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Jen Ashton
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Join Alasdair and Jen this wee as they dive into the skiing industry and the lessons passed on to students.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Outdoorsy Educator Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Outdoorsy Educator Podcast, the show where curiosity meets the open road. I'm your host Alistair and I invite you to join me as we explore the world through travel, nature, getting outside and the power of learning.
Stories of Learning Beyond Traditional Settings
00:00:17
Speaker
Each episode we will dive into stories from inspiring educators, adventurers and global citizens who are reshaping what it means to learn whether it's in a classroom, on a mountain trail, or even halfway across the world. From backpacking trips that change your perspective to educational journeys that transform communities, we will cover it all. So pack your curiosity, lace up your boots, and let's discover how the world teaches us.
00:00:44
Speaker
One step, one story, one adventure at a time.
Sponsor: Whole Earth Provision Company
00:00:56
Speaker
Since 1970, Whole Earth Provision Company has been the Texas outfitter for side quests, big and small. Whether you're gearing up for the open road, chasing a trailhead, or hunting for that just right gift, they have got you covered.
00:01:12
Speaker
Think durable clothing, shoes that will actually go the distance, gear that's road trip ready, and books, puzzles, and toys that will spark wonder at every age.
00:01:23
Speaker
You'll find Whole Earth in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, or anytime online at wholeearthprovision.com. And hey, because you're rolling with the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, here's a little extra love.
00:01:37
Speaker
Use the code OUTDOORSYEDU for 20% off your next adventure at Whole Earth.
Jen Ashton's Background and Passion
00:01:50
Speaker
Okay, and this week on the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, we have Jen Ashton with us. Jen, how are you today?
00:01:59
Speaker
I am very well, thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Oh, it's an absolute pleasure. We've connected through a mutual friend that I made through a podcasting group who said you would be a wonderful person to to share your wisdom, as he said, on the air. So super, super excited to have you on. Why don't you tell the audience just a little bit about yourself and who you are?
00:02:22
Speaker
Sure. So um I'm an Australian. I grew up in Australia. um I was there for 25 years and then moved over to the UK. um Now that I'm here, i'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I own my own business, which is predominantly focused on ski retail. so ski boot fitting and, you know, getting people out in the mountain. um And I also am a teacher part time. So a PE and science teacher. so getting kids out and active and out into the great outdoors.
00:02:52
Speaker
I love it. Before we get into the outdoorsy stuff, I'd like to hear a bit about the teaching in the yeah UK. Were you a teacher in Australia or did you qualify there and then move over? No, i did I was a teacher in Australia and then I moved over here. um You know, teaching's teaching teaching. Right.
00:03:09
Speaker
the the The hard thing, no matter where you are, is winning kids over. And once you've won a kid over, no matter what their background, they will eat out of the palm of your hands. But you've got to you've got to win them over. and and And figuring out how to win them over, that's the challenge.
Challenges and Truths of Teaching Across Regions
00:03:23
Speaker
um Some of the locations in the UK have been a little bit tougher than others.
00:03:28
Speaker
Right. And it's funny, I get asked a lot when I'm back home or speak to people back home in Glasgow, oh, teaching must be different there. It must be different. But there's kind of universal truths, like you said, is winning the children over.
00:03:40
Speaker
And what I've kind of the way I've always explained it is, you know, like everywhere where I teach, there's there's sort well off kids and there's kids who are struggling. Those issues are universal around the world.
00:03:52
Speaker
And it's all the same. It's all the same. You've just got to figure out how to connect with these kids and inspire them. and Yeah, at the end of the day, kids just want attention. They want to be loved. They want to feel valued, you know, just like the rest of us. And if you can figure out how to get that kid's attention and how to make them feel valued, then they will bend over backwards for you.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's absolutely it. I always try to tell them that, ah yeah, you give me 100% that I'm going to give you 100%. And um it's it's been the most rewarding career i could possibly imagine. It's been absolutely wonderful.
00:04:32
Speaker
um So are you in London or whereabouts are you based? Oh, good.
00:04:40
Speaker
Oh, we may have lost you for just a second. Can you can you hear me okay? Okay. Yep, I can hear Great, there we go. Yep, you're back. You're back on my end now. Yeah, so you in London or whereabouts are you based?
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm London. I'm zone two central. ah Living on top of people, pretty much. Right. I used to love that, and I still like I live in ah and ah in a ah lovely city that we've got good friends and things, but the older I get, the more it's like, how far out into the countryside can I get?
00:05:16
Speaker
i think yeah um I think that's the same with everyone. Especially growing up in the outdoors, you want the space. So as you get a little bit older, you definitely crave some space. Right. Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:27
Speaker
And if you want busy enough teaching, you you've got a side, but is a side business? Is that a fair enough thing
Jen's Ski Retail Business
00:05:33
Speaker
to say? I'm not sure if that sounds detrimental or not. Now that I've said it out loud, you have a business.
00:05:38
Speaker
I have a business. It's a bit of a side hustle. um So i said I set up the business, unfortunately, just before COVID, which was pretty typical, pretty poor timing.
00:05:50
Speaker
um But the business is based around, so i I had a break from teaching when I moved to the UK and ah worked in outdoor retail. um And the business is based around a similar structure. So um selling ski equipment more than anything else to customers um But the difference with my model is that I actually go to the customer rather than the customer go to the store. So, ah yeah, it's it's quite a high end, you know, service focused business, which is a bit different to standard retail.
00:06:21
Speaker
Now, you know, if when I think of skiing, I don't initially think of the south of England. So are your customers going north up to Scotland? Are they kind of going to the Alps and and that kind of or where where are they going?
00:06:33
Speaker
Most of them head off to the Alps. So most of them in France and Italy, um Europe, basically, there is the odd one that goes up to Scotland, but I think for the majority people that go up to Scotland, they're not far from Scotland already. and And actually London is not that close to Scotland. So right yeah, main mainly Europe is my customer base, but there is a big following of skiers in the UK. So even though there's nothing around here in London, um a lot of people go out skiing every every winter.
00:07:01
Speaker
That's really interesting. And, they get you know, i've I've noticed you've got, you know, Canada on the hoodie. There's got to be probably some people who are heading over to this side of the Atlantic as well, I'd imagine, that a lot further afield, of course.
00:07:13
Speaker
Definitely. Definitely. i mean I mean, the the thing with with a lot of skis as well is that... um You know, they're not so affected by what's happening with the global economy. Most of them have got that, that bit of spare spare income. Um, so, you know, when, when the purse strings get tired of a lot of us and we rein in things like our holidays to Canada, America, Europe, whatever it is that actually the skiers keep on skiing.
00:07:38
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I kind of get that impression about skiing. It's not something I'm well versed in at all. I skied, I think, for three or four days on a dry slope in Glasgow as a teenager.
00:07:48
Speaker
That was it. It's the only place I've ever fractured a bone, I must say. That was a short-lived career. It was. I was done and dusted, although I'll drop this story. and so It wasn't actually the skiing.
00:08:00
Speaker
I was at the bottom of the slope, and slope is a generous term. I was at the bottom of this little hill, taking my skis off, and somebody crashed into me and skied over my hand. so it's Sometimes that's the worst ones when someone else is doing it.
00:08:13
Speaker
It's not even a cool story that I was going super fast and flew off a cliff or anything. Somebody skied over my hand. But that that was the career lasted about three days. um But that's the story.
00:08:25
Speaker
So what is the business
The Ski Boot Fitting Process
00:08:27
Speaker
model? You've got, I'm assuming, some kind of, not a car, but a van, something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a van set up. So it's, it's, um, so, so ski boot fitting in particular is quite, quite niche. It's, you know, it's not like you pick up a pair of trainers and you, and they fit kind of thing. It's, they're a lump of plastic and your foot obviously doesn't fit in a lump of plastic.
00:08:47
Speaker
Um, so in the back of the van is a workshop with, um, you know, everything that I need to be able to modify and fit ski boots properly. So a footbed machine, grinder, boot press, you know, all that sort of stuff. So, um, yeah,
00:09:02
Speaker
be pretty useless to anyone else having driving the van around and using it but for me it's you know it's quite a neat little setup and i can get plenty stuff in there and and yeah so it's the usp is really going to the customer and um you know lot of my customers have got young kids or know busy careers or whatever else so actually take that time away where they have to otherwise treks 45 minutes in to find it find a store um yeah it just takes the hassle out for them Yeah, and I'd imagine it's 45 minutes to get there, but then it's it's probably at least an afternoon by the time you've waited to be helped and this and that. And it's it's never as easy as you'd think. So that the going to them must save them actually lot of time, would imagine.
00:09:45
Speaker
I think the other big thing as well is is what I learned from my previous, you know, retail experience. By the time I left them, they had taken out a lot of a lot of our staffing budgets essentially. So we didn't have the manpower to be able to serve the customers that were coming in the door.
00:09:59
Speaker
So this is the the total flip of that. Whereas my last retailer that I worked for, I was... ski boot fitting five or six people at a time this is one-to-one dedicated two hours in front of their face you know we i don't leave until we're done kind of thing so very different it's it's not a it's not a volume pump out it's a it's a stop and slow down and get it right and and that's that's the big difference in the business Perfect. And I'm going to have lots of questions because it's a world I don't really know.
00:10:26
Speaker
Do you have like a rack of boots there or is it the kind of thing that they fitted? You know the size, they know the style, the type, and then you you'll ship it to them. No, so so there's there's definitely ah quite a lot of fishing to go about it. So um I have, I start my season with a stock holding of boots um relative to what I've sold the the year before kind of thing.
00:10:47
Speaker
um and Then if you were calling up and saying, I need some ski boots, I get a ah whole stack of information off you first. So what your normal shoe size is, you know, what past experience you've had with ski boots.
00:10:59
Speaker
um What does ah a perfect day skiing look like for you? um a whole stack of information, which then guides me into what it is that that I need to bring. The big one that's actually really useful is I send you some instructions to measure your feet up.
00:11:11
Speaker
So ah right rough measurements and those rough measurements actually mean, you know in an ideal world, i could probably i you know if you came into a shop and I measured you up properly, two or three boots is all we need to try to find like try try on to find what fits.
00:11:26
Speaker
right This means I bring 10 to 12 to an appointment, then we go through the process together. and then once we've gone through the the fitting you know the the measuring process, I can then narrow down to two or three sets of boots, but I've i've got to have that.
00:11:40
Speaker
I've got to have that balance beforehand because otherwise it you know otherwise I risk not getting to right. And there's no point spending me spending hour in the car to get there for it not to be right in the first place. And is there different types of ski boot?
00:11:53
Speaker
is is that Does that question make sense? and That question absolutely makes sense from a lot of perspectives. So there's there's quite a lot to take into consideration when you're fitting a ski boot for someone. um You have to take in... The the big one is their skiing ability. So my perfect day is very different to your perfect day.
00:12:10
Speaker
um But also then... um Any injuries they have to, you know, lower legs, ankles, that sort of stuff affects their boots. um ah Things like how long their levers are. So I'm, you know, I'm six foot one and and I have long legs.
00:12:25
Speaker
Therefore, my boot is going to be different to someone who's five foot five and has very short legs, even though we might be exactly the same in our ski ability. So there are a lot of things just within, you know, normal downhill skiing you've got to take into account and then and then you've got to take into account, are they going, you know, touring?
00:12:43
Speaker
ah they Do they want something of the best of both worlds? You know, all that sort of stuff. So there's there's there's a fair bit tick off. It's not a straightforward in and out in 20 minutes kind of thing. Interesting. And then, ah so you're um obviously skiing is a passion of yours.
00:12:57
Speaker
eight It's not what I necessarily think of when I think of outdoors activities in Australia, which is probably, again, a stereotype you're going to blow at the water. I think of, you know, the outback and line hiking and surfing and this and that.
00:13:12
Speaker
But tell me about the skiing in Australia. um I'm going to say you're correct. So i grew up surfing in Australia. We were very fortunate to have a house not far from the beach when I grew up.
00:13:24
Speaker
um And I didn't actually even see snow until I was in my early in Australia, but I saw snow. um So I went from surfing to snowboarding. um And then...
00:13:35
Speaker
you know, kind of got lured into, lured into snowboarding by an older brother of mine. Um, and then chased a season, moved over to, moved to Europe, went to France and did a season snowboarding.
00:13:48
Speaker
Um, but then actually injury sports injuries in my foot has meant that I've actually had to go from, I've i've had my foot reconstructed and I've actually had to go from, um, snowboarding to skiing. So,
00:14:01
Speaker
you're absolutely right there there are places you can ski in australia it wouldn't be somewhere you know it wouldn't be the top of my list to go you know if i was in that part
Transition from Surfing to Skiing
00:14:08
Speaker
of the world wanting to go skiing i'd be going to new zealand um don't tell the kiwis that right uh but you definitely can you know but if you they pushed it you could go surfing in the morning and and skiing or snowboarding in the afternoon and in some locations so it'd be a long day but you could you could definitely do it could be done that's Interesting.
00:14:27
Speaker
I think that's a bit like it over here in the States in the Pacific Northwest. People will go surfing near Seattle, Portland, up to Vancouver in British Columbia.
00:14:37
Speaker
They can surf in the morning and then just go to Whistler and places like that in the afternoon. Yeah, the the mountains in Australia are not quite Whistler though, so I'm not that hard pressed to do the drive in between, but um it would be definitely something if you really wanted to tick something off and and and do it in a weekend, then you absolutely could. But yeah, having experienced skiing and snowboarding now in Europe, you know, Australia down the list a little bit. little bit. down Now, where in Australia did you grow up? Whereabouts? grew I grew up in Melbourne, so Melbourne very much has the four seasons, you know, very distinct summer, winter, um you know, each end of the scale, hot and then cold. that So i've I've never been, but being ate a Brit and then also here, I know a lot of people that are from there have been there, this, that, the other.
00:15:26
Speaker
I got to tell you, everyone thinks of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, that kind of thing, the Opera House. People love Melbourne. Like it's not uncommon for people to come back and say that was the second stop.
00:15:37
Speaker
Next time it will be the first stop. Yeah. now Melbourne's Melbourne, I guess on two fronts. um Melbourne is for the for the people that live there. You know, i think if you're visiting, you always have to know someone in Melbourne to to kind of know where to go.
00:15:52
Speaker
it's not got the glitz of the Opera House and the be the bridge and Bondi and Manly and that sort of stuff. But Melbourne is, there's a massive coffee culture in Melbourne, some really funky little places to go out and get breakfast and coffees and all the rest of it.
00:16:05
Speaker
And a massive sports scene as well in terms of, you know, pretty much every big global sport stops in Melbourne and and and has has an event there at some point during the year. So on two fronts, it it makes it very unique.
00:16:16
Speaker
That was a friend of mine who's American, born and raised, but found um Aussie rules in the middle of the night on an obscured sports channel, fell in love with it.
00:16:27
Speaker
And the he he's now moved. But he played, that there was a team in Dallas, would you believe, and several teams dotted around Texas, because they're all huge. There's so many huge cities. There's an expat population, enough to carry an amateur league.
00:16:40
Speaker
And that's what he went to Melbourne to watch Aussie rules. He was like, this is where I need to go. There is an American playing top level AFL at the moment, a guy called Mason Cox. I don't know.
00:16:51
Speaker
think he's not far from, from you know, grew up not far from where you guys are at the moment. But, i yeah, he's been he's been pretty successful with it. he's he's a giant He's about six foot nine or six foot ten or something.
00:17:03
Speaker
um And he he grew up with the basketball background. And there's quite a few people who've successfully done the basketball into Aussie rules. Switch. That's what I think it probably goes along over the last generation, the world getting smaller.
00:17:17
Speaker
There's more and more Australians and people from other places like in the NFL. You know, they're kickers, things that may have been rugby or Aussie rules. Maybe they didn't quite make it or maybe they came to uni over here and found I can use my skills in this.
00:17:34
Speaker
um yeah So it's perhaps it's a similar thing with somebody um going the other direction. I think with sport now as well, it is, it's, it's, there's much more science behind it. If you have the right genetics or the right fitness, you know, fitness components and strengths that actually, that is a very interchangeable, so interchangeable um skill to have, you know, you can, you can refine something and teach something, but what you can't teach is athleticism or power or speed or, and if you can take that and convert it and then learn the skill that's required to to master the game, there's there's no reason why you can't succeed anymore.
00:18:10
Speaker
Exactly. I was ah a side tangent watching a documentary about a chap called Patrick Mahomes, who's one of the big quarterbacks in the NFL, and the science behind it. Like, you know, I understand, obviously, you need to be fit, and certain people have certain limitations.
00:18:26
Speaker
But going down to, like, his bone structure and the degrees which he can swivel his hips and things, like, it just goes to a level I didn't appreciate. Oh, it's incredible. And that's why like and even things like swimmers to to runners, you think about when you watch Olympic level swimming and Olympic level sprinting, sprinters are typically ah typically black, um of some sort of black origin, and swimmers are typically white or of some sort of, you know, white origin.
00:18:55
Speaker
And the reason they say ah a lot of the reasons being is that the tilt of the pelvis is different in a white, ah genetically a white person versus genetically a black person, which means typically the black excel at athletics while the white excel at swimming, which is why there and there are the odd crossovers, but there's not a so massive amounts crossovers.
00:19:16
Speaker
Well, yeah, if you look at, I'm sure you've seen these kind of, it's almost like a heat map of the fastest hundred people on the planet. It's very concentrated in certain areas in the globe. Yeah, so to me that's, have you found that in skiing at all, that people from certain places, or is there a certain natural build that excels in skiing? Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
I think unfortunately for skiing, you know there's a lot of money behind it. So, know, where, where anyone can pick up, pick up a pair of trainers or go barefoot and run or get in a pool and swim.
00:19:53
Speaker
The money needed behind so um behind skiing sometimes i think I think prevents a lot of kids that would could be good at it from actually being able to do it because, the you know, family circumstance or personal circumstance means they can't get themselves into it.
00:20:09
Speaker
um But there are definitely, you know, you've you've got to have power, you know, you've got to have coordination depending on what what the sport, what exactly, what discipline it is that you're doing. So, um you know, money aside, yes, you you know, the same as any sport. I think you could probably have the the ideal athlete if you were.
Making Skiing Accessible
00:20:27
Speaker
Right.
00:20:27
Speaker
and So I imagine this might be something that you know you think about at three o'clock in the morning if you can't sleep. How do you make skiing more accessible or ah you know open the door to somebody who perhaps doesn't come from a family that skiing is on the radar? is that It seems like a very big ah gap that you have to try and bridge. Is it possible? Are there people doing that out there?
00:20:50
Speaker
There's definitely people. I mean, I can't talk about the rest of the world because I don't know what's going on in the of the world. But in the UK, there are definitely organisations that are trying to open it up to to those that don't necessarily have, um you know, the means to do it otherwise. um There's a few charity organisations that are definitely trying to get school kids into a disability, kids with disability or families with disabilities into actually being able to have to have a go at it as well. So it is there.
00:21:19
Speaker
how well known it is, you know, outside of the the ski industry is questionable, but there's the you know, i think, I think for a lot of circumstances, the world is becoming much more forgiving in terms of being able to give people an opportunity where they might otherwise not get the opportunity. So, you know, and i know, for example, the BBC over here has talked about these opportunities for kids with, with, you know, not the financial backing to be able to do it, to get involved in stuff like that. So there is a bit of publicity behind it now.
00:21:50
Speaker
I was just thinking, is there, you know I think of skiing in the UK. Like said, think up every more, you know, going up in the north of Scotland. In like Snowdonia, in Wales, is there a skiing culture there or is it not quite... There may well not be.
00:22:04
Speaker
No, I think, again, I think Wales is wet. Wales doesn't get the cold. That's true, true. It gets more water than anything else. So I think Wales is probably bit like England and most of them would actually end up heading over to the Alps. So...
00:22:16
Speaker
say um Yeah, I think they're too wet and not and not white enough. Yeah, I should have done this before we recorded. One of my brother's in-law is a big skier, and he took a sort sabbatical, I think it was about a year ago, and basically he drove up to southern Colorado, the southern bit the Rockies, and skied, I think it was 50 days in a row, and he went up to Idaho on the Canadian border, just skiing, skiing, skiing.
00:22:44
Speaker
um It may not have been 50 in a row, but I think that was the ah the beginning goal. And then said, well, i'll have to have some travel days and things in between. But um I'd be interested to see over this side of the Atlantic how accessible skiing is or is not.
00:22:59
Speaker
Because you're right, you can't go and just buy a football and, like, you you know, it's equipment. It's... Yeah. and And even the thing with buying a football or whatever, you know, chances are that if we're going to go have a kick of a football, you've got a football and I can just borrow your football anyway. Whereas, you know, its skiing doesn't work in that way. so um yeah, are definitely avenues that are making it more accessible, which is good. But, you know, the more you can get anyone active, whatever the sport is, the the better off the better off the world is, i think.
00:23:28
Speaker
absolutely then what just yeah three or four months we've got the winter olympics coming up do do you expect does it kind of go is almost like a cycle where things happen or is the ski your people are into skiing are just in it regardless there's definitely within the industry there's definitely a bit of a buzz when it's a winter olympics year there's definitely more of a you know, you pick up the couch potatoes sometimes with with the with the coverage going on. So you get, you definitely get a little bit of an uptick when it's a winter winter to Olympics year um with trade. Yeah, I could see.
00:24:02
Speaker
I love the Olympics, summer and winter, just because of what it is. But I really love the Winter Olympics. There's something about it that I particularly enjoy. Just something different too. I think from my background as well as an Aussie, you know, we didn't grow up with snow really.
00:24:17
Speaker
so actually it's just totally different. It's just... and they're crazy some of them are i mean same as the olympics though but some of them are crazy oh i i feel like going down hills on skis is a different level at the speed i don't know the speed they go but man alive yeah hundred easy and this the ski jumping is the one that always gets me like who you know who the first time you do that must be what to in my head one of the most terrifying things but have you ever done that
00:24:48
Speaker
No, I haven't done it. I had a friend of mine, though, who who her kids ski jump and they ski jump quite successfully, I think now. um And she used to always say growing up, you know, when the kids were growing up, that she would never go and watch them sober.
00:25:02
Speaker
She should always take a hip class with her and sip whiskey while she's watching the kids go off and do their ski jumping. but Yeah, it just it's one of those sports, and there's other sports like this, but who came up with this idea?
00:25:14
Speaker
You know? Warn yourself up a hill and off you gave Yeah, somebody with a hip flask, I imagine, is the one who developed that this sport.
Business Challenges and Personal Priorities
00:25:23
Speaker
um But loving skiing and working in a ski shop is one thing, but starting your own business, I imagine you've had some tough times, some uncertainty, some self-doubt, like you said, right before COVID.
00:25:36
Speaker
What's kind of... pushed you through those tough times could you tell us about some of the difficulties i imagine any small business has when they start i I think i think if you if if owning a business was easy, everyone would do it. And I think that's something that's really stuck with me, that it is, it is you know, when you work for someone else, if you call in sick for whatever reason, you still get paid at the end of the day.
00:26:00
Speaker
When you work for yourself and you have to be in front of people all the time ah and you've got to call in sick, the only person that loses... well, besides the customer missing out on their booked appointment is you you know, owning a business is hard work, but, but the flip of that is my business now is just getting to the point where it's,
00:26:23
Speaker
doing all right for itself. right And that's the, you know, that's what the hard work is for. You, you sacrifice spending time with friends and families and nights out and all that sort of stuff to get to that point of just having that little bit of success and freedom and, um you know, everything else. So it's, it's hard work, but I think once you, you know,
00:26:48
Speaker
If you believe in yourself and you can kind of push it through and see it through, then, you know, it makes it really rewarding, I think, at the end of the day. Yeah, because I assume that you're sacrificing time because you're working when other people aren't.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, and it's amazing as a small business as well how some people, some customers are really good with, you know, appreciating your private time and, you know, business hours, all the rest of it. And ah other people are not so good. They see a mobile number attached to a business and they go, oh, well, it's a mobile number. They must have their mobile on them. And therefore I'll message it.
00:27:23
Speaker
You know, I've had people message me at three o'clock in the morning. You're like, dude, come on, this is, right you know, ah of for rest just as much as you are. So um the the really hard thing in opening a business and trying to get your name out there is where do you draw the line between what's acceptable because you're ah business and, you know, you draw a line and what's,
00:27:45
Speaker
what you need to do to get your name out there. And, you know, it's a very blurry line to start off with. and And what I've done in the last couple of years is draw very distinct, you know, if the business is shut, if it says I'm having one day out of seven off, then my day off is my day off now. I don't need to answer the phone. to you So um it's it's hard. COVID made it hard as well.
00:28:07
Speaker
um you know, we we lost three winters in a row. Brits weren't even allowed to travel, let alone, right you know, There was no ski sales. Nothing was happening. um But, yeah, you've just got to take the good with the bad so um and and hope that the good outweigh the bad.
00:28:24
Speaker
it It reminds me of my first couple of years teaching. I was a yes man. you know, if they wanted me to be on this committee, that committee, oh, can you volunteer at this fair on the weekend? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:28:35
Speaker
And then I had to kind of go, no, you know, my weekends, I don't mind sacrificing. Sometimes I'm sacrifice. I don't mind investing my time for the betterment of the school and the children.
00:28:46
Speaker
But I also have a family and myself that I need to protect myself. Yeah. And if if you can't, if you can't give a hundred percent of yourself because something's affecting you and you're not getting that time to shut off, then then nobody wins. So actually you're much better drawing the line and having the protection of, of your time is your time.
00:29:05
Speaker
And then giving a hundred percent when you're, you know, able to give and it's a better outcome for everyone. Absolutely, you can get the very best me at this time instead of, yeah, me running on empty you know all the time.
00:29:21
Speaker
Exactly. How is how was owning the business affected your teaching in the sense of have you learned lessons that you can then pass on to potentially future business owners or people going into the workplace?
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i think I think in my setup with with the what I teach at the moment in terms of it, you know, more sport than anything else at the moment, the you lose that ability to pass some of the information on because it's not, I think if you're more in a classroom situation, you're talking about experiences, then ah then ah there's definitely opportunity to pass stuff on.
00:29:54
Speaker
um And actually, you know, I'm quite happy. I talk to the kids about it. You know, the kids ask me why I'm not at school on a Thursday and a Friday and I explain it to them. And if they ask questions, then absolutely I tell them what I can and I tell them what I know. And, um you know, I'm quite open when they're being honest with them in that regard. um And I'm always happy to to give them information and give them time and and all that sort of stuff.
00:30:17
Speaker
um But I think if, you know, if I was running a business and then I was teaching business or accounting at school, it would be very different to running a business and, you know, teaching kids how to throw a couch at school. Of course. Yeah. Because then you could really talk about profits and loss and all those sort of things that maybe you can't in the gym.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah. very Interesting. Well, I've kind of got three questions as we kind of come round the home stretch here that I would like to ask you and that I've not prepared you for. So just take your time if need be.
00:30:46
Speaker
um What's a skill that you don't have, but you would love to possess?
00:30:54
Speaker
I don't have that. I'd love to. Well, actually, funny in relation to my business, I would actually love to be a qualified ski instructor. I am not having having actually only recently into so into ski, you know, into skiing.
00:31:08
Speaker
um That would be a very useful thing to have. um The other one, I guess, from a business point of view, i wish I more was more computerite computer literate. So in terms of, I can't code, um but the amount of stuff you need in terms of setting up a webpage and then and all that sort of stuff, it would have been very useful.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's, you know, deep, dark secret part of this podcast is this is how people communicate. This is how people get information. And I made it a mission this year to learn how to do this um because it's a transferable skill.
00:31:41
Speaker
Now, turns out I absolutely love doing it. I'm meeting wonderful people like yourself from all over the world, and it's been great. But i want I figured this is going to be a medium. People are learning on their drive to work, on their drive to uni, all that sort of thing.
00:31:55
Speaker
So wanted to learn ah transferable skill. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So it's, uh, if you ever get into coding, congratulations. Cause I've had a look at that and gone, that is not my wheelhouse, my skillset, not at all. try I tried, I tried. And I just, I just kind of actually went, you know what, what, one of the things I have learned is that actually I've learned when to say enough is enough.
00:32:20
Speaker
And actually my time is more valuable paying someone else to do the coding than it is, um, me spending the time learning how to do it so I can do it myself. yeah And but i you've got to prioritize in business life. And that's the priority that I've made.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah, I do that, you know, in in our home. There's some home repairs I'm willing to take on, but there's some I know I'm going spend twice the money in the end. I'm going to hire somebody to fix it and be the frustration level. And, that you know, i there's a reason there's professional plumbers and electricians and and all of that. And I'm OK with that now. Sometimes you learn that the hard way, though, which is not the best way to do it.
00:32:58
Speaker
I have made things worse on more than one occasion that has happened. Thankfully, nothing too too too much of a catastrophe, but very much so.
00:33:09
Speaker
um If you could only listen to one piece of music or audio book for the rest of your life, what's had a huge impact on you? Whether it be like, said, a book, song, um what a book you've read, audio book, something like that. what You only have one for the rest of your life.
00:33:25
Speaker
What would it be? Well, one for the rest of it. Could it be Let's go with an artist. I think that's fair. Wow. I think, you know, i think my not so secret secret while, you know, living here is is Pink.
00:33:41
Speaker
I've followed her since I was, you know, we're very similar ages and I've followed her since she was a teenager and I was a teenager and kind of grown up with her life as I've grown up. So that's probably my my guilty pleasure when it comes to music.
00:33:54
Speaker
I love that because my wife really likes Pink's music. and She's fine. It's not really my genre, but I guess she's a very talented artist like that screams through her music.
00:34:07
Speaker
But she, i believe, like owns a farm and the harvest, all that kind of stuff, which I just recently found out. And I really want to find out more about it. i think I think actually the appeal to it is, you know, i think she's actually just a bit of a badass. She's not afraid to speak her mind with things.
00:34:23
Speaker
i I, you know, I'm i'm a pop, soft rock kind of music person, so it fits the genre. And, yeah, she's just, she is a jack of all trades. You know, she's open and honest with her kids. um You know, says what she needs to say. from from my end, and obviously I don't know it, but...
00:34:44
Speaker
but right You know, she she seems like she lives the way that people should live, you know, learn from your mistakes, be forgiving, accepting of others. And then, yeah, as an artist, you know, she's an athlete in terms of what she does, you know, her gymnastics background.
00:35:01
Speaker
didn't know that. Right. She's a musician. Oh, yeah. If you if you go we Google one of her songs and watch one of her videos and she's dangling upside down and off ropes. Oh, of course. Yeah, ofve course I've seen that and didn't put that together right.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, so so she was a gymnast growing up. I think i think she was a gymnast. um And she just then converted that with ah with a love of music as well. Yeah, that's fantastic. my My father-in-law once said to me, you know like he judges everyone from politicians to celebrities and all of that. But would you want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with them?
00:35:32
Speaker
and And Pink seems like the kind of person who would sit down with pretty much anyone. Yeah, she she'd be one of those people I'd invite around the table for dinner one night if I if i had an opportunity. Absolutely. like absolutely that I love that.
00:35:46
Speaker
um Well, that kind of might answer my next question.
Future Aspirations and Expansion Plans
00:35:49
Speaker
If you could strap in some ski boots with anyone in the world and spend a day on the slopes with them, it could be somebody you know, a celebrity, somebody who's dead, somebody who's alive, anyone from history.
00:36:01
Speaker
Who would you like to be on on the slopes for a day with? LAUGHTER I've never put it is it on the slopes thing. I've always put it it around the dinner table. Right, but I thought the slopes might be fun. have to teach them skiing, yeah you know.
00:36:14
Speaker
The slopes could work. um actually think Winston Churchill would have been someone that would have been a phenomenal mind to to figure out and understand. and um i don't think he would have been a very good skier, but...
00:36:27
Speaker
um i said i you know ah yeah if i If I was doing the 10 people you want to have around a dinner table to have a conversation with them, he he would be one of the first to sit at my table. Yeah, it's so interesting. I always ask people you know a variation of that question.
00:36:41
Speaker
And it's so interesting because some a couple of guests have said, actually, it would be this person. I don't like them, but I think they're fascinating. So they want to get him. But Winston Churchill, now I just picture skiing with a cigar and a bulwark hat.
00:36:54
Speaker
Flying down the hill in his suit with a pocket watch flying. Exactly. i watch out right watch I absolutely love that visual now well to kind of finish off here like where do you see your business growing going do you hope to expand what's your hopes for the next you know one year three years i'm I'm not, I'm just at the point where actually I think, I think the business will become full time over the winter, right which if that's the case, actually being able to go back to Australia for a bit of my year as well would be a really lovely, you know, go and spend three or four months back in Australia for, so when it, when it's summer in the yeah UK, which would be winter in Australia as well. But, um but in terms of growing the business, you know, take take over the UK one van at a time, i guess would be a one way to look at it.
00:37:43
Speaker
um the other one would actually just be have a nice little like go back to traditional retail and have a have a shop with a cafe in the front of it where people can come in and have that community you know if you want to come and sit for three hours and work or have coffee or whatever um you can do that and then there's the bit of a buzz with the ski boot stuff going on in in the background and um yeah that would be that would be a nice thing to do as well i absolutely love it and if people want to ask you questions about skiing find out more about you your business where can they find you Uh, yeah, twofold. One, I've got a website, which is hikeandride.co.uk. Um, or they can drop me an email at Jen at hikeandride.co.uk. So j e n and J-E-N, Jen as in Jennifer.
00:38:25
Speaker
Jen as in Jennifer. Wonderful. for Well, Jen as in Jennifer, it's been a pleasure talking to you and I cannot thank you. You've opened my eyes. Like I said, I know very little about skiing and I've i've had a little lesson today. I've loved every moment of it.
00:38:38
Speaker
Well, look, skiing is just the same as any other sport. Getting people out outside and enjoying themselves is is is more important than anything else. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
00:38:49
Speaker
ah No problems.
00:38:52
Speaker
Thank you again to this week's guest and I hope today's episode was as enjoyable for you as it was for me and perhaps even inspired your next adventure. If you did enjoy the show, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review or follow us wherever you get your podcasts.
00:39:09
Speaker
You can find more information at theoutdoorsyeducator.com or follow us on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook. Until next time, thank you so much for listening to The Outdoorsy Educator Podcast.