0:01

Bonjour and welcome back to the newest

0:03

episode of the TIME Podcast . Today

0:06

we have our international French

0:08

top model again in our studio

0:10

the one and only the

0:13

well-known , the I-know-everybody-in-the-French-rugby-team

0:16

person , arnaud

0:19

. Hello , welcome back .

0:22

Thanks , timo , how are you ?

0:25

I'm very good . Thank you for asking . This is actually the first

0:27

time that I am . You don't

0:29

care about me , so really thank you for making an

0:31

effort . I do appreciate that

0:33

, Thank you . Just to highlight

0:35

, your glasses are not only very fashionable

0:38

, but back in the days in the 90s , when

0:40

I was young just getting my age away here

0:42

they were popular

0:44

as well . There were a few TV shows that I watched

0:46

, usually like hospital themed , where

0:49

the young doctors were wearing kind of that class

0:51

. Yes

0:53

, so today you remind me of an academic with a lot

0:55

of medical knowledge .

0:56

There you go , I'm bringing sexy back .

1:00

That's how you worded it . Anyhow , let's talk about another

1:03

sexy back . Who's our guest today

1:05

?

1:06

today I guess is brian swoodling

1:08

. He works for um cinework

1:11

, right , and he is the

1:13

master planning manager . Actually

1:15

, what I wanted to ask you , brian , like

1:17

can you explain to you , is that , what is the

1:19

? A massive plan ? A master planning

1:22

manager ? Sorry , I'm kind of feel like I'm kind

1:24

of butchering your title there , but that sounds

1:26

kind of like you know , like kind of

1:28

evil and austin powers

1:31

kind of you know wow

1:33

, there you go .

1:33

I do like , uh , I do like austin powers , but no

1:35

one's ever called me dr evil . So there you go

1:39

. I'm a bit chubby so you could call me , uh , the other

1:41

guy in there , but , um , I won't say yeah

1:44

. So master

1:46

planning manager . So it's actually a new role at scenic

1:48

world . Obviously , going through covid

1:50

and like the rest of the tourism industry , it was pretty

1:52

um struggling time

1:54

. So we've come out the other side and really um

1:57

, now we need to start looking at options . Okay , where do

1:59

we want to sit in the next 5 , 10 , 15

2:02

, 20 years ? Um and in

2:04

to do that , we need a bit of a plan in place . So

2:07

I'll be working on a master plan for Scenic

2:09

World in terms of we

2:11

don't want to set something up in five years' time

2:13

. Then in 50 years' time we've got to knock it down

2:15

and redo everything and it's going to cost us millions

2:17

of dollars . So my goal

2:19

and aim is to put a master plan together for

2:23

Scenic World to prevent

2:25

um for the future of what

2:27

um we're looking for . We've also got um

2:29

bridge climb as well , um

2:31

as our sister company . So , um

2:34

, we're doing a bit of a merger and doing

2:36

um , yeah , trying to work together a lot more

2:38

to see what's the bigger picture of um , what we're

2:41

going to look like in 20 years time .

2:43

That sounds really exciting , awesome

2:45

yeah , also .

2:45

uh , welcome on the show after I know it hasn't welcomed you officially . I of what we're

2:48

going to look like in 20 years' time . That sounds really exciting , awesome . Yeah , also

2:50

welcome on the show After I know I haven't welcomed you officially . I quickly

2:52

do that , thank you , thank you .

2:52

That's the point of hospitality .

2:54

you know Whatever comes to their mind is more important

2:56

than the guests . So thank you for spending

2:58

your time with us , brian . We really appreciate that

3:00

.

3:01

No worries , no worries . I'm still waiting for my escargot

3:03

to turn up , but it's not here yet

3:06

Don't push it .

3:07

It's a French café . This

3:09

is only on Sundays , really Fair

3:11

enough .

3:14

But maybe we should do a croissant escargot

3:16

Are

3:19

you talking ? Yes , anyhow

3:23

, let's talk about you , brian , a little bit and remind

3:25

me to get back to the bridge climb , because I have a little

3:27

challenge , for I Know Yourself and Myself there

3:30

.

3:30

Okay .

3:30

What's the end ? Let's talk about time

3:32

first . When was the first time you

3:34

actually heard about time ?

3:37

So time came to me from Anthea

3:41

Hammond . She

3:44

approached me and said look , what do you want to

3:46

do ? Where do you want to go ? I was working as , um

3:48

, I just came out of an acting head of operations role

3:50

, um , so

3:52

, yeah , she said , look , came back from a

3:54

conference and um time uh

3:56

, I must have been an ex-member , maybe

3:58

there that she heard it through , um

4:01

, yeah , and said have a look into it and see if that's something

4:03

for you . Um , and I was kind of ready to go on a bit of a journey . So , um , yeah , when said , have a look into it and see if that's something for you . Um , and I was kind of ready

4:05

to go on a bit of a journey . So , um , yeah

4:07

, when someone throws something like that at you

4:09

, you need to really take it with two arms . And , yeah

4:12

, go for it .

4:12

So , yeah , I signed up , um

4:14

, yeah , and I went away with that and

4:17

what were your not

4:20

goals , but what did you want to get out of it ?

4:23

uh , I guess I was a bit of a crossroads

4:25

of what I wanted to do . I was working in operations

4:28

at scenic world for the last six years and

4:30

worked my way through all the operation

4:32

operation manager roles , so I was

4:34

kind of went to acting head of operation . So

4:36

I was kind of like , okay , where do I want to take my career ? What do

4:38

I actually want to do ? Um , and

4:41

I've had mentors in the past , but I think

4:43

, think having an external mentor

4:45

really in my mind

4:47

was like , okay , I can actually bounce off someone that's

4:49

possibly in a different in

4:52

the same industry , but a different part of it , because

4:54

when I looked it up , it was a travel industry , right . So

4:57

in my head I was like , okay , well , maybe it's not really

4:59

attractions , maybe it's another part of tourism

5:01

that I don't know about . So I think that's what really

5:04

attracted me to it as well .

5:07

Yeah , that's interesting because I think that

5:09

you're pretty much the only

5:11

one , or the first one , that

5:13

actually doesn't come from that travel background

5:16

, but more that tourism background , and

5:18

I've always thought that . You know , because I think that you

5:20

and I well , yeah , timo , but

5:26

yeah , when I met you the first time I think it was maybe

5:28

your first day at Time I thought that

5:30

that was really interesting and

5:32

I thought that you'll probably get maybe

5:35

a lot more out of this program just because

5:37

you're coming from a different side of our

5:39

industry . You know , in a way , and

5:42

did you feel like that pairing

5:44

with your mentor was something that was

5:46

really going to take you where you wanted to

5:48

be ?

5:49

Yeah , I mean from the first day I met

5:52

Louise Millmore and so her background

5:54

originally was hospitality and working

5:56

in London and then she worked

5:58

her way from that into

6:01

operations side , but

6:03

her own travel company . So

6:05

it was really interesting from her side

6:07

, even though she was looking at more the

6:09

travel side of things . But it was operational

6:11

and that's where I came from . So it

6:14

was for her to push me in certain

6:16

directions and test me on . Things really

6:19

stretched me a little bit at times , which

6:21

was great and just made me think outside the box

6:23

of okay , you know , if you're going to be in industry

6:25

until 60 years old , where do you want

6:27

to see ? Do you want to still be in attractions ? There's actually a lot of

6:29

opportunity within the tourism industry

6:32

to to move around . We talked about

6:34

quite a lot . You know people coming out of school and they go

6:36

. You know , while working at scenic world you

6:38

work in the tickets rides . Um , you

6:40

could work in food and beverage or retail , but really we we've

6:42

got engineers on site , we've got boiler

6:45

makers , we've got a whole marketing team , we've got a finance

6:47

team . So really you could still work in tourism and

6:50

still go

6:52

to uni and go through

6:54

a marketing degree , but it doesn't mean you

6:57

have to . You can still be in tourism industry , you

6:59

know . So there's lots of opportunity , yeah .

7:01

So how long are you in your current role ?

7:04

The current role . Now I'm well three months

7:07

in , so yeah , pretty fresh yeah .

7:09

How much has time contributed , or the mentorship

7:11

with Louise contributed , for you to start

7:14

that role successfully , and I would assume it was successfully

7:16

because you're still in it .

7:17

That's right , yeah , yeah

7:20

, so that's a great

7:22

question . So

7:24

I guess , like I was saying , I was bit at a crossroads and I was working

7:26

towards . At the time when I first started , I was food and beverage

7:28

and retail manager , so

7:31

I was finding it hard to split

7:34

my time into those two roles and focus on what

7:36

I needed to focus on . And

7:39

I think Louise just told me well , okay , well , that's

7:41

what you're doing now and this is what you want to do . You know

7:43

there might be a redundancy trying to work out and all these

7:45

little things . She goes , think of the bigger picture , like where

7:47

do you actually want to be and what do you actually want to do . And

7:51

it really made me explore different ideas and have open

7:53

conversations with my boss as well , of where I wanted

7:56

to go and what the future held , which

7:58

I think then played that role

8:00

into a new

8:02

position at scenic world .

8:04

So , yeah , it was massive and

8:06

most was master planner , kind of something

8:09

you anticipated . Or did that happen accidentally

8:11

, then , or because it's , as arnold mentioned , it's not the

8:13

most common job title out there that everyone thinks

8:15

like , hey , I want to be a master planner

8:18

?

8:19

yeah , my kids , uh , definitely still don't

8:21

know what I do . I

8:24

think from being working in

8:26

all the different manager roles

8:28

, I always had a pretty blue sky thinking . So

8:30

I've always really tried to think outside the box

8:32

, come up with different ideas , whether

8:35

it's making more revenue , setting

8:38

something else up outside that , you know , might be a food

8:40

truck or something , could be something small or something

8:42

down in the valley . So I think I've

8:44

always had that in the back of my head , where you know

8:46

, I'm quite creative . When

8:49

I first left high school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and I went

8:51

to Sydney Film School so I've always had that creative

8:53

side of me and then went in to be

8:55

a chef for 10 years , you know . So I

8:58

think my versatility really

9:00

helped shape me into this role . That , yeah

9:02

.

9:06

I was lucky enough to be in now . You didn't mention world domination . I thought a master

9:09

planner was talking about world domination . Isn't that what

9:11

they do ?

9:12

you keep going back to this dr evil thing , don't

9:14

you

9:18

? No , no more domination yet , not yet

9:20

yes aha , that was the operating

9:22

word .

9:22

Yet I

9:24

see , um , I know I didn't know

9:26

you so much into the

9:28

master and domination world , but that's okay . We

9:30

discussed that on another occasion . A

9:33

different podcast . Here we go , stamp Boom

9:35

Done . There you go , bring it

9:37

on . So tell us a little

9:39

bit , brian . So it's the sixth month . If

9:43

you need to summarize your journey under one slogan

9:45

or one word , even , what

9:47

would that word be or what would that slogan

9:49

be Like ? If you compare A to Z

9:51

, you were at A and you were at

9:54

Z . How do you describe the process ?

9:56

Yeah , I mean , if you're going to throw it into one word

9:58

and I think fitting into the attraction

10:00

world , I'd probably say roller coaster , nice

10:03

. It definitely had ups and downs

10:06

, um , challenges and um

10:08

, you know , because you do have to sacrifice . I think when you sign

10:10

up something like this , you gotta go , okay , well , I need to make

10:13

sure I'm actually putting my time in um

10:15

, and you know you get busy

10:17

and things and you , you know , let things slide

10:19

, but I made sure that you know um

10:21

, once a month I was down in the city meeting up with louise

10:24

um , and then every second week we would just

10:26

meet online . So

10:28

, yeah , I think the sacrifice

10:30

also in

10:32

the six months , you do need to make sure , I think when you're signing

10:34

up for something like this year , you're going to go through

10:36

it properly . There's no point of just signing up and just going

10:39

and you know excuse my French , half-assing

10:41

it , you know .

10:43

It's not really French because we never do it half

10:45

, but

10:52

yeah , half-assing it . You know it's not really French because

10:54

we never do it half , we wouldn't do it half we would do

10:56

it fully Back to the master and nomination

10:58

thing .

10:59

no .

11:01

I really do appreciate what you're talking about in terms

11:03

of , like that sacrifice okay , like people

11:05

will probably put different , different with different sort

11:07

of labels , but what I find

11:10

really interesting for you and I think a lot

11:12

of people listening to the podcast can probably

11:14

relate there are people that are located

11:17

in remote areas of Australia

11:19

, right Regional Australia

11:21

. We've had a few mentees that you know live

11:23

in the country and they have a mentor

11:25

which doesn't necessarily live in the same state

11:27

or live in the same country as them

11:29

but , like you say

11:32

, there's been opportunities for you

11:34

to still continue to meet regularly

11:36

, either online or face to face

11:38

, either because you were doing the travel or

11:40

you know and I think that this

11:43

is also an aspect because some

11:45

people might be put off saying I live

11:47

in regional whatever queensland and

11:49

it's not easy for me to go to brisbane

11:52

or to get to sydney and therefore

11:54

this program is not for me , where

11:56

, basically , you're just saying that

11:58

it is possible .

11:59

Right , exactly right , and

12:01

I think you , just like I said before , thinking

12:03

outside the boxes . Okay , well , it's going to take me

12:05

three hours to get down to Sydney , three hours back . What

12:08

can I do in those six hours on the train ? So

12:10

I could get a lot of work done . I was lucky

12:12

that the company let me do that and

12:14

work from the train , so

12:17

no one knocks on your door on the train . So you actually

12:19

get quite a bit of work done .

12:30

So you just got to really think outside the box , know how are you going to get

12:32

down to sydney and what you're going to do , and use your time effectively

12:34

and you can you know even listen to the podcast on the train .

12:35

This is absolutely amazing best use of your time . I should say you know so much . But , brian

12:37

, when I did the program 20 000 years ago

12:39

when I was young , um , I felt

12:42

the two hours was kind of that's just to catch

12:44

up , and there's a lot of work actually happening between

12:46

the two meetings or each of the meetings . Did

12:49

you have a similar experience or how was that for

12:51

you ?

12:52

Yeah , I think I went

12:54

away from each session . Again , I had three hours

12:56

to get back over the Blue

12:58

Mountains , so it just made you really

13:01

think about what you've talked about and then how

13:03

you're going to move forward on that , because

13:09

it could be something small , like small , like you know , not every session is different , but sometimes you

13:11

go away or just a different perspective on what you're about to do . So if there was a performance managing

13:13

question or something

13:15

like that , I'll put to Louise and she said well

13:18

, have you thought about doing it like this way ? And you kind of at

13:20

the time you might not go into it too deep

13:22

, but I try and jot things down or as

13:24

I walk away and jump on the train and

13:26

really try and think of it come from um

13:28

and also an outsider's perspective

13:31

. I think when you're in a company and um

13:33

, you get an idea everyone's talking about the similar

13:36

things . You know because you're hanging out with each other every day . But

13:38

when you have some external and you

13:40

put it to them and some of the stuff that

13:42

comes back , you go , oh , oh , no , I

13:45

didn't think about that , that's great , like

13:47

yeah , and then you never know where that's going to

13:49

lead to . I mean , yeah , some of it just turns

13:51

into gold , you know , and , yeah , you go

13:53

away . Whether it's training or whatever it

13:55

needs to be , yeah

13:57

, it's yeah pretty

13:59

vital .

14:00

Yeah , and so because of

14:02

your scenic

14:05

location where you live I don't want to say remote

14:08

, so I had to think of a word because

14:11

of your very scenic location yeah

14:13

you're blessed to and

14:15

enjoy on a daily basis ? Um

14:17

. Were you able to attend some of the networking events

14:19

as well , or was that something that was just impossible for

14:21

you ?

14:22

no , I was able to get down to every single event

14:24

through the time . Um , I was a

14:27

mentee , um , and that was

14:29

great , like um , yeah

14:31

, so you normally have the hour catch

14:33

up at the start and it's just , is everyone

14:36

in the same boat going , like you know ? And I was actually

14:38

surprised . I was saying I caught three hour train trip and someone's like

14:40

, oh , I just flew in from melbourne . I was like , oh

14:42

, okay , I'll stop talking , so

14:45

, um , and then after that you've got

14:47

um , your training session . So

14:49

there's always , um , some guest

14:51

speaker that comes in to have a chat about . It could

14:53

be , you know , I can't

14:55

remember who it was , but she had a great Kiwi accent . So

14:58

I apologize if you're listening , but

15:00

she just talked about three things and

15:03

every conversation or everything you come away with , don't

15:05

try and remember everything , just come away with three things . And

15:07

I've really kept that going like , okay , I don't try and remember everything

15:10

, just come away with three things . And I've really kept that going like , okay , I don't need

15:12

to remember , and that could be in my personal life to my work life , like just three

15:14

things taken away from it . Um , which I thought was really great . I think that was

15:16

at , um , oh

15:18

, what's that ? Anyway , it doesn't matter . But

15:21

um , yeah , the training days , yeah they

15:23

were , they were , yeah , they were great , and

15:25

then it was all part of time .

15:27

I think that was the function at the no , not

15:29

at the Radisson at the .

15:31

The one in between the Radisson and .

15:36

I know you probably remember that . Oh

15:39

, that's the one you didn't attend because you didn't

15:41

reply on time , remember ?

15:43

Yeah , I don't believe I've been . No , what's

15:46

Sabre's ?

15:46

competition .

15:49

Was there an event at sabre ? But

15:51

yeah , maybe is there competition

15:53

?

15:53

who's their competition ?

15:55

amadeus I was there , wasn't

15:57

it was she kiwi , oh yeah

15:59

that is from hello world .

16:01

Yeah , yeah , yeah I was there

16:03

.

16:04

Yes , I was there . Oh , I

16:06

didn't realize she had a kiwi accent . Okay , oh

16:08

, so that's sorry , kiwi

16:10

accent yeah uh , but yeah , I do remember

16:13

. Yes , uh , presentation was like

16:15

it was really good . Um , I

16:17

took a lot of notes actually , because I do

16:19

take notes , but sometimes it's a

16:21

little bit like hit and miss with my

16:23

notes taking during these workshops , but on

16:26

that day I took a lot of it yeah

16:28

, okay um yeah , she

16:31

had a really good story she talked about

16:33

because she was in corporate travel at the beginning

16:35

and then she was like managing director or

16:37

something like that . Um , at hello world . I

16:39

can't remember exactly what she was doing .

16:40

She was great yeah , yeah , she was great

16:42

, I think , grew up in christ church and , um , yeah

16:45

, she started like as an intern , you

16:47

know , and she just kept coming back and coming back and

16:50

I remember that story

16:52

?

16:52

she would yeah , yeah , yeah . I remember when she knocked

16:54

at that door that travel agency and then that lady looked

16:56

at her and the way she was dressed .

16:58

She was talking about that as well yes , that's

17:00

right yeah and then after that as well

17:02

, and it comes back and it's um , uh

17:05

, you have the guest speaker . There's one at the radisson that you

17:07

about before , and that was one that I ended up putting into

17:09

my speech , because it still resonates

17:12

with me now is how good you know turning

17:15

a negative into a positive , and you

17:17

know whether it's we're talking for performance reviews

17:19

, and how can you change your mindset

17:22

on it going . How can you help people instead

17:24

of saying , oh , this is horrible , I've got to have that conversation

17:26

with them next week . They're just

17:28

not performing . You know , turn it into something . How

17:30

can I help this person ? You know it

17:33

could be business , and it could be in your own personal life

17:35

as well , like it's how good , yeah

17:37

, how good , exactly .

17:39

How good , how good .

17:41

I think there were fantastic

17:44

examples of why it's important to have those speakers

17:46

there , because they all obviously have their

17:48

own inspirational pathway and

17:50

went through their careers and

17:52

just listening to that , you always think well

17:54

, I always get something out of it for myself

17:56

, or either in hindsight , reviewing

17:59

what has happened in the past or for

18:01

future projects that I'm currently working on , something I

18:04

want to implement . So I think there's always

18:06

sometimes just a small but important

18:08

inspiration element that can be taken

18:11

out .

18:12

That's right .

18:13

Yeah , that's obviously good , because you know , once you're my age , you

18:15

just need inspiration every now and then it's

18:18

not coming naturally anymore .

18:22

Fair enough . How was your 21st ? Yeah

18:24

, it was pretty busy .

18:26

That was a long time ago . That was

18:28

a long time

18:30

ago . A long time ago . They didn't even have mobile

18:32

phones at the time when he had his 21st . You

18:35

know that's not true ? I know

18:37

that is actually not uh

18:39

, that might have been at mine , but we're not going to talk

18:41

about it I

18:44

wouldn't want to say they were very advanced at

18:46

my 21st , but they were existing .

18:51

Exactly Different

18:54

story . So tell

18:56

us about your graduation evening . Were you nervous ? Were

18:58

you excited ? Were you pumped and positive

19:00

? Did you think , oh my gosh , everyone is listening

19:02

. What was your experience of your three minutes of

19:05

fame in front of the Time community ?

19:08

Definitely nervous , you know . Looked up a heart rate monitor

19:10

at one stage and see it peaking . But you

19:12

know , I think it's one of those things like , I mean , I don't think

19:15

anyone really enjoys that much public

19:17

speaking , you know . So you always get that

19:19

nervous and I think it's natural to have those natural nerves in

19:21

it . But , yeah , look , once you get up there and you

19:23

start speaking , and you heard , I think

19:25

I had two people before me , so , you know , and

19:28

everyone's there to support you . You know , I was lucky

19:30

enough to have my boss , jason Crenshaw

19:32

, there , so , yeah , it was look

19:34

fantastic evening . All

19:37

the speeches were great , you know , and

19:39

they're all a bit different , which I like , you know , because there's

19:41

not really no one says this is what

19:43

you got to talk about . Really , it's kind of just

19:45

your whole experience . It's kind of just your whole experience . And , again , everyone's had a different

19:48

experience , whether everything was on Zoom or

19:50

they met with each other , or they walked

19:52

around the city for three hours every time they

19:55

had a meeting , you know . So , yeah , it was really interesting

19:57

to see everyone's experiences . And you know , three minutes

19:59

goes pretty quick , so you have to fit a little

20:01

in .

20:02

So what did you like most about your graduation

20:04

speech ?

20:05

I know it's an awkward question but

20:11

as a follow-up that you will understand , um when I finished

20:14

. Um , I thought you were gonna say that actually

20:16

, uh , look , I just wanted in my

20:18

speech I really want to talk about which we we talked

20:20

about at the very start was . You know , it was

20:22

a massive change for

20:24

me going into the travel industry

20:27

rather than just the whole tourism industry , you

20:29

know . So , um , I really wanted to get across

20:32

. You know , um , how

20:34

we can get more people in to time

20:36

from the amusements

20:38

or attractions , you know

20:40

like , because I think it's really important . You know , I

20:42

think I even said we should change the name to time , um

20:45

to tourism rather than um travel . Just

20:48

putting it out there , penny , if you want to change it . But

20:53

I think you know , like , I think more people in the tourism melting pot the better and

20:55

you can learn so much more . Or you never know where

20:57

an opportunity might come up as well , or something

21:00

you have never thought about . You know , there's

21:02

quite a few people at Norwegian Travel , which is really

21:04

interesting learning

21:06

about how they knot boats and their ships . You

21:10

know there was lots of things there that , yeah

21:12

, it was amazing .

21:14

But you're right . I mean the community

21:17

is open to everyone from tourism and obviously

21:19

the name is probably kept for historic reasons

21:21

.

21:21

Yeah .

21:22

And historic . I mean we're 15 years already

21:25

next year . So kudos to Penny and

21:27

team in the past and present Amazing

21:29

To make it through 15 years , especially

21:31

the last 15 years . That includes the GFC

21:33

, that includes COVID . There were lots of

21:36

milestones where

21:39

everything could have gone south , but

21:42

somehow time survived and managed through and obviously

21:44

the input and the voluntary work

21:46

everyone puts into it made

21:48

it happen , which is probably a great description

21:51

and summary of

21:53

the spirit that we have within a community

21:55

. Did

22:01

you have any helpful

22:03

contacts out of the networking from a business

22:05

perspective ?

22:08

I wouldn't say helpful contacts

22:10

, contacts , but just more opening my eyes up

22:12

to other community groups as

22:14

well . I think , um , you know , I met

22:16

a few guys from skull . Is it skull

22:19

? Yeah , yeah , so just just

22:21

knowing there is other places

22:23

out there um that you can network

22:25

and go to um . And

22:27

also , like , I think a big one for me was like linkedin

22:29

, you know , didn't really exist before I started

22:32

time so , and then I jumped on there and that was one thing

22:34

that I think that was my first session was like

22:36

what's your linkedin look like ? And then it's like

22:38

, okay , you need to slow , like keep improving it . You can't

22:40

do it all in one day , but you know um

22:42

, so that's one thing is like definitely networking

22:45

through um , that

22:48

um , social media .

22:51

Yeah , that's big , very important and much more important

22:53

in these days than many think , I believe .

22:56

Yeah , yeah , yeah . It's amazing how many people start stalking you on there

22:58

, you know .

22:59

Absolutely , I do all the time . I actually just sent you

23:01

a contact request about 23

23:04

minutes ago .

23:05

There you go , there you go .

23:08

So , Arno , do you actually brian's um

23:10

? I was about to say farewell speech

23:12

.

23:12

Graduation speech I do

23:14

remember yeah , what was ? your favorite part

23:16

. Uh , what was my favorite

23:18

part ? Um , I can't , I can't , I

23:20

can't remember . Um , I mean , he

23:23

used that our good um kind

23:25

of you know like catchphrase , which I thought was really

23:27

good . That reminds

23:29

me of some of my friends . They use that all the time and

23:33

I do like that . So , yeah , I really like that

23:35

little nod . No

23:38

, I thought that you were good because I think that

23:40

you and I met at maybe

23:42

your first or second time event

23:44

and then we had a good chat . One

23:47

of my best friends manages attractions

23:49

as well in Sydney for

23:51

a company which is , you know , in

23:54

your line of business as well . But

23:56

not owned by your owners . So

23:58

I'm quite familiar with you , know some

24:00

of the challenges that your industry is

24:02

facing and you

24:04

know before the podcast , that's what I was talking about weather

24:06

, because my friend , you know , when there's a bit of fog in sydney

24:09

he's big tower , um , no one can

24:11

see anything , right , yeah

24:13

, so the numbers are down . So I , I

24:15

totally understand some some of the challenges

24:18

that that you face at times . Um , so

24:21

I , yeah , it was , for me it was

24:23

, it was it was really good to to meet with you

24:25

and , you know , have a have

24:27

a different , fresh perspective from you know

24:29

someone that is not in travel

24:32

, that doesn't work for an airline or a cruise

24:34

line or a traditional

24:36

like retail travel agency . I thought

24:38

you had a bit more of an edge

24:40

compared to other people . Yeah , so

24:43

it was good to see you graduate because I kind

24:45

of felt like you . I saw you

24:47

when you were a little baby and then when you

24:49

grew up , I see , oh

24:56

my God , here we go . I'm

24:59

giving like everything on a silver platter

25:01

for Timo to make comments about me .

25:04

You provided quite a few penalty shots today , without

25:06

a goalkeeper , that's for sure . But I'm holding back

25:08

on this one . I don't want to embarrass you too

25:10

much . Brian , if you would have

25:13

to do a workshop for a time , what's the workshop

25:15

you would want to do ?

25:18

Oh , great question . I'm

25:23

a pretty positive person , so I

25:25

would like to do , if I had to , a workshop

25:27

on positivity and how you can bring it to , I

25:29

guess , your personal life , but also your team

25:31

. Oh my God , I'm laughing

25:34

.

25:34

Sorry , I'm laughing , but I'm only laughing because you don't know

25:36

that the episode we recorded before

25:38

had the exact same answer , really

25:41

.

25:42

Yes , yeah . Wow

25:44

, that's why I was like look at my face . I

25:46

was like shocked . Did you talk to each other

25:48

before ?

25:50

No , no , I didn't watch

25:52

the last episode either .

25:55

It's not published yet

25:57

, all right .

25:59

Well , I guess it's just . You know , I guess there's a lot of

26:01

positive people in the time .

26:02

No , absolutely . I think that's great and

26:05

give us the soft tip to stay positive .

26:09

Always look on the bright side .

26:11

Always okay and let's have a very

26:14

doom-bloom scenario . So imagine you would

26:16

be on a podcast , like with a German and a French

26:18

person , and it's just all extremely

26:20

, you know , challenging and annoying

26:22

. How would you stay positive in that

26:25

particular scenario ?

26:26

Oh , you're scaring me now . You know what I'll do

26:28

I'll put myself in their shoes

26:30

.

26:30

Okay , okay .

26:33

Have you seen on our shoes ?

26:36

I'm not wearing any now , fair enough

26:38

.

26:41

Be careful with that one Just

26:45

saying no . Look

26:47

, we have a beautiful question always towards the

26:50

end of our episode . Yeah

26:52

, always , and

26:54

it's actually I call it the French question

26:57

.

26:59

And it's always about call it the French question . And it's always Because we are intrusive . We

27:01

ask questions that you know

27:03

from your personal life without

27:06

any sort of guilt of asking

27:08

. That's why he calls it the French question , Because

27:10

the Germans would never do that sort of thing , you

27:13

know they respect privacy , Whereas

27:16

the French are going to be like , here

27:18

we go , give it to me .

27:21

I remember the first time I know

27:23

, through the question , I nearly got a heart attack

27:26

. So I have to apologise in advance

27:28

.

27:28

That's what I'm trying to say and

27:30

I know I think this time it's your opportunity

27:32

to ask the question , yeah

27:35

so what we want to know

27:37

from you , brian , is that

27:40

we want you to share a little bit

27:42

about something personal about you . That's

27:44

not a lot of people in the industry know

27:46

, um , you know , I don't know if you

27:48

, if , when you , when

27:51

you said that you were , you were a chef for

27:53

a long time , um , you know , if you have

27:55

a little , if you have a little song

27:57

that you sing to your croissant to make them

27:59

, you know , raise a little bit better , like , please

28:01

, feel free to share , and if you want to sing along

28:03

, let's go , let's do it it's funny you

28:05

actually say that because I was um

28:07

the other day we were talking about because I've been well

28:10

out of the chefing world now for just

28:12

over six years .

28:13

so , um , but we

28:15

used to . You know you

28:17

can go a bit crazy when you're on those split long shifts

28:20

, so we'd turn the kitchen into a musical . Well

28:22

, me and three other chefs would to

28:24

all the other chefs , so we would do this whole

28:26

service as a musical .

28:28

Wow .

28:29

And what would you sing ? Whatever's

28:31

happening , order up , you

28:34

know , oh yeah

28:36

.

28:37

Wow , this is fun .

28:39

Some people used to like it . Some people , definitely

28:42

by the end of the night , were like oh , here's

28:44

.

28:45

Here's what we have to do on . Oh , we have to have malinda

28:47

and brian together , because malinda sings russian

28:49

opera , which is , yes , so I

28:52

think . So I could see , doesn't

28:55

matter , but you can do the performance of the musical

28:57

. Now we have something beautiful happening

28:59

and Anu can just donate his

29:01

fashion , so we have crazy costumes as well . Wow

29:04

, we got it all .

29:05

Wow time the musical .

29:07

Time the musical At the

29:09

Zala event . Here we go .

29:11

Yes , wow , show me the money .

29:17

All voluntary based Fair

29:20

enough . Fair enough . That's why you're a master planner

29:24

, Brian .

29:24

That's why well

29:27

, my master planning skills on

29:30

time management tell me at the end of the podcast . So

29:33

, brian , thank you very much for being with us , really

29:35

enjoyed chatting with you and learning a bit about your

29:37

journey and also your

29:39

job title . I will never forget that one

29:42

. Whenever I see it somewhere online , I

29:44

would definitely just send the test application to see

29:46

what's happening . I

29:49

hope you had a good time with us as well , and we can't wait

29:52

to see you running away from the mountains

29:54

to the city for the next networking event

29:56

.

29:57

Fantastic . Thanks so much , fellas . I think it's really great

29:59

what you guys are doing and putting this podcast together

30:01

and really supporting the TAM community

30:03

. So , yeah , hats off to you guys . Thank

30:06

you .

30:07

And congratulations on your graduation

30:09

again , Brian .

30:11

Awesome Thanks . So much Thanks for having me on

30:13

, really appreciate it .

30:14

Anytime , but

30:19

at least you know you got a proper

30:21

farewell after you didn't get a welcome from

30:23

the french person say au revoir .