Disciplinn by Tony Simmons

Navigating the pathway to success isn't a smooth ride. With the bumps and reroutes you may experience along the way, how can you achieve the goals you have in mind? Brendon Gale has had an amazing career. He is the current CEO of the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Before that, he played for the club from 1990 to 2001, became the CEO of the AFL Player's Association, and was a member of AFL's rules committee. Being one of the most influential people in the field, he brought Premiership Glory to Richmond after the club had had decades of on field mediocrity. For Brendon Gale, CEO of Richmond Football Club, you need to have a vision and equip yourself with the right values to gain success. In this episode, we will talk about Brendon's journey towards being the CEO of the Richmond Football Club. He will share with us the experiences that moulded him and the RFC football team magnificently. Kick-start your journey to success with our conversation on Disciplinn. Enjoy

Where does one start to describe Dave Prior? You can start with strong-foundations; his vision, commitment and self-belief. What about his history? Simply track the incredible story of his family, his understanding of the power of brands, the dedication he has to himself, his craft and his team. Now look at the incredible products that this extraordinary entrepreneur has built and bought. Add these together and you get an incredible entrepreneur with an amazing story, and plenty left in the tank. Dave’s penchant for risk is off the charts, matched only by his ability to deliver outstanding outcomes. What is clear is that Dave draws additional strength from his tight-knit family, and doesn’t make everything one way traffic - he gives back to his staff and community and that makes his journey all the more impressive. Our discussion of self-belief and values is very informative, as is the resolve that Dave displayed against all odds when "experts" told him that he was destined for failure. Enjoy our discussion.

Everything Ben Ross has done in his working life is clearly top-shelf. And throughout his career, Ben has been in complete control of his own destiny, stepping into different roles and guises in different countries and levelling up his career every single step. Ben is self aware, well-rounded and poised, a risk-taker with a brilliant mind and deep understanding of product market fit and customer driven innovation. Ben believes that great businesses happen when customer driven innovations (insights) MEETS technology driven innovations MEETS great design. And why is it important? Because "...disruption never finishes. There is another wave of disruption coming right behind the first wave." Whilst your going to learn heaps about product market fit, lean start ups, customer validation and so much more, what Ben really drives home is how culture, values and people (especially product managers) are always the building blocks of great product and leading indicators of company success. Enjoy our discussion.

Gavin Appel has the trifecta for any tech entrepreneur: - Global Exit - Partner at preeminent Venture Capital firm - Scale up and tech advisor to scale ups and large corporates It really is a journey to marvel at. Gavin believes businesses need to be close to their customers, and solving real, large-scale, problems. And understands that founders must be razor focussed on their goals, whilst founders should obsessively become the subject matter experts in their domains. Importantly, Gavin has certainty of his position and views and doesn’t mice his words or water-down them down. It’s this strength of conviction that had guided him through his career, and will no doubt give you some inspiration and fresh perspective. Enjoy our discussion. This episode of Disciplinn is proudly brought to you by Edison Partners.

PR (Public Relations) is, for many of us in business, a black box, a dark art of achieving editorial over advertorial, of earned vs paid, of authenticity vs concoction; or as some call it, "SPIN". Lahra Carey is an ex-ABC journalist who was one of the forerunners in crossing over from media to media advisory. Her networks are significant, her entrepreneurial curiosity unbounded, and her depth of knowledge on both creating good PR, and dealing with crisis management is world-class. This interview contains abundant, critical, insights and you won’t be disappointed with our deep dive into company values, storytelling, the value that PR can add to company boards, messaging for crisis management, editorial relations and more. If you don’t get value from listing to Lahra’s first-hand knowledge of how to communicate as a business, and inspiration from her own entrepreneurial journey - then I would suggest that you are probably not awake! Enjoy our discussion.

Kate Save CEO and Founder Be Fit Food shows us the science behind the weight loss problems that they are solving. This is a great interview to get yourself firing - health body, healthy mind. We also get into Kate’s entrepreneurial journey including obtaining investment from the Shark Tank. But don’t be fooled, as Kate will tell you, Shark Tank is all glamorised for TV, the reality is that behind the scenes, it is all hard work. No luck in it - just hard work. Kate had a bit of a tough upbringing when it came to money, but she found a business problem and more than being motivated by money, she was passionate about her business and wanted to give each and every customer an easier solution. As Kate says, “We don’t want the customer for life, we want the customer to be successful.” What a way to kick off 2021 - enjoy our conversation.

Culture? What is it? How do you create a good one - how do you measure it and what do you do if you have a bad company culture? In this episode of Disciplinn, we chat with Barbara Hyman, CEO of AI software company, Predictive Hire. Barb has decades of understanding of what culture is and how to best create it. Because of her background (at BCG and REA Group), and her deep knowledge of values, she is perfectly placed to scale this AI business into a global powerhouse. Barb discussed exactly what defines culture, how you hire for culture and we explore how she came into the role of CEO at Predictive Hire and had to RESET this tech start-up and essentially build a team, product and culture form scratch. This journey is not for the faint of heart. We delve into the incredibly difficult job of being an outsider and coming into a tech start-up and undertaking a start-up turnaround. There is so much depth to this discussion and the advice is really invaluable. In Barb’s own words “you have to be crazy to do it”. Enjoy our discussion.

There's a bit of Richard Branson in Ryan Trainor; a cheekiness, a realist, self-deprecating, humble, yet energetic, inspirational and a very successful serial entrepreneur with several gold-standard exits under his belt. Ryan is self-aware, really knows his skill set and has a storytelling ability that energises those close to him. He brings them along on a journey and can do that because he is genuine, warm and human. In this Disciplinn interview, brought to you by Edison Partners, you’ll learn that you can’t live the dreams if you can’t walk the talk. Ryan has backed himself in, again and again, as Ryan puts it he “gets himself into traffic.” Enjoy our discussion.

Justin Dry’s business career is very much like a good bottle of wine. The culmination of years of meticulously mastering a craft, and blending that knowledge into something that improves with age. In this episode of Disciplinn, Justin covers the highs, and numerous lows of getting to where he is now, CEO of Vinomofo, a great brand and a great showcase for how one business model can be brilliantly be adapted to dominate different verticals. This episode should be mandatory listening for any entrepreneur; success, failure, capital raising, failed deals, successful M&A, buy back and then master of ones domain. It’s an incredibly journey. Enjoy our discussion.

This week on Disciplinn, we release a "pre-covid" interview (from early March 2020) with the living legend Lee Simon. Lee is an absolute character, pioneer and much loved and vaunted figure of the radio industry. He has been inducted into the Australian Radio Hall of Fame, interviewed musical legends like Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Robert Plant and INXS (to name but a few). He has worked with industry legends like Molly Meldrum, Michael Gudinski and Eddie McGuire. Lee has provided the voice track, and soundtrack, of countless people's lives. Lee has been involved in radio for a hell of a long time, and as you'll hear, he was even a shareholder in Australia's first FM licence and associated radio station. It's not a case of right place at the right time, as Lee may have you believe. Lee followed his passion and expertly navigated the waters. Lee sustained 40 plus years at the one radio network, whilst others put behind the microphone and behind the scenes came and went with insights, such as "kind of stay in your lane" and "look the whole way around you for influences as they come from the strangest places". You'll find my interview with Lee entertaining a little different, but very invigorating. Enjoy our chat.

The life of Diony McPherson appears to be a rounded life of positive, perpetual, energy in motion. Far from being content having landed the dream job at Google, her and her husband Dean started Paperform. They've since met Google, and a range of industry giants, head on and have stood out above the crowd. If you listen closely to this episode of Disciplinn, you'll hear from a realist who cares deeply for her clients, who understands and thrives in business operation and someone who knows that feedback from friends is not the same as feedback from paying customers. Diony is as down to earth as you can get, still living the old adage that the customer is always right and, intuitively, moving her technology software as a service business forwards by backing the quality of her product, her husband and her team. Enjoy episode 35 of Disciplinn.

It’s no surprise that Mike Rhodes has built a Search Engine Marketing business of significant repute. If you looked at the timeline and events of Mike’s journey, you could possible argue that one couldn’t map things out better. He didn’t want to be an electrical engineer, so he moved into computers. He didn’t want to necessarily live in the UK, so he moved to Australia. When he came to Australia, he didn’t get a job at the pub, he got a job working at Ellerston, the country home of Kerry and James Packer. He wanted to sell the E-myth revisited, but ended up selling Google Adwords - the results spoke for themselves, and the rest as they say is history - enjoy hearing about how Adwords has evolved, and get some tips from the best, a guy who’s been in the eco-system for near on 20 years.

Dr Michelle Perugini is not just a brilliant, she is a brilliant person. Michelle is a sharp academic, generous giver of time and dedicated and focussed business woman. With Presagen and The Life Whisperer Michelle is changing, sorry, making lives. With Artificial Intelligence, AI, The Life Whisperer is making IVF up to 30% more successful. What could be better in business than giving the gift of life. In this day and age, we all understand the importance and benefits of #medtech. Some people might wonder where this incredible drive comes from, Dr Perugini says “In order for scientific advances to be useful to patients, you need to build up a successful commercial business, and you need to have the right intention about why you are doing the thing - we just all care deeply about patient outcome” I needn’t say anymore, enjoy our discussion.

For over 30 years Damien Mair has worked at the intersection and overlap of technology and design. Straight out of university he set up Fusion and landed his first client when he asked Apple Computers to use some of their computers - it was a massive sliding doors moment and a Lesson in “don’t ask and you don’t get”. Damien has incredibly deep views about both culture and customers and this led him to create their own hosting company so that they could provide better service to their clients - it has transformed the revenues of the business and held him in great stead as technology and experiences came further to the fore. Damien says when you think about marketing and technology you need to be more like a conductor, understanding how all the pieces of marketing work in concert. Also, he believes that you need to have a deep understanding of the technology that can support marketing activities, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of creativity. Creativity is very important. I gleaned a huge amount of insight and different ways to look at marketing and technology and experiences from this discussion. I am certain you too will gain a lot too - enjoy

Radek Sali always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and he personifies this crazy journey. In the mould of Sir Richard Branson, he has put himself "out there", been the spokesman and front-man of his company, gone high-profile, surrounded himself with brilliant and famous people, and taken all the spoils and falls that come with the name "entrepreneur". Radek Sali has tasted the sweet success of building a global brand and selling it at a great price as fierce tail-winds blew. He was original in his thinking about marketing, original in his thinking about brand, original in his thinking about ambassadors and had the guts and dare to try new things. It worked. But, past success is not always an indicator of smooth sailing ahead. As an investor, he made some of the moves he never took as a business owner. His backing of high profile celebrity chef George Calombaris has not ended well, and whilst the ink is still drying on this company decline, Radek is honest enough to share his thought on the matter. Enjoy our discussion.