-shooting mini episode, Ben Law tackles a habit that quietly drains momentum, trust, and future options in family businesses — not through drama, but through delay. The kind that feels sensible at the time. The kind that buys comfort today and creates pain later.

If you’ve ever thought “now’s not the right time”, “we’ll deal with it after this season”, or “things are travelling okay for now” — this epis...

She walked Valentino runways at $10,000 a day, built a media career that spanned some of Australia's biggest brands, and was awarded Gold in Fashion & Textiles and Silver in Agriculture & Farming at the Women Changing the World Global Awards in London, 2025. And then she moved to a sheep station in Walcha, New South Wales.

But here's what makes Vanessa Bell's story genuinely worth your time: this isn't a fish-out-of-water tale about a city woman finding herself on the land. It's a masterclass in what happens when someone with serious commercial firepower looks out across a paddock and asks...

 What if the most underutilised tool in your family business isn't a piece of machinery, a management software, or a new hire — but a structured room full of the right people, asking the right questions?

In this episode of the Agricoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with Mike Logan AM — farmer, business coach, and one of Australia's most respected advisory board chairmen — to unpack why some of the most successful family businesses in agriculture have quietly adopted a structure that most farming families have never even considered: the family advisory board.

Mike brings rare cr...

There’s a message young men are hearing… and reacting to. But what if they’re reacting to the wrong part of it?

In this mini episode, Ben Law steps straight into a phrase that stirred up outrage across the world — and reframes it in a way farming families need to hear. Not as chest-thumping bravado. Not as “suffer in silence.” But as a call to responsibility, grit, and discernment.

Because there’s a moment every young bloke faces. The gate swings open. The paddock is bigger than he thought. The map is unclear. The pressure feels...

Most farming families see their accountant once a year — usually in a panic around the 30th of June. The families who are genuinely building something that lasts across generations? They're doing something fundamentally different. And it has very little to do with tax minimisation.

In this episode of the AgriCoach Wealth & Wisdom Podcast, Ben Law sits down with Sarah Becker — Director of Becker & Co QLD, Chartered Accountant, Trusted Rural Business Advisor, and Central Queensland beef producer — for a conversation that cuts through the noise around what it actually takes to build a rural family business that goes the di...

What if the thing holding your family business back… isn’t lack of opportunity — but lack of exposure?

In this conversation with Kara Knudsen, co-founder of a rapidly scaling northern cattle operation, we get a rare look at what actually happens when a farming family decides to think bigger, act earlier, and deliberately build something that outlasts them.

Kara shares the story behind their growth — from humble beginnings and hard seasons to building a business that no longer relies on family labour to survive. Along the way, she challenges the traditional idea of what a “family bus...

What if the most loving thing you can say to your child is, “That’s not good enough.”

In this mini episode, Ben tackles a quiet pattern that shows up in farming families everywhere — not laziness, not bad intent, but standards that slowly soften over time. And when standards soften, performance follows.

It rarely looks dramatic. It looks like picking your battles. Letting small things slide. Telling yourself you’ll deal with it later. After harvest. After weaning. After the next busy season.

But what happens when “later” becomes the norm?

Ben draws a sh...

Character Over Credentials: Building Success in Agriculture That Lasts

Some of the most successful people in agriculture didn’t follow the neat, modern career path everyone now promotes — and that’s exactly the point.

In this episode, Ben Law sits down with David Foote — board member at Cattle Australia, former executive at Australian Country Choice, and a lifelong student of leadership — for a conversation that cuts through the noise around success, ambition, and what actually lasts in agriculture.

This isn’t a story about climbing ladders or c...

Most farming families don’t fall apart because of bad intentions.

They stall because the right conversations never quite happen.

In this episode, Ben sits down with communication specialist Katie Godden to talk about the one skill that quietly determines whether families move forward together — or slowly drift out of alignment. It’s the skill behind tough conversations that never get started, meetings that heat up too fast, and decisions that keep getting pushed down the road.

Why do capable, hardworking families avoid the conversations they know matter? What actually causes things to escala...

There’s a quiet habit that separates families who stay sharp across generations from those who slowly lose their edge… and it has nothing to do with markets, rainfall, or land values.

In this straight-shooting mini episode, Ben Law shares a lesson handed to him decades ago by a highly successful operator — a lesson that sounded almost too simple to matter, yet has shaped how he works with some of Australia’s most driven farming families today. It challenges the way we handle pressure, the conversations we tolerate around the kitchen table, and the standards we quietly accept i...

Most farming families don’t break when things go wrong.

They break when pressure becomes the normal state — and nobody notices until the cost shows up years later.

In this conversation, Ben sits down with Ali Flynn — therapist, facilitator and high-performance practitioner — to talk about the kind of resilience that actually holds up under real-world pressure. Not the “push harder” version. Not the silent grind. But the type that protects decision-making, relationships, health, and long-term leadership capacity when the stakes are high and the margin for error is thin.

This episode speaks directly to families...

What if the reason so many capable farming families get stuck isn’t lack of advice — but the way they’re thinking about the problem in the first place?

In this episode, Ben Law sits down once again with Dr Kate Burke, founder of Think Agri, to challenge some deeply held assumptions about decision-making, succession, and what really determines whether a family business thrives across generations. Kate has spent decades working alongside farming families who are smart, hardworking and deeply committed — yet still find themselves paralysed when the conversation turns to the future.

Rather than treating...

Your great-grandfather faced shells, mud, and men trying to kill him.
So why does a single conversation still stop so many farming families in their tracks?

This mini episode cuts straight to a quiet truth most families don’t want to admit: the fears that hold us back today don’t look dramatic — but they’re just as powerful. Not because we’re weak, but because our wiring hasn’t caught up with the world we’re living in.

If you’ve ever put off saying what needs to be said… felt the knot in your gut before...

What if the real issue with “kids not stepping up” isn’t them at all?

In this episode, Ben Law sits down again with high-performance advisor Chris Webb to tackle a question many farming families quietly wrestle with: why do capable, intelligent young people sometimes drift instead of rise?

Drawing from elite sport, leadership environments, and years inside high-pressure teams, Chris challenges some deeply held assumptions about motivation, entitlement, and responsibility. The conversation cuts through surface-level frustration and points to something far more uncomfortable — and far more powerful — than blame.

This episode is...

What if the child who doesn’t want to come back on farm is actually your biggest long-term advantage?

In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Conaghan, Managing Director of Livestock Junction, to challenge one of the quiet assumptions that holds many family businesses back — that contribution only counts if it happens on the ground, in the paddock, every day.

Andrew’s pathway couldn’t be more different from the traditional ag narrative. He built his career in IT, systems, and project management off-farm, yet today he plays a central role in the strategic directio...

Most farming families don’t fail because they can’t run a business.

They fail because the family part was never properly prepared.

Not long ago, the idea of having a coach in agriculture sounded odd — even unnecessary. Today, some of the most switched-on, asset-rich families in the country are quietly asking a different question: who’s actually helping us stay aligned as a family while everything else gets bigger, faster, and more complex?

This mini episode challenges the assumption that coaching is about productivity hacks or running harder each day. 

If you’ve...

Most families wait until something breaks to start succession conversations. High-performing families don’t.

In this powerful conversation, Ben sits down with succession planner Tim Lane of Proagtive to unpack a truth most farming families quietly suspect: the ones who thrive across generations aren’t the biggest or wealthiest — they’re simply the ones who start early and keep talking.

Tim lifts the curtain on what he’s seen after decades around kitchen tables across Australia — the families who glide through transition, the ones who hit turbulence, and the tiny mindset shifts that separate the two. You’ll...

What if the real threat to your family business isn’t drought, interest rates, or commodity prices — but entitlement creeping into the next generation?

In this Mini Episode, Ben Law — The Financial Bloke — takes aim at the behaviour that quietly rots family businesses from the inside. Entitlement isn’t random, and it’s not “just their personality”. Most of the time, we create it at home without realising: standards slip, excuses get tolerated, and kids get rescued instead of raised.

Ben lays out the uncomfortable truth: rules, punishments and guilt don’t fix entitlement