WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

With all of the fantastic reports we have been receiving from our Member Conversation Series, we absolutely agree that it has been beneficial to introduce and profile some excellent Wheatbelt business owners. Next up, is Matt Henderson from MDH Transport based out of Nangeenan.

Matt began his business journey as a sole owner-operator based out of Port Hedland working as the main truck driver at the mines. From there it has grown to a huge fleet with over 30 trucks apart of his business spread across from Port Hedland all the way down to Nangeenan.

The past two years have been massive for Matt and the MDH Transport Team as they are coming off the back of two huge harvests. Matt credits the success to his supportive and skilled staff members and is proud of what they have been able to achieve together. Matt credits incredibly hard work is what has gotten him to where he his today. Congratulations on your business success so far Matt, we look forward to seeing what else MDH Transport can achieve.

This is a brilliant conversation between Matt and Rach which you can watch as a video or as a podcast episode. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. Make sure to jump on over to MDH Transport’s social media pages and give them some love.

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WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

As we continue to roll out regular episodes of our Member Conversations we continue to introduce you to some talented individuals within the Wheatbelt. This weeks episode is no exception with Elyssa Giedraitis from EJG Creative who was the joint winner of the Digit Business Advisors Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards joins Rach on the mic.

Elyssa is the owner and operator of EJG Creative initially started doing social media for family business Wespray Boomsprays in Wongan Hills. Curating an online presence that allowed people to see inside the business. It was while trying to connect with other local businesses on socials that the gap in the market presented itself- rural and regional businesses were not harnessing the power of social media and online media.

EJG Creative is a creative agency specialising in social media and marketing services for small, rural businesses. We have a number of WBN Members that utilise Elyssa’s services and they could not speak more highly of her. Elyssa also has some side hustles including the The Introvert Archive, Behind the Business and AgForm. We really have no idea how she fits them all into her schedule.

This is a fantastic conversation between Elyssa and Rach – thank you for your time Elyssa this has turned into a great video and podcast episode for everyone to listen to.

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WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

On this edition of Member Conversations, we have invited Wild Fusion Skincare which is owned and operated by Samantha Fricker, a Cosmetic Formulator, based on her farm in Beverley. Sam has an authentic passion for creating luxurious skin care products that contain ingredients that are naturally derived, biodegradable and fused with scientific activities. Not only is this a fantastic business but it was also highly regarded at the 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards when they took out the Wheatbelt Development Commission Owner Operator Business Award.

Sam comes from a business and accounting background which has assisted her being able to look at her business’ numbers and metrics to find areas for improvement or how she can capitalise on the areas that are generating significant income. This is an aspect of the business that Sam prioritises and finds interesting to delve into. Sam also explores the challenges that business owners experience as an owner operator business and we commend her on being able to recognise the triggers and implement changes to make sure she continues to love the business and the work she does.

This is a beautiful conversation between Sam and Rach which you can watch as a video or listen as a podcast episode. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. Make sure to jump on over to Wild Fusion Skincare’s social media pages and give them some love and likes.

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WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

We have been receiving some fantastic feedback from our regular Member Conversation videos/podcast episodes and we are beyond thrilled! To continue this, we are excited to announce we were able to invite Jan Devlin from the Gravity Discovery Centre & Observatory to jump into a conversation with Rach in early December last year. This was an insightful chat and we were able to get a sense around why Jan found the application process so beneficial from the recent 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards which they were successful in taking out the Wheatbelt Business Network Business Not-For-Profit Category.

This was an exceptional video and podcast episode to edit as this is a unique not-for-profit business that is located within the Wheatbelt. It was great to hear about the astronomy opportunities that are available in Western Australia and how some of the programs they are running are world firsts. If you want to learn something new – this conversation is for you!

If you have been thinking about applying for business awards, this episode delves into a range of reasons as to how it can benefit your business and staff culture. The next Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards will be held in 2024, giving you plenty of time to achieve the big milestones you have in mind for your own business.

A huge thank you to Jan for her time to sit down and chat to Rach. We thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and hope you like it too! Make sure you check out their socials to see their upcoming events which could teach you a thing or two about our beautiful black sky.

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WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

We are very excited to release this Member Conversation today. We have Sharon Cutts from the Quairading Farmers Co-operative join Rachael to talk about their recent success at the 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards. Not only did they win the Avon Valley Toyota Business with 5-10 Employees, but they also took out the grand prize of being the Bruce Rock Engineering Business of the Year. This is a tremendous achievement, and we would like to take the opportunity to congratulate them again on their success.

During this conversation, Sharon often describes working at the Quairading Coop as ‘magic’ and it certainly sounds like it as they have built an incredible team environment and culture. Sharon credits this to all directors, staff and stakeholders involved within the organisation. This shone through on the night of the awards night as they had some employees in attendance on the night and were beyond proud to have taken out the 5-10 Employee award, you can imagine what their response was like when the business of the year was announced.

We would like to sincerely thank Sharon for taking the time to talk to Rach for our Member Conversations segment. We loved this chat and also thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Coop in person – if you are ever in Quairading, make sure you drop in and check it out. Jump onto the Quairading Coop’s Facebook and Instagram pages and give them some love and likes.

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WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

On our eighth Member Conversations episode with Rach, we had the wonderful Elenor Latassa from Gingin Jam join the chat. Gingin Jam was the winner of the DPIRD Agri Food and Beverage Value-Add Business at the recent 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards. This is an achievement that Elenor and her husband Dominic are extremely proud of, and we aren’t surprised when they have the philosophy within their business to value high quality produce.

Elenor and Dominic’s business venture is a little different to the typical Wheatbelt business story we hear of. In fact, they were both looking to retire and slow down when the opportunity arose to purchase Gingin Jam (a well-known and reputable brand within the region). There has been lots of learnings along the way for them both and we don’t think they have slowed down as much as they thought they would. They have three things that they like to consider when producing their wide array of produce and that is seasonal, regional and local, something we couldn’t agree more with. This is a fabulous chat between Elenor and Rach edited into a video and podcast episode for your convenience to watch or listen to.

Thank you for your time and knowledge Elenor and Dominic, we thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and look forward to seeing the new product lines you are working on in the background.

Make sure you head on over to Gingin Jam’s social media accounts to give them some love.

WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

Today we welcomed Dale Payne from Paynes Pest Control to jump on the mic in our Member Conversation with Rach. Paynes Pest Control recently won the Caroline Robinson Start Up Business and Digit Business Advisors Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the recent 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards. This is an incredible achievement, and we are very fortunate to be able to take up some of Dale’s time to talk about his business journey.

Dale has come full circle as he grew up in the Wheatbelt town of Bruce Rock before moving to Geraldton to work for a pest control company up there, then deciding to open his own business back in Bruce Rock. This experience was invaluable for Dale and his business journey as he now has access to a brilliant support network which he can lean on whenever he needs. Dale also credits his business success to his beautiful partner Hayley, they really are the dream team and have hit some incredible milestones during their short time in business.

Editing up this video and podcast episode has been an absolute pleasure. We thank Dale for taking the time to talk to Rach and we would again like to congratulate them on the success they had at our awards night. We hope you are enjoying these fortnightly member conversations as much as we are!!

WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

Today’s Member Conversation Episode is with Rhiannon Mouritz from The Remedy Physio + Pilates based out of Narrogin. The Remedy Physio + Pilates recently won The Nationals WA – Team Engagement and Workplace Culture at the 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards and from this interview you can understand why they won.

Throughout this conversation Rhiannon speaks about how her business venture began, some challenges she has faced during her time in business as well as why she values being able to offer a professional service to regional communities. Rhiannon’s business story is very unique as her doors were set to be opened in the middle of our 2020 Covid-19 Lockdowns. During this time of unknown, Rhiannon had to stay home, hoping that life would one day go back to normal, she now looks back on this time as a blessing.

This is a fabulous conversation between Rach and Rhiannon, which we thoroughly enjoyed editing into a video and podcast episode for you to enjoy as well. Let us know which part of the conversation was your favourite.

Thank you so much for taking the time to sit and chat Rhiannon, it was great to get to know you and your business as well as to showcase to other aspiring business owners that anything is possible if you set your mind to it and have a great support network around you.

Make sure you jump onto The Remedy Physio + Pilates socials and give them some love!

WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

Welcome to another edition of our Member Conversations. Today we have Amanda Walker from Yerecoin Traders joining us. Not only is Amanda a busy businesswoman with three businesses to run, a Mum, wife, friend, and energetic community member but she is also the WBN Chair. We really don’t know how she does it all!

Amanda grew up in Dublin, Ireland and comes with significant knowledge and experience in the Research Science field, which has correlated well into her business journey now. We would say fate landed her in the Yerecoin Pub where she met Tim, her now husband, one evening and the rest they say is history. Together, Tim and Amanda now operate Yerecoin Traders, Farmco in Moora and more recently The Little Country Store in Bindoon.

As you can imagine, managing all these successful businesses makes for a hectic workload and impressive time management skills which Amanda and Rach delve into with so much more which they discuss during this podcast. We loved hearing about Amanda’s business story and hope you do too. We are so thrilled we are able to bring these video and podcast episodes to you all on a regular basis.

A huge thank you for Amanda for taking the time to speak to Rach, we really appreciate your time and knowledge as well as the constant pillar of support you have given WBN over the past 12 years. Make sure if you haven’t already, you jump onto socials and give all of Amanda’s business pages some love!

WBN MEMBER CONVERSATIONS

We have had a hiatus with our Member Conversations as we have been busy with the 2022 WBEA and many other exciting projects to work on. But we are back with consistent content until the end of the year!

We would like to introduce you to WBN Member, Christy Petchell from Petchell Mechanical based out of Wyalkatchem. Petchell Mechanical began as a one-man business eight years ago with Steven (Christy’s husband) working as a mobile mechanic. The business has only grown from there, taking on their first apprentice (who is still working there) as well as purchasing a shed to conduct their business out of on a permanent basis. This is only the beginning for them as they now have 4 employees and Christy has also been given the opportunity to take on a position within the business. They have a fantastic team and recently won the Stumpy’s Gateway Roadhouse Business 1-4 Employees at the 2022 Wheatbelt Business Excellence Awards – which is a huge achievement!

This conversation between Christy and Rach is brilliant, funny, and authentic. They explore the highs of being in business as well as some of the lows that also come with running your own business in the Wheatbelt. We thoroughly enjoyed editing this video/podcast and we hope you like it as much as we did.

We have some super exciting Member Conversations in the pipeline, which we can’t wait to share with you all.

A huge thank you to Christy who took the time to talk to Rach for this conversation, we were blown away with how busy your schedule is, so we really appreciate you making time for us. Make sure you go and give Petchell Mechanical’s Facebook and Instagram a like and some love – they have some fabulous content to keep you entertained!!