Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

Brooke Watts is a regional business consultant, speaker and community connector based in Central West NSW. Raised on her family farm in Molong, Brooke’s work is deeply shaped by place, people and the belief that opportunity should not be limited by postcode.

Through her consultancy Business with Brooke, she works with regional businesses, organisations and communities to build capability, connection and confidence. Her work spans branding and marketing, program and event design, facilitation and speaking, with a strong focus on agriculture, regional leadership and community-led solutions.

Known for her practical approach and authentic storytelling, Brooke is passionate about championing regional voices, backing local leadership and creating pathways that allow people to build meaningful careers without leaving their communities.

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Today’s episode is the longest one yet, and yet, I could have talked with Edwina Sharrock for another hour!  Edwina and her family live out the outskirts of Tamworth in New South Wales and she is the epitome of a regional entrepreneur.  As an alumni of Cartier Wome’s Initiative, she has come full circle with business from startup, scaleup seeking capital, to buying acquired and now starting again, she has ridden the wav of being a regional business leader.

Edwina has a background in nursing and you will hear how she has taken this knowledge to solve real and very personal challenges along the way. Edwina is a daughter, mum, sister, wife, board leader, coach and mentor.  This is a powerful episode, I hope you enjoy listening to Edwina’s wisdom as much as I did!

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Adam and his family now call the coastal town of Yeppoon in central Qld home.  As the son of Italian immigrants who moved to Mareeba on the Atherton tablelands, Adam is a deep thinker who is curious about humans and how we show up in the world.

In this episode we talk about our young people in the regions, how we need to be careful of the stories we are telling and how we can look at existing solutions to fix current problems.

This conversation goes all around the world, and I loved it!  Enjoy as i chat all things with Adam Curcio

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Welcome to Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. I’m your host Julia Spicer, a serial entrepreneur thriving in a town of less than 10,000 people. In each episode, we share stories of those doing great things, from small locations. Because it doesn’t matter where you are across Australia, big ideas, personalities & impact can be found in the smallest and most remote parts of the country!

Heads up, my conversation today with Fiona Turner from Bitwise Agronomy has us nerding out on agtech, talking all things AI and deep tech, the place that agtech has as its own industry in Australian economy, the value of global networks and what opportunities could still be developed for agtech startups in Australia.  

Fiona is a great example of someone who could see the role of AI back in 2017 and how it could be used for good, someone who has been part of integrating and testing tech into agriculture on her own vineyard just out of Launceston in Tasmania, and how regionally we are old hand at doing thins as cheaply as we can and making it accessible to many.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Fiona, I’m sure you will too!

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

My conversation with Sarah Dimitrievski is fast-paced and solution focused, just like Sarah!  Sarah has had almost 30 years in the manufacturing and construction industries, is passionate about the role of women in both of these industries, the power of the regions, and how AI and AR could be an opportunity to unlock potential for rural Australia.

She is a woman on a mission to solve the housing crisis for regional families and takes a no BS approach to solving the problems associated with it. With 4 young children, Sarah and her husband run Chandolin Constructions based in Bathurst, NSW and are focused on not just building homes, but building communities.

This is a cracker of a conversation - and comes with a language warning !

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

This conversation has so many “tweetable moments” as Oprah Winfrey would say! Renae Kunda and her husband Roy are Cape York Motorcycle Adventures, in far north Queensland.  With insights like “regional people learn to adapt without panic” and “we don’t wait for perfect, we create it” there’s no surprise that their business has been leading and creating a whole new industry for the last 35 years.  Renae has now authored two books, uses her curiosity to find new communities and wants to ensure women’s voices are being heard.  This episode will fly by! Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

Sam Marwood and I crossed paths many years ago as he kicked off Cultivate Farms.  Since then his passion for young people to own farms hasn’t dimmed.  As the 5th of 6 children, at 8 years old he had a rude shock finding out he wouldn’t be handed the family farm! 

He has strong convictions around the role that nature plays in Aussie farmers being paid for the good quality food they grow, and wants everyone to know that there has never been a better time in history to pursue ideas and create businesses in the regions as there is today - you can imagine how excited i got around these topics during this episode! Enjoy!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

There is so much to dig into in this episode!  Matt is a Churchill Fellow having travelled the northern hemisphere to regional communities who had brought themselves back from the brink.  He calls Beechworth home and started the Asutralian Centre for Regional Entrepreneurship or ACRE to support communities across australia. 

We discuss how communities can buyback community assets, how we can all agree that we want opportunities for our kids to prosper in place, and MAtt shared a quote I’m bound to use again - that we have to stop expecting the regions to make strawberry jam out of horse manure!  We’ll definitely be getting Matt back, so here’s his first instalment!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Big Fish, Little Place - a podcast by The Connection Table. We hope by sharing this story today that you feel inspired to go big, from your small place, or support those doing so!

To find out more about The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website www.theconnectiontable.com 

My guest today is Dan Redman, a 4th generation wine maker from Coonawarra, a town of 30 residents on the SA/ Vic border.  I loved this conversation and the way Dan described his family business, how he knew he always wanted to be part of the wine industry, and what he and other wine makers do in their region to ensure that they all succeed.  This really is a conversation about how when people work together, the benefits are genuinely shared.  Enjoy my conversation with Dan.

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠

Many people may know Mallacoota as a result of the horrific fires that decimated the region at the end of 2019.  Images of the coastal community on the NSW/ Victorian border went around the world as a result of the fires.  This conversation with Paris focuses not so much on the fires, but the catalyst for change and growth in the Mallacoota community as a result - the establishment of the Wilderness Collective, and the focus on year round employment rather than 6 week tourism contracts.  

Big Fish Little Place is a podcast by The Connection Table. This podcast showcases that great people can impact the world from anywhere across Australia!

To find out more about  The Connection Table’s mission to get more rural Australians a seat at the decision making table, head to our website

⁠www.theconnectiontable.com⁠