Voice it Annabelle Homer

This episode is about a man who had a entrepreneurial seizure.  

What was a one-man-show in  agribusiness consulting, now is the Chairperson of a multi-national company called Pinion Advisory. A leading-edge national agribusiness, water and environment consulting firm with tentacles reaching across Australia and into America.

It all started in South Australia's  Clare Valley. 
 
Before Pinion, Dave Heinjus founded Rural Directions in 1997, one of the first agribusiness consultancies in the state. It started with just him and he manages over 100 people on his team.   After 23 years,  he led the merger integrating Rural Directions with 3 other Australian agri-consulting companies to form Pinion; Macquarie Franklin, Sunraysia Environmental and Hydroplan. 
In this podcast, you’ll hear his journey from his early days working as a contractor with the Department of Agriculture,  branching into self-employment with Rural Directions, the late nights, the ongoing study, balancing all that with a young family to then chairing a multi-national company.
But let’s start with Dave’s  early days growing up on the family farm on the western edge of the Barossa , a farm that he still manages.
Enjoy this journey – a journey he reflects back on and can’t believe he is where he is today.

Pinion Advisory: https://www.pinionadvisory.com/
Voice it: https://voiceit.me/
About Voice it:  
My name is Annabelle Homer. I grew up on a cattle station in Central Queensland and  now live in the Clare Valley in South Australia with my young family. Before children, I was an experienced broadcast journalist with the ABC travelling across the country reporting on rural issues, (The Country Hour) presenting state-wide radio programs 
( Late Afternoons) and reporting for ABC TV shows ( Landline and Behind The News).
I have also completed 12 years of AMEB Speech and Drama in Queensland.

I started Voice it in 2020 specialising in public speaking training which has morphed into podcasting for organisations, private audio memoirs for families, media  and interview training for organisations and MC'ing events. Thank you for tapping into Voice it and I hope you stay with me as I bring you more episodes featuring the very talented business minds of the mid-north of SA.

Welcome back to the second instalment featuring George Millington.
In the last episode you heard about George’s rise in the business world – from his early stock broking days, to transforming a humble coffee business into a successful sought after coffee brand Monjava, which was swiftly bought by San Remo. To then moving into logistics, APD Parcel Delivery.
In this episode, you’re going to hear all about the rise and rise of his rural livestock empire. Since he was a young boy, George’s dream was always to run a farm. 
"I had a feeling this was what I wanted to do, I wanted to bring my family up in the country, and Sophie did too, so we came up there and almost from the first month, just absolutely loved it."
George is the owner of Collinsville Stud Merinos – one of the country’s most well respected and prominent sheep studs in Australia.
To find out how that all came to be, enjoy the rest of George’s story.

This episode starts following his decision to leave the day to day running of his logistics company ( which he is still partly owns) to venture north into pastoral country.

Since this interview was recorded George has been elected as a board member of Australian Wool Innovation – an organisation that collects wool grower levies, markets the Woolmark label and receives co-funding from the Federal Government.  George speaks about his vision for AWI and that more needs to be done to boost marketing  of Australian wool overseas because not enough is being done.
Enjoy the second part of the journey with George Millington. This interview took place at the end of 2023.

Collinsville Stud Merinos: https://collinsville.com.au/
Australian Wool Innovation: https://www.wool.com/
Voice it: https://voiceit.me/

Today you will hear the absolute success story of George Millington.
 He is the man behind Collinsville Stud Merinos – one of the most prominent and well respected sheep-studs in Australia located in the mid north of South Australia.

George's success story begins begins with his venture into the coffee industry, where his excellent business sense and a stroke of luck made him a millionaire by his early 30s. After selling his coffee business, he transitioned into logistics, laying the groundwork to create a rural livestock empire across the mid north of the state. 

This two-part series explores George's journey, mindset, and decision-making process, starting with his roots in Adelaide, his early stock broking days, and his Monjava coffee venture. 
Enjoy the first part of the journey with George Millington. This interview took place at the end of 2023.

Collinsville Stud Merinos:
https://collinsville.com.au/
Monjava Coffee:
https://monjava.com.au/
APD Parcel Delivery:
https://apdparcel.com.au/
Voice it:
https://voiceit.me/

Meet the  super vivacious Ali Cooper, the owner of the The Park in Jamestown.
In this case Ali hasn’t started from scratch, but probably feels like she has. She's  transformed the local caravan park in Jamestown into a boutique accomodation space for travellers.
Ali is also involved in the family farming business with husband “ Seth cooper, has 3 children and is an extremely active community volunteer. 
Ali’s vision was to provide a boutique accomodation space in Jamestown to encourage travellers to stay longer in the town, to support other businesses, to turn their regional town into a bustling pace – a tourist destination.... and she is achieving this,if the reviews are anything to go by.
"What a gem, excellent caravan park; fantastic little gem, clean comfortable and convenient, outstanding comfort and welcome, great weekend away"…
So if you’re into vintage caravans, beautifully renovated cabins, impeccably kept green spaces and and a welcome grin that can rival no other, you need to book into The Park.

The Park - https://www.theparkjamestown.com/ 
 Voice it - https://voiceit.me/

Meet  Kelly Morgan, the woman behind Kelly Kelly Legal, a successful law firm in Jamestown.
Kelly grew up on a farm near Yongala, the coldest place in South Australia.  

She describes herself as an ‘accidental lawyer’,  she initially wanted to be school teacher or an architect, but it was her father that ignited the idea of law.
When Kelly graduated she had this big idea to head to Sydney and work for the big law firms but her life took an unexpected turn when her father passed away suddenly.
She headed back to the farm to help her Mum and started to work for a local law firm in Jamestown. Ten years later in 2014, she started up her own practice. 
She talks about what’s involved in running a law firm in the country, the rapid growth it underwent as soon as she opened the doors, her frustrations when people perceive country law firms as inferior to city ones and her passion to train and nurture law graduates to encourage them to undertake a country posting.
But her personal life has been a roller coaster ride as we also delve into how she navigated life after her father’s suicide, becoming pregnant with twins 4 months after starting her own practice  and then losing one. To then getting pregnant with twins 5 years later – with Max being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

I love Kelly’s motto; Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.
I guess this has got her through the tough times but also has led her to build such a successful business. 
Enjoy Kelly’s story.

Kelly Kelly Legal: https://www.kellykellylegal.com.au/

Voice it: https://voiceit.me/
My name is Annabelle Homer. Voice it is a regional communications business specialising in public speaking/media training for individuals and groups, podcast hosting and production, audio life stories and event MC. Get in touch if any of those services interest you.

This is a delightful story about Sophie Whitehead which I played on the Clare Valley Podcast a few months ago and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with my Voice it listeners.

Sophie Whitehead's  first job  job out of college was cooking for royalty. 
In this episode, you'll hear how she came to be cooking for the Queen Mother,  and the experiences she had with not just her, but many members of the Royal family, eg. dancing with Prince Charles at Balmoral Castle. WOW!!
But the career development didn't end there, Sophie ended up here in Australia cooking for the rich and famous on super yachts and in Sydney north shore mansions.
 She’s left the rich and famous behind and has moved to the Clare Valley with her husband David.   While caravanning around Australia, they came across the Curly Goose in Sevenhill, bought it and transformed it into a gin space.

Enjoy Sophie's journey!
Sawmill Gin and Curly Goose: https://www.sawmillgin.com/
Voice it: https://voiceit.me/