The Mentor With Mark Bouris

Few industries have been harder hit by COVID19 than live music and events, and my guest this week, Jeremy Fleming, has been on the frontline of this. Jeremy and his wife Tabitha are the owners of StageKings who have been building custom-made stages for music festivals and sporting events since 2015. But when COVID19 forced the end of large public gatherings earlier this year, StageKings lost 95 per cent of their business within 48 hours.Rather than sit around and wait for the events to come back, they immediately thought of new ways to use their skills and produce something in high demand: work-from-home  furniture. Their rebranded furniture business 'IsoKing' has sold more than 10,000 units in just three months. I ask Jeremy how StageKings went from creating stages for the Commonwealth Games to desks for inner-city apartments and how they use social media to tap into exactly what consumers are looking for.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/list

There's not a single business in the world that Covid19 hasn’t effected in some way, so for the next few episodes I'll be speaking to business owners who have had to pivot their business, rethink the way they operate and find innovative ways to keep their businesses going in some of the most challenging times we’ve ever seen. So to kick it off, I speak to Paul Dewhurst, Operations Manager at Three Blue Ducks, who have restaurants in Bronte, Byron Bay, Brisbane, Roseberry and now Melbourne too.They were forced to shut the doors to all their venues in March with almost no warning. But they pivoted quickly and a week later, the business branched into the fresh food and takeaway market, supplying gourmet produce boxes to Byron Bay locals and a paired-back take-away menu to Sydneysiders. I ask Paul about how they made the quick decision to pivot what Three Blue Ducks offered, why they won't compromise their company values for an easy buck, and how Covid-19 has shown the importance of community and connection.Join

This week I'm talking to the owner and ‘Chief Smuggler' of swimwear brand Budgy Smuggler, Adam Linforth, who's business was founded at a backyard BBQ in true Aussie fashion. Budgy Smuggler definitely know a thing or two about doing things differently, because while other brands were focusing on people with perfect physiques, Budgy made it their mission to focus on ordinary people of all shapes and sizes. They're even a favourite with Aussie athletes. I ask Adam how Budgy Smuggler have creatively used social media to gain brand recognition, and how the business has pivoted to use their famous prints to create new products.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest this week is changing the game for the PR and Marketing industry. Lara Vandenberg founded her business Publicist while working in New York, where she saw an industry that needed a big shake-up. The traditional way of hiring talented PR professionals through word of mouth and recruiters was becoming outdated and ineffective. So at just 28 years old, Lara took on a challenge to automate the industry and founded Publicist, an online marketplace connecting brands with the most experienced freelancers in PR and marketing. I ask Lara how Publicist is transforming the traditional PR model to provide flexible and scalable support for brands, while rewarding talent entering the freelance market in a time of layoffs. Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After working as a beauty editor for some of Australia's top magazines for over 15 years, Carla Oates was shocked by the synthetic substances used in so many commercial beauty products. When her daughter developed allergies and eczema, Carla put her family on a gut-healing plan that included probiotic-rich whole foods and quickly noticed a huge difference in her daughter’s skin and wellbeing. So after researching the benefits of gut bacteria, Carla started her business ‘The Beauty Chef’ to create plant-based supplements for gut health and glowing skin. I ask Carla how she is striving to change the beauty industry to be more transparent and why she’s on a mission to educate people on healthier and more holistic skincare solutions.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If recent events have shown us anything, it’s that Australian small businesses are resilient and have a fighting spirit in challenging times. Having the right online setup for your business shouldn't be daunting, it should be simple and accessible so that anyone can feel confident to set it up themselves.My guest Suzanne Mitchell is the Marketing Director for GoDaddy Australia and knows a lot about building online success for everyday entrepreneurs. I ask Suzanne about the essential tools and services all businesses need to build an online presence, attract customers and manage their work, and how small businesses have had to adapt and pivot during Covid19 to not only remain operational but transform and thrive.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After 25 years working in retail, Julie Mathers decided to take her experience, combine it with her passion for the environment and animal welfare, and create a business committed to making a meaningful impact on the world. So in 2014 Julie launched her online store Flora and Fauna, specialising in ethical, eco-friendly and vegan products.When the business launched there were 30 brands and 500 products; now their range has over 300 brands and 8000 products, sourcing the best ethical and low-waste skincare, food, fashion, and lifestyle products. I talk to Julie about the ethic of hard work, the concept of thinking like a proprietor and how Flora & Fauna has managed to grow so quickly while maintaining its eco ethos.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Husband and wife duo Tara and Danny Solberg worked as designers collecting inspiration on their travels around the world, and always dreamed of bringing the unique things they saw home to Australia. So they turned their passion into a business and created Few and Far, a furniture and homewares business on the South Coast of NSW.Few and Far source and import one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and décor and Tara and Danny have created a compelling shopping experience that captivates all the senses. I ask them how their design backgrounds and passion for travel helped shape their entrepreneurial mindset, and why moving online was the natural choice for the growth and success of the business.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guests this week are Shaun Greenblo and Elliot Midalia from Boody, a sustainable clothing brand that creates everyday essentials from eco-friendly organic bamboo. Shaun and Elliot have been best friends since they were kids and their dads started the business together in 2012, when they saw an opportunity to sell an unconventional product for the health-conscious and environmentally minded customer. Shaun and Elliot came into the business with their growth mindset and love of technology and Boody is now a family business run by two fathers and two sons, sold in 1000 retailers in Australia, online and in 17 countries globally. I ask Shaun and Elliot about how their hunger to change the world for the better inspired them to create a sustainable product, and how Boody uses fabrics and craft to bypass trends and fast-fashion.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like many who work in the fitness industry Kirsten King didn't start there; she initially worked in marketing for a decade before founding Fluidform Pilates in 2012, which gave her the perfect understanding to develop the brand and business. In early 2019 Kirsten launched Fluidform at Home, an online subscription-based Pilates program which boasts subscribers from all over the world. I talk to Kirsten about how Fluidform was perfectly positioned to deal with the increase in online subscriptions when the business experienced huge growth during a time when most people were at home, and how combining highly personalised programming with in-depth technical knowledge has played such a huge role in the success of the Fluidform brand.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Pritchett grew up obsessed with video, always carrying a camcorder around to film his friends doing skateboard tricks. He founded his first production company in 2006, working on big budget video projects, when he was challenged by one of his clients to create a scalable and affordable video offering. So he created Shootsta, a customised video kit and training platform; teaching clients to capture their own video and then use Shootsta’s editing team to turn this content around within 24 hours. I ask Mike about how Shootsta is disrupting the video industry by simplifying the production process, the benefits of having clients film their own content and how his service has helped users improve their business' communication both internally and externally.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Julio Ribeiro is the co-founder and CEO of Inventia Life Science, the med-tech company behind the 3D bioprinter technology that creates realistic replicas of tumours to test cancer treatments. Julio grew up in Brazil where he studied biology and genetics, and in the 90’s he migrated to Australia to do his PhD in medicine. After working for a scientific tech supply company, he saw a gap in the market and knew that the science field had the potential to make life a lot better, so he started his company, Inventia Life Science.They developed the bioprinting platform ‘Rastrum’ to print 3D cell models in high quantity with a gel that mimics human tissue, enabling medical researchers to do higher quality experiments into cancer treatment, and potentially also the coronavirus. I ask Julio how he sees biology, computer science and engineering coming together in the next few years and where the highly disruptive sector of 3D printing has the potential to go.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, Linke

Masood Naqshbandi is an entrepreneurial scientist and Co-founder of Abyss Solutions, a robotics company that provides automated underwater inspections for dams, reservoirs, bridges, ship hulls and oil and gas platforms. They combine remotely operated underwater vehicles and drones with data analytics to allow their clients to reduce inspection costs of places that are typically very difficult to inspect.Now the vision for Abyss solutions is to become a conglomerate of multiple service sectors including tech, intelligence and automation. I ask Masood about his transition from the academic world to the business world and how the future of innovative science technology and automation can hugely benefit us.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week in the final instalment of Women in Tech month I speak to Carolyn Mee, the founder of Sound Scouts, a health tech company focused on the delivery of accessible, fun and affordable hearing screening. Developed in collaboration with the National Acoustic Laboratories, Sound Scouts flagship product is an easy to use mobile game app that uses scientific principles to detect a range of hearing problems in kids. I ask Carolyn how using intuition and creativity can leapfrog your product and create opportunities outside of the usual remit, and how remote access is providing hugely beneficial to Sound Scouts.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week as part of 'Women in Tech' month I sit down with the co-founders of Beam Australia, Stephanie Reuss and Victoria Stuart. Beam is a HR tech company and online marketplace for part-time professionals including high profile businesswomen, athletes and carers looking for the flexibility of part-time employment.Since 2016, Beam has contributed over $17 million in new salaries to the Australian economy through new jobs that couldn’t have been created without part-time work. I ask Stephanie and Victoria about how they see businesses embracing new workplace flexibility to work more efficiently and economically - it's a revolution against archaic work-place structures to reimagine the way work is done.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week as part of ‘Women in Tech’ month, I sit down with Olga Oleinikova, co-founder and CEO of Persollo, the world’s first social media instant-checkout platform. Olga grew up in Ukraine and worked as a consumer researcher and behavioural scientist before migrating to Australia in 2012.While undertaking her PhD, she founded Persollo, with the aim of helping SME’s sell without big investment. With its AI-powered analytics and instant-checkout technology, Persollo has helped over 750 businesses across 16 countries increase their sales conversion by 300%. I ask Olga how her life has been about seizing unexpected opportunities and how her she used the outcome of her studies to build her own business.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To kick off ‘Women in Tech’ month - where I talk to some of the most powerful and innovative female entrepreneurs and leaders in the tech space – this week I sit down with Georgia Vidler, the Director of Product at Canva. Canva is an easy to use graphic design platform and it’s Australia’s fastest-growing tech start-up, with over 25 million monthly users worldwide. Georgia is leading the charge for the newly developed ‘Canva for Education’ platform, and with over 1 billion students across the world learning remotely, this is more important than ever. I ask Georgia about the importance of genuine relationships in business, what exactly a good pitch deck is and how the digital wave is changing the way we all operate.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Quentin Nolan was 22 years old, all he wanted was to get down to the snow to snowboard; so he started driving coaches to the ski fields from Sydney. After seeing a gap in the market in the ski tourism industry, he came up with his own business - Liquid Snow Tours, tailoring ski and snowboard holidays to resorts around Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.In 2008, Quentin took his first group of 45 people over to the Japanese village of Hakuba, fell in love with Japan and decided to focus his business on the ski fields there. Today, Liquid Snow takes around 10,000 tourists a year over to Japan and is on track to turn over $14 million dollars in revenue. I ask Quentin how his experiences as a child helped shape his entrepreneurial and adventurous mindset and why Japan was the natural choice for the growth of his company.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week in the final instalment of #fightermonth, I’m talking to light-middleweight boxer Tim Tszyu, who made his professional debut in 2016 and held the Australian title in 2019. At 25 years old, Tim holds a powerful record of 15-0 and as the son of former world champion Kostya Tszyu, it goes without saying that he grew up with boxing in his blood. I ask Tim about what his brand stands for, and how he manages chaos in the boxing ring and keeps a calm head when he’s in the fight; just like we’re all experiencing in our business environments at the moment.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week as part of #fightermonth, I’m talking to George Kambosos, the professional lightweight boxer currently ranked number 3 in the world, who’s swift rise towards world level has been phenomenal. George started out boxing as a kid in high school as a way to build his confidence in the face of bullying. His aptitude and passion for the sport quickly led to him having hundreds of fights and multiple national and international tournaments.Earlier this year George started his business ‘Ferocious Promotion,’ signing and managing young fighters with the goal to negotiate a bigger percentage for the fighter. I ask George how he put together the strategy to get to fighting the biggest names in the boxing world today, and why having a thorough understanding of what fighters go through is so important to the success of his business.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.