Welcome to the Regionally Speaking Series!
Below you will find interviews and presentations from some of Australia’s most impressive entrepreneurs, all of whom have chosen to run their business and live their lives outside major capital cities. You will hear about the challenges and advantages of regional living and hear insights about starting a business in regional Australia.
For the podcasts, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Karen Barnett is the co-founder of Montville Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster based in the Sunshine Coast hinterlands. In addition to winning awards for their blends, Montville Coffee was the first Fairtrade and Organic coffee roasters in Queensland, and became a certified B Corp in 2016.
But as Karen will tell you, being a regional social enterprise and husband-and-wife team has not been a simple or easy journey. In this episode, we talk about finding your people, applying for grants, developing new products, and transparency in business.
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Timestamps:
2:10 Primary school educator to business start-up
3:30 Why start a Fairtrade coffee roasting business.
5:05 The first steps to starting Montville Coffee, and risk being part of an entrepreneur’s DNA
7:30 Being a husband and wife team
12:00 to 13:20 The Montville Coffee experience
13:20 Developing new products with the support of the Food and Agribusiness Network,
Grow Coastal and government grants
21:20 Advice for fellow regional entrepreneurs
25:00 Third Party Certifications, such as B Corp, Certified Fairtrade and Certified Organic
30:05 The early days of starting Montville Coffee
34:25 Leadership and managing
Anna Battle started her business 20 years ago, and it has taken many twists and turns since then to become Shiny Happy Art. In this episode Anna shares specific tools she uses to run her online business, as well as lessons she’s learned about goal setting, managing finances and making things work when circumstances out of your control force a pivot.
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John Calabro owns The View From Here, a creative agency based in Traralgon in the LaTrobe Valley in the Gippsland region. John’s story will sound familiar to anyone who thought they’d never move back to their hometown… and then found that their priorities shifted, and they couldn’t imagine life differently. Building on a successful career as a graphic designer in Melbourne, John and his young family moved back to the Latrobe Valley to purchase their first home. As John started to build his roster of freelance clients, The View From Here was born and now employs eight full-time locals.
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Helen Shadforth and Sam Penny founded Cheese Therapy, their cheese subscription service, in 2015 from their base in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast. They steadily grew over the years, offering Australians international and domestic cheese they otherwise couldn’t access.
In this episode Helen tells us about scaling up and scaling down sustainably, and we deep dive into distribution centres and transport logistics. Helen was happy to answer my many, many questions and this is a must listen for all product-based businesses hoping to scale nationally.
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Louise Bannister is co-founder and editor of Lunch Lady magazine. Previously, she has been responsible for several of Australia’s favourite magazines, including Frankie, which she co-founded and edited until 2014, as well as Smith Journal and interiors magazine SPACES.
In this episode, Louise spoke really honestly about her experience building and leaving a publishing empire, and the difficulty of then going on to build another one – while raising three small children!
Michael Reid is one of Australia’s leading art dealers. As well as owning bricks and mortar art galleries around the world, Michael also owns a slew of off-shoot and online businesses. He wrote a regular column for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, has published several books with Allen & Unwin and hosted TV and radio shows. In 2016, he was awarded an OAM. It’s perhaps needless to say that Michael is frequently named as one of the most influential people in Australian art.
Michael runs this empire from Murrurundi, a town of less than 1000 people in the upper Hunter Valley. In this episode we discuss art and business and the importance of self-awareness.
Today on the podcast is Raquelle Pedler of Resound Music Academy. Toowoomba born and bred, Raquelle had studied to become a full-time musician – and was fulfilling that dream. She then saw a gap in the market and decided to do some further study in education and start her own music school. As well as running Resound Music Academy, Raquelle remains a popular, booked out performer in her own right.
In this episode, she talks about the balance and how she chose to work in both fields. We talk about prioritising professional development, building and nurturing community and carving out a niche as an artist.
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In this final episode of Season 1, I speak with Luke Anear, founder of SafetyCulture. SafetyCulture is best known for its app, iAuditor, which is used for more than 600 million health and safety checks per year. SafetyCulture became a unicorn in 2020 – that is, it is now valued at over a billion dollars!
In this episode, Luke talks about company culture, learning to lead, and how he almost started WWIII by banning Slack for a week.
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Michael Fox is an experience startup CEO, first of Shoes of Prey and now of Fable Food, a plant-based meat company he runs from his home on the Sunshine Coast.
In this episode, Michael talks about fundraising through venture capital firms, getting market research right, and how he's building company two using his knowledge from company one.
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Rayleen Brown is the founder of Kungkas Can Cook, a line of bush tucker products as well as tourism opportunities, all of which she runs from Alice Springs.
In this episode, Rayleen talks about the resilience needed to be an entrepreneur – a trait she has in spades – as well as her vision for the bush tucker industry, and the importance of mentoring the next generation of Indigenous entrepreneurs.
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Annabelle Hickson is a writer, photographer, florist, author and now Editor of Galah Press, a print magazine about regional Australia.
In this episode, Annabelle talks about moving from Brisbane to Moree and now to a pecan farm outside Tenterfield. She talks about finding her feet when she realised she wasn’t going to get a job, and how she turned that into a book deal and now a publishing company she runs from her acreage on the NSW-Queensland border.
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Dr Clinton Schultz owns Sobah Beverages, an Indigenous-owned non-alcoholic beer brand he runs from Burleigh Heads.
In this episode, Clinton talks about his background as first a chef and then as a registered psychologist, and how his connection to country and culture influenced his decision to start Sobah Beverages. We talk about moving from a food truck to being stocked at Dan Murphy’s, as well as wellbeing both as a psychologist and as an entrepreneur, and how and why to support Indigenous businesses.
Christina Symes is the Director of We Are Triibe, an award-winning design studio based in the Byron hinterland.
In this episode, Christina talks about finding interior design when she felt her career and interest in fashion floundering, and how the studio has grown from being her part-time gig to a fully fledged company with staff and sub-contractors around the world. We Are Triibe specialises in interiors, styling, furniture design and more, and the talent of Tina and her co-founder Jess has been recognised both in Australia as well as around the world. It’s clear that regional living has sparked, not dimmed, their creativity.
Jo Palmer runs Pointer Remote, an organisation that’s all about building capacity in people, businesses and communities through training and recruitment. Pointer’s mission is working towards a world where regional communities are a preferred and prosperous choice from all employees and employers.
In this episode, Jo gives her advice on working and recruiting remotely, as well as charting her journey from her education degree through her three businesses. Jo also talks about being Australian Rural Woman of the Year, and why she thinks companies offering flexibility is the way of the future.
James Bartle owns Outland Denim, an incredible ethical denim brand he runs from Tamborine Mountain.
In this episode, James talks about working out the profit structure of Outland and how it changed the company’s trajectory. He also talks about impact models, equity crowdfunding, raising capital, collaborating with likeminded competitors and why companies needs to be paying attention to the conscious consumer market. James is a passionate storyteller, and it was a privilege to spend an hour talking to him about building this incredible brand.
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In this presentation, Julia talks about the resources available for the future entrepreneurs of Australia, providing important tips and guidance on how to excel and create impact as an entrepreneur. To access the presentation slides from the session, please click here.