Up the Creek: A regenerative business development case study

Waking Up to Regenerative Business Development

"Something happened… I don’t know what exactly, but the business runs better now."

This was Derek Cook’s quiet revelation after completing the Regenerative Business Development Journey with the Tourism CoLab in 2024/25. Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Derek founded Up The Creek, an organisation offering a gateway to find connection with self, others and nature, to a diverse market comprising locals and visitors of all ages and abilities. However, the unique value that Up the Creek offered wasn't always clear. Overshadowed by the weight of responsibility and a challenging narrative, Derek Cook had lost the space to effectively bring the vision and values to life. The constant challenges of operational and strategic issues, marketing, managing staff, health and safety requirements and managing environmental impact were just some of the challenges that led to a sense of overwhelm. It was clear that something needed to shift.

About Up the Creek

Up The Creek is a nature-based experience located on the river systems around Narrm/Melbourne, offering immersive, low-impact, reflective river journeys. Experiences are both pre-scheduled and custom offerings. The business was born out of a desire to reconnect people with place, nature, and to introduce participants to a More Than Human World - a world where humans are part of, and not dominant over, nature. The experiences offered by Up the Creek are deeply rooted in the values of ecological connection, spiritual alignment with nature, and self-leadership heutagogy in a changing world. They also invite people to slow down, listen deeply, and engage with the river’s natural pace, thereby contributing to healing, health, and wellbeing.

As a business, Up the Creek is agnostic to artificial boundaries between tourism and community, emphasising its mission to connect people with nature regardless of their origin. The business situates itself at the level of place (not as part of an industry sector) and offers experiences to all those wishing to connect with and care for the river system. Up the Creek's market is broad, ranging from school children, to environmentally conscious locals. Domestic and international visitors are welcomed, but are not target markets. It's an approach that recognises that connection to nature must start at home. Moreover, the local community is a generous, deeply connected and enduring part of the long-term viability of Up the Creek's mission to transform and value our relationships with nature.

Since it's founding, the owner-operator, Derek Cook, has always had a strong vision for how Up the Creek should show up in the experience economy. However, as a business, it operates in a highly transactional and competitive world, where 'business as usual' and Derek's internal value system always seemed to be in constant tension.

The Challenge: Finding space to breathe

Like many purpose-led businesses, Up The Creek faced the dilemma of operating in the fast lane, in a competitive market, and with a set of assumptions about what business is, and what it should be aiming to achieve. The Regenerative Business Development journey came at a time when Derek was taking a pause to reflect and recalibrate.

“The biggest challenge was finding space for respite. The work started to feel forced. I was trying to use the mess to create a path – but the pressure made it harder to move.”

At one of the initial Regenerative Business Development sessions, Derek offered that he was feeling unready for this journey. He was sitting with a lot of tension, too many thoughts, and a dual sense of overwhelm and inertia. Such tension has its wisdom if we are ready to sit in the mess and explore it, so Derek turned up consistently over the 20 week journey, frequently apologising for not doing suggested tasks, but actively participating with deep reflections and engaging in shared conversation.

Derek felt the weight of wearing all hats. Working in the old system with target markets, pipelines and messaging was uncertain. While his direction was intentional, it was clouded by overthinking (or philosophising?!). What does growth look like in a regenerative model? How do you hold complexity without getting stuck? How does Up the Creek operate in a more regenerative way within a system that is designed for transactional relationships and extraction? Derek was searching for a different mode that felt more aligned with his values, while at the same time allowing him to operate in the current paradigm.

The Journey: Sitting in the mess together

Enrolling in the Regenerative Business Development Journey wasn’t just a business decision – it was a call to realign values with practice. The journey offered a unique approach: less instruction, more coaching, more alignment, and an opportunity to explore and emerge. While the businesses taking the journey were all very different, the shared conversation yielded a vast source of wisdom.

In his own member spotlight session on ecological leadership, Derek mirrored this ethos. With minimal (complex and intergalactic) structure, he invited participants into breakout rooms with open-ended questions at the beginning of the session. The experience danced between chaos and clarity, sparking collaboration, vulnerability, deep listening, and mutual discovery. A lightbulb moment for all was an emerging awareness that we all hold self-leadership, and that the ecology of knowledge and experience in the room was always sufficient for the next step to emerge. Waiting and doing nothing was not an option. Small steps, conversation, and shared intelligence were the key to defining the next step. (Zoom out and we can apply that to tourism in general!)

“The discomfort and uncertainty sparked an authentic collaboration... ecological leadership emerges from the collective, not top-down direction.”

"Frozen thoughts come so naturally that they put you to sleep but when the winds of thought arise, all we are left with is complexity and the best we can do is share them with each other" - Hannah Arent

Back to the Regenerative Business Journey, over the 20 weeks of the program questions were raised and deep reflections were made, all of which contributed to expanding thinking about what Up the Creek could be in a changing world. This journey involved more than business development; it transformed how Derek thought about leadership, community, and the gift of connecting people to nature.

The Lightbulb Moment: “Less is More – What am I prepared to let go of?”

For Derek, the shift was not about doing more, but letting go. The journey challenged a linear, additive way of working and instead asked: What if you just sat in the mess for a bit?

“We are just used to working in a straight line and adding things. But learning to sit in the mess creates a new understanding of what is healthier and more useful.”

This realisation wasn't abstract – it deeply influenced how he engaged with Up The Creek. His messaging became more relaxed, communication felt less forced, and above all, he gained confidence that he wasn’t alone in this journey. There were others who inspired his journey and contributed to his insights.

Outcomes & Impact: More aligned and grounded

The Regenerative Business Development Journey does not seek to offer solutions, templates or fix the challenges each business is grappling with. Instead, the value is in allowing businesses to sit with and make sense of their challenges, share their issues, and draw from an ecology of knowledge, wisdom, support and inspiration found within the Community of Practice.

The Regenerative Business Development program is designed around an empowering pedagogy where each participating business takes away different things. It rejects the formulaic design of industrial education in favour of a pedagogy where participants have access to resources, skills and the expertise of coaches and community. While prompts and scaffolds are available, the CoLab recognises that everyone thinks differently, brings with them their own knowledge and lived experience, and that heavily structured approaches can thwart the true magic borne from the ecology of good conversations, coaching and support.

Benefits of the Regenerative Business Development Journey

The core benefits of the Regenerative Business Development journey can be summarised as:

(1) Deepening Up the Creek's core value proposition and the confidence to pursue the founder's deeper and heartfelt purpose.

(2) A softening of the overwhelm currently being experienced in the volatile 'business as usual' world.

(3) An appreciation for the ecologies in which 'Up the Creek' sits and the use of living systems thinking in how challenges are defined and acted upon.

(4) Connection to other like-minded business owners looking to, or in the process of, transitioning to a more robust, resilient place-based model of business.

(5) The space to breathe and the permission to rethink what is possible.

(6) Collaboration with like-minds (through an in-person team event in nature)

Self-identified shifts in thinking and practice

Since completing the journey, Derek has reported a tangible difference in the way his business is operating, including:

• Greater clarity in communication: "Messaging is more refined. It’s not forced anymore."

• A more relaxed business energy: “There’s less pressure. Things flow easier now.”

• Deeper relationship with place: “The river isn’t just the setting – it’s a partner in the work.”

• Expanded community and confidence: “Knowing others are on this path has made all the difference.”

Cohort benefits

In addition to the benefits directly experienced by Up the Creek, the cohort has also indicated several clear benefits, including:

• Reflective spotlight sessions that give each participant an opportunity to share something that has moved them. For example, one participant described Derek’s session as “a brave conversation that opened hearts.”

• Cohort wisdom and support. Another participant noted: “I appreciated being introduced to you all – it opened connections that could lead to future possibilities, connections and collaborations.”

Derek's own reflections capture an intangible value of the program: “It’s like the Tourism CoLab gave us an anti-inflammatory for the business. Everything moves more freely now. Or maybe it was a re-potting – more space for the roots to grow deeper.”

Reflection: Regeneration Starts From the Inside Out

The Regenerative Business Development Journey offered more than tools – it offered space. For Derek, that meant space to pause, reframe, connect, and to trust in the slow, steady unfolding of a business that doesn’t mimic extractive growth, but instead mirrors the river as a lifeforce of connection and wellbeing.

“It was therapeutic. It took the pressure off. It helped me connect better with people, and disconnect from a linear system.”

In a world of constant acceleration, Derek’s story is a reminder that real leadership might just mean stepping back, letting go, and allowing space for collective intelligence to lead the way.

 🌐 Up The Creek 

📩 Contact: derek@upthecreek.co 

🌱 Learn more about the Regenerative Business Development Journey

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This blog operates with kindness and in a regenerative spirit. We believe that valuable knowledge comes from practice, lived experience and place-based wisdom. Please share and acknowledge the inspiration you gain from our posts by appropriately acknowledging and referencing the Tourism CoLab's thought leadership and practice.

Find out more about the Tourism CoLab's regenerative business development education HERE.