You must finish high school if you want to run a successful business. Whoever believes that, they're mistaken!

This week's guest is proof you don't need a high school or a tertiary education to run your own successful business.

In this episode you'll meet a bloke who dropped out of school three weeks into Grade 12, and now runs his own little trucking empire.

Rohan Welke operates Welke Transport out of Blyth, in SA's mid north. At the age of 25, he bought his own truck, and 18 years later he employs many drivers and runs 8 trucks across Australia.

It's been hard work, he's missed out on a lot of family time, and he's had to deal with COVID complications and cross-border travel. But he says it's all worth it because at the end of the day, he's doing it for his kids. I loved hearing his story, I hope you do too.

Enjoy the journey with Rohan Welke.”

Deb Scammell runs a business called Talking Livestock, specialising in animal nutrition. Her knowledge and expertise on the subject, is exceptional, to the point, she is considered as one of the state’s most highly regarded and sought after livestock nutrition consultants.

Deb grew up in Blyth, she went to University in Adelaide, and worked in numerous roles in agriculture across South Australia and Queensland, to now running her own consultancy in a sector that was pretty much non-existent 20 years ago.
Over the next 40 minutes, you'll hear about Deb's life so far.

Her love for horses, she reminisces about her uni days, which goes hand in hand with the Thursday nights at the Maid and Magpie, and how she met her long haired beau, Joe. But Deb also reveals the heartache of losing her father too early to brain cancer and then not long after, a near death experience where she terrifyingly rolled the car with her three month old in the backseat.

This story will just take your breath away. I laughed and cried through this interview, and I'm pretty sure you will too.
Enjoy the journey with Deb Scammell.

Today you’ll meet a very quick witted, heavily tattooed Kiwi who dabbles in wine. His name is Colin McBryde. He and his wife Jen Gardner run a small wine company called Adelina Wines, located in close proximity to the very well established Wendouree Wines, in the beautiful Clare Valley.

There are numerous reasons why I wanted to meet Colin. Firstly I haven’t heard much about Adelina, and secondly,I love the sound of his other label “Some Young Punks”. Are you intrigued? I sat down with him in his winery one chilly Monday morning, in fact I caught him on the back foot because he forgot I was coming but I was determined to stay and get his story. He's an entertaining bloke, very humble as you'll hear, and obviously very good at what he does.
This is Colin's story.

https://adelina.com.au/

https://www.someyoungpunks.com.au/

"Agriculture is becoming Australia's darling again".

That's the view of this week's guest, Will Gywnn Jones, owner of Remarkable Meat Company, a meat wholesaling business based in the Clare Valley, South Australia. With many sectors across Australia struggling to survive in a COVID environment, agriculture is one industry that's holding strong. Will has great hopes for the future of agriculture and the growth of corporate farming in this country.

Will is a St Peters boy from Adelaide and comes from a family that was quite influential in the clothing and manufacturing industry in South Australia. He has three half-brothers and is married to Kirsty, who's a school teacher, and they have two children, Henry and Matilda.

Will's story takes us on a journey through rural Australia, from jackarooing in Western Queensland, corporate farming at the highly regarded Collinsville Stud Merinos , working with managed investment schemes in Western Victoria, running a Dorper property near Burra, to now selling meat to retailers and wholesalers across Australia.
This is a story about a boy who loved the freedom and flexibility of rural life. We start Will's story at Rosevale, a property smack bang between Charleville and Cunnamulla in southwest Queensland.

https://remarkablemeat.com.au/

Meet the lady behind Bukirk Glamping.

Alison 'Chook' Meaney wanted to create a new tourism experience to draw people to the Clare Valley. She thought if people were glamping in England, they'll glamp in Clare surely?!!!

She was right! She's been run off her feet since she started the fancy tent project back in 2018. Before running her own glamping project, Chook lived a nomadic life, first travelling the world, then living the FIFO life in remote Australia.

Chook is run off her feet, booked out most weekends and expanding a lot faster than she envisaged. But like most businesses, in comes with its highs and lows and Chook has some cracker stories to share.

https://bukirk.com.au/

Today you’ll meet an Syrian drug dealing pilot who lives in South Australia's Clare Valley.

He’s of Syrian descent, he’s flies a plane and he sells drugs - but the legal kind. Richard ( El-koo- ree) Elkhoury has been a pharmacist in the Clare Valley for 21 years. He's the managing director of Clare Pharmacy Group, Board of directors of Country and Outback Health, Chair of the Yorketown Medical Service and a sponsor of the Children’s charity, the Variety Bash.

When he's not running his pharmacies in the mid-north, he's in his Cessna 182 flying across parts of regional South Australia visiting patients.

In this episode, Richard talks about the difficulties of running a pharmacy in the regions, because it's really hard to get and retain staff, and not just in pharmacy, but across the board in the health industry. He has devoted the last two decades of his life to giving regional people, or trying to give regional people the same health care as those in the cities, but it hasn't been easy.
He also talks about the children's charity, the Variety Bash, where he gets to fly his plane and drive his pink ice cream truck. But before we get underway, I just wanted to mention that I've been pronouncing Richard's last name as Elkhoury for years, but it's actually not correct. There's a story in that.

My guest this week is a very talented woman who has been described as Australia’s Riesling Queen.

Kerri Thompson has been making wine in South Australia’s Clare Valley for more than 20 years, founding her winery, Wines by KT in 2006.

KT grew up by the beach at Glenelg, but spent a lot of time in the mid north at her grandmother’s farm at Black Springs near Robertstown. So this beach loving girl always had some affinity with the land, which could partly explain why she went down the winemaking path.

It wasn't planned. You could say she was flying blind. But the one thing that she did want to do. was get to Italy, and working in the wine industry was going to get her there.
KT's story starts at the Roseworthy Agricultural College as a young 17-year-old girl about to embark on a career in a male-dominated industry. It wasn't easy being the youngest in her year, or a female for that matter, but despite sailing through some rough seas, KT has come out the other end as one of the country's top Riesling makers.

https://winesbykt.com/

This is a story about a Scottish lass, who at the age of 22 came to Australia for an 18 month stint to have a crack at being a vet. Little did she know she would meet Mr Right, have three children and two decades later, own and operate three veterinary clinics across the mid north of South Australia.

Dr Louise Lehmann is originally from a dairy farm in south-west Scotland. Her first pet was a horse called Mr Wellington,a much loved pony who ignited her passion to be a vet. .

Lou talks about her life in Scotland and how she was discouraged to be a vet. She also chats about the challenges facing the shortage of vets in rural Australia and her personal battle with breast cancer.
Lou's energy and positivity is infectious. Her candid account of her life is to be applauded.

https://cvvs.com.au/

Sam MacDonald.

Most people in the Clare Valley would know Sam as the owner of SJM, the largest construction company in the mid north of South Australia.

He wanted to bail on this interview, not wanting to be in the spotlight, but I’m so glad he went ahead with it, as his story is captivating.

A 9 –time award winning company, SJM employs 22 people, working on more than 200 new homes, renovations and commercial projects in the mid north.

Many people would also know Sam after the devastating loss he and his family faced a few years ago when his eldest son Kade passed away.

Today, it's all about Sam, about the struggles in the early days, about the time he walked away from the opportunity to be a professional rugby player and about his passion for sustainable building design.

https://sjmbuilders.com.au/

I'd like to introduce you to the funniest person I have ever met. A big statement I know, but truly I laugh so hard my chest hurts every time I chat to this woman.

Marnie Roberts is a owner/winemaker at Matriarch and Rogue in the Clare Valley in South Australia. As well as her quick wit and dry sense of humour, she makes beautiful wine, carving quite a following in wine circles and beyond.

She is originally from Mildura, growing up on a block with her parents and older brother Tony, where they grew citrus, dried fruit and wine grapes. She hated every minute of it. Little did she know, she would be as busy as a termite in a sawmill running her own successful wine enterprise 30 years later.
She crossed the border and set up stumps in the Clare Valley back in 2008. Six years later, she established her own label, Matriarch and Rogue, inspired by her dear old Nanna.

I sat down with Marnie in her shed on a cold wintry day with the rain pounding on the roof, sharing a subway salad and a bottle of her finest red. Marnie describes herself as a floater, never had a solid plan and was never really overly ambitious either. She doesn't really sell herself very well, does she? But trust me, she is one talented lady.

https://matriarchandrogue.com.au/