#awinewith Susan Finnigan
MEET Susan, Founder of Kia Ora Merino.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Amazing. Susan, welcome to Spark tv. I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Susan Finnigan (00:12):
Oh, Danielle, we're very honored to be here and to know that you're talking to women in agribusiness. It's really exciting. Thank you.
Danielle Lewis (00:20):
Absolutely. I know. Look, I'm not going to lie. You are my first woman in business.
Susan Finnigan (00:25):
Have to be someone's first.
Danielle Lewis (00:28):
I love that. I'm so excited. Yeah, I've obviously had a sneak peek at what you do, so I'm super excited to share your story with the Spark community. And obviously before hitting record, we had a quick chat, so I know this is going to be an interesting one. So let's just start with who you are and what you do.
Susan Finnigan (00:48):
Well, Susan Finnegan, I'm obviously an elderly farmer. I'm a grandmother, ocean swimmer. I used to be a nurse. I grew up on a farm and went to nursing. Never planned to be a farmer or marry a farmer or have anything to do with agriculture. And yeah, my partner changed all that, but I always, they do
Danielle Lewis (01:11):
That. They convince you sometimes?
Susan Finnigan (01:15):
Yes. Yeah. I think hormones are amazing, but I worked out of the business for years. I mostly did the bookwork and just played on the edges, just helped primarily. I looked after the kids, that sort of thing. And back then wool was very generic. We were wool farmers, and so it didn't really matter that I wasn't helping that much. I just kept up with the nursing and I was quite independent. I didn't want to be sort of bolt on to his business. And then, yeah, so anyhow, I retired from nursing, came back onto the farm and realized all this opportunity there was and just hooked into it and have just been flying with it ever since. Yeah. So what we do as a farm is we breed merino sheep.
Danielle Lewis (02:06):
Oh, cool.
Susan Finnigan (02:07):
You might think wool is just wool and yuck, but the wool we grow is for the European market. So 2% of Australian wool goes to Europe and they pay 4% of the price. So it's at a premium and it goes into brands that I can't pronounce. My children and grandchildren, es Laura Pinner, all these wow lovely brands.
Danielle Lewis (02:29):
Oh god.
Susan Finnigan (02:29):
And so we make an absolute point of making it a wool. Beautiful. And my job is to tell the story and to add the traceability and the marketing side of it. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (02:41):
Wow. That's incredible. And so that's a really interesting journey. So obviously grew up farming, but then went into nursing and now looking after the marketing side of farming. So how did that evolution happen? Was it just a matter of seeing opportunities and sinking your teeth and learning, or how did you jump to marketing?
Susan Finnigan (03:05):
Well, it's a funny thing. I used to work in nursing and then I hurt my back and I worked in risk and quality management. And then I got older and decided just to work as a phlebotomist taking blood. And I understood systems and things through working with the Red Cross. And as far as the business was concerned, we always made money and we traded and did all sorts of tricks, but I never considered that our wool was special. It was just something you put up for auction and sold. And then I heard stories about if you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it for you. So I hopped onto social media, which I'm hopeless at. Please, if you can look at my social media stuff, it's very amateur. But I sort of wanted to tell our story. And the feedback has come back from buyers that when a brand comes to them and wants to know about the wool, I was in, Italy sounds very posh. I was in Italy two weeks ago, but they actually said when they want to know, they can actually show them our farm. And so they've got the story to back it up. So the marketing is sort of soft marketing and it's understanding who our consumer is. We used to think our consumer was the buyer, but it's actually now the brand and yourself, the consumer. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (04:24):
Wow. That's really interesting because I think you are right, and I dunno if I want to just speak on behalf of the Australian people or consumers in general, but I dunno if there is much or a lot of appreciation for where the fiber comes from. I know we have quite a sustainability movement going on and more of a push towards not fast fashion and making sure that we reuse and repair and all of that kind of stuff. But I think there's a layer that we are missing, which is where do things come from? And being proud of how things are manufactured and going all the way back to the farm. I think it's a story that's not often told anywhere in fashion in food. It's a really interesting origin story that does I think need to be told.
Susan Finnigan (05:16):
It's interesting in business, the provenance is really important with wool, but mostly because our wool goes to the high end luxury trade. They don't want any blowback from something bad happening on a farm. They don't want to see bare paddocks and dead trees, that sort of thing. They want to know that it comes from a lovely environment. I have a girlfriend from Canada, and when she buys fish, she can tell me the date it was caught, whether it was online or net, and which boat, because that's on the fish. I think traceability is bigger perhaps in other countries more than Australia. And to be honest, Australia doesn't buy a lot of wool, I don't think. Australia's not our market, so it's lovely people in Australia take notice. But yeah, they're a very small market for, hopefully it'll grow and so we'll appreciation. But I think with all, well probably
Danielle Lewis (06:11):
Our climate as well.
Susan Finnigan (06:13):
Well, no, there's cool wool. There's You can.
Danielle Lewis (06:16):
Oh, really? Okay. I didn't know that.
Susan Finnigan (06:20):
But I think provenance is important. People worry about their eggs and was it a happy chook? People want to know it was a happy sheep. And that's where I've come in with getting accreditations for our wool that can be used overseas so that people can appreciate the care that's gone into growing it.
Danielle Lewis (06:41):
Do you think that because you grew up in a farming family that making the transition from employee to now in the business was a lot easier? Or do you still think it was a big learning curve?
Susan Finnigan (06:57):
When I grew up, girls didn't go out on the farm much at all. I'd go into the shed and they used to call ducks on the pond, which meant that girls were in the shed. Girls didn't work in ag. Now it's totally different. We've had female wool classes, wool reps, contractors, shearers, females are right through the industry. And I think in most farms in family farms, there's a partnership happening, which is usually male and female, but not always. But the woman is quite often the one that does the bookwork and makes the decisions regarding procurement and that sort of thing. So I think growing up on a farm, yes, it was in my background, but it was mostly working and seeing my husband work also including the children in the farm. We loved doing things as a family. And so it sort of ingrained in you this business idea, a holiday used to be going and looking at farms. Camping was always where there was a field day or something your whole life. I think when you're in business that it sort of percolates into your entire life, into your lifestyle and farming, it's a passion. It is a lifestyle, and I don't mean in a sort of bucolic beautiful way. It's a lifestyle that we're late for a wedding because my husband hasn't finished jetting sheep. He puts the sheep first. It's that sort of life a bit.
Danielle Lewis (08:35):
Well, and I also assume, so as somebody who runs an online business and even, well, I've had physical product businesses that maybe can be less ignored, but you can't ignore sheep.
Susan Finnigan (08:48):
Oh no. 8,000 sheep needing food and water every day. It gets you out of bed. I had the power go off and I rang Power Core and you can press that button for if it's a life emergency. And I pressed number one and the woman was a bit like, oh yes, what's your emergency? And I'm like, I've got 8,000 sheep looking for water and you've turned off our power.
Danielle Lewis (09:10):
Oh my God.
Susan Finnigan (09:11):
Yeah. It keeps you tuned in. And now we use wind and solar so they can turn it off as much as they like. But yeah, it does keep you motivated also with sheep or with any product, but with growing a natural product, if you don't care for the sheep, the wool will not be good quality. So you can't sort of have a week off and not make sure everything's right. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (09:38):
How do you manage that physically and mentally? So it sounds like it's an always on kind of business. How do you actually maintain yourself as a woman in business?
Susan Finnigan (09:52):
I wouldn't like to talk about self-care. You look on Instagram and everyone's got the same size lips and hips, and they're all doing the weeks food. We're
Danielle Lewis (10:00):
All having our sheet masks. And
Susan Finnigan (10:03):
Yeah, I'm sort of probably a little bit, yes, as far as maintaining a work-life balance, we have a team. There's probably five to seven contractors that we regularly use. My son works for us and my husband, and so we do delegate. We all do what we are good at, and so we keeping out of each other's lane. So we try not to make ourselves busy. I'm also huge on lists. I do write things down and cross them off and put them in order. We have procedures and protocols to follow. So really, and it also becomes, we have a five-year business plan, and then we break it down to annual. And so anything that's not done when we have a planning meeting goes forward. So we just try and just have everything scheduled and have a plan to get ahead and to be ahead of the jobs a bit. Yeah, but I mean you also schedule your weekends, schedule your holidays, schedule time out. Yeah. Yeah, it works.
Danielle Lewis (11:14):
It kind of sounds like the systems set you free a little bit because you can understand what's going on, make sure you're ahead, make sure on top of everything. I think that's part of the overwhelm that business owners feel is that sometimes the to-do list is unachievable. You genuinely can't get through all of those things. And I know that I write unachievable to-do list every day and never get through them and perpetually stressed out. But it kind of sounds like if you had an actual long-term plan, broke it down, had those check-ins, knowing that you were on top of things and that there was somebody doing that job, kind of does set you free a little bit to then go, oh, well I have this weekend scheduled in, so I'm okay to actually relax.
Susan Finnigan (11:57):
Yeah. I think also it's not scheduling too much for your day. My husband is shocking at thinking he's going to get this much done and he's perpetually disappointed. So I think it's also having a realistic expectation, I think. Yeah, that helps. But yeah,
Danielle Lewis (12:15):
I dunno what realistic expectations are. I can't help it. I'm a perpetual over scheduler. I'm a, okay, what do I need to do? Well, I'll write that all down and start, and then I get to the end of the day and go, oh my God, I haven't even done half of it.
Susan Finnigan (12:32):
Oh, no, no. I have the numbers for which one's going to be first. So I write my list and then I prioritize it. I'm shocking. Going to town is half hour drive, and so by the time I get to town, I know the map of which way I'm going first to get everything done to pick up the grandchildren at a certain time. So no, I'm probably hard to live with, but I do like a list.
Danielle Lewis (12:59):
I love that though. It sounds hyper efficient.
Susan Finnigan (13:04):
I also use alerts. I set alarms on my phone. I use Google calendars for scheduled maintenance, that sort of thing. I do have a perpetual year planner up in the office. And I think also when it's visual, it communicates to everyone else. They can walk in and go, oh, actually that's what we've got to do to, or that's due. Yeah, it works. It works.
Danielle Lewis (13:28):
Yeah. No, I do love that. Did you pick that up somewhere? So we said, created the five-year plan, then into the year plan, then into the to-do list, then it's organized. Was this a learned skill? Did you or have you always been this way?
Susan Finnigan (13:42):
No, no, no. It was a learned skill. A learned it probably 20 years ago. Covid was amazing. Everything went online and business Victoria, those sort of people put a heap of education out. And our local shire or council also does things, and I'm shocking. I'd go to the opening of a sausage Chile. That's
Danielle Lewis (14:03):
So good though. I love that.
Susan Finnigan (14:05):
I really like to go to anything to do with small business. You don't know what you don't know, and especially if it's free. I mean, people do tease me, but I like free education. And why
Danielle Lewis (14:18):
Not though? Why make your own mistakes if somebody is willing to offer up their learnings for free?
Susan Finnigan (14:25):
And I think also sometimes in business you think, oh, I'm a farmer. That doesn't really apply because these people are in retail. But the truth is we're all selling a product and it does apply, and I think it's really wonderful if farmers show up at these things. There was, I can't think. It was a calendar they were doing for the local council, and I sent photos of sheep in and we turned out to be Miss February was our sheep. And I thought, awesome. Yeah, we need to be visual and we need to share what we're doing and just say yes to whatever comes up.
Danielle Lewis (15:05):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I love that as a business philosophy. I'm a bit of a say yes and figure it out later kind of person. And it's interesting. I think that that idea has changed over time. I think when I started out in business maybe 10 plus years ago, it was very much like that hustle hard, take every opportunity, say yes, figure it out later. Now we're a little bit more, be a bit softer and have boundaries and all those things, which I'm trying really hard to get behind, but I cannot, but I think why not throw your hat in the ring? I think that's the other challenge that we have at the moment is, and I think this is women in particular, I only say this because of Spark Network and I speak to mostly women in business. We also have a tendency to not throw our hat in the ring to actually not go for the opportunity. So I actually love the idea of why not just say, yes, figure it out later, try. Just give it a go. What's the worst that can happen?
Susan Finnigan (16:05):
But also I think kindness and understanding that everyone is not your competition. Other farmers are not my competition, so I make an absolute point of nominating other women for awards, the Shine Awards, she was a finalist. She didn't win. I'm very upset. But I make a point of always nominating younger faces in agriculture who are female, just so that the picture of ag or of farming or of wool includes women and includes young faces so that people can see that that could be them one day. Yeah, I think it's really good to share. And I mean, I don't want light and light for me. I don't think having an older face is necessary in agriculture. I think we need to show the younger people that are doing amazing things, and yeah, that's really important.
Danielle Lewis (16:58):
I just love the idea of lifting other women up or lifting, well, lifting anyone up to be fair, but lifting other women up in particular, especially if it is an industry where perhaps it's taken some time for women to get in the limelight or get allowed on the farm or whatever it might be. I love that idea of actually going to the effort of lifting them up and nominating them or putting them forward or encouraging them. I think that sometimes we won't do it for ourselves, so it's nice to have other people around us that will do it for us.
Susan Finnigan (17:35):
Yes, yes. People don't realize how good they are until you actually write down what they've done and send it in. And people are like, oh, wow, we didn't realize, and it's been wonderful. I nominated my neighbor for a landcare award, and I didn't realize how much she'd done. I put in what I knew, and when they interviewed her, it turns out she's planted over 40,000 trees. And I'm like, oh, okay. So yeah, I think we can all keep learning.
Danielle Lewis (18:06):
Yes. I love that. I love that so much. Now talk to me about challenges. So obviously I'm seeing your face, so reflecting on your time in business, have there any been any key challenges that have come up over the years that have really shaped the way you run the business today?
Susan Finnigan (18:28):
Oh, 40 years in business, we've had some huge challenges. Most farmers would inherit a farm, stay on the farm and leave it to their eldest son in the olden days. Nowadays it's a bit more complex. But in our situation, my father-in-Law was a sheer, and we were in a family business. When my father-in-Law died, things went awry and people's expectations changed, and we had excellent legal advice. The solicitor told us, pay whatever, and just get out and be independent. So we had eye watering debt and we moved to South Australia. So I think yes, people going into business need to be really careful about who they're in business with and how much money they owe or don't owe, and where the power is, because you could end up working in a business and then it all just comes to nothing. And it was no one's particular fault. It turned out my mother-in-Law did have dementia, but it wasn't diagnosed at the time. So that was a really awkward situation. And we had teenage children who did not want to move. So it was huge. We've also had a disease with our livestock where, and I'm laughing, but it was just horrendous. You're
Danielle Lewis (19:51):
Laughing now.
Susan Finnigan (19:53):
We bought around. We had a disease, and so all of our stock was sent for slaughter, and we weren't allowed to run stock for two years. It was just, oh my
Danielle Lewis (20:02):
God.
Susan Finnigan (20:03):
And I mean, there's been comments, at least you're still alive because on Kangaroo Island, there were a lot of suicides when the South Australian government pursued over yoni's disease, it was horrendous. And we actually ended up selling that farm because we realized it was just too hard. And so we started again.
Danielle Lewis (20:23):
Wow.
Susan Finnigan (20:24):
So we moved here and we bought sheep and started again. So essentially, this is our third attempted at being a farmer. And we also had a chronic disease hit our family, our family member, and that's led to a fatigue, chronic fatigue. So there's been huge personal and business challenges. It is always been the same thing that if we stop, that's what defines us. The only thing that actually gets us to where we are is by keeping moving. So we've made heaps of mistakes and we've messed things up, but because we've just kept going, and also because we've owned our mistakes, we've actually sort of gone, oh, we shouldn't have committed to that contract because the price has risen. And you do make losses along the way. But I think so long as you don't let those mistakes define you, it works. But yeah, challenges plenty. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (21:26):
I just love that so much. I've just got goosebumps. No, it's something that I'm personally connected to, having made decisions and partnerships in the past and hasn't quite worked out and still years later dealing with the ramifications of, so I absolutely love that you just said it's when you choose to stop or give up or quit or however you define it, that's what defines you. I think that is so powerful, that idea of starting again or keeping on going, that's huge.
Susan Finnigan (22:05):
It's also finding your own tribe a little bit and being with people that have that trust and integrity and honesty and doing business with them. Well, we sell wool to an Australian fashion brand, and they chose us as their wool supplier because our values align and they've just been beautiful to work with. If we were trying to sell our wool personally as a sweater, we would try and cut costs, cut prices, try and do it for as little as possible. But they did a fashion shoot here, and there was seven people for a fashion shoot. And I'm like, what? There's someone for catering, videographer, the photographer, the person doing hair and makeup, the person doing styling. And I was like, oh my goodness. And that's why it's good that we stay in our lane and we let them do their job because I think once you're doing business with people that you can trust and that are doing a good job, it just goes a lot better. It flows a lot better.
Danielle Lewis (23:14):
It really does. I love that point about people, the idea of having the right people around you. It does. When you can trust somebody to own a piece in your business, it's just like the weight of the world. Lift it off your shoulder knowing that it doesn't all live and die by you, and that there is a level of growth in the business. I think that's huge. How have you gone about finding those people?
Susan Finnigan (23:46):
Our son? Look, we had four children, and I was hoping, actually, there was one particular child that we had earmarked as being the next farmer, and she didn't want to do it, but our son who was in banking ended up becoming a farmer, and it's been fabulous. But his particular skill is doing pastures and growing grass and feed budgeting. And so it's just we've found people who are good at certain things. We also acknowledge that we don't know everything, and we use a consultant, and he's been excellent. He's been through all our challenges, and sometimes he forgets to send us a bill. I think he thinks we are friends now, and that's nice. That's amazing. Gets a bonus. But I think he also looks and goes, by God they had no money, and now things are better. It's back on an even keel. But we trust them.
(24:43):
We don't ask for the detail. If he says, look, that's a really good thing. Yep, go for it. We'll go for it. So we're inclined to trust people that we've known for a length of time that have never let us down. And our contractors are amazing as far as employing people. We always try and employ smaller people who live locally. And that's not just good for the local community. It means that you pay them straight away and they'll come back because there's other businesses that don't pay for 90 days. Wow. Yeah. When you're paying thousands of dollars a day for fuel, you can't have bills swinging that long. So we're always very keen to pay people straight away. And we've had casual people working for us, and there is an award, but I'll often ask them how much an hour do they want? And I'll always pay more than what they want, but then I can choose whether to have them again or not.
(25:40):
Yeah, that's right. So if they're no good, they get a great wage for one day and that's it. And other people, you just keep having back and it's fantastic. And actually, this is a story a little bit. There's a young boy that's just finished year 12 that helps us with landmarking. And he said something about when the lambs drop out of the cradle, sometimes they don't land on their legs. He said, oh, does that hurt them? And I thought, oh, never really thought about that. No, I don't think so. Anyhow, I had an old baby's change soft pad, and I put it there the next year and he goes, oh, I like that. And I said, that was cause of you. I said, you're going to keep giving me feedback because we want to meet community expectations. So you tell us and we'll do it. Because basically we want everything we do in our business to be able to be put on Facebook, to be able to be shared. And so we want to know if there's anything we are doing that people are uncomfortable with. So I think, yeah, that transparency, I think builds trust also. And that two-way communication.
Danielle Lewis (26:45):
Well, and that's what I was just thinking is it's obviously you have an environment where people feel comfortable enough to ask the question or give an opinion or share feedback, which is awesome. A gift.
Susan Finnigan (26:57):
Yeah, no, it is. I think it's also choosing people that have the initiative to say something rather than just grumble afterwards. I mean, I do have a confidentiality and privacy procedure they have to sign.
Danielle Lewis (27:12):
Yes, of course.
Susan Finnigan (27:14):
Which basically says, you tell us if you have a problem rather than somebody else,
Danielle Lewis (27:20):
But that's how it should be. Yes.
Susan Finnigan (27:21):
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's how we're working it.
Danielle Lewis (27:26):
Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. I feel like we could talk all day, but let's leave the Spark community with one last piece of advice. So reflecting on your time in business, would there be one piece of advice that you would offer up to another woman in business to help her on her journey?
Susan Finnigan (27:45):
The independence and pride of being a woman in business or being a person with their own business is just incredible. And I think it's absolutely worth it, but I also think you need to be awfully careful. If your head says it's right and your heart says it's right, but you are hesitating, lean into that. There might be more. You need to learn because it's not sweetness and light. It's a really hard slog, and this idea that you can balance. Look, I take my computer on holidays because I don't have someone doing HR and payroll and things, so I need to be keeping on top of everything. So a woman going into a business, anyone going into business, congratulations. It's a huge thing. And a wage is awfully attractive. So absolutely. Kudos to you. Yeah, yeah. But I'm sorry, that's not advice.
Danielle Lewis (28:40):
No, I actually think that's beautiful. So I think you are spot on. It is not easy, and sometimes I think we don't congratulate ourselves. So I love that you just did offer that. Congratulations to everyone listening in. You're wonderful.
Susan Finnigan (28:56):
Oh, Danielle, you are gorgeous.
Danielle Lewis (29:00):
Thank you so much, Susan, for being on Spark tv for sharing your insights and wisdom. You are so impressive and so grateful that you could be here.
Susan Finnigan (29:11):
Thank you, Danielle. That was just gorgeous. And yeah, I hope everyone enjoyed it. Yeah, thank you.
✨ Thank you to IP Australia for supporting the SPARK podcast and women in business ✨
