Real People, With Jason Dunstone - Consumer Insights, Market Research, Customers, Design Thinking and More

Today we head to Mangoplah in rural New South Wales to chat with Ginny Stevens the Founder and General Manager of Active Farmers. From humble beginnings as a regular fitness class in a farming community south of Wagga Wagga in 2015, Active Farmers has rapidly grown to 24 communities across rural Australia, including New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, with 30 communities planned by the end of 2018, and even bigger goals ahead. Ginny discusses growing up on a farm in Tasmania, and at 18 years of age heading to work as a Jillaroo in the Northern Territory, learning about hard work and pushing beyond her comfort zone. Ginny started Active Farmers seeing the need for physical and mental support in rural communities. Yet, has been overwhelmed at the level of need and demand. And, the interest in rural communities in building physical and mental fitness, social connection and addressing high levels of suicide. This is a thoughtful discussion about the critical role the not for the profit program has. As well as Active Farmers' success in gaining community and partner support, and working towards making life in rural Australia better now and well into the future. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [email protected] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/

In this episode we sit down with polar explorer, speaker, film maker and environmental scientist Tim Jarvis. A very 'cool' interview in many ways that is likely hard to not be inspire one to fulfil the dreams we had as a child to explore the unchartered and to live a life worth living, even if it all seems scary. Tim's latest focus project is 25zero - please click here https://www.25zero.com/ for more! As it says on the web site ... "25 mountains at the equator had a glacier at the time of the UNFCCC treaty in 1992. Most of them will be melted completely away within 25 years. This is our last chance to tell their stories." In today's interview we hear about how Tim's 'explorer club' as a young boy has guided his conquering of Antarctica, including replicating Sir Douglas Mawson's and Sir Ernest Shackleton's historic Antarctic expeditions, and a further record breaking Antarctic crossing in 1999. Tim is Author of multiple books including Shackleton's Epic (I have read and highly recommend) and Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica. We go on a fascinating journey from what goes into preparing for such monumental expeditions, how to build a team that's got what it takes, knowing your limits, how it is everyone's responsibility to help save Antarctica and much, much more. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [email protected] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/

Today we are joined by James Fergusson, the CEO of MDI (https://www.mdi-global.com) a mobile focused research company launched in 2013. MDI is based in Melbourne, with offices in Cape Town, Miami, Utah, Washington DC and recently launching their European presence from London. MDI has developed and is continuously evolving its own proprietary mobile research platform, and has worked with some of the world's largest consumer brands. This was a very enjoyable chat. I first met James back in 1994 when I started my career in market research at Frank Small and Associates in Melbourne. We were both wide-eyed young researchers, discovering market research somewhat by chance. It's nice to sit down 25 years, and eight kids later (six of these James') to chat. James has enjoyed a highly successful career in market research, including being based in Singapore for seven years in global executive roles for TNS / Kantar with a focus on technology and emerging markets. We discuss James' early days as an entrepreneurial kid mowing the lawns of neighbours to buy lollies and other joys the money brings. And, that a successful career is seldom linear or predictable, and it's best to just embrace the ride. James shares his perspective on the massive impact on research mobile phones have had over the past decade in the developed and developing world, and how this informed the strategy and innovation behind MDI. We hear about the story of MDI, and some lessons for those seeking to build a global facing business from Australia, including how to overcome our innate cultural risk aversion. A fascinating discussion about innovation in consumer insight past, present and the uncertain future. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [email protected] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/

Today we are joined by Brent Hill, the Executive Director of Marketing at the South Australian Tourism Commission. The leader behind recent campaigns 'book them out' responding to the devastating bushfires, and SA TV sharing content from across South Australia, responding to the 'stay at home' COVID-19 pandemic. Brent could have never imagined being involved in a tourism campaign to encourage people to stay at home, but that's the situation at the moment and for the foreseeable future. How does a tourism team deal with such a predicament? This is a most fascinating discussion about marketing and leadership in a topsy turvy world, including empowering the team to ever seek inspiration, and to unlock Edward de Bono's thinking caps, and not overusing the black hat, encouraging tourism operators to share their story through compelling content, that nowadays does not always need to be of the highest production standards. And, stimulating joy in challenging times is critical. Encouraging people to support local producers through online purchasing of artisan wine, gin, food and other products is important to build connection, and to build a huge appetite for travelling South Australia's wonderful regions once the restrictions are removed. A discussion about marketing and joy in a world of uncertainty and chaos. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [email protected] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/

Today we are joined by Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, Director of the 3A Institute at ANU in Canberra, a collaboration with CSIRO's Data61, with the mission of building a new applied science around the management of artificial intelligence, data, technology and their impact on humanity. Genevieve is also Senior Fellow, New Technology Group at Intel, since joining Intel as a researcher to conduct ethnographic research in 1998. This is a most fascinating discussion about the world in chaos, how we are adjusting and what might come. We discuss key themes such as contact tracing and mass surveillance, and how critical it is that our communities embrace to fight COVID-19. We explore how the devastating Australian bushfires and now COVID-19 have shone the light on our vulnerabilities and segments of the community that were already falling through the cracks dealing with inequality, personal dangers and complexities, and the role of the government in supporting this. Genevieve shares her perspective on how Australia has dealt with COVID-19 compared with other parts of the world, and how it is near impossible to understand the situation without more data and stable models. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [email protected] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/