Latest / Sarah Knows Support Workers / "How Support Workers Are Using Community Events to Get More Participants | Cody Thompson

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"How Support Workers Are Using Community Events to Get More Participants | Cody Thompson · Sarah Knows Support Workers

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, it's Sarah from Sarah.
• 0:01
  No support workers today. I've got Cody from disability
• 0:04
  events community. Hi, Katie, I've got you.
• 0:07
  Hi Sarah, you do. Thanks so much for having me
• 0:09
  today. My pleasure because we have got
• 0:11
  so much to unpack because it's not just the disability events
• 0:14
  community you've got, you've also got the aged care events
• 0:17
  community and you've got other things working behind the
• 0:20
  scenes. So we're just, I hope you don't
• 0:22
  mind. We're just going to get cracking
• 0:23
  into it. Absolutely.
• 0:25
  All right, you ready? You got.
• 0:26
  This Let's do it. All right, all right.
• 0:29
  So right now, what businesses do you run?
• 0:32
  Yeah. Well, you mentioned on the top,
• 0:33
  so we have two at the moment. So the Dec, which stands for the
• 0:36
  disability events community and then the ACEC, which is the aged
• 0:41
  care events community. So both of those are deliberate
• 0:44
  and sort of tailored events. Companies.
• 0:46
  So that's all we do. We don't have any side business
• 0:49
  that we're trying to to funnel clients to or anything like
• 0:52
  that. We just like to think that we
• 0:53
  put on good events, good quality sort of community events and try
• 0:57
  and get as many people there as we can.
• 0:58
  So is it just you or do you have a Co founder or do you have a
• 1:01
  team? How does it work?
• 1:03
  Yeah, no, I'm very lucky. I do have a lot of that.
• 1:05
  So we have a Co founder firstly, so Lee Hunter who's based in
• 1:08
  Perth as well. So Lee and I actually met, to be
• 1:11
  honest, I, I tell many people this, but like, we met actually
• 1:14
  at A, at a pretty average event, if I'm completely honest, many
• 1:17
  years ago. There was an old rundown
• 1:19
  location, there was about 6 people there and we were two of
• 1:22
  the six and we didn't know each other for a bar site, but that's
• 1:24
  how we met and that's how this journey started.
• 1:26
  And I guess just goes to show that it doesn't matter if
• 1:28
  there's 2 or 200 people at an event, don't know who you're
• 1:31
  going to meet. Yeah, Lee and I have been doing
• 1:33
  this for a while now and we actually have a team of six
• 1:35
  across the country. So that really helps us travel
• 1:38
  to all these different sort of remote and regional communities
• 1:41
  in Australia and try and meet so many great people.
• 1:44
  And I find that really quite intriguing that you went to an
• 1:47
  event for six people and you turned up leaving the event with
• 1:50
  a business partner. Did it happen that quickly or
• 1:52
  did it like did you have to, you know, marinate it for a couple
• 1:55
  of years before you got? There, Yeah, I think we had to
• 1:58
  marinate it. We had to get pushed a little
• 2:00
  bit and then when we even thought about, we had to get
• 2:01
  pushed again. So it was never designed to be a
• 2:04
  business. Lee and I were both working like
• 2:06
  completely independently in different.
• 2:07
  Roles in the disability sector, like I said, had it, had it met?
• 2:11
  Back then at least it was about sort of 2021, so it was still
• 2:15
  COVID times, but sort of slowly coming out of COVID.
• 2:17
  And you know, there's so many fantastic networking events in
• 2:20
  the community now. But back.
• 2:22
  Then it was a bit harder and there really wasn't many.
• 2:24
  And being Perth as well, it was even less so.
• 2:26
  Lee and I just met and just said, hey, like, there's got to
• 2:28
  be a better way to do this where you can meet quality people in
• 2:31
  the space and get to know them. And yeah, for a while there,
• 2:34
  it's just Lee and I catching up for coffee once a month in a
• 2:36
  coffee shop. And I said, I think she was
• 2:38
  getting a bit sick of me, so she started inviting a few people.
• 2:41
  And then I started inviting people, and before too long we
• 2:44
  were booking out coffee shops. And yeah, it just sort of spread
• 2:47
  and grew from there. It seems like it's quite
• 2:50
  natural. Yeah, I think in a nice way it
• 2:53
  was natural in the sense of that, that belonging and trying
• 2:57
  to build a bit of a community. So that really happened in a
• 2:59
  nice way, easily, but just because it was just.
• 3:01
  Such a need in the community to figure out who was a good
• 3:04
  support sort of provider out there and how do you sort of
• 3:06
  build that good network. And from there, it's taken time,
• 3:10
  but I think it got to a point where we started to realize like
• 3:13
  we had this fantastic network of all these fantastic providers.
• 3:16
  And early on it was just in WI, but we realized we weren't doing
• 3:20
  enough to really help the end user.
• 3:22
  Like how do we help people with a disability or their families?
• 3:25
  And that's where, like I said, a few kicks up the butt came in
• 3:27
  and before too long we started to take the plunge and, and do
• 3:31
  these sort of events and just try to do them a little bit
• 3:33
  differently to everything else that was on the market.
• 3:35
  And here we are now, like I said, travelling Australia and,
• 3:39
  you know, really exciting team and we couldn't be prouder, but
• 3:41
  also it certainly wasn't designed to be this.
• 3:44
  And we've just sort of been along for the ride so.
• 3:46
  Has Perth kind of been an advantage because a lot of
• 3:49
  people for events don't come to Perth because it's that little
• 3:52
  bit extra bar and parts of Perth are quite regional.
• 3:56
  WA is quite regional and and difficult to get to.
• 3:59
  Has that been an advantage for your business?
• 4:02
  I think definitely early on, absolutely.
• 4:04
  I think for us to sort of establish ourselves and sort of
• 4:07
  just know like little things, just like living in Perth, like
• 4:10
  knowing where to go, where people are, where you know, the
• 4:12
  community is. So all of those little things
• 4:14
  early on really helped us. It's been a challenge as well,
• 4:17
  as you know, Perth is 1,000,000 miles away from everybody.
• 4:19
  On different time zones. So as much as early on it was
• 4:22
  very advantageous in that sense, it's proved to be challenging at
• 4:25
  times. But yeah, that's why we love
• 4:27
  what we do. And you know, we, we still.
• 4:29
  As much as we're. Proud of the fact that we've
• 4:30
  grown to this national audience. Like we still do so many events
• 4:34
  in Perth, we do extra events, we do networking.
• 4:36
  So I like to think that we haven't sort of lost touch with
• 4:39
  the fact that that's our home ground and, and you know, where
• 4:41
  we probably arguably have the most support just given that's
• 4:43
  where we started. But yeah, it's it's definitely
• 4:45
  been a bumpy ride, but an exciting one.
• 4:48
  Do you know what I love about your story is that you started
• 4:50
  in Perth and you expanded your way out.
• 4:54
  I find I'm going to be a bit cheeky here.
• 4:56
  I find geographically when it comes to providers, sometimes
• 4:59
  they provide care everywhere and it's it doesn't ever feel right
• 5:04
  or the same. I like the fact that you started
• 5:06
  there and you've been able to expand your business model.
• 5:09
  Was that the idea to expand it outside of Perth?
• 5:12
  Like what was the kick out in the butt to get you out of Perth
• 5:15
  to? Yeah.
• 5:15
  Well, that's the thing. Like early on, like I said it,
• 5:18
  it still really wasn't a business idea.
• 5:20
  It was designed to be this community model.
• 5:22
  And again, it was only sort of February last year that both Lee
• 5:26
  and I started in the actual business full time.
• 5:28
  But that was from the need and and people in the community
• 5:30
  saying, hey, like you need to do this.
• 5:32
  We need. More of this.
• 5:33
  So early on we did a couple of these events across different
• 5:36
  sort of key communities in. WA and then we just started to
• 5:38
  realize that the problem that we were trying to solve is a
• 5:42
  problem that was widespread and across Australia.
• 5:45
  We sort of took a bit of a plunge.
• 5:46
  Our first sort of Interstate events were in Queensland and
• 5:49
  SA. So we thought we'd tackle some,
• 5:51
  again, smaller states that were probably a bit more, I like to
• 5:54
  think a bit closer to Perth in the sense of how they run and,
• 5:57
  you know, a bit more relaxed, a bit of that Perth vibe.
• 5:59
  And that sort of ticked some boxes.
• 6:01
  And we, we thought, you know, this is actually something and
• 6:04
  yeah, it's crazy now, like NSW and Victoria have been some of,
• 6:07
  you know, the most successful and the largest states that
• 6:09
  we've been in for events. But the first events we did were
• 6:11
  early in May 2025. So it hasn't even been a year
• 6:15
  and we've done so much and now have so much support as well.
• 6:18
  So yeah, it's it's crazy how things go and can go quite
• 6:22
  quickly at times. So how do you scope out your
• 6:25
  next location? Yeah, it's a really good
• 6:27
  question. And it's probably where a lot of
• 6:29
  the Gray hairs in my beard come from these days because it's
• 6:31
  it's very challenging. Like you'd love to be able to
• 6:34
  just walk through every single venue and take photos and walk
• 6:37
  it through and go. That's perfect.
• 6:38
  But unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as that.
• 6:40
  We do rely heavily. Obviously, I'm just reaching
• 6:42
  out, you know, photos, talking to venues, really sort of
• 6:45
  collaborating with them. I think because of the events
• 6:48
  that we run, like both disability and aged care,
• 6:51
  accessibility is a real priority for us.
• 6:53
  So we work with the venues to make sure that those venues are
• 6:56
  accessible and really easy for people.
• 6:58
  And ultimately, I guess our, our whole business model was really
• 7:01
  built around being in the community.
• 7:03
  So I find that really exciting because it means that, you know,
• 7:06
  we're not expecting people to travel hours to go to our
• 7:09
  events. It's, it's merely minutes.
• 7:10
  But it does mean that we don't have the luxury of some other
• 7:13
  venues that, you know, potentially other event
• 7:15
  providers would have. We get really creative, you
• 7:18
  know, work with a lot of counselors, a lot of ourselves,
• 7:20
  those sorts of things to make sure we're in the right place.
• 7:23
  And then we use a lot of the data as well.
• 7:24
  I think it's probably one thing that we try really hard and sort
• 7:27
  of pride ourselves on is we use a lot of the data.
• 7:30
  So in the disability sense, it really comes across from the
• 7:32
  NDIS themselves. And in aged care, there's some
• 7:34
  Genesis data and a few other reports that come out but.
• 7:37
  They sort of tell us where participants.
• 7:39
  Are or where people on home care packages are and those sorts of
• 7:42
  things support at home and that just means that we can make sure
• 7:45
  that communities that we're going to.
• 7:46
  I know there are plenty of people out there that need that
• 7:48
  help. Do you get to geek out with the
• 7:50
  data a little? Like look at this, like this
• 7:52
  area is a bit like I haven't seen anyone turn up there, but
• 7:55
  what could we, what could we possibly do?
• 7:57
  100%, I'm sure you saw a smirk on my face, but absolutely,
• 8:00
  that's definitely my domain and sort of, you know, seeing where
• 8:03
  we need to be again, doing this for 12 months now.
• 8:05
  Like there's still events and stuff that we're adding for the
• 8:08
  first time. Some places that we've never
• 8:10
  been before and there's just something so exciting about
• 8:13
  that. I think even just earlier this
• 8:15
  year we went to Tasmania for the first time.
• 8:17
  So it got out to Hobart, to Launceston.
• 8:19
  And there's been so many places like that, whether it's in a
• 8:21
  different state of just in a different city that even now,
• 8:24
  you know, doing this for sort of 1218 months, there's still so
• 8:27
  many places that we haven't been to and so many requests as well.
• 8:30
  I love it. I get, you know, we don't claim
• 8:31
  to be locals, you know, we know, we know Perth pretty well.
• 8:34
  We're certainly getting the hang of other states, but we urge
• 8:38
  that we get asked a lot. Are you going here?
• 8:40
  Can you go out there? There's a real need for this.
• 8:41
  And that's where it's fun, when you can sort of validate it
• 8:44
  against the data and go, yeah, you know what?
• 8:45
  I think we could do this. Is the data different from
• 8:48
  disability to age care or are they very similar?
• 8:52
  Really. Yeah.
• 8:52
  And I think, I think that's probably a, again, you know, be
• 8:54
  honest, but it was alerting for us early on.
• 8:57
  I think, you know, it's very much put on a great show from a
• 8:59
  disability point of view. Lots of people came and it's so
• 9:02
  easy to go. OK, well, that makes sense.
• 9:03
  Let's go there for aged care. But it's, it's very much not the
• 9:06
  case. And, you know, there's always
• 9:07
  exceptions to the rule, but I think sometimes what we found
• 9:10
  and, and unfortunately it's a disappointing reality, but a lot
• 9:13
  of the time that the bigger locations where the, I guess the
• 9:16
  more participants are from the disability sector are quite
• 9:18
  often in lower socioeconomic areas.
• 9:20
  And again, I say it's disappointing because that's,
• 9:22
  that's an unfortunate reality of what we see.
• 9:25
  So, you know, there's a, there's a role that we play in that and
• 9:28
  making sure that we're bringing out as much good quality local
• 9:31
  providers to those areas to get good quality education out
• 9:34
  there. And that's probably the other
• 9:36
  biggest thing that we've noticed is the further we seem to go,
• 9:39
  you know, these more remote and regional locations, just the,
• 9:42
  the varying levels of information that are out there.
• 9:45
  And I think that's the hardest part, but also probably the
• 9:48
  greatest part of what we do because it's just so rewarding
• 9:50
  when you're able to see that you've made a difference to
• 9:52
  somebody's life. And, you know, we, we play a
• 9:54
  really small part in that. It's the providers that do the
• 9:57
  heavy lifting and, and do a great job.
• 9:59
  But just knowing that we've brought them together so that,
• 10:01
  you know, a mum that's looking for an OT and has been for
• 10:03
  months or looking for this or looking for that can come to our
• 10:07
  event and actually find a quality provider that helps.
• 10:09
  And I think that again, those those sort of light bulb moments
• 10:12
  are those like sort of, you know, really exciting moments
• 10:14
  seem to come the further we travel in, you know, across this
• 10:16
  great country. And I've been to a couple of
• 10:18
  your events in the past and I they are where they are, if that
• 10:23
  makes any sense, like where they're situated within that
• 10:26
  like suburb. So how do you go make sure that
• 10:29
  the people that you've got coming from that suburb and not
• 10:32
  somebody that's, say, the other side of the city?
• 10:34
  Yeah, definitely. It.
• 10:36
  Look, it's to be honest. It's a bit of both.
• 10:37
  Like it is absolutely us as we sort of joke, but like door
• 10:40
  knocking and we we try really hard to walk the streets and get
• 10:43
  into the community and that's mainly to get the actual
• 10:46
  community to know about the event.
• 10:47
  So you know we're going to these different places to let them
• 10:49
  know, but it certainly is then what we do to make sure the
• 10:52
  providers in that area know. But at the same time with all of
• 10:55
  our marketing and the different advertisements we do in those
• 10:57
  sort of Geo. Tagged areas, it allows them to
• 11:00
  to stumble on the event and get involved.
• 11:02
  And I think the hardest thing is, you know, at times.
• 11:05
  Like a lot of our events, you know, Touchwood, we're very
• 11:08
  lucky and very, you know, appreciative of the support
• 11:11
  we've had from the community. But a lot of our events are
• 11:13
  selling out, which is a great problem to have.
• 11:15
  But sometimes we get asked, oh, you know, you can just fit one
• 11:18
  ball in, you know, you fit me and help, help me out kind of
• 11:20
  thing. And it's like this isn't, you
• 11:22
  know, we're not saying this number and we've got plenty of
• 11:24
  space. It's like this is this is the
• 11:26
  physical number that we can physically fit in, Yes.
• 11:29
  So at times we try and help people, but yeah, unfortunately,
• 11:32
  you know, when we hit capacity it's that's.
• 11:34
  Capacity. So at the beginning of your
• 11:36
  business to now, have you had to pivot like your vision or your
• 11:40
  mission, Has that ever had to change to accommodate where the
• 11:44
  business is today? Yeah, definitely.
• 11:46
  And I think one of the big pivots was in a nice way
• 11:48
  diversifying and having the two brands.
• 11:51
  So disability and aged care and that came about from Lee and I,
• 11:54
  like I said, working closely the disability sector, that's where
• 11:57
  our sort of our experience was in our alignment.
• 12:00
  And Lee in particular has some really close connection to the
• 12:02
  disability sector. And we just kept finding that
• 12:05
  people like older Australians were coming to our events and
• 12:08
  sometimes getting frustrated because there was no aged care
• 12:11
  information there. But also just not knowing the
• 12:13
  difference. And you know, the, the limit of
• 12:15
  65 for example, on the NDIS and those sorts of things.
• 12:18
  Given that our events are more smaller tailored, sort of, you
• 12:21
  know, 30 to 40 stall holders, we felt that if we cut the room in
• 12:25
  half and said half is disability and half is aged care.
• 12:28
  Kind of wouldn't be. Useful to anyone like it's not
• 12:30
  enough information, it's not enough variety.
• 12:32
  So that's why we decided and sort of pivoted mid year last
• 12:36
  year to go no, well, we think there's actually a really
• 12:38
  healthy place to have two separate events and that's
• 12:41
  where, you know, at the aged care events now, like we have
• 12:43
  some fantastic, you know, funeral plan and we have
• 12:45
  financial services, we have lawyers, we have duelers, like
• 12:49
  all of these sorts of things that I think in a nice way would
• 12:51
  look completely out of place at a disability Expo, but feel
• 12:54
  right at home in that aged care space.
• 12:56
  So that's definitely been one of the major pivots that we've had
• 12:58
  to do and sort of really just revise where we were heading.
• 13:03
  About you were door knocking the community to get most people
• 13:06
  involved. What I noticed that was kind of
• 13:08
  really special about your event being being able to go to a few
• 13:12
  of them is that it's not just provider to provider.
• 13:15
  It is actually people that are seeking support.
• 13:18
  Is, is that something like that you guys were really passionate
• 13:22
  about doing to make sure that we had actual NDIS participants
• 13:25
  turn up? Yeah, definitely.
• 13:27
  And like I appreciate it, but like it's definitely the
• 13:29
  feedback that we get. And I think that is one of the
• 13:31
  big sort of points of difference for us.
• 13:34
  You know there's some great brands out there that do
• 13:36
  fantastic networking events and like you said that real provided
• 13:39
  a provider space. And I think often we're sort of
• 13:42
  categorized as competitors, but we certainly don't see it that
• 13:45
  way. Like we think that that's what
• 13:46
  they do and they do that really well.
• 13:49
  We focus on this more Expo style where like you said there, there
• 13:51
  is providers walking through, but the vast majority are
• 13:54
  actually people on the scheme, people with a disability and
• 13:57
  their families. And again, that comes back to
• 13:59
  the, like we said, the door knocking that we do are getting
• 14:01
  out of the community a lot of the advertising that we do.
• 14:04
  And I think it just shows as well that there's a real demand
• 14:07
  in the community for these style events.
• 14:09
  You know, unfortunately, as we record this today, but there's
• 14:12
  so much happening in the world, there's so much uncertainty when
• 14:14
  it comes to even little things like fuel and that sort of
• 14:16
  stuff. So for us, we're finding that,
• 14:19
  you know, being able to do an event that's, you know, 10
• 14:21
  minutes from someone's house is a lot more appealing than an
• 14:23
  event that's an hour away. So we're definitely saying that
• 14:26
  that local feel of being in the community is really helping to
• 14:30
  to get even more participants and providers through the doors.
• 14:33
  Do you have a like, like, I'm a sucker for a feel good story,
• 14:36
  right? Do you have a story that
• 14:39
  somebody is like a somebody looking for services turned up
• 14:42
  to one of your events and was able to hook up with a provider
• 14:45
  or a support worker and had a good outcome from attending?
• 14:49
  Yeah, I do. And we're very lucky.
• 14:51
  Like again, I think we we get these quite regularly, like
• 14:54
  genuinely. And I think again, it, it's
• 14:56
  small moments that we probably, I think we do a good job, but we
• 14:59
  could probably do an even better job of just reflecting on and
• 15:01
  going like, wow, like we actually made it difference.
• 15:03
  And as I said before, like we get a lot of credit at times
• 15:06
  that sometimes I feel like a bit of like, you know, the credit
• 15:09
  shouldn't be with us because we, yeah, we put the event together,
• 15:11
  we bring everybody there. But ultimately it's the great
• 15:14
  providers that are the ones that are actually making the
• 15:16
  meaningful difference. But yeah, look, one that always
• 15:19
  stands out for me. We did Ipswich in Queensland or
• 15:21
  it would have been August or September last year and back
• 15:24
  then we were a smaller team. So we was, I think it was still
• 15:27
  only three of us. So we were still growing and got
• 15:29
  to the point where I actually had to take my dad with me to
• 15:32
  Queensland to do an event, which was great.
• 15:34
  So we we say we're a family. Did.
• 15:36
  That. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 15:38
  It was one of those that's a really twist his arm to get him
• 15:41
  there. I know, right.
• 15:43
  But that's that's exactly it. So he came along.
• 15:45
  He was really, really good to his credit.
• 15:47
  And I think firstly, like he'd heard about what we do and stuff
• 15:49
  like that, but. To actually see it was, you
• 15:52
  know, I guess in a way for him, he's really proud of us, but
• 15:54
  really humbled. But there was a mum in
• 15:56
  particular, and I sort of mentioned it briefly before, but
• 15:58
  like a mum in particular that came out in tears talking to dad
• 16:02
  and then dad. Pulled me in and we spoke to
• 16:03
  her. But she'd been looking.
• 16:04
  For a specific type of OT for her son, I think she'd said it
• 16:08
  was about 5 or 6 months they'd been looking for.
• 16:10
  He hadn't had the services that he needed.
• 16:12
  And she's like, I walked away today with two potential
• 16:14
  businesses that could. Be and it was just I don't know,
• 16:18
  it's hard to like sort of put into words, but it's.
• 16:19
  Just Gen. like the genuine relief from this lady and
• 16:23
  knowing that she's been going through so much.
• 16:25
  And like I said, we played a very small part in that.
• 16:27
  We were very lucky just to have good providers in the room.
• 16:29
  But those kind of interactions and you can just see the impact
• 16:33
  that what we do has. Yeah, I could I could live off
• 16:35
  that feeling for days. And they get a tear up a bit
• 16:37
  help. But it genuinely is just like so
• 16:39
  rewarding to do something and have, you know, I guess a good
• 16:42
  story. And I've got a corporate
• 16:44
  background. Many people out there, you know,
• 16:45
  have their history and their experience and moving into the
• 16:48
  disability sector, I think I sort of knew it was going to be
• 16:51
  heartwarming, but at the same time, I probably didn't
• 16:53
  understand the gravity of it. You know, you hear some really
• 16:56
  terrible stories as well. And again, you know, I've got
• 16:59
  plenty of them where there's so many people that need good
• 17:01
  support and they're not getting it.
• 17:03
  Yeah. So that's, that's something
• 17:04
  that's probably hit home over the journey and something I
• 17:07
  didn't expect, but it's therefore meant that when you
• 17:10
  have those really great interactions, they just, I don't
• 17:12
  know, they just hit so well. And yeah, that that mom in
• 17:14
  Ipswich, like I said, I still vividly remember.
• 17:16
  Her talking to dad and. It just, yeah, it was something
• 17:20
  really powerful. Sorry, one moment hold.
• 17:22
  On Yeah. So as we're recording right now,
• 17:28
  where in Australia are you? We we joke about this all the
• 17:35
  time because there's two. Things, Wally.
• 17:38
  I do, I definitely do. And my wife is often telling
• 17:42
  people, yeah, Cody's away in Adelaide this week.
• 17:44
  I'm I'm in Melbourne. My what are you talking about?
• 17:47
  And my youngest daughter is 4 and she often tells people, the
• 17:50
  teachers. At school and stuff like that.
• 17:52
  Dad's on another holiday, so I must sound like a terrible
• 17:55
  parent that's always on these great holidays by himself.
• 17:57
  But I'm obviously working and. Travelling, but I'm currently
• 18:00
  luckily in Perth. I was in Melbourne only last
• 18:03
  week and internally we've started not so much a
• 18:06
  competition but we've just started to track how.
• 18:08
  How many flights we've done for the year and where we've been
• 18:10
  already And I think I've already done 19 flights and as I think
• 18:13
  what are we early April. So I think I'm leading the
• 18:15
  clubhouse leader at the moment and definitely sort of racking
• 18:18
  up the case across the country. But I think Lee will catch me
• 18:21
  and catch me pretty soon as well.
• 18:22
  When you so when you turn up to a site, you have to put it all
• 18:27
  together. You got to put all the like
• 18:30
  intake people in that are coming in, the providers, people
• 18:33
  looking for services. Does that take up like a whole
• 18:36
  day or a couple of hours? Like is it?
• 18:39
  Is it typing work like I? I'd assume it would be.
• 18:42
  Yeah, look, it definitely is. And we get really lucky
• 18:45
  sometimes that again the different venues that we use,
• 18:48
  certainly some of the RSL clubs and different places like that,
• 18:50
  you get a bit more support and they will often help set up
• 18:53
  which really does remove a lot of the.
• 18:54
  Burden and make it a bit easier for us.
• 18:56
  But there are certainly occasions where, you know, it's
• 18:58
  a community club or something like that and where manoeuvring
• 19:02
  tables and chairs, you know, 10 minutes before everybody arrives
• 19:05
  and they just walk up and it looks 1,000,000 bucks.
• 19:07
  I'm like, yeah. It didn't look like this 10
• 19:09
  minutes ago, but now we're really lucky.
• 19:11
  I think that's part of, you know part of the business case for
• 19:13
  what we did was like we sort of felt a lot of the.
• 19:16
  Pain points from other events that we've been to in the past
• 19:19
  and and tried to sort of alleviate some of them.
• 19:21
  And again, I've been on, you know, many of this side of the
• 19:24
  table at previous roles at those big Expos.
• 19:27
  Again, don't get me wrong, they do a fantastic job.
• 19:29
  They they, you know, really bring so many people together.
• 19:31
  They really do serve a purpose. But what we found is, again, you
• 19:34
  know, you're normally setting up the night before takes all day,
• 19:37
  then you're doing 2 days and then you're taking time and
• 19:39
  lunics like all of a sudden it becomes the best part of a week
• 19:42
  sort of venture. So for us setting up, you know,
• 19:45
  we do it the night before or the morning of, but you know, stall
• 19:47
  holders arrive an hour before the event.
• 19:49
  They are quick to set up, but they're even quicker to pack up
• 19:52
  and the events done at one and they're out by honestly 120.
• 19:54
  It's it's amazing how fast they can do it.
• 19:56
  But it just means that, you know, the admin's not backing
• 19:59
  up. People can get back to the
• 20:00
  office or they can get back home and they haven't wasted four or
• 20:03
  five days for one event. When you go to events like this,
• 20:08
  see, I would say that you're quite a confident person and
• 20:11
  quite easy to talk to. Yep.
• 20:13
  Do you have to support providers on how best to communicate or
• 20:18
  how to get themselves out there? Because I've been to events
• 20:21
  before where I felt like a person was shut off because they
• 20:25
  were behind their table, or they were looking down, or they
• 20:27
  didn't feel really engaged. You have to like wind people up
• 20:31
  before they turn up. I look, I try.
• 20:33
  I don't know if it always works when I certainly try, but I
• 20:35
  think I think it works honestly on both sides.
• 20:37
  So like I can share, but like there's a couple of things that
• 20:39
  we've done certainly in the mornings like what we do on the
• 20:42
  event. So we have what we call the DC
• 20:44
  huddle. And that is, you know, 15
• 20:46
  minutes before the doors open, we get all the providers
• 20:48
  together, we do sort of a group huddle on what to expect for the
• 20:51
  day, what's going on, all of those sorts of things.
• 20:53
  As part of that now, over the last three to six months, we
• 20:56
  have noticed exactly what you're talking about, which is not
• 20:59
  every providers done an Expo before.
• 21:01
  And even the ones that have sometimes it's different staff,
• 21:03
  it can be a bit of a mix. So we sort of share a couple of
• 21:06
  tips and, and that tip you just mentioned is, is exactly what we
• 21:09
  say is, you know, put your technology away.
• 21:11
  It's a 3 hour event, get in front of your table and I
• 21:14
  actively want to be talking to people.
• 21:16
  And you'll find that people reciprocate that and they come
• 21:18
  to you. And you can definitely tell
• 21:20
  there's tools that are providing the energy are the ones that are
• 21:23
  really busy. And then I'm surprised I
• 21:25
  normally have one in front of me.
• 21:26
  I don't have one in front of me at the moment.
• 21:27
  But we also from an attendee point of view, give out a, a
• 21:30
  sheet of paper that has all the store holders that are there on
• 21:33
  the day. And we, we do surveys at the end
• 21:36
  of each of our Expos to gather feedback on where we can improve
• 21:38
  and how we can get better. There was an ex well, a couple
• 21:41
  of months ago and somebody said, I came to this first one and
• 21:44
  like I, as the attendee, didn't know what to ask people.
• 21:47
  Like, I know I need help, but like, how do I ask?
• 21:49
  What do I do? So one of the things that we've
• 21:51
  now created is we've got like a simple question guide that helps
• 21:54
  people that are attending the event also ask really good
• 21:57
  open-ended questions to get that information.
• 21:59
  And again, it just, you know, it's helping both sides of the
• 22:02
  table to make that interaction as easy as possible.
• 22:04
  Have you, by hosting these events yourself, have you been
• 22:07
  able to network with people that you're like, oh wow, I never
• 22:10
  would have thought that I could network with this person or get
• 22:13
  close or that. Yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 22:15
  I think I am terrible with names that I have been for a long
• 22:18
  period of time and I am, yes. And can be a real challenge
• 22:22
  sometimes because in a nice way. Everybody just, you know, has to
• 22:24
  remember the one of that guy or you know, the Dec guy, but it's,
• 22:27
  it's a bit different. But you've got to go to
• 22:29
  different events and meet all these providers.
• 22:31
  But yeah, we've been, we've been so lucky.
• 22:33
  I'm, I'm a firm believer. Like I'm happy to be on record
• 22:36
  and say that good people know good people.
• 22:38
  And that has only been cemented through my journey of travelling
• 22:41
  around Australia and meeting so many people.
• 22:43
  And that's why we're so lucky at these events, because, yeah, we
• 22:45
  do like, I think in a really good way there's.
• 22:48
  There's a lot. Of negativity about the NDIS at
• 22:50
  the moment. I think some of it's justified,
• 22:53
  but I think a lot of it isn't. I think a lot of it is, you
• 22:55
  know, talking about the vast minority of people.
• 22:58
  There are so many great providers out there doing so
• 23:00
  many great things and we definitely like to shed the
• 23:02
  light on that positive stuff as opposed to the negative that
• 23:06
  seems to, again have sort of reciprocated now that when we do
• 23:09
  our events, a lot of the providers that are coming are
• 23:11
  those ones that I speak of, the really great sort of ones that
• 23:14
  are in it for the right reasons, trying to help people.
• 23:16
  And yeah, I guess anytime we get to share a room with those
• 23:19
  people, it's it's certainly worthwhile.
• 23:21
  Were you a plan manager before jumping in?
• 23:24
  So have you been able to see the disability sector now on a
• 23:27
  different side of the coin? Because having a being a plan
• 23:30
  manager is very different to being a support provider to
• 23:33
  Allied Health. Has it opened up your eyes and
• 23:36
  what has taken you by surprise? Yeah, it's a good question.
• 23:39
  And I, I always say this, but I was never an actual plan
• 23:42
  manager. I, I really have a lot of
• 23:44
  respect and time for the people that actually do go through that
• 23:47
  stuff. I've worked for plan management
• 23:48
  companies. So therefore as much as I
• 23:50
  fronted up to to be there, I definitely never claimed to be
• 23:53
  an expert. Because there is so much to
• 23:54
  learn in that space. But you're absolutely right,
• 23:57
  from being in those roles and now sort of doing what I do, I
• 24:00
  absolutely see the the NDIS world very differently.
• 24:03
  I think it's funny, some of the pain points, it's that you, you
• 24:05
  know, again, when you work for a plan manager, you're like, oh,
• 24:07
  these simple things or why can't you do that?
• 24:09
  Why is this a problem? You know, all this sort of
• 24:11
  stuff. And then you step out of that
• 24:12
  bubble and you step into the actual industry and you go, I
• 24:14
  kind of get it now. You know, I understand the other
• 24:18
  side, so there's definitely been a lot.
• 24:20
  Of that as well, but now it's definitely sort of allows you to
• 24:23
  see see perspective from a different place, that's for
• 24:26
  sure. So your past roles have like
• 24:29
  helped you get to this point here.
• 24:31
  If you didn't have any of that, you probably wouldn't be in the
• 24:33
  sector. Yeah, I think to a degree,
• 24:35
  absolutely. I think like I said early on,
• 24:38
  working for those plan managers, the goal was always just to
• 24:41
  build my network and get to know good people.
• 24:44
  And that's why we started this networking stuff on the side.
• 24:47
  And again, it wasn't. Was certainly not designed to be
• 24:49
  a business. It was just purely just to get
• 24:51
  the name out there and and again, sort of make quality
• 24:53
  providers that we could lean on. But that was the the kick up the
• 24:56
  bum to go, well, there's a different way to do things and
• 24:59
  there's there's definitely a need to do what we do now.
• 25:01
  Had I not had that time and again established some really
• 25:04
  good quality connections early on that encouraged both Lee and
• 25:07
  I to take it more seriously, then yeah, definitely we
• 25:10
  wouldn't be here today. I'm oh, you're ready for this
• 25:13
  one. You know I'm nosy, right, And I
• 25:17
  am I I admit it. I will admit it.
• 25:19
  The way that you guys set up and you like you from the set to the
• 25:23
  pack up. Is that because you have
• 25:24
  experience working from Amazon or was that because you were
• 25:28
  just I had to ask it? Is it because they're really
• 25:32
  quite structured and the way that you guys work is quite
• 25:34
  structured and to the point like this, It's like you you've got
• 25:38
  it all figured out. The twos and the from's of a day
• 25:40
  is it? Is it doesn't come from that or
• 25:42
  is it something else? That's a very good question.
• 25:45
  You've done your research, which I like, but no, I'd love to give
• 25:48
  the guys at Amazon credit, but I've cut.
• 25:50
  I'm sure there's a bit of it in there.
• 25:51
  I don't know if it's that, but I think to be honest, actually my
• 25:54
  background was a long time at Samsung.
• 25:56
  So I worked for Samsung for eight years and I didn't know.
• 25:59
  I did a lot of events through Samsung, ran a lot of events
• 26:02
  and. Worked out very quickly, you
• 26:04
  know, what makes a good event and what doesn't make a good
• 26:06
  event. And I can, I can tell you that
• 26:08
  the GEC has a lot less budget than the great people at
• 26:11
  Samsung. There's definitely a few less
• 26:13
  EUR on our bank account than theirs.
• 26:14
  But it just means it just sort of taught you to be creative
• 26:18
  with what you had And, and also like I said, just sort of
• 26:20
  understand what makes it work. So I appreciate it, but I think
• 26:23
  that's probably where the background has really helped.
• 26:26
  Yeah, I think putting on a good show, like I said at the top,
• 26:29
  like we only do events, like we don't do anything else, so we
• 26:33
  need to do a good event, otherwise, you know, what's the
• 26:36
  point? So we focus really hard on just
• 26:38
  making sure it all flows and well, like I said, we put on a
• 26:41
  good show and if we do that part then hopefully people will keep
• 26:44
  coming back. I've got a question because I've
• 26:47
  been you got in this sector, I've been to so many, right?
• 26:50
  And I have heard advice that you should work on your pitch before
• 26:53
  turning up about what you talk about and all that stuff.
• 26:56
  Does pitching work at your event or is it natural conversation
• 26:59
  that gets you there? Have you got any advice for
• 27:01
  anyone? Yeah, that's a good question.
• 27:03
  Yeah. I mean, look, I I like to do
• 27:05
  things a bit. Differently so my take is
• 27:07
  probably not everybody's take, but I genuinely think the people
• 27:10
  that are going straight away for referrals and to build those
• 27:13
  connections and the people that are just going to get left
• 27:14
  behind, like, you know, as well as much as one conversation can
• 27:18
  open a door. And again, the the Lee story
• 27:20
  with me is, you know, great. We met at about Expo and we
• 27:23
  turned it into this like, that's awesome, but we didn't go to
• 27:26
  that, that catch up with that intent and it was follow up
• 27:29
  conversation and building trust and credibility from 2 strangers
• 27:32
  that sort of met off the street effectively that that got us
• 27:35
  theirs. I think sometimes, and again, I,
• 27:37
  I get introduced to providers all the time, but there are some
• 27:39
  people that are very upfront, the fact that they're there for
• 27:42
  referrals, they're there to try and build their client base.
• 27:45
  And to me that's a, a massive red flag and a bit of a, you
• 27:48
  know, turn it off when it comes to that sort of stuff.
• 27:49
  So you're absolutely right. I think it's about building
• 27:52
  authentic connection. I also find and, and we do a bit
• 27:55
  of this ourselves. We sort of joke and say
• 27:56
  policing, but you know, we, we have still holders that pay to
• 27:59
  be at our events. We still think there's a really
• 28:01
  healthy place for networking. So we encourage providers to
• 28:05
  come along for free and network. But we say bring a business card
• 28:08
  to build it, you know, build that connection, but don't bring
• 28:10
  any Flyers because, you know, respectfully, you haven't paid
• 28:12
  to be there. You have.
• 28:14
  But it's crazy how many times we have to sort of tell people to
• 28:16
  put their Flyers away. And you know, people go to these
• 28:19
  events and think they're doing the best thing by going to
• 28:21
  listen to my business, this is what I do, yada, yada, yada.
• 28:24
  But in actual fact, you've just turned that person completely
• 28:27
  off your business and they have no intent of ever talking to
• 28:29
  you. So now I totally agree.
• 28:31
  I think it's it's building that genuine connection.
• 28:33
  And I think just listening, I think listing's a bit of a lost
• 28:37
  art at the moment. Again, I do you know networking?
• 28:39
  Events all the time. Everybody wants to talk about
• 28:42
  what they do and I know I'm doing that now.
• 28:44
  You know, it's hard not to be passionate about what you do,
• 28:47
  but if everybody's just yelling at each other and say this is
• 28:49
  what we do, we're better. No, we're better.
• 28:51
  We're there's no one actually listening and taking it in.
• 28:53
  So I guess my key advice would just be just listen to the
• 28:55
  providers that you're meeting, hear about their why, why they
• 28:58
  do what they do. And if you can build some common
• 29:01
  ground from that and I guess have that expectation, it's
• 29:04
  gonna take a bit of time. That's really where genuine
• 29:06
  connection sort of fosters. I'm that silly sausage always
• 29:10
  forgets to bring the business card with me.
• 29:13
  I do, I do. And then, then I do that panic
• 29:15
  like, oh God, what was their name again?
• 29:17
  I will find them on LinkedIn. And then what happens?
• 29:20
  It's kind of like every event that I go to now, it's kind of
• 29:22
  like I'm, I'm sitting like a school reunion, like, oh, I
• 29:25
  really do So and so. And yeah, yeah.
• 29:27
  And all of a sudden you, you develop all these connections.
• 29:30
  I'm like, and I haven't met like, it's like a challenge now.
• 29:32
  Like I haven't met you and I'm going to, I'm going to meet you
• 29:35
  and I'm going to Tower Brown you with my 60 questions because I
• 29:37
  want to know what you do because I get excited about that type of
• 29:39
  stuff. Do you feel like you're like, it
• 29:42
  doesn't even feel like work for you, like all that networking
• 29:44
  and all that talking because you do build a base of a community.
• 29:48
  How does it feel like a job? No, it doesn't, and I reckon the
• 29:50
  day that it does. Don't tell your wife.
• 29:52
  Yeah, absolutely. Why?
• 29:56
  Hopefully she's not listening to this, but no, I, I, I don't
• 29:58
  think it does. And like I said, the day that it
• 30:00
  does is probably the day I need to do something else because it
• 30:02
  doesn't like, again, we mentioned all the travel and
• 30:05
  stuff and it's a part of the job.
• 30:06
  It can be draining at times, but I do it because I love it and I.
• 30:09
  Lee would say the exact same thing, and it doesn't feel like
• 30:12
  work. It still feels like a bit of a,
• 30:13
  like a bit of a dream, to be honest, that we are lucky enough
• 30:16
  to, to support our families and travel Australia and make just
• 30:19
  so many good people and, and have that impact we're talking
• 30:22
  about before. So now it's, it's definitely
• 30:25
  still remains like dawned on us the fact that we're so lucky to
• 30:28
  be able to do what we do. And part of that is then meeting
• 30:30
  all these great people and starting these conversations
• 30:33
  now. It's been it's been a wild
• 30:35
  journey and we've loved it. Is it pretty cool now because
• 30:37
  you would develop quite a big black book of contacts that
• 30:41
  you'd be like, well, in Rockhampton you can use or like,
• 30:45
  you know, in Glenelg I would go like, does it feel like that you
• 30:49
  can now like refer people to yourself within the network
• 30:52
  because you've met so many different people?
• 30:53
  Yeah, it definitely does. And I think we get asked a lot
• 30:56
  as well. And again, we're really mindful
• 30:58
  of putting our name next to brands that we can trust.
• 31:01
  Or more importantly, it's not even brands, it's people you
• 31:04
  know, It's the people. That we can trust.
• 31:06
  It is really difficult because you always assume that people
• 31:10
  will do the right thing and as because you're external, you
• 31:14
  don't, you're not in their business, you don't know what
• 31:16
  they're doing within their business, not until a bit
• 31:19
  afterwards. So I think sometimes the
• 31:21
  messaging in our sector gets a little bit lost because like go
• 31:24
  out and network, but don't network with AB and C&D, who can
• 31:28
  I talk to? Like it makes it really
• 31:30
  difficult. I get the same thing for
• 31:31
  podcasting. Absolutely.
• 31:33
  And that's the thing, you know, I wrote a podcast as well.
• 31:35
  You don't want to have the wrong guess or the wrong people coming
• 31:37
  along. So it can be really challenging
• 31:39
  and we're very lucky. This is going to sound like a
• 31:41
  plug, but I promise it's not. But like we're, we're very
• 31:43
  lucky. Because we have.
• 31:44
  But we we do genuinely have some really fantastic sponsors.
• 31:46
  And as part of those sponsorship agreements that we've been able
• 31:49
  to work through, we've done a bit more peering behind the
• 31:51
  curtain. And both ways they've sort of
• 31:53
  filled us out and made sure we're about the right stuff.
• 31:55
  And likewise we do with them. And we've deliberately tried to
• 31:58
  make sure that we have a good variety of those sponsors.
• 32:00
  As well and. That does mean that we pretty
• 32:03
  much have like one key brand that we can put our names to
• 32:06
  across different States and across the country.
• 32:08
  So that's helped because you're right.
• 32:09
  At the end of the day, everyone else that you meet, it's kind of
• 32:11
  a surface level conversation now.
• 32:13
  We're lucky in that sense. We've got some really great
• 32:15
  operators all around the country and that's that's definitely
• 32:18
  been a bit of a blessing. So anybody listening to this
• 32:20
  podcast, how do they become a sponsor?
• 32:22
  Like is it something that I have to submit like to you?
• 32:25
  Do I just put a form in? Do I just see you at the next
• 32:28
  local and say I'm Keating? And because.
• 32:30
  Sponsorships is also like. There's also different levels of
• 32:33
  sponsorship as well. There is, yeah.
• 32:35
  Look again, it's a good question and there's so many.
• 32:36
  In ways that people reach out to us, whether it's the website,
• 32:39
  the emails, the socials, like you said, there's there's no
• 32:42
  right or wrong, right way to do it.
• 32:43
  We just get sort of hit up all the time.
• 32:45
  But. Look, a lot of a lot of the.
• 32:46
  Sponsorships now again, we're very lucky.
• 32:48
  A lot of them are sort of sewn up and across the country.
• 32:50
  We have some really great state sponsors and national sponsors
• 32:53
  that have done a lot of that stuff so.
• 32:54
  I think at the moment. Off the top of my head, I think
• 32:56
  Queensland is, is probably one of the only states along with SA
• 32:59
  where we are sort of looking for a key sponsor in those areas.
• 33:02
  Everything else for the rest of the year is tidied up.
• 33:04
  But again, I think the the biggest thing is anyone that
• 33:06
  wants to reach out, whatever capacity, whether it's
• 33:09
  sponsorship, whether it's as a stall holder, whether it's just
• 33:11
  to come along and network. I think, you know, our website
• 33:13
  sort of houses all the critical information what events are
• 33:16
  coming up and when they're coming up.
• 33:18
  And as our team grows, I think the goal is for me to sort of do
• 33:21
  a bit more of that event planning further ahead because
• 33:24
  it's probably one of the biggest bits of feedback we get.
• 33:26
  We're we're very proud and very fortunate that sometimes we
• 33:29
  finish an Expo, we get emails saying can you make sure we're
• 33:32
  included in the next one, which isn't for another 12 months.
• 33:35
  Yeah. So it shows that the impact it
• 33:36
  can have. But I think that the more of a
• 33:38
  runway that I can help build this.
• 33:40
  This sort of business. For us to have it just means
• 33:42
  that providers have an oversight on, you know, what key areas
• 33:44
  they want to be a part of. So that's hopefully something
• 33:47
  that we'll start to do over the next 6 to 12 months is have even
• 33:49
  more events. Ready to go so people can.
• 33:52
  Plan and and make sure they're at the right ones.
• 33:54
  So if I was an independent support worker, could I turn up
• 33:57
  and have a store? Absolutely.
• 33:59
  And we, we do a lot of different things.
• 34:01
  We have a lot of different support workers come along to
• 34:03
  our events as well. So again, whether it's as an
• 34:06
  attendee, firstly, either bringing along participants or
• 34:08
  sort of coming along to see what companies are out there, see
• 34:11
  what work is out there and just sort of get a bit of a test of
• 34:14
  of what's going on in the industry in that area.
• 34:16
  I think that's definitely something we.
• 34:17
  Welcome. And likewise absolutely from a
• 34:19
  still holder point of view, one of the.
• 34:21
  Things and again Lee's probably really big on this, I don't
• 34:24
  think we probably talk about this enough, but it's something
• 34:26
  that she's very good at doing and something we've helped true
• 34:29
  is for each of our events that we run, we give away sort of one
• 34:32
  or two free tables to local community groups, non for
• 34:36
  profits in addition to the non for profit discount that we
• 34:38
  offer to different people as well.
• 34:40
  And again, we're just really mindful of the fact there are
• 34:42
  some amazing people out there. Some of them obviously have a
• 34:44
  disability, but really trying to.
• 34:46
  Sort of crack their teeth and get their business set up and do
• 34:49
  different things. So we've had a a variety of
• 34:51
  different people come over the journey and they said we don't
• 34:54
  actively sort of, you know, tell people and sing.
• 34:56
  It from the rooftops, but there's even a place for that
• 34:58
  sort of stuff as well, because we really believe that.
• 35:00
  You know the. Community is everything.
• 35:02
  So it's not just these small micro enterprise businesses.
• 35:05
  It's even, you know, we, we often work with the council, get
• 35:07
  the council involved, get MNR events, providers like you name
• 35:10
  it, like we really want a good subsection of everything that's
• 35:13
  happening in that community. Well, we all start with 0, don't
• 35:15
  we? We all got to start from that.
• 35:17
  And the fact like, you know, to help somebody and to give back I
• 35:20
  think is really important because at the like, As for some
• 35:24
  people going to an event, being a stall holder for the first
• 35:27
  time, it's quite scary. And you know, a bit of anxiety
• 35:30
  around it because it's something you've never done before.
• 35:33
  So the idea that you guys get to nurture that relationship is,
• 35:37
  and it's nice. Yeah, no, I appreciate it, but
• 35:39
  it definitely is. It's one of the, again, one of
• 35:40
  the great things that we're able to do.
• 35:42
  And again, there's just so many good quality people.
• 35:44
  Out there that are. Doing the hard yards and like I
• 35:46
  said setting up their micro enterprise businesses and if we
• 35:49
  if we can play our little part in.
• 35:50
  Giving them a bit of a head start, then we'd be crazy not
• 35:52
  to. And yeah, it's nice again, you
• 35:55
  know, working for such big companies you mentioned before
• 35:57
  by like Amazon and Samsung and stuff like you and they're great
• 36:00
  and they provide so much opportunity, but there's so much
• 36:02
  red tape sometimes. And you know, when you're in a
• 36:04
  business that is led by two Co founders, you can instantly go,
• 36:07
  yeah, let's let's do that, let's write that off.
• 36:09
  Let's let's give that person that chance.
• 36:10
  So it's really refreshing when you're able to be in the driver
• 36:13
  seat and make those decisions and make a quick impact that's
• 36:16
  gonna help someone. And it's a small sector and
• 36:18
  people do move. So it's you're more worth being
• 36:21
  kind then then you think because one week they might be working
• 36:25
  for one provider and then they're going out and doing
• 36:27
  their own thing. So there's like there's no point
• 36:30
  having that type of nastiness behind it because you just don't
• 36:33
  know where they're going. You might see them being at one
• 36:36
  planning manager and then the next.
• 36:37
  The churn over rate of in BDMS is so high.
• 36:41
  It's ridiculous in, you know, we say it again in different States
• 36:45
  and we send out emails and, you know, we get bounced backs.
• 36:48
  I'm like, oh, jeez, I didn't know this person's left or
• 36:49
  they've moved on. And there is there is so much
• 36:51
  change and. All the gossip, you're like, Oh
• 36:54
  my God, this person's e-mail has bounced back.
• 36:57
  And then I'd be like, on LinkedIn going, where did they
• 36:59
  go? Because it's such an asset.
• 37:01
  You know, we're wow, I want to follow this person's career
• 37:04
  because they're good at what they do.
• 37:05
  Big time and that's the thing I think we're always on the
• 37:07
  lookout for good people as well. So if we can sort of go, oh,
• 37:10
  hey, we remember that person, they were fantastic from this
• 37:12
  event. Now let's let's knock on their
• 37:14
  door. I'm a firm believer.
• 37:15
  Like I said at the top, good people, no good people.
• 37:17
  So yeah, look, it's, it's a lot of change happening at the
• 37:21
  moment and we mentioned it, but obviously having the aged care
• 37:23
  business as well, we're seeing a lot of people drifting away from
• 37:26
  disability and drifting into aged care.
• 37:28
  A couple going the other way, but I think majority is starting
• 37:30
  to drift from disability and into aged care.
• 37:32
  So again, that you know, has a lot of positives.
• 37:34
  I think that's really good. For the aged care sector, but
• 37:37
  ultimately means you absolutely. It's it's so small and you just
• 37:39
  don't know who's going to pop up and and what shirt they're going
• 37:41
  to be wearing the next time you see them.
• 37:43
  Yeah, but also anyone like a support worker supporting
• 37:47
  somebody to attend an event, it's actually a really good
• 37:49
  thing for support workers to support that.
• 37:52
  And the reason why I put that out there is because you know,
• 37:54
  knowledge is key and to be able to support somebody to say, oh,
• 37:58
  actually, you know, they there are the closest allied health
• 38:01
  they they over here, you know, they provide group support.
• 38:04
  There's nothing wrong with doing any of that.
• 38:06
  Sometimes I think that the stopper comes because we're
• 38:09
  worried about losing somebody. But it's if you're the person
• 38:12
  like supporting information, how can you lose?
• 38:15
  Like it's they the person that we support gains the most.
• 38:18
  At the end of the day, the aim of the NDIS and a age care is
• 38:22
  for that person to win. Absolutely.
• 38:23
  Now well said. I could not agree more.
• 38:25
  And I think that's why there is such a healthy place for it.
• 38:27
  And again, ultimately the participant is the only one that
• 38:29
  benefits in that scenario. I think when it comes to our
• 38:32
  events as well, again, because the community, they're smaller,
• 38:35
  they are more affordable. So for all those reasons we
• 38:38
  find, don't get me wrong, we get, we get some great really.
• 38:40
  Large brands that have strong presence around the country and
• 38:43
  they follow us a lot, but I think we see even more smaller
• 38:46
  community style companies which sometimes can be some of the
• 38:49
  best, but at our events and they're the ones that you know.
• 38:52
  You, you can't Google, you don't know what you don't know.
• 38:55
  So if you're not coming to those events, you may never see them,
• 38:58
  you may never hear, but it might be the exact community group or.
• 39:01
  Support group that you're looking for as well.
• 39:03
  So I think that's where a lot of people have started to really
• 39:05
  enjoy our events is because it's not the same.
• 39:08
  We make sure we cap how many stallholders we have that are
• 39:11
  plan managers or our allied health or whatever it is to make
• 39:14
  sure that there's good variety. And that's what we sort of see
• 39:16
  on the day. And yeah, that's exactly why we
• 39:18
  get so many support workers going.
• 39:19
  I didn't even know these guys. Existed.
• 39:21
  I love that type of stuff because.
• 39:23
  Also, because the the small ones, you get to meet the
• 39:26
  person, actually the founder or the director, you actually get
• 39:29
  to understand the values of that business.
• 39:32
  And that's not something that you can find on a website or on
• 39:35
  a LinkedIn or, or, you know, Instagram or something like
• 39:38
  that. That's something that is face to
• 39:39
  face and that is very human. The passions of why they do what
• 39:41
  they do. Big time.
• 39:43
  And I think what we found like hearing from the stallholders
• 39:45
  that come to our events versus the other ones.
• 39:47
  And again, this is by no means me me saying anything bad about
• 39:49
  the other ones is I just think it's a difference but because
• 39:52
  our events. Are smaller, like you're talking
• 39:54
  a few 100 people, not a few thousand people, means the
• 39:57
  conversation can be deeper because it's not just a quick,
• 39:59
  you know, probably grab the free stuff and move to the next one
• 40:02
  and keep going. Like you actually can spend sort
• 40:03
  of that 2 to 5 minutes. Even if it's still a surface
• 40:06
  level conversation, but like you said, getting to know the person
• 40:08
  on the other side, asking some questions about the services
• 40:11
  they offer and still walking away with information, but
• 40:14
  having a bit more of a gut feel around, yes, that's the right
• 40:16
  thing or not. So I think that that's really
• 40:19
  helped. And again, the feedback that we
• 40:20
  hear probably most from stallholders is they're actually
• 40:23
  able to have a bit more of a deeper conversation with
• 40:25
  participants and family members because of that reason.
• 40:28
  Yeah. I'm all for it.
• 40:29
  I love it. I do like this is kind of like
• 40:32
  this. Doesn't anyone listening right
• 40:33
  now? This is how I find some of my
• 40:35
  guests, by turning up to events. Yeah.
• 40:37
  And I actually, I, I did really well at an event I think you had
• 40:42
  at Burn Bank. That was where I picked up some
• 40:45
  podcast guests that way because then I, it's like they know it
• 40:49
  at the time, but I was interviewing them to figure out
• 40:51
  whether we would be awkward, that there's only one way to
• 40:54
  find out. And that because podcasting is
• 40:57
  like all relationships is human. And I want to make sure that,
• 41:00
  you know, whatever I deliver, it's going to be a bit of fun to
• 41:02
  listen to. 100% yeah. And I think that's the thing
• 41:05
  again, you can't put a price on it.
• 41:06
  Just that that face to face interaction again, you know,
• 41:09
  being from Perth, I do a lot of video calls and stuff like that
• 41:12
  and you, you. Learn to make them work.
• 41:13
  But nothing replaces just truly sort of looking someone in the
• 41:16
  eyes and we have to have a conversation.
• 41:18
  Again when it all sends. Us back to like the person that
• 41:20
  you're looking after or the OR the care that you're trying to
• 41:22
  get like you're crazy not to try and put that extra effort in to
• 41:25
  actually go and meet these people and actually have a full
• 41:28
  conversation to to see if it's the right for you.
• 41:30
  So, oh, we haven't done that. You've got a podcast.
• 41:33
  What's gonna be a podcast for anyone listening?
• 41:35
  Thank you. Yes, I don't think it's quite to
• 41:38
  the level of your podcast, but it's it's been very silly.
• 41:42
  Information is information, and that's regardless of whether it
• 41:45
  is. And that's why I, I don't, I'm
• 41:47
  doesn't trust me interviewing other podcast hosts because it's
• 41:51
  about making sure that the information is out there for
• 41:53
  people to seek. And the you've interviewed some
• 41:55
  really cool people and I've listened to them because I've
• 41:58
  geeked out. Yeah, I've done my homework.
• 42:01
  Look, you definitely have and I appreciate that.
• 42:03
  And it's it's been so nice being on the other side of the
• 42:05
  interview. For a little bit, it's it's
• 42:06
  definitely. Definitely different, so not
• 42:08
  what I'm used to. But our podcast is called
• 42:10
  Community. And that's because it might
• 42:12
  sound a bit, I'm gonna say lame, but like the whole reason we
• 42:15
  came about was, you know, community for us is it takes you
• 42:18
  and I to build a community. And those letters do exist in
• 42:21
  community. But more importantly, like it is
• 42:23
  a team effort. It really takes, you know,
• 42:25
  people on both sides to bring that together.
• 42:27
  And that's what the whole podcast is about.
• 42:28
  I touched on it before, but I think there's a lot of
• 42:31
  negativity around the NDIS at the moment.
• 42:33
  And again, absolutely, some of it is is completely justified
• 42:37
  and people that are doing the wrong thing should not be
• 42:40
  allowed to do anything in the space and they should be banned
• 42:42
  and probably worse than banned for a lot of them.
• 42:45
  But I still strongly believe that that represents a small
• 42:48
  subset of what is the industry. I think there are so many
• 42:52
  thousands of providers that are absolutely in it for the right
• 42:55
  reasons and doing the right thing.
• 42:56
  And that's what that podcast is about.
• 42:58
  It's really about shining the light on the positive stuff.
• 43:00
  So we have definitely some providers on there, but I, I
• 43:03
  really enjoy getting actual people with disabilities or
• 43:05
  their families to come on. And so we've interviewed, you
• 43:07
  know, moms, we've interviewed again, people with disability
• 43:11
  to. Tell their journey and their
• 43:12
  story and give themselves a bit of a platform.
• 43:15
  It's been really refreshing to to hear some of these things.
• 43:17
  And again, here's some of the good that is out there and.
• 43:20
  Yeah, it's been a nice change. So yeah, if people want to check
• 43:22
  it out, it's called Community. But yeah, it's it's definitely
• 43:26
  been a lot of fun so far. Available on YouTube and.
• 43:29
  Spotify, iTunes, I was gonna say Apple Music.
• 43:33
  I am again a big Samsung man, so it goes against everything I
• 43:36
  stand for. But these days, yeah, I.
• 43:39
  Understand. Absolutely.
• 43:44
  Yeah, haha. Steve Jobs, you weren't going to
• 43:46
  get me. No, when you tell people that
• 43:48
  you're an Android person, person, they're like, oh, but
• 43:51
  like, I feel like the the market has shifted.
• 43:54
  I don't feel like everyone's just appling like they used to.
• 43:56
  Yeah, look, it's hard. I get it still in my DNA to try
• 43:59
  and swap people and it's caused a bit of friction even in our
• 44:02
  little office. I have put my foot down in the
• 44:04
  last couple of weeks and and decided to get everybody off
• 44:07
  their iPhones and onto the Samsungs.
• 44:08
  And purely because we we take one of the things that we do in
• 44:11
  our events, but we take so many photos and.
• 44:14
  We challenge ourselves, but we we have a commitment that we'll
• 44:17
  get all of the store holders the photos before 5:00 of the day.
• 44:20
  And that way they can share them on LinkedIn and you share them
• 44:23
  with the business, all those sort of great things.
• 44:25
  And Lee's gonna fucking love it, I should swear.
• 44:27
  But she's gonna love me saying this.
• 44:28
  But. It's it's been a real challenge,
• 44:30
  it's been a real pain point for her.
• 44:31
  But she's loved her iPhone. But every day she's the last one
• 44:34
  to upload. It takes so long.
• 44:36
  So we've had to do the big swap and we haven't looked back
• 44:38
  since. So if all else fails at the
• 44:41
  event and you've got a Samsung, you'll be able to fix it.
• 44:44
  Yeah, come see me. I I still play, I play a lot of
• 44:48
  tech support for family members, Certainly had some aged care
• 44:51
  Expos as well. I help a few people, you know,
• 44:53
  remove some apps and do some different things.
• 44:55
  So yeah, if you need help myself and certainly my lovely wife who
• 44:59
  works for us X Telstra employees.
• 45:00
  Should be happy to help as well. You've, you've really got the
• 45:03
  tech down pat, I can see. Yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 45:06
  So what Expos are coming up in the next couple of weeks?
• 45:09
  Yeah. Hey, good question.
• 45:10
  There's, as always, a lot as we are.
• 45:12
  Recording today is I think what, Monday, the 13th of April.
• 45:16
  And the next one that we have coming up is actually a home
• 45:18
  ground 1. So it's here in Perth, it's
• 45:20
  Rockingham and it's an aged care Expo.
• 45:22
  So that's super exciting. I live close by to Rockingham,
• 45:25
  so it's sort of a close place to my heart and that that's really
• 45:28
  exciting. So that'll be a big one.
• 45:29
  We've had I think over 550 registered for that one, so we
• 45:32
  should see a really big turn out.
• 45:34
  And then over the couple next couple of weeks, we've got some
• 45:35
  really good ones, like Adelaide is next week, we're going to
• 45:39
  Victor Harbour, which we've done before, but again, a place
• 45:41
  that's beautiful, often sort of left, left to itself a little
• 45:45
  bit. But we're getting out to Victor
• 45:46
  Harbour and that'll be fantastic.
• 45:47
  And then we're even going to Mount Barker, which I haven't
• 45:50
  been to, but I'm told is even more beautiful than Victor
• 45:52
  Harbour. I don't know if that's possible,
• 45:53
  but that'll be a great one. It's our first time out to Mount
• 45:55
  Barker and that'll be exciting. So again, they're just some of
• 45:58
  the ones that we've got coming up.
• 46:00
  I think we've already done. I think we're doing the math.
• 46:02
  Before we've already done 27 Expos.
• 46:04
  To date 2026. And we've got about 25 on the go
• 46:09
  at the moment as well with more to come.
• 46:10
  So we're on track to get around that 100 number, which would be
• 46:13
  pretty exciting do. You rate your Expos by the time
• 46:16
  there or the council meal at the RSL afterwards.
• 46:19
  It's a great question. I do often joke with people.
• 46:22
  The reason I use so many RSLS is so it's so easy to get a beer
• 46:25
  after because after all the conversations and and all.
• 46:28
  The chatting, it can be really daunting and like if we keep.
• 46:31
  Exhausting. Yeah, like, yeah.
• 46:33
  So is there a? Way that you charge your
• 46:35
  batteries up again because it is exhausting talking to people.
• 46:38
  Like, do you, after an X-ray, do you just go to your hotel room
• 46:41
  and just like die for an hour or two?
• 46:44
  A little bit. Unfortunately the emails don't
• 46:46
  stop. So there's, there's always a bit
• 46:47
  of work to be done. But I, I don't mind saying, but
• 46:50
  like Lee and I, we did the first ever Expo.
• 46:52
  It was in Rockingham. So it was a disability expert
• 46:54
  though, but it was the first. One we ever did.
• 46:56
  And I remember we did it and we went to the cafe next door and
• 46:59
  we sat down and. Was that was a lot.
• 47:01
  And we were like, jeez, Can you imagine?
• 47:02
  If we had to do this twice in a week, like that'd be crazy and.
• 47:05
  You know, four months later we were doing it twice a week all
• 47:08
  over Australia and then we sat down and we said, mate, we, we
• 47:11
  are so crazy for doing too. There's no, no, no way in the
• 47:14
  world we could do three in a week and then Fast forward a
• 47:17
  couple of months later and we've done a few weeks where we've
• 47:19
  done three in a row and I can tell you that.
• 47:21
  Really does stretch you out and. I did float the idea of doing 4
• 47:25
  in a week recently and that got shut down very quickly.
• 47:27
  But yes, so it is it is really draining and I I mean that's
• 47:30
  still in a really positive sense.
• 47:31
  It's just. Mentally is a lot to be so
• 47:34
  switched on and to be talking to people for an extended.
• 47:37
  But also happy and content and willing to network because some
• 47:40
  days like you get tired. Like it.
• 47:43
  It's exhausting talking the people sometimes.
• 47:45
  Yeah, and you're living in a suitcase, you're living in a
• 47:47
  hotel, you move to the next one and you you sort of read some
• 47:50
  repeat. But like I said before, it
• 47:52
  doesn't feel like work. And the day that it does, I
• 47:54
  think we've got we've got bigger issues.
• 47:55
  And we'll have to move on to something else.
• 47:57
  But at the moment now it's just, it's getting back to the hotel.
• 48:00
  Definitely having a few beers or a few wines.
• 48:02
  And I'd like to try and go for a run or at least tell myself I
• 48:05
  can go for a run. But that doesn't normally
• 48:06
  happen. But just, yeah, finding
• 48:08
  different ways. And then when I get home, the
• 48:10
  the kids definitely help sort of ground me and you know, my wife
• 48:13
  does a fantastic job. To to help with that and allow.
• 48:16
  You know, sort of my travel plans to happen.
• 48:18
  So I'm very sort of fortunate to be in that space.
• 48:20
  And yeah, they they definitely keep me busy when I get home,
• 48:23
  that's for sure. Have you ever had an Expo fail?
• 48:25
  Like just everything just went really quickly?
• 48:29
  Yeah. Like, does it, does it happen?
• 48:31
  I know you. I know you're a very well
• 48:32
  planned man, but hasn't happened.
• 48:35
  Well it hasn't. I laughed funny because it was
• 48:37
  quite recently actually, so I can tell you this, but it it
• 48:40
  did, the Expo never happened actually.
• 48:41
  So it was the the Manly Community Aged Care Expo in
• 48:45
  Sydney. So that was only supposed to be
• 48:47
  about 3 weeks ago. We had done an event in
• 48:49
  Bankstown for disability that day.
• 48:51
  It was fantastic. The event was really, really
• 48:53
  good. Our events run.
• 48:54
  From 12:50 I got a call at about 11:30 from the the manly
• 48:58
  function. I said Sarah basically called up
• 49:00
  and said hey. With all the rain and all the
• 49:02
  storms last night, our ceiling has collapsed.
• 49:06
  So yeah, the night before or the day before, which isn't ideal.
• 49:08
  So they were trying their best to frantically sort of fix it
• 49:11
  and make it worthwhile. I did a fantastic job of trying
• 49:13
  their best, but we finished an Expo.
• 49:15
  So all of that sort of exhaustion we just talked about
• 49:18
  got to the next one, realized really quickly it wasn't safe.
• 49:21
  And by this time it was about 4:00 the night before the Expo.
• 49:24
  So Leigh and I did as we do best.
• 49:26
  We got to be out, we got a gym, and we called every single stall
• 49:29
  holder to tell them that the event was cancelled and we've
• 49:31
  now postponed it to to later of the year, which is good.
• 49:34
  So we're going back. But yeah, Manly's gonna live on
• 49:37
  in our memory bags for a while as the Expo that never got off
• 49:39
  the ground. And you know, it wasn't our
• 49:41
  fault. You can't control it wasn't the
• 49:43
  venue's fault. It's just one of those things
• 49:44
  that happened. But you know, we're probably.
• 49:46
  Better for it now knowing that these things can happen and what
• 49:48
  we need to put into place, but at the time it it was certainly
• 49:51
  pretty stressful. Have you guys got anything
• 49:54
  coming up or any surprises that you guys are working on that we
• 49:58
  haven't mentioned or talked about or are we allowed to talk
• 50:00
  about? I don't.
• 50:01
  Know, I don't know. Well, I mean, we definitely do
• 50:03
  have some things in the in the background.
• 50:04
  I might get tell. Off here for.
• 50:06
  Sure, all right. Well, you can work in code now
• 50:08
  because I don't know what it is. That's all right.
• 50:11
  That's all right. Well, I think there's probably
• 50:13
  two things I can probably talk briefly about.
• 50:15
  But I think for us, like I said, having the two brands, so
• 50:18
  disability events community and aged care events community, it's
• 50:21
  that events community. Part that really sort of rings
• 50:23
  true for us so I think the evolution for us is the problem
• 50:27
  that we're trying to solve is you know making events more
• 50:29
  local more community based we understand that people can't
• 50:33
  drive hours upon hours to to get.
• 50:35
  Information and in particular in those two sectors, you know,
• 50:38
  we're talking about some of the most.
• 50:39
  Vulnerable people in the community and expecting them to.
• 50:41
  Drive and fight for parking and, you know, fight through the
• 50:44
  crowds and the loud noises to get information.
• 50:46
  So that's the problem that we think we're doing a really good
• 50:49
  job of solving a disability and aged care.
• 50:51
  And I think there's probably a few other industries where that
• 50:54
  same problem exists and and we hope to solve part of our
• 50:58
  expansion plans. There's certainly been that, you
• 51:01
  know, as our team develops and we get a really good sort of, I
• 51:04
  guess understanding across the country when it comes to travel
• 51:06
  and where we need to go. I think you'll hopefully start
• 51:09
  to see probably in the next 6 to 12 months.
• 51:11
  But some other sort of industries where we pop up and
• 51:14
  again, think we can do some things a little bit differently.
• 51:16
  You know, it's, it's always nice being the disruptor in a way and
• 51:20
  doing something a bit differently.
• 51:21
  I think there's, there's always room for it.
• 51:23
  Competition is always healthy for everybody involved.
• 51:26
  Yeah, Amen. Definitely a few things on the
• 51:28
  horizon. Is there any topics that I
• 51:30
  haven't brought up or spoke about in this podcast that you'd
• 51:34
  love to just tell us or say? No, look, I think I think it's
• 51:37
  been a great chat. I've really enjoyed it.
• 51:39
  We said it at the top, but we're going to be just authentic and
• 51:42
  have a conversation. And I think that's how how the
• 51:44
  best conversations happen now. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
• 51:47
  And I think like I said, we're really lucky to do what we do at
• 51:50
  the moment. So we appreciate the platform to
• 51:52
  talk to you today. So again, get the word out
• 51:54
  there. I think anyone that's looking to
• 51:56
  come along to our events, we absolutely encourage it.
• 51:59
  And in particular, even if it's just, as I say, just as an
• 52:01
  attendee, but come along, check, check them out, see what they're
• 52:04
  about and see how we're doing those things a little bit
• 52:06
  differently. Yeah, hopefully they'll they'll
• 52:09
  start to understand why we do what we do and I guess why we
• 52:11
  have so much fun doing it. Thank you for letting me be
• 52:13
  nosy. Absolutely.
• 52:17
  So for anyone to find you to look up online disability events
• 52:21
  community or aged care events community, you can be found on
• 52:26
  LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. Do you TikTok?
• 52:29
  We are everywhere. I think we are a TikTok as well,
• 52:32
  so we have a bit of everything which is great.
• 52:34
  And if you got time in the car to listen to your podcast as
• 52:38
  you're travelling to your next Expo that you're attending?
• 52:41
  Yeah, I don't like to see out of my own voice, which is probably
• 52:43
  gonna surprise some people because I think some people
• 52:45
  think I'll probably love it. But no.
• 52:47
  So I, I don't. I mean, there's a bit of few.
• 52:49
  And if I can do like a couple of shouts really quickly, but
• 52:52
  occasionally you just have some really, really great podcast
• 52:55
  conversations that I think they're the ones that I listen
• 52:58
  to. And again, it's not to listen to
• 52:58
  myself, I'm sure you'd be the same.
• 53:00
  It's to listen to the guest. And recently I had a gentleman
• 53:03
  called Lachlan. He's around my age now, so low
• 53:06
  30s. It's probably offensive to
• 53:08
  Loughlin actually, he's younger than me, but.
• 53:10
  He. Is a paraplegic, he won't might
• 53:12
  be sharing, but he. Was on his last day of high.
• 53:15
  School went out for instead of going to school went went for a
• 53:18
  swim at the beach, jumped in sort of head 1st and and.
• 53:21
  The rest of his history for him, and you know, it's changed his
• 53:24
  life in a lot of ways, made it a lot more challenging.
• 53:27
  But he's such just a genuine dude.
• 53:29
  He's such a cool guy. He's now created his own
• 53:32
  clothing business called Convy Clothing.
• 53:34
  And he seen him, yes. Yes, yeah, he's really, really
• 53:37
  cool doing some great things in the space and, you know, making
• 53:41
  accessible clothing for people that are in wheelchairs and all.
• 53:43
  I said to him, I think in my podcast, but I can't pair a buy
• 53:47
  a pair of jeans, you know, I've got to make sure it fits around
• 53:49
  my my dad bought and a few other things, but.
• 53:51
  And that's pretty straightforward where, you know,
• 53:52
  if someone in a wheelchair, there's a lot of things that you
• 53:54
  don't consider like the where the pockets are, how it sits,
• 53:58
  how it feels for him to have created this and, and turn what
• 54:01
  is a really terrible situation into something so positive that
• 54:04
  has such an impact. That's been a really enjoyable
• 54:07
  1. So I have caught myself
• 54:08
  listening to that one a few times and a few others.
• 54:10
  But that's the thing, it's. You know, there are so many
• 54:12
  great people out there doing such amazing work in this space
• 54:15
  and I think any any of us can can.
• 54:18
  Lift them up a little bit and give them a bit.
• 54:19
  Of a spotlight, I think it's only for the betterment of.
• 54:21
  The entire spotlight Educate. Yeah, I love that, Love that.
• 54:26
  Yeah, I love doing these podcasts to educate who's out
• 54:30
  there and what's going on because there's a really good
• 54:31
  story behind everyone. Big time.
• 54:33
  I definitely so now that that's been really good.
• 54:36
  But otherwise, it's like I said, like you, it's just finding good
• 54:39
  quality people in the sector to get behind the microphone and.
• 54:42
  Have a bit of a conversation so we'll see how that goes.
• 54:44
  Too easy. Thank you so much for joining
• 54:46
  me. I've had a great time Sarah,
• 54:48
  thank you so much. How you said it feels so weird
• 54:49
  not asking the questions, so hopefully I've done OK.
• 54:52
  But I've loved it, I loved it and I would love to return the
• 54:55
  favour next time you're in Perth and I'll get you on the
• 54:57
  community. Podcast as well.
• 54:59
  Until then. Why?
• 55:00
  Yeah, absolutely. See ya.
• 55:03
  Awesome. See you, Sarah.