As we close the chapter on an incredible year of growth and connection, our latest podcast episode takes you through a heartfelt journey of our key milestones, mistakes and goals for the new year.
Somehow during this time, we have hit an astonishing 420,000 downloads and cultivated conversations that have deeply resonated within the realms of parenting, alternative education, forest schooling and child development. Our little project, birthed in our humble home office, has since spread its wings, touching lives and igniting a global dialogue on the transformative power of playing and learning in nature.
The hustle of running a small business is nothing short of a rollercoaster, and trust us, we've had our fair share of stomach-dropping moments! From the anticipation of launching our Forest School Skills online course to navigating the choppy waters of economic uncertainty, we share our trials and triumphs. Yet, amidst the challenges, we've seen our programs soar to new heights, with over 5,600 children stepping through the doors of our Forest School sites this year alone to the simple joys of bringing on our first full-time team member. It's these victories, large and small, that chart the course for future growth and sustainability.
Fasten your seatbelts as we map out the adventures and aspirations that await us in the coming year. Our heart is set on deepening the roots of our existing projects and empowering educators through our forest school skills course. We're also gearing up for personal travel escapades, including a five-week caravan journey through Tasmania!
Stay wild and join us on the journey—there's so much more to explore together.
Other ways we can help you:
As we close the chapter on an incredible year of growth and connection, our latest podcast episode takes you through a heartfelt journey of our key milestones, mistakes and goals for the new year.
Somehow during this time, we have hit an astonishing 420,000 downloads and cultivated conversations that have deeply resonated within the realms of parenting, alternative education, forest schooling and child development. Our little project, birthed in our humble home office, has since spread its wings, touching lives and igniting a global dialogue on the transformative power of playing and learning in nature.
The hustle of running a small business is nothing short of a rollercoaster, and trust us, we've had our fair share of stomach-dropping moments! From the anticipation of launching our Forest School Skills online course to navigating the choppy waters of economic uncertainty, we share our trials and triumphs. Yet, amidst the challenges, we've seen our programs soar to new heights, with over 5,600 children stepping through the doors of our Forest School sites this year alone to the simple joys of bringing on our first full-time team member. It's these victories, large and small, that chart the course for future growth and sustainability.
Fasten your seatbelts as we map out the adventures and aspirations that await us in the coming year. Our heart is set on deepening the roots of our existing projects and empowering educators through our forest school skills course. We're also gearing up for personal travel escapades, including a five-week caravan journey through Tasmania!
Stay wild and join us on the journey—there's so much more to explore together.
Other ways we can help you:
Well, we're heading towards the end of 2023 and we're going to take a month off of the podcast and spend the festive season with our families and take a nice long break. But come and join us as we reminisce over the past year and talk about the highs, the lows, the adventures and what we've learnt this year.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Raising Wildlings, a podcast about parenting, alternative education, stepping into the wilderness, however that looks, with your family.
Speaker 1:Each week, we'll be interviewing experts that truly inspire us to answer your parenting and education questions. We'll also be sharing stories from some incredible families that took the leap and are taking the road less travelled.
Speaker 2:Wear your hosts, vicki and Nikki from Wildlings Forest School. Pop in your headphones, settle in and join us on this next adventure. Hello and welcome to the Raising Wildlings podcast. Wear your hosts, vicki, oliver and Nikki Farrell.
Speaker 1:Well, let's jump straight in. I think let's start with the podcast stats this year. All right. So from the very first episode this year, 2023, to the time of recording so we're mid-November right now Raising Wildlings podcast episodes, we have recorded 160 episodes over the past four years. Vicki, have you guessed how many times it's been downloaded all time?
Speaker 2:Well, I can't remember last year. I know that we'd cracked over 100,000. And so I'm going to guess that we're 200,000 plus.
Speaker 1:I think I would have guessed the same, because it's our fourth year and it's we've actually been downloaded over 420 times by you all. Like that's not crazy 420,000. Yeah, what did I say? 420. Just 420. Thanks for any guys. Thank you all for being here 420 would still be amazing. It actually would, but that's mind blowing. I can't believe that something that we've created in our little home office is like you're at home, you've got your kids at home, I've got my kids at home, I'm in the office you're in your living kind of area and it's reached that many people it is amazing.
Speaker 2:I think I'm really proud of the types of content and ideas that we've put out into the world and the people that we in the conversations that we've had, because I know that we get amazing emails and feedback and reviews saying how helpful that the podcast is for people in learning more about forest school or whether it's about how we work with children, whether that's parenting or just understanding childhood development. Like I just can't believe how incredible it is to access the information we have now and that we can then share that with the world and we can just learn so much more to work alongside children and help them thrive. So our top five episodes that we've had this year unsurprisingly, coming in at number five was our Play, learn, grow episode with Peter Gray.
Speaker 1:He's a favourite of our audience.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely so. We actually had two episodes from Peter this year, but I guess because it was towards the you know we only just released it a few months ago it's come in at number five, even though it hasn't had a full year for people to reach their ears. So, yeah, if you're interested in hearing more from Peter, that one's definitely one of my highlights for this year in recording as well. And then coming in in number four was Mum's Guide to Raise.
Speaker 1:Good, that was with Tracy Gillett, wasn't it? She was amazing, and if you don't follow her, follow Raised Good, because she's just like a balm to every parents soul. I think she might have been in my first podcast for the year, actually, and you know, when you're coming off the holiday break you're like, oh, I'm not ready to come back to work. She was a really great not even a slap in the face, a gentle, warm hug and so like, yes, this work is important and this is good for people. So thanks, tracy, for getting me back on the workhorse this year.
Speaker 2:Coming in at number three was Slow and Settling Down with Meg Berriman, and I remember reading her book and sharing my notes with you about what we both love about the book, and then you were able to talk to her on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really resonated. I resonate with her work full stop. But it's what we're trying to do here, right, that regenerative business, without even realizing it. We're not never set out to actively fight the nine to five, but we did create something that suited our families and therefore our nervous systems, and, incidentally, it's happened to be very good for the planet too. So if you've not read her book, please look up Meg Berriman and regenerative business fabulous.
Speaker 2:Coming in at number two, unsurprisingly Low Demand Parenting that sounds very appealing with Amanda Dykman.
Speaker 1:Another warm hug. I think I cried a couple of times. I've been a real crier on the podcast this year, but again, I think a lot of us have children that are highly sensitive and this was a real validation for what parents are going through as we parent alongside highly sensitive children.
Speaker 2:Amazing. And then our top episode for this year has been Free Range Kids with Lynna Oskinezi Another great one. I just love the whole her story about setting her young son off into the New York Wild let's just take the train on his own and how that gave rise to the whole Free Range Kids movement and all of the amazing work that she does over in the United States. But obviously that's had a ripple effect all around the world and that was such a cool story. And, yeah, definitely tune into that episode if you're interested in listening to how much mass hysteria was caused. But then how much good has come from the work that she's done and from that one act of independence that she was trying to gift her son.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was labelled the country's worst mum during that time.
Speaker 2:And now I would say, it's absolutely backflip.
Speaker 1:So some other really interesting stats for you. Over 70% of you listen to us on Apple Podcasts and 85% of you listen on your Apple phone. 50% of you are Aussie, aussie, aussie, aussie is 30% from the US and 7% from the UK, but we've got listeners from all over the world Malaysia, japan, puerto Rico, jamaica, ghana, to name a few and when I look at that list again, I just go what. It really takes a bit to wrap my head around.
Speaker 2:Oh, it does, and there's been multiple times through the year where we've met someone or even just not someone I know, and they'd be like listening to the podcast. Thank you, oh my goodness, it is mind blowing that I'm sitting here just talking to you and that this conversation will go out to people we know and complete strangers Gana, jamaica, yeah, around the world. And yeah, it really is heartwarming to know that it's hopefully making a difference in the way that we view childhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay, change of pace. We always want to be really honest and transparent on our podcast, so we're going to talk to you about the lows. So this year's been a bit harder for us for a couple of reasons and we'll dive into a few of them now. So some of you will know this, but for over a year behind the scenes, we've been working on building an approved early learning center like Wildling style in Brisbane alongside a property developer. Unfortunately, despite all everybody's best efforts, the land just didn't make it through the development application or rezoning, because the local council couldn't agree where the building should be placed, because we were kind of set amongst a flood zone, a gully, a koala habitat, which is fabulous for the kind of. It's a amazing block of land. It's a beautiful block of land and ideal for the kind of early years setting we wanted.
Speaker 1:But that venture is on an indefinite pause right now while we gather our energy and regain cash flow. So there is a lot more to tell about this story, but there's a couple of big things that need to land before we can share it. Now. We're not trying to be mysterious here. We absolutely will be fully transparent when we're allowed to be. We will share all the things that we've learned on the journey when we can. We just can't yet.
Speaker 2:And also because we're a small business. As many of you know, interest rates continue to rise. I'm pretty sure that RBA just put up its rates up again this week. The media has been talking about everyone cutting the fat in their personal budget, so we, I guess, were really worried that we might see a huge downturn in our program numbers.
Speaker 2:Our programs, though, that you know, don't receive any funding. We don't get any government assistance. Parents can't use childcare rebates or any other government assistance to access holiday programs, afterschool programs, anything like that. So, essentially, we are more like a luxury item in an economic downturn. So thankfully, this hasn't proven to be true, because we've made some big budget decisions and have cut back on a fair bit of spending to try and pad our business in case this does happen. But I think post COVID, people understand how important time outdoors with community is for their physical and also their mental health, and that we need to prioritise this or it does get missed. So it has been fantastic year for that. Fingers crossed this good run continues because small business is such a roller coaster.
Speaker 2:And obviously our business is multifaceted, so the program side of things has always and continues to be amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which has been a relief because you know the media has really hyped up the economic downturn and I'm so glad we have played it safe. But you amazing families have proven us wrong and it's just validated that people need to get outdoors. Families need it Absolutely. And another thing that was a bit of a low for us was that we we've spent the past year or longer now, probably launching a new online course called Forest School Skills, and we were honestly surprised at the time that it wasn't as successful as wild business has been Now. There's a lot of factors in that, but for us, the skills course is what we do every day. It's our bread and butter. We live it, we breathe it, we know inside and out. We are incredibly passionate about getting these skills out, particularly to early years educators and schools, but it just didn't land in the hands of those that we'd hoped that it would, so it was a bit disheartening.
Speaker 2:The reason, one of one of the things we noticed is that we just spent so much time creating the course which I'm so, I'm so proud of Like oh my God, me too.
Speaker 1:It's still the best thing I think I've ever done.
Speaker 2:Yes, me too. But every single time I go into the back end to upload something, fix something, or check if something is there, or whatever it is I'm doing in the back end, I'm blown away at the depth of the content that we've created, but not only the depth, the fact that it's helpful and we've tried to write it in a way that we believe is the most helpful. So much detail, not just in ways that you think you need it, in ways that help you as a facilitator, facilitating. So you know I'm not going into too much detail about the course.
Speaker 2:It's one thing to learn how to weather, it's another to supervise children doing these activities and I think we've done a really fantastic job in really nutting that out.
Speaker 1:I think what people won't realise till they're in the course is there's so much in there that they don't even know that they need to know until they're in the course. And that's what I'm proud of. I'm so proud of pre-empting what people will eventually need three, five years down the track. It's already in there, exactly.
Speaker 2:And we spent so. Essentially, what I'm trying to say is we spent so much time creating the course that we didn't spend enough time telling the world about the course, what was it in it and, more importantly, how that's going to transform people.
Speaker 1:I don't know that we spent any time. You know we were, which is so good. I'm so, again, so proud of what we've done and now, now, we're here to tell the world about it, and I can't wait for it to land where it's meant to land. With who? The people that are ready for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right and it just is another facet of understanding that it's one thing to have a skill set and in the thing that you are passionate about, and another to be able to market that and get that messaging and to get that right for your customers. And we don't think that it was quite right at that point because we didn't spend enough time going through all the things we need to. We know that we need to go through it. We missed our main audience because you know we have lots of different audiences. I think.
Speaker 1:And people might not realize that showing up in the early years.
Speaker 1:But I think if we take the lesson from this and I think this is why Wildlings has seen the success that it has and is is that we just apply these learnings. You know, we just say the same thing. We say to children that come to Forest School that we're just scientists and we've learned a lot. It's not a mistake and we just really look forward to seeing this course make the change that we know that it will, now that we know what we need to tweak and change.
Speaker 2:So we'll keep you posted on that one, yeah, and so we just wanted to maybe talk a little bit about how this impacts us as a business. Because of those two things the investment in the approved Kendi and our Forest School skills course not quite landing where it needed to and as a result, we haven't probably put a lot of effort into Wild Business this year and the predicted downturn in the economy the actual physical result for us is that cashflow has become a lot tighter. So programs are still doing really well, we're running lots of incursions and excursions for schools and Kendi's, but when you base your investment predictions on something that didn't land, that's when your cashflow can become quite tight. And for those of you that run a business, you will know that what's posted on your profit and loss sheet is very different to managing cashflow day to day. And that's not to say that we're worried about our business continuing to succeed. It's just that when that happens, you just have to make different decisions at moments in time.
Speaker 2:And a good, I wouldn't say slap in the face, but slap in the face just to be reminded of the importance of cashflow and that that is probably one of the most important things to manage when you're running a business. When it rains, it pours and you might have lots of cash to invest in exciting new programs. We're pretty ambitious. There's usually lots of programs for us in the wings. You have no idea how many people have like have you thought about blah, blah, blah? And we're like well, yes, we have thought about it, it's on the list.
Speaker 1:Actually, we're doing that. Yeah, we're doing it. It's in the back end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're doing that. It's just not out in the world yet and sometimes you just have to rain those things in. Things take the time that they take because there are so many moving parts in the back end and it is difficult to not get into that scarcity mindset. So we're being quite careful. In fact, it's hilarious that we were having this conversation today about just flipping our mindset about scarcity and how we had been talking a little bit like that in the last couple of weeks and then a lot of my hold we started talking about things differently and then straight in the inbox was a reminder to send an invoice to someone.
Speaker 1:A large invoice.
Speaker 2:And that was great.
Speaker 1:Like you know very good.
Speaker 2:So that was you know, it is important to have a positive mindset and to not let yourself get pulled into scarcity and that's not to say that we're not careful, but just being really mindful of that. Our words have power on ourselves as well, and some of those projects will be on the back burner, but that doesn't mean they won't emerge at some point. So this is a reminder to anyone going through longevity planning patch that everything takes time. In business, like life is an absolute roller coaster, and those that succeed really stick it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said. Well, that felt like a bit of a therapy session. So thanks to all of you for being our counsellors and our listening ears today. But we, you know, we did want to be really vulnerable and transparent with our entire business journey because, especially because we do run the world business course and we don't want it to all just look like beer and skittles, right, because it's not, it's things pop up that you have no control of. But it really is. It really always does come down to growth, mindset and planning. So luckily we're glass half kinda whoop, luckily we're glass half full, kinda girls.
Speaker 1:And while this year has felt a bit harder than most at times, when we look back at all of our accomplishments and all the good times we've had, the good absolutely outweighs the bad. So let's get to the fun stuff. Let's talk about the highs of the year. So first of all, we've had a really great year for awards and it's funny, we nearly didn't enter awards this year. We were like, well, we kind of we would like a break from it, just because we had other things we wanted to focus on. But this year we have made it to the Sunshine Coast Business Awards Hall of Fame, and what that means is that, essentially, we've won it three times in a row, so we get to be included in the Hall of Fame and we're not allowed to enter it anymore for at least three years, so that someone else gets to go.
Speaker 2:I think it's worth mentioning to people that entering awards actually takes a work. Well, the types of business awards that we have been involved in is not just someone nominates you and then they decide, based on I don't know a quick website search, that you're the winner. There is quite an intensive process that we go through. So when Nikki says, you know we considered not entering as many awards this year, it is because it is a time investment.
Speaker 1:A big time investment and if it's not Vicki and I, then it's someone on our team that we're also paying, which it's always worked out. It's always worth it, even if you don't win, even if you don't end up even being selected as finalists. It's really worth it for your business because it makes you relook at your business plan. It makes you look at your finances. It does get a lot of your ducks in a row, because quite often we're too busy working in the business to work on it. So we'd highly recommend, if you are a small business, entering them. It's great networking as well. But yeah, the only reason we were looking at taking a break was that we were thinly stretched at the time we were having to put applications in but we're really glad we did because we entered the Telstra Business Awards.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Lindsay, because she did the initial application for us this year and we ended up being a Queensland finalist in the building communities category. If you haven't heard, especially if you're overseas, the Telstra Business Awards are, I'm going to say, the biggest. I think they're the biggest business awards in Australia and they're not small business awards either. So we really had to step up our game. This was hours and hours and hours and hours of work.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was so funny Because if you say yeah, I think you would say, oh, we've got all this information, which we did, and they'd be like please dedicate seven hours to this part of the application and I'll be like that'll be fine, we'll get that done in an hour, and three days later we'd be like I think we're done.
Speaker 1:And it's incredible what you have and then how you need to display it to stand out as well. I think, and that's it. You know we're probably overachievers, but that's how we got there. I guess as well is that we were able to do a really good job of storytelling the impact that our business has on the families and children that attend. So I'm really, really, really proud of our team, because we couldn't have got there to where we are today without them to get to that, and it's really amazing industry recognition. So Thanks to our team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of that information was very helpful for us to talk about our accomplishments now, like the fact that we now have our very first full-time employee. If that sounds surprising to you, it's because we actually have staff cohort of over 30 casuals and a small handful of part-time work, play workers and admin staff that have all specifically chosen a part-time work-life balance. So us stepping into our first full-time employee was really big for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were almost like do we want to have, do we believe in, a five-day a week work week? There's a lot of big juicy discussions and it ended up obviously being well, it's up to our employees what they want their work-life balance to look like. That's it, but it's super exciting. We're super excited for that team member to be a permanent part of our team, full-time.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we've started some new locations and programs in both Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, which has been, you know, like that. That's a really big thing for our staff to have to go through to get those up and running. So we're very, very proud of those and looking forward to bringing new programs for you in 2024.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have already briefly mentioned, but we launched our Forest School Skills course and I actually think that might be one of my all-time proudest achievements out of everything we've done which might sound ludicrous when we're talking on a podcast and we've got 30 employees and we've got multiple locations, but it feels like legacy work without standing too wanky.
Speaker 1:It feels like the sum of everything we have known and everything we have done, not just over our last six years in business but for you and I, our careers before that, encapsulated into one course. I'm really really effing proud of it. Another really amazing statistic is that we have had 5,600 children visit our Forest School sites this year alone, and it's only mid-November, so that doesn't even include our holiday programs that are about to launch, but is a stat, and also that stat doesn't count any excursions, incursions, festivals, events or any professional development, so actually it would be a couple of thousand children higher than this. We think that stat right. There is exactly why we do what we do, Like our aim is to get more children outdoors. We got what? Five and a half to probably 8,000 children outdoors in Southeast Queensland alone. I'm so proud of us.
Speaker 2:And due to our high demand, we've doubled our Brisbane holiday offering as well, which has been really exciting. And moving on from that, we attended our first conferences exhibitors at the ECA Conference in Adelaide, which was so good to connect with everyone and to really show up in the earlier sector again.
Speaker 1:We started internally as far as our team goes. We started a neurodiversity staff training journey with the experience collectors and we're continuing, as always, our staff cultural awareness training and we're working with Tribal Link on that and that's. We've had some really great feedback from our team about that training as well, and we've also sent one of our team members to do a storytelling at PD with our friends at Birdwings Forest School. So if you're into storytelling, go and check them out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Some other things that like might sound funny to you but were really important for us is that we finally got a consistent weekly newsletter happening. So this might be a cue to jump on our mailing list if you want to right now, and that, in particular, was because Amanda, our Brisbane manager and also one of our business partners she was so dedicated to getting the newsletter started, and to both Kerry and our forest fairy Ellen for taking that on and just making it such an amazing resource for people. That is something of value that we can give to people who want to engage with us in some way. If you want to attend our programs, that's fantastic, but being on our mailing list is also another way for you to work alongside us. So it's such a huge thing for us to have that up and up and running. We've been talking about it for years.
Speaker 1:We've wanted it to be consistent for years. Yeah, it's so hard to do all the things. Yeah, it's part of our educational. One of our educational aims is to be able to and accessibility aims is to be able to educate in a way that's free and people can access it free. So the fact that Ellen writes these weekly blogs about snake safety or climbing trees safely, or it's getting more children outdoors, even if they're not on our program. So again, it might sound silly, it might seem like just a newsletter, but for us it's a bigger aim of getting more children outdoors again. And moving forward, on the first week of December we're going to have our big interview gathering with all of our team members and their families and we're super excited because last year we decided to do this and then this year, when we asked them what they wanted to do, they said absolutely, let's do that again.
Speaker 1:So we're going to do another big camp out and I just know I'm going to get teary again when we do our speech and get to look around at just their incredible team that we work alongside, because they just live and breathe our mission as much, even not more, than we do. Yeah, so there'll be, I think, around 50.
Speaker 2:And we don't get to spend a lot of time with them face to face either. Right Like we remote. You know as much as we try and we have great intentions of meeting people and it is just incredibly difficult to fit in what we need to do on minimum days a week and also have because we juggle that on homeschooling.
Speaker 2:So this is such a brilliant opportunity to spend some immersive time not just maybe observing them while they're working, which is completely different to getting to know them on a more personal level. So I just remember having the best time last time and, yeah, so excited to spend time with people I already know and love, but also hearing more about the people who hold the weight of our business on their shoulders for us, which is I'm so grateful for.
Speaker 1:It's such a great way to end the year too. It's a real real send off and a real thank you, and so nice to do it in nature with our families as well. I don't remember any workplace I ever had that was. It was a family friendly interview thing, so it's really nice to be able to offer that as well. All right, let's end on a really high note and, you know, set our intentions for 2024. What's lighting your fire? What are your intentions for 2024?
Speaker 2:Vicky, personal and business, well yeah, it's so funny because I was like I'm really looking forward to next year because it's a huge travel focus for me, because this year I haven't traveled that much. But that's not entirely true. I have had some real good trips as well. They just haven't been long, massive trips. So for next year, my family and I are taking off for six weeks down to Tasmania taking a caravan and traveling around, which I'm so excited about.
Speaker 2:We actually started this trip we went in 2020 just for COVID hit and we had to race back and cut out our trip short for a family emergency. So we're really looking forward to going back and revisiting some of the places that we loved and then going to see the rest of it that we missed. And then we're also doing another massive trip to Northwest Island. So you may have heard our recap on that amazing group trip that we did last year, that Nikki and I did with a number of other of our homeschooling families. And then we may be going to Fiji and I'm just hoping to do some more local caravaning holidays, because it's so fun and we have so many beautiful spaces to go and explore. So I'm hoping to have a little bit more space to do that next year. How about you?
Speaker 1:Well, hilariously very similar to you, vicky, but we're tag teaming. So Vicky's going to Tessie first, and then there'll be a crossover of I think five or six days I can't remember and then my family will be going. So that'll be. I can't wait. I've never been to Tasmania, so I'm super excited to do that, and then also maybe Fiji, but that's still on the cards yet. I'm really looking forward to a couple of four or five day long camping trips locally as well, because I haven't I mean again, I was about to say I haven't done many trips this camping trip this year, but I did a five week road trip at the start of the year, and then I've done lots of.
Speaker 2:So we went to Hinch and Broke and we did all these amazing things.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it is I think it's it's marie how those mini trips close by feel really nourishing because they're easy and they're not far and it doesn't entail a lot of thought to go and do them.
Speaker 2:So I'm looking forward and we were doing them regularly, like two years ago we really were doing them regularly and on all of a sudden it I think it's just, you know, shifts in the in it how our weeks look, and so we used to not have as many home schooling activities when the kids are younger and now they're a little bit more interested in what they're doing. So it makes it a little bit difficult to to duck away children.
Speaker 1:I don't want to stay with their friends at these homeschool co-ops too, so it's harder to just be like, hey, we're going for an extra long weekend because they'll now let us Very clearly know that they want to not go on a Thursday or a Monday or which is why I'm also doing those trips together helps to fill everyone's cups too.
Speaker 2:So If we can get organized more with the families that we hang out with, that will definitely make things a lot easier. Yeah what about your work goals, nick? What? What are you excited to achieve?
Speaker 1:next, we sat down and we haven't actually done our huge usually actually this time of year we have done our 2024 planning and we haven't yet. So maybe that's why I'm feeling a little bit discombobulated, but I think we've kind of talked around it enough that we were like we really well, I really want to focus and I know that's don't want to speak for you, but we really want to focus on what we already do and do. Well, you know, for we it's a new business that we started six years ago and we've just been on growth and growth and new project and new project and big ideas and big ideas, and I think we've reached the time energetically. And you know our business is steady and people know who we are, that we can just Put our roots down and be like this is what we do, this is what we're good at, and I can't wait to just focus on telling the world more about what we do, rather than like we have been in creation mode for six years, but we have yeah.
Speaker 1:I did and created courses, podcast content, social media, like we have been on In creation for six years. So I can't actually wait to just move our focus to just letting people know about it. What about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a hundred percent my goal as well. I have always had a creative idea. You know you're sitting in the background that we've moved Forward with, and this is the first time where I'm like I'm actually just want people to know about what we've already created, Don't want to create something new. And then you know that that cycle for me is is ready to Switch gears for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I really want to work closely with early years and any other educators who are looking at setting up a bush kindy or any other outdoor program. But I guess my goal is to work closely with them to ensure that it's a sustainable program that's set up for the long haul, not just a point in time interest. That, yeah, it's got to be completely embedded, and so that's what I'm actually really looking forward to doing in 2024, because I think we've got everything that we need created in order to do that.
Speaker 1:That's the forest school skills course, isn't it? Like that's what we're both super excited to see, because, I mean, we started doing this in its earliest form as the intro to bush kindy in 2018, so this is like the end result of all the work in all the years. I just can't wait for it to be in everybody's hot little hands and for the children to really benefit from it. I'm so excited by it.
Speaker 2:I really am as well, and every time I think of anything else I'm like nope. Every time, the only thing that makes me just feel like it's a FS is diving further into getting this out into the world.
Speaker 1:Just on that I also want to mention, I think one of the reasons that we're feeling that way is when you look back on our yearly business planner, our dream or our vision board for our business. Every year we've actually achieved all of the things that we really wanted to, and there are a couple of ideas that were like maybe one day that over the years, we've been like you know what?
Speaker 1:that's not a FS, so let's get rid of it. But everything we've set out to do for this business we've created now. So that's amazing, but really that should be our 2024 achievement, 2023 achievement. Sorry, we've done all those things that we envisioned from the start. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think the thing that really lights me up is just working more with people to do that to do what we achieved, so that is very exciting for 2024. We'd love to hear about what your goals are or what you're looking forward to for the coming year. You can share it with us on our socials. We absolutely love to. I just get. I get joy, so much joy, out of seeing people just living a very intentional, joyful life, so you could absolutely make my day by sharing that with us.
Speaker 1:May your 2023 festive season be restful and peaceful, filled with love and so many adventures in nature, and, until next year, stay warm.