When someone says “we’ve tried that before” what do they actually mean? Sometimes it’s a closed door. But more often it’s a door that was tried at the wrong time, with the wrong conditions, without enough people in the room, or without the implementation working as well as the concept could.

This episode is for two people simultaneously: the one who keeps bringing ideas and keeps hitting resistance, and the one who has tried things and genuinely doesn’t believe there’s another way forward. Because both of them are holding part of the picture. And neither of them has the whole thing. Drawing on Shunryu Suzuki’s beginner’s mind, Adam Grant’s work on thinking again, and a real-world example of a hotel manager approaching the single-use coffee cup problem with curiosity rather than conclusion, this episode explores what becomes possible when we stop asking what we’ve done wrong and start asking what we can’t see yet. It’s not about starting over. It’s about being open to what the next attempt might look like with everything you’ve already learned.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you’d like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

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Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

Shunryu Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:

The source of the beginner’s mind concept referenced throughout this episode.

https://www.shambhala.com/zen-mind-beginner-s-mind-4.html

Adam Grant - Think Again:

Referenced in this episode on the psychology of sunk costs and the human resistance to changing direction.

https://adamgrant.net/book/think-again/

Referenced Two Homes episodes

Episode 21: The RAS: What You Notice Changes Everything

The reticular activating system referenced in this episode is explored in depth here.

Episode 8: Where to Begin Without Overhauling Everything

Companion episode on starting small and building momentum.

Episode 18: Duality: Why It’s Not All or Nothing

Companion episode on holding complexity rather than defaulting to binary thinking.

What does it actually mean to help? And how do we know when the help we're offering is solving a problem versus sustaining one? This episode is a conversation with Weh Yeoh, physiotherapist turned social entrepreneur, founder of OIC Cambodia, co-founder of Umbo, and author of Redundant Charities, about what genuine social impact looks like versus the kind that keeps itself in business by never quite solving anything.

Drawing on years of working in Cambodia and China, Weh unpacks the power dynamics underneath voluntourism, why something is not always better than nothing, and what it looks like to build a charity with the explicit goal of making itself redundant.

For hospitality and tourism operators thinking about their CSR and community partnerships, this conversation offers a genuinely different framework, one that asks not just whether your intentions are good, but whether what you're doing is actually working. And whether the people it's meant to help are the ones deciding that.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia — an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

Weh Yeoh: author, social entrepreneur, founder of OIC Cambodia:

https://www.wehyeoh.com

Redundant Charities by Weh Yeoh:

https://www.redundantcharities.com

Weh Yeoh on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wmyeoh/

Umbo: online speech and occupational therapy for rural Australia:

https://www.umbo.net.au

OIC Cambodia: speech therapy and professional development:

https://www.oiccambodia.org

Weh's TedX talk:

https://youtu.be/9vuAL0qatSw?si=NGimTG16ra5kVADa

To Hell With Good Intentions by Ivan Illich, 1968:

https://www.uvm.edu/~jashman/CDAE195_ESCI375/To%20Hell%20with%20Good%20Intentions.pdf

Recommended reading for anyone working in social impact, development or CSR.

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission:

https://www.acnc.gov.au

Accounting for International Development, skills-based volunteering:

https://www.afid.org.uk

Related Two Homes episodes:

Episode 11: The Social in ESG

Episode 25: Looking Beyond Bandaid Solutions

Episode 26: Tourism that Stays with you

Tourism markets paradise. Crystal clear water, swaying palms, pristine white sand, authentic culture. And sometimes that image is real and often there's a gap, which comes with a cost. Not just environmentally, but culturally and economically as well. This episode explores what tourism actually does to the places it depends on when it isn't done with intention. From overtourism and zero dollar tourism to the misuse of local culture when hospitality becomes purely transactional. We also look at when tourism genuinely gives back to the places it loves. Drawing on over two decades of working in the industry across Southeast Asia and Australia, this episode makes the case that the most sustainable tourism businesses aren't the ones with the most certifications or the biggest budgets. They're the ones where the team understands the North Star, where the community around the property benefits from its being there, and where guests feel like they actually went somewhere. Not a simulation of somewhere. The real thing. If there's a gap between what you're selling and what you're delivering this episode is an invitation to close it.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia — an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

The Last Tourist documentary film:

Highly recommended viewing, especially as a team activity. Explores the challenges and possibilities of sustainable tourism with honesty and depth.

https://www.thelasttourist.com

G Adventures - sustainable tourism operator:

https://www.gadventures.com/about-us/our-impact/

Lio Beach, El Nido, Palawan — zero single use plastic tourism community:

https://ir.ayalaland.com.ph/news-and-updates/lio-beach-a-model-of-inclusive-growth-in-tourism/

Bhutan sustainable tourism model:

https://www.tourism.gov.bt

Angkor temples dress code and cultural guidelines:

https://www.angkorwat.org/visitor-information/

Related Two Homes episodes:

Episode 23 - The Sustainable Traveller

Episode 11 - The Social in ESG

Episode 9 - What Integration Actually Looks Like

We're very good at treating pain. Not so good at asking what's causing it. This episode looks at one of the most persistent and costly patterns in hospitality and tourism, the default to short-term fixes that relieve the immediate discomfort without touching the root cause.

Staff turnover that's treated as a recruitment problem, greenwashing treated as a marketing problem, certification treated as a compliance exercise and single-use plastic swaps that change the material but not the behaviour.

Each of these is a symptom, a bandaid solution. Each has a cause that goes untouched and for the most part unnoticed.

Every time we reach for the quick fix, we make it a little harder to get to what's actually going on and a little more expensive to keep ignoring it. Drawing on the neuroscience of short-termism, the $36.6 billion annual cost of food waste in Australia, and the evidence of what happens when teams are actively involved, this episode makes the case that treating the root cause isn't harder than treating the symptom. It's just less immediately comfortable.

And this is our biggest opportunity right now..

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Reference Notes:

Your Future Self, Hal Hershfield

The book referenced at the opening on short-termism and our relationship with immediacy:

https://www.halhershfield.com/your-future-self

ACCC Environmental Claims Guide for Business:

Referenced in the greenwashing section:

https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Environmental%20claims%20-%20A%20guide%20for%20business.pdf

End Food Waste Australia, $36.6 billion food waste cost:

https://www.endfoodwasteaustralia.org

Plastic Free July Foundation, coffee cup statistics:

https://www.plasticfreejuly.org

Other episodes referenced in this episode:

Two Homes Episode 6, The Certification Trap

Two Homes Episode 14, The Greenwash Dilemma

Two Homes Episode 22, Kindness is The Way with Sophie Bretag, Metta Leaders

We talk about sustainability at conferences. We put it on the agenda. We feature it in the program notes. And then we hand everyone a single-use coffee cup, fill the goodie bag with things nobody asked for and call it a day. This episode is an honest look at the gap between what hospitality and tourism conferences say about sustainability and what they actually do and what organisers and attendees can do differently.

From starting the venue conversation early and rethinking the coffee station, to the psychology of free things, food waste that's costing Australia $36.6 billion a year, and why putting sustainability in its own session means most GMs will choose the revenue panel instead.

This episode also covers the attendee side so that you can show up at a conference without running yourself into the ground, why protecting your energy is a sustainability practice, and why the friend who turned up late every morning taught me something many years later.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

Food waste in Australia:

Food waste costs Australia approximately $36.6 billion per year and is responsible for around 3% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Around 16% of food waste comes from the hospitality sector.

Source: End Food Waste Australia https://www.endfoodwasteaustralia.org

Carbon emissions baseline assessment for events:

The GHG Protocol provides methodology for calculating event emissions:

https://ghgprotocol.org

Reusable cup programs for events and venues:

Cup lending and washing systems are increasingly available for events search for reusable cup schemes in your city as local operators vary by region.

No Vacancy Expo Sydney 23 and 24 September 2026:

https://novacancyexpo.com.au

No Vacancy Bangkok 24 and 25 November 2026:

https://novacancyexpo.com

Related Two Homes episodes:

Episode 5 - Change the Default, Change the Outcome

Episode 14 - The Greenwash Dilemma

Episode 23 - The Sustainable Traveller

If you're here listening to a podcast about sustainable tourism, chances are you also love to travel. This episode is about how traveling more mindfully, more intentionally and more sustainably almost always produces a better trip.

Referencing my time of living and working in Southeast Asia and doing responsible travel training with volunteers and visitors in Cambodia, as well as some of the questions that come up each time I do a workshop on this topic. This episode explores what sustainable travel actually means in practice.

From choosing direct flights and staying longer, to finding sustainable accommodation beyond the badge and the vague website copy, to navigating plastic in countries where tap water isn't safe, to the child safe tourism question and the voluntourism conversation. My practical, honest and personal guide to traveling in a way that does more good and less harm. Including the one destination that won't be on the itinerary: Antarctica.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia, an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

Child safe tourism certification:

https://www.thecode.org — The Code for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism

ChildSafe Movement:

https://childsafe.humanitariangroup.org

Carbon offset verification — Gold Standard:

https://www.goldstandard.org

GSTC Hotel Certification:

https://www.gstcouncil.org/gstc-criteria/gstc-hotel-criteria/

Water filter bottles for travel — options worth researching:

LifeStraw, LARQ, Waters Co

Two Homes Episode 12 - Sense and Sensitivity: Fragrance in Hospitality with Alexx Stuart

Referenced in this episode re synthetic fragrances in hotel amenities

Blog posts on child safe tourism and responsible giving:

https://www.siemreap.net/guides/travel/why-you-shouldnt-give-money-to-begging-children/

Could kindness be the antidote to survival mode? In today's episode I explore the strength behind kindness as a leadership metric with HR consultant and award-winning speaker Sophie Bretag. Through over two decades of working with leaders Sophie's uncovered some of the gems that really help humans thrive and we talk about the tough conversations, the difficult path of self-awareness and the opportunities available to all of us when we apply kindness to our approach.

From spending 5 minutes longer with your morning coffee, sunlight and feeling grass between your toes to difficult conversations and worthwhile outcomes, this conversation is warm, vulnerable and deeply important. Bring your curiosity and your beginners mind and enjoy.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia - an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

The Kind Human Quotient

K - Know Yourself

I - Include with Intention

N - Nurture your Capacity

D - Demonstrate Conscious Leadership

Connect with Sophie Bretag:

https://www.mettaleaders.com/

https://www.sophiebretag.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sophiebretag/

Related Two Homes episodes:

Episode 2 - The Nervous System of Sustainable Leadership

Episode 15 - What the Best Leaders Are Doing Differently

Episode 18 - Duality: Permission to be in the Middle

Plastic Free Southeast Asia - sustainability leadership consultancy:

https://www.plasticfreesea.co

What if the single most powerful sustainability tool available to any leader isn't a framework, but their own attention? This episode introduces the reticular activating system: the filter in your brain that decides what gets through to conscious awareness out of the millions of pieces of information arriving every second. You've experienced it without knowing it, you buy a red car and suddenly the same make and model of red cars are everywhere. The cars were always there. You just weren't primed to notice them.

This episode explores what happens when you guide your attention for sustainability opportunity. From the morning brief that changes what a team notices all day, to the walk through a property that surfaces what no audit ever will, to the connection between nervous system regulation and what the RAS can actually access, this is practical neuroscience applied to the work of building more sustainable hospitality businesses. When you train your attention to see things differently, that changes everything.

Two Homes is for leaders who know that lasting performance, for people and planet, starts from the inside out. Two homes: the one we inhabit within, and the one we all share.

Intro and outro music: Brooks, Kai Engel

If you'd like to ask a question:

💌 Email - connect@plasticfreesea.co

🎙️ Drop a question in the comment box on Spotify

Sign up to emails to get insights, event invitations and opportunities to connect and be inspired to integrate sustainability for good 🌟

https://sarah-rhodes.myflodesk.com/news

Two Homes is part of my business, Plastic Free Southeast Asia — an Australia Pacific specialist sustainability leadership consultancy, that is your partner in all authentic and aligned sustainability for tourism businesses and boards.

Please rate, subscribe and review to help more people find the meaningful conversations, insights and more guests into the conversation that helps you grow your business, and tend to your wellbeing, sustainably.

Follow on your preferred platforms:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/plasticfreeseaa/

Sarah on LI https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rhodes-67a9b724/

Show Notes:

The reticular activating system is a network of neurons in the brainstem that regulates wakefulness and attention, filtering sensory information to prioritise what's relevant to current goals, beliefs and survival needs. It's the neurological basis for why we notice what we're primed to notice and why intention and repetition can change what we perceive.

Related Two Homes episodes:

Episode 2: The Nervous System of Sustainable Leadership

Episode 7: What If Your Body Is Your First Sustainability Audit?

Episode 15: What the Best Leaders Are Doing Differently

Episode 20: Why Greenwashing Might Be a Confidence Problem

Nia somatic movement practice:

https://www.nianow.com

Plastic Free Southeast Asia — sustainability leadership consultancy:

https://www.plasticfreesea.co