The Mentor With Mark Bouris

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.

This week as part of #fightermonth, I speak to two of Australia’s greatest boxing exports; three-time world champion and one of the best fight trainers to come out of this country, Jeff Fenech; and undefeated junior featherweight champion Brock Jarvis. A twist of fate brought Jeff and Brock together; as a teen, before he even stepped foot in a boxing gym, Jeff got into a few street brawls. The police officer who came to the scene happened to be Brock’s uncle, Pat Jarvis, who took it upon himself to get Jeff off the streets and convinced him to go to the Police Youth Club. Here Jeff met trainer Johnny Lewis and went on to become an Australian boxing legend.Fast-forward past the world titles, in 2014 a retired Jeff got a knock on the door from Brock Jarvis’s dad, with Brock in tow. Jeff wasn’t looking to coach but once he saw Brock train, he knew he had something special. Five years on, Brock is undefeated, with 17consecutive wins, 15 by knock-out. I want to ask Jeff what he saw in Brock that made him take a ch

To kick off #fightermonth - a whole month of learning about the business of fighting with some of the biggest names in Aussie combat sports - this week I’m talking to UFC Featherweight World Champion, Alex Volkanovski. In 2011, Alex started MMA training to keep fit while playing rugby, when he got a phone call from MMA fighter Shane Coleman who wanted to train him. Alex knew he had to grab the opportunity with both hands and he started the next day.Fast-forward nine years and Alex became the first Australian-born fighter to win the UFC title, beating Max Holloway to claim the featherweight belt in December 2019. I ask Alex about the business of fighting, what drove him, what specific skills got him to where he is today and how he plans for a fight when things go wrong – 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 pr

There's no hiding from the fact that we're facing difficult times. As business owners, I know there's a lot of confusion and complexity around what your next steps should be in the face of the COVID19 Pandemic and all the government restrictions and measures in place around the country. So I've sat down for a special podcast to make sense of all the noise surrounding the various stimulus measures.I've been talking to the government regularly, to help clarify the various measures to give you the information in a no-nonsense, straight forward way. I discuss getting access to working capital, cash payments on PAYG withholding, superannuation release, increasing the instant asset write off and business investment incentives and supporting the flow of credit.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’s guest Chris Marr, is a former Australian Army officer who spent 20 years in service, including 10 years as a leader and commander in the special forces; during which time he led Australian soldiers on complex missions all over the world, with the consequences for failure very high. Having worked on the front line all his life, Chris was motivated to contribute to something bigger than himself; so along with his two best mates, he created Sonder - the app making the world a safer place by matching emergency service providers to those who need help, making people feel safer across the world.Whether you're being followed walking to your car at night, dealing with an aggressive customer and worried for your safety or having mental health issues, Sonder are there, 24/7 to give support. I ask Chris why purpose was such a strong motivator for the business and how Sonder is a disruptor with a conscience.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. See omnystudio.com/lis

This week’s guest, Nick Georgalis, grew up in Canberra, which at the time was seen as ‘the sleepy Bush Capital of Australia.’ With a background as an engineer and project manager, Nick wanted to reshape the way people thought about Canberra and revolutionise property investment in Australia. So, in 2007 Nick founded Geocon, Canberra’s first fully integrated property enterprise with capabilities across development, construction, hospitality management, investment, sales and conveyancing.In 2007 the business had just 5 employees and 5 million in turnover; now there are 800 employees and over 1 billion a year turnover. I ask Nick how starting the business was an organic and intuitive move, and how important the Geocon brand, culture and personality is in Canberra in terms of attracting the right people to deliver the right outcomes.Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. Got a question or comment for Mark? Send an email. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information

Guy Saxelby was a successful charted accountant prior to founding his business Earlytrade, when a trip to New York and a chance blizzard there, changed the course of his career. As an accountant, Guy saw first-hand the strain that late payments could put on small businesses - if they’re not paid on time, they can’t hire, they can’t invest, and they can’t buy the things they need to grow their businesses. So, he came up with an idea to connect suppliers with corporate clients and allow them to offer discounts for early invoice payment.Guy’s mission is to fight for little businesses to get the same benefits that big businesses have always had, and now, over 36 thousand businesses use the Early Trade marketplace for cash flow and working capital. I ask Guy how he managed to build the largest early payment marketplace in the Asia pacific region, and how he can turn chaos, whether in the market place or in his own mind, into something hugely beneficial. Join the Facebook Group.Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, Link

When Steven Marks landed a job as a hedge fund manager at a top Wall Street hedge fund at just 23 years old, he thought he had it made. But by 30, he was burnt out and ready for a fresh start, so he booked a one-way ticket to Australia with a dream of starting his own business. 17 years on, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Guzman y Gomez, the Mexican casual-dining chain that had its origins here in Australia.Since starting the business back in 2006 in Sydney, it’s expanded across Australia, Singapore and Japan, with plans for expansion into the US this year.I ask Steven how he transformed Guzman y Gomez from a loss-making fast food chain to a $300 million empire, how he managed to keep the drive to open new restaurants when he was losing money, and why good company culture and team rapport is so important to the 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 infor

Chairman of Raiz Invest Australia, Tony Fay, has worked in financial markets since the 80’s, where he held senior positions for several leading investment banks and stock broking firms. Through having his own kids, he saw first-hand how difficult it was for them to save and invest, so Tony jumped at the opportunity to make a difference by starting a business that provides the millennial customer a platform to invest and save, with very small amounts of money – we’re talking as little as $5. Raiz can round up transactions from your bank account and invest the 'spare change' for you; so if you buy a coffee for $3.50, Raiz can round up the transaction to $4 and put the extra 50 cents straight into your Raiz investment account, so that even those on modest incomes can start investing.When the business launched in 2016, they had 3-million dollars of funds under management – now that’s grown to 480-million dollars. I ask Tony how watching his own kids struggle to save and invest their own money drove him to launch

Model turned “Skintrepreneur” Ryan Channing was living in Paris and pursuing a career in law, when a chance trip to Japan changed the course of his life. While there, Ryan was introduced to activated charcoal skincare products and was inspired to start his own activated charcoal skincare business, The BLAQ Group. Within just a few months, the business was inundated with so many orders that Ryan moved back to Australia to work on the project full-time.Since then, he’s created two more brands under the BLAQ group; Generation Clay and Flight Mode. I ask Ryan how he bullet-proofs his business through various systems and processes, and how seeding his product to influencers around the world and communicating directly with his target market, has made BLAQ the success that it is.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.

Blair James grew up understanding the power and value that Aussie brands have abroad, when at the age of six, his dad moved the family over to the UK to set up shop selling Aussie products. Three years later his dad’s business went under, but Blair’s love of brands and passion for innovation was born. Since then Blair’s made huge waves in the billion-dollar beauty industry with his globally successful self-tanning business, Bondi Sands.Today it’s the number one self-tanning brand in Australia and NZ, with over 60% of the market share as a self-tanning brand. I ask Blair about how watching his dad’s business go under shaped him, why it’s so important to have a strong sense of brand messaging, and what it is about Aussie products that the global market gravitates to.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.

Changing the game for digital marketing in Australia, Sabri Suby launched his digital marketing agency, King Kong, at the age of 27. He’s now on track to turn over 18 million dollars this year. The secret? Sabri promises his clients results, which means if his staff don’t hit their client KPIs, they don’t get paid. I ask Sabri about why he introduced this unique performance guarantee structure, what you should be looking for when building a digital marketing strategy for your own business, and how Sabri’s entrepreneurial journey all started as a kid growing up in Byron Bay, grinding peanuts for some extra cash.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.

“Lawyer turned funtrepreneur” Sarah Davidson was busy climbing the corporate ladder when she started a side hustle with her now husband Nic – a tea business called Matcha Maiden. Within just a few months, they were inundated with so many orders that Sarah quit her office job to work on the project full-time. But over the last few years, Sarah’s personal brand has also become a focus, with her Instagram page Spoonful of Sarah attracting 70k+ followers. She’s also got a podcast of her own, called Seize the Yay. I ask Sarah about how growing up as a professional ballerina taught her the discipline she needed to start her own business and how she’s developed her ability to pivot time and time again throughout her career.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.