Anyone who is part of a company of a certain size will understand the difficulties of the recruitment process. It simply isn’t automatic that a new recruit is going to fit in, and one key reason is because of the vast range of ages and generations that work under one roof. It’s perfectly common for a new employee to be working under somebody who is the same age as their parents, and while it is generally accepted that children and parents will see the world in a different way, employers often fa...
Apr 13, 2016•1 hr 1 min
This has to be one of the most extraordinary BBF episodes – it isn’t every day you get to speak to a survivor of a plane crash. Dave Sanderson was on the now infamous US Airways flight 1549 which was struck by a flock of Canada geese just moments after takeoff on January 15 2009. The pilot was forced to ditch the plane in the Hudson river. This quick thinking helped save all 155 people on board, but it was not the only quick thinking on the plane that day. Dave Sanderson was also lauded for his ...
Apr 06, 2016•50 min
Joshua Belanger is living proof of the power of email marketing. Originally a Wall Street options broker, he used email marketing to reinvent himself as an options-trading adviser to the public. He now has a big enough following to be regularly quoted by the likes of the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, while his own website Option Sizzle continues to go from strength to strength. Here are some of Joshua’s top tips: ** Don’t go overboard with bells and whistles. The more obstacles you remove fro...
Mar 30, 2016•1 hr 7 min
We’ve all heard of webinars, but how many of us actually know how to use them to make money for our business? This week’s guest Steven Essa certainly does – he travels around the world showing people how. Webinars can be useful for so much in the course of business, i.e. more sales, lead generation, increasing your own authority etc.; but like most people, Steven didn’t realise their value at first. He’d always struggled to write good sales copy so was always frustrated at the low quality of his...
Mar 16, 2016•59 min
Chris Gray has truly built an empire… an AUD 14m property empire to be precise! As a result he has gained great notoriety as a commentator on the marketplace… you may have seen him appearing on his fortnightly slot on Sky News called “Your Property Empire”. Perhaps what has made him so successful is his schooling beyond property. Chris is also qualified as an accountant and as a mortgage broker which has enabled him to see beyond the bricks and mortar. It is a great privilege to have such a grea...
Mar 10, 2016•1 hr
This man is a serious legend in the world of human performance, so much so that Ben credits him as the person who inspired him to get where he is today. Having studied the art for a total of 43 years and having authored 40 self-development books, John is now revered as a world authority on the matter. What makes John such a good guest is the practicality of his theory. He is not a generic ‘guru’ who simply deals in top-level philosophy – he distills everything in to day-to-day goals that we can ...
Mar 02, 2016•53 min
Matt Holmes is so passionate about networking that he has become known as Matt “handshakin” Holmes. He even has a world record for the longest ever handshake, standing at the grand total of 46 hours! Matt first realised the power of networking when he landed a big contract as a result of his future employers seeing photos of him online shaking hands with people who had connections with that company. He now has his own agency (appropriately enough, called “Handshakin”), but in this week’s podcast...
Feb 25, 2016•53 min
Tom Breeze has made it his duty to educate people on the massive potential of YouTube advertising. He was inspired to spread the word after the roaring success of a video advert he created for his previous therapy/self-help business. Having never done video advertising before, he uploaded his own advert to his site, and was amazed to see his lead conversion rate go up from 7% to 22%. Since then he has created over 1,700 video ad campaigns and has analysed the data from every single one of them, ...
Feb 17, 2016•1 hr 4 min
Mark Schaefer is an absolute guru when it comes to social media. Having worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies over a number of years, he left the corporate world to indulge his obsession for sharing his knowledge with others, as a lecturer and author of six different books. In this week’s podcast we are lucky enough to hear Mark giving us a sneak preview of his new book, The Content Code. Mark was inspired to write the book when he kept being asked the same questions from business owners, i...
Feb 09, 2016•54 min
Steve Hui is the leading authority on optimising credit cards for frequent flyer points. Dubbed “The Points Whisperer”, his company I Fly Flat helped his customers spend 125 million points in 2015. Steve was inspired to start the business when he once flew business class and decided that he wanted to do it more often. He realised just what was possible by earning loyalty points on credit cards. He then advised his friends to switch credit cards and cash in on the benefits. When none of them took...
Jan 27, 2016•50 min
Facebook marketing is something that every business could benefit from. This week’s guest Greg Cassar shares his online marketing expertise with us, offering some of the tricks of the trade to make your facebook campaigns stand out from the crowd. This is actually the second time Greg has appeared on the show (see his last appearance here: http://actioncoachanz.com/bbf-071-how-to-get-more-leads-customers-and-sales-with-digital-marketing-expert-greg-cassar). We decided to invite him back because ...
Jan 15, 2016•1 hr 2 min
Valerie Khoo’s story is all about... well… stories! In the modern world of data analysis in business, it is easy to neglect the art of storytelling as part of the marketing mix, so Valerie has tried to address this with her book, Business Power Stories. It actually debuted at number two in the Australian business-book chart (only beaten by Richard Branson), so it was great to be able to get a sneak preview of it on this week’s show. Valerie also founded the National Writing Centre in Australia, ...
Dec 08, 2015•47 min
Suzi Dafnis is Community Director and CEO of the Australian Businesswomen's Network, where she has been involved for over 20 years. This week she gives us the benefit of her decades of career-coaching experience and of her own development in business, which importantly is applicable to both men and women. Many will wonder whether there is still a need for a women’s network in this day and age, and while Suzi says that the business landscape is significantly different to when the network first fo...
Oct 28, 2015•51 min
DISRUPT YOURSELF WITH JAY SAMIT Businesses of any size must be able to adapt to disruption in the marketplace, and some of the most successful new businesses come about because they solve a problem that disruption has caused. No one would disagree with how fundamental the concept of disruption/change is to being successful in business, and yet so many businesses fall down because they are scared of adapting. Jay Samit is one of the world leaders when it comes to disruption in business, having wo...
Oct 21, 2015•55 min
How To Get More Leads, Customers and Sales With Digital Marketing Expert Greg Cassar Every business needs to know how to market themselves in the online sphere. Greg Cassar is all about empowering businesses to do just that. Having run his own online stores, he then built up a marketing agency, before deciding to become an online marketing coach. He now has a portfolio of clients who turn over AUD 500,000 to AUD 100,000,000 per year, but took the time out to give us the benefit of his wisdom in ...
Oct 21, 2015•57 min
How To Open Over 400 Outlets In Just 7 Years Jacinta McDonell is an inspiration to all of us. In only 7 years she has built up the Anytime Fitness brand to be the leading gym franchise in Australia, and has managed to find time to look after three children, raise big money for charitable causes, and even start her own charitable foundation, the Human Kind Project. There just do not seem to be the hours in the day to have done what she’s done, but it really comes across in the interview just how ...
Sep 16, 2015•51 min
How A Whistle Blower Uncovered $22 Million In Fraud It is said that fraud accounts for an average of 5% of any company’s revenue, so the process of whistleblowing is certainly something that ought to be taken seriously. You might think that it’s not going on in your business, but Sylvain Mansotte’s story is living proof of just how much fraud can happen if no one has the courage to blow the whistle. He unearthed a scam that had been going on for 12 years that was worth $22 million – the largest ...
Sep 09, 2015•49 min
Achieving High Human Performance With Dr Adam Fraser Every day in business – in life in fact – we face challenges. That’s obvious, right? But what is less obvious is the importance of the downtime between each challenge. If you treat it with the right amount of respect, your success can go through the roof. Play it wrongly and you set yourself up to fail, time and again. Dr Adam Fraser has done mountains of research on the topic and has kindly offered to share some of the results with us on this...
Sep 02, 2015•58 min
How To Get Leads Using Video On Facebook And Youtube With Gideon Shalwick Having online video as part of your marketing mix can really engage people. As obvious as this sounds, the market for online video marketing is still relatively immature, so there is great opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd with the right campaign. Gideon Shadwick makes his living from empowering companies to do just that. Like most of the rest of us, he started as an online-marketing novice, but through the p...
Aug 26, 2015•56 min
Making Your Dreams Come True With Steve Sims When Steve Sims was sacked as a stockbroker after only three days in the job, it certainly didn’t look like it was the beginning of an extravagant adventure that has seen him arrange a wedding in The Vatican and have dinner at the feet of the statue of Michael Angelo. Steve’s company Bluefish specialises in creating unique experiences for high net-worth clients who want to live life to the full. He literally makes people’s dreams come true… for the ri...
Aug 19, 2015•48 min
How to Create 2 Million Dollars a Year in Passive Income with Nathan Birch It seems like a crazy dream to be able to retire from full-time work at the age of 24 and still have $2 million land in your account every year when you hit 30, but Nathan Birch is living proof that it is possible. For him it was all about setting the right goals, week by week, year by year, and more generally, working hard now to earn the right to not have to work as hard later. This seems like such an obvious mantra, bu...
Aug 12, 2015•48 min
How To Promote Your Business In The Media, With Bec Derrington Every business needs good PR, but in order to get it, you have to understand how to build bridges with your preferred media. One great way of attracting the media is to be quoted as an expert, so we spoke to Bec Derrington, founder of http://www.sourcebottle.com - a service that connects experts with the media. Source Bottle is a free global service used by bloggers, journalists and reporters that gives them easy access to experts in...
Aug 05, 2015•58 min
Have the Biggest Pay Day of Your Life with Kerry Boulton Whether you need to voluntary leave a business or if something goes wrong and you have to leave, it is very important to have an exit strategy. Always begin with the end in mind. Over the years, Kerry Boulton has sold several businesses for millions of dollars. Also, she has mentored many business owners through successful business growth in order to position them for their ultimate sale. Leaving a business is about: ** You ** Your family ...
Jul 29, 2015•55 min
Holding On to Your Customers with Kym Illman What do your customers hear when you put them on hold? Awful music or valuable branding and product messages? Kym Illman is the founder of Messages On Hold, which helps businesses customize their hold messages to achieve results. He is an entrepreneur who turned his home-based business into a multi-million dollar international success story. Technology and advances in phone systems have made hold content much easier to utilize. Businesses need to make...
Jul 22, 2015•47 min
Building a Successful Social Enterprise with Katie Wyatt Want to use your business skills and the power of the market for social good? Then you may want to consider social enterprises a.k.a not-for-profit businesses. Katie Wyatt is a wellness and business coach for social enterprises, which are businesses that raise money for and support a social cause. These businesses may employee people who would not otherwise be able to find a job, including the homeless and those with disabilities. It is no...
Jul 09, 2015•48 min
The Keys to Business Success with Guy Kawasaki Do you want to change the world? Then, what is the secret to success? Well, there is no secret to being successful in business. What it takes is being passionate about what you want to do, being clear on what you want to achieve, and to work hard. Guy Kawasaki is known as a business growth guru. He just loves to work and has empowered people through his writing, speaking, investing, and advising. He is passing down a body of knowledge he has acquire...
Jul 02, 2015•48 min
From Uni Dropout to a Multi-Million Dollar Business with Dwayne Martens After dropping out of university and adventures in traveling, Dwayne Martens was down and out. He was mingling with crowds that treated him like a dog. To bring awareness to that disrespect was the first step. Now, he surrounds himself with people who respect him. Your environment reflects where you are at in your life! Also, he read some books to help change his mindset. As a result, he developed confidence that he could do...
Jun 25, 2015•49 min
How to Create Copy That Sells with Bernadette Schwerdt Copywriting is not as easy as you may think. And it is vitally important to your business – from email messages to your website. Bernadette Schwerdt is a copywriting coach and expert. She is the managing director of the Australian School of Copywriting and teaches people the art of writing. Schwerdt defines copywriting as the art of selling through words - both written and spoken. Copywriting is the process of coming up with a message and ma...
Jun 25, 2015•53 min
How to Succeed at Cold Calling Cold calling – a lot of people are terrified by it! It can put a shiver up and down most people’s spines. But it is time to reprogram your brain to think about cold calling in a positive way. Ben Fewtrell shares why cold calling is good for your business! The best way to grow your business is to pick up the phone. You’ve got to sell something to somebody. You can use cold calling to re-engage existing customers as well as reach potentially new customers. * Press pl...
Jun 11, 2015•39 min
Why People Fail with Siimon Reynolds How can you make sure to not fail, but succeed! The media always seems to focus on those who are successful. But failure should be addressed, as well. Most successful people have failed many times, and failures happen more than successes! “Failure, for any ambitious person, is their constant companion. Success is only occasional,” said Siimon Reynolds. * Press play above to listen to this weeks Podcast * Simmon Reynolds is an internationally renowned expert o...
Jun 03, 2015•42 min
