Build It. They'll Come.

Mark Kelly only learned to surf on a board at the age of 30, but that cemented his lifelong love of the ocean, first sparked when his dad took him scuba diving as a teen. Kelly came to adore surfing and its calming connection with the sea and nature. Having learned the international sales, marketing and distribution ropes working as a senior exec with massive global brands Adidas and Bausch + Lomb, Mark Kelly took the leap to start his own surfboard and stand-up paddle board business. Always with an eye on disrupting the somewhat haphazard cottage industry of supplying surfboards in Australia, he set his sights on 3 essentials to give him an edge – thinking globally; going after the mass market of beginner surfers rather than world champs; and offering retailers certainty of supply and consistently good quality brand boards to offer customers. 2 decades ago, Global Surf Industries was born and has since become a major supplier of boards in some 74 countries around the world. All done from his base in Manly Beach, Sydney. Somewhere along the way, Mark Kelly became a political activist too, without really meaning to. In 2018 he began what started as a meme really, a small local grassroots campaign with the catchy title “Vote Tony Out”. The “Tony” being former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the campaign’s aim was to vote Tony Abbott out as the federal Member for the seat of Warringah. Gutsy? Yes. Provocative? Yes. Successful? Yes. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In Part 1 of our chat, this week, Mark talks of his business do’s and don’ts; how to deal with the often huge challenges of growing internationally; COVID’s substantial highs for his business, but the lows too, with subsequent supply chain problems facing all industries. In Part 2 next week, find out how exactly Mark built a successful political campaign, from scratch!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Barry Lambert has built not 1, but 3 business empires over the past 4 decades, but he doesn’t consider himself an entrepreneur! Starting out as a 16 year old, who began work at the Commonwealth Bank Taree branch, Lambert went on to create and build Count Financial, a grouping of accountants which he expanded into a large franchise operation. After listing Count Financial on the stock exchange in 2000, he sold it to CBA for $373 million just a decade later. His empire no. 2, CountPlus, among other successes, bought back Count Financial for a meagre $2.5million, after the banking Royal Commission severely battered CBA’s wealth management credentials. Then a dreadful illness that befell his granddaughter led Barry to create his 3rd empire – an international medicinal cannabis business, called Ecofibre, now listed on the ASX. Lessons from this self-described reluctant entrepreneur, about solving problems for others, and why you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be better than your competition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Katherine McConnell was a Macquarie banker specializing in asset finance she knew there was a genuine & untapped opportunity that no big bank could take advantage of. And that was to provide new ways to help ordinary householders invest hefty upfront charges in renewable energy in their homes, be it rooftop solar, battery or blinds. So she mortgaged her family’s home, scrimped and saved every penny, including her kids’ (former) private school fees, and created Brighte, which essentially offers a Buy Now, Pay Later payment plan – with no interest charged – for expensive renewable energy assets in the home. It was a masterstroke plan that actually started life in 2015 as a blog she wrote to help consumers think about renewables. That blog turned into a business plan, which turned into HER business plan. And that transformed into her startup in 2016 – Brighte. Brighte has since attracted the attention of tech billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who have heavily backed her venture. Hear HOW Katherine stole a march on territory that should have been bread and butter for big banks – providing credit to households; how she built her empire from an initial 6 employees to currently 180 in the team; and how she has navigated and managed Brighte’s wild ride in just 5 years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adapting Aspen Medical’s outsourced healthcare hospitals, clinics and highly-trained medical personnel to suddenly and expertly deal with the COVID-19 pandemic was an extraordinary challenge for the company. But one it executed highly effectively. Not only did Aspen Medical operate strict infection control protocols on some of the early repatriation flights out of Wuhan into Australia, and successfully manage Covid-infected crew members on the stricken Diamond Princess ship stuck in Japan, in early 2020, but this year Aspen set up pop-up respiratory clinics for Covid testing, and helped existing health services get the Vaccine into the arms of hundreds and thousands of Aged Care and Disability accommodation residents as well as staff, via Aspen Medical’s mobile clinics.  Yet that’s just part of Glenn Keys’ commitment to those with a disability. Part of his personal philanthropy, through Project Independence, was sparked by the birth of his son, with Down Syndrome.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Glenn Keys AO spent his boyhood living above his parents shop in regional NSW, little did he know that he was soaking up his folks' entrepreneurial spirit. That childhood revolving around the family small business, instilled in Glenn an ability to take calculated risks and back himself. And that combined with his adult training as an engineer, and work in the military, equipped him to bet big to pursue an idea in 2003 to provide quality healthcare outcomes for clients around the world that had stretched or non-existent healthcare services. With a friend, they built Aspen Medical, from Glenn's dining table in Canberra, into a world-class Australian-owned outfit now employing some 7,500 people, engaged in over 100 projects operating in 18 countries across the globe. They provide fully-staffed and equipped mobile hospitals, surgical or maternity clinics, dental or opthalmology units in war-torn Iraq, East Timor & Ebola-ridden West Africa, as well as Covid-19 vaccination hubs for disability charities back home in Australia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.