Synergy IQ: 0:01

Welcome to Creating synergy where we explore what it takes to transform. We are powered by Synergy IQ. Our mission is to help leaders create world class businesses where people are safe, valued, inspired and fulfilled. We can only do this with our amazing community. So thank you for listening.

Daniel Franco: 0:20

I then synergisers and welcome back to another episode of the creative synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco and today on the show we have a great man Aaron Hickmann, CEO of the lighting sensation company VALO, a serial entrepreneur. Aaron started his first business at 15 years old was still at high school, and he's since established sold and grown ventures within the technology sector. Passionate about collaboration, innovation and returning manufacturing to Australia is demonstrating that it can be achieved through the adoption of advanced technology to achieve the most competitive products while exceeding high quality standards. With over 10 years of experience in the lighting industry, Aaron has forged relationships with best of breed entrepreneurs and innovators across the globe. From Silicon Valley to Germany to Japan is renewed focus is working on r&d projects which reimagined lighting technology of our future. In 2021, in daily 40 under 40 for South Australia, Aaron was awarded the state's top Young Entrepreneur Award for his development of his LED lighting systems. VALO's technology has pushed into field spanning sport, transport and defense. And over the past decade, you may have seen their LED lighting lineup spaces across South Australia such as the titanium security arena, and the light art and technology winter festival here in South Australia illuminate Adelaide. On top of all this you may have seen VALO's name and signage pretty much on all the sporting clubs in Australia or so it seems as they're sponsoring so many amazing sport clubs, such as Hawthorn Football Club, Adelaide Crows Football Club, sa sport Adelaide United sport New South Wales Vic sport baseball, Australia Adelaide giants and football sa on today's show Aaron and I deep dive into his journey on founding valey expanding in South Australia and bringing manufacturing back on shore. Aaron shares with us about having production moved back on shore helps to increase employment in South Australia and provide economic benefits for the state. He also shares with us the ambitions and purpose of VALO focused on constantly researching and developing smart lighting products which will improve sustainability reduced carbon footprint and provide significant benefits to a wide range of communities. Aaron also talks to us about the future of VALO and where they're going instead of very exciting future. It was an absolute pleasure talking with Aaron and I know you're absolutely going to love this chat. And if you'd like to check out his profile. You can find it at Aaron Hickmann on LinkedIn and definitely check out the company page valo@valo.com.au. Feel free to connect with me to where you can find me at Daniel Franco on LinkedIn. If you'd like to learn more about some of the other amazing leaders that we've had on the creating synergy podcast and be sure to jump on our website at Synergyiq.com.au. Or check us out at the creating synergy podcast on all the podcast outlets. So welcome back to the creating synergy podcast My name is Daniel Franco and in front of me I have the up and coming superstar Aaron Hickmann on the show CEO of VALO thank

Aaron Hickmann: 3:40

Glad to be here Daniel. you for coming on man

Daniel Franco: 3:40

You seem a little bit nervous sitting over there on the show today you

Aaron Hickmann: 3:43

What happens when you get the invite this morning and you've called me in so here I am so not sure what

Daniel Franco: 3:52

Thank you very much for coming. Appreciate your I'm in for time. You you're doing some wonderful things. VALO is everywhere at the moment in it especially in within the world of Australia and sport in the sporting world. You're sponsoring every single football team basketball team and that's going around the hawthorn Football Club Adelaide Crows, Adelaide united, the 36ers and alike plus you know soccer and all the above as well. What tell us a little bit about your your story and how you became to be on the on the shirt of every football club in, Australia.

Aaron Hickmann: 4:32

How far back do you want to go?

Daniel Franco: 4:34

Let's just let's hear about your story. Right who is Aaron Hickmann and how did you get here?

Aaron Hickmann: 4:39

I was I started the story of why we go back to the school years. And I guess everyone going through school you try and work out what you want to be and what you wanna become. Any colleagues through school. Most people sort of have a path or they're directed towards something and that's, you know, every parent's ambition is to have a kid go to university come Yeah, As a lawyer to doctor, etc. That's the traditional way. So I went through school wanting to be the guy who's catching the flights in the business lounge and doing that. Yeah. What is that? Always wanted to do my own thing started my first little, little business is probably what currently classified as a business, but it's just households buying and selling things and making a profit. So you could classify that as a business at just over 12. And I was bringing in memory PlayStation memory cards and selling them on eBay. So that was only shut down when they realized I was a kid. And I wasn't 18 with a driver's license credit card I used my parents information says so.

Daniel Franco: 5:40

So you were actually generating some pretty good revenue.

Aaron Hickmann: 5:43

Yeah, that's where it started. Work through where did where did the entrepreneur spirit come from as to through to other goods, shirts, clothing, I was playing for a little while there. A famous basketball who had a clothing store. And in my Yeah, we were able to bring in Nike products, and Jordans stuff. Yeah. So legitimately and that was good. And that was during year 12. So it was during that time where I wasn't the best academic student, attendance or result by choice, right? So I was making five, six grand a week back then. And when you get up plays, you got a nice car and why did why do you need to go to school? And that was the attitude. So a kid? Like, is your parents in that world? Or did you uncle or auntie or someone that you picked it up from or I think going back to my grandparents, my parents are both in dental, they've run a successful business successful careers in dental they steered me away from that very much, if there's any directions is most definitely not to get into the dental industry, but it has to be my opa some opa. He's Dutch.

Daniel Franco: 7:00

Yep. So opa is Dutch for grandfather,

Aaron Hickmann: 7:04

Yep. And he was in the electric industry. So he worked for at some back in the day and set up all the substations around Australia. So he came, came in lived in Bondi, you know, the Dutch you can you imagine they're super tan living in Sydney, Rockstar lifestyle Much, much warmer and beautiful here in Australia, who fell in love with the country, met his wife, MoMA. Three kids, my mom's one of them. And he always told me about these stories about his welding business on the side, he always had a side business. So his philosophy was talking about six weeks wages. So you know, he could make six weeks wages or something to that degree, selling a welder back in the day that he'd make in the shed on the weekends. And that would grow into selling two and four and all the rest. And that was his I believe, that's where some of the entrepreneurial spirit came from. And but he was faced with an ultimatum which every entrepreneur and every business man or woman will be in their career. And the ultimatum was, you're not seeing your family. So it's either the business or the family. Yeah. So he chose the family and stayed with his his career. At the Trinity trust. Yep. Back in the day, what it was called. I don't think there was any regrets. But if you look at your your business acumen, I think that would be a regret. So there's always been this little backer of mine. Don't listen to the naysayers. Yeah, go for it go all in, don't give up. So and that sort of just develop from there. So I'd say that's pretty scary stuff.

Daniel Franco: 8:37

Yeah, it's pretty cool. And one thing I do know is that if you've got the support there, you know, especially from the parents and knowing that you can have a crack in worst case scenario, you still got a beautiful home to live in. And

Aaron Hickmann: 8:51

yeah, there's been plenty of ups and downs. But yeah, there's always been that support, I mean, biggest regret. And I say it to people, my biggest regret was not achieving what I'm capable of through high school. And one of my hungry teachers actually caught I was in the advertising just the other week, and I got a nice message through our receptionist, one of my school teachers actually called through the site like, congratulations, amazing what you're doing and whatnot. So it's really nice to bump into the school. probably wasn't the best way to bring it through and following the journey now. Yeah, but it was that moment. You're 12 I think this was one of the trigger points for me as well. When everybody's name is getting read out, as he got up on stage, yeah, year 12 graduation, and he says, I think I think I remember who this name is. And you could just hear my mom gasp in the crowd. And of course, it's Aaron Hickmann and I go up and, and I thought, yeah, I'm never going to be this feeling. It's never going to be like this again. Yeah, there will never be I will never I'll always give it your all. Yeah. 100% Yeah. And it's taken a long time, especially with what we're doing and what we're disrupting in the market. But it's coming to fruition and

Daniel Franco: 10:13

It's amazing those trigger points I have a you got it back. similar story from it was when I was at school plan, first aid football was the vice captain had, you know, a lot of talent as a football player. And, or never forget. A bit like you not that I skipped school or anything like that. But more the point of just wasn't overly concentrating on the academic side, but more about the people influence side and being a bit of a larrikin, and likely to have a bit of a laugh and whatnot. And I remember in front of the team, the football coach at the time said to me, like in front of the whole team, pointed his finger at me and said, you'll never amount to anything. And I remember how shit that felt me. And I thought, you know, I'll you know, I'll show you sort of thing. Yeah, I should meet up with that guy.

Aaron Hickmann: 11:07

You should? I guess. You want it back. I mean, I did get a place in university. So I did it the hard way. And I think that's one of my

Daniel Franco: 11:17

so even like, not going not going to school, you still got to get a spot? No,

Aaron Hickmann: 11:21

no, I didn't. But I did the umat test, I had gone into Bachelor of Science to then go into massive optometry so that that's where I thought you my interest was, so my strengths were physics, English literature, throughout school. But the common feedback was, you know, he'd Excel if he did it, because we know he's capable. He just doesn't want to do it. And that's just one of the things that's That's what entrepreneurs do. Right? They don't want to be told. And I use that term loosely, because I don't think I'm there. But they don't want to be told or I don't want to be told what to do. We want to work out a better way of doing it. Yeah. And that's that's successful business or not. Yeah,

Daniel Franco: 12:00

it's your story about your grandfather and a side business and he was earning more, essentially, from his side business, then then the actual business we've had, I don't know if you've met him, but Jindo Lee, who's the CEO of happyco creator and founder of happyco. And, and the mighty kingdom games, he started that as well. He he said the same thing. He was starting his business. He was working as a website designer and graphic designer started building websites on the site. And he in with one project, he earned more than what he was earning for a whole year. Yeah. Which kind of then set him aside. And the same thing with your schooling, you're like, people would die, they earn five to six gran a week. you can see if that's what you were saying you were bringing in at that age.

Aaron Hickmann: 12:45

So some of the comments that I mentioned to principal and teachers at time, yeah, because I'm earning around the year. But I guess what my old man realized what there's a business acumen there, right. So if you can take that and apply it to a upcoming business or an industry that he got the gift of? of the gamma? Yes. In that sense.

Daniel Franco: 13:09

The ability to drive and keep keep going. That's what started the if your friends were looking back at you now, I if looking back your friends at school, with a sorry, we're at school? Yep. You're in year 12. Looking forward? Would you be on? On the list of people who would be a successful CEO? Within a business?

Aaron Hickmann: 13:38

I don't know who started it. I

Daniel Franco: 13:39

highly doubt it. Yeah, what would have what would everyone be thinking right now?

Aaron Hickmann: 13:43

I don't think you really know where you're going in Utah. There's this huge expectation people do but really, you know, realistically, you don't. A lot of my friends wasn't necessarily at the same school, went to uni. completed degrees, and they're not using utilizing that degree in the profession, there is something completely different. And we've we've bumped into each other and as you do and all the rest and what are you up to? And they say, man, we're watching you. It's crazy. And it's like, Well, it started back then. Yeah, it's it's but we're not. We're not taught these ways. You know, it's almost, it's not so much taboo, but it's not really promoted to go and just do your own thing. Yeah, to this degree. So who knows what they were thinking back then probably thinking wasn't gonna do too much or, or whatnot, but getting into cars because obviously it was loves cars back then. But I'm still

Daniel Franco: 14:42

not sure. Well, kudos. So talk to us about obviously those early years and then you started I know a little bit of background given our conversations previously, but you're you started man lighting at some point as well. Was there anything in that around that? Yeah.

Aaron Hickmann: 14:59

So I guess, come out of your 12 you don't really want to jump into study, a lot of people have a gap year, whatever. So yeah, I was working couple of jobs back in the day, it was the beach house and blockbusters and the most important things. I guess when that you know, you had videos next door to pizza shop. And next door to that was Dan Murphy. So you know, we're sweet setup you like them. But then you've got to sort of wake up, and you get a bit of a kick up the bum from the parents saying, What are you doing, and obviously got the offer from university really didn't want to do it? And I guess you have those real conversations as hard conversations. It's like, well, you didn't commit during school, right? Because you don't want to follow the curriculum. So how all of a sudden now that's going to change through university degree and get a distinction average to get into mass Optometry. So that was the honest channel to us and probably not gonna achieve that. So it's pointless. Yeah, I'll be able to get through and I'll do my way I'll, I'll achieve but you'd still need that result to get into the next court. So I think that was the realistic conversation I had with family back then. So I thought I'll get into real estate, you know, like talking with the hustle all the rest of it. But I started my real estate courses, property management, then going into sales, and then talking through having job interviews can't count how many job interviews I've had over the years where I was where I didn't succeed. No, 17 year old, no one wants a 17 year old kid, got 18 year old kid selling their house that's just realistic. And I was told that they said, you've got the attitude, and you know, the motivation and the drive, but

Daniel Franco: 16:43

you're 10 years. Before I give you a you know, then listen, you can shadow someone, but you know, yeah. And I said, Well, you know, I'm not gonna I want to be there now. So I don't want to have to, you know, do property management or anything like that. My interest was in there. So I ended up getting my first full time job at Australia's largest lighting retail. beacon light. Yeah, so shout out. That did give me some stuff discount. So that was awesome. I was one of two males employed in South Australia. My first paycheck was $24,000 a year. I probably worked harder than anyone else there because I was the young guy. So it was a very, it was a female dominated industry because of the interior design aspects. So I was fortunate to Bev if she's listening for hiring me against probably some of the other recommendations in front of store back a store, what was the role I was everything. So yeah, sales, but also had to help out doing all the lifting as as young young guy does, and and that taught me a lot about Retail Merchandising, and all of those really critical things. Systems. You know, this, this company was virtually bankrupt back through late 80s 90s. They rebranded they're now on the stock exchange when I started, I think it was about 4040 locations. They just went through a bit of a growth. I think now they're about 150 or something. They're raising every product in debatable. We will know for the layman person like myself, you're already alive.

Aaron Hickmann: 18:25

Now we've got some of the products. Yeah, so we wouldn't we were the number one store at Marlin. So shout out to Marlin in Australia. So we used to sell $60,000 worth of fans and lots of in a weekend. Yeah. Which is one product. And this is when I met a really great guy called Nick Litus He's a lawyer believe he's in Sydney. we've bumped into each other over the years. And I remember him saying to me like why do you want to go to uni? And so he was at Beacon? Yeah, he was a casual

Daniel Franco: 18:56

doing his degree and Nick Litus Litus? At a lighting store, correct. Very good. And these are the omens that we see. That's

Aaron Hickmann: 19:05

so yeah, he was casually we'd work Thursdays and weekends and have a good time. Yeah, when we were working together. And he said, you know, if you don't go through uni, you can always start a lighting business. And I'm like, No, I don't want to do that. Like, yes, that's not very cool, whatever. And he goes, Look at how much money this company makes. It's one store. Because there's, there's money in this industry. And it's revolving door every weekend. It's the same. So that's actually quite interesting. So going back to my I guess, my strength strengths if there was one during school being physics and whatnot. Lighting is physics. So I was very interested in the scientific aspect of it not so much the crystal chandelier aspect of Beacon. So, I was tasked with always changing light bulbs, one of my amazing morning tasks, and there's a lot in the lighting store every day.

Daniel Franco: 19:56

And that means for the early that would have been before Yeah, flu rose.

Aaron Hickmann: 19:59

We're coming out with those He gave me 2020 things, but you don't really see him. Yeah, yeah. And naturally, when you haven't changed these things over and over, you think, Man, this is incredibly waste of time, it's using a lot of power, throwing them in the bin. Yeah. And the cost because you'd have to enter in and write and write them off manager sign off hundreds, hundreds of dollars a day, just the light bulbs to power the store. And we had some really crappy LED bulbs that are like the little little dot diodes, you see, like in the 70s, and 80s, that you probably played with, you know, during school in tech class in a world and led to a circuit paradigm with a battery. Yeah, those ones in this little tiny directional spotlight and a beacon, we sold them at the time for pond lights, because they ran quite cool. You stick with upon light, and it just lasted forever. And I thought, Well, why isn't this technology being applied to everything? Like, why is it just in this least popular product, but it's the best longevity? Why are we putting in the worst product? Why isn't it going into the everyday product? So going back to my hustle ways, I started sourcing product from around the world. And I started importing and dabbling and trying to learn more about the technology. At the time, it was some product assembled in South Africa, all places, quite high end. Very expensive. If you looked at it today, it'd be pretty shocking in terms of performance and quality. But there are little strips that you could utilize under overheads for a kitchen bench. And a replacement light, but

Daniel Franco: 21:29

what year was it?

Aaron Hickmann: 21:32

Who have to be noted as 11? Yeah, so 10 Yeah, really early?

Daniel Franco: 21:38

Yeah. Yeah. So you got eBay is where you were looking mainly to get the now's to go on line and just start searching.

Aaron Hickmann: 21:46

Well, I always started I've found while we didn't have Alibaba back then it was like global sources and all this type of stuff. And he had to present yourself as a company. So I use my dad's ABN and whatever to make up this. I'm a big company that imports product. And then you sort of get through some of the filters, whether people would respond or not. And that's how I dealt in those PlayStation memory cards back in the day. So I ended up working with these factories that were pretty starting to produce these bespoke LED bulbs. I mean, at the time of three watt light bulbs around $60 us I guess, that actually had some top line output so that that was the angle. Skype? Yeah, we didn't have WhatsApp. WeChat Yeah, any social media? Yeah, it was Skype and yeah, old school mail.com or Hotmail as your email address. Now it's Gmail. So that started those now. Being young I accidentally got a shipment sent to Beacon lighting. Managers found out conflict of interest. Yeah, well, what are you doing? And I said, Well, hey, there's the there's a real future in this technology. Look at what it can do. Like this is this is on the market around there now. So why why aren't we looking at this? And they said, it's never going to happen. LEDs will never be the light source. We sell halogen downlights you with us or against us. And I said, I'm against it see you later. And that was it. So I left there worked for a bespoke lighting company in Kenta. The benefit working with them they allowed me to set up my first led company was selling strip lighting company was called infinity at the time with a very space theme and whatnot which I thought was pretty cool. And back then we'll selling LED strip for $150 and meter for 10 watts. And I met who became my I've come down a lot since then it's $10 per meter now 20 bucks a minute for good stuff. Yeah, yeah, Baba bunnies off the shelf here but you don't buy from bunnies Daniel.

Daniel Franco: 23:58

You can but if you want the good stuff get go to

Aaron Hickmann: 24:02

4017 William Street. Yeah, so we're doing bespoke home. So you know, 150 $200 a meter for that on the kitchen bench for these luxury homes was was palatable, I guess for clients. And you know, the cost was a significant margin was actually quite low. On at that rate at the time. I met a guy called Johnny Francisco, who was a casual employee there. And he was studying to be an architect but had a skill set on SolidWorks, which is like an industrial design software. So 3d modeling similar to CAD was around prototyping product. So we started designing what would become Australia's most efficient and longest warranty product. Our new LED downlight which still proud of today, they're still running in homes today. It was a 12 watt downline.

Daniel Franco: 24:58

So how it worked like where the knowledge came From from the design point of view, you say he's an architect, but that

Aaron Hickmann: 25:03

he's an architect trician or anything? No, but I mean, I'm enlightened to say the first time we're working with, with the leading builders, okay. Metricon river gum, supplying them, you know, 100 downloads per home because that was the Australian trend with a halogen download 50 watts each put 100 in your home.

Daniel Franco: 25:22

How did you get those contracts is when a knockin so that

Aaron Hickmann: 25:24

was through No, that was through the bespoke lighting company. But then I wanted to invest time with my little side business in developing the product, supplied them the product at a at a discount market leading price. Yeah, they can make a significant margin, there was a cost saving for the builder, everybody's happy. So at the time, we're selling retail on the on the download, so 129 95 for 10. What download now, you know, similar quality down like that, if we were to bring it in today, we'd probably retail at 29.

Daniel Franco: 25:54

Okay, so the technology has come a long way.

Aaron Hickmann: 25:56

Yeah, it has been cost cutting. Yep, massive. That's where we started. So I guess the year rolled on, imports started to become more prevalent in the market. price war started in the LED industry, cheap, Southeast Asian product started to come into the market. So our retail price had to drop to compete with that, even though our base cost was the same. US dollar, I started, I think started to get affected around that time as well. So we started to lose a little bit of margin on the foreign exchange.

Daniel Franco: 26:30

So are you one of the original leaders of bringing in LEDs within Australia? Do you know if there was any other big moms looking at it? Because know,

Aaron Hickmann: 26:38

all the big mining companies were looking at it? I think I think probably first to market with the with the efficient specified product that we had. But we did not move quick enough. Okay to become market leader and penetration mostly just didn't have the backing? Yeah, we're dealing with companies. We're turning 50 300 million here. Yeah, yeah. Family generational businesses that are salt, institutional corporates. You know, they've got the B checkbook. So yeah, we focused on little old Adelaide and we chipped away. And we built good relationships with with the downlight product, I guess. But you get to a point where you're just fighting on price. Yeah. And you're not enjoying what you're doing. And I guess fast forward to what we're doing. Now. One of my underpinning rules is we have to have fun doing what we're doing. Otherwise you don't want to do it. So if we go back to then, you know, you work with a client, you design their house, you light it up, you don't see him again. That's that's how it is. And then you go on to the next one. So it's very repetitive. I went to a 36ers game or a 36ers Arena. This is when they didn't have broadcast. I think they hadn't customer and hadn't entered and taken over no Foxtel deal yet. Went to a game. I hadn't been to game for years. Yeah, to be around. My wife's cousins and being in lighting. I'm staring at the lights half the night after games thinking man, this is old school. This is really bad. Yeah. Uniformity on the court was really good. That buzzing so the old 2030 year old ballasts so the lights and I can hear it no one else notices. I'm an idiot looking up at the ceiling. And I thought, you know, we could we could change this to LED I'm sure we could develop something that could change this. But we're talking completely different world now. You know, from a 10 watt LED, we're talking in the hundreds of watts high power. Reached out, met with the CEO with a club went through a process. Basically, it was a return on investment for them would save them net six $9,000 a month. So it was cashflow positive. If they financed it. We did the deal. I guess that was the start of doing sponsorship. Yeah. Because the first basketball court in Australia to go for LED fee bill of one standard. How

Daniel Franco: 29:04

does that contract come about though? Without a product with that, you know, big backing big corporation? Where does that come from?

Aaron Hickmann: 29:13

It came from vision of the end game, going in being able to promise to deliver on the outcome. And then we had to backtrack, working out how we're going to do it. We knew from a product technology perspective, we had the technology, it was a very bespoke product very heavy in terms of luminaire today, today's standard is especially to what we've developed now. Yeah, made here. But we had the Japanese LED technology where the engineers working with us. It's been several years now working with them. Yeah, in all of our other core product. So we knew we had the team on the engineering side. So we put it together. There hasn't been one cord light fail through it. And that was 2015 2014. Yeah. So they're still going strong. Yep, still going.

Daniel Franco: 29:57

That's a titanium stadium.

Aaron Hickmann: 29:59

Yeah, what's it's called adelaide 36ers arena now. Yeah, it was Titania a bit. Yeah. So we completely pulled away from the residential market that that was our lightning bolt light bulb. Yeah. No pun. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 30:16

So what happened from there you you've got you've designed this light that can sit in a stadium, obviously, you know, dollar signs in your eyes. And yeah, I could sell this to every basketball stadium in Australia, or whatever it might look like sporting arena in Australia is I

Aaron Hickmann: 30:33

guess I was fortunate for the club. At the time scouts own them. So I did have a mutual contact within scouts that sort of verified me. But we didn't have a website. We knew what we were doing, we had the product, but we surely didn't have the brand. So a lot of learning curves out of that after completing the project. And then little bit stagnant to actually, to kick it off. We thought we're just going to roll this out and being very, very simple, but absolutely not the case in business. There's a few things, you know, learned from that. I mean, I guess the reason why we wanted to continue, I wanted to continue on with sports lighting, is because, you know, we only had the lights turned on the day of the game. This is within a two week break within the NBL season, we changed every fixture in the whole venue. The pressure was enormous and sanction fees if the ball didn't go up. Yeah, I was that was it for me. So it's one thing you learned, you got to go all in Yeah, with a lot of these early decisions. And throughout. They become more calculated as you progress in your business career. But early on It's do or die. Yeah. But seeing a game broadcast showcased on TV, and the crowd, loving what we did. That was the hook. For me. I was like we have to stay in sports like this is awesome. People would actually appreciate what the end result is. Club does financial aspects, renewable aspects, you know, saving power, all these things. Taking clubs to progress to carbon neutral. All of those things made a lot of sense back then. It's, I guess we are have landed. And it continuing on today

Daniel Franco: 32:09

in. So let's talk about VALO and the growth of and where that's come from. Yeah. So out of that lighting and the lighting the titanium Arena Adelaide 36ers arena at the time VALO was born. Is that kind of what

Aaron Hickmann: 32:29

No, I that was a really tricky time for the LED lighting industry. Because there were huge transitions transitions throughout the time, what people were accepting as product, like different regulations of how product could be installed in terms of installation covering downloads, because we're still in that we're still working with the builders at time. Yeah. So there was this sort of year, plus two year transition, what we wanted to become as a business, I was working with a couple of other lighting companies developing the LED product. So consultancy, basically, which was good in a way that I could understand on a national scale what where the market was going and and to be honest, the end result was it was getting more fierce in the commodity style. And the whole business scape was changing things were converting from bricks and mortar shops to online that had a huge impact to the lighting, retail industry. You're the largest hardware chain in Australia has become one of the biggest lighting suppliers in Australia. They expanded massively. They had that competition since bannings. Obviously went masters pop that masters designed this huge lighting section of the store been caught with of that expanded that and that they really hurt a lot of the eastern state lighting stores except for beacon beacon have just dominated because they own that platform. VALO was born as a brand. And I started building on the brand. Our company there

Daniel Franco: 34:04

give me the meaning of VALO. What's the Where does the name come from?

Aaron Hickmann: 34:08

So we went through a design phase with a local branding expert. If you want it back infinity, there was an issue with a company not associated with us called the Infinity cable company was burning down all those homes in Victoria. So that was away from them had to move away from that brand. And you get to a point where we just wanted to focus on product. So we engaged with a branding expert had to be the brief was it had to be easy to read and listen, you know, five letters or less preferably, and the logo had to look nice on sport kit. Yeah. Had to be legible, and a lot of is a nice looking logo. Yeah, it works. Right. That's because we designed it in the end. Yeah. So we you know, we took a typography in and tweeting and it works really nice. And it wasn't until we started our expansion plans to bring manufacturing back where we actually realize VALO and light in Finnish. Okay, so we're talking with a Finnish manufacturer and he starts talking Finnish to me and I'm like, What are you talking about? He said to you or your finish? And I said, No. And he goes, Oh, VALO means light I said, Well, we we flute, that one. Word just looked good. So the marketing team didn't know that. When we went through our initial brief, I was the one that selected the name. I just liked it.

Daniel Franco: 35:27

Yeah. Then it grows. What tell me how does it grow? How does it grow from there? How does it to start taking off and you you end up at kin town and and what's the purpose of the business today?

Aaron Hickmann: 35:40

So we were importing product predominantly out of Korea. As we as a really transitioned to a sports lighting company, or high performance lighting companies, what we brand ourselves today, we're importing products out of Korea, we found prices were increasing, they were going to invest in other Southeast Asian countries for manufacturing, not in China. So there was major disruption on the horizon there. We weren't enjoying importing product and selling and holding all these product lines with some 14,000 skews within our inventory management system. It's a nightmare. So this was about 2018. We I said, our main mission, my dad always said to me, whatever you do, you want to get to a point we can do it here. If you're importing product, manufacture the product here. And years, years go by you get you go to these amazing factories and you think that it's too hot, you know, Holden's closing forward shot, labor prices, energy prices here in Australia, we're gonna we're combating for clients that energy prices, how can we run a factory like this, but it takes a holistic approach. And some property developers that are here in South Australia do this now really well, with a 50 year vision, you have to have that. So we were out in northern suburbs in a warehouse, we decided to move out of that get City get into the city fringe. Ironically, run King William Street, which is where I started my first mining business, we're back almost 10 years later. Different locations, it's not too far up the road, really. And during COVID. So we're working out of an office in Norwood. We needed to find what our new home was going to be. And this building was on the markets been on the market for a while and rolled the dice, we bought it during COVID. I mean, we still technically couldn't even visit it as a group. But we went under contract, we bought it. And we we redeveloped it with the vision to bring manufacturing back. We've invested over $8 million now in in the facility in r&d and our manufacturing equipment in into the building or for what it is now. So we've got a an automated SMT, which is surface mount technology pick and place machine line. So our LED boards in the near future will be all fully made here in Atlanta. And then we've heard sourced and then yes, we have to do with sourcing everything that we can out of South Australia or Australia, that is still here, as industry would we're getting out of here. Unfortunately, with the demise of industry over the last 50 years, some industry heavy industry isn't is no longer here. So we have to import that. But we are looking at advanced ways of manufacturing those components. And all the core value of the manufacturing, the assembly of the product is done here in Adelaide. So that's what we're doing. Where does

Daniel Franco: 38:48

the a million dollar investment come from? And it was the business doing that? Well, where you could invest your own cash, or did you seek it? Did you borrow it? Did you get government grants from a manufacturing? Like where does that what is that? Everything? Yeah,

Aaron Hickmann: 39:05

all of the above? Really hard years have borrowed a lot from my parents. They've been my biggest backers. When you get lending from family, that's when you're all in. Yeah. And you have to be all in emotionally.

Daniel Franco: 39:21

Yeah, absolutely. Especially your family. You want to make sure you pay that back. Yeah. We

Aaron Hickmann: 39:25

had a number of good years, we rolled all the profits in when we bought our building. We know what's happened with with real estate prices. Yeah. So we'll smart. You know, some will say your float, but I think we will strategic with our investments in property. So and that's sort of underpins, I guess the Group of Companies. You know, we're investing in three different areas, but we're underpinned by property with everything that we do. So we can leverage that. You can bank that. We're bankable as a business. Only now we've taken on corporate facilities. That's where it all came from. You know, people see is the tip of an iceberg. Yeah, I set it at lunch and the other day when I had to talk, you don't see everything that's underneath. Yeah, I ate pasta and beans baked beans like, yeah, there are weeks where our fridge was depleted. Yeah. Because noodles and yeah, 100% Everything's going.

Daniel Franco: 40:17

It's the typical duck scenario on the on the surface that duck looks like it's floating. Yeah. Leave it underneath it's the legs go on. Yeah, so All right, so you've got so you're so VALO now? What? What is the purpose? What's your core reason for doing what you're doing? Is it still sporting? I mean, you said high performance. Why are you so attracted to that? And why is that? Why is it continually improving and growing?

Aaron Hickmann: 40:50

So it's an interesting one, because it changes all the time. But I guess I'll our mission is to assist venues and clubs, to transition to carbon neutral, through reducing their energy consumption, consumption, and increasing experience, we sell experience. So that's what we do, we don't sell like we saw in sports, and yet we sell experience. So better lit facilities, using Australian made product, high quality, 10 year warranty, no maintenance, because we've got drones coming online, in the near future for maintenance. We are producing in our carbon neutral facility, and our culture is king. So we touch on stuff, that's our greatest asset, we've grown from one man band to to two grew into four with 15, should be 20 in the next six weeks. 60 by the end of the year, and that'll keep growing here in South Australia. Brilliant. So that's, that's really who we are.

Daniel Franco: 42:02

We're there. Whereas all the main contract like is it? Is it global now? Like what's what's happening with the sales where, where are they all coming from? And do you just sell them the product and they go and install it themselves.

Aaron Hickmann: 42:14

A lot of our conversations happen three years ago, they started three years ago, they take that long. So we're halfway through our Norwood oval with the Norwood Football Club project. So we've just delivered 300 lineal meters of LED screens around the perimeter of the oval in their transition to go carbon neutral. Over the coming weeks, or month, weather dependent, we are replacing all their light fittings on their towers and solar generation energy story. So we're transitioning, helping them to transition to carbon neutral, but what it means for them as a club, and this is where we get involved, we don't just sell product, we it's a real partnership as very in depth, the client or the venue. But we have an understanding that Nord, everyone sees them as, say, the red lakes, right? It's a sign of Phil, but the venue is much more than that. It's women's AFL. So AFL W Grand Final, I believe is being held there. It's JL T round, if it's still called that a full preseason, so they can host a number of games there. And traditionally, these community venues aren't adequate enough for AFL standards. So by transforming their signage, which they used to throw out every year to all digital, and LEDs, pairing the whole venue or lighting up the whole venue, we can now fluctuate the lighting performance on the field from juniors for training all the way through to AFL preseason standards, which is what AFL wants. So the club's invested in that which now becomes a revenue generating stream for them as well. You have to take that whole approach. So it is it's a complicated one. We've mastered that now. And we're rolling it out to other very large clubs and large facilities. I guess one of our core action points is we always back local and back community, whether it's sports essay, right through to the obviously the tier one clubs, Football Federation, South Australia, etc. We've done a large partnership agreement with the hawthorn football club. That's our expansion into Victoria. A lot of conversations are happening around Australia, but our eyes by the end of the year within the US, so we are focused globally.

Daniel Franco: 44:36

Yeah. Wow. So are you are you going out from your product point of view? Are you going out and there's these companies football clubs in communities and that they're buying product and you're providing the goods and services for the sponsorship or how does it work like for someone who's looking to grow their company Any, what's your model? How do you? How do you do it? Or you that's, you know, willing to elaborate on that?

Aaron Hickmann: 45:05

Oh, look, you need clubs needs sport partners to run otherwise they don't survive. We know that. Good partners for us, help us network and get our brand out there. You know, we're the New Kids on the Block. We're the disruptors. Lot of naysayers out there always has been, there's always going to be and that's fine. I invite you to come see what we're actually doing. Because we are the ones doing it here. In South Australia, in Australia, we're bringing the manufacturing back, and we're employing people here. And there's a huge network of contract manufacturers that are supported by us. So the proofs there. Yeah. Yeah. And we're competing against competition that work with importers and their products made offshore and whatnot. So for us brand recognition within the sporting industry is big. It's one of these rules of success. You have to give something back. Yeah. So we don't like using the word sponsorship, we use the word partnership, because it's more than monetary transaction. Yeah. So we can deliver a better result. For the long term. It says IT infrastructure safer for lightning. But this you know, this commitment from our store, also back the club. We like going to games and whatnot. Yeah. Annual. So it's nice and easy. Yeah, absolutely.

Daniel Franco: 46:31

I'll expect an invite. Open invite. What, but where does the funding come from all this stuff? Like if you're going out and providing this and you get some great sponsorship? How does? How does the business keep growing? And how does it How does it grow into other markets? If like, is there an exchange of goods and services that you pay us? And we put this in like, how does it

Aaron Hickmann: 46:51

what's like, what's, yeah, at the end of the day, we know we're charitable charity. Yeah, that's, yeah, of course. But you know, our marketing, we've got a very aggressive marketing strategy. Yeah, not just here in South Australia, and Australia. But but internationally. So we are working in the US, I've got some big plans for the US. You have to you have to get your brand visible, otherwise, it's very hard to sell. So there's a lot of eyes on us now. And we're known, especially in Adelaide, which is great. But it's a slow, it's a slow burn process. And you have to be willing to invest time and look at that long term strategy and planning and you got to have the backing. So we're fortunate enough that, you know, we bought out we own our facility, we own our equipment, we own everything. And you know, we're not heavily geared with debt. We are now backed by a and Zed emerging corporate, which is fantastic. So obviously, Brendan renowed. He's on the podcast. And he's, he's been amazing that they've, they understand our vision, and they're backing us for the growth. So that's now so now we can take this model internationally, we've got the the backing done, well done.

Daniel Franco: 48:04

Yeah. When you talk about brand recognition, it helps when you've got the likes of Sam Mitchell, from the hawthorn football club on TV. And he's got these nice little VALO running down his arm. Sides.

Aaron Hickmann: 48:17

Yeah, it looks really good. Like it actually looks really good. Yeah, and it's, we're not just dive into Sunday, because our brand looks good. It has to be in alignment with the club. So Adelaide, United Adelaide Football Club, all the way through the community, because not just the big ticket ones. And but Hawthorne is doing really well. There's multiple opportunities for us, not just in Victoria, but in Tasmania. So it was a logical step. And we're working with the New South Wales based AFL club, potentially, and what they may look like, has to be opportunity for while we go in, but it should also be highly beneficial for them to brand with us. And we're seeing that now.

Daniel Franco: 48:57

What, what are some of the, you know, you've been through a lot with the ups and downs, you know, you've there's been some hard times in there, especially through COVID, and all the above the learnings that you've, you've sort of an experience that you've gained across your time in the past, especially in the past couple of years. What are some of the most, what are some of the things that pop out in your head that you go? Whew, I'm glad I got through that and anyone else that's going through those sorts of things I can help you with. So what what are some of those experiences on the downs that you learned along the way?

Aaron Hickmann: 49:34

I think every business founder and CEO if they're still in that position, I think they'd greatest skill set would have to be resilience. And I think I've developed that now. There are a lot of times where there's a lot of external pressures, whether it's funding or shipping, especially now like it's 10 times worse now than it was three years. as you go, you just need to get on with it. And we do training now. And I've been taught, I have naturally developed this, and it's with Michelle stance, and it's called zone culture training. So you're either in the zone or you're in the zoo. Most people and all the naysayers are always in the zoo. They're the negative ones frustrated, they're angry, they're depressed. It's always someone else's fault. If you're in the zone, the high fliers the Elon Musk's in the world, or is in the zone, everything's always good. If you naturally can develop that, that's when resilience comes into play. And to be honest, you have to look at some of those challenging points as opportunity. And when you do that, everything else falls into place. And that's when everyone else says, Wow, look at what you've done, and all the rest of it. And I bring that analogy back of the iceberg.

Daniel Franco: 50:57

Yeah. Well, it was there's a saying that I like to say it takes seven years to become an overnight success, right. Like it. There's this pain? I think we're about that. Yeah. And hardship. Yeah. And you know, even my own experience running a business, it's hard. It's because you're not only dealing with external pressures, but then internal pressures. And and obviously, you've got a young family as well, right? So you throw in kids and wife and family into the mix of and trying to maintain both worlds whilst trying to realize your vision. I mean, how do you manage that element of it all, as well? Like, how do you manage both family and business and these growth scale that you want to

Aaron Hickmann: 51:43

look iy. Yeah, it comes down to your team. And it's not just your team at work is a team at home. So there's my incredible wife, and she looks after the the 18 month old at the moment, there's a tornado, her name's shatter, Maxine, Maxine, and my little boy, Ari, and being able to go home and to enjoy the family life is what keeps you motivated. She has been incredible, an incredible support for me over the years through all the hard times, many times we think I'm just gonna give up. And you hear the little voices might be a little rumors within your family saying I want to just go get a job or do this. But if you stay true to the, to the mission, and you get there, yeah. Told you. So

Daniel Franco: 52:30

How did you put How did you push through the time where, you know, knowing a little bit about your back was up against the wall? You know, a few times? How did? How did you overcome the thought process? I need to feed my family here like this? Is this is critical? And how do you keep pushing through that?

Aaron Hickmann: 52:50

How do you do that? I think you just don't have a choice. You have to visualize where you're going. Stay true. Always have the belief. And you know, we got there, you know, I think it's never going to be easy. If it's easy. Everybody will do it. Be needed, surround yourself with positive people that can also support you and back in and it might just be the little coffee meeting or the little phone chat and whatnot. So you know, in networks, especially so you know, our door's always open. And I'm big for that. Friday drinks while I'm in casuals today, Daniel. So we're gonna be sorry, yeah, anyone? Anyone's welcome, you know, develop and you can talk you can, you know, if entrepreneurs want to, or startup people, people with an idea, just want to talk and maybe chat to our engineers or have a plan our equipment or, you know, we're open for that. And there are a lot of closed doors back in the day, but the ones that are open are still in my network today and a big advocates for me and the business and what we're doing. So yeah, you just, you know, if young guys are going through this, or young young women are going through this, you just have to surround yourself with that, and you just have to go for it. Failure is not an option. Yeah. And I think that's when that's when your best decisions can be made as well. And that's when you learn the most, you have to be in the pressure cooker at some point. I think I'm fortunate I look back now I think I was fortunate enough in the younger years, because we were able to COVID was COVID was terrible for a lot of companies toe foot a lot of businesses but for us, I think we were able to navigate through that quite well. And we set ourselves up for now what we are so the end result what you're seeing now is through all those years of Yeah, some years of pain and some years of hard work and then COVID and all those challenges. We're now seeing the end result of what's now Dean, that's been a good plan.

Daniel Franco: 54:54

You use the word visualize in one of your descriptions there. And yeah, visualize where you want to be. Yeah. What does that look like for you? What is your? What is your future look like? And you know, if you were to talk about experience, and you know, obviously the bring in low carbon neutral, which is like an amazing, like, path that you're on from a mission point of view, but I really want to explore, I want to learn a little bit more about experience, what does that look like? What are you trying to land on? What does doesn't look like for VALO?

Aaron Hickmann: 55:31

I don't know. And, you know, this is what every investor wants to know, they want to know what your exit plan is. But you know,

Daniel Franco: 55:37

because you're talking 50 years, right? I don't have any exit plan. If you're thinking if if the timeframe. Well,

Aaron Hickmann: 55:43

I'd rather a legacy than an exit. So. So why back a few years, and I went with NBI. Matt Selia. Yeah, to the US, is a new venture. You mentioned Institute at Flinders at Tonsley innovation precinct, I started getting involved with that precinct and one of my business mentors, Daniel Smith, who's now CSIRO shout out down. When there's just the Quickie mark there, and there's big vision, nothing really there in VR was there Flinders, where they're invited to go over to Silicon Valley, I think seven or eight of us. And we got to hear from VCs and Aussies that are kicking goals over their startups. And hear how the real world works, right? Because we're from Adelaide. So this is why I thought is really hard to come with this podcast, because we were told back then Aussies talk too much. We waffle got to cut, you spit it out, you have 30 seconds to pitch. That's how you should sum up your entire story. Yeah, and then you're on the hook. And that's why some people think Americans are quite arrogant, because they're super confident, because you've only got that the second pitch, we've

Daniel Franco: 56:46

got 300 million people trying to sell to you, right? Yeah, that's right.

Aaron Hickmann: 56:50

We met some amazing venture capitalists and investors into Dropbox and all these different types of things and go around the table. And everyone's saying what they're doing, and whatever. And it comes to me. And there's one guy and he mentioned that, you know, anyone can sell lights. That was his take on it. But and this has always stuck with me. And I say to everybody that you need to find your Elon Musk moment. And of course, everyone's out. What's that? Tell us a secret to that. And it finally Elon Musk moment is find the platform, if you own the platform, doesn't matter what you're doing. Your business will take off. And he goes, that's all I'm gonna say. So be open ended. Questions. Answer? Yeah. I then met with another Australian running a successful business in renewable projects down in Santa Ana, because I split from the group and then I flew over to New York and met with a an investor who has has an amazing story. Also starting out in potentially optometry ended up financing, one of the largest corporate refinance deals with Chrysler Group, and he sold the Tiffany building when he wasn't a real estate agents so I could dive more into his story. It was amazing. I met with these amazing people, right. And then I went to Europe, I total all the amazing factories in Europe and Germany particular arburg big thing for arburg is the founder of the company still works in the factory. Every day, is lunch joins them and the entire team eat together. Every week, it's two euros, because in January, nothing's free, you have to pay for something even though the meal is probably worth 40 euros. And I just thought, you know, this is incredible. This factory is surrounded by glass in the Black Forest, the team meets together everyday Everyone seems happy. It's this is not what I've seen in Australia, yet. Very different to the grind, the real hustle in the United States, and especially in Silicon Valley. So how can I bring that back to Australia? And I guess that's where we've now got to now. So what does own the platform mean? Well, it's owning the prop, the lab, the bricks and mortar, everything in the building. And then owning the platform when when we're delivering our projects. So that's where we we've got to now I believe with VALO. And, you know, come back to what the exit strategy is, or whatever. My number one rule is, we have to have fun doing what we're doing. So I go to the office on a Monday, I'm not working, we're just enjoying. So yeah, you know, we're on board the ride. And, you know, we want to leave a legacy in Adelaide in South Australia. You know, we're here for the long haul. And we're setting up our new facility, which is six times bigger than where we are now. So more on that will come over the months as we launch but then as we double and quadruple down our team basically is what we're doing in terms of numbers. So there isn't an exit strategy.

Daniel Franco: 59:49

When we're talking about what is done like I mean, is it a world full of like, is it stadiums across the world full availa gear and will that progress to more than Just lighting like is there? You know, you've mentioned Elon a few times you and I have spoken about it, we're both big fans, and he's changing the world, you know, his ultimate vision is to spread the human race across multiple, like planets. And so if Earth was ever taken out, the civilization still survives, and we can keep growing. And he's doing that through Tesla with electric, you know, Solar City, SpaceX and the boring companies coming up with all these different technologies. I got no idea what Twitter's got to do with any of that. But what's your vision? And I mean, you've got this lighting thing. You've got a few other things going on the gun? Are you looking into the drone stuff now? And

Aaron Hickmann: 1:00:45

yep, yeah. So we're investing in drones to obviously, will. The drones heavy payload drones at 2.6 meters diameter, will be the only ones in South Australia and potentially in Australia, with licensing to actually fly these that they're virtually helicopters. And that's to maintain the lights to to give the product more longevity, and to meet the warranty standards. So how do you change a light bulb was always the classic saying, Well, how do you how do you clean a sports light on a 65 meter tower? Traditionally, when the light bulb blew, that's when you change the bowl, wipe it down, whatever. But now with LEDs to make sure they last, we offered 10 year warranty, but we want to push to 20. How do we make the product last 20 years and our Gen five Zenith holy designed here in Adelaide by us. We're working with defense contractors to manufacture components of our product, we've got a 20 year plus life designed into the product. But when we put it out into quite harsh environments, which we're working on at the moment, be more rural, almost like the moon, you know, you've got extreme Wind, Sand, potentially dust, all of that. So they need that it's a maintenance schedule. So you know you have a shower, you wash your car? Well, it's the same lies, you need to maintain the lights, and then you get that longevity out of it. But yeah, we believe the best, cost effective, most efficient way is in the drones. Yeah. But now the drones is opening us up to other other opportunities, other opportunities as well. So I'm in this moment with the zoo with a group of companies Veloz, obviously, one, its technology, manufacturing, we're in agriculture, viticulture and underpinned by property. So that's what the group is, is involved in. So Viola will very much be a lighting company. I don't know if the brand will turn into something else as we invest and grow into the United States and into Europe and whatnot, that may very well, if Elon Musk wants to light up Mars, then he can give me a call. But there's other industries that we're investing in, I think our big mission is to grow job employment here and to keep jobs here for the future. You know, my kids, you know, everyone's talking about housing prices and all of that, but what about career progression? Yeah, one of our recent recruits has moved from Sydney to Adelaide. So, you know, there has always been this saying of the brain drain, and I think it's going to take private enterprise working with government, but really, it's it's up to private business to actually fix this. Yeah. And to have something attractive that people actually want to come back to something very innovative. That is also thinking global as well, I think that's what we're doing.

Daniel Franco: 1:03:38

That's awesome. Are you the CEO of the Group of Companies? Or is how does that work?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:03:43

Yeah, I'm not quite techno king like, Elon Musk is his title. But uh, yeah, at the moment very much. We're building our teams in all the different areas you need to build your good team around you. It's very specialized in all these other key areas. But at the moment, yeah, I'm the vision. What

Daniel Franco: 1:03:57

do you how do you, how do you how do you manage all of that at once? Right, and do you see help? Do you get coaching? Do you have an advisory board

Aaron Hickmann: 1:04:07

board, where we are setting up an advisory board around for VALO specifically, I've got a very good exec team Penelope and Sam CEO, and CCO Gary Austin's been an executive advisor of mine for many, many years. You just need to build a team around you. And you really need to know what you're good at and what you're not good at. Any business owner needs to really work that out quickly. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Like I'm not good at organizing things. Or having super organized whatever.

Daniel Franco: 1:04:35

Yeah, I noticed that was trying to get in contact. Oh, you told me about this morning. Come on.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:04:40

But yeah, so I'm, I know what my skill set is. And that way I can cover off a lot of these ventures and one the pie in the sky. We call it the Aaron Hickman universe and Dean of renew us. Just studio. He's my gravity he is leading obviously For the design and development of whether it's property through to feed out factory expansion, viticulture, expansion, all of that. So you just naturally and slowly, progressively will build that team. And once you've got that you can take on more without being detrimental to the other. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 1:05:19

So I think what is I mean, where to from here though, like when when you talk about growing these businesses where, where do you place your time? Mostly, which business? Are you concentrating on? At the forefront? Which one do you think will be the catalyst? Is it Veilleux? Or is it some of these other ones that you're looking at? In the background? What What? What does it look like? And you know, how much is too much as well, right? You know, we often told to focus on one and it seems like you're us spreading out? Are you concerned of spreading yourself too thin?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:05:59

Or there's always concerns, everyone will always tell you what to do. That's why you don't do it. Yeah, you do it your way. Anything can get to that point. But I think VALO VALO is my baby. And the majority of time is spent there. Because of the you know, when we're talking the multimillion dollar projects, which we're engaged on, and I'm engaged on personally, they take a long time. So you're naturally and you're forced to be invested into that for various years on end.

Daniel Franco: 1:06:31

Just want to touch on the manufacturing ace, did you? You know, you talked about nice eyes. And yeah, it's expensive to manufacture here in South Australia and Australia, in general, how are you overcoming those hurdles?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:06:48

Yeah, so everyone told me not to invest in, in certain equipment, because there are capabilities here. But if you want to be serious, we need to do it ourselves. You know, we've got some of the most expensive real estate, especially for commercial leasing, factory abilities or buildings that could be manufacturing, and easy to come by, especially city friends very difficult. Most, you know, we started our journey to bring manufacturing back when we were hit with the most expensive power prices in the world, there's a good peak there and South Australia's transition to very much renewable state. And it's been a numerous times where Adelaide has operated off grid completely off grid period of time. So yeah, we've we've got an enormous solar system on our roof we manufacture during the day, at the moment, and we're working towards storing that energy. We've only had a power bill, our biggest power bill for the quarter was like $1,000, which is unheard of for a manufacturing facility. I'm sure that will grow as we grow. But you really have to control all of those aspects. You have to own your building to be able to invest in the building. Whereas if you're just leasing and whatnot, and a very short forecast, especially by bean counters, they'll say that it's not viable. And that's and that's true. But if you've got the luxury of a longer vision, 10 2050 vision, and you believe that what you're doing here is better than you can and, you know, I think over the coming months and years, we'll we'll have automation come into play in advanced manufacturing of materials in house, hopefully, that will see us even more cost competitive with Southeast Asia. So we've got a cost competitive product if we compare ourselves to the important product, which we believe we're better. But now we have even more opportunity with our export potential. So it works. Yeah. Not for everyone, not for every product, but for high performance, high quality and high dollar value product. Australia. Yeah, we can make it happen here.

Daniel Franco: 1:09:02

Yep. There's a statistic around it saying that 17 years is the average lifespan of a business and you're you're thinking 20 30 50 years head? How do you wrap your head around that? Thinking that far ahead?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:09:15

I mean, happy with 17 years 40 retired? That'd be a good number to be on a yacht somewhere. Oh, look, it's if you're in business, as long as you want to be I don't think you can necessarily put a timeframe. I think VALO's journey, it needs to be a 20 30 50 year plan because it's deserving of that. It's in an industry that is continuously growing. And even LED products will get to the end of lifecycle and they need to be replaced. So it's not like we're only ever going to sell the product once. We'll visit the customer back in 10 or 20 years time. It's enjoyable, it's always evolving. So it's exciting.

Daniel Franco: 1:09:55

Yeah.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:09:58

I'd be bored you Yeah, by the way, the 17 year exit?

Daniel Franco: 1:10:03

Well, I think that I think I should clarify, I mean, 17 years on the businesses that have earned over a certain amount, you know, and grown to a certain size, not not just a little one person, and I'm just conscious of your time and know that you've got to shoot off and do some some other things that you've got planned for the day, I want to start wrapping up the podcast. Really interested in what the future looks like for you. Where, you know, you've achieved so much in your early part of this career as, as VALO and you know, the group of businesses that you you run 40, under 40, like your names popping up in the advertiser. And like, there's a fair bit going on, the news is getting hold of, obviously, name and brand popping up everywhere, which is really great. What what is, what is the what is your life in business, and more in general look like? Moving forward? What do you want out of all this?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:11:13

Uh huh. I want the the underlying drive has always been to prove to the naysayers that we can do it. And it really is leaving a legacy whether that is the company or the brand, the product out there? It's a good question. And I think it's the hardest to answer because business is fulfilling. So there is a financial aspect that I'm driving to it's more so if we can achieve and leave our mark, change the, the way of life, I guess, throughout technology and and if we can employ people and and contribute to society doing everything that we do, then then that's a good feeling. And that's obviously where we're going. And that's where we want to go. Probably don't have that answer. Yeah, just yet, where I, where I see it. For you personally, personally, that

Daniel Franco: 1:12:17

you touched on quickly. And I'm just going to digress a little you touch quickly on culture within the business. And I've come to the office down there in town and King William and you know, there's pinball machines, and you know, it's like it is when you describe before Silicon Valley, and you have a really good feel, what is your employment play value prop? Is that something that you concentrate on quite heavily? I'm so given away Tesla's and stuff as well. Is that, like, give it up for one of those?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:12:48

Do 12 months?

Daniel Franco: 1:12:50

Is that what it is? 12 months, and there's

Aaron Hickmann: 1:12:53

just numerous things. But yeah, look, yeah, our mission is aligned to Tesla's I guess, progressing the human world to carbon neutrality, I guess we'd that's what we want for our clients with venues. And it's the same with our transport, but it's a reward for staff as well. So VALO is, you know, our values are V, value your teammates like family, A is all in an execute L lead with courage, and O is open to collaborate. And any company can just say, blah, blah, blah, right? These are our values. But our values have come about after actually doing it. And we've built that culture, very family focused, you have to see it. You can only say we've got a good culture, when the culture is actually the one telling you've got a good culture. You can't just say this is our values. And this is what we do. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 1:13:55

Yeah, that's, we are a business that works with companies on their culture, I will maybe you can take it next level for us. I'm more than happy to help you out there. And I think that's the one thing that's really important, I think, in the growth trajectory of any business is a and in today's day and age of employee value prop is extremely crucial to seeing the growth, maintaining talent, right, I think about the shortage, yeah. At the moment, and, you know, there's this money, there's money getting thrown around left, right and center from a hiring point of view, but we hear stories of people getting poached for 5060 100 grand more than what they're on at their previous roles. So when you when you get numbers like that, it's pretty hard to keep people but when you're talking 1015 grand here and there, employee value proposition and what you guys are offering, you know, the great culture, that's really important, right? That's really important might not be the money that's in important, it's about being part of a community being part of a vision that's actually going somewhere and providing experience and doing things for Yeah. For the community and for the world. Really? I mean, yeah,

Aaron Hickmann: 1:15:11

absolutely. And that's what we're, you know, we're, we're developing our new facility at the moment, like I said, you know, six times bigger than than cancer at the moment, and we're really taking that next level, it will be a mix of high in South California vibe, Willy Wonka factory, I'll give you a bit of a vision of what we're doing. But it's all around staff, you know, have your work family orientated. We've got kid friendly zones. So if parents need the kids to come in, after school or things like that, like we're all for that. And it's, I guess what's led to that is seeing how different cultures around the world do it taking the bits of the best. Yeah, but also understanding that I didn't have that at any of my previous roles when I was employed, and I don't want that. So when people come in and see you know, there's, we have contractors that come in that love working because they feel like they're part of the team. Yeah, we do lunches once a fortnight and once a month, they'll come in. All those little things are really, really important.

Daniel Franco: 1:16:10

It's funny, I was saying to Gabriella this morning that when I came in, was offered sparkling water. I don't know it just something so small. There was a list of drinks actually isn't there? Yeah, there is water. Loving. It was a couple of beers on there as well. Yeah,

Aaron Hickmann: 1:16:22

we do. We, yeah, we try and support all the local, local, everything's local.

Daniel Franco: 1:16:28

But you talk about one percenters as someone that's walked into that office for the first time I've walked in there. You and I are catching up, and I'm getting offered beer or wine or sparkling what I mean, not that that's a it's a it's not a huge thing that's going to win everyone over. But it's those little 1%

Aaron Hickmann: 1:16:46

no one has taken the beer by the way, for a Wednesday morning. It is on the menu for Friday afternoon. Yeah, coming in. But yeah, but we're transparent. It's you know, it's also when you come in and you sit in the waiting area, you're immersed in the factory run like you're looking at everything behind glass. Yeah. All of that comes together. And yeah, I'd like to do shine drinks. Yeah, that will do so. Yeah. To shine, guys. We've got multiple people hooked on those architecture offices and whatnot Now, not all supporting that, but it is all those one percenters? Yeah, 100% I love it.

Daniel Franco: 1:17:24

Again, conscious of your time, we're gonna jump into some quickfire questions. Just to round off. Do you? Are you a big reader? We're big readers here. Do you read lots you consume knowledge you do go to low How do you learn in regards to from a business point of

Aaron Hickmann: 1:17:42

view? I read a lot of whether it's forum or listened to business, you know, Mike, Boris, podcast, and all of that type of stuff. I don't read fiction books in year three, it took you three or four took me a year to read materialism was definitely not into the fiction novels. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 1:17:59

So you're into the nonfiction stuff. You read strategy, books, leadership.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:18:02

Yeah, all of that a lot of it's around things that we're doing. So I'll start researching. One of the hardest things I struggle with is switching off the brain from turning things into a business concept or trying to understand it from a business side of things. It drives my wife nuts. Yeah, but when you do that, that's where all these other ideas come to fruition on an opportunity so I read a lot online and digitally

Daniel Franco: 1:18:22

Yeah, anything that sort of stuck out with you in the years that you've just gone? Actually this is the article or this is the book or this is the the podcast or whatever it may be that I turned to religiously.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:18:35

Book wise it would be Dieter Rams books. Less is more. Yeah. Dieter Rams hands down the best industrial designer ever to walk this earth. Yeah. He designed all the brawn product yet in the early years. So our apple products all copied off of Dieter Rams, original devices and his philosophy. So if you can take that, that approach with product and marketing and design and all of that, that's how you excel.

Daniel Franco: 1:19:05

Yeah, brilliant. Dieter Rams. Less is more. Yep. Love it. What's one lesson that's taking you the longest to learn?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:19:15

Tough one, it has to be probably, I don't know when to walk away from something you know, because when you've got a problem solving mind you want to fix it or you want to resolve something but yeah, that was that was hard. If that is the lesson that was hard earlier on, but

Daniel Franco: 1:19:37

I think it's from an entrepreneur, which is mind ship mindset, sorry, it is. There is this element of you know, the story of imperfect to your scenario, the light bulb, Thomas Edison's 10,000 You know, took me 10,000 or 10,000 different ways to not make a light bulb, when to not stop and when to walk away from something Yeah, it is.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:20:00

It would be a day he never failed. He just worked out 10 ways how? Exactly, yeah. And you have to take that attitude? Sure. Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 1:20:10

Yeah. Until it becomes, like, non beneficial for anyone.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:20:15

Well, if you're gonna stand on top of the building thinking you got to fly this commercial reality, right? It's just not going to happen practical, I get tend to

Daniel Franco: 1:20:22

exactly. Get three people that you can invite for dinner. Yep. I'm going to assume Maxine, is there as a fact three people that you can invite to dinner.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:20:32

They have to be whoever you want. Elon Musk. Richard Branson. Thomas Edison. Yeah. No Dieter Ram. Really no Deiter Ram.

Daniel Franco: 1:20:43

Excellent. Yeah. Thomas Edison, Elon Musk, and who's the other one? Richard Branson, which was brilliant. What's some of the best advice you've ever received?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:22:11

There's been lots of advice over the years, but I think the best advice or the best? Yeah, the best advice you can follow, or what I've found was Arnold Schwarzenegger has five rules for success.

Daniel Franco: 1:22:27

What are they in yours?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:22:30

Yeah, exactly. The thing I've memorized is number one, trust yourself. Number two, break some rules. Number three is don't be afraid to fail. Number four, Ignore the naysayers. It's actually six rules, actually. Five is work like hell. And the last one, which we've mentioned throughout today's give something back. Yeah. And I think that really underpins any entrepreneur and that is the journey and it's the hard road. It's all of those encompassing and look at look at Arnie's journey. Yeah. Don't listen to naysayers. Yeah, this crazy Austrian wants to be bodybuilder and then he's going into making movies but he can't speak English very well, but it's perfect for the role in politics. I mean, his journey is amazing. And he's given resonates well.

Daniel Franco: 1:23:19

I love the book Total Recall. It no as in he's his autobiography, which is Total Recall, not the movie. The give something back, I just want to just touch on that before we jump on to the next one. Like as an entrepreneur, you're growing a business to give back when everything's hustle like and everything is tight. And money's like these like, and time is poor. What is there to give sometimes and how well, just your advice You've obviously done it.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:23:53

Yeah, it can be when you've caught up so much in the hustle and the grind of the days some of the most rewarding moments I philanthropical moments. CO sleep out. I'm doing that again. So we're listening, donate, I'll be expecting it. Absolutely. They are little things we can do. And if that elevates other platforms to help society and whatnot, that's fantastic. I went through this as a young entrepreneur scheme quite early on. That's where I met my first business mentor. You know, we're open as a business and to me if anyone going through the program or anyone wants to come in and talk and pick brains and and understand or learn about or hear my story about resilience. That's part of giving back as a company we give back through partnerships community, grassroots all the way through to the corporates, which then filters down, all of that's very important, and it feels good. You have to do we have to do as corporate

Daniel Franco: 1:24:52

this. I don't know if you've ever read the book, The Richest Man in Babylon, if you ever heard of that book, it's about Yeah, It's a story about essentially money right and the richest man in Babylon but he structures like his life about 10% of everything that he earns he gives back yeah right and it's the yeah it's a remarkable and doesn't necessarily need to be money but you know time effort earnings experience whatever it might be yeah oh definitely comes in I love it if you there's a bit bit of a quirky question if you had access to a time machine where would you go

Aaron Hickmann: 1:25:34

it'd be so many so many different moments. I'm a poor avid fan, so it'd be back to

Daniel Franco: 1:25:40

obviously long supporter So 2003 will

Aaron Hickmann: 1:25:42

be there in September just on the record will be there this Melbourne this year. There's a really amazing photo I've got of Henry Ford. Thomas Edison and Firestone camping there are so many of those ridiculous like you look at it now anything man like those guys going camping. There's old Ford Model T or like, just ready to go. I don't know what the moment would be many, many times would would be to travel back with you know, to see your mask or something like that. Or Michael Jordan's last shot. I mean, yes. From a sporting perspective. Yeah, I

Daniel Franco: 1:26:22

can't. That's huge.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:26:24

I could do that. I could give you 100

Daniel Franco: 1:26:26

Yeah, I love it. I love it. If your house was on fire, yep. family safe. And you and your pets was safe. What's the one item that you would run back and grab? It would have to be a photo album.

Aaron Hickmann: 1:26:43

Yeah. My wife for my first Father's Day made this really nice book for little photos of maneri throughout those moments, so that be something along the lines. Yeah, but we've got a lot of that, which I'm very thankful. So be something to that degree, or I love the show.

Daniel Franco: 1:27:02

If you had one superhero

Aaron Hickmann: 1:27:03

power, what would it be? Fly? Fly? Yeah.

Daniel Franco: 1:27:08

Typical answer, isn't it? Well,

Aaron Hickmann: 1:27:09

I can really see the future and I've got that

Daniel Franco: 1:27:14

good answer. Yeah, I'd be good. Yeah, teleportation does seem so much more efficient to me. It's about the soaring or is it about

Aaron Hickmann: 1:27:23

the journey? Yeah. Okay.

Daniel Franco: 1:27:24

Yeah. Yeah, I love it. Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks. And kudos to you and the team for everything you guys are doing. Obviously doing some amazing stuff, you have some pretty amazing visions in place of what you want to achieve. And we're all going to be on the sidelines watching you and hoping that you guys can take it on and bring manufacturing back which is really exciting present. Yeah, thanks again. Where can we find you if we wanted to get in contact with you?

Aaron Hickmann: 1:27:53

LinkedIn or is active on LinkedIn. Otherwise, you can hit us up on socials that'll come through to marketing team or come see us 47 King William St. Camptown poppin on a Friday on a Friday, preferably. Walk in, excellent. Grab a menu. You've seen it.

Daniel Franco: 1:28:06

So Aaron Hickmann on LinkedIn and VALO, V A L O on LinkedIn or valocom.au. Yeah, beautiful. Easy. Thanks, guys. We'll catch you next time. Cheers. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Or you can check out the show notes if there was anything of interest to you and find out more about us at Synergy iq.com.au. I am going to ask though, if you did like the podcast, it would absolutely mean the world to me if you could subscribe, rate and review. And if you didn't like it, that's alright too. There's no need to do anything. Take care guys. All the best.

Synergy IQ: 1:28:39

Thank you once again for joining us here at creating synergy. It's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the synergy IQ Facebook and LinkedIn page where the discussion continues after the show. Join our mailing list so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au. And of course don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.