“My first gig was selling horse shit - literally. I grew up on a farm in rural Tasmania and we had plenty of horse manure which, it turned out, was excellent garden fertiliser. For $1 a bag I sold horse poo to locals for their gardens. It made me enough money to start buying audio equipment for my next business.”
Johnny was born in rural Tasmania where he lived on a farm surrounded by fields, rivers, his dog, old electronics and not much else. It was clear to Johnny from a young age that making money could change lives and that business gave the status, voice and resources to make the world better.
Johnny spent much of his childhood in self-directed commercial activities including selling horse manure, picking and selling walnuts, building sound systems and fixing bikes. He discovered DJing at 12 years old and the success of this provided early seed capital to build his first companies.
Then, still young, frustrated with the landlords of his business, he began investing in commercial property. This then provided both the capital and income to fund other operations.
Johnny now seeks experiences and opportunities to express and share his values through business and activism – be it accessibility of wild swimming and camping, cleaning up our rivers for a more sustainable future, disrupting things that don’t work and always trying to do things at scale.
