Talking Better Business with Craig Oliver

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.