Mark Koolmatrie
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[00:00:00]
[00:00:05] Welcome back to the Regional Collective, the podcast that champions small business owners and their incredible stories of resilience. creativity and community. I'm your host Shelley Cox and I couldn't be more excited to kick off season two with something a little different because this time we're hitting the road.
[00:00:24] From the bustling main streets to the quiet hidden gems, we'll be traveling across South Australia to meet inspiring small business owners in their own backyards. Together we'll explore their challenges, celebrate their wins, and
[00:00:43] So buckle up for a heartfelt conversation with practical insights and a whole lot of inspiration as we shine a spotlight on the heartbeat of our regional economy. This is the Regional Collective, where small businesses make a big impact.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00] Today we're honoured to be joined by Uncle Mark, the heart and soul behind Kool Tours. Uncle Mark's mission is as powerful as it is inspiring. Promoting Ngarrindjeri culture and sharing its deep rooted stories with people from all walks of life. Kool Tours isn't just a tourism experience, it's a journey into the rich traditions, history and perspectives of the Ngarrindjeri people.
[00:01:29] Through his work Uncle Mark is creating a bridge between cultures. offering invaluable lessons about connection, respect and heritage. In this episode, we'll explore the story behind Cool Tours, how Mark ensures cultural authenticity and the vital role his tours play in educating both visitors and locals alike.
[00:01:50] We'll also dive into the triumphs and challenges of running a business so deeply tied to culture, the collaborations that have strengthened his mission and his [00:02:00] exciting vision for the future. This is more than just a conversation. It's a chance to connect with the wisdom of Djeri culture and be inspired by one man's unwavering passion for sharing it.
[00:02:12] So let's get started and welcome Mark to the Regional Collective podcast.
[00:02:17] thank you for joining us today. Um, and was really interested to see if you could, um, share what inspired you to start your business Cool Tours. Um, and the significance of sharing your culture with the world. What got us
[00:02:34] started
[00:02:35] was being able to tell, The stories of country. The word we use is RUI. So, telling the stories of RUI, how it was created, what we need to do to protect it, and just the stories of our people.
[00:02:52] Now, what has happened over the years, there's been a loss of knowledge, a loss of identity, a loss of [00:03:00] place. And so our families just try to bring back all of that. And also probably important is to share that with other young Indigenous people so that they get to know the stories firsthand. The way that we were told firsthand and the way it's been for thousands upon thousands of years of learning the stories.
[00:03:24] And about having a connection to RUI. Yeah. And how have you, how did you get started? Like what gave you sort of, I guess, the push to actually, you know, say, right, well, I'm going to take people on a cultural journey and share that information.
[00:03:39] did
[00:03:40] you fall into that?
[00:03:41] Yeah.
[00:03:41] It started off with a school
[00:03:44] just requesting something
[00:03:46] And that was around about 2014. And what it actually was, it was 2014 and they just requested an experience down along the Coorong and they'd been seeking it [00:04:00] for a while and just haven't been able to link something up. So we went along and so we've been doing things with that school now for 10 years.
[00:04:10] Now, then other people started to hear we were doing things. So we were actually doing tourism but didn't know it was tourism. So. Yeah. We had no idea. We were just delivering experiences and we were delivering experiences that people wanted to hear about. And so we just sort of started developing it ad hoc
[00:04:32] Yep.
[00:04:32] and it's developed
[00:04:33] into something
[00:04:34] pretty special now.
[00:04:35] Yeah. Well, and, you know, you've just received, you know, one of your most recent accolades, which is in the South Australian Tourism Hall of Fame. Yes, so our business called Tours has now been inducted into the Hall of Fame, which is special. How fantastic, yep. It's unbelievable. Did you party hard?
[00:04:53] Yes, we did. But Monday
[00:04:57] was back to work, like nothing had happened. That's it. [00:05:00] You've still got to keep going. That's it. And you want to be able to capture the opportunities that come from that. But also, you know, you're coming into your busy season now. Um, and by being you know, so busy as you are, how do you make sure that you stay
[00:05:15] true to Ngarrindjeri
[00:05:16] to Ngarrindjeri cultural heritage while being so busy?
[00:05:20] Because I mean, you've taken time to, you know, to talk to us today, which is amazing. You're collaborating with lots of other, you know, government bodies and tourism bodies. How do you think you can maintain, you know, that sharing of knowledge? We don't change from our ethos, that ethos of being authentic, telling the stories and allowing people to see country through our eyes, to listen to country the way we have done for tens of thousands of years.
[00:05:53] So that doesn't change. And so, getting busier and busier.
[00:05:58] It allows
[00:05:59] us [00:06:00] to work through, well, does this fit with our ethos? If it
[00:06:05] doesn't,
[00:06:06] well,
[00:06:06] just
[00:06:07] put them on the back burner. We never dismiss anything. We put it on the back burner and say, well, we may come back to you. However, right now,
[00:06:15] is
[00:06:15] what we, we want to see happen.
[00:06:18] And I suppose
[00:06:20] one of the things that occurred in the Fleurieu Peninsula recent times, and that was around, we got a, a group. of operators and business owners throughout the Fleurieu on tourism and we took them all on Spirit of
[00:06:36] of
[00:06:36] the Courant last Tuesday. Yeah. And we were able to talk about partnerships and collaboration because one of the things we do really well is we work in partnership with groups like Spirit of the Courant.
[00:06:49] Yes. And we share country through a whole lot of things. So not only we look at the, the old world of our ancient [00:07:00] stories, but we look at a new world and we, we revisit things like the maritime history, rail history, build history, that, that environmental history of this whole region. Yeah. And so people are really interested.
[00:07:14] Yeah. Because if you've got about five or six different things, you'll get somebody interested in at least one of them. And often people are interested in multiple things. But when they see that people are able to work in collaboration, what it does the other way, it gets other businesses to say, How can what Cool Tours does add value to what we do?
[00:07:41] And then we look at how does what they do add value to us and us to them?
[00:07:48] So it's a
[00:07:49] two way learning together and it is a true two way partnership.
[00:07:56] When that occurs,
[00:07:57] then there's a real strengthening. Yes. [00:08:00] And you've just got also, you know, some of those other. collaborations that are coming up as well, um, over on Kangaroo Island and how that's quite unique because you're the first aboriginal tourism experience on
[00:08:16] KI. So that starts
[00:08:18] Next week. Yeah. Yeah. Um, how did that
[00:08:21] come about?
[00:08:21] So we've done a trial. So what, what's been happening last season, the cruise ships was the first time that anyone has ever done an indigenous
[00:08:32] experience on Kangaroo Island
[00:08:34] since settlement. No one's been able to walk and talk and look around and tell the
[00:08:40] stories.
[00:08:41] And we then took that model and now C Link have got on board with us. And so we worked through, in actual fact, we probably approached each other around about four years ago. Yeah.
[00:08:56] Yeah.
[00:08:56] And it just took a lot of talking about [00:09:00] how are we going to do this. So we both knew that when we did it, It would have to be something special and unique and we wanted to be long term
[00:09:10] And
[00:09:10] so we did a trial run a couple of weeks ago across the island with some
[00:09:15] of
[00:09:15] the managers from Sealink so that we got feedback from them.
[00:09:20] We're now going to roll that out and we're going to roll it out to do seven tours as a beginning point just
[00:09:27] to see how it
[00:09:27] works and
[00:09:29] we'll start
[00:09:29] looking at maybe one day a week. We'll do an indigenous experience across the island. And who knows where that'll land. It might be one every day. And like you said, it's that bit of trial and error, isn't it?
[00:09:41] Getting feedback, learning to make sure that it's the right thing going forward. Yeah, and so that's how we've done it right from the start. Right from the last ten years. We've
[00:09:52] we've really been a lot of trial
[00:09:53] trial and error. Worked out what, what is the best way of doing it. And how [00:10:00] can we strengthen
[00:10:01] Rui?
[00:10:02] How can we strengthen the people who come on our experiences and how do we all leave
[00:10:09] together
[00:10:10] and walk in oneness?
[00:10:12] And that's what another thing that
[00:10:13] Kulturs is about,
[00:10:15] is to understanding that as humans our differences are more like our similarities.
[00:10:22] We are all
[00:10:23] so similar. And we all want similar things. And so when we walk in oneness, we're saying that everybody is walking together as one, leaving a legacy for the future. And that's, and that's, I think, you know, the, that's something that, you know, as a, as a business, you've got as a unique offering over a lot of people because of that, you know, really true, authentic, you know, outcome that you, you
[00:10:53] see
[00:10:54] for what you're doing. So some businesses do struggle. When they don't know what
[00:10:59] either [00:11:00] problem they're solving or
[00:11:01] they don't know what they're actually offering.
[00:11:03] You've got such a clear vision How do you share that with your or the team or the people that you work with? How do you ensure that that's that's
[00:11:11] followed through
[00:11:12] in your team? We've just got that same model and it works You know like any business all of a sudden
[00:11:20] if they,
[00:11:21] they are making a hamburger That everybody buys, or a piece of chicken with spices on it.
[00:11:29] All of a sudden they realize that, that same product just keeps working. You don't have to change the formula. We've seen soft drinks where the formula has not really
[00:11:39] changed. Yes.
[00:11:41] And you know, so we've seen all of these big businesses. Now what's happened for us, even through the pandemic,
[00:11:49] many
[00:11:49] businesses were struggling through the pandemic.
[00:11:52] We actually embraced it because we were still learning. What happened with us, we looked at, okay, this is great. [00:12:00] This allows us to take a back, backward step and see what's working, what needs to be done. And so we've done these sort of 2019 to 2024 business plans. We're now going to look at over this summer period and into early next year, the 2025 through to 2030 business plan and to see what are some of the key targets we want to look at.
[00:12:26] Yeah
[00:12:26] Um, what, where are we actually going, but what will happen is that same formula does not change
[00:12:33] No,
[00:12:34] because that works. The formula works. And that's it. And I suppose. You've seen, I was going to ask about, you know, challenges that you've had, you know,
[00:12:42] in
[00:12:43] doing business, you know, because obviously as with lots of business owners, we're passionate and we are knowledgeable about our key areas or our strengths, but obviously there's challenges and I guess you almost answered that in how you, you know, what challenges you've come up against.
[00:12:58] So obviously tourism had a [00:13:00] big hit with COVID, but you use that as. As an opportunity instead of, um, feeling sorry for yourselves. Yeah, but look, we use it as an opportunity to learn more, learn more about what we are doing, because really our business began in 2019. Yeah. And even though we were doing tourism, Not only for the past 10 years, but that whole thing about sharing the environment, sharing the stories is part of our family.
[00:13:33] And so we've done this forever. You've just only formalized it really in a business the last 5 years. And then, you know, we haven't really scratched the surface when it comes to Kool Tours. We've done a lot of things. But we know within ourselves that we haven't scratched
[00:13:53] surface
[00:13:53] about what we're capable of doing and where this business can go.
[00:13:59] And so I've [00:14:00] got some great mentors and people who have got fantastic business acumen. And then we learn from them and we take their advice. You surround yourselves with those
[00:14:11] that
[00:14:11] can help take you
[00:14:12] that
[00:14:12] next level. So we've been well aware of that and people have been watching us. Yeah. And, but this next five years, you know, we've built up a core of people who will take us to wherever that looks like.
[00:14:27] We don't know yet. Yep. We don't know where it's going. Yep. We just know there is something special brewing. Yeah. Yeah, and I think definitely, you know, I think that's, you know, that's
[00:14:39] strength
[00:14:40] of yours as well is to have that You know, there's a vision but it's also you're not tied to one way or another of getting there I think that's important,
[00:14:49] it?
[00:14:49] You've got to allow for those opportunities to pop up, that trial and error to be able to, you know, you think of like a trajectory of like this but there's always You know, bumps and ups [00:15:00] and downs as we learn as we go along. Um, so I think, you know, that's a really structured way of being sustainable because you're also doing the tours.
[00:15:10] So that's where your expertise is, is used as well. Um, I don't
[00:15:15] don't think
[00:15:15] you sleep though. Is that true? Is that true? Sometimes it's
[00:15:19] like
[00:15:19] that, honestly. It's just, you just go, go, go, go. But what I've been doing is forging ahead with our family business. Yeah. And then, I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but my plan is to Have a succession plan and then others can take on the roles and I'll sit back Yeah, which I don't think it's going to happen somehow, but knowing
[00:15:43] me, I
[00:15:45] think you'd say right.
[00:15:46] I'm having a break. Well, I've done now. I'll get back in. Yeah, I'll get back to a morrow But no,
[00:15:50] no. Um,
[00:15:51] did you want it? So we're in the whale center the visitor information center here Did you want to tell us a little bit about the significance of? [00:16:00] Um, yeah,
[00:16:01] Where we're at?
[00:16:01] Well,
[00:16:03] I purposely asked to come in here for a reason and that is around the work
[00:16:09] that we
[00:16:10] are doing with City of Victor Harbor within the Whale Center and right across the region.
[00:16:18] So because the whale story of what
[00:16:23] what we
[00:16:23] what we hold
[00:16:24] on to, and that's called
[00:16:25] Condolee. We believe Condolee was a man. And through the story, he was transformed into a whale. And the whale is so significant to where we are right now. This area is called Ramindjeri country. So to the Ramindjeri people and all of Northern Guinea, this is a significant place.
[00:16:48] And so to understand the whale and understand the stories around how everything was created, like within these waters, because of the [00:17:00] whale. And how some people dived in to help save their friend Condolee, and they too were transformed
[00:17:08] other things, like the stingray,
[00:17:11] That the seal and a number of other things, the shark and the mullet, the Tommy rough.
[00:17:18] And so they were transformed from their human form
[00:17:22] into
[00:17:23] all of these different marine creatures. So being in the whale center is very significant because one of the things that I do really well and that is around
[00:17:35] building
[00:17:35] other businesses up and or building people up as well.
[00:17:41] And
[00:17:41] so I see, I have a vision that in three years That we could have, that the Winter Whale Festival could be the bucket list item for the world.
[00:17:53] Yeah. And that people must come here to engage in
[00:17:57] in our story,
[00:17:59] But not only [00:18:00] that, engage in small businesses. Yep. And community. Community. And
[00:18:05] not
[00:18:05] just within Victor Harbor, whereas like the, the, the launching or, or of the Winter Whale Festival has to be here every year. Yeah. Because this is
[00:18:16] where it began. Yeah.
[00:18:17] And, but I think right across the Yeah. There could be sprinkling Yeah. Right across there so that the whole Fluer Peninsula is built up. Yeah. And that people, you know,
[00:18:29] the Fluer
[00:18:30] Peninsula is, it's interesting whereby. It's not an iconic location for people to go to. If you say, oh, we want to go to the Barossa, they understand that.
[00:18:42] We want to go to Kangaroo Island. People understand that. We want to go to the Flinders Ranges. These iconic places. But within the Fleuria, there's so many iconic places that we need to really build up. And I think Kondali can
[00:18:59] [00:19:00] be
[00:19:00] the item Oh, the person that will bring everyone together and we'll all come together, as I mentioned earlier
[00:19:07] on about
[00:19:07] oneness, we'll all come together with Condolee and Condolee will be the driving force. People come anyway to see the whales. But bring them
[00:19:20] in one
[00:19:21] celebration, one, you know, and as a festival of over a few
[00:19:25] or
[00:19:26] a month, perhaps. And to do that, you know, that's part of your other role, I suppose, is in that collaboration and facilitating, isn't it? And bringing people together. Um, because
[00:19:38] said
[00:19:38] you've got a meeting tomorrow because again, you don't sleep.
[00:19:42] Yeah. Um.
[00:19:43] but you know, and that's, I think, really important to have people, you know, that are so. And it's hard because you're a business owner as well, but you're also, you know, looking after your whole region in trying to make things happen. Um, and collaboration is a big part [00:20:00] of what you do. Collaboration is massive.
[00:20:02] I do the same thing on Kangaroo Island. So, on Wednesday, oh tomorrow we head over, Wednesday we've got cruise ships, two of my nephews are coming with me to assist, Thursday we begin rolling out cultural awareness sessions, so we'll be running three of them across the island. And what will happen is people will
[00:20:22] come
[00:20:23] and listen to the stories of our people and it is all about strengthening and value adding to other businesses right across the island.
[00:20:33] So one of the, we're over there for three weeks. So one of the places we'll go is KI
[00:20:39] wool.
[00:20:40] And you know, I'd like to go to the
[00:20:42] farm,
[00:20:42] the eucalyptus distillery, looking at all of these places. And then how can we
[00:20:48] value add
[00:20:49] or, or whether or not they just want to have a cultural safety check on their business.
[00:20:55] How are they doing? So, but that all
[00:20:58] about
[00:20:58] through relationships. [00:21:00] When you have a relationship and then someone like me comes in to do a cultural safety check, people just want to
[00:21:08] sit around and
[00:21:09] talk. So there's no big thing. It's just, okay, how are you doing this? How do you do that? Because you don't want it to be a, you don't want it to be a checkbox.
[00:21:17] You don't want it to be. That's
[00:21:18] no. That's not
[00:21:19] that's not the purpose. Yeah, that means. Success or failure. There was, there was, there was no failure, only
[00:21:29] successes.
[00:21:30] When you do something like that. And that comes about through relationships and just talking with
[00:21:35] people. Yeah.
[00:21:37] And I suppose, you know, to finish off I think, you know, What would be your, um, advice or hope for, you know, businesses to be able to connect with someone like you in their region?
[00:21:51] So we might have people in different regions. What that value could be for their business, but also personally and their, you know, um, [00:22:00] connection to, to their region. The important things with regions, like, if, if there was, 100 marks all around the
[00:22:09] place. We just need
[00:22:10] clone you. That's all. If you can clone me about 100 times, go to the different regions.
[00:22:15] But, you know, one of the, fortunately or unfortunately, the Fleurio and Kangaroo Island is my
[00:22:23] passion.
[00:22:24] You know, I also, I'd love to do things in the Murray lands, you know, along that Coorong on the other side as well. And, you know, they're the sort of things of trying to work through, but it all comes about relationships.
[00:22:40] Now, you just need the right people. So it's
[00:22:45] the way I do
[00:22:46] things. I do it by trying to create relationships, by just heaping some aloe, getting to know people. And that's one of the things that our family is good at, is talking with [00:23:00] people. And just being very, and I think being very open about it. And so, um, you know, business owners can, um, Certainly take the first step in reaching out, but it's just asking questions, you know, finding out more about, you know, that relationship with country that, you know, I think you have
[00:23:17] mentioned in your,
[00:23:18] um, you know, in your Welcome to
[00:23:20] about, you
[00:23:21] know, we all share a sense of, you know, of place with where we're, where we are.
[00:23:24] That's right. You've, you've got a way of being able to verbalize it, you know, better, but we, it just starts by talking, you know, talking about it and acknowledging it.
[00:23:34] What I look
[00:23:35] at is if I see a problem in the media,
[00:23:39] now the media
[00:23:40] can be very negative, right? Hmm. However, if I see something that seems to be a problem, I like to address that.
[00:23:47] Whether or not people are, you know, you might have 90 percent of the people saying, I love having welcome to countries, but that little 10%, for whatever reasons, A [00:24:00] saying, I don't like this for whatever reason now to also, but then you're looking at everybody when you start discussing why we're doing a welcome.
[00:24:09] Why should we do an acknowledgement? Why should all these questions that come up and how do we deal with that? My
[00:24:18] answer is
[00:24:18] why not? Why not? Why shouldn't we be? Exactly. Why shouldn't we be talking? Yeah.
[00:24:24] And
[00:24:25] why shouldn't we be acknowledging
[00:24:27] First Nations? So
[00:24:28] when I talk about country in general, one of the things that working with schools, one of the Year 10s once said to me, I don't get this stuff about country.
[00:24:43] I
[00:24:44] don't get what you're saying. And I realized that he wasn't saying to me
[00:24:50] that
[00:24:51] talking about country was a bad thing. Yeah. He was trying to get his head around, what does that mean? So then I shifted to [00:25:00] also then start talking about place. And how a place can be significant and why when they go on their, with their family holidays, every year they return to that place, whether
[00:25:12] not it's
[00:25:12] a shack on the Murray, wherever it might
[00:25:15] be
[00:25:16] And they want that place to be looked after and left in a good space. And so then they went, ah, I get it. And so
[00:25:27] it just
[00:25:28] a little tiny
[00:25:29] tweak.
[00:25:31] Um, one of the things I'm going to be talking about out in Kangaroo Island is around native title. Now there is no native title on Kangaroo Island, but I want to explore why is that so?
[00:25:44] And why in my mind, there won't be a native title on Kangaroo Island. Yeah. And quite simple because native title, you have
[00:25:53] demonstrate
[00:25:54] an ongoing connection. Yeah. Now if the Ice Age occurred six, [00:26:00] seven, ten thousand years ago, there hasn't been an ongoing connection. Yeah. So for us to prove native title, we're not
[00:26:08] to
[00:26:08] be
[00:26:08] be able
[00:26:08] to do it.
[00:26:09] Yeah. However, what we can do is talk about the old stories.
[00:26:14] So,
[00:26:15] I talk about from the last 50, 000 years, but what also happens on the island, I was given some fossils that are 512 million years old from Emu Bay on the island, and that just demonstrates that, that, that country has changed so much from 512 to
[00:26:39] 50, 000.
[00:26:40] Yeah.
[00:26:41] To what it's going to look like tomorrow. Yep. And if we're going to understand all of that, we must, even our own people, must be humble to say that science
[00:26:53] science and Aboriginal values
[00:26:55] can work together. Yep. They can tell a story. Yep. And not [00:27:00] only that. The people of today who were looking at tomorrow can also tell a story.
[00:27:07] But overall, you're getting like the, the ceiling to it. People get to see all of that in one day.
[00:27:15] Yeah.
[00:27:16] And then they understand that their role for the future. And
[00:27:20] that's it,
[00:27:21] that conservation and preservation for sustainable generations
[00:27:26] come,
[00:27:26] isn't it? You know, and that's a shared. value of quite a lot of people, you know, in today's world.
[00:27:33] So I think to be able to not have to reinvent the wheel, not recreate, but also look to what has been done for thousands and thousands of years in the past,
[00:27:42] Yep.
[00:27:43] we can take that forward into the future. So that's what we'll see. There was a lot of people who have children, they have grandchildren, great grandchildren.
[00:27:54] There are a lot of people who have nieces and nephews.
[00:27:57] Or, you
[00:27:59] know, even a [00:28:00] pet, they want to leave, they want to make
[00:28:03] their
[00:28:03] world is
[00:28:04] better.
[00:28:05] by doing these little simple tasks. And so, you know, as a grandfather, I'm doing it so
[00:28:12] my
[00:28:12] grandchildren have a better world, have a better life that
[00:28:17] they
[00:28:17] have that opportunity to be strengthened by my legacy.
[00:28:22] And that's what drives me. So even through the pandemic. It didn't matter, even though it's taken a good five years of hard work just to get where we are now. And then, as I said earlier on, we haven't begun. Cool Tours has not begun to where we're going. And I know this, I know that now it's going to get fun.
[00:28:47] Yeah. You've set, you've set that foundation as well, that's right. That really. You know that you set
[00:28:53] bar,
[00:28:54] you set up high, set it real high. You need to, you do need to have some rest. Every now and again, , ah,
[00:28:59] ah,
[00:28:59] I [00:29:00] love football.
[00:29:01] And that's
[00:29:01] the thing that drives me. I, I love having time out. Yeah. So at least, you know, you've got three hours on a Saturday afternoon and that's enough for me.
[00:29:09] That's enough. Yeah. Yeah. Like I watch both
[00:29:12] both
[00:29:13] A FLW games in the weekend.
[00:29:15] I love both.
[00:29:16] Yeah. Well, that's good. As long as you've got some downtime, I think that's important. But that's so important, whatever. And that's what I encourage everybody that find that thing that you're passionate about, because that's what strengthens you because it might say, well, hang on.
[00:29:31] You just took time out to watch footy, but you take time out for whatever, if it's gardening, if it's going for a walk. If it's doing whatever. Because then when you go back to doing, you know, your job or whatever you're doing, you're, you're refreshed, you've got more energy, you've got, you know, more creativity, um, as well.
[00:29:52] Although if you're me and you're playing
[00:29:53] netball,
[00:29:54] netball, you're a bit sore for the next week until you have
[00:29:58] play again. Yeah.[00:30:00]
[00:30:00] But no, it's really important to, um, Yeah, to, to have that as a balanced, um, yeah, to be balanced, isn't it? Yeah, look, I'd love to have more time out sometimes, but my mind is always ticking over.
[00:30:16] And I just feel that I've got, my role, my job in life is to not only improve my family, but also improve communities. So, how do you work through with a whole of region, to strengthen a whole of
[00:30:33] region
[00:30:34] because then like, my way of looking at tourism, if I promote South Australia, you cannot help but get benefits to the regions, and then benefits to the
[00:30:46] businesses
[00:30:48] The other model is you think, and it's easy to do, you get locked in your own business. Yep. But if, if the region. is successful as a tourism, you can't help [00:31:00] but win. That's it. Yep.
[00:31:01] There's more,
[00:31:02] more to be shared around then,
[00:31:04] it?
[00:31:04] Like you grow, you grow the base. So, well, thank you so much, Mark, for sharing your insights, your passion.
[00:31:11] Um, and certainly. Don't worry, I think you are leaving a great, great legacy, um, you know, for future generations and um, and your family and make sure, you know, um, we get onto one of your cool tours
[00:31:24] um,
[00:31:25] someday soon. Sure. Like, one of the greatest quotes I ever heard was the late Colin Hayes, a horse trainer.
[00:31:32] He left Adelaide and went to live in the Barossa. And when asked, why would you leave Adelaide
[00:31:39] to go
[00:31:40] live in the Barossa and train horses? He is, his
[00:31:44] answer was
[00:31:44] the future belongs to those who plan for it. And I think that's what we have to do. And the things I may not see that future, but if I plan for what it might look like and what I've learned, there's a good chance that [00:32:00] there's a good chance.
[00:32:01] Now,
[00:32:01] CSAs.
[00:32:03] He filtered down to his sons, to the rest of his family, now his grandchildren. That legacy that he left by just from leaving a safe place of Adelaide and going into the unknown on a farm in the Barossa.
[00:32:21] having a plan.
[00:32:21] He had a plan. And that's all he said is the future belongs to those who plan for it.
[00:32:27] Awesome. Thank you so much for your time Mark. Thank you.
[00:32:34] Thanks for listening to the Regional Collective. We hope you've picked up some great ideas to help your business thrive in your regional community. Ready for more? Join our membership for weekly support and resources tailored just for small businesses like yours. Stay in the loop, subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Spotify so you don't miss a thing.
[00:32:56] Keep growing, keep thriving and let's build stronger [00:33:00] regions together. See you next time.
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