The Business Rebellion

Most leaders think empathy is a soft skill.

Something that lowers standards, slows decisions, and gets in the way of performance.

But the leaders getting the best out of their people aren’t being nicer. They’re understanding more.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Daniel Murray, behavioural science and leadership specialist who has worked with organisations from CBA and Fortescue to the Department of Defence, to unpack why empathy is a growth strategy, not a personality trait. The discussion challenges one of the most persistent myths in leadership. That empathy and high standards pull in opposite directions. The reality is that understanding why people do what they do is what makes clarity, feedback and tough decisions actually land.

• Empathy isn’t feeling sad with someone. It is understanding why they do what they do

• Nice keeps the peace. Kind builds effectiveness. Leaders confuse the two constantly

• The Jekyll and Hyde leader thinks they are mostly good. Their team just walks on eggshells

• People don’t trust leaders who seem invulnerable. They trust the ones who are honest

• The words you use in hard feedback don’t matter if the person doesn’t trust you

This episode reframes what strong leadership actually looks like for founders scaling past the point where they can know everyone personally. It isn’t about coddling your team or lowering the bar. It is about understanding your people well enough that direction, feedback and accountability move them forward instead of shutting them down, and choosing effectiveness over harmony without becoming a tyrant.

If you have been treating empathy as the cherry on top rather than the foundation,

and you sense your standards and your relationships are quietly working against each other,

this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Empathy Is a Growth Strategy - out now

You Can Connect With Daniel Murray:

Website: Daniel Murray

Company Website: Empathic Consulting

LinkedIn: Daniel Murray

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠⁠

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For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders think they hate sales.

The pushy calls. The scripts. The pressure.

But what they actually hate is manipulation, and they have spent years assuming the two are the same thing.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Pete Solway, founder of Founder Sales Solutions, to unpack what ethical, grounded sales actually looks like for value led founders who feel more discomfort here than anywhere else in their business. The discussion challenges one of the most common beliefs founders carry. That selling means becoming someone you don’t want to be. The reality is that the founders who sell best aren’t performing. They’re having honest conversations and walking away when it isn’t a fit.

• Influence educates. Manipulation corners. The difference is whether you are asking or telling

• If you can walk away when it isn’t a fit, you keep your integrity and your reputation intact

• Sales is not a performance. It is an act of service, closer to advising than pitching

• Hiring your first salesperson is one of the hardest sales jobs there is. Most founders skip the foundations

• You don’t fix sales discomfort by avoiding it. You get in the gym and build the muscle

  
  

This episode reframes what selling actually looks like for founders who have been quietly avoiding it. It isn’t about becoming more persuasive or learning better closes. It is about putting simple parameters in place so you can sell with integrity, protect your reputation, and realise that the thing you have been dreading is closer to helping than convincing.

If sales makes you feel like you have to become someone you’re not,

and you have been trying to hire your way out of doing it,

this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Sales Without Manipulation - out now

You Can Connect With Pete Solway:

LinkedIn: Peter Solway

YouTube: Peter Solway

Website: Founder Sales Solutions

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders think wealth is about how much they earn.

The bigger number. The next deal. The next milestone.

But the founders who actually feel financially safe don’t get there by earning more. They get there by removing the pressure to.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Andrew Chan, wealth strategist and creator of the nervous system safe wealth strategy, to unpack why so many high income founders still don’t feel financially secure, and what actually shifts when structure, protection and behaviour catch up with the income. The discussion moves past performance and returns into something more confronting. The reality that most wealth isn’t lost in a bad market. It is lost in the decisions founders make when they are stressed.

• Protection comes before performance. Structure decides how much of your growth you actually keep

• Chronic stress makes founders reactive. Reactive decisions are the most expensive ones they make

• Wealth isn’t when the numbers go up. It is when the decisions calm down

• You don’t escape financial stress by earning more. You escape it by removing dependence on needing more

• The unsexy work is what compounds. Consistency beats intensity every time

This episode reframes what real financial safety looks like for founders whose businesses are performing but whose nervous systems are running on empty. It isn’t about picking better investments or chasing higher returns. It is about engineering your financial life so a bad quarter, a market shift, or a change in the tax code doesn’t put you back at zero, and the decisions you make today are ones you are still proud of a decade from now.

If your income keeps growing but the pressure never lets up,

and every big decision still gets made from urgency instead of clarity,

this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Wealth Without Self-Sabotage - out now

You Can Connect With Andrew Chan:

LinkedIn: Andrew Chan

Instagram: Andrew Chan

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: ⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠⁠

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For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders think their people problems are people problems.

Behaviour problems. Capability problems. Cultural problems.

But the same patterns keep showing up because the design underneath them never changed.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Erin Barnes, behavioural strategist and organisational performance specialist at A Human Edge, to unpack why high performance and high pressure get confused inside small teams, and what actually shifts when standards stop living only in the founder’s head. The discussion challenges one of the most common assumptions in business. That people are the problem. The reality is that most performance issues are design issues wearing a different mask, and the cost of leaving them hidden compounds quietly inside the team.

• Most people problems aren’t capability problems. They’re clarity problems

• High performance is intentional impact. High pressure is busy presence

• Standards don’t add rules. They reduce the cognitive load of constant decision making

• Performance equals potential minus interference. Most teams are drowning in interference

• Safety is perception, not reality. The moment a team feels uncertain, it feels unsafe

This episode reframes what good leadership actually looks like for founders who feel the weight of every decision landing back on them. It isn’t about working harder or leading harder. It is about extracting what you already hold in your head and designing it into the business so your team isn’t waiting on you to think for them.

If your team is capable on paper but the load somehow still sits with you,

and the pattern keeps repeating no matter who you hire,

this is the conversation worth sitting with.

High Performance Without Toxicity - out now

You Can Connect With Erin Barnes:

LinkedIn Personal: Erin Barnes

LinkedIn: A Human Edge

LinkedIn : Juxta

Website: A Human Edge

Free Training: Future-Ready Teams

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: ⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠⁠

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most business owners think lending is something you deal with when you need it. The market treats it that way too.

But the way founders are assessed, structured, and tied into the wrong loan is decided long before the application ever gets submitted.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Melanie Cunliffe, mortgage broker and founder at Indigo Finance, to unpack what business lending actually looks like behind the scenes. Not the version your bank presents over the counter, but the version where lender choice, business structure, and timing decide whether you get options or get stuck.

• A profitable business is not automatically a borrowable one. Banks look backwards while founders live forwards

• Lender choice can change borrowing capacity dramatically. The same income can be taxed at twenty five or forty five percent depending on who you walk into

• Cross securitisation is sold as simplicity. It is designed to make you sticky

• Planning six to twelve months ahead creates options. Walking in cold creates limits

• A self managed super fund is not a deposit gap filler. It is a strategy, with a different set of rules

This episode reframes what good lending actually looks like for business owners. It isn’t about getting approved. It is about being set up with enough flexibility that the loan you take today doesn’t quietly limit the next three decisions you want to make.

If your bank has told you no,

or said yes in a way that left you feeling more constrained than free,

this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Lending, SMSFs and Structure - out now

You Can Connect With Melanie Cunliffe:

Website: Indigo Finance

Instagram: Indigo Finance

Facebook: Indigo Finance

LinkedIn: Melanie Cunliffe

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠ | ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

Instagram: ⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠ | ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders are taught that growth means more.

More people, more roles, more headcount.

But scale doesn’t come from expansion. It comes from precision.

In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Zachary King, a go-to-market fractional who works with founders to rethink how they access capability inside their business. The discussion challenges one of the most ingrained beliefs in business. That hiring full time is the safe option. The reality is that defaulting to headcount often costs founders more time, more money, and more risk than they realise.

• A full time hire is an eighteen month commitment. A fractional sprint is a three month decision

• Capacity and experience are not the same thing. Most founders hire one when they need the other

• The valley between founder led sales and a head of sales is where most companies stall

• Fractionals don’t replace your team. They build the systems your team can actually run

• The future belongs to experienced operators armed with context heavy AI tools

  
  

This episode reframes what growth actually looks like for founders who want to scale without the chaos that comes from hiring too fast. It’s not about cutting corners or doing more with less. It’s about buying the experience you need, when you need it, in the form that fits your stage.

If you’ve been told the only way forward is another full time hire, and the cost of getting it wrong feels heavier than the upside of getting it right, this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Fractionals Over Headcount - out now

You Can Connect With Zachery King:

 LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/zachary-king-au

  Website - zacharyking.com.au                                   

  Newsletter - thefractionalexec.com.au 

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: The Admin Superheroes

LinkedIn: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Instagram: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

In this episode of The Business Rebellion, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Chris Gray, qualified accountant, mortgage broker, buyer's agent and CEO of Your Empire. Chris started buying property at 22, semi-retired at 31, and now holds over twenty million in property in his personal portfolio. But what stands out is that he treats property as a strategy, not a spectacle.

This is a grounded conversation about leverage, optionality and calm. About property as a strategic asset class for founders, not a status move or a get-rich-quick play.

In this episode, Kerrie and Chris explore:

• How ego quietly shows up in property decisions and what real investors do differently
• Why the best investments are the ones you never want to live in
• The mindset gap between buying property to feel successful and buying property to support long-term stability
• Why most businesses aren't actually saleable, and how property becomes the real plan A
• The team founders need around them: mortgage broker, accountant and buyer's agent working together
• What rent-vesting actually looks like in practice, and why Chris hasn't lived in his own home for 25 years

If you've been thinking about property as something to chase, this episode will reframe it as something to design.

You Can Connect With Chris Gray: 

Insta Business: YourEmpire

Insta Personal: Chis Gray

FB Business: YourEmpire

FB Personal: Chris Gray

LinkedIn Personal: Chris Gray

Youtube: YourEmpire

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠ | ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

Instagram: ⁠Kerrie McGilvray⁠ | ⁠The Admin Superheroes⁠

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

In this episode of the Business Rebellion, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Sarah Petty, an ex-corporate finance leader, qualified CPA and founder of Olive Business Partners. Sarah brings CFO level thinking to small business owners and works with founders who feel that knot in their stomach when they think about their numbers, not because they don't care, but because finance has been wrapped in pressure, judgment and shame for too long.

This is a grounding conversation about clarity, not complexity, and how true financial visibility can actually create relief instead of more pressure for leaders.

In this episode, Kerrie and Sarah explore:

• Why chasing revenue is one of the most common (and costly) mistakes founders make, and what to focus on instead
• The difference between glancing at your numbers and having real financial visibility that lets you look forward, not just back
• Why your bank balance is a misleading comfort metric and what it actually tells you (and what it doesn't)
• The early warning signs in your numbers that show up well before burnout, cash stress or chaotic leadership
• How financial clarity changes the way you lead your team and creates calm across the whole business
• Where to start if you feel behind or intimidated, including the three numbers to look at every week
• The mindset shift Sarah wants every business owner to make: numbers are data, not judgment

Whether you are running a service based business, scaling past a million in revenue, or quietly avoiding your numbers because they feel too heavy, this episode will help you reframe what financial leadership actually looks like.

You Can Connect With Sarah Petty: 

Website: Olive Business Partners

LinkedIn: Olive Business Partners

Instagram: Olive Business Partners

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: The Admin Superheroes

LinkedIn: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Instagram: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders assume their business is valuable because of what they’ve built. But the market doesn’t reward effort, it rewards transferability. And the gap between those two is where value quietly disappears.

 In this conversation, Kerrie McGilvray sits with Jack Lee, a principal in business sales and capital raising, to unpack what actually makes a business sellable. Not in theory, but at the point where founders are ready to exit and the market decides what it’s worth. The discussion moves beyond valuation formulas into something more confronting. The reality that most businesses are built to survive the founder, not succeed without them.

• A profitable business is not automatically a sellable one. Buyers assess risk, not effort
• Founder dependency doesn’t increase value. It signals instability and reduces it
• Clean numbers are not just compliance. They are credibility in the eyes of a buyer- Systems and teams are what transfer. Not knowledge held in the founder’s head
• Sale readiness is not a final step. It is a design decision made years in advance

This episode reinforces a different approach to building. One where intention replaces intensity, and where wealth is created through structure rather than sacrifice. A business that can operate without its founder is not just easier to sell. It is a better business. One that creates optionality, not dependency, and positions the founder to choose what comes next.

If your business relies on you more than you’d like to admit, and stepping away would create friction rather than freedom, this is the conversation worth sitting with.

Business Sale Readiness - out now

You Can Connect With Jack Lee:

LinkedIn: Jack Lee

Website: Forward Business

YouTube: Forward Business Sales and Acquisitions

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: The Admin Superheroes

LinkedIn: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Instagram: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity

Most founders are chasing revenue…

but still feel financially on edge.

In this opening episode of *The Business Rebellion*, Kerrie McGilvray sits down with Adam Drinkwater, Head of Advice at Treysta Wealth, to challenge one of the biggest assumptions in business:

That wealth comes *after* the hustle.

This conversation unpacks why:

• Revenue is not profit

• High income doesn’t equal financial security

• Waiting to think about wealth is costing you more than you realise

• The right advisors are leverage, not an expense

Because wealth isn’t something you earn later.

It’s something you design alongside your business.

If your business is working… but something still isn’t adding up, this episode will shift how you think about money, growth, and leadership.

—

You Can Connect With Adam Drinkwater: 

Website: Treysta Wealth

LinkedIn: Adam Drinkwater | Treysta Wealth

Instagram: Treysta Wealth

Facebook:Treysta Wealth

Connect with Kerrie McGilvray:

Website: The Admin Superheroes

LinkedIn: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Instagram: Kerrie McGilvray | The Admin Superheroes

Explore working together + The Admin Superheroes

For founders ready to build with intention, not just intensity