Bonus: Graeme Campbell — Freedom Broadband: The Internet Company Giving Back to Charity
Introducing Freedom Broadband, podcast sponsor for Justice Matters. In this bonus episode, I sit down with the co-founder of Freedom Broadband, Graeme Campbell, to talk about why he is using his telecommunications business to give back to charities all around Australia.
Freedom Broadband is an incredible profit-for-purpose business. Freedom broadband is your all-in-one internet and telephone service provider, whether it's for your business or your home. Their internet connection and speeds are simply amazing. And they're in another league when it comes to the quality of their customer service. But here's what really sets them apart. When you switch to any of their services, they'll donate $5 every month to a nonprofit of your choice.
As the founder of You Belong, an Australian-based nonprofit charity, one of the greatest challenges we face is fundraising. And I think I can speak for almost all leaders in the nonprofit world when I say that being able to have a residual income coming into your accounts to support your work is a dream come true. Simply by switching your internet to Freedom Broadband, you can help transform the lives of those less fortunate.
Also, if you head to www.freedombroadband.com.au and quote "Justice Matters" on your application form and they will donate $50 from the activation fee to support Justice Matters. That's gonna enable us to continue this podcast and inspire the world where everyone belongs. That's freedombroadband.com.au, and say goodbye to expensive, mediocre internet with poor customer service and hello to top-notch internet service and the good feeling of knowing you're supporting a great cause.
Switch to podcast sponsor, Freedom Broadband today.
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Full Transcript
Graeme Campbell
So that's where that's kind of where it was birthed that day in Toowoomba, kind of they wanted to take a business that everybody requires, whether it be electricity, Internet, and use it to provide that as a what I call competitive advantage and sustainable competitive advantage. So, you know, we use that inside of it, our customers will, you know, yep, you can buy your internet of lots of different providers in the market. But if you come through us, then we will use part of our proceeds or part of the proceeds of your connection, whether it be phone or internet to actually connect you to a charity that you're involved.
Tim Buxton
Welcome to justice matters, the podcast inspiring a world where everyone belongs. I'm your host, Tim Buxton.
Tim Buxton
Graham, thanks for coming down all the way from the sunny coast. Thank you for having me. It's good to have you in the studio now. Great setup. You've got to love what you guys are doing. Yeah. And we managed to sneak in a little pre pre podcast recording show. The Super Bowl just finished.
Graeme Campbell
I managed to stop crying just before we walked in the door here after Brady just ripped apart my team. Anyway, let's not talk about it.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, you've got your Mahomes jersey on
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, but we're looking forward to MLB. Now we're ready to go for Yankee season.
Tim Buxton
Graeme is a great way, I've known him for quite a long time now. And we have this sporting rivalry I've chosen as
Graeme Campbell
just teams that suck in general.
Tim Buxton
Well, let me just say my loyalty runs deep in my blood. Having married in New York I chose than the Mets, the jets and the nets. Now one of those teams actually doing pretty good the Brooklyn Nets now. But yeah, Graham certainly sends me text messages quite periodically, when when the Mets or the Jets perform miserably, or his Yankees and Chiefs
Graeme Campbell
Do quite well. Yeah.
Tim Buxton
Well, look, my you didn't.. You didn't take any risk choosing the Yankees or or the Chiefs during their prime.
Graeme Campbell
So not only that, but the Brisbane heat actually last last week as well. So it just hasn't been a great week.
Tim Buxton
I don't know if we're gonna be able to make it through this
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, we'll see how we go. Okay, well, have you got tissues?
Tim Buxton
tissues, But, look, it's so good to have you in the studio. And it's great to be talking about something going awry that, you know, you're passionate about this kind of idea of, of being able to use your business, your work to make an impact in the world, particularly Freedom Broadband. And I'm excited because freedom broadband has partnered with this podcast, Justice matters, to be able to help us to keep producing the show, and to make sure we get to continue to share these conversations and inspire people that they can make a difference in this world. So thank you, personally, Graham.
Graeme Campbell
It's great. I love what you guys are doing. So yeah, happy to partner with you guys.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, look, right off the get go. It'd be great to talk a bit about freedom Borbon their model, because I think there'll be a lot of people that are really interested in, you know, how they can, you know, whether they've already got a business going already, and look at kind of pivoting it in a way that it can be, you know, socially responsible as a business, you know, as a lot of people out there. A generation want to be conscious consumers, they want to make sure that when they purchase a product, or when they purchase a service that down the line, there's no exploitation, but in fact, it can actually have a positive impact every step of the way. And you guys, are you, you've kind of set out on the path and are doing just that. So yeah, why don't you kind of kick things off by just kind of introducing what what is free and boyband? How is it a profit for purpose? business? And, yeah, let our audiences in on what you've been up to?
Graeme Campbell
Sure. Well, I don't think you can actually tell the freedom story without sort of talking a little bit about my time with You Belong. Yeah. But effectively, you remember, you know, a trip that we took to Toowoomba. And we sat in the bakery there and talked about, okay, how are we going to fund this vision? You know, we had this you know, great, I guess, great vision of what we wanted to do there. And I think at the time we were talking about, like a coffee shop. Yeah. And we you know, we kind of started to dream a little bit and yeah, wouldn't it be great to get you know, some of these aliens in and run a cafe and create meaningful employment and all these cool things and use that as well to also find the vision of what's going on with you belong, but then we kind of thought well, hang on a minute. You Belong exist to kind of fulfill its mission and all of a sudden, we're gonna throw business into that, yeah, that's not gonna work. So, you know, naturally being entrepreneurial at heart, you know, had businesses in the past, there's got to be an answer to this. And you know, whether it is, you know, something inside you belong, or whether we actually go, Okay, well, maybe we try and run businesses outside actually create funds for charities. So that's where that's kind of where it was birthed that day into one Bauer, kind of, they wanted to take a business that everybody requires, you know, whether it be electricity, or whether it be Internet, and use it, to provide that as a what I call competitive advantage, and sustainable competitive advantage. So, you know, we use that inside of our customers will, you know, yep, you can buy your internet of lots of different providers in the market. But if you come through us, then we will use part of our proceeds or part of the proceeds of your connection, whether it be phone or internet, to actually connect you to a charity that you're involved in. And that's, that's probably one of the key things for us. I mean, you find lots of businesses out there that support specific charities. Yeah. So they might say, okay, you know, we we send part of your money every year off to, you know, being charity, national charity, like coals. Anytime you go to Coles you know, they're asking you do you want to round it up for whatever the charity of the day is? Yes, at the checkout, where I, you know, in the heart behind, what I want to do is give charities like you belong, you know, at the time, the ability to be able to say, Okay, we've got lots of supporters, a lot of them don't have 10 or $15 a month to actually spare, but they're all paying for internet, or they're all paying for a phone service anyway. So these people can actually become financial contributors to you belong. Yeah. And not only that, I think the reason why we actually chose telco in this utility space, is, you know, I'm an IT guy. And you can probably tell, because I'm such an introvert and nervous as hell sitting on this table here. But you know, it's something that, you know, I've been gifted with, you know, I can do computers, and I can do telecommunications. So that that's kind of where it all started, really, at the end of the day, as we said, okay, well, you know, if you look at all the gifts you've got, and I guess, the heart behind it, and go, Okay, well, and this is where we're going. So we started this in mid 2019. So, now we're coming up around 200 customers and sending money out to different charities all over the place. And yeah, it's just really, really cool to sort of be responsible. And yeah, looking after something that yeah, that's really close to my heart. And, and obviously, the heart of my family as well.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, man. I love that idea of using what's in your hand and saying, Well, look, this is what I'm good at, this is what I've got experience at. Let's make this into something that does have that kind of social impact. And, and the cool thing you kind of brought up that kind of stood out to me was it's this idea of giving the customer the choice as to where that funding essentially can go as well like, and a passion that's close to their heart, not just saying this is what, you know, freedom will man supports, and you have to support this one cause, whereas there's what I understand this several, as long as they're a charity that is registered and got all the dgr kind of processes in place so that they're reputable organization. And, by and large, basically that people can support a cause that they're passionate about. I think that's really, that's really close to people's heart, too, you know? So, it's fantastic.
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, certainly, I didn't want, you know, freedom broadband, just to be an extension of my value system, if that makes sense. You know, I wanted everyone to support a charity that they they like, not just the charities. Yeah. You know, I guess big in the cable family, you know, and certainly, you know, he belongs out number one. Yeah, it's, for me, it was a case of, well, you know, I don't want to get involved in the political arguments and all that kind of stuff. You know, I want to build a tool that people can use to actually do good.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and that's, that, that is, I think, totally, really important too. You know, people really want to, there's so many important causes in any charity, like mine would say, ours is the most important but you know, it's important to get behind local sporting clubs, because local sporting clubs, as nonprofit charities, create inclusion for poor marginalized people. And same with educational arts or, or wildlife. You know, there's just so many ways that you can support a cause that, you know, at the end of the day, sometimes it's hard to say which one is is more important, and which ones needed the most. So, yeah, I love that. We all want to impart like as a part of a great community right?
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, and I think you know, certainly for, for my kids, you know, I want to model that, hey, you know, if you want to live as part of a great community, you've got to get involved and you've got to actually be an active contributor. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so a bit about the life of Graham.
Tim Buxton
And tell me about your family you've got got three lovely kids who I got a chance to coach Lucas soccer along with, with why my boy, Charlie, when they spend that year up,
Graeme Campbell
I'm gonna tell you, though, I think we're lucky we had Eliana on our team, you know, the boys really to get the goals in each time? Give us a chance...
Tim Buxton
And bash up the other dudes to she definitely put an elbow down there.
Graeme Campbell
The star of the team?
Tim Buxton
Yeah, that is that was that was definitely fun. I'd love to talk a bit about those formative days for you belong to when when we were fortunate enough to have you like giving your time and effort. I know you were studying your Masters of Business at the time, you're, you know, you're working a full time job, and then, obviously had this entrepreneurial streak, and you're trying to figure out how you could launch out your own stage of freedom. Yep, yeah. So there was you're juggling a lot and gave a lot of your time to help our charity get off the ground. So you know, firsthand, I guess the challenges that charities do face, trying to get momentum you're competing against not competing, but you're, you're you're trying to kind of make your your case and as as like, hey, look, we need support in the community. And there's a lot of other great organizations that are doing a lot of work. But it's really hard to get runs on the board, it's hard to get some of the business administrative stuff on board when you're only working with volunteers, and nobody really is able to kind of dedicate full time energies to that. I mean, when you reflect back on those, those early days, what what kind of kind of comes to mind for you?
Graeme Campbell
I think the biggest realization that I had, I mean, you know, we talk about particularly strong in the media at the moment around charities is this concept called administrative charges. And we, you know, particularly after last year's bushfires, and all that kind of stuff, right? You know, the nation Australians just always show up to give, right? It's just, it's an insane thing every time. Is it a natural disaster? I mean, all you have to do is remember back to the big tsunamis. Yeah, remember? Like, yeah, everyone just gave, yeah. And Thailand, and, you know, and then all the reports came out, which, you know, some of these charities perhaps didn't do the right thing. And, you know, he did all under this administrative costs. And now, like, you get a grant as a charity, and I got, well, you've got to use it for operational stuff, you can't you can't use it for administrative costs. And I, you know, obviously came in with the same sort of attitude, you've long gone, okay, well, you know, we really want to keep these administrative costs down, but then, you know, we had to apply to the acnc for this, and then the tax office for something else, and then all of a sudden, we had to go to the Queensland Government to get a registration to be able to raise money. And I was like, far out, you know, these things actually take quite a lot of work. Yeah. So I think for me, you know, looking back on that only, I have a bit more of an appreciation as to what actually these administrative costs might might actually be like, yeah, it takes a lot to run a charity. And I think that was probably the biggest thing, you know, I was there about a year while you're overseas, and yeah, just going through that whole process of registering as a charity, you know, getting that for profit status with the Oto so that we weren't going to pay tax. And then registering for the tax deductibility. so that people could actually give you tax deductible donation to You Belong, It took quite a bit of effort, a bit of backwards and forwards and perhaps a few favors from the people here and there. But yeah, yeah, I think if I look back over my time, you know, from, from a business perspective, at least, or an administrative perspective, I think, you know, there's a lot of misunderstanding about what it actually takes to run a charity, you don't just get $100 in and, you know, just start a program in somebody's head. It was a lot of effort going in on the background.
Tim Buxton
Yeah. And you kind of point out, there's a lot of people that contribute, you talking about favors as people that you know, lawyers that behind the scenes, helping you write constitutions and put together different different policies, which if you charge, you know, if you got, you know, even mates rates for a lawyer, you'd still be still be in the hole quite a bit, you know, just to get some of those professional services. And so, you're right. There's so many people that behind the scenes, given their time giving their efforts to, obviously they believe in the cause they believe in the impact that which we trying to have and that we, you know, thankfully are able to have in a community, you know, you can't really put $1 finger, you can't really put $1 finger on, let's say dollar Giga, you can't really put $1 figure Yeah, on on someone's life, and the impact you can actually have, when you know, I think of some of the families we care for that have gone through some of the worst human rights, trauma, you know, abuses and traumatic life experiences. And, in a sense, you know, struggling just to wake up each day in a foreign land where they don't speak the language or understand the culture, they just simply don't fit in, and you're able to come alongside them and help them. You know, you can't, again, you can't really, you know, that doesn't really compute to me in in law that's worth $1,000.
Tim Buxton
Let me tell you about one of our partners, freedom broadband, they are an incredible profit for purpose business. Freedom broadband is your all in one internet and telephone service provider, whether it's for your business, or your home. Now, their internet connection and speeds are simply amazing. And they're in another league when it comes to the quality of their customer service. But here's what really sets them apart. When you switch to any of their services. They'll donate $5 every month to a nonprofit, or of your choice. As the founder of you belong, an Australian based nonprofit charity, one of the greatest challenges we face is fundraising. And I think I can speak for almost all leaders in the nonprofit world when I say that being able to have a residual income coming into your accounts to support your work is a dream come true. And like most nonprofits, our work is dependent on the generous support of individuals and groups that share our passion to empower refugees to integrate and thrive here in Australia. What that means is that we spend more time and energy, looking for ways to raise support. And what odd desperately love to be doing is spending that time and limited resources developing and growing, and many successful programs that we run. But here's where our friends at freedom broadband come in. You see, a few months back, I was on a 4g wireless connection at home through one of the largest phone and internet companies here in Australia. And each month I was nervous about going over our usage getting nasty bill at the end, and I was working on a lot of the podcasting and videos at home and the speeds I was getting were just painfully debilitating. And I finally decided to give freedom broadband a call. And within two minutes, I was on the call with Graham completing my application. And within a week, I had completely switched over to their $79 a month unlimited plan. And I can tell you firsthand, the service has been phenomenal. And I have a direct line to the customer service team whenever I have a question or need assistance. Now the studio and office where I work has switched over to freedom broadband as well. We're on their business plan, and we haven't looked back. And how cool is this little by little connection by connection. Ozzie owned and locally run freedom broadband is now actively supporting the great work of nonprofits and communities all around Australia. Simply by switching your internet to freedom broadband, you can help transform the lives of those less fortunate and that's why I love these guys, get this head to freedom, broadband comm.au and, quote justice matters on your application form. And they will donate $50 from the activation fee support justice matters that's gonna enable us to continue this podcast and inspire the world where everyone belongs. That's freedom broadband.com.au say goodbye to expensive, mediocre Internet with poor customer service and how low to top notch internet service and the good feeling of knowing you're supporting a great course join freedom broadband today. Well, Justice matters, and let's partner together with the internet that's helping to change the world.
Graeme Campbell
And so, so yeah, I certainly think you know, yeah, we'll see you sat here and talked about this administrative costs. I think, you know, charities and organizations in general have a responsibility to go through continuous improvement and being great stewards of whatever they've got as well. And I think, you know, ubelong certainly does that quite well. We're, you know, at the moment, you know, when you say we're not actually got an active role and you belong anymore, but, you know, we're, we're in this startup phase, you know, we're pioneering things and there's a lot of personal effort going in across the board, whether it be you or Rachel or Ashley, and yeah, you end up putting a lot of effort in. And, you know, the ability to just continually improve and add process to things. Yeah, yeah, I think it's really, really cool to see you guys grow.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, look it and it happens. It's a long game, a lot of people want to see the growth overnight. And but, you know, just like, just like anything, whether you're, you're training for a marathon, it takes just that consistency of every day going, and when you were telling me how you did this year, running every single day and reading every single day and
Graeme Campbell
Healthy habits 2021. Actually, I'm in my team been talking about sharpening the axe this year. So yeah, I'm talking to my team about sharpening the axe in a professional sense. Yeah. You know, maybe there's some personal things I need to sharpen the axe on as well. So yeah, I mean, not every morning getting up early and walking and running at least every day. So this morning will be day 29.
Tim Buxton
And it's good because you know, it's that consistency, and that continuous pneus of like, you're saying, continuous improvement, but also consistency, and just, I'm going to be faithful, I'm just going to show up today. And when you take a step back, and you look, Oh, my gosh, we've got, you know, upwards of 60 volunteers. And now in Toowoomba, we've got multiple English programs and growth from trauma programs, we've now launched a children's program that called the hero's journey, and we still have been running events and participating in so many activities, filled out our annual report just the other week that we had to submit to the ACNC. And again, though, it's just you take a step back, and like this is incredible. And it kind of bring it back to a kind of freedom bowl band. And that model, you've got this idea of, of it consistent, every month support coming in going towards that charity, and it goes a long way, when anybody knows that I've got this monthly support coming in from from people on a regular basis that have chosen, opted in to choose you belong or any other charity as their charity of choice for that funding to come in. It just takes away your shoulder, I just know, every month, this is at least gonna come in. And it's that consistency, that continuous and this one off, donations are great, don't get me wrong, if you're listening to this, and you're like, learning a bit more about it, and you find a pineapple send it to you belong a guy. But um, yeah, so I mean, maybe talk a little bit about, you know, you know how that kind of element to, to the support is so important for the way you you function as as a profit for purpose business.
Graeme Campbell
So I remember when we, you were kind enough to do a promo video for us. Yeah, when we first started, and I remember just saying, you know, when we're talking it through, I'm like, it's really hard for a charity to commit to long term vision on short term cash flow. And what that means is, you know, like, if, again, you know, I talk a lot about you belong, obviously, it's very, very sort of personal for me, given, you know, that's where I was in 2019, trying to help steer the ship, so to speak. You know, for us, you know, at the time, we're talking about getting canceling service down there for refugees and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, yeah, it's great, we might get a $5,000 donation, yeah, oh, well, maybe we can get a counselor, but then you realize, well, that might pay a counselor this month, we don't know that you're gonna get the money to pay them next month, and then how do you actually get someone to come in, you need to just a month's worth of work, you know, they have to, you know, not that they're not knowing, you know, in how they're going to support their family next month, it's probably gonna make it a little bit difficult to do that. And that's what I mean, when I say, you know, it's really hard to fulfill a long term vision on short term cash flow. So one of the one of the key ideas behind freedom is we'll look at you know, if you belong, could get a certain amount of supporters that would then facilitate actually paying someone each month to fulfill a key part of its of its vision, then that, you know, that then gives you guys the ability or any charity, really the ability to commit to those longer term strategies to get credit impact overall and actually achieve what it is that you've set out to achieve.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, and I mean, we're, we're highlighting you belong them and obviously these are definitely close to us. But you know, this is this is the case for any charity and so whether you're running a charity yourself or you're volunteering for wine or participate, participate, every now and then with with the fine work of other nonprofit out there, how how can they actually partner with with freedom? How can they share words say, hey, look, this sounds great. How can we how can they partner with you guys?
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, certainly at the moment, we're in the telecommunication space. So internet connections for home and business, as well as phones. So one of the one of the big things we've done over the last two years is actually build all their own phone infrastructure. And, you know, without getting into the home nerd spiel on it, the reason why I've done that is just so that we can have control over it. So, you know, all you have to do is ask someone how they've gone with NBN, whether it be business or personal, and you normally get that war story, you know, the guy didn't show up. In fact, we had that in your mind, my gosh, yeah, you're actually my most interesting NBN connection. But again, you know, like, we want to provide that personal touch in that space as well. So that, you know, when things do go wrong, that we can actually provide answers quickly. And rather than just go, you know, turn the modem off and on again, and hope for the best, you know. So yeah, we we provide services to for home users. So for families and things like that, as well as small business and right through to enterprise. I mean, yeah, we provide a phone system for a school on the Sunshine Coast. And we integrate it with the parent management system, so that they can, you know, provide better care for their kids. And long story short, is, you know, every time the phone rings, it can actually write to their database to say that the parents called without anyone actually having to put any information in. And again, this just means that, you know, if you've got custody issues, which is a sad reality of the world we live in now that I can actually say that on your phone, when you get a call from someone who perhaps doesn't shouldn't have access to a child, and the school would then know about it. So it's a it's an unfortunate, you know, anything that we've set up, but again, you know, it does help provide quality care. Yeah, for the kids. And again, because we've designed the system, we're able actually able to implement things like that fairly simply.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, I mean, so it's more than just, hey, I want to get internet kind of like my case, we were able to get it here at the studio, three guys, and save a lot of money. I don't even want to tell you, we were on some like business plan through some company. And it was literally costing I think, about $1,000 a month. Yeah. And we've not skipped debate, and we're on I think $100 business plan a month or something small like that, for a business plan. That's phenomenal.
Graeme Campbell
So our plans start at $69 per homes, so and that, that does most homes where you've got just a sort of standard usage. Yeah. Right through to $99 for residential. And then for business, you know, we can do lots of different things. We have cloud phone systems, we have, you know, just standard fine lines as well. So if you want to bring your existing phone system to us, we can make that work. Even if you have one of those commander things that you bought in 1972, we got a good chance of making that work as well for you.
Tim Buxton
So yeah, yeah, nice advanced services that you provide for larger businesses, schools, that you're able to kind of kind of cater to their needs. It's Yeah, it's, it's a lot more than even I was aware.
Graeme Campbell
So yeah, I think, yeah, obviously, being an IT person, you know, we try and find systems and ways to sort of make life easier, you know, in particularly in business, you know, in 2021, you know, we want to try and automate things that are repetitive tasks that we do all the time. So, you know, all the business people out there who own businesses, like yeah, you know, I've got all that all that wasted opportunity or wasted time in my, in my team where we, you know, perhaps taking information out of one system and putting it in another and somebody has to actually sit there and do that. And I think when you're when you're a business person, or you know, manager business or manager department, even you kind of look at that and go, Well, you know, if I could just free that person up from that, then we could invest them into doing something else. So yeah, that's, that's, I guess what I do, as well.
Tim Buxton
On a personal note, you know, we've launched this season of justice matters, we've kind of switched up the color, colors of the the logo and things like that and gone for real optimistic, yellow, hope for the future, kind of feel for this season. And I want to I want to ask all my guests, essentially, what is it that gives them hope? And in a world that can seem like it's an uphill battle fighting for justice, we see so many terrible things happening that just kind of breaks your heart. But is there anything that comes to mind when when it says Look, what drives you what gives you hope? What makes you determined to with everything that you have your own personal life, with your family, the way you lead them? Now also with the business to fight for justice and to make a difference in this world?
Graeme Campbell
Well, that's a good question. So I think there's probably a couple of parts to it. I think for me it Where do I find hope? I think I find hope in, in the little wins along the way. Often, you know, we set quite quite big goals for ourselves and our families and our business. And, you know, we might have like a 10 year plan or a five year, you know, big, hairy, audacious goal that we're chasing down. But I think if you don't stop to see the wins along the way, then then you quite often miss out on the on the moment and yeah, obviously brought up before you know, walking and running. Yeah, at the moment and reading books, and, you know, one of one of the, the wins along the way, for me, it's been the bathroom scales in the morning, you know, lost a bit of weight over the last little, what are we now four weeks? You know, and I think it's important to celebrate those kind of things. So, you know, I find, I find hoping in just looking for the little wins here and there. And I guess in some ways, it's inspiration as well. I'm not, I'm not one for putting myself in, or trying to picture myself in certain situations. So and this will probably make you laugh, Tammy, Tammy can look down his facebook feed, and just see the most horrendous stories of things happening around the world. And I'm literally just saying, Don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me, you know, I literally cannot handle it. Yeah, and particularly around children. Um, so, you know, like, she will start telling me a story and you know, start thinking about my kids and my daughter, and I'm like, I just need to stop. So, you know, why am I getting involved in social justice initiatives? You know, I was funny, I was listening to one of your podcasts with the guy from Canada. Randy, Randy, that's right. On the way down today, and he said, You know, he was kind of thought he would just fund everything. And yeah, and that he would never get involved in like, Yeah, that's a great idea. That's what I want to do. And then he's like, then in the end, I just had to get involved and set something up. Yeah. And that freaks me out a little bit. But anyway, I'm still in the first part of that statement, where I just go, you know, for me, it's about, you know, finding ways to fulfill the vision of of charities, and kind of do my part. So for me, I don't think I'll, you know, totally, I don't know, you don't need to be so to start or run a charity,
Tim Buxton
but you never know what will be required. And only one day.
Graeme Campbell
Well, even like, obviously, I've got lots of friends who are involved in charities and bits and pieces. And some of the stories they tell me, I just think I just don't know that I could emotionally handle that. Particularly with suffering of people, for me is just just horrendous. Like, yeah, I can't handle that. Like, even when we went to Toowoomba that first time, you invited me down and we spoke to one gentleman who was in senior when also sort of surrendered and I got chased up the man and he was telling me he was trapped for 70 days or something. I remember that. And I was just like, oh, like, how do you? How do you even process that? You know, like, I grew up in an era. And don't hold that against me, then, you know, I like if you're an Australian PE in southern New South Wales, I had a great time in there. I'm so grateful for my time there. I ran a business down there. But yeah, you know, it has its challenges as well. But yeah, when you when you actually started, be exposed to what's going on in the world? Well, you know, there's no way I could have moved to Kurdistan with my family and done what you did, but Well, yeah. So I, I say, you know, my role in the whole justice thing at the moment is just to try and find ways to sort of champion and champion the people that are able to get involved and actually able to deal with that. I don't know how you emotionally deal with that. I would imagine some days, they're just, yeah, quiet hard. Like, you just go home and just go like, this is just insane. You know, I don't know how I can take this anymore. And we have those days on the business side of things as well. Yeah, I guess you're you just gonna go well, you know, the project didn't go the way I was expecting it, or everything broke today, and I don't know if it's gonna play out.
Tim Buxton
Yeah, but you, again, as I think of a theme to really what we've been talking about it's little things is the little consistency of going about your business using what's in your hand. Sometimes, you know, you can always think about this massive impact you're gonna have one day down down the track or what you might be asked to do one day, you know, you might be asked, someone might tap you on the shoulder. And you have to look at yourself in the mirror and be like, Well, I think this is what this is the next challenge that I'm going to take on, but the next challenge is always what are you going to do today with what you've got in your hand, and you're doing just that with freedom broadband, you're setting something out that is got the potential to grow in a big way. And with every single connection fund, you know, projects around Australia that a reaching out to those less fortunate, literally, I mean, everybody needs an internet connection, every business needs. Yeah, yeah. You know, so it's a great, it's a great mission you guys have? And Hi, no, that's going to be inspiration for other people out there thinking, I wonder what's the next way I can find, you know, my passion project? Or what's another way that, you know, we can change business so that it's at every level holding it accountable? How are you having an impact to those around you? And it's, it's, it's really great to be able to talk about it with a and I've certainly appreciated you personally along the way. You're just giving what you can when you can, and it goes a long way. Thanks so much for that it's been been a fun journey on this side of the table to Yeah, learn a lot. definitely learn a lot. Yeah. Well, look, is there any other ways listeners, viewers can can find out about freedom broadband, what's the website they can go to? There's a special promo with justice matters. So if you're listening to this, or watching this, if you mentioned justice matters, you also are able to have a special impact on the work that we're doing here too.
Graeme Campbell
Yeah, sure. So our website is freedombroadband.com.au. Right? So you can go there, you can see all our planes, you can sign up there. And you can see the great software that we've written actually the handle all that and, you know, I was talking about automation before we've done badly development there. And also, we're, you know, obviously starting to partner here with justice matters. So part of your connection fees and stuff of that goes to help fund this podcast and, and sort of get the word out about justice issues around the world, which is Yeah, I think it's just great. Yeah, that's awesome.
Tim Buxton
Well, Graeme, thanks so much for coming in. Thanks for driving all the way down. I'm sorry that chase didn't win. Oh, and yeah, it's gonna be a long time.
Graeme Campbell
Yeah. Actually, my wife texted me before and asked if my team won, and I haven't I haven't been able to bring myself to actually texted back just yet. Anyway. Just not to be. Anyway, next year. You still got your Yankees and year, but they've been letting me down too. But anyway, when talking about sports anymore, but hey, man, thanks so much, man. I again, really appreciate you coming in. And having me Thanks so much. And look guys, check out freedom broadband, it's freedombroadband.com.au. And you can be part of partnering with the internet that's changing the world.
Tim Buxton
Thanks for listening to this episode of Justice Matters. I'd like to take this time to thank my audio visual engineer, Jose Biotto for your help in producing the show. I'd also like to shout out to the Patreon community that financially supports this podcast. Guys, thank you so much for your support, you can join them simply by going to patreon.com forward slash justice matters. Where a simple donation of $5 a month, you can become part of the Patreon community and get access to behind the scenes content and extras that are share just with you. Lastly, there is another really important way that you can help support the podcast and that simply by writing it or leaving a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, maybe by subscribing on YouTube. Yes, we are a video podcast as well. Guys, thank you so much for listening in to this episode of justice matters. Please come again soon. Can't wait to share more episodes with you. I'm your host, Tim Buxton. Thanks for listening
