#awinewith Nicole Chiesa
MEET Nicole Chiesa, Founder of Link 2 Country
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:00):
You are listening to Spark tv, where we bring you daily interviews with real women in business at all stages. I'm your host, Danielle Lewis, and I am so grateful to have you here. Oh, so good. Nicole. Welcome to Spark tv. It's so good to have you here.
Nicole Chiesa (00:17):
Thank you very much. It's good to be here. Nice to meet you
Danielle Lewis (00:19):
Too. Thank you. I know it's nice to put a face to it, isn't it? Everything we do is on email and socials and slack channels and this is lovely.
Nicole Chiesa (00:28):
Yeah, yeah. No, it's very good. It's good. I
Danielle Lewis (00:31):
Feel like we've already had a little coffee chat just before we hit record, which is so
Nicole Chiesa (00:36):
Nice. Yeah, no, it's nice and I think what you do is pretty awesome. Oh, thank you. Reaching out. So definitely out of my comfort zone. First time on podcast, so I'm sure you're going to be, you're probably the best person to start with.
Danielle Lewis (00:54):
Definitely a safe place. Safe space. My goal for the podcast is sharing stories of all kinds because we all have something to learn from each other, and I love it when it's people's first time because it's just pop that cherry so that other podcasts and do the things and get yourself out there. I just love it.
Nicole Chiesa (01:20):
Yes, thank you.
Danielle Lewis (01:21):
So
Nicole Chiesa (01:21):
Good.
Danielle Lewis (01:22):
Love it. Well, let's start out by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Nicole Chiesa (01:27):
Yep. So my name's Nicole. I am a stay-at-home mom. I do the books. My husband and I own a sugarcane harvesting contract called GNC Harvesting, so I do the books for that as well as another harvester. And in my free time I started a company called Linked to Country with my two sisters co-founding it with me. We just wanted to create an appreciation for agriculture in the harvesting sector. We find it hard to find employees and the idea of the link to Country Expo is a little bit like we're really familiar with sporting programs that have a grassroots program, so this is sort of exactly the same but for agriculture. So that's my project, very large, very quickly.
Danielle Lewis (02:24):
So essentially it was born of a need. You struggle to find people that want to get into this industry, so you're like stuff it. We'll create a platform, we'll create an opportunity and expo and education to actually get in at grassroots and teach people about agriculture.
Nicole Chiesa (02:45):
So my background is beef and horses. I went to Dolby Ag College and then I ended up going to the territory and working and getting called back to Emerald Ag College to teach. Cool. So I have that sort of background with the RTOs and developing programs. And then I just wanted to create this need for businesses, supporting the businesses to showcase themselves. We have a huge amount of apprenticeships available from the mill to even the Luckys in town, and we cannot fill 'em. So yeah, our real community really needs some support for the businesses to showcase themselves. So I figured let's start them young, let's get 'em in year six, give them, and we're not making 'em experts, we're just giving 'em a taste of industry with industry
Danielle Lewis (03:47):
Experts, what's possible,
Nicole Chiesa (03:49):
And hopefully they can make that connection so they can follow it up directly with the business. So we get 'em in year six, get 'em in year nine as the plan. I only want to do the large expo every three years. I feel like I'm already getting great hair. And then we get 'em in year 12 when there's actually possibilities available if we can help these businesses get in front of these kids and create a spark or a passion or just an appreciation. So everything was created, it's a sponsored, it's industry supported and community supported event. It's all sponsored.
(04:30):
We're doing hands-on skills. So we've had expressions of interest for 530 students so far to come through over the two days at the expo for the AgriLife skills program. We have 20 businesses delivering changing tires, checking all on water, hands-on skills that not only relate to agriculture, but just to everyday sort of stuff. Yeah, there's a whole list. It's getting very large. And then as well as the trade stands, you'd see at a normal field day, their site fees propped the agri program. So we've created it free for students, free for the schools, and free for the businesses participating. And yeah, it's the 23rd and 24th of May at the end of show. So please come and send it out there if anyone's driving through ham. Oh, I love it. Who wants to win a lucky door prize or come listen to a band or,
Danielle Lewis (05:30):
Yeah,
Nicole Chiesa (05:31):
That
Danielle Lewis (05:31):
Is so cool. I mean, I just find it so fascinating because we complain that it's hard to get a job. Doesn't the world complain that it's hard to get a job and then you're like, no, we've got all of these spots we can't fill.
Nicole Chiesa (05:46):
Yeah, I think as an industry gets bigger, especially talking about the sugar cane with the haul outs and just our personal harvesting sector, as the contracts get less, the businesses get less. So we have, sorry, I should give you, we have about 53 contractors that service the farmers here in Ingham. And as the contracts die out all businesses, there's no more replacing those spots. So we absorb the sugarcane that has to, so our contracts get larger, which makes it harder for us to train young people coming on. So there's that need, it's just time. So more for the support for the employee.
(06:34):
There's people wanting to come, but safety wise, and for us as a business, you don't really want to put someone straight out of school in a haul out, which is a half a million dollar machine, one hurt themselves is the main thing. And then wreck our machines. So if we can give 'em a taste younger in their year six, and they can make friends with a farmer who wants a bit of work on the holidays and they can have a bit of practice driving the tractor or an excavator and stuff like that, it'll pay off for us down the track to be, oh, this kid is actually quite handy. We can baby him into our workplace. Yeah, it's a really hard one. Anyway, this is my idea of trying to fix a situation that
Danielle Lewis (07:27):
I love it. So many great businesses start for that reason. We are often employed in one area, we see a problem and we want to do something about it. I actually just think that that's such a fantastic way to start a business because it's almost like you kind of guaranteed the market because it's a problem. You experienced the problem so much.
Nicole Chiesa (07:49):
And then on the other hand too, for the students, I never fitted that curriculum unless you were down that path of going to uni or that apprenticeship that you want to do. There's no ag colleges in Queensland, so I would've struggled. So having young children, I would like something like this available to my kids if they need it. So that's me trying. I love it.
Danielle Lewis (08:19):
But do, yeah. So we talked about chaos before we hit record. How do you actually balance being a mom, doing your work, running this new business? Oh, you're also a human being. How the hell do you do everything?
Nicole Chiesa (08:33):
I won't show you around my house. It's just like it is chaos. I pretty much wake up and look at the calendar, go, what am I doing today? And we just take it a day at a time. Yeah, I've got beautiful friends and family and you got to take the help when you can get it. I love
Danielle Lewis (09:01):
That. Yes.
Nicole Chiesa (09:03):
Yeah, just keep going. Oh my
Danielle Lewis (09:06):
God, it's so true. It's so true. Sometimes I feel like it's the simplest answer. This is my passion, this is what I've decided to do, so I'm just going to bloody keep doing it and put one foot in front of the other and take the help. I just think it's genius because some people will just not go after their dreams because it is all too hard. So bloody good
Nicole Chiesa (09:33):
On you. It's very hard.
Danielle Lewis (09:35):
I've got a very
Nicole Chiesa (09:35):
Surprised husband too, so in the industry and trying to fix stuff to make things better for him working and yeah, we'll just see what the outcome is. I guess.
Danielle Lewis (09:48):
How do you find working with your two sisters as co-founders?
Nicole Chiesa (09:53):
Yeah, so I pretty much take charge. I'm the oldest. Nice. But they also work full time, so it's sort of just a group chat, what do you think about this? And they'll give feedback. And then we'll just, it's good having three because it's sort of like you go, oh, okay, I'm outnumbered. Okay, that's probably the better idea anyway, let's go. So it's just more to bounce ideas. Obviously they'll be all on hand. It's like a family affair coming to Ingham for this expo, so to ensure we don't lose any students in the process. But yeah, it's going to be exciting. I love it. I don't think anything like this has actually been done before. So designed for small groups of students for about half an hour, so they're not spending a whole day learning real Pacific. And it's broken down for the business too, because a lot of businesses, they don't have enough staff to allow to remove from the workshop. So we've created activities. I've created activities like doing the JSAs and the swims for duty of care for the businesses and the activity breakdown. But that makes it easier for the schools to attend too because we've done all their risk registry for. So
Danielle Lewis (11:24):
How did you go about getting all of the schools and getting all of the industries and the business? How did you actually go about getting them all on board to do this?
Nicole Chiesa (11:34):
I've cold called them every single
(11:37):
One of 'em. Yeah, the industry is really good. So I also worked with CRT as a merchandise manager before having kids. So I've been about seven years out of the industry. So all my reps and my contacts have all moved on mostly. So I sort of played on what I had left and then it was literally just, Hey, I've got this idea. So I attended, I went to all the board meetings, attended my idea, and I found a naming right sponsor, which can growers Herbert River, our own naming, right sponsor. I went to council, I got them as a diamond sponsor for the event and the higher of the showgrounds and all that. And then it's just pretty much creating the activities, just calling and say, Hey, I've got this idea that would be really, really cool for your business, like Hastings during. And I said, I would love for a student to be able to do a pre-start with you and actually physically operate an excavator. How can we make this work? How long do you want the activity for? What control measures do we need to put in place? So it's supporting the business
(12:53):
To allow, so there's 20 of those businesses I've done. I've also got onboard the Hitchen Brook Shire do a careers event every year that local towns all do. So it's called Find your Futures in Hitchen Brook. And it includes all, they normally include all the training organizations and any apprenticeships that are sort of going and pathways. So I've created a space for them to come in on the Friday to include them. So there'll be about 40 to 50 entities in there as well. And then when they clear out on the Friday I've got trying to support small businesses and got the local markets coming in.
Danielle Lewis (13:34):
Oh my God, that's so good. Did you feel that confident going in? Were you picking up the phone going, this is going to be a cakewalk. No worries, I got this.
Nicole Chiesa (13:43):
No, I had to work. No, no, no way. Yeah, no, it was a lot of work, A lot of meetings. Yeah, it's just still going. A lot of work, A lot of meetings. Yes. I have Townsville helicopters looking at landing a chopper on the main oval so they can talk about aviation skills and it's just all the extras around it for approval and dah, dah, dah, dah it. The list just goes on for every site. And I actually really enjoy it. I don't know, I go a little bit crazy. Sounds like an entrepreneur to me. I think from, so this idea started from me just writing things down in a book when I was home with the kids. I've got these books just like, oh, this would be cool. Or Let's do a farmer's team competition. Let's just do silly. I just write stupid stuff down and there's a heap of ideas that aren't getting used in this expo. It's just sort of what fits for the businesses and see where we go afterwards.
Danielle Lewis (15:07):
Oh my God, I love it so much. I mean, I'm sure everyone listening who knows that I'm a salesperson by trade will laugh at me just drilling into cold outreach because I'm like, and now look, I'm 20 years into a sales career as a business owner. I think you're a salesperson, had a sales crew before then, and I still get nervous sometimes. I'm like, oh my god, this person's so big. I don't know what to say and I'll agonize over sending an email. But it's like you've just got to push through that. And I just think your story around, well, I just cold call people po, but I just kept having meetings and they're all in and it's huge and it's amazing. I'm like, it's just such a testament to you got to push through the scary bit and do work and you can fucking do great
Nicole Chiesa (16:00):
Things. I'll tell you a funny story. I was meeting with one of the counselors just to talk about the site and keep them up to date and what was going on, and we just bounced around meetings and just couldn't make anything work. I said, look, I can meet you there, but I'm going to have three kids with me, just so you know. And we're there chatting and I set the kids up at the showgrounds and next minute it's rained and I look over at all three of my children are nude, playing in the water in the trains. I'm like, I'm so sorry. She's like, oh, amazing. You just got to just keep going. I dunno.
Danielle Lewis (16:39):
Got to laugh it off. That is incredible. It's just such, it doesn't matter what situation you're in, whether it's kids, whether it's being new to a business, you're always going to have challenges, problems, random things that come up, but you're so right. You've just got to push through and keep going.
Nicole Chiesa (17:03):
And that's all I'm doing. Just trying. Just can try
Danielle Lewis (17:07):
Bloody love it. You know what, and someone was saying, I dunno if it was like a podcast I was listening to this morning. I was like, when you're on your deathbed at 90 and you look back, you just want to know that you tried. I think that that's the thing is it doesn't matter what level you want to do anything in life or whether it's a business or whether it's running a marathon or whatever the heck it is. But I think you want to look back and go, I gave it a go
Nicole Chiesa (17:36):
And hopefully it's something that lasts. Who knows?
Danielle Lewis (17:39):
I think it might be by the sounds of the traction that you've been getting.
Nicole Chiesa (17:44):
Yeah, yeah. No, it's cool. I actually did a figure the other day just to work out in kind support from these businesses that are attending and I hit like 120,000. Whoa, that's insane. Support. Just in kind support, obviously. So it's going to be good.
Danielle Lewis (18:06):
That's wild. Oh my God, you are absolutely incredible. I love it. I love it. So I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be a piece of advice that you would give to another woman on her business journey?
Nicole Chiesa (18:32):
Take big bites and keep chewing. I dunno. Oh my God, I love it. That's all I'm doing. We'll see at the end of it all. But yeah, just keep going, I guess. Is that good advice?
Danielle Lewis (18:53):
I think it's bloody fantastic advice because I think as I reflect on my time in business, that's probably all I've done as well is just keep going. Just kind of go, let's try something crazy and have a crack and just, if it doesn't work out, just keep chewing, shake it off. Exactly. I love it so much. Nicole, you are amazing. Thank you so much for spending your time and sharing your journey with the Spark community. There was so many good little nuggets in there. I absolutely loved it. Sure.
Nicole Chiesa (19:28):
Thank
Danielle Lewis (19:28):
You very much. Thank you. That wraps another episode of Spark tv. Shout out to Spark TV sponsor IP Australia for their amazing support of the Spark Podcast and women in business. And if no one tells you today, you've got this.
✨ Thank you to IP Australia for supporting the SPARK podcast and women in business ✨
