Can we fund your dreams?

So in today's video, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the Ecosia competition, design competition that we're putting out and, yeah, want people to get involved in the next month that it's running. So just to be really clear, the competition is for €100,000 of equity. It's also going to include. It's not just a loan, is what I'm saying. It's open to anyone who thinks that they are meeting the requirements in the webpage that you see in the link below. Basically, we're looking for people who want to build soil, build habitats, make money whilst doing good and farming for their local community. And that could look many different ways. But you've got to ask yourself, am I building soil? Is this what we would define as regenerative? Which you can see outlined further in the video supplied there. So open for any ideas and it's up to you to detail the merits of your project. And we're looking particularly at financial plans and whether we think you're likely to succeed. We want to fund successful projects, but it's not just a loan, like, it's equity in the sense that I'm going to be offering mentorship and feedback and staying connected to your project. We'll also be promoting it through Ecosia's channel, through our YouTube channel. I'll be coming to your site sometime in the early spring and following with you, staying with and offering mentorship as I can. So I'm really excited for that. If some great projects come through and we can help support them getting going, it really fulfills my need of helping spread regenerative ag as fast as we can in as many places as we can. So the competition is only open in Europe at this time, but that might change in the future. If this is successful, we'll open it up globally, potentially. Ragnar and I are busy sorting out crates of the last of the tomatoes. We've got all different varieties of tomatoes here and Ragnar is an excellent help, taking all the tops off with his little knife. And we're chopping them up and boiling down the tomatoes to make frozen sauces ready for quick meals in the winter. And we've been having a really relaxing time. Carlo and Nicholas have gone now and they did a really sterling job closing down the farm, tidying everything up. And we've really set our sights on a fairly easeful winter compared to most winters. We don't have many animals and we're excited to spend a bit of time vision questing. As I talked about in the last video and just really deciding where to place our energy to keep supporting those people that we support in our learning programs, etc. And one of those things is this equity we're offering in this design competition in association with Ecosia. Now, I've announced it in other videos in the past, but I haven't actually had any entrance yet. I think a couple of people have tried to apply and there's a problem with the uploading of files. And so please do get in contact with me personally if you're trying to upload materials and it's not working for you. Now, just to recap what this competition is about, we're basically teaming up with Ecosia, the search engine, to try and support more regenerative agriculture in Europe. Now, you can find out all about the competition on startregenerativeagriculture.com that's in the links below and it's got a good outline of what's basically involved and who the competition's for. Now, I've had a lot of people I've met when I was on my road trip and people who have contacted me directly who said they're going to apply for the competition. So it's made me wonder if actually people are scared to be the first one to apply because your entry, once it's been screened, will go online. Everyone can see it. And so I got this feeling that after being told so many people would apply and then having not received one yet, I wonder if people are a bit shy to be like the first one to enter. But I would encourage people to, you know, get applications in early. The whole point was to be able to have feedback over time from myself and people interested in supporting that online, you know, who can give valuable feedback too. So as a shout out to get involved. And if you do have problems uploading any information, do let me know because I will get on top of making sure that the website is working properly and if it's not, I'll find an alternative solution for you to get your files to me. Now, I do understand there's a whole load of work to put together, a whole financial plan, etc. But don't be scared off. You know, the whole point is to support more people. So if you've got a really good idea, we're here to try and help support you manifest that idea. So don't be shy. It's important to just get involved, get it out there and improve it over time. The competition's open until mid December, so you've got plenty of time to Refine your plan. And we're only judging the competition on the final entry. And so, just to recap what we're offering, we're offering up to a hundred thousand euros and that might be split between multiple farms. It might all be for one farm. And we're going to choose enterprises that are capable of paying back that money, plus a small amount of interest that can go back into the pot and start a fund that just keeps growing to support more and more projects. You'll see in the webpage some of the examples of our participants in the past who have gone on with a low cost and started up really good farms at low cost that pay back quickly. And there's some video resources from me on there too. I've also released our online training at a really low cost, affordable monthly rate. So if you need extra help with spreadsheets and planning, then take the online course and get engaged. There's a huge amount of information to help you plan and make a success of it. But we're looking forward to getting some of the applications through that people have been talking about. And don't be shy to get in there first, if you're thinking. And please, if you watch this video and you're planning to apply in the next few weeks, please let us know in the comments below. Be good and see if there's any way we can support you or hook you up with someone else who can support you. So that's it for so today. It's just a quick video. We're having a nice time at home while Johanna is out delivering to Rico's further afield today. And we're still selling all of our products throughout the winter, meat products, etc. But we're having a nice homely time, aren't we, Ragnar? Ragnar is a very good help in the kitchen. That's a bit of a soft one, isn't it? It's a bit of a funny. An. Oh, Dino had a dinosaur. He had a dinosaur. What noise did it make? Was it a brachiosaurus? Okay, that's it for today, folks. Thanks so much for watching and we'll look forward to seeing you in videos that are coming out soon. See you next time.