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Stronger Communities, Stronger Business, A Stronger Sunshine Coast with James Blevin

Season 4, Episode 5

In today’s episode of the Coast and Commerce podcast, Ben Amos interviews James Blevin, CEO of Youturn, a not-for-profit organisation focused on supporting youth in the Sunshine Coast region.

They discuss the complexities of running an NFP, the evolution of Youturn over the years, and the importance of community engagement and philanthropy. James emphasises the symbiotic relationship between businesses and communities, advocating for business owners and the community at large to adopt a long-term vision in helping to address social issues. The conversation highlights the significance of storytelling in philanthropy and how businesses can actively participate in community initiatives.

Takeaways

Running a large NFP is similar to running a large business.
Youturn has evolved significantly over 30 years to support youth.
Community engagement is crucial for business success.
Philanthropy can start small and grow into impactful initiatives.
Measuring impact is essential for effective philanthropy.
Storytelling enhances the connection between charities and donors.
Public-private partnerships can drive community change.
A strong community can lead to a stronger business environment.
Long-term vision is necessary for sustainable community health.
Business leaders should engage in policy discussions for systemic change.

Chapters

00:00 Navigating the NFP Landscape

02:57 The Evolution of U-Turn

05:49 Service Delivery and Community Impact

09:02 The Symbiosis of Business and Community

11:50 Philanthropy: Beyond Sponsorship

15:12 Measuring Impact in Philanthropy

18:05 The Power of Storytelling

20:56 Engaging the Business Community

24:00 Long-Term Vision for Community Health

26:58 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Additional Links:

YouTurn.org.au

James Blevin on LinkedIn

Read Full Podcast Episode Transcript

Full Transcript

Note: the following transcript was generated by AI and therefore may contain some errors and omissions.

You run a large NFP the same way that you run a large business. In many ways it can be a little bit more complicated because of the wide variety of stakeholders. There isn’t that shareholder value prominence that you might see in a private company or listed company. And of course those companies are growing their stakeholder groups too. But an NFP, it’s wide varied and everyone’s very passionate too. So I found it a really appealing place to go.

Before we get started, the team here at the Coast and Commerce podcast want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where this podcast is created, Kabi Kabi and Jinibara people. We honour their rich culture of storytelling as we share the inspiring stories of business leaders across the Sunshine Coast. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Let’s get on with the show.

G’day and welcome back to the Coast and Commerce podcast. I’m Ben Amos from Innovate Media. And on this show, we bring inspiring business leaders from the Sunshine Coast to help you in whatever you do in business. And one of those business leaders we’ve got here is James Blevins, CEO of Youturn. Now you may not have heard of Youturn here on the coast, but keep listening or keep watching because today’s episode is going to open your eyes to both what Youturn do, but also what you can do in business to support community.

which is a critical thing to growing businesses. So James, welcome to the show. Thanks very much for having me, Ben. It’s great to be here. Yeah. So we’ve known each other for a little while here on the coast through some previous roles and things, but for those that maybe haven’t come across you and don’t know your story, I’d love for you to share a little bit about your story before we go into the Youturn story, if that’s okay. So what brought you to the coast? Have you been here all your life and tell us your story? Thanks, Ben. Like I say, pleasure to be here and thank you for interviewing me.

So I was born in Zimbabwe in 1989, happy to share my age. And we migrated to Australia in 2003 as a family. I’ve got two younger brothers and we’re all still on the Sunshine Coast. In fact, I’ve got one brother in Rockhampton. Did my last three years of school on the Sunshine Coast, educated locally. I’ve done quite a lot of travel, work related travel with my first employers, which are multinational firms, KPMG and BDO.

foundation and platform for, I think, a business career. My formal qualification is as a chartered accountant and working in audit and consulting, you get to see so many different case studies throughout your working life that I think position you well for a life in large companies or in business in general. So tell us about that transition into now working in the not-for-profit space and with Youturn. So what kind of drew you to that role? And now that you’ve been in the role for, think, a couple of

years, is that correct? Yeah, have been started acting as CEO in about late April, May of 2023. So coming on two years. So probably started though, though I’m passionate, passionately Australian, I still have a bit of a quite a strong connection to my homeland in the form of wildlife conservation. And my wife and I established a charity in 2014. So it’s probably the first foray into NFP and getting to understand how it works in this country. And

just really the power of community, people coming together with a common cause, shared goals. And that’s something that continues to this day with that charity on the side. In terms of my career at BDO and KPMG, I did have quite a few NFP clients as well and developed a bit of sector expertise and getting to see the way that different NFPs operate and also the challenge that’s coming down from government, from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

for charities to diversify their income streams, to be more self-sustaining and to lead change as opposed to just rely on block funding and grants. So it’s become a very, and it has been for a while, dynamic space. And I mentioned just in the intro in talking to you that you run a large NFP the same way that you run a large business. And in many ways it can be a little bit more complicated because of the wide variety of stakeholders. There isn’t that.

shareholder value prominence that you might see in a private company or a listed company. And of course those companies are growing their stakeholder groups too. But an NFP it’s wide varied and everyone’s very passionate too. So I found it a really appealing place to go. Yeah. So Youturn has been established on the Sunshine Coast for, or in the Noosa region originally, I think for 30 years, maybe plus, focused on, you know, supporting youth.

of the region in child safety and homelessness and mental health suicide prevention. Can you give us a little bit of a sense of what is Youturn today? So from its founding, you know, in 30 years ago to what is, what is Youturn today and what do you guys do? Of course, I’ll take you through the very quick timeline. you’ve summarized it really well, We established in 1989 as a volunteer led, it was called the Noosa Accommodation Project then, where we supported five young people experiencing homelessness.

That was the year you were born. Yes, yes. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. So maybe, maybe this was destiny for me to end up where I am. And so Noosa Accommodation Project initially a few name changes, Noosa Youth Service, United Synergies might be one that the Noosa community and parts of the Sunshine Coast community are more familiar with. We had a name change to Youturn in 2020. We also established, and this one’s worth mentioning, established the Noosa Suicide Bereavement Project in 2002.

That is now known as the Standby Support After Suicide Program, which is a program of Utah, but it does have its own national identity. one that started as a local intervention, a local unfunded intervention, something that our leaders at the time identified, and that has become nationally significant now, which is a great local story that, of course, Noosa people are passionate and proud of, I’m sure, the Sunshine Coast as well. And that is now funded throughout the country in all 31…

primary health networks, that’s sort of how we determine whether we’re national or not. And like I say, a program that we deliver in the Northern Territory and New South Wales as Youturn and then working through implementing partners and large ones in other jurisdictions. So Uniting Care, Anglicare, those ones who might have broader reach into those larger communities and larger states like Western Australia. And how does Youturn today?

Deliver it services. So what are that service delivery model look like? It varies from program to program. It’s been one of the things that I’ve needed to do as a new CEO is to try and bring an organisational focus to things and build those organisational frameworks as opposed to what can happen sometimes in NFPs is that it’s quite fiercely programmatic and people are passionate about their programs and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s fantastic to see.

that passion in our frontline staff and it’s something that we encourage always. But as we grow and the expectations of us rise, it’s quite important that our direction is clear and that we’ve got clear and consistent frameworks. And we know another thing about enterprise risk management is making sure that what we’re doing on the ground is largely consistent with the strategy and the risk appetites that we’ve set for ourselves as an organization.

So it does depend on the programs, but we are going through a strategic planning cycle at the moment, which is a very comprehensive one. We have more than 300 staff now, an internal working group is helping quite strongly with that. And we also seek the input on those because we are a public interest organization. The input of key stakeholders like the Department of Health, the primary health networks, and our community as well in the form of surveys. So a little bit of that example of what I talked about before, where our stakeholders are wide and varied.

And, I know as I’m sure every, any, any leader does that the strategy is more likely to prevail and succeed if, if many people feel like they’ve built it together, which is what we’re trying to do. So can you share for those, you know, the business community listening who are maybe thinking, you know, where do I see the work of Youturn in the community? Because, you know, I think as business, as business people, people running businesses and with staff and families, know, in our community here on the Sunshine Coast, you know,

I think one of the strengths of the Sunshine Coast is the community around us. And so how does Youturn show up in the community for the community? Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. think the Sunshine Coast is one of the strongest communities in the country. Of course, if you live here, you would say that, but I do travel quite widely for my role and think that the Sunshine Coast, Noosa is a very special place in terms of commitment to community.

And so probably in terms of what you might see as far as Youturn service delivery is concerned, is we run a number of headspace centers and headspace is, I hope it needs no introduction, but it supports youth 12 to 25 with moderate to mild presentations. And we run those centres in Bundaberg, Gimpe, Bribey Island as a new satellite, Caboolture, Toowoomba, Maruchido.

is another and we also newly have one just announced in South Australia in Gawla through the country South Australia, PHN. So Headspace is one where we have the community center in Tewantin on Ernest Street that some people would be familiar with and we have the shower facilities, laundry facilities there, our emergency relief, so where people need assistance with groceries, that kind of thing. All of our outreach, a lot of our outreach to community homelessness outreach would be…

would be is coming out of Tewantin. Those staff do work across the Sunshine Coast as well. So they’ll spend time in Maroochydoore. People live in varied locations too. And we are actually in the process of moving, you know, call it our corporate office or our largest office to Maud Street in Nambour, which will hopefully be in April, April or May this year. So another consultative process, but we run residential child

child safety programs as well, supported independent living programs. Our philanthropy, we’re probably just starting to get into, and for the most part, we’re still government grant funded, and to probably the tune of about 89%. And they are large programs and ones that we are good at delivering. So we’ve established that reputation with our partners, our funders, and keep in close connection and contact with them to continue to innovate those services.

I think that in and of itself is good, but we also know that there’s a, there’s an imperative for us to, do, do a little bit more with, with what, what else is available to us in terms of commercial revenue opportunities, that we can reinvest back into programs, philanthropy, as you mentioned earlier, and, others. Yeah, excellent. So when we think about the role that business plays and the role that community plays and potentially that symbiosis, like I’m interested in your, connection or your.

thoughts on that because I think you’ve played quite heavily both in the world of business, big business in some cases, and local business as well. And you’ve also now had extensive experience in that community space as well. where do you see these two coming together? I really like that word symbiosis. And maybe in the intro, we talked a little bit about those parallels between for-profits and not-for-profit companies. think

Some of that focus is changing whilst in the business landscape, there might be that focus on shareholder value. think particularly in a place like the Sunshine Coast, we see owners and managers really focused on their staff as a significant stakeholder group, as well as their customers, but as well as their community. I’ve seen just in other episodes of this podcast, all of the business owners and particularly for-profit ones talking about the value of a powerful and strong connected community. Probably it’s linked with

with an organisation like Youturn is we’d love to have a mission or a vision along the lines of we won’t because it’s utopian and unrealistic, but a vision along the lines of eliminating the need for a Youturn to exist because community has it covered, community’s connected. There is that symbiosis. And it’s something that is prominent in our conceptual systems framework and our new strategy, strategic thinking, to be more deeply embedded in our communities, to facilitate those connections.

It’s a feature of the standby support after suicide program. Yes, we provide individual support sessions for people impacted and bereaved by suicide, but we also either directly or through our implementing partners host community capacity building workshops as well. And that isn’t solely the remit of NFPs like us. We see businesses doing that all the time, businesses caring for their staff, investing in even if just the office space or

monthly meetings where there might be guest speakers or that sort of thing. I think we start to see that blending between for-profit private companies, listed companies and of course the NFP sector. And do you believe the idea that a strong community equals strong business? Do you think that it’s as direct as that? Absolutely, do you think you look at the needs of a business and it needs of course a staff body. needs

it’s tough to live in reasonable proximity of the business itself, needs its customer base, it needs the right operating and policy environment, and of course it’s the community that elects the policy makers. So I think it’s all intertwined and I know we talked a little bit about in our introduction that all of these things come together as if there’s probably one thing now, and we see it a lot coming through in our headspace centres and indeed lots of our services, that

In 2025, it’s an age of bombardment, of messaging and different things. And sometimes we have to remind ourselves to simplify, focus on the 20 % of things that yield 80 % of the outcomes. And I think if we all did that, it’s not just leaders. I like to think that everyone is a leader in some way, shape or form, and carries that responsibility of being a good citizen and a good community member. And if we were all better at consistently prioritising the 20%,

we, not to say we’re in a bad spot, but we’d be in an even better one. And one that I’d probably call out is our housing situation that we’ve been complacent for a long time. And this crisis is 30 years in the making. It’s obviously relevant to business owners as much as it is to our sector where we see so much of the need arising from a social determinant such as secure, stable, affordable housing.

And if we can solve that, then we’d see less presentations and less complex and ongoing presentations in our work. And I think that is equally vital for NFP leaders, for business leaders to tackle. And of course our policy makers as well. So let’s speak to the business owners who are completely on board with everything we’ve been talking about so far. They believe that stronger communities equals stronger business, but they’re operating in their business and they’re thinking.

But what do I do? You know, what can I do in reality and practicality? Is it as simple as sponsoring a sports team? Is that supporting community or is it more than that? Or what can we do? think it takes a variety of forms. If I think in our sector, we like to think that we work in partnership with all of our, you know, call them competing providers, but it is quite a competitive landscape in NFP.

What we probably should do better is see ourselves as intermediaries and facilitators and partnership builders and that kind of thing. And I think the same applies to the for-profit setting, whether it’s a supplier to your company, like I said, I’ve talked about the staff relationship, the customer relationship and it being reciprocal. And of course, community central to that as well. think people in a community get to grow and respect a company that cares about where it operates, its customers, its staff and other stakeholders.

The other one that we talked about was just how vital it is, I think, for everyone and anyone in a position of prominence or leadership to really engage in the policy environment. And that doesn’t mean having an ideological viewpoint or anything like that. think that means knowing what the right policy settings are. And again, every astute business leader would know what they are and would talk about it. And I think to be sort of long-term future focus as opposed to next three years.

focused and we see lots of that. mean, it’s why we, get such short term kind of measures, uh, coming out of, out of federal election campaigns and things like that. And, um, that’s probably the one thing I’d say for, for all leaders is to, to have that and trying to, to adopt the 20 year view as to what the community needs now to look healthier in 20 years time. you think about some of those systemic changes that are probably needed in community to affect real difference.

I think businesses often feel, you know, maybe ham’s run or that there’s only limited things that they can do. Like things that they can do is maybe, like I said, a little bit tongue in cheek, like sponsor a sports team or, you know, gifted donation to a charity auction, you know, like those kinds of things you feel like you’re giving back to community as a business owner. But how much does it really make a difference and versus those, how can we make real difference on a more systemic level? Do you know what I’m saying?

For sure, absolutely. think philanthropy and the right philanthropic partners and the larger sort of call them family companies that have a dedicated philanthropy focus are doing precisely this, is they tend to, there’s some intervention or something that might be needed at a systemic level, working with the right partners to facilitate that. And initially it’s funded by philanthropy. Where it continues to need to be funded, it then moves into the purview of government. But I think for people who think that

government will always lead the way or have that vision about what the future looks like. Things like cryptocurrency have taught us that it’s not really how works. A policy tends to follow innovation. So there’s absolutely room for business leaders to innovate and where there is as far as community is concerned. philanthropy doesn’t need to be in the hundreds of thousands. It can start with much less than that. And you’re right. I it starts with donations to sports teams and community, that kind of thing.

Where there’s a dedicated philanthropy strategy much good can come from that and talked about how it tends to happen with with piloting a new intervention a new program and sometimes that’s It is it is just systemic. There’s actually no direct service delivery. It’s it’s about getting different partners to work better together It might be changing a framework. It might be changing You know different settings within you know, the area you’re operating so that that the people who provide those services get a bit of clarity

And we can move the needle on key issues. So philanthropy absolutely does that. And call out again that it doesn’t need to be millions or hundreds of thousands of millions. It can start with much less than that. When you think about corporate philanthropy, do you believe that there’s good philanthropy and perhaps even bad philanthropy? Like, you know, the wrong way to approach it or a business is getting it wrong?

It’s hard to say and I suppose it’s my interest to say that the intention is always good. What I’d challenge any business leader, business owner to do in seeking to get involved in the philanthropy space is having a clear goal, a clear cause and then a plan to try and ameliorate or remedy that. And I think it’s like anything, having a…

a good direction setter and a plan that you assess annually is key to moving the needle that you talked about earlier. So I like to think that everyone starts out with good intentions, but absolutely a complex space and just like running your business requires quite careful management and the right resourcing. And for businesses looking to do more in the philanthropy space or get more involved in community and make a difference, how much of that do you think should be driven from the top?

versus from the collective of the business. know what I’m saying? Yeah, another one. I’d say that a good owner, a good leader really values that participatory approach. And there is a good governance mechanism within the company for good ideas to be shared, escalated. And you see that take variety of forms. It can be a company campfire or a company town hall kind of idea.

Sometimes there’s particular documents that people fill in or there’s like a working group committee that works on different ideas and if it gets traction and enough sponsorship then it makes its way through. think having those mechanisms is really important. And of course there’s always the, I think the expectation of a board that they’re hiring leaders or if it’s an owner naturally they have this because they’ve established it themselves but leaders need vision as well.

But I like to think most people, if you’re hiring right, most people have visions too. They just need to be aligned. And I think as far as philanthropy goes and knowing what a company’s one thing is in community, it’s going to be probably not quite a democratic process, but at least a consensus one that a company arrives at. And maybe it’s influenced at different points along the way by prominent leaders in the company, but I think there’s tremendous value.

in having as many people in the organisation support it and feel like they’ve built it as possible. So when you think about businesses, trying to make the right decisions in that regard and maybe, you know, bringing their staff on board and, and, you know, having that more collective agreement on where they’re going. know, I think often a lot of these activities feel like they’re not moving the needle, potentially, right. It feels like you’re, you know, just throwing, throwing things.

something and not really making a difference because you can’t make a difference, right? So, or maybe that’s maybe challenge that you can’t make a difference. you know, I feel that that maybe leads to a bit of fatigue when it comes to, you know, charity, philanthropy and getting in the business space when ultimately as a business playing devil’s advocate here, we’re ultimately just trying to grow our business. Right? Yep. Yep. So what would you say to those business owners that are maybe feeling like,

we used to do a bit in this space, we used to get more involved in community, but it didn’t do anything, it didn’t move the needle, that kind of approach. A really good question, Ben. And having spent time in the for-profit, for-purpose and NFP environment, I absolutely see that you want to know that the contributions you’re making are valuable and that they are moving the needle.

So and a lot of the public health data suggests that that we aren’t and a lot of that is we operate in a huge ecosystem. And so I go back to this this point about policymakers. It’s really important that we deal with the upstream effects, know, the the keeping families together, financial pressures, many which are many of which are born out of the cost of housing in this country, those things. So

That’s the first thing I’d say is engage in that environment because the right policy settings, the right taxation environment, all of that will set the platform for the country. And then beyond that, you know, once business owners start to deal with and companies start to deal with charities, and not all charities have the resources to do this, but one like ours does, you know, with more than 300 staff now and a high revenue base, and we need to become one of those companies of always. And so we’ve got all the right, you know, enterprise risk systems to keep us going.

But what we are trying to do at the moment is establish an organizational impact framework that does precisely what you’re talking about, which is we can, through measuring systemically, a few key indicators show the impact that we are having. And we do that with a theory of change where we basically go, we have these inputs and these activities which equal these outputs, these outcomes, and this is the eventual long-term impact. So not all charities have that, and there’s definitely a…

a afoot where instead of just reporting financial information as we’ve done for a long time and qualitative program information to the Charities Commission, there may come a time and we hope it’s soon and of course charities like ours leading the way with establishing what is the impact that we’re having. And I think that will be once that’s clear, it will be an easier way for business owners who seeking to engage in philanthropy and with charity partners.

to go and do their due diligence. Notwithstanding that, I do find the ACNC portal a fantastic resource. You can search any charity. think there more than 60,000 charities listed there. We are in the top 5 % of charities by size in the country. we’re always, I hope, a good, safe one. And our biggest challenge is always just controlling our overheads, which we do really well. But there’s a lot of information there. If you were to search Youturn, you’d see some information on our programs and what kinds of programs we run.

as well as who our directors are, who our key management personnel are. And, and also of course our financial information, which is all, you know, we’re, we’re, general purpose financial reporting. So you know a lot more about a charity than you, than you do a private company that, doesn’t really have to lodge anything, but, but it’s, but it’s, you know, annual return. Yeah. Look, I think from my perspective as a storyteller at heart, and obviously video marketing plays into this as well, which is not the conversation we’re having today, but I.

I need to kind of raise the idea that I think it’s, the stories that you tell that lead to the longer lasting impact. Right. I think often in charities and not-for-profit spaces, those, those charities or those organizations that can tell the best real stories, right. To unpack and find those stories of the impact that it’s having on the ground. Because I think philanthropically, if you’re giving money or time or whatever, sometimes you don’t see the impact.

But when you feel that and you see that on an individual level, it becomes so much more real. And that one individual story that you might be able to share, the impact that that is had on that person’s life, you know, can paint a picture of a thousand other stories that happen without being told. And I think, I think that’s critical in this space. But I also think as a business owner, when you are, you know, undertaking these kinds of community initiatives or you’re giving philanthropically.

Sharing that, like finding those stories and sharing them back down throughout the entire organization, I think is often a missed opportunity because then not only do you feel good as a business owner or a leader, but the rest of your team potentially feel that they’re contributing too, just by showing up to work. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Fantastic point you raise Ben and we do try and we know that the human brain is wired in such a way and that we are.

We love to receive stories and when it can be identified and about a, and that’s sometimes tricky for us, depending on the work we’re doing and the kind of intervention we’ve had where, where, you know, the person might not want to be identified, but, oftentimes we can achieve it through a dent de identification, you know, or similar facts, but they are identifying the story. And, that works really well for us in terms of our stakeholder events that we run. And I’ll, we always accompany our annual report each year with, with a stakeholder event. was very well attended this year up in New. So we had more than a hundred people there.

And it’s everyone from local counselors to our partners to local business people. And we’d love for those events eventually to be 500 or 1000 people where we can share those stories of impact across all of our service lines. And you’re absolutely right. They’re a sample, but oftentimes a representative sample of the work that a charity does. Internally, we do a couple of things. have a fortnightly Youturn yarn, we call it.

And that’s a time for me. do a video sort of fortnightly and it’s really just a selfie video. And I hope the authentic nature of it is well received by all the staff where we get to share exactly that things occurring and interesting things occurring in different parts of the company. you know, I guess impactful interventions that we’ve had that everyone across the company, across the more than 300 staff gets to know about and tie back into sometimes their own work.

Another thing that we do with some of our corporate partners is come to their company town halls where they are decentralized workforce of, four or 500. I will, it’s me, sometimes someone in our community and partnerships team, be an agenda item and we’re able to talk a little bit about our partnership, but some of the work that we’ve done lately to all of their staff. So that’s another way that we like to share those stories. And I agree with you entirely. I think that.

sharing or having a mechanism within companies to share stories is hugely powerful. Yeah. Thank you for that. Look, I know across the Sunshine Coast, there are a lot of businesses who are really performing above their weight or maybe that’s the phrase, you know, they’re performing above and beyond when it comes to, you know, philanthropy and getting involved in community and, and things like that. And I’m sure you’ve seen many great initiatives, you know, from companies, but are you able to share? know I’m throwing you on the spot here a little bit, but are you able to share maybe

not naming names of companies or maybe you’re comfortable too, but are you able to share any examples of, you know, things that businesses are doing on a regular, consistent or even annual basis where they’re really, you feel they’re really having an impact in community? Yeah, of course. and, and we do have a few, but I think about some, some local ones and I won’t mention names. we, I’ll leave the annual report for that, but.

Things like just making space available for community events, I think, and consistently. Sometimes, especially with smaller charities, that can be a significant impulse. So that is powerful in and of itself. Having the expertise and all the donations in kind that a charity might receive, whether it’s fitting out a new office, whether it’s elements of the job being done for cost, that kind of thing. Because there’s a lot of practical work that gets done.

regardless of whether it’s an NFP or a for-profit. So that appetite is always very strong in the Sunshine Coast. We also are starting to see, and know, UTurn’s got a pretty strong balance sheet, but we’re starting to see the emergence of public-private partnerships a little bit more where there’s the coming together of a few key stakeholders, and that could be, I mean, this one I will call out, we operate in the community center in Tewantan via a peppercorn lease with Noosa Council.

And that’s worth, you know, it’s probably a space that’s worth a million dollars. And that’s something that we’re able to do because of that support and that partnership with Newsy Council, to a public organization and that history has been there for a long time. But that is now growing to include others and where we actually start to see for-profit businesses say, look, we might have a problem with at-risk youth in this community. And we want to know.

as a large charity operating in this area, what you’re doing about it. That kind of thing is coming through. And we, and I’m speaking about a live example here, where we’ll come up with an intervention service model or a service logic. We were able to show if we do this and run these activities, then we should see this, which will lead to this impact. And if we do that well enough, we can show it to parliamentarians, we can show to for-profit business owners.

as well as other government partners, as I’ve mentioned, to say we can do this together if we’d like to. And also then provides, I suppose, a basis for ongoing philanthropic funding should it be something that’s working well. So hopefully a good variety of examples there. Yeah. Yeah. So nice inspiration for anyone of business of any size who is tuning in to this episode. If you were to, James, leave our business audience, our business community here on the Sunshine Coast who watch or listen to this episode.

with one key action or one key takeaway from today’s episode, what would that be?

I would say, and we talked on the phone about this before, I’d say it be to lead with boldness and to really consider the long-term future, the next generation. And a lot of that is how you choose to run your company, how sustainable it is, how you engage and interact in the policy environment. Because we’re seeing that happen across the developed world at the moment. It’s really important that our settings are right and

If we think it will just be government leading that innovation and change, if it is indeed required, it won’t be. In fact, it very much does rely on frontliners. And like our frontliners are delivering child safety services or suicide postvention services, the frontliners in business are doing a myriad variety of things. And they all have very important and valued perspectives. So for leaders, I think, to facilitate a mechanism for

that to be shared in a really deliberate way. Yeah, whether I say it’s with policymakers or with other business owners so that you build a collective movement is vital. So I’d say lead with boldness and consider the long-term future. Yeah, I love it. And that’s something that we can all take action on because it’s just about turning the mirror on ourselves and saying, what can we do here within our own organization that sets things up for an impact wider than our organization, right?

Absolutely. And we can have that. know we don’t name names on the show, but we do have some fantastic businesses here on the Sunshine Coast. And anyone who’s been to the business awards knows who some of them are. And we do punch above our weight. And it’d be great to see, not that it’s not already occurring, but a continuation of that. for us eventually to solve some of those significant crises that we have at a more sort of systemic country level. I love it.

James, just in closing here, this is your chance to talk about Youturn and how our business community can maybe support, get involved, learn more. Like what would you want to say to that business community to kind of get them on board with what you guys are doing with Youturn across the Sunshine Coast and Australia? Of course, I’ll probably start by saying we, though we’re a national organisation now, we’ve got our home routes are proudly here on the Sunshine Coast. And if anyone would like to engage with the…

the work that Youturn or Stand By Support After Suicide does, or indeed just wants to learn more, I’d welcome an email to me directly. You’ll find lots of contact information available on our website as well, which will go through our community and partnerships team. But we have a highly skilled and capable team, and we don’t profess to know everything about the interventions we’re having and the impact we’re making in society. So if you see something, or something that could be done, and especially with our involvement.

we would welcome the opportunity to hear from you. I love it. And the best place for people to get in touch with you is via the website. Probably via the website, but my email address is james.levin at uturn.org.au. I have the fortune, I listened to Matt Common the other day, he was on a podcast and he called the emails a grotesque waste of time. And then I read one of the comments saying, actually he can’t say that because he has the fortune of someone else reading his emails and prioritizing them, which is exactly what I have, very fortunate, but we use the

the Eisenhower Matrix for emails coming through. So if something’s urgent and important, it’s one that I read. If it can be scheduled, again, it’s one that I read. If it can be delegated, it gets delegated. And if it’s distraction, it gets deleted. There’s a powerful little productivity nugget for anyone in business right there at the end that you just snuck in. Yeah, the Eisenhower Matrix. love it. Very good. James Blevins, thanks for joining me on the show today. This has been really fascinating conversation, hopefully inspiring as well for business leaders out there.

who are looking to make a bigger impact than just what they can do within their business. Great. Thank you very much for having me, Ben. Awesome. And for you guys watching, I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. And of course, if there’s anything that’s inspired you or that you found valuable in this episode, which there was lots, by the way, then I encourage you to share this episode with someone else in business on the Sunshine Coast who would get value from it. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow on your podcast players and we’ll see you in the next episode of the Coast and Commerce podcast.

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   Kristal Reeves 
 26 September 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. A great business to work with. Prompt, easy to understand when this stuff isn't your field, good communication and overall positive experience.
  
 
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   Tara Baker 
 2 September 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Ben, Matesse and the rest of the team at Innovate Media have been a delight to work with! We have worked together on many projects, and they are adaptable, proactive and very easy to communicate with. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a video production agency.
  
 
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   Chloe 
 25 August 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. We’ve partnered with Innovate Media on multiple projects over the years and they have never let us down. From the first conversation through to the final cut, the team is professional, organised and genuinely easy to work with.
Turnaround is reliably fast without the work feeling rushed. They take the time to understand the business and then deliver video that actually looks and sounds premium — the kind of content that represents you well on website, socials and ads.
What stands out most is the consistency. Every project has been high quality, on brief and on time. That’s why we keep going back. If you need video that works and a team you can trust, Innovate Media is the one.
  
 
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   Michelle (J and B Inspired) 
 26 July 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. I had an incredible experience with Innovate Media recording my 90 Second Reset. Ben and Matesse made the whole process seamless, calm, and genuinely supportive. On filming day, Matesse had every script prepared and perfectly formatted for the teleprompter, which made everything flow. Ben’s direction was grounded and confidence-building—his feedback helped my delivery land more clearly for my audience. I felt welcomed, respected, and supported every step of the way. Highly recommend Innovate Media.
  
 
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   Svetlana Nuthall 
 9 April 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. The team at Innovate Media went above and beyond to ensure our video looked amazing for our event, with an extremely short timeline. They responded quickly, took on + actioned all design requests seamlessly and made the job so much easier from our end. They are highly competent in video creation and boast excellent client support!
  
 
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   Gavin Windred 
 7 March 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. The team at Innovate Media are super!!!! Extremely professional, so easy to work with and guided me every step of the way. I will certainly use them again. Thank you so much Ben and the team at Innovate Media- I appreciate all that you did for me in assisting me with setting up my pilot podcast. You will see me again soon!!!!!
Renee Welsh- Resetting the Conversation-
  
 
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   miles blackwood 
 5 March 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Making our product demonstration video with Ben was a breeze and the well polished result is proving to be a very effective addition to our cold call sales emails. Highly recommended!
  
 
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   Samantha Pickering 
 19 February 2026
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Ben and Matesse were the perfect combination of professional and friendly. They helped our team feel comfortable with the daunting process of recording content on camera, and created amazing finished products that we were all really happy with.
Their communication was consistent, courteous and compliant with the requirements of branding guidelines with a number of our partners. I highly recommend engaging their services to develop content to grow the brand recognition and engagement for your customers.
  
 
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   Melanie Taylor 
 15 December 2025
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Highly recommend working with Ben and the team at innovate media. Very professional, thorough process and we love our companies new brand video!
  
 
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   Kristina Katsanevas 
 28 November 2025
 
 
 Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Innovate Media , saved the day when a last minute guest of a media celebrity was organised.  The team were efficient, professional edited the podcast promptly and gave high quality end result.
Thanks team