Coffee, Conversation, and the Power of Story
Over coffee at Mount Street Breakfast Bar, Miki Farmer reflects on why small colleges matter most. For him, education isn’t about scale or trends - it’s about care, honesty, and giving institutions the voice they’ve always had, so their stories can be felt as deeply as they are lived.
LEADERSHIP
Miki Farmer
1/4/20261 min read
A conversation with Miki Farmer over coffee at Mount Street Breakfast Bar, Perth)
It was mid-morning at Mount Street Breakfast Bar, the kind of place where sunlight hits the tables just right and the city hums quietly in the background. Miki Farmer sat across from me, relaxed but focused, the kind of person who listens before he speaks. His coffee was already half gone he’d been thinking more than drinking.
When I asked him why he works so closely with small colleges, he smiled. “Because they’re the soul of education,” he said. “They don’t always have big budgets or fancy buildings, but they have something more important genuine care. And when that care is told as a story, people feel it.”
He explained that most small colleges struggle not because they lack value, but because they lack voice. “They do amazing work, but no one outside their circle sees it. My role is to help them show who they already are the people, the purpose, the progress.”
Farmer doesn’t chase trends. He builds connection. “A story told honestly can make a college feel larger than life. It gives students something real to hold onto. When you tell the truth beautifully, people trust you.”
As he finished his coffee and glanced out toward the city skyline, he said quietly, “Every college has a story. It’s just waiting for someone to listen and help the world hear it.”
