Business Leader Breakthroughs

In this week’s insightful podcast, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Sharn Rayner, founder and former owner of business strategy and HR consultancy Pod, which is now part of AdviceFirst. Her work has always been people and performance centric, and she is a passionate advocate for removing the stigma around mental health in business.

She shares her journey of founding her company and the professional and personal challenges that came with it. She talks about how her partner reacted when she told him she would be leaving the safety of her corporate job to start her own company and how important resilience was in making Pod successful. She also discusses one of the most fundamental things in a healthy business: clearly defined values, and living these values. 

The podcast covers a range of topics that are bound to give you valuable insights for your business, (mental) health, and personal life, such as:

·         Hiring the right people for your business

·         Aligning your company’s values with your team and your life

·         Overcoming challenging times in her business

·         The need for a change in New Zealand’s professional culture around failure

·         The importance of a personal connection with clients and business partners

·         How to implement mindfulness in both the workplace and in your life

Get in touch
If you would like to get in touch with Sharn, find her at:
[email protected]
LinkedIn
AdviceFirst

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here

In this week’s podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss one of New Zealand’s most successful and beloved organizations: The All Blacks. While most don’t associate a rugby team with business, the All Blacks are very much a business organization, whose product happens to be a sport. Their unparalleled success over the years, and right now with their successes in the 2019 Rugby World Cup, makes it a great organization to study and learn from in a business context.

Mike and Ryan talk especially about the impact of Devolved Leadership, which is the practice of distributing decision making to on-field leaders instead of leaving all the decisions to a single, top-ranking, detached leader. 

In this episode Mike and Ryan also cover:

• The All Blacks’ change in coaching culture and how it was instrumental to their current successes
• The need for an individual view in coaching while also maintaining a team culture
• The key to the strongest type of leadership
• How business leaders can apply the insights of this podcast to raise their organization to the level of the All Blacks

Links:

• Find out more about the book Legacy by James Kerr here
• Watch the full video on YouTube here

In this podcast Mike and Ryan discuss the competitive tripod - a framework to help you get clear on what you need to be great at to differentiate your offer. When you focus on meeting the market in two areas and beating the market in one area, you’ll set yourself apart from your competitors.

You’ll hear examples of organisations that have been successful by focusing on one of the differentiators and those who have missed the mark because they’ve tried to be all things to all people.

Mike and Ryan provide a good starting point for those who aren’t sure of their direction, what they want to famous for.

Links

• View and download the model here
• Watch the full video on YouTube here

In this episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing one of Australia’s top conference speakers, Matt Church. Matt speaks at conferences and runs development programs for leaders. He been named one of the top ten motivational speakers in the world and is also a prolific author having written 10 inspiring leadership books.

One of Matt’s great philosophies can be summed up in one word: NEXT! Ryan starts the interview by asking what that means for him – “Tomorrow can be as good if not better than today. You don’t want to shrink your way into the future. You stretch your way by pushing the edges of what’s possible both physically, mentally, spiritually, energetically and commercially.” 

Matt goes on to talk about what the future may look like and offers insights into how businesses can evolve and adapt.  

In this episode Matt and Ryan cover:

• His favourite book he’s written (bonus: he offers them digitally for free!) https://www.mattchurch.com/books
• How he overcame a challenge and what it taught him about the value of encouragement and belief
• How suffering through a nutcracker day (where his identity of being a good person got totally hammered) he found inner peace
• What he believes are the most important steps for a leader to build progress 
• The value in giving not criticism but kindness – getting in the habit of love and kindness as a leadership capability
• Where his journey into speaking began 
• How to give the ultimate speech that converts clients
• He answers the often-asked question “Are speakers made or born?”
• The importance of pronouns when delivering speeches– how to engage and excite listeners
• What speakers inspire him
• His perspective on the philosophy of “Not a lot matters in life but what matters, matters a lot” -  may seem cliché but how the truth will set you free

Links

• Follow us on Facebook and go in the draw to win a free ticket to Matt Church’s Speakership programme (Valued at $3000) https://www.facebook.com/thebreakthroughco/
• Register to attend Matt’s world class course “Speakership – The Art of Speaking” in Auckland on Mon 2nd and Tues 3rd Dec 2019. https://www.mattchurch.com/speakership#ssp
• https://www.mattchurch.com/

People are truly what make a difference in an organization. This weekly podcast is focused on hiring and growing your best employees. Ryan and Mike talk about a helpful model which Ryan refers to as the 5 Olympic rings of people. These are:

• Career: Where do you see the employee going and where do they see themselves going?
• Culture & Values: Hire based on values and whether the employee will fit with the organization. Are they an energy sustainer or drainer?
• Capability: Do you have the capability to deliver on responsibilities and career development?
• Responsibility: Being very clear on expectations
• Remuneration: What is the market pay for this role and how do you deliver commercial value for the dollars you are paid?

Links

• View and download the model here
• Watch the full video on YouTube here

Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Darren Ellis, owner of CrossFit New Zealand. He talks about his journey, where it began and what he’s achieved along the way including becoming the first CrossFit affiliate in the country. He mentions how powerful CrossFit has been in instilling a sense of community and social belonging in its members, as well as - his insights into health, well-being, fitness and running a business.   

In this Q&A interview Darren shares insights on topics such as:

• His earlier career and coming across CrossFit in 2007, as well as - what drew him to become an affiliate.
• Deciding to obtain a degree in exercise science which rolled into a Master’s degree at the University of Auckland. 
• The importance of Health, family and work and prioritising them in that order. 
• The synergy around health, nutrition, and movement. 
• How beneficial personal relationships and social connections are. And how his gym promotes nutrition, sleep, stress management, meditation, hanging out with friends, finding good friends to associate with and doing do some exercise along the way.   
• How he puts a lot of care and effort into coming up with fresh variations in workouts to cater to the different levels of people’s abilities ensuring, they get the right level of stimuli. 
• The CrossFit Games, and his experience of competing in the elite level sport. 
• Advice on nutrition – the fundamentals. 
• How he creates customer lifetime value by chasing excellence and trying to be better every time, while at the same time not jumping on the latest fad.
• What he is most proud of.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here

Most business owners often get trapped in the sense of overwhelm and urgency keeping up with today’s business. In this episode Mike and Ryan get you to focus on strategies for growing tomorrow's business, they share their expert advice and offer insights into growth models. From their experiences helping other business owners grow their companies to their personal experiences growing their businesses. They share all the important do’s and don’ts.

They suggest helpful frameworks to help with future growth. In particular the Ansoff Matrix, a strategic planning tool that helps business owners devise strategies for future growth.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here
• We can help you grow your business here 

In this powerful episode, Ryan interviews industrial and organisational psychologist, Alia Bojilova. She shares with us how migrating to NZ as a teenager shaped her future and gives us insights into the power of the mind and what she learned about working with the NZ military, in particular, the elite SAS regiments. 

She shares her own experience of being kidnapped at gunpoint in Syria and how it has also shaped not only her experiences but what she now understands about the power of the mind. If you want to know what makes high performers tick, today's podcast guest Alia is just who you need to hear from. 

In this Q&A interview Alia shares insights on: 

• What drew her to a career in psychology.
• Her thoughts on diversity, in particular, diversity of thought in the workplace.
• The importance of removing white noise amongst the never-ending to-do lists and to be deliberate about the things we choose to engage with.  
• What drew her to the military.
• How interesting she has found working for the NZ Defense Force with its many layers of complexity.
• How she came to be in Syria, her experience, and what she learned 
• Her story on being kidnapped at gunpoint in Syria [30:30]
• Her Ph.D. topic on establishing the link between curiosity and resilience. 
• How she shifts her mindset when she’s not in a good place.
• What she’s most proud of and what she'll be doing in 10 years time.

Watch the full video interview on Youtube here 

In this episode, Mike and Ryan share insights into the value of board reports and external advisors. Having both chaired for other organisations and their own, they share their experiences and offer advice for listeners who might not currently have board structures in place.
 
They talk about the value of having external advisors and offer insights into how they bring different perspectives, unbiased viewpoints, and help to avoid groupthink. Mike shares his advice on what an external advisor provides in a framework he refers to as the bright light, clear mirror and the kick in the pants.
 
Ryan shares his thoughts on the value of having board reports. For him, they offer a forced reflection not only from a financial perspective but from a people, capability, customer and partner perspective. The monthly forced discipline of reviewing performance, discussing barriers facing the business, strategic goals, reviewing important goals and lastly agreeing on what needs to be done to improve performance, is invaluable.

Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here
• Interested in putting in place an advisory board in your organisation? Click here: https://thebreakthrough.co/advisory-board/

In this episode, Mike and Ryan talk about how people progress through their careers. Specifically, how they transition from employment to business ownership and eventually to an investor. They identify how people can often get trapped in the move from self-employment to business owner because the business is so reliant on them. In order to change this, they recommend a few leverage points.
 
Firstly, simplify the business – focus on your biggest leverage point initially which is often people. Those who share your values, culture, and vision. Secondly, clarify your process and think about systems to make things highly repeatable and scalable. Every good business is one that is systemised, standardised, and automated. This is what they refer to as the business machine. Once achieved, the transition into investor can be made with ease as you can move out of an operational role in your business.
 
Links

• Watch the full video on YouTube here 
• Active Management Programme (AMP) mentioned: https://thebreakthrough.co/management-training/