Episode 29 – Brett Shuttleworth

Our guest this episode is Brett Shuttleworth from Community Centres SA (previously at Technodrome Digital).

He chats with Simone about financial literacy, delivery of training services and his involvement with lot 14 on the side of the RAH.

Special guest: Brett Shuttleworth

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-shuttleworth/

Check out our page for updates and teasers about upcoming episodes, links, and details about Simone’s best-selling books.

https://digitalmarketingaok.com.au/podcast 

Hosted by Simone Douglas

Videography by Marie Carbone

Audio by Chris Irving

Music used in this episode is “Alte Herren” by KieLoKaz, used with permission under a Creative Commons Licence

This production is protected by a creative commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

Chris Irving  0:00  

Welcome to the seriously social podcast with your host, Simone Douglas. Our guest today is Brett Shuttleworth from Technodrome digital. He chats with Simone about financial literacy, the delivery of training services and his involvement with lot 14 on the site of the old Rh.

Simone Douglas  0:19  

Okay, so today on our seriously social podcast, I am joined by Brett Shuttleworth from Technodrome. Brett, thanks for coming along today. 

Brett Shuttleworth  0:27  

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. 

Simone Douglas  0:28  

My pleasure. Maybe let’s just start with the cliff notes version as to how you find yourself here today and what you’re all about. 

Brett Shuttleworth  0:35  

Sure. This is my fourth state now I call Adelaide home. I’ve enjoyed living in Victoria, or far north Queensland and New South Wales. And, you know, I really love the idea of working from home. And for me, the more that I get to do and the more that the world changes, the more I get to do work from home and work for clients across Australia. 

Simone Douglas  0:57  

So So what kind of clients? Do you work with 

Brett Shuttleworth  1:01  

RTO’s education organizations, universities, we help people out with things like security, and also I work with people to figure out how to train their staff better and work with this. 

Simone Douglas  1:13  

Awesome, have you found going through the pandemic? And everyone’s kind of completely re-creating themselves to a degree? 

Brett Shuttleworth  1:22  

Yeah, absolutely. 

Simone Douglas  1:24  

What have been the really big changes in the training world when it comes to training stuff, and that, that issue around you know, hybrid work from home and work from an office and things like that. 

Brett Shuttleworth  1:34  

I think I think one of the big things is they’re actually changing the training packages for helping people to present like tronic, Lee and digital and really bringing that tick, whereas a lot of the time, they would push people to just have things done in person only or, you know, be able to, to work with people. So their assessment is only done in the workplace. But of course, if you divide parts of the task out, you can do some at the workplace some electronically, so it’s about helping people to understand, you know, learning management systems and things like 

Simone Douglas  1:37  

yeah, so I think it’s, um, it can be challenging. I know, as a trainer myself, I don’t enjoy delivering virtually no, because it’s quite draining. So what are some of the things you know, that people can put in place that perhaps allow them to maintain connection and engagement as a trainer? 

Brett Shuttleworth  2:28  

Well, one of the best things is forums. 

Simone Douglas  2:30  

Okay, yeah, 

Brett Shuttleworth  2:31  

being able to communicate, it’s still a form of chatting a form of communication, people love to text and get that response back and be part of a thread. And so that usually is a great way of being able to connect, and of course, scenario based situations where you give people that two way opportunity. So taking the synchronistic approach to including things like Adobe Connect tech and things. 

Simone Douglas  2:55  

So I don’t know anything about Adobe Connect tech. So these are a novice version of what that can do. 

Brett Shuttleworth  3:01  

You know, zoom?

Simone Douglas  3:02  

Yeah. 

Brett Shuttleworth  3:03  

Slight zoom. 

Simone Douglas  3:04  

Okay. 

It’s just like, sir, it’s just a little bit more secure in some parts, but it’s it’s usually inside our learning system. 

Okay. 

Brett Shuttleworth  3:13  

Yeah. 

Simone Douglas  3:13  

Which is pretty standard in RTO. World. 

Brett Shuttleworth  3:16  

Yeah, absolutely. A lot of people use accelerate Moodle. Yeah, sort of things to be able to support their students. 

Simone Douglas  3:23  

What What do you think the big challenges are for the registered training industry in the next, you know, like 12 months around those hybrid methods of delivery and evolving training packages?

Brett Shuttleworth  3:36  

Building new relationships. Neil, please get this from your back. building new relationships with those students? So how do you build a relationship with someone who, you know, previously, if you’re bringing them online from an environment that was physical? It’s doable? Because you have that report? But then how do you create that new report? with that? There’s some new tech coming out, that allows those sort of things, but still, they’re developing the real challenge is the two way communication. So everything is one to one. 

Simone Douglas  4:09  

Yeah, 

Brett Shuttleworth  4:09  

not one too many. Okay, so how do you get many to many relationships? So if you and I were having a conversation with a third person, and we were breaking away, how do we then have individual conversations while still being in the same? 

Simone Douglas  4:23  

It’s very hard? Yeah.

Brett Shuttleworth  4:25  

And that’s one of the challenges I think that whoever comes up next will be a millionaire. billionaire. It’s a huge, huge challenge. 

Simone Douglas  4:34  

Yeah. What are the most exciting things you know, as a business that you’re working on and in in the space?

Brett Shuttleworth  4:41  

 I’m fortunate to work with radio Adelaide at the moment, which is really exciting. They’re doing some good things. It’s going to be a real great next 12 months for radio Adelaide. Like any organisation as an NFP, they had a challenging 2020 and then artists and how do you work with them with people to sort of move into a digital space, and they did a really great job at moving almost all of their radio production, digitally. That’s amazing. Huge. I mean, you couldn’t probably drag some people in there. Yeah, 10 years ago. But now people are just wanting to be part of it. Yeah, that’s a really good thing. 

Simone Douglas  5:22  

Well, it’s interesting because the pandemic definitely forced me to embrace technology on a whole different level. So I’d had things on my wish list. For you know, years, I’ll one day I’ll do a podcast one day, I’ll start interviewing all of the interesting people that I know, and so when that all happened, I ordered, you know, like a really basic key did some googling and stuff. And I didn’t unpack it for two weeks, like I looked at the boxes, and I was that scared of the tech. I don’t want to touch it and then funnily enough, Chris, my lovely sound engineer, who also happens to work in the hotel was walking past. He goes, if you’ve got a Blue Yeti, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Oh, so you know what these things are? And he’s like, yeah, I’m like, would you like to unbox them? For me, he’s like, really, you don’t want to open the box, I’m like, nope, won’t open the box. But if you’d like to set it up, and show me how to push the buttons, that would be fantastic.

Brett Shuttleworth  6:18  

 You’ve got all those people that have been for years, working with tech or enjoying them. And I think it’s a great opportunity for people to find a new passion. Yeah. And some people, they can just like I said to you, I really do get to enjoy doing what I love. And that makes a difference, right? 

Simone Douglas  6:34  

So what are the exciting things coming up for radio Adelaide, as it evolves? What are you excited about? 

Brett Shuttleworth  6:42  

We’re hiring eight staff was great. Not all of those full time, but it’s one of those. In this next period, I think there’s going to be a real opportunity for people to sort of take that traditional radio that people because a lot of people don’t necessarily listen to radio anymore. And they don’t always get their broadcasting ready to get them from podcasts like that. So it’s about looking at how do those entities change the way they deliver and the way they engage? But ultimately, it’s about how do we engage the listener better? And, and, of course, being a training centric organization. It’s really about improving that overall standard, and that overall output for people in, in the radio, you know, in the media industry, but also in the radio sector, as well. 

Simone Douglas  7:32  

Yeah, I think that’s a really big challenge for those people that are not even just in radio. But if you’re looking at starting your own podcast, is the whole marketing piece that goes by, that can be quite a lot of people go, I just do a podcast, and you come up with a good name. And you put it on Apple podcasts and Spotify and Stitcher and all those things.

Brett Shuttleworth  7:55  

 But then you got to do all of them individually. 

Simone Douglas  7:56  

Yeah, 

Brett Shuttleworth  7:57  

this one and this one, being able to distribute that is important body of people go, Oh, I just sit there and they don’t do I need a sound technician like yeah, Chris, you know, do you need all these people involved and engaged in what you do as well? 

Simone Douglas  8:11  

Yeah. And I find it some, it’s easier if you have help costs. So yeah, I often think that, you know, if I if I didn’t have three businesses, and a host of people that could help me to do things, I would go and find some friends and go, alright, let’s all do separate podcasts or podcast together. And, you know, split the difference. 

Brett Shuttleworth  8:34  

One of the fortunate things when I started a podcast in 2017, was it was really I was fortunate. I had a brother who, well, I have a brother, I had a I have a brother, who at the time was helping me out with the sound. And it really made a difference. But then when I went to go do some of those activities on my own, I went, well, I really do appreciate my brother, it’s, you know, he he did so much of that back end aspects that that was there that I hadn’t looked at. And I think that, like you said, even if you wanted to go down that path of starting a podcast, I think it’s an opportunity that maybe you grab a couple of friends Yeah. And you help maybe someone points the camera over someone helps you out with something else and and build on those skills themselves as well. 

Simone Douglas  9:14  

What is the most exciting part of being back in Adelaide on a permanent basis? 

Brett Shuttleworth  9:22  

For me, I think a lot 14 is a real epicenter of what’s coming. Absolutely. And I think that Adelaide as a whole is got so many things during this last 12 months, I think while everybody’s taking a break. I think we’re running rings around the rest of the of Australia. 

Simone Douglas  9:41  

Yeah, I’d agree with you. I’m not I find to all the business owners that I talked to have as much as I hate the term hustle, but then hustled hard for the first quarter, first quarter is coming to an end or has come to an end. And every business owner I talked to has looked at every single opportunity that’s presented. So a turn of every story, they’re all really looking forward to the Easter break,

Brett Shuttleworth  10:05  

as well are. But but I think it’s a real opportunity that perhaps that hungriness was not, not there for. You didn’t have to be you could be a little bit apathetic when times are good, yeah. But it’s usually when times are tough, though. It builds character. Yeah. 

Simone Douglas  10:21  

So what advice would you give to someone who has perhaps been a little bit apathetic and doesn’t know where to start in terms of building those networks and getting out there?

Brett Shuttleworth  10:33  

One of the easiest ways is to, to start with the whole concept of listening to the podcast, listening to people that you like you enjoy, and then connecting with them. I think that’s one of the a, an important part. But more importantly, if you can put yourself out there. I think, in South Australia, you can get out there and meet people physically, there’s nothing that replaces replaces that. But I think do it on passion. So if you find something that particularly likes you when you really love WordPress, and that’s where you want to go and meet someone, then you should meet them doing that activity. Yeah, you really enjoy cooking, go and meet them doing cooking. Yeah, because those relationships are going to last longer than if you try to sell some something to someone when you walk up to somewhere. 

Simone Douglas  11:19  

Yeah, that totally makes sense. I was having a conversation with some of my BNI members. Last night at round table dinner, and I said to them, I said the trick is, work out what people love to do when they’re not at work. And then find common ground and then find a way that you can go do that together. And that is building relationships, rather than selling to people. And when you have those relationships in the bank, when you need help, you can ask,

Brett Shuttleworth  11:45  

and I think they take time to build. I think everybody wants everything quite quickly and the biggest thing is this time round, build a war chest, make sure you’ve got funds on the side. For those tough days. Financial literacy is a is an important part. And I really love to see that built more. 

Simone Douglas  12:05  

I’d love to see some more. What’s said, I guess training for startup businesses around financial literacy, because I know for myself, so having three businesses now I’ve gone through the pain of startup a couple of times, and the first time around, there was no advice out there about you one looks really good because on paper, you didn’t make any money. And then you to your account is going to send you a massive tax bill at the end of the year, if you haven’t had conversations with them about how much money am I making? How much money am I about to need to pay to the government? And then, you know, the double whammy of when you go on to quarterly IAS statements and things on top of that. It’s just yeah, we don’t we talk a lot about the glorification of lots of aspects of business. 

Brett Shuttleworth  12:53  

Yeah, look, everybody because everybody thinks, well, a lot of people do think that it’s you know, you’ve got to go around saying today was great today was great businesses, fantastic. I’m doing really great, excetera, etc. But some days and weeks aren’t always great.

Simone Douglas  13:08  

In fact, I’ve very much built a blanket for last week and didn’t want to speak to anybody.

Brett Shuttleworth  13:12  

Exactly. We had weeks like that. And that’s okay, that’s okay. 

Simone Douglas  13:15  

Yeah. 

Brett Shuttleworth  13:15  

But it’s also then about taking that responsibility and looking at what do I need to know what’s still missing in my business that I need to grasp. And then you know, there are so many places where you can learn, you can find trainers, you can work with people to bring out those skills and do online training or work with people on those skills. 

Simone Douglas  13:34  

I think too, I love Adelaide, such a networking town, that you can literally just go out and say to someone that you connect to on LinkedIn, it’s great to be connected. I’d really love to have coffee and learn more about who you are and what you’re about. And nine times out of 10 that person goes yeah, cool. So long as you’re not selling to them.

Brett Shuttleworth  13:55  

Yeah. Yeah, I’m I think that a lot of people who live in Adelaide may not see how many opportunities really exist in Adelaide versus perhaps some of the other cities. The population slightly smaller. You can get around it quite quickly and so being able to connect is a lot easier in this town versus versus Sydney, maybe yesterday in Melbourne. 

Simone Douglas  14:19  

Yeah. So, on that note, that’s a really good way to finish. Thanks, Brett for joining me today on the couch and having a chat about all things interesting. You’ll find all of Brett’s links his LinkedIn profile and the like in the comments below so that you can reach out to him and learn more about what he does if you’re in the registered training space. Definitely the man to talk to if you’re trying to evolve your business, obviously, based on what you’ve told us today, Brett, thanks very much. 

Brett Shuttleworth  14:48  

Thank you for having me. 

Simone Douglas  14:49  

My pleasure.

Chris Irving  14:53  

We hope you enjoyed this episode of seriously social. Check our website for the latest news show notes and for details about Simone’s latest book, confident networker. You’ll find us at socialmediaaok.com.au/podcast.