The Mentor with Mark Bouris

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 chance on him and why he paid forward what he’d learnt from some of the great legends of boxing; and ask Brock how the way he trains as a fighter influences his business life, and how he builds and retains his revenue through sponsorships.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 #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 privacy information.

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/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.