# 14 - How freedom farmer David was able to enjoy a 9-week holiday with his family

Episode 14: ‘How freedom farmer David was able to enjoy a 9-week holiday with his family’   In this podcast I interview David Westbrook, a member of our very first Platinum Mastermind Program.    By following our proven system over the past 3 years, David is well on his way to achieving a ‘Freedom Farm’. He was recently able to ‘test the waters’ by enjoying a 9-week holiday with his wife and 3 young children.   David very kindly agreed to speak to the members of our newest program ‘Take Control’ and this podcast is a snippet of that interview.   Andrew: Firstly, mate, thank you for coming on and sharing a bit of your story. Just a bit of background, David and his wife Becky have been clients of ours for three years, they're a part of what we call a ‘Platinum Mastermind Program’. He's very much gone through this ‘Take Control’ journey and is very aware of the mindset required to not just make more money on the farm but also have more time with family.   I really wanted to bring Westy onto this as he's got so much to offer because he's done a lot of work on his mindset. He's been able to set his business up so he can take a lot more time out with his family. He's got a very inspirational story. He's just been on a 9-week holiday with three young children.   Do you want to start by sharing a little bit more about you, what you farm, where you're based? I wanted to dive in a little bit about what life was like for you before you made that commitment to ‘Take Control’.   Westy: We're based on Kangaroo Island, which is an amazing place to farm. I came from a cropping farm on Yorke Peninsula. It wasn't my cup of tea, so I decided I wanted to get into livestock.  I had absolutely no clue about any of it, I just jumped in really in 2010, and our first son was born in 2010.   Livestock farming on Kangaroo Island, life on Kangaroo Island and becoming a father all happened at the same time. Definitely, a steep learning curve. We probably went through that first 5-6 years just unconscious, really, just doing the day-to-day stuff.   We had some great people around us in the community that helped me understand livestock farming. There was a lot of things that I just didn't know and wasn't implementing, so I just didn't have the freedom to do anything. People would ask me to go fishing or surfing and I just couldn't do it. And obviously, just wasn't having that family time.   Andrew: Yes. Let's go back to that. I just wanted you to really share a bit more about this. Let's keep it in line with this message of ‘Take Control’. Did you feel like you had control back there?   Westy: Funnily enough, I probably did, Andrew, because that was my mindset. I thought if I made a conscious effort to always be home at 5-5:30pm to have dinner with Becky and the kids. Then, make sure the batteries on the torch were good and go back out to work for 3-4 hours after dinner.   I believed I had control, because that's how I thought I had to operate. I was getting plenty of work done but just didn't have any clarity on the next day or the future going forward. I definitely had that 2-hour bracket with the kids and Becky over dinner, which is what I thought was good. Eventually, I realised that's not how it should operate.   Andrew: Let's talk about that, too, because I'm assuming you got most of your experience or knowledge from your parents, correct? They teach you a certain way of what you need to do to be a successful farmer; which is work hard?   Westy: Absolutely, yes. I've put a lot of thought into this over the last few years, Andrew. Why is it that they had to work hard and we can actually reap the rewards a little bit, and delegate, plan and run a better business? Absolute credit to my parents and everyone that's a bit older than me.   2010 was the start of good land prices. That’s given me the opportunity to make more profit definitely from the way that the commodities have gone and to be able to set up this ‘freedom lifestyle and a freedom