Have you noticed that ST has pivoted quite a distance from its original direction? – Startup & Innovation Tablelands

For that matter, have you noticed that the entrepreneurial and innovation world just love jargon? A pivot in that world is a simple change of direction to the rest of us….

Where did we start?

8 years ago the idea sprang to life that there could be such a thing as an entrepreneurial hub in a small rural community. In 2015 we delivered our first Startup Weekend Tablelands event. We even set a world record! (Should I divulge that we had the most elderly group on a Startup Weekend in the whole world? I think our average age for that wildly successful weekend was in the forties. Other parts of the world had average participant ages in their 20’s…. We didn’t have less fun or learn less because of it!)

We were keen to learn more about Lean Business Methodology ourselves, keen to encourage other Tablelanders to dream big about whatever business they were dying to start or branch into, thrilled to have a largely green acre site to cultivate.

Time went on and success after success hit our website, culminating in 4 years of bringing an international agricultural pitch competition to FNQ of the kind that usually only happens in metro areas. We said goodbye to the official Australian branch of the Future Agro Challenge (global leader in driving ag innovation)—just before COVID. How clever were we! And, no, we neither caused nor predicted that vagrant of a virus.

But well before the lockdown low moods began to hit our big smoke brethren, we saw that the real need that was unfulfilled in entrepreneurial circles was neither a lack of skills nor a lack of government (and not to forget do-gooder agencies like us) to cover the need for upgrades in business education.

What did we conclude?

We were collectively very keen on self-development in a deeper sense than just wanting to be better at business. And we felt the cruel lack of progress that we were sometimes making to manage a whole list of desirables:

It’s a long list. But I haven’t fooled you. Nor have any of us been fooled into thinking that life is less stressy than it used to be; or that we don’t have more intractable and unique issues than previous generations had ever faced (tech, tech and ubiquitous tech; stagnant wages but not prices; global competition, time pressures, competitive pressures, endless paperwork and etc). The list is long because stress has become a more pressing problem than education in new business processes.

So we snuck into providing de-stress programs. Not qualified as therapists, we had to offer them in terms of skills for improving business. De-stressing, in fact, does qualify as a critical area not just for business but also for navigating life in general.

We offered Tablelands Business Summits, conference presentations, series like Connection with Direction, masterminds, and individual events which focussed, without admitting it out loud, on mental health, wellbeing, creativity, communication and harmony/flow amongst teams:

We found this pivot to be deeply satisfying. At the time it seemed an odd direction to pivot towards as most entrepreneurial hubs were still in denial about offering more holistic support rather than entirely focussing on business skill acquisition—and using excessive amounts of red bull plus competitiveness to accomplish those limited goals!

Then came COVID. And VOILA! The camel’s proverbial back broke and we all looked at each other and scratched our heads saying, “ How the heck are we going to add lockdowns, masks, vaccines, conspiracy theories, epistemological emptiness, loneliness, deprivation, loss of income and more to our already over-stressed lives. Turned out, we generally needed emotional support more than we had even realised.

And whilst many of us thought we had gotten off lightly with our COVID successes as a nation, that turned out to be a more ephemeral gift than many were counting on.

Thus ST still considers the development of the whole person, not just the business person, to be our calling. And the immediate need to be finding ways to de-stress from the inside out.

Yes, we intend to continue in this holistic enterprise of helping create businesses that are more humane and lives filled with less stress to leave space for more beautiful characteristics.

The ST Drivers (and, yes, you can become one! Low barrier to entry!) have succeeded at scoring a third year of hub funding from Advance Queensland. We have an ambitious (but not stressfully ambitious!) set of events to deliver in that funding round to the end of 2021. If you resonate with this pivot, please let us know. We have the beginnings of a Tablelands tribe which is surprisingly connected to other tribes of entrepreneurs who take seriously the commandment to de-stress (rather than distress!) ourselves and our tribe/s!

Looking forward to hearing from the like-minded. And keen to carry on with the programs which have given us the most satisfaction, personally and professionally.