Matt Brown Show - Conversations That Power The Business World.

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MBS115 - Tim Ohlsen, CEO Eldo Energy Aug 24, 2018

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Much in the world of entrepreneurship is relative. For example, when you are a startup and a solopreneur you’ll most likely have cashflow problems and you’ll battle to pay yourself a salary. Then you have Robbi Brozen, the founder of Nando’s who had 38 stores across the country and couldn’t pay his staff. It’s all relative. Let’s take Silicon Valley for example, there are so many headlines about startups raising hundreds of millions of dollars from VC’s that it’s easy to think that you’ll raise the same kind of money from VC’s in Africa. But you won’t. The markets are chalk and cheese. But the one thing that isn’t relative is that entrepreneurship is very much about pain and regardless of whether you are a startup, Robbie Brozen, a startup in Silicon Valley or just an ordinary entrepreneur trying to make a living – we all have to push through the challenges that lie before us as we look to achieve personal and business success – whatever success might mean to you it is stories like Tim Ohlsen’s, the CEO of Eldo Energy, that gives us the perspective and inspiration we need to go out there and make it rain.

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MBS114 - Jonathan Kohler, CEO Landsdowne Properties Aug 21, 2018

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Grit. The difference between entrepreneurs who make it and those who don’t. This theme has been a consistent one of the last three years of doing this show and yet stories about entrepreneurs who do whatever it takes to break through the obstacles that lie in their way just never get old. The story of Jonathan Kohler is no different and it is a story that truly brings to life what it takes to build a monster of a business. As the saying goes, only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

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MBS113 - Lauren Woolf, Founder Mrs Woolf Aug 17, 2018

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It is said that to live a creative life we just lose our fear of being wrong. As an entrepreneur it is about knowing where your blind spots are and this is easier said than done. Let’s take creative companies and agencies for example. They are so busy building the brands of other companies they very rarely build their own brand which is one of the greatest paradoxes in the business world today. Yet most creative agencies do not acknowledge this blind spot even exists because as the saying goes, when you are stuck inside the bottle you can’t read the label. So what you need is perspective to break through and that often means working with experts and skill sets you don’t have on the payroll. Lauren Woolf is the CEO of Mrs Woolf, a strategic consultancy that helps creative companies identify their blind spots and helps them to unleash and direct their creativity toward building their own brand. Oh, and pay attention to a new segment on the show called the Justice League where Lauren gets busy with a baseball bat in the studio.

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MBS112 - Jeff Large - CEO, Come Alive Creative Aug 17, 2018

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So just yesterday I was catching up on the Joe Rogan show and Jo was chatting to Gary V about podcasting. Jo shares my sentiments about podcasting exactly and to quote him exactly he said “Radio is fucked”. Allow me to explain. With podcasting you don’t have to listen to adverts, traffic reports, or miss your favourite shows. A podcast you can be streaming it on your TV, then in your car and then while you run later that day. It’s always on demand and most importantly on your terms. But how big is the podcast market in South Africa and what is the big opportunity for entrepreneurs in this space? Well, towards the end of last year, my team and I undertook the largest independent research initiative into SA podcasting. It was supported by online and mainstream media across the country over a period of six months and resulted in capturing the podcast media consumption data of over 15,000 respondents. Here are some of the headlines and key findings. The addressable market for podcasting is 16 million people, approximately 6 million South African's listen to podcasts on a weekly basis and further 9 million listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. Approximately 80% of South African's listen to the majority of a podcast and perhaps the biggest indicator of growth is that Podcast consumption has grown by 50% in the past 12 months alone. This then represents a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to go out there and build their personal brands through the medium of podcasting. To find out how to do this I reached out to Jeff Large the CEO of Come Alive Creative to explore what is happening in America in terms of podcasting and what he has learnt producing podcasts his clients. One more thing, if you’d like to get the rest of the data on SA podcasting you can do that by heading over to my blog at mattbrownmedia.com).

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MBS111 - Leah McCrae, Founder Resonance Aug 17, 2018

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Bullying in the workplace is a very real thing but as a community of business people we simply do not talk about this kind of thing enough. You see, bullying or being emotionally abused is very difficult anyone, to deal with. It makes you feel afraid and degraded and often it makes a person feel like they are worthless. Many of us who are bullied even start asking ourselves if we can do anything right and worst of all blame themselves for the situation when we are not at fault.In this episode, I chat to Leah McCrae the MD of The Park House of Events on 7 about her new venture Resonance that is shining a light on the world of bullying in the workplace.And remember, if you are being bullied right now you have to tell someone. You may not want to do this because it means showing that you are vulnerable, that you are letting someone get the better of you. But really, it is very important to tell someone otherwise, it may not stop. So, speak to a friend, a parent, brother or sister, uncle or aunt and most importantly, if it happens in the workplace, speak to HR or a person of accountability.

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MBS110 - Kat Woolf, The Property Woolf Aug 08, 2018

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So today I want to tee up this episode of the show by talking to you about something called Stopforths Law. Stopforths law is named after Mike Stopforth, the CEO of Cerebra communications. When social media took off around the world Mike put his hand up in South Africa as the countries first social media expert and aggressively grew his personal brand in the social media space. As a result, and even to this day, he is still regarded as one of Africa’s leading social media experts. And this story, lead to the creation of Stopforth’s Law – meaning he who puts his hand up first as the expert in something will automatically be accredited as the expert. My guest today, is none other than Kat Woolf, who off the back of building one of the countries largest commercial property brokerages has just put her hand up as South Africa’s commercial property expert – and through her new show called the Property Woolf, is using the power of podcasting to grow her personal brand and ultimately her own business. This is a journey into the power personal branding where you’ll learn how to apply Stopforths law in your own business and industry.

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MBS109 - Natalie Laurencik & Lucy Phillips, Consilium Legal Aug 08, 2018

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So, if you’re an entrepreneur running your own business at some point on your journey you will have a run in with the law. No, I’m not talking about drunk driving although I’m sure that this will apply to some of you. What I’m referring to are legal issues, risks and challenges you’ll encounter as you scale your business. I call them pinches – because most entrepreneurs don’t know that they are in a pinch until it’s too late and this can wind up costing you the entrepreneur your hard earned cash when you need it most. So, I reached to my legal team - Natalie and Lucy from Consilium Legal – to discuss how entrepreneurs can avoid winding up in legal troubles and we also share the backstory to their new series called the Pinch where they share real stories of businesses navigating the ever changing legal and how you can leverage the law to avoid landing up in a legal pinch of your own.

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MBS108 - Secrets of Scale LIVE SHOW #4 - Tom Asacker, Howard Sackstein & Erik Kruger Jun 13, 2018

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This is the final instalment of the Secrets of Scale event series powered by Entrepreneur Magazine and the MESH Club.I'm probably more excited about this show than any of the others because we'll be covering the very personal aspects of entrepreneurship and scaling a business - and featuring arguably three of the most insightful people I have in my network.Tonights panelists are:- Tom Asacker (International Best Selling Author, The Business Of Belief & I Am Keats)- Howard Sackstein (CEO, Saicom)- Erik Kruger (Personal Performance Coach & Founder, Betterman)AGENDATonights show will consist of three parts:Part 1 - The Business of BeliefThis segment will focus on how the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and other leaders get us to believe. We'll explore how beliefs are created, and how people get others to change their beliefs and we'll unpack how our beliefs shape our choices of products and services, and, collectively, determine our futures and the role of belief as we scale our businesses.Part 2 - Passion, Perseverance & Performance.There are volumes of writing to be found online and in self-help circles that advises folks who are stuck to “follow your bliss,” or “do what you’re passionate about.” But does passion matter when it comes to scaling a your business? We'll share personal anecdotes of related to perseverance and share little known but highly effective practical tips for pushing through the pain of scaling a business. We'll also touch on entrepreneur health and how you can maximise your both your physical and mental performance as you scale.Part 3 - 10X ThinkingIn this segment we'll unpack why you can't achieve extraordinary results with an ordinary mindset, how to scale your thinking as you scale, how you can apply 10X rule in your business and why the 10x rule is the only difference between success and failure.

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MBS107 - Secrets of Scale LIVE SHOW #3 - Vinny Lingham, Marnus Broodryk, Jason Goldberg, VuyoTofile Jun 05, 2018

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Welcome to the 3rd installment of Secrets of Scale featuring:- Vinny Lingham (CEO, Civic & Shark Tank Investor)- Marnus Broodryk (CEO, Transaction Capital SME Services & Shark Tank Investor)- Jason Goldberg (Founder 10X-E and Director, Edge Growth)- Vuyo Tofile (CEO, Entreprenuer Banc)Tonights show will consist of three parts:Part 1 - Building The Aeroplane This segment will be the majority of our focus and will cover practical "how to steps" for scaling your business. We'll be revealing how to design a scale ready business and walk you through common pitfalls that all entrepreneurs will encounter as they "build the aeroplane" and how to avoid them. We'll also reverse engineer how to design a scale ready business from a 150 strong team all the way down to a 5 person team.Part 2 - Built For WinterThis segment is all about how to ensure that you remain profitable as you scale. We'll unpack how to bring different revenue streams, partnerships and products/services to together to help you weather any storm.Part 3 - The Scale BlueprintIn this segment we'll explore the systems that can help you scale, how to automate repetitive processes and outsource non-essential tasks and how to design a business that makes more money while you sleep than when you're awake.

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MBS106 - Secrets of Scale LIVE SHOW #2 - Clive Butkow, Benji Coetzee, Keet Van Zyl May 29, 2018

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Last night we kicked off the second instalment of the Secrets of Scale event series powered by Entrepreneur Magazine and the MESH Club.The instalment of the Secrets of Scale pitted an entrepreneur against two of South Africa’s top venture capitalists to find out: What exactly does it take to build a fundable business? Your panellists are:- Keet Van Zyl (Partner, Knife Capital)- Clive Butkow (CEO, Kalon Venture Capital)- Benji Coetzee (CEO, Empty Trips) Todays show will consist of three parts:Part 1 - Funding your scale (David vs Goliath)In this segment we'll share insights related to funding your businesses scale using venture capital vs the benefits of bootstrapping it yourself. You'll discover what VC's look for when backing "scalepreneurs" and you'll hear first-hand about Benji Coetzee's experience competing at the world cup of startups in Silicon Valley.Part 2 - Formulas to scale (How to scale any market)We will reveal proven formulas to scale across for any business in any market and Clive, Benji and Keet share practical "how to" steps that you can apply right now to start scaling your business. Part 3 - Technology (Enabling scale through technology)Technology is arguably the single biggest enabler of a businesses scale. But what kind of technologies should an entrepreneur consider and more importantly adopt on their scale journey. We'll also discuss the technologies that are shaping the current and future world of business and how entrepreneurs can take advantage of these technologies to scale their businesses, and much, much more!Remember, that next week Monday, that’s the 4th of June we have another cracking edition of the Secrets of Scale coming up featuring none other than Vinny Lingham (CEO, Civic and Shark Tank Investor), Marnus Broodryk (CEO, Transaction capital SME services & Shark Tank investor), Vuyo Tofile (CEO Entrepreneur Bank) and Jason Goldberg (Founder 10X-E Investments & Director Edge Growth) so if you haven’t yet booked your ticket checkout www.qkt.io/secretsofscale

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