We talk to owners of small and medium business on how they built their businesses, and through this we get great insights on how to combat the everyday challenges of running a small to medium business by people who are actually doing it.
When the time comes to exit your business there are so many things to consider and thoughts that go through your mind. The most traditional method is to to list the business with a broker and go for an outright sale. However there is an alternative method, and that is Business Owner Transition. Today I talk to Rob Young and Mike Warmington from Platform1 to explain to us just what is Business Owner Transition, and how it can be a highly successful and profitable option for all concerned.
Cory Mitchell and partner Indie are the founders of Sleep Heavy. Cory was looking for the good business opportunity for a long time, and then when at the same time he found a possible solution to his insomnia the stars aligned and Sleep Heavy was created. Fast forward 3 years, and with lots of learning on the way Sleep Heavy has managed to take full advantage of the opportunity that Covid 19 presented, and have grown their business by 270% since lock down. A great story of doing the hard work, and being in the right place at the right time !!
Mike is the founder of One Eighty Recruitment. They specialise in working with employers & candidates in the construction, engineering and property sectors. Mike talks to us about the challenge of recruiting from both sides of the ledger – The employer and the candidate. We talk a lot about what is required in this post covid landscape, and how important it is to not stop. Mike is a big believer in the fact that soft skills are just as important (if not more) than hard skills, and how important it is to have the right cultural fit within a team. What I enjoyed about talking to Mike was is expert perspective of how a employer can recruit better, and how a candidate can present themselves to a prospective employer better.
Ganapathy is a Project Management Specialist. It is his job to work with Business Owners to help them bring their business transformational projects to fruition. He has worked with small teams, right through to large corporates. What I enjoyed about talking with Ganapathy is how he drew on his extensive experience to gives us some really down to earth advice on how to go about making our projects successful.
Fiona is a Culture Change & Leadership Practitioner. She has recently released her book, Rules of Belonging which explores all aspects of building a great team culture. I love Fiona’s concept of providing the structure and expectations around what is acceptable to belong to your organisation. As humans we have a caveman survival instinct and need to belong to groups. Fiona expertly has taken this need, and built a framework on how this can use to build highly productive and successful workplace teams.
Leeon Johnston is a guy who set high goals, and high expectations of himself. Life has taken lots of twists and turns which has pushed Leeon to reinvent himself a few times. His current endeavour is the transition from a multiple award winning national industry leader in real estate sales, to franchise ownership. Now it is no longer just about Leeon, he has a team to consider, motivate, inspire and lead. So how is he doing? Have a listen and find out
Col Fink is a leader in the areas of building great workplace culture, team engagement and public speaking . He has an unquivering passion for understanding human beings and diving into what it takes to make them come together for a collective goals. He teaches business owners how to engage individual and groups. In this podcast chat Col shares some of his ideas and practical actions that will help you too to start your teams engagement journey. Col’s mission is about improving workplace dynamics, individual fulfilment, and creating buy-in to your collective purpose: “Together we can create something much bigger than ourselves”.
Bryan started his working life as a Chartered Accountant more than 40 years ago, and has owned and operated a number of businesses across a diverse range of industries and professions, including retail, wholesale, manufacturing, property and hospitality, accounting and financial planning. While most of his businesses have been successful, like most business owners, Bryan has experienced challenges along the way. The lessons he has learnt give him that incredible down-to-earth value his clients appreciate. Bryan now uses his experience as a business mentor, coach, author and speaker whose outcomes-focused approach allows business owners and leaders to transform their lives and take their businesses to the exciting next level. Bryan’s strength lies in his understanding of the issues that business owners face and the way those issues affect all facets of their lives. This strength positions him to inspire business people to achieve all that’s possible.
Cameron was appointed CEO of the famous Richmond Football Club at age 24, the youngest in the history of the game. For most of the next 25 years, he was CEO of Richmond, Melbourne and Fremantle, when those clubs were at their lowest ebb, both on and off the field. He is the second longest serving CEO in the modern game. Having taken on some of the sport’s most difficult and daunting challenges, Cameron established a track record of building teams and organisations, unifying groups while navigating periods of genuine adversity and complexity. Cameron is a CEO, leadership coach and strategist. He works with CEOs and emerging leaders to achieve high levels of trust – personally, culturally, strategically and organisationally – as the basis of high performance.
Steuart Snooks is an Email and Workplace Productivity Expert. He works with senior executives, their EAs and support teams who are overloaded with email and crying out for practical, affordable solutions to the relentless demands of email and the workload it delivers. He has over 25 years’ experience in researching and developing best practices for managing incoming email and workload and restoring email to its rightful place as a powerful tool to facilitate improved workplace and personal productivity. In this chat Steuart delivers insightful, entertaining and highly practical solutions that make a real difference to personal and organisational productivity. What Steuart teaches us can change the way you work . . . forever!
Kirsten Peterson is a registered psychologist,and endorsed sport and exercise psychologist. He has worked with the USA Olympic Team, and at Aus Institute of Sport. She now focuses on helping business leaders navigate the pah of high performance within their businesses, and industries. Kirsten teaches us in this chat some real practical things we can do on a daily basis to help us get the extra 10% of performance within ourselves as leaders, and within our teams.
Fiona is a 20 year veteran of all things productivity. Her business Productivity Specialists specialises working with business owners and assessing their own productivity, redefining what it means for their business, and if needed how to increase it. In this fireside chat Fiona shares her thoughts, ideas and practical tips on the above. If you know, or even suspect that your businesses productivity is not where if should be then this is essential listening.
Our show sponsor is the O2E Business Academy. So today I thought we would have a talk to it creators to see just is the O2E Business Academy Craig Oliver & Donna Yeats created the O2E Business Academy back in 2019 with the direct intent of providing support to SME Business Owners to navigate their business growth and move their business from Ordinary to Extraordinary. We talk about the massive success that the Academy members are experiencing, and what it is that makes the program so unique.
Chris & Angela Feron built their Property Management Business with the embedded mantra of outstanding customer service. They built it so well, that they have recently complete a very successful exit through selling the business. Chris & I talk all thing about their 5 year journey, and what it truly means when Chris uses his slogan ‘’Have a Magical Day’’
Tania ‘’The Terminator’’ Reid was born fighting. Her story is full of twists and turns. From life as a trouble and reckless youth, to the rise of her career as a professional boxer, and everything in between. In this story we explore the parallels of the sacrifices that often need to be made in business and life in order to be happy. As we grow our businesses, we often loose this ‘’happy ‘’ bit. Tania tells us how about the 25 year journey to find to happy place.
Seven years ago Rebecca McCaffery left behind climbing the corporate ladder to help her husband in his business. Fast forward to today, she is the joint owner of 3 businesses, all based working from home. I talk to Rebecca of the mindset & discipline required to work from home. We also dive into the opportunities it can provide to build a business that create the flexibility to live life on your own terms.
Dr Amanda Wiggins recently purchased the successful business of Clean Mixes, as featured in our episode with Christine Westbury. To do this, Amanda left the security of a safe and well paid job to launch into being her boss, and control her own destiny. I talk to Amanda about the very scientific way she tackled the due diligence in this purchase, and how she approached the transition.
Chris is the founder of SwampShack Studio. He has a real passion for helping budding artists, musician (and podcasters) to bring their ideas and creations to the world. We talk all things about his career and thoughts on the future of audio in business, and why it is such a power medium.
Renee & Jenna are life's go-getters. Having achieved lots in previous careers they cam together a best friends to build a business that focuses on real world actions for the betterment of real world ladies. This entails not only building a successful business, but also bring up a busy family and everything in between. Inspiring chat with two very driven and passionate women, who weren’t happy with the status quo of offerings, so created their own.
Ben is a qualified builder and is the owner of Boarder Homes in NSW. He has transformed himself from being a complete dickhead to a man who now is fully self aware and understands his value to his business, family & community. Ben is now a person who has committed to a road of life long learning. He is fully aware of need to continue to grow, and is also extremely passionate about helping young people also follow this path and empower them to be the best they can be. A great chat with someone who has been punch in the face with life, but go back up and tackled it straight on.
Andrea is the founder of Likuid Media. He is a Facebook marketing expert who teaches business owner/ operators valuable insights to best practice to target and engage with new and existing customers through the social platform. In this chat we dissect how to create content that you clients want to see, and also what works with the algroithm. Andrea is generous with his knowledge, and gives lots of real practical tips that you can implement immediately in your social media marketing.
Beatrice had a burning desire to do something with her life that had true meaning and purpose. When she went through some hormone issues with her own body, she identified the desire of other women to also find help in this area. So she created Eve Health. Now by no means has it all been plain sailing, but with an innate drive to make it work, and by surrounding herself with others to help her on her journey she has succeeded.
Anne gives us some insights on the power of a press releases, and how they can be a super powerful and free way to get noticed, so that your market can discover your fantastic service or product. Anne gives us some great tips on how to not only write a press release, but also a methodology on how to get it in front of the right editor or publisher
Anne shares with us the importance of being prepared for when the proverbial hits the fan. This is Crisis Management. What do we need to do before it all really does become a crisis. We also dive deep into the pro’s and con’s of working with Influencers. Anne gives us some great tips on how to choose a good influencer for your brand, and also how to ensure we don’t get our fingers burnt along the way.
18 months on from my first chat with Sara Quilter of Tailor Skincare we talk again. Tailor Skincare has gone from strength to strength, and achieved fantastic growth. They managed to infiltrate the very competitive retail market throughout New Zealand. In the episode Sara & I discuss the journey to make this happen. As Sara’s says ‘’Getting the order was the easy part’’ ‘’The really hard work started after that’’ Sara is very honest about what it took to achieve what she has. There are some fantastic learning's in the chat, and is essential listening to anyone who is targeting the corporate retail market as a distribution channel.
Today I talk to Christine Westbury of Cleanmixes. Christine saw a gap in the market from her own experiences in trying to satisfy her own sweet tooth while staying healthy. This is a real experimenting at home to a fully fledged growing business story.
In this week's episode I have the tables turned on myself, and am forced to sit in the interviewees chair while my colleague Donna Yeats interviews me. Donna asks me all about what I actually do, and how I help my consulting clients. So yes it is a little bit of self-promotion, but it is more of an unveiling of myself and an insight to my passion of helping other businesses owners do great stuff, and be successful.
Today I talk to James Donald & Letitia Stevenson from Yonder. Yonder have developed some very clever automation and AI tools that gives tourism providers the ability to chat with travellers 24-7. I talk to James & Letitia about starting a tech business, and their journey through the first year from start-up to a viable business. We also dive into the challenges within the tourism industry, and how the need to create great customer experiences throughout the entire customer journey.
Charlotte Giblin joins me to talk about her journey as a full time artist in a business context. There is a perception that if you follow art as a career path, then you are almost anti the traditional business career. And to some extent you are right. However Charlotte saw and opportunity as she was entering university on how she could combine the two and create her own path in the business world using skills as a business thinker along with a natural talent as artist. We explore Charlotte's journey and hear how she has made made Art her business. Like all businesses there are pivots, realisation's, learning's, and lots of hard work to get to the stage where you successful.
In this chat with Rachel of Identify Marketing we talk not only on how to grow your own business through good marketing, but also her own business journey. Rachel tells us all her own learning's, the highs and lows she has experienced as she has built her business. These are things that we often don’t hear from the professionals we engage to help us. It is great to hear a business owner be so open, and that they are just like the rest of us. Raw and Real. We also explore the whole concept of building trust in our marketing, and Rachel gives us some fantastic tips on how to create our own content for our own online marketing.
Bernard set out in 2015 to take his business on a Culture Transformation. In 2016 they won best workplace culture in New Zealand. His business and its people have reaped the rewards ever since. Bernard talks to us about the 4 year business culture journey to where they are, and how the has business managed to not only survive a potential catastrophe, but grown from strength to strength in all key areas.
Kristal Sargent is the owner of multi award winning hair salon La Villa Hair Stylists. She has developed a culture within her team that is not only high performing for the business itself, but also for the individual involved. Kristal is a true people person and is constantly developing and mentoring her people to deliver the best out come for her clients and business. She is a straight shooter who uses her intuition and experience to create an empowering team mantra that produces results.
In this chat with Dr Rachel McInnes we explore what Wellbeing at work really means from a practical and outcome aspect. Rachel uses her wealth of diverse educational research and practical experience to achieve outstanding results for her clients in both the corporate arena and SME market. We dive into the importance of understanding our personal and organisation values in-order to grow sustainable and solid businesses. Her mantra is to help others to be the best they can be.
Dave Moloney’s business Let The Secret Out is all about capturing your story and using this in marketing of your business. People do business with people, they want to know who they are doing business with. The use of stories is a fantastic way to show case this and bring some personality into your marketing and allowing you to stand out from the crowd.
Sunniva Holt is a Self Made Multi-Millionaire, Serial Entrepreneur, Author of Two No.1 Best Selling Self Help books, Mindset Coach and International Speaker. She is the founder of Sunniva Holt International, a company dedicated to providing personal development and training to millions of people globally. In this episode, we talk all things about what it takes to be successful. What sort of mindset you need to be successful and what happens when you are not feeling fulfilled with where you are at in life.
Rosalie and her husband Richard own a successful building company. What is unique about their very traditional business, is that Rosalie has built a paperless office model. She is using technology to keep overheads super low and create enormous efficiencies with real-time data. This is a great chat with a young business owner who is disrupting her industry and bring the future into now.
Don is a self-confessed ideas bloke. He is an entrepreneur in the true sense of the word. He is the current owner two very successful business within the FMCG Industry. It has not been all plain sailing though and Don walks us through these challenges and twist in turns of his journey. Here is a man who has lived and breathed resilience. This is a fascinating chat with a super interesting man who sees opportunity behind every door.
Sarah has a passion for the health, wellbeing. She is a strong believer in the power of the mind and has studied this extensively. In a previous life, Sarah was an elite sportswoman who represented Great Brittan at world champ level earning 4 gold medals along the way. It was this that introduced her having a powerful mindset. She and her business partner are now bringing their real-world experience and fact-based research to help businesses and their employees combat the challenges of health and well-being in everyday life, helping them become a far more engaged and productive workforce. When this happens everyone wins.
Tracey has been involved in her husbands business for the last 20years. Her kids are now older, so Tracey has decided it is now her turn. She has started RubyBayCo. In this chat Tracey talks about the journey to this point. She discusses the lessons she has learnt over the last 20 years and how well they have set her up for the launch of her own business. This is a great chat with a lady who is following her dreams and creating something for herself.
Therese Hart started her business 8 years ago from her garage. Now after many years of hardwork she is embarking on a nationwide growth and expansion strategy. She has set up her business to acquire other good eftpos resellers and bring these under her business umbrella and structure. Listen here to hear how she is doing it.
Sam Bennett is the owner of Speaking Made Easy. He helps people gain confidence, captivate audiences, and become extraordinary speakers. Today we talk to Sam about verbal skills, and how to use these in our presentations and speaches.
Christine Ure of Pilates New Plymouth started her business 3.5 years ago and grown year on year. I enjoyed talking to Christine about her strategy from day one to set up her business to be a sellable asset at some stage in the future. How she has grown the business to employ staff, and manage workflow. And how she is now tapping into the corporate market and helping them with their wellness programs.
Today Glenn & I discuss what it is that successful SME owners do differently than others. We dive into the fact that not everyone is cut out to be a business owner, while other thrive. We discuss the resurgence of print media. And we talk about how to get in front of the freelance writers and editor so that you can promote your own business.
Today I talk to Mike Clark of Thinkright on the importance of the having the correct mindset for business. We dive into how to engage your staff to be the best that they can be, and in turn deliver great results for your company.
Robert Bull is a champion of productivity, continuous improvement and business excellence. Robert and I dive in to what all this means, and how to actually make it happen in a practical sense. What does a business that has all its ducks in a row look like and how you can start it yourself
Vizlink is all about providing professional communication tools to farmers and their staff. We talk to Gemma about all the hard slog to bring her business into a viable profitable entity. Gemma discusses how she stays focused on the business, while still being a mum, a wife, a friend, and a farmer. We discuss the unwavering passion and belief that is required to bring your ideas to fruition.
Aimee has carved out a very successful career as lawyer over the last 9 years. When Aimee found herself as a solo mum at age 18, she just saw this as a speed bump in the road of life and was determined to pursue what she had always wanted – To be lawyer. She put her self through Law School while raising her daughter. Fast forward to today she is now the mum of two children, along with having her own career. Aimee and I discuss all things mum v career. The concept of Mothers Guilt. The challenges of being a working mum, along with the benefits of this as well. We discuss what things she see other successful mums doing. We talk about Aimee’s ambition to be a leading authority in all things Trusts.
James is the founder and CEO of All Access Holidays, based in Melbourne. They arrange and supply holidays for people with disabilities. We talk to James about the the gap in the market he identified, and how All Access Holidays are positioning themselves in it. We discuss James’s concept of 'un-examined markets'. We also get very real about resilience and hard truth in what takes to start a business and build it.
Sam Horn of Sam Horn Building talks to us today about the tough lessons he learnt on his business journey of turning his passion business into a profitable business. Sam discusses the pivotal moment when he was told that he was actually in debt rather than the owner of a business that was making good profits. He discusses how this was a massive wake up call for him, and what he did about it to dig himself and his business out the hole that had been dug. Then from there how he has refined his business and continued to grow year on year. This is a fantastically honest chat about the harsh realities of business ownership and trying to go out alone. It is not all daisy’s and rainbows !!!
Today we chat to Emily Gallagher of Conscious Boss. Emily specifically helps ladies move from Idea to Launch, and then from Launch to Leverage in their businesses. The big prequisite of this is that they do it with a conscious mind, and create something bigger than themselves. We dive deeper into what she means by this and the impact it has on the businesswoman, their families, and the community at large. Emily heavily promotes her success in 2017 of going from $20kpa to $200kpa. She openly talks about this, and how she did it. What I enjoyed is the admission and story behind it, and the fact that it did actually take 4-5 years achieve this, but how she used the years to educate herself, and position herself to be able to leverage off the relationships and value that she had been providing to these relationships to slingshot her business. This is a great chat with a dynamic, energetic and passionate businesswoman who is going big places.
Facebook released its new algorithm recently. This has resulted in a big shift as to how businesses can market, and serve their clients on Facebook. Anne has studied the algorithm and tested what works and what doesn’t. She shares her expertise and insights on how to best use Facebook now to reach your market.
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