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G’day and welcome to the A Place to Call Home Podcast.

In this episode, I sit down with Mia Ryan — founder of Howdy, a community-focused app designed to help young people connect in regional Australia.

While studying at university, Mia stepped into the world of tech and entrepreneurship, building an app in an industry she’d never worked in before.

• From training horses to pitching investors.
• From rural roots to startup founder.
• From idea to execution — all while still at uni.

This is a conversation about courage, backing yourself, and building something from scratch without a roadmap.

It’s about taking the values you grew up with and applying them in a completely different arena.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Growing up on a property and how that shaped her mindset
• Training horses before university and the lessons that carried into business
• Why she created Howdy
• What it actually takes to build an app from scratch
• Learning on the go in an industry she’d never worked in
• The realities of startup life as a young founder
• Building community in regional Australia

Follow Mia and Howdy

📘 Facebook: Howdy Global
📸 Instagram: @howdy.dating
🌏 Website: Rural Dating Service | Howdy Global | AUS

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and leave a review — it really helps us keep these conversations going.

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📸 Instagram: @aplacetocallhomepodcast
🔗 LinkedIn: A Place to Call Home Podcast
🌏 Website: www.aplacetocallhome.com.au

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G’day and welcome to the A Place to Call Home Podcast.

In this episode, I’m joined by Charlie Thurgate, a 24-year-old cattle producer based in Tamworth, New South Wales — and someone who genuinely wears a lot of hats.

Charlie’s story is one of resilience, responsibility, and having a crack. From stepping into management at a young age, to building his own trucking business, surviving a serious accident, and rebuilding from the ground up — Charlie has packed a lot into his early twenties.

Today, he’s building Kamilaroi Cattle Company, a paddock-to-plate beef business grounded in regenerative principles, while also growing Element Agri, a mineral business supplying livestock and soil health products across Australia — all while continuing to learn, trial, and refine his systems.

What stood out most in this conversation is Charlie’s level of perspective and wisdom for someone his age. He’s thoughtful, open about mistakes, and deeply committed to building systems that work with the land, not against it.

This is a practical, honest conversation about regenerative agriculture, genetics, business, and what it really takes to build something from scratch in agriculture.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Taking on responsibility at a young age and learning on the job
• Overcoming adversity and rebuilding after a life-changing accident
• Transitioning land from cropping back to pasture
• Regenerative agriculture and ultra-high density grazing
• Sanga genetics and breeding cattle for resilience and efficiency
• Building a paddock-to-plate beef business from scratch
• The realities of running multiple ag businesses at 24
• Systems thinking, soil health, and long-term land stewardship

Resources Mentioned

• MAN, CATTLE and VELD : Zietsman, Johann: Amazon.com.au: Books
• Integrity Soils - Biological Education Specialists

Follow Charlie

📘 Facebook: Kamilaroi Cattle Company
📸 Instagram: @kamilaroicattlecompany @elementagri
🌏 Website:Kamilaroi Cattle Company

If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with your friends and leave a review—it really helps us keep these conversations going.

Stay connected with A Place to Call Home:

📘 Facebook: A Place to Call Home
📸 Instagram: @aplacetocallhomepodcast
🔗 LinkedIn: A Place to Call Home Podcast
🌏 Website: www.aplacetocallhome.com.au

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G’day and welcome to Episode 1 of Season 7 of the A Place to Call Home Podcast.

To kick off Season 7, I’m joined by Tim Lee.

I first heard Tim speak at the Young Beef Producers Forum in Roma, and you honestly could’ve heard a pin drop in the room. The way he shared his story stuck with me, and I knew it was a conversation I wanted to bring to the podcast.

Tim’s journey has taken him from the army back into agriculture, stepping into the responsibility of taking over his family’s property. Along the way, he’s had to navigate transition from the army, identity, and the realities that come with life on the land.

In this episode, we spend a lot of time unpacking regenerative agriculture, and we also have some really open conversations around mental health and the realities of life in agriculture. Tim also shares how his involvement with the Lachlan Hughes Foundation helped create real change for him personally, as well as on his family property.

This is an honest conversation about land, purpose, community, and the role regenerative thinking can play not just in improving country — but in rebuilding people as well.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Tim’s journey from the army back into agriculture
• Transitioning from conventional systems to regenerative farming
• The importance of land connection, stewardship, and long-term thinking
• Mental health challenges faced by veterans and rural landholders
• The power of community, mentorship, and shared experience
• Tim’s involvement with the Lachlan Hughes Foundation and lessons learned
• Purpose, legacy, and leaving the land better than you found it

Resources Mentioned

• Call of the Reed Warbler, eBook by Charles Massy | A New Agriculture - A New Earth | 9780702254741 | Booktopia
• Farming & Grazing for Profit Programs | RCS
• Tarwyn Park Training: The Home of Natural Sequence Farming | Tarwyn Park Training: The Home of Natural Sequence Farming
• Lachlan Hughes Foundation - Supporting Regenerative Agriculture

If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with your friends and leave a review—it really helps us keep these conversations going.

Stay connected with A Place to Call Home:

📘 Facebook: A Place to Call Home
📸 Instagram: @aplacetocallhomepodcast
🔗 LinkedIn: A Place to Call Home Podcast
🌏 Website: www.aplacetocallhome.com.au

🎙️ This episode is brought to you by, KneeDeep Apparel

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