Content Creators Aaron & Jules Davenport have a passion for the tourism industry, sharing and documenting countless travel adventures with their three young boys. Together this collective of fun-loving explorers are known in the caravanning and camping industry as the Travelling Family Circus. This week I invite Aaron and Jules to speak with me on the ‘That Bad Review’ podcast to share the story behind their family adventures.
Travelling Family Circus
Travelling Family Circus was born through Jules and Aaron’s desire to keep their young family together when Aaron, cameraman and filmmaker, travelled for work. Starting as a fun way to document family adventures, the Davenport’s initial focus was capturing moments that they could reflect on over the years to come. The Travelling Family Circus’s love for adventure and excitement was so infectious, that their social media platforms quickly caught the eye of other would be explorers and before long the Davenports started to grow an unanticipated organic following.
Fast forward and the Davenport’s mission today is to inspire other families to experience adventure, wonder and joy while creating irreplaceable memories through discovery, travel and exploration. All five family members are now budding filmmakers who not only create their own content but also act as ambassadors for programs such as the Real Life Classroom.
The Real Life Classroom
While the growth of the Travelling Family Circus brand may have been unintentional, it’s development and subsequent partnerships has resulted in Aaron, Jules and their kids having a positive impact on regional tourism within Australia.
The Real Life Classroom is an initiative designed to promote real life benefits that can be gained from truly travelling, not just sightseeing. As ambassadors for the program, Aaron, Jules and the boys show other families that they don’t need to travel extensively to practice the lessons made available through the Real Life Classroom platform. As a team, they emphasise that lessons can also be enjoyed over a weekend or during a day trip discovering somewhere close by. Through the Real Life Classroom program the Davenports showcase real life lessons that are held within every day experiences.
During the recording of the podcast, Aaron and Jules provide an example of such a lesson, experienced when the Davenport family attended a marble making demonstration. While watching a marble being made was fascinating in itself, there were also many underlying elements to learn from in the fields of science, maths, art and design, all encased within the one presentation.
Aaron highlights that through real life classroom experiences it’s the people you meet, the experiences you have and the way you discover the country around you that has the most profound impact. Aaron stresses that these visual, first hand experiences can’t be practiced vicariously, and it’s these true-life experiences that augments a child’s learning and development.
Handling Negative Feedback the Right Way
Aaron, Jules and I also chat about one of my favourite topics, feedback. During the podcast we agree that feedback is best provided with the genuine intention of helping a business owner improve their product, as well as provide benefits for future customers. We also agree that the way in which a business owner reacts to negative feedback provides a window of understanding into whether they truly wish to improve their offering, and cater sufficiently to the needs and wants of their guests. Aaron and Jules provide a great personal example during a stay at Kings Creek Station, explaining how management took their feedback onboard and acted swiftly to rectify a situation that had left the Davenport family feeling their privacy has been breached. Aaron and Jules share with listeners their thoughts on why it’s the way in which a situation is dealt with that matters most, and how the ultimate outcome is one that makes everyone happy.
In this fun filled podcast episode, Aaron, Jules and I also discuss:
- Tips for travelling with a young family
- Capturing moments vs authentic memories making opportunities
- Five things to look out for when staying at a caravan park
- Long lasting memory builders
- Tapping into local knowledge
- Mood improving methods
- Finding the balance between real life and online time
- Going with the flow
- The importance of real human connections
Listen to the full episode here.