In this episode of The CEO Advantage Podcast, hosts Paul Edginton and Milly Albers speak with Martin Perelman, co founder and former Chief Executive Officer of SILK Laser Clinics, about his leadership journey and the growth of the business from a small startup into a national operation. Martin shares his early career path, the formation of SILK with fellow founders, and the experiences that shaped his approach to leadership and execution.

Martin explains how SILK grew from its first clinic in Adelaide into a multi state business, including navigating founder dynamics, introducing formal governance, working with private equity investors, and ultimately listing the company on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2020. He discusses the realities of scaling a service based business, maintaining consistency across locations, and leading through periods of rapid expansion and organisational change.

In this episode:

• Founding a business with multiple partners and aligning different founder goals

• Introducing a board and governance structures for the first time

• Working with private equity investors during a high growth phase

• Scaling clinics nationally while maintaining service consistency

• Leading through uncertainty as the business evolves in size and complexity

This episode is for founders, chief executives, and senior leaders who want a grounded account of scaling a founder led business, working with investors, and navigating the transition from startup to listed company.

We would love for you to become part of our growing leadership community. Visit ⁠www.ceoadvantage.com.au⁠.

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Connect with Paul Edginton on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/paul-edginton-5047a511.

Darcy Ellis, founder of HitFit and son of five-time world champion Lester Ellis, joins us to share the journey from growing up in a boxing family to creating one of Australia’s fastest-growing boxing fitness brands. A former professional boxer himself, Darcy has transformed his passion for the sport into a mission to make boxing accessible, inclusive, and life-changing for people of all ages.In this episode, Darcy opens up about:

• The lessons he learned from his father about discipline, sacrifice, and resilience
• The struggles of carving out his own identity during his teenage years
• Why he walked away from a promising professional career to start HitFit
• How boxing can build presence, community, and mental strength inside and outside the gym
• The importance of bringing governance and vision into small business growth
  

Darcy’s story is as much about mental health and leadership as it is about sport. From creating safe spaces where anyone can experience the transformative power of boxing, to scaling a brand that now spans multiple locations, Darcy shows how courage and community can change lives.This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in fitness, entrepreneurship, or personal growth.Subscribe, share, and leave a review to support more conversations like this.

In this episode of The CEO Advantage Podcast, hosts Paul Edginton and Milly Albers sit down with Alan Tudorovic to explore his journey growing up inside a family business and eventually helping scale it across construction materials, transport, retail, and property. Alan reflects on his early exposure to work, responsibility, and people skills through his father’s concrete and curbing business in South Australia, and how those experiences shaped his leadership approach.

Alan shares the story of his father’s migration from Croatia to Australia, the early years of building a concrete curbing business from scratch, and the gradual expansion into quarries, concrete plants, transport, paving, and retail. He explains how starting at ground level in the yard, learning logistics, sales, and operations firsthand, and taking risks at a young age helped him develop commercial confidence. The conversation also covers the creation of Tudor Pavers, the move into retail and landscaping, early property development decisions, and the practical lessons learned from managing staff, customers, and growth while still in his twenties.

In this episode:

• Growing up inside a family business and learning leadership through observation and responsibility

• Building a vertically integrated construction materials business from curbing to concrete, transport, and retail

• Developing sales confidence and people skills through real world experience

• Taking calculated risks early, from buying trucks to starting retail and landscaping operations

• Lessons from managing staff, customers, and growth at a young age

This episode is for business owners, family enterprise leaders, and emerging entrepreneurs who want a grounded perspective on building capability, confidence, and long term success through hands on experience.

We would love for you to become part of our growing leadership community. Visit ⁠www.ceoadvantage.com.au⁠.

For leadership advice and more content, follow @ceo_advantage on Instagram.

Connect with Paul Edginton on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/paul-edginton-5047a511.

Paul Edginton and Milly Albers sit down with engineer and entrepreneur Flavia Tata Nardini for a conversation about her lifelong connection to space, her early years in Italy, and the experiences that shaped her approach to learning and leadership. Flavia talks about her fascination with the stars from a young age, her ability to absorb information quickly, and the challenges her family faced through a difficult period that influenced her resilience and drive. She reflects on studying aerospace and space engineering, her early work on propulsion systems and missions in Europe, and the path that eventually brought her to Australia.

Flavia expands on the realities of founding and growing a company, sharing the origins of Fleet and the thinking behind its earliest decisions. She explains why focus becomes essential during rapid growth, how she manages the pressure points that come with scaling, and why she believes people progress faster by developing their strengths rather than trying to fix their weaknesses. She also discusses her interest in intuition, human connection and the aspects of potential that science has not yet learned to measure.

In this episode:
• How early experiences shaped Flavia’s interest in space and engineering
• Lessons from her studies, early career and time working in Europe
• The beginnings of Fleet and the practical steps behind its creation
• Why focus, discipline and resilience matter during business growth
• Flavia’s views on talent, intuition and the limits of what science can measure

This episode is for listeners who want a clear and honest look at leadership, personal growth and the mindset needed to build something ambitious in a complex world.

We would love for you to become part of our growing leadership community. Visit www.ceoadvantage.com.au.
For leadership advice and more content, follow @ceo_advantage on Instagram.
Connect with Paul Edginton on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/paul-edginton-5047a511.

Paul Edginton and Milly Albers sit down with Maria Palumbo, CEO of Junction Australia, to explore her career journey, her early experiences with poverty, and her path from mining and government work into the not for profit sector. Maria shares how those experiences shaped her leadership and her understanding of housing systems, frontline pressures, and the complexity of building homes for vulnerable communities.

In this conversation Maria explains why Australia has struggled to keep up with housing demand, how layers of compliance slowed construction, and what she observed during her years in government as processes grew faster than outcomes. She talks through the years of stalled housing programs, the limits faced by community organisations, and the impact of public expectations on government decisions. Maria also reflects on the value of commercial skills in community leadership and how working at every level of an organisation shaped her approach to decision making.

In this episode:

• Maria’s career path from mining to community housing and the turning points that shaped her purpose

• The pressure of navigating poverty as a young parent and how that experience influenced her work

• How compliance, regulation and administration slowed Australia’s ability to build housing

• The long term effect of stalled housing programs and why the system struggled to meet demand

• What Maria learned about leadership, decision making and building capability inside complex systems

This episode is for leaders and practitioners across government, community services and housing who want a clear, grounded view of how systems actually work on the ground and what it takes to create progress inside pressure filled environments.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The CEO Advantage Podcast so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, leave a review and share this episode with a fellow leader.

We’d love for you to become part of our growing leadership community. Visit our website www.ceoadvantage.com.au.

For leadership advice and more content, follow us on Instagram @ceo_advantage.

Connect with Paul Edginton on Linked In: / paul-edginton-5047a511

In this episode of The CEO Advantage Podcast, host Paul Edginton sits down with Carolyn Curtis, former CEO of The Australian Centre for Social Innovation and a long-time collaborator at The CEO Advantage. They talk openly about leadership in the not for profit and community sectors, what it means to carry the weight of a CEO role, and how identity, wellbeing and purpose shape the experience of leading. The discussion explores how to recognise when it is time to move on, how to let go of a role that defines you, and what comes next after stepping away from the top job.

Carolyn shares how her focus has shifted to helping organisations understand culture by looking beneath the surface. She and Paul discuss the difference between compliance and culture, how burnout and psychosocial risk are now key leadership issues, and why trust, connection and communication matter more than ever. Together they reflect on power, decision making and the changing expectations of a modern workforce, offering grounded insight from their own years in leadership.

In this episode:• How stepping away from a CEO role can redefine identity and purpose• The difference between compliance and culture in shaping performance• Why burnout and psychosocial risk now sit at the heart of leadership• How power and influence shape behaviour inside organisations
• What generational change means for leadership and communication

This episode is for anyone in leadership, governance or social impact who wants a clear and practical look at the human side of leading people and the realities of working within complex systems.

In this episode of The CEO Advantage Podcast, host Paul Edginton is joined by Kevin McCarthy to explore the art and science of leading change within organisations. Kevin shares how his early career in healthcare and academia shaped his understanding of leadership and culture, and how his later work with senior teams, Harvard and Stanford scholars, and global organisations deepened his insights into what truly drives transformation.Over the conversation, Kevin unpacks the challenges of leading in complex environments, the role of curiosity and open-mindedness, and why leadership must balance structure with adaptability. Drawing from decades of experience, he discusses practical frameworks for shaping culture, improving dialogue, and sustaining both innovation and core business success.In this episode:• How Kevin’s early career in healthcare education revealed the power of organisational culture• The difference between technical expertise and the social art of leadership• Practical ways leaders can foster curiosity, vulnerability, and open dialogue• Why ambidextrous leadership is key to balancing innovation and stability• The essential role of power, relationships, and reasoning in driving meaningful changeThis episode is for current and aspiring leaders who want a clear, experience-based understanding of how to navigate change, build trust, and lead organisations that keep evolving with purpose.

We’d love for you to become part of our growing leadership community. Visit our website www.ceoadvantage.com.au.

For leadership advice and more content, follow us on Instagram @ceo_advantage.

Connect with Paul Edginton on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-edginton-5047a511/

Join hosts Paul Edginton and Milly Albers as they sit down with Matt Stevenson-Dodd, founder of Trust Impact, to unpack how organisations can run with rigour while staying true to purpose. Matt shares how his early youth work and personal journey shaped a commitment to better outcomes for young people, and why live, simple evidence matters more than bulky reports.

Through this conversation, Matt explains how joined up data and live dashboards help organisations make faster, smarter decisions, why publishing honest failure builds credibility with funders and communities, and how running a social enterprise with commercial discipline protects mission and impact. He also outlines the origins of Trust Impact, the governance lessons from a YMCA pilot that joined federated databases to create a live impact dashboard, and practical steps leaders can take to move from backward looking reports to real time evidence.

In this episode:
• The core principles of measurement design and how to decide what truly matters
• The YMCA pilot that linked federated databases and the governance lessons it revealed
• Building dashboards that support both frontline decision making and strategic oversight
• How transparency around success and failure strengthens credibility with funders and staff
• Practical steps for leaders to move from static reporting to live evidence through governance, pilots and continual improvement

This episode is for anyone working in charities, social enterprise, policy, or program delivery who wants frameworks that actually move the dial, and practical examples of how to measure impact without getting lost in complexity.

We’re back with Season 3 of The CEO Advantage Podcast - and this season, we’re going deeper. Expect more human, more raw, and more insightful stories from leaders who have walked through challenges and change.
Paul Edginton and Milly Albers sit down with Hugo Toovey - Major in the Army, cancer survivor, CEO and founder of 25 Stay Alive. Hugo’s journey is not just about survival, but about redefining leadership through vulnerability, purpose, and connection. He opens up about the power of honesty in leadership, the importance of checking in on others, and how sharing our struggles can transform teams, communities, and lives. Hugo has moved some of the world's biggest leaders from Amazon, Telstra, Santos, Commonwealth Bank and more.
Key Leadership Takeaways:
- Vulnerability Builds Trust

- When leaders admit struggles, they humanise themselves and create stronger, more connected teams.
- Purpose Fuels Resilience

- Transforming personal adversity into a mission creates authentic influence and lasting impact.
- Connection is Leadership

- True leadership isn’t about having all the answers

- it’s about showing up, listening, and supporting others.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The CEO Advantage Podcast so you never miss an episode.

If you enjoyed today’s conversation, leave a review and share this episode with a fellow leader.
We’d love for you to become part of our growing leadership community.

Visit our website www.ceoadvantage.com.au.
For leadership advice and more content, follow us on Instagram @ceo_advantage.

Connect with Paul Edginton on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-edginton-5047a511/

Join host Paul Edginton as he sits down with Carmel Crouch, long-serving Managing Director of STEPS Group Australia, to unpack a remarkable life devoted to inclusion, leadership, and resilience.

Carmel’s story is one of courage, fierce independence, and relentless drive, from managing four supermarkets at 22, to rescuing a struggling organisation and building one of Australia’s most impactful disability services.

In this episode:
• Growing up with no roadmap for leadership and creating her own

• Overcoming systemic discrimination with empathy, tenacity and pragmatism

• How Carmel turned personal challenges into a national social enterprise

• The vision behind Pathways College and its generational impact on families
• Reflections on succession, legacy and the search for the next right leader

Carmel’s insights cut through management theory and land firmly in lived experience. This is a conversation for anyone leading people, building purpose-driven organisations, or wondering how to turn a “no” into a national movement.

If this episode resonates, please subscribe, share, and leave a review.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the conversation on The CEO Advantage.www.ceoadvantage.com.au

Follow us on Instagram @ceo_advantage