¶ Career Transition and Mentorship Success
Bonjour and welcome back to the newest episode of the TIME Podcast . Today we have our international French top model again in our studio the one and only the well-known , the I-know-everybody-in-the-French-rugby-team person , arnaud . Hello , welcome back .
Thanks , timo , how are you ?
I'm very good . Thank you for asking . This is actually the first time that I am . You don't care about me , so really thank you for making an effort . I do appreciate that , Thank you . Just to highlight , your glasses are not only very fashionable , but back in the days in the 90s , when I was young just getting my age away here they were popular as well .
There were a few TV shows that I watched , usually like hospital themed , where the young doctors were wearing kind of that class . Yes , so today you remind me of an academic with a lot of medical knowledge .
There you go , I'm bringing sexy back .
That's how you worded it . Anyhow , let's talk about another sexy back . Who's our guest today ?
today I guess is brian swoodling . He works for um cinework , right , and he is the master planning manager . Actually , what I wanted to ask you , brian , like can you explain to you , is that , what is the ? A massive plan ? A master planning manager ?
Sorry , I'm kind of feel like I'm kind of butchering your title there , but that sounds kind of like you know , like kind of evil and austin powers kind of you know wow , there you go .
I do like , uh , I do like austin powers , but no one's ever called me dr evil . So there you go . I'm a bit chubby so you could call me , uh , the other guy in there , but , um , I won't say yeah . So master planning manager . So it's actually a new role at scenic world .
Obviously , going through covid and like the rest of the tourism industry , it was pretty um struggling time . So we've come out the other side and really um , now we need to start looking at options . Okay , where do we want to sit in the next 5 , 10 , 15 , 20 years ? Um and in to do that , we need a bit of a plan in place .
So I'll be working on a master plan for Scenic World in terms of we don't want to set something up in five years' time . Then in 50 years' time we've got to knock it down and redo everything and it's going to cost us millions of dollars .
So my goal and aim is to put a master plan together for Scenic World to prevent um for the future of what um we're looking for . We've also got um bridge climb as well , um as our sister company .
So , um , we're doing a bit of a merger and doing um , yeah , trying to work together a lot more to see what's the bigger picture of um , what we're going to look like in 20 years time .
That sounds really exciting , awesome yeah , also .
uh , welcome on the show after I know it hasn't welcomed you officially . I of what we're going to look like in 20 years' time . That sounds really exciting , awesome . Yeah , also welcome on the show After I know I haven't welcomed you officially . I quickly do that , thank you , thank you .
That's the point of hospitality .
you know Whatever comes to their mind is more important than the guests . So thank you for spending your time with us , brian . We really appreciate that .
No worries , no worries . I'm still waiting for my escargot to turn up , but it's not here yet Don't push it .
It's a French café . This is only on Sundays , really Fair enough .
But maybe we should do a croissant escargot Are you talking ? Yes , anyhow , let's talk about you , brian , a little bit and remind me to get back to the bridge climb , because I have a little challenge , for I Know Yourself and Myself there .
Okay .
What's the end ? Let's talk about time first . When was the first time you actually heard about time ?
So time came to me from Anthea Hammond . She approached me and said look , what do you want to do ? Where do you want to go ?
I was working as , um , I just came out of an acting head of operations role , um , so , yeah , she said , look , came back from a conference and um time uh , I must have been an ex-member , maybe there that she heard it through , um , yeah , and said have a look into it and see if that's something 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 to go on a bit of a journey . So , um , yeah , when someone throws something like that at you , you need to really take it with two arms . And , yeah , go for it .
So , yeah , I signed up , um , yeah , and I went away with that and what were your not goals , but what did you want to get out of it ?
uh , I guess I was a bit of a crossroads of what I wanted to do . I was working in operations at scenic world for the last six years and worked my way through all the operation operation manager roles , so I was kind of went to acting head of operation . So I was kind of like , okay , where do I want to take my career ? What do I actually want to do ?
Um , and I've had mentors in the past , but I think , think having an external mentor really in my mind was like , okay , I can actually bounce off someone that's possibly in a different in the same industry , but a different part of it , because when I looked it up , it was a travel industry , right .
So in my head I was like , okay , well , maybe it's not really attractions , maybe it's another part of tourism that I don't know about . So I think that's what really attracted me to it as well .
Yeah , that's interesting because I think that you're pretty much the only one , or the first one , that actually doesn't come from that travel background , but more that tourism background , and I've always thought that .
You know , because I think that you and I well , yeah , timo , but yeah , when I met you the first time I think it was maybe your first day at Time I thought that that was really interesting and I thought that you'll probably get maybe a lot more out of this program just because you're coming from a different side of our industry .
You know , in a way , and did you feel like that pairing with your mentor was something that was really going to take you where you wanted to be ?
Yeah , I mean from the first day I met Louise Millmore and so her background originally was hospitality and working in London and then she worked her way from that into operations side , but her own travel company . So it was really interesting from her side , even though she was looking at more the travel side of things .
But it was operational and that's where I came from . So it was for her to push me in certain directions and test me on . Things really stretched me a little bit at times , which was great and just made me think outside the box of okay , you know , if you're going to be in industry until 60 years old , where do you want to see ?
Do you want to still be in attractions ? There's actually a lot of opportunity within the tourism industry to to move around . We talked about quite a lot . You know people coming out of school and they go . You know , while working at scenic world you work in the tickets rides .
Um , you could work in food and beverage or retail , but really we we've got engineers on site , we've got boiler makers , we've got a whole marketing team , we've got a finance team . So really you could still work in tourism and still go to uni and go through a marketing degree , but it doesn't mean you have to .
You can still be in tourism industry , you know . So there's lots of opportunity , yeah .
So how long are you in your current role ?
The current role . Now I'm well three months in , so yeah , pretty fresh yeah .
How much has time contributed , or the mentorship with Louise contributed , for you to start that role successfully , and I would assume it was successfully because you're still in it .
That's right , yeah , yeah , so that's a great question . So I guess , like I was saying , I was bit at a crossroads and I was working towards . At the time when I first started , I was food and beverage and retail manager , so I was finding it hard to split my time into those two roles and focus on what I needed to focus on .
And I think Louise just told me well , okay , well , that's what you're doing now and this is what you want to do . You know there might be a redundancy trying to work out and all these little things . She goes , think of the bigger picture , like where do you actually want to be and what do you actually want to do .
And it really made me explore different ideas and have open conversations with my boss as well , of where I wanted to go and what the future held , which I think then played that role into a new position at scenic world .
So , yeah , it was massive and most was master planner , kind of something you anticipated . Or did that happen accidentally , then , or because it's , as arnold mentioned , it's not the most common job title out there that everyone thinks like , hey , I want to be a master planner ?
yeah , my kids , uh , definitely still don't know what I do . I think from being working in all the different manager roles , I always had a pretty blue sky thinking .
So I've always really tried to think outside the box , come up with different ideas , whether it's making more revenue , setting something else up outside that , you know , might be a food truck or something , could be something small or something down in the valley . So I think I've always had that in the back of my head , where you know , I'm quite creative .
When I first left high school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and I went to Sydney Film School so I've always had that creative side of me and then went in to be a chef for 10 years , you know . So I think my versatility really helped shape me into this role . That , yeah .
I was lucky enough to be in now . You didn't mention world domination . I thought a master planner was talking about world domination . Isn't that what they do ?
you keep going back to this dr evil thing , don't you ? No , no more domination yet , not yet yes aha , that was the operating word .
Yet I see , um , I know I didn't know you so much into the master and domination world , but that's okay . We discussed that on another occasion . A different podcast . Here we go , stamp Boom Done . There you go , bring it on . So tell us a little bit , brian . So it's the sixth month .
If you need to summarize your journey under one slogan or one word , even , what would that word be or what would that slogan be Like ? If you compare A to Z , you were at A and you were at Z . How do you describe the process ?
Yeah , I mean , if you're going to throw it into one word and I think fitting into the attraction world , I'd probably say roller coaster , nice . It definitely had ups and downs , um , challenges and um , you know , because you do have to sacrifice .
I think when you sign up something like this , you gotta go , okay , well , I need to make sure I'm actually putting my time in um , and you know you get busy and things and you , you know , let things slide , but I made sure that you know um , once a month I was down in the city meeting up with louise um , and then every second week we would just meet
online . So , yeah , I think the sacrifice also in the six months , you do need to make sure , I think when you're signing up for something like this year , you're going to go through it properly . There's no point of just signing up and just going and you know excuse my French , half-assing it , you know .
It's not really French because we never do it half , but yeah , half-assing it . You know it's not really French because we never do it half , we wouldn't do it half we would do it fully Back to the master and nomination thing .
no .
I really do appreciate what you're talking about in terms of , like that sacrifice okay , like people will probably put different , different with different sort of labels , but what I find really interesting for you and I think a lot of people listening to the podcast can probably relate there are people that are located in remote areas of Australia , right Regional
Australia .
We've had a few mentees that you know live in the country and they have a mentor which doesn't necessarily live in the same state or live in the same country as them but , like you say , there's been opportunities for you to still continue to meet regularly , either online or face to face , either because you were doing the travel or you know and I think that
this is also an aspect because some people might be put off saying I live in regional whatever queensland and it's not easy for me to go to brisbane or to get to sydney and therefore this program is not for me , where , basically , you're just saying that it is possible .
Right , exactly right , and I think you , just like I said before , thinking outside the boxes . Okay , well , it's going to take me three hours to get down to Sydney , three hours back . What can I do in those six hours on the train ? So I could get a lot of work done .
I was lucky that the company let me do that and work from the train , so no one knocks on your door on the train . So you actually get quite a bit of work done .
So you just got to really think outside the box , know how are you going to get down to sydney and what you're going to do , and use your time effectively and you can you know even listen to the podcast on the train .
This is absolutely amazing best use of your time . I should
¶ Professional Development and Networking Experiences
say you know so much . But , brian , when I did the program 20 000 years ago when I was young , um , I felt the two hours was kind of that's just to catch up , and there's a lot of work actually happening between the two meetings or each of the meetings . Did you have a similar experience or how was that for you ?
Yeah , I think I went away from each session .
Again , I had three hours to get back over the Blue Mountains , so it just made you really think about what you've talked about and then how you're going to move forward on that , because it could be something small , like small , like you know , not every session is different , but sometimes you go away or just a different perspective on what you're about to do .
So if there was a performance managing question or something like that , I'll put to Louise and she said well , have you thought about doing it like this way ?
And you kind of at the time you might not go into it too deep , but I try and jot things down or as I walk away and jump on the train and really try and think of it come from um and also an outsider's perspective . I think when you're in a company and um , you get an idea everyone's talking about the similar things .
You know because you're hanging out with each other every day . But when you have some external and you put it to them and some of the stuff that comes back , you go , oh , oh , no , I didn't think about that , that's great , like yeah , and then you never know where that's going to lead to .
I mean , yeah , some of it just turns into gold , you know , and , yeah , you go away . Whether it's training or whatever it needs to be , yeah , it's yeah pretty vital .
Yeah , and so because of your scenic location where you live I don't want to say remote , so I had to think of a word because of your very scenic location yeah you're blessed to and enjoy on a daily basis ? Um . Were you able to attend some of the networking events as well , or was that something that was just impossible for you ?
no , I was able to get down to every single event through the time . Um , I was a mentee , um , and that was great , like um , yeah , so you normally have the hour catch up at the start and it's just , is everyone in the same boat going , like you know ? And I was actually surprised .
I was saying I caught three hour train trip and someone's like , oh , I just flew in from melbourne . I was like , oh , okay , I'll stop talking , so , um , and then after that you've got um , your training session . So there's always , um , some guest speaker that comes in to have a chat about .
It could be , you know , I can't remember who it was , but she had a great Kiwi accent . So I apologize if you're listening , but she just talked about three things and every conversation or everything you come away with , don't try and remember everything , just come away with three things .
And I've really kept that going like , okay , I don't try and remember everything , just come away with three things . And I've really kept that going like , okay , I don't need to remember , and that could be in my personal life to my work life , like just three things taken away from it . Um , which I thought was really great .
I think that was at , um , oh , what's that ? Anyway , it doesn't matter . But um , yeah , the training days , yeah they were , they were , yeah , they were great , and then it was all part of time .
I think that was the function at the no , not at the Radisson at the .
The one in between the Radisson and .
I know you probably remember that . Oh , that's the one you didn't attend because you didn't reply on time , remember ?
Yeah , I don't believe I've been . No , what's Sabre's ?
competition .
Was there an event at sabre ? But yeah , maybe is there competition ?
who's their competition ?
amadeus I was there , wasn't it was she kiwi , oh yeah that is from hello world .
Yeah , yeah , yeah I was there .
Yes , I was there . Oh , I didn't realize she had a kiwi accent . Okay , oh , so that's sorry , kiwi accent yeah uh , but yeah , I do remember . Yes , uh , presentation was like it was really good .
Um , I took a lot of notes actually , because I do take notes , but sometimes it's a little bit like hit and miss with my notes taking during these workshops , but on that day I took a lot of it yeah , okay um yeah , she had a really good story she talked about because she was in corporate travel at the beginning and then she was like managing director or
something like that . Um , at hello world . I can't remember exactly what she was doing .
She was great yeah , yeah , she was great , I think , grew up in christ church and , um , yeah , she started like as an intern , you know , and she just kept coming back and coming back and I remember that story ?
she would yeah , yeah , yeah . I remember when she knocked at that door that travel agency and then that lady looked at her and the way she was dressed .
She was talking about that as well yes , that's right yeah and then after that as well , and it comes back and it's um , uh , you have the guest speaker .
There's one at the radisson that you about before , and that was one that I ended up putting into my speech , because it still resonates with me now is how good you know turning a negative into a positive , and you know whether it's we're talking for performance reviews , and how can you change your mindset on it going .
How can you help people instead of saying , oh , this is horrible , I've got to have that conversation with them next week . They're just not performing . You know , turn it into something . How can I help this person ? You know it could be business , and it could be in your own personal life as well , like it's how good , yeah , how good , exactly .
How good , how good .
I think there were fantastic examples of why it's important to have those speakers there , because they all obviously have their own inspirational pathway and went through their careers and just listening to that , you always think well , I always get something out of it for myself , or either in hindsight , reviewing what has happened in the past or for future projects
that I'm currently working on , something I want to implement . So I think there's always sometimes just a small but important inspiration element that can be taken out .
That's right .
Yeah , that's obviously good , because you know , once you're my age , you just need inspiration every now and then it's not coming naturally anymore .
Fair enough . How was your 21st ? Yeah , it was pretty busy .
That was a long time ago . That was a long time ago . A long time ago . They didn't even have mobile phones at the time when he had his 21st . You know that's not true ?
I know that is actually not uh , that might have been at mine , but we're not going to talk about it I wouldn't want to say they were very advanced at my 21st , but they were existing .
Exactly Different story . So tell us about your graduation evening . Were you nervous ? Were you excited ? Were you pumped and positive ? Did you think , oh my gosh , everyone is listening . What was your experience of your three minutes of fame in front of the Time community ?
Definitely nervous , you know . Looked up a heart rate monitor at one stage and see it peaking . But you know , I think it's one of those things like , I mean , I don't think anyone really enjoys that much public speaking , you know . So you always get that nervous and I think it's natural to have those natural nerves in it .
But , yeah , look , once you get up there and you start speaking , and you heard , I think I had two people before me , so , you know , and everyone's there to support you . You know , I was lucky enough to have my boss , jason Crenshaw , there , so , yeah , it was look fantastic evening .
All the speeches were great , you know , and they're all a bit different , which I like , you know , because there's not really no one says this is what you got to talk about . Really , it's kind of just your whole experience . It's kind of just your whole experience .
And , again , everyone's had a different experience , whether everything was on Zoom or they met with each other , or they walked around the city for three hours every time they had a meeting , you know . So , yeah , it was really interesting to see everyone's experiences . And you know , three minutes goes pretty quick , so you have to fit a little in .
So what did you like most about your graduation speech ?
I know it's an awkward question but as a follow-up that you will understand , um when I finished . Um , I thought you were gonna say that actually , uh , look , I just wanted in my speech I really want to talk about which we we talked about at the very start was .
You know , it was a massive change for me going into the travel industry rather than just the whole tourism industry , you know . So , um , I really wanted to get across . You know , um , how we can get more people in to time from the amusements or attractions , you know like , because I think it's really important .
You know , I think I even said we should change the name to time , um to tourism rather than um travel . Just putting it out there , penny , if you want to change it . But I think you know , like , I think more people in the tourism melting pot the better and you can learn so much more .
Or you never know where an opportunity might come up as well , or something you have never thought about . You know , there's quite a few people at Norwegian Travel , which is really interesting learning about how they knot boats and their ships . You know there was lots of things there that , yeah , it was amazing .
But you're right . I mean the community is open to everyone from tourism and obviously the name is probably kept for historic reasons .
Yeah .
And historic . I mean we're 15 years already next year . So kudos to Penny and team in the past and present Amazing To make it through 15 years , especially the last 15 years . That includes the GFC , that includes COVID .
There were lots of milestones where everything could have gone south , but somehow time survived and managed through and obviously the input and the voluntary work everyone puts into it made it happen , which is probably a great description and summary of the spirit that we have within a community .
¶ Time Management and Networking Insights
Did you have any helpful contacts out of the networking from a business perspective ?
I wouldn't say helpful contacts , contacts , but just more opening my eyes up to other community groups as well . I think , um , you know , I met a few guys from skull . Is it skull ? Yeah , yeah , so just just knowing there is other places out there um that you can network and go to um .
And also , like , I think a big one for me was like linkedin , you know , didn't really exist before I started time so , and then I jumped on there and that was one thing that I think that was my first session was like what's your linkedin look like ? And then it's like , okay , you need to slow , like keep improving it .
You can't do it all in one day , but you know um , so that's one thing is like definitely networking through um , that um , social media .
Yeah , that's big , very important and much more important in these days than many think , I believe .
Yeah , yeah , yeah . It's amazing how many people start stalking you on there , you know .
Absolutely , I do all the time . I actually just sent you a contact request about 23 minutes ago .
There you go , there you go .
So , Arno , do you actually brian's um ? I was about to say farewell speech .
Graduation speech I do remember yeah , what was ? your favorite part . Uh , what was my favorite part ? Um , I can't , I can't , I can't remember . Um , I mean , he used that our good um kind of you know like catchphrase , which I thought was really good . That reminds me of some of my friends . They use that all the time and I do like that .
So , yeah , I really like that little nod . No , I thought that you were good because I think that you and I met at maybe your first or second time event and then we had a good chat . One of my best friends manages attractions as well in Sydney for a company which is , you know , in your line of business as well . But not owned by your owners .
So I'm quite familiar with you , know some of the challenges that your industry is facing and you know before the podcast , that's what I was talking about weather , because my friend , you know , when there's a bit of fog in sydney he's big tower , um , no one can see anything , right , yeah , so the numbers are down .
So I , I totally understand some some of the challenges that that you face at times .
Um , so I , yeah , it was , for me it was , it was it was really good to to meet with you and , you know , have a have a different , fresh perspective from you know someone that is not in travel , that doesn't work for an airline or a cruise line or a traditional like retail travel agency .
I thought you had a bit more of an edge compared to other people . Yeah , so it was good to see you graduate because I kind of felt like you . I saw you when you were a little baby and then when you grew up , I see , oh my God , here we go . I'm giving like everything on a silver platter for Timo to make comments about me .
You provided quite a few penalty shots today , without a goalkeeper , that's for sure . But I'm holding back on this one . I don't want to embarrass you too much . Brian , if you would have to do a workshop for a time , what's the workshop you would want to do ?
Oh , great question . I'm a pretty positive person , so I would like to do , if I had to , a workshop on positivity and how you can bring it to , I guess , your personal life , but also your team . Oh my God , I'm laughing .
Sorry , I'm laughing , but I'm only laughing because you don't know that the episode we recorded before had the exact same answer , really .
Yes , yeah . Wow , that's why I was like look at my face . I was like shocked . Did you talk to each other before ?
No , no , I didn't watch the last episode either .
It's not published yet , all right .
Well , I guess it's just . You know , I guess there's a lot of positive people in the time .
No , absolutely . I think that's great and give us the soft tip to stay positive .
Always look on the bright side .
Always okay and let's have a very doom-bloom scenario . So imagine you would be on a podcast , like with a German and a French person , and it's just all extremely , you know , challenging and annoying . How would you stay positive in that particular scenario ?
Oh , you're scaring me now . You know what I'll do I'll put myself in their shoes .
Okay , okay .
Have you seen on our shoes ?
I'm not wearing any now , fair enough .
Be careful with that one Just saying no . Look , we have a beautiful question always towards the end of our episode . Yeah , always , and it's actually I call it the French question .
And it's always about call it the French question . And it's always Because we are intrusive . We ask questions that you know from your personal life without any sort of guilt of asking .
That's why he calls it the French question , Because the Germans would never do that sort of thing , you know they respect privacy , Whereas the French are going to be like , here we go , give it to me .
I remember the first time I know , through the question , I nearly got a heart attack . So I have to apologise in advance .
That's what I'm trying to say and I know I think this time it's your opportunity to ask the question , yeah so what we want to know from you , brian , is that we want you to share a little bit about something personal about you .
That's not a lot of people in the industry know , um , you know , I don't know if you , if , when you , when you said that you were , you were a chef for a long time , um , you know , if you have a little , if you have a little song that you sing to your croissant to make them , you know , raise a little bit better , like , please , feel free to share ,
and if you want to sing along , let's go , let's do it it's funny you actually say that because I was um the other day we were talking about because I've been well out of the chefing world now for just over six years .
so , um , but we used to . You know you can go a bit crazy when you're on those split long shifts , so we'd turn the kitchen into a musical . Well , me and three other chefs would to all the other chefs , so we would do this whole service as a musical .
Wow .
And what would you sing ? Whatever's happening , order up , you know , oh yeah .
Wow , this is fun .
Some people used to like it . Some people , definitely by the end of the night , were like oh , here's .
Here's what we have to do on . Oh , we have to have malinda and brian together , because malinda sings russian opera , which is , yes , so I think . So I could see , doesn't matter , but you can do the performance of the musical . Now we have something beautiful happening and Anu can just donate his fashion , so we have crazy costumes as well .
Wow , we got it all .
Wow time the musical .
Time the musical At the Zala event . Here we go .
Yes , wow , show me the money .
All voluntary based Fair enough . Fair enough . That's why you're a master planner , Brian .
That's why well , my master planning skills on time management tell me at the end of the podcast .
¶ Networking Podcast Farewell and Congratulations
So , brian , thank you very much for being with us , really enjoyed chatting with you and learning a bit about your journey and also your job title . I will never forget that one . Whenever I see it somewhere online , I would definitely just send the test application to see what's happening .
I hope you had a good time with us as well , and we can't wait to see you running away from the mountains to the city for the next networking event .
Fantastic . Thanks so much , fellas . I think it's really great what you guys are doing and putting this podcast together and really supporting the TAM community . So , yeah , hats off to you guys . Thank you .
And congratulations on your graduation again , Brian .
Awesome Thanks . So much Thanks for having me on , really appreciate it .
Anytime , but at least you know you got a proper farewell after you didn't get a welcome from the french person say au revoir .