Jane, founder, has always had a sincere passion for women’s fashion online, social media and entrepreneurship and it’s these passions that have lead her to build Show Pony to where it is today. After a 3-years working in top-tier firms Ernst & Young and KPMG, and gallavanting around the world (bored of her corporate life), she finally put brought her dreams into fruition in 2010 and started Show Pony with a small bricks-and-mortar store in Broadway, and it’s only gone from strength to strength since.

Jane has shaped the Show Pony brand to emphasize each woman’s uniqueness and individuality. ”It’s not about the clothes, it’s about how you feel in them, it’s the confidence you exude wearing something gorgeous and comfortable. We’re not overpriced nor pretentious, it’s all about fun and forward trends that bring out your inner show pony “.

Jane has continued to guide Show Pony to one success after the next, being a Sydney Business Award Finalist in 2011 and 2012, and then awarded The Australian Small Business Championship in 2012. She was also named as Anthill’s 30 under 30 Young Entrepreneurs 2012.

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Sam McNeill – Song Division

Since 2003, Song Division has been helping organisations such as Microsoft, Westpac, Pfizer and PwC create emotional connections with employees and customers using the power of music. We’ve worked with 40,000 people in over 20 countries. Services include music-based team building experiences, conference energisers, L&D programs and experiential marketing campaigns where groups from 10 to 10,000 write original songs with the help of amazing musicians. We can also cover all your entertainment needs, from DJ’s to sting quartets, party bands to headline acts, along with fabulous interactive crowd pleasers like our Rock & Roll Game Show.

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Braydan Willrath – Interactive Accounting

Braydan started out as a Kidpreneur from Hervey Bay, Queensland. He started his first business helping friends with IT problems at ripe old age of 12. His experiences range from SEO to barman, computer networking to skilled barista and now is the Google apps king.

Braydan is a Serial Entrepreneur at heart concentrating all his energy and focus into Cloud based products. He has an outstanding knowledge of all things tech and loves to share what he knows with others.

Currently working for Interactive Accounting as a Systems Guru, Braydan is working closely with Xero and many other products that link with the cloud based accounting software.

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I spent many hours inside the walls of companies like Disney, Philips, IBM, Ogilvy, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble or LVMH. However I can honestly say that my fondest memories involve working with some incredibly dynamic managers of various small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) both here and in Asia.

Whilst they had no intention of ever having an international reach, they were committed to creating a culture and business model that some of the multinationals would have been envious of.

There’s one particular meeting I had back in 1999 with the General Manager of a Melbourne-based SMB that I know I will never forget. I was there to take a recruitment brief and she looked me in the eye and said something that really took me by surprise.

“Actually, Paul. More than anything, it’s crucial that you find me a Scorpio. We need a bit more bite around here”.

She was being completely serious.

Creating the right team environment is critical for any business to succeed – especially a SMB where more often than not there’s no opportunity for personality clashes, or team members being picky about which clients they prefer to deal with.

Above all there’s no way that a small business will achieve its targets if even just one person is letting the side down.

• How do you ensure that you are engendering the right culture within your own SMB?
• What can you do to guarantee that that when someone new joins your company that the team dynamic is maintained and that everyone is focused on a common goal?
• How can you measure the contribution that all your people are bringing to your business or the value they are adding to your organisation as well as to your clients?

These are all important questions to consider.

Juggling diverse personalities within any workplace can be demanding. Most teams comprise of vastly different personality types – all of whom require sophisticated and delicate handling to ensure you maximise their full potential. It is therefore a crucial part of the hiring process that you balance the right mix of skills, ability and personality.

It is also important to strike the right balance in terms of roles and responsibilities and playing to each of your individual team member’s strengths.

In other words try not to force those who are more service driven into having to generate sales; avoid getting those who may be more sales focused too bogged down in administration; and where possible keep those who actually enjoy administration in the office as opposed to encouraging them to become more client facing.

For anyone running a small business, you need to understand what motivates each of your individual team members. Reward and recognition whether it be through financial incentives, training and development or potential promotion and career advancement, are all important considerations as you create (and maintain) an effective team environment.

Are you planning to bring new people into your business?

If you are, then it’s important that you take into consideration the personality and characteristic differences that may already exist within your team, as well as the existing allocation of roles and responsibilities.

Otherwise you may inadvertently create a situation ripe for conflict.

Whilst workplace conflict is both common and inevitable, unnecessary tension inside any small business can make life unpleasant for everyone.

A good friend of mine who runs his own business likes to use the phrase “on the bus” in determining whether his team are all heading in the same direction. In my management days I personally used the phrase “all aboard the northbound train”.

The message is the same: it’s about the importance of creating an effective team environment where everyone is striving for the same goal and each individual team member feels they are being recognised for their contribution.

Next time you find yourself needing to bring someone new into your team, you may want to consider running an ad along the lines of:

“Scorpio required to add bite to a team of obsessive Virgos while reporting to a dynamic Piscean”!

With nearly 20 years in the recruitment industry and having worked for both an international publicly listed group as well as a global niche recruitment business, Paul Slezak has been a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer, coach, mentor, and regular speaker for the industry across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

Today Paul is a cofounder of RecruitLoop, a new online recruitment platform reinventing the way recruitment works by providing small business owners with a totally flexible and stress free recruitment solution charged at an hourly rate.

Follow Paul on Facebook, Twitter, or visit his Website.

Kim is a Spiritual Commentator with over 10 years’ experience as a professional Psychic Medium.  She combines her passion for media and public speaking with her desire to modernize New Age spirituality – creating no-nonsense videos, blogs and seminars about psychic and spiritual phenomena.

Her goal is to help people understand that modern New Age does not come dressed in tie-dye kaftans and moccasins – it wears corporate suits, kick-ass heels and has a Ph.D. in Quantum Physics.

Kim is returning for our regular segment: Startup and the Psychic

Miriam Feiler – Start Up Australia Movement

Miriam Feiler is an entreprenueur specialising in creating and launching industry-strengthening events. As former owner of Trade Australia and Import Export Show, she has now teamed up with a group of Australia’s most well known entrepreneurs to bring the global start up movement to Australia. Start Up Australia has launched on Facebook and Twitter, and is weeks away from launching its website and an annual program of events and education specifically for starting and early stage Australian businesses across all industry sectors.

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Karen Scott Davie – Digital Sydney

• Director of Digital Sydney based at UTS
• Director of the CIO Executive Council of Australia
• Background as a CIO, CFO, mentor, digital marketing and project management
• Worked in Asia, Europe, USA and across Australia
• Currently on the board of Tassie Tourism helping with their digital strategy
• Passionate about online learning and helping businesses using innovative technology effectively
• Launched her first startup 16 years ago

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Belinda is the General Manager of both Property Styling Online, BG Property Styling and Senior Movers. Located on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Belinda assists Sydney real estate agents and home owners spruce up their property presentation for a sale campaign, as well as nationwide through the on-line business. Belinda will advise the client of what furnishings and accessories are required to best display a home for maximum profit. Belinda will work with existing furnishings, add to the décor if necessary, organise trades for work that might need to be carried out, and even fully furnish a property with her selection of rental furniture. BG Property Styling have proven time and again that their professional Styling services dramatically increase the sale price of a property.

A real highlight during Belinda’s first years was being an award finalist in the 2009 Working Womens Network Awards and Pittwater Council Sustainability Awards.

Belinda has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and has subsequently studied Interior Design.

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Sean Urquhart – Nexia Australia

Sean Urquhart is a Partner in the Taxation Consulting Divison at Nexia Australia, a mid-tier chartered accountancy firm with offices in each capital.

Sean has over 19 years experience in taxation and business advisory services. His experience extends to international taxation, corporate structures, tax consolidation, small business CGT concessions and employee share schemes.
Committed to his job with an impeccable track record, Sean gains much of his job satisfaction in witnessing long-standing clients grow their wealth and expand their businesses.

Sean is regularly involved with tax presentations on behalf of organisations such as UK Trade & Investment Commission, IE Singapore and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

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Tracey Preston – Media Animal

Tracey Preston is a former television news journalist with over fifteen years experience reporting and presenting local and international stories for Channels 9,10,7 and SBS.

In 2005 Tracey jumped the media fence establishing her own PR/Media Relations business called ‘Media Animal’. Armed with invaluable experience of how the media works, Tracey Preston knows how to leverage media opportunities to gain maximum media coverage, and so multiply the effectiveness of your advertising dollar.

As director of ‘Media Animal’ Tracey has used savvy media strategies and her powerful media contacts to generate millions of dollars worth of media coverage for clients which include:

• Elite Dog Trainer Steve Austin
• Ita Buttrose – when editor of Bark Magazine
• Super Coat
• Speedo
• Curves – all women’s Fitness Clubs
• Olivia Newton-John

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Simone Bingham – EnVie Fitness

EnVie Fitness is the first womens only, extended hours, full service fitness facility in Australia. Our members enjoy a full range of benefits including child minding, extended hours, group training, top quality equipment, as well as personal training and personalised programming. EnVie is now franchising and looking to partner with highly motivated, savvy business owners wanting a ground floor opportunity to be part of the next fitness revolution.

Wholly Australian owned in just 6 months EnVie has granted 7 franchise units in Sydney and Melbourne and is already receiving interest from New Zealand the United States and Canada.

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Liz Pulo – The Virtual Assistant

Liz Pulo is the co-owner and ‘Boss Lady’ of Australia’s leading Virtual Assistant group – The Virtual Assistant, providing administration solutions to small business owners around Australia.

She recently launched the Australian Small Business Administration Survey to greater understand the needs of the 4 million+ small business owners across Australia.

Liz splits her time between running the business with her husband Jarod, and working with her own clients. She is based in Hobart, Tasmania.

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Paul Slezak – RecruitLoop

Paul Slezak has seen success in the highly competitive recruitment industry in Australia and Hong Kong by applying his professionalism, drive and creativity to develop and deliver solutions that exceed business expectations, and push the boundaries to create innovative solutions.

He was able to forge a presence in these markets by demonstrating the ability to inspire key decision makers, executive management, clients, colleagues and team members alike through his passion, enthusiasm and commitment towards all those with whom he comes into contact.

With nearly 20 years in the recruitment industry and having worked for both an international publicly listed group as well as a global niche recruitment business, Paul has been a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer, coach, mentor, and regular speaker for the industry across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. Paul is also a regular freelance writer and presenter at Universities. One day he would still really like to host his own talk show!

Paul is a cofounder of RecruitLoop – a new online recruitment platform that’s set to reinvent the way recruitment works by providing employers with a totally flexible and stress free recruitment solution charged at an hourly rate.

Paul holds Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Arts from Macquarie University.

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Les Hosking – Chairman Adelaide Brighton Board Member AGL, Board Member Australian Electricity Market Operator, Chairman Carbon Market Institute

Leslie Hosking was born and raised in Darlinghurst Sydney in the 1940′s and 50′s.

In the early 1960′s he became involved in the emerging commodities and futures sectors in Sydney.
Between 1985 to 2000 he was CEO & MD Sydney Futures Exchange. During that period Sydney’s financial services sector grew substantially and fostered the expansion of a large number of small and medium businesses services in the Sydney CBD.

Since 2000 Les continued to be involved in the growth and promotion on Sydneys business sector in financial services as MD of AXISS Australia, a Howard Government initiative, and in the energy sector as MD of the National Electricity Market Operator, NEMMCO.

He is currently a Director of three major companies with large bases in Sydney and is also an Honorary Professorial Fellow of The University of Wollongong’s SMART Infrastructure Faculty which researches how to develop Australia’s transport and energy’ infrastructure.

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Topic: Men in Media

Lee Jeloscek – Political Reporter, Seven News

Award winning political reporter with Network Seven.

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Barclay Crawford - Daily Telegraph Chief sub editor

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Alex Hayes – B&T

Hailing from the UK, Alex spent six years in London working as a journalist for organisations including the BBC, and several major publishers, both online and in print. He joined the B&T team in March 2012, and has been editor of the leading media, marketing and advertising journal since September 2012.

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Fiona Lewis – Super Savvy Business

Fiona Lewis, author, speaker and online business coach, launched her career as an internet marketer in 2008 and has been highly successful in running an online marketing consulting business, servicing small to medium-size businesses and various savvy entrepreneurs across Australia and the world in their online marketing.

Three years later in 2011, Fiona established Mumpreneurs Online as a way to pass over her knowledge to mums who are wanting to start an online business from home.

The same year saw the publishing of her first book, Mumpreneurs Online: EXPOSED, and the launching of a training membership site, Mentoring Mums Online. The website is an addition to Mumpreneurs Online, being brainstormed as a monthly membership aimed at the work-from-home mums. Fiona has since been published as an expert author in It’s That Easy: Online Marketing 3.0 in 2013.

In 2012, Fiona felt a need for a new company which would encompass all her activity and now she has finally succeeded in giving life to Super Savvy Business – an umbrella of all her businesses. And with the establishment of this business, Fiona also launched the Savvy Mastermind coaching program, which offers a higher level of internet marketing coaching to business owners who are seeking top level guidance and direction to grow their business through the internet.

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Ben Levi – RentingSmart

Ben Levi – 30 years old, licensed real estate agent, landlord, and the founder of RentingSmart … and that guy from the Angry Birds proposal.

In 2010 Ben did some number-crunching on his investment property and realised that if he put the 6% property management fee into his mortgage each month (as an additional amount) instead of into the pockets of real estate agents, he would SAVE over $75,000 over his 25-year mortgage!! With that realisation Ben fired his property manager…. and his next thought was… “what now?”

Over the next year Ben raised funding, and together with tech co-founder, Joe, launched RentingSmart.com – online property management software creating successful Australian landlords!

RentingSmart provides profesional tools to private landlords – improves organisation, helps you get paid on time, minimise vacancies and simplifies tax-time.

Also known as “That Guy From The Angry Birds Proposal”

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Jeff Downs – Redback Conferencing

Jeff Downs has had a number of successful start ups in both Canada and Australia.

Jeff started a small chain of grocery stores immediately after graduating from university in Toronto, Canada. On September 11th, 2001, he launched a teleconferencing company in Toronto. While it was a terrible day to start a business, by 2003, the company developed in to Canada’s 12th fastest growing startup.

After selling the business Jeff & his young family moved to Sydney at the end of June, 2007 to start up another conferencing company – Redback Conferencing. Redback was on the BRW’s Fast Starter list in 2012.

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Josh Golombick – White Collar Quotes

Josh started his career in investment banking but quickly realised that the corporate world was not for him. He abandoned ship 8 months ago to start White Collar Quotes – an online platform that matches consumers with White Collar Professionals – and has not looked back.

White Collar Quotes gives consumers instantaneous access to a pool of pre-screened professionals. Once on the site, consumers can submit a request for a professional (accountant, financial planner, mortgage broker etc) giving the exact specifications of what they need done. The request is than matched with three professionals that are best equipped to handle the request. The matching process is based on a number of factors resulting in three directly comparable quotes from three professionals in a very short time frame.

The website has launched in Sydney and has been well received by both consumers and professionals. The business is intended to provide choice and transparency to the consumers while giving professionals access to a whole new range of eager clients.

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Avis Mulhall – Looloo Paper

An Irish girl who ditched her successful corporate career to live in a rainforest in Africa, Avis is an inspiring and determined young woman who has overcome adversity to follow her passions and fearlessly invent a better future.

A respected expert on social enterprise and collaborative consumption, Avis is a true social innovator who recently represented Australia at the G20 YES Summit in Mexico and was named in Sydney Magazines Top 100 People of Influence for 2012. She is the co-founder of global social travel network mmMule.com, creator of Sydney’s fastest growing change-maker community Think Act Change and founder of Looloo Paper – a toilet paper business that uses its profits to improve sanitation in developing countries.

Avis enthrals audiences with stories of her own transformation and in doing so, gets us each to examine our own purpose and motives to enhance the world around us. Her personal story is not only an inspiration, but the way she tells it is fantastic. She is sure to bring lots of laughs as well as some poignant lessons learned along the way.

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Jeff Downs – Redback Conferencing

Jeff Downs has had a number of successful start ups in both Canada and Australia.

Jeff started a small chain of grocery stores immediately after graduating from university in Toronto, Canada. On September 11th, 2001, he launched a teleconferencing company in Toronto. While it was a terrible day to start a business, by 2003, the company developed in to Canada’s 12th fastest growing startup.

After selling the business Jeff & his young family moved to Sydney at the end of June, 2007 to start up another conferencing company – Redback Conferencing. Redback was on the BRW’s Fast Starter list in 2012.

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While Shona is in Italy, the amazing Tatiana will be filling in as co-host!

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This week on Eagle Money…

Mark Rantall - Financial Planning Association

Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional. Following a 25-year financial services career, he was appointed by the FPA Board in 2010 to lead the FPA in raising the standing of Australia’s professional financial planners.

In his first year at the FPA, Mark has achieved key constitutional changes to the FPA membership structure to focus on individual practitioners and secured more than $2 million of funding from members for a national consumer advertising initiative. In addition, Mark has spear-headed the campaign to raise awareness of the higher standards of FPA members to the Government, media and other industry stakeholders on behalf of the FPA’s 8,500 practitioner members and the 5 million clients they advise.

Prior to the FPA, Mark was involved in the creation of The NAB Academy and held the post of Dean of Advice after serving as Managing Director of Godfrey Pembroke from 2003 to 2008. In this role, Mark successfully facilitated more than 200 Godfrey Pembroke advisers to transition to a fee-for-service remuneration model.

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Robert Younan – HM Finance

HM Finance separates itself from larger lending institutions through personalized service, which is one of it’s key differentiators.

Simply put, we place ourselves in the place of the customer and work through all of the options to find the best and most practical solution available.

HM Finance is accredited with 34 lending institutions to source a wide range of products and services for it’s client base. In turn, HM Finance works with lending institutions to find the most suitable solution to the client’s borrowing needs.

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Michael Kodari – Kodari Securities (KOSEC)

Michael Kodari is the Managing Director of Kodari Securities (KOSEC) and one of Australia’s leading experts in the share market. Frequently featured on Sky Business on the stock market expert panel and referred to as one of the “best & brightest minds in the business”, he also writes for Australia’s leading financial publications, conducts seminars for Australian Investors Association (AIA) and aims to grow investors wealth in the stock market.

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