Trench Talk With Matt Reynolds

Simon Griffiths (@simongriffiths) is a toilet paper merchant and Co-Founder at Who Gives A Crap. A little over five years ago, Simon sat on a toilet for 50 straight hours as a publicity stunt to raise awareness for their crowd funding campaign. The plan was to start a toilet paper company and it worked, far better than they ever thought possible! They raised $50,000 and the company that donates 50% of its profits to help solve sanitation problems in emerging countries was off the ground. It’s an incredible story…. We covered: the initial campaign that went viral and attracted 2.5 million social media hits why their sales spike over the holiday period the financial model they use to donate how they choose which organisations to support why he has chosen to follow the social entrepreneur model for building a business, and much, much more.   To find out more about Simon and his team or to order toilet paper, tissues or paper towel as I have and many others do, head to whogivesacrap.org. If you enjoy Trench Tal

Amy Kilpin (@akilpin) runs her own marketing agency and is an age group triathlete, racing for Great Britain. Amy has some of the most popular brands in the world of Triathlon supporting and sponsoring her journey, though, in her own words, she’s never really won one of the big races. We covered a little on her training, how she has set up her business so she can operate from the road and travel to races, plus, how she landed sponsors before she really got going in the sport. Not all sponsors, as you’ll hear, are looking to support athletes who regularly climb the podium. To find out more about Amy, head to her website amykilpin.co.uk. If you enjoy Trench Talk, please remember to hit the subscribe button inside your chosen podcast player. I get quite a few requests for guess and other ideas for the show, another shout out to Craig for suggesting I contact Amy. If you have suggestions of your own or just want to say hi, you can email me – podcast@xrm.com.au. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #033 with Amy Kilpin…   --

Colin Wright (@colinismyname) is an author who travels full-time. Originally from California, Colin started and ran a branding studio in Los Angeles. After experiencing some financial success, he refocused his attention on being happier, healthier, and doing work he believes in; which meant a dramatic adjustment to the metrics of how he measured success. Shortly thereafter he got rid of everything he owned that didn’t fit into a carry-on bag and hit the road. That was in 2009, he has been traveling ever since and Colin says "It was the best decision I've ever made". He's is an incredibly intelligent and interesting man, he's written some 30+ books on topics including travel, minimalism and business. He works from wherever he is currently living, co-owns a publishing company (Asymmetrical Press), speaks internationally, runs a blog which can be found at exilelifestyle.com and produces his own podcast called "Let's know Things". Every four months or so, Colin's readers vote on where he will move and live ne

30 Highlights from 2017 featuring – #001: Scotty Cam | The Block #002: Justin Burgoine | Kincrome #003: Shane Jacobson | Kenny #004: Ross Savas | Kay & Burton #005: Andrew Cotton | Big Wave Surfer #006: Trav Bell | The Bucket List Guy #007: Ben Sofowora | Be Empowered Naturally #008: Anthony Koutoufides | koutafit.com #009: Steve McKnight | propertyinvesting.com #010: Walt Collins | Healthy Homes Australia #011: Jade Ingleby & Hayley Bishop | Jugging Work & Family #012: Steve Richards | Steve Richards Motor Sport #013: Brendan Nichols | Business & Making Money #014: Stefan Kazakis | Business Benchmark Group #015: Dave Bradley | Bradley Property Group #016: Stuart Lord | Lockelec #017: Ben Walton-Healey | Aqua Blu Plumbing #018: Peter Irvine | Gloria Jeans #019: Andrii Bondarenko | Cirque du Soleil #020: Phillip Di Bella | Abbotsford Road Specialty Coffee #021: Tom Crampton | Trusted Impact #022: Jayne Nisbet | Free-ed #023: Roland Lazenby | Michael Jordan, The Life #024: Roland Lazenby | Showb

Renee Kiley (@reneekiley_) has transformed herself from an overweight business owner at 104kgs to a professional triathlete in just 3.5 years. In 2013 at 30 years old, Renee was the owner of multiple successful small businesses, had an extensive investment property portfolio and was earning a very good income. Life looked fantastic on the surface. However, she was also obsessed with work, obese at 104kg, a heavy smoker, unhealthy and unhappy. In March 2014, Renee competed in her first triathlon. Until that first race, she had not swum or ridden a bike since primary school and not run further than a few kilometres here and there in over 10 years. Throughout 2014 Renee lost over 42kg and completely turned her life around. Renee has had an incredible rise in the sport of triathlon. She finished 252nd in that first sprint distance race. She went on to do her first Ironman in August 2015 where she won her age group. She has competed at the Ironman World Championships twice as an amateur. And in July this year, Ren

Logan Nathan (@logannathan) has developed and built an app for the building and maintenance industry called i4Tradies. He’s also an electronics engineer, Microsoft Brand Ambassador and former employee of BHP where he rolled out the first IBM PS2 machine (the most powerful computer at the time), before then, a little later, introducing the first Apple Macintosh computer to the BHP network. Logan has also worked for Cathay Pacific and Alliance in similar roles. He has spent a career pushing the boundaries of technology implementation, is an author and is now attempting to transform the trade industry, starting right here in Australia. We spent most of this episode discussing the app, what it does and how Logan is doing things differently. No one (at least as far as I have found) has cracked the trade space and developed a true marketplace app where the end customer, field workers, office staff and in some cases facility or property managers can all talk to each other inside the one platform. There are many lead

Ben Sofowora (@bensofowora) has put together a 3-part introductory series on meditation for you, this is part 3 (episode 28). Please navigate back to episode 25 of the podcast for the full series introduction. Episode 26 is a quick meditation designed to help you release stress. It can be done in any position, even seated so this works perfectly in busy places like seated at an office desk or in a stationary car (parked safely). Episode 27 is a slightly longer meditation designed to help you release a more general level of stress and reconnect you with nature. It again can be done seated or lying and it works particularly well in a garden setting. Episode 28 is a meditation designed to help you gain strength, confidence and become resilient. This meditation can be done sitting, standing or lying down. I’ve separated these three sessions into separate podcasts to make them much easier to access again in the future without having to sit through my long-winded introduction. Come back to these 3 recordings whenev

Ben Sofowora (@bensofowora) has put together a 3-part introductory series on meditation for you, this is part 2 (episode 27). Please navigate back to episode 25 of the podcast for the full series introduction. Episode 26 is a quick meditation designed to help you release stress. It can be done in any position, even seated so this works perfectly in busy places like seated at an office desk or in a stationary car (parked safely). Episode 27 is a slightly longer meditation designed to help you release a more general level of stress and reconnect you with nature. It again can be done seated or lying and it works particularly well in a garden setting. Episode 28 is a meditation designed to help you gain strength, confidence and become resilient. This meditation can be done sitting, standing or lying down. I’ve separated these three sessions into separate podcasts to make them much easier to access again in the future without having to sit through my long-winded introduction. Come back to these 3 recordings whenev

Ben Sofowora (@bensofowora) has put together a 3-part introductory series on meditation for you, this is part 1 (episode 26). Please navigate back to episode 25 of the podcast for the full series introduction. Episode 26 is a quick meditation designed to help you release stress. It can be done in any position, even seated so this works perfectly in busy places like seated at an office desk or in a stationary car (parked safely). Episode 27 is a slightly longer meditation designed to help you release a more general level of stress and reconnect you with nature. It again can be done seated or lying and it works particularly well in a garden setting. Episode 28 is a meditation designed to help you gain strength, confidence and become resilient. This meditation can be done sitting, standing or lying down. I’ve separated these three sessions into separate podcasts to make them much easier to access again in the future without having to sit through my long-winded introduction. Come back to these 3 recordings whenev

Ben Sofowora (@bensofowora) is back and has put together a 3-part introductory series on meditation for you. This episode is an introduction to the series by me, Matt Reynolds. Meditation and meditative practices have come up a few times over the course of my interviews so far. Ben and I got talking and eventually decided to do this, an audio introduction to meditation. Ben has 30+ years of yoga and meditation experience, this three-part series is very similar to the meditations Ben guides others through on a daily basis, both in class and private settings.  Getting yourself into a peak-performing state is one thing, winding yourself out of it is an entirely different set of skills which can take some time to master. You can think of meditation as a tool or a way to help you refocus, recharge and re-centre your mind. Meditation Series - Episode 26: a quick meditation designed to help you release stress. It can be done in any position, even seated so this works perfectly in busy places like seated at an office

Roland Lazenby (@lazenby) is the author of the biography “Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant”. Roland, a sports journalist, has spent many years covering the NBA and was also my guest last episode, #023, the first ever interview I recorded. In this episode, we talk Kobe Bryant and Roland’s biography on the famous Laker called “Showboat”. We get into Kobe’s attitude, work ethic and a ton of other stuff on winning and his character. We also covered more on Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Roland’s own writing career and even a little Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors and the NBA. You can buy Roland's latest books “Michael Jordan: The Life” and “Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant” basically anywhere including Amazon. To connect with Roland, head to Twitter, his handle @lazenby. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #024 with Roland Lazenby…   ---- Show notes and links for this episode can be found at x

Roland Lazenby (@lazenby) is the author of the biography “Michael Jordan: The Life” and my first ever interview which I recorded in early 2016. Roland is an American sportswriter and educator who has travelled with some of the NBA's most famous and successful teams including Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, the Bad Boys of Detroit (The Pistons) and Kobe Bryant’s LA Lakers. He’s completed hundreds of interviews with stars of the league including over 400 hours for his Kobe Bryant biography alone. Roland has also written biographies on the New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, Dallas Cowboys superstar Emmit Smith, the NBA’s most winning coach (championships) Phil Jackson, Hall of Fame Laker Jerry West and many others. In our chat, we covered a lot that is the character of Michael Jordan. Roland dove deep to put The Life together and it’s by far and away the most comprehensive piece I’ve ever found on the famous number 23. We also discussed: the Jordan family, pre-Michael cultural change in America the Ni

Jayne Nisbet (@jaynenisbet) is a former Commonwealth Games Athlete and National High Jump Champion of both Scotland and the UK. Jayne has revealed she dealt with eating disorders throughout much of her career and now talks openly about her struggles in her new book called Free-ed, which she hopes will help others, especially young athletes to live empowered lives. We covered: mental illness including her own battles her athletics career dealing with injury how her struggles affected her family and those close to her the night it all turned around book launch week what she now eats in a typical day, and her current work to help inspire others.   If you’d like to connect with Jayne, you can find her on both Facebook and on Instagram. Of course, you can buy her new book, it’s available on Amazon right here. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #022 with Jayne Nisbet…   ---- Show notes and links for th

Tom Crampton (@trustedimpact) is a cyber security expert at the helm of his own company Trusted Impact. For the past decade, Tom has been helping some of Australia’s biggest and most well-known companies protect their digital information and remain secure online. As a consulting firm Tom and his team work regularly as hackers to first expose business weak points before then helping them implement solutions, plug holes, shore up and protect their most valuable information. Tom’s clients include the Australian Government, World Vision, Victoria Police, Clarke Rubber, McMillan Shakespeare, Rinnai, The University of Melbourne,  IOOF, Telstra, Oxfam and many, many more. In our chat, we covered several aspects of cyber security, including: how to protect yourself online the psychology of cyber criminals, how and why they target who they do the fastest way viruses spread over the internet including how to avoid them how Tom uses the Pineapple (a digital intercepting device) to grab sensitive information out of thin

Phillip Di Bella (Phillip Di Bella) founded Di Bella Coffee in 2002 with $5,000 of his own cash and, from his garage, began building his business. Recently, June of 2017, he completed the sale of his company to Retail Foods Group for $47,000,000. This episode of Trench Talk is an in-depth chat with Phil (who currently has many new business interests) on his journey building Di Bella Coffee. As you can imagine, there’s a lot to learn between $5,000 and $47,000,000. We covered: starting the business including the struggles of the first 12 months building a brand incentivising employees why, if you ever find yourself on a flight with Phil, he probably won’t talk to you the Tall Poppy Syndrome the sale of Di Bella Coffee, and his thoughts on achieving work-life harmony.   If you’d like to connect with Phil, you can find him on LinkedIn and on Facebook. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #020 with Phi

Andrii Bondarenko (@andrii_bondarenko) is simply incredible and routinely (like almost every day) performs physical sequences that have to be seen to be believed. Andrii has performed with Cirque du Soleil for the past 7 years in various shows and in different roles including “a flyer” which involves is exactly as the name suggests – flying through the air before being caught by the other performers. As a flyer, he has been responsible for carrying out some of the most difficult and captivating stunts that, without a doubt, were the highlights of the entire show. He has performed as a principal acrobatic character, including a mesmerizing solo act of hand-balancing on several chairs stacked on top of each other which are firstly placed on top of a table. We talked through this particular sequence during our chat. Andrii is a many time national champion of Ukraine, holds the distinction of Merited Master of Sports (the highest distinction in the sport, in Ukraine), and even the prestigious Presidential Medal o

Peter Irvine joined me to discuss his career which has included being on the marketing team that first launched the restaurant chain McDonald’s in Australia and establishing the Gloria Jeans Coffee franchise in Australia. We discussed Peter’s business journey which began at the age of just 14, his thoughts on educating and helping his children and selling his stake in the Gloria Jeans operation. Peter now speaks regularly at a wide range of business, community and industry events both in Australia and overseas. He is the author of the books ‘Win In Business, 20 keys to catapult you towards your vision’ and, more recently ‘Building your Business, your People, your Life’ He has also produced a range of business training tools which you can find along with his books at his website peterirvine.com. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #018 with Peter Irvine…   ---- Show notes and links for this episode c

Ben Walton-Healey joined me on the podcast this week to discuss his first year in business. Ben worked as a plumber for several years before taking the plunge and starting out on his own. We cover a lot of nuts and bolts first year business stuff in this episode including: developing a work ethic finding clients without advertising setting goals, and focusing on the big picture.   Ben has plans to grow his business Aqua Blu Plumbing, is now employing others and has an end goal of spending much more time with his family. This episode is perfect if you have either just gone out on your own or are considering starting a small business. If you’d like to contact Ben directly email him, he’s happy to answer any questions, ben@aquabluplumbing.com. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk Episode #017 with Ben Walton-Healey…   ---- Show notes and links for this episode can be found at xrm.com.au/podcast. Feel free to

Stuart Lord joined me on the podcast this week to discuss building his company Lockelec. When Stuart first walked into the family engineering and design business, he knew things were bad. Not one to shy from a challenge, he rolled up his sleeves, pounded the pavement, drummed up business and took on jobs he didn’t know how to do. He did basically anything that would bring in money for the company. But imagine this, you find the work, do the job and collect payment only to have money disappear from your bank account due to unpaid bills and other hidden liabilities. Stuart’s predicament lasted for over 4 years. Today, he has a growing business and services some of Australia’s biggest and most well-known company’s including Metro, Siemens, the Government of South Australia, Ambulance Victoria and Coles. Coles is one of Australia’s biggest supermarket chains and Stuart along with the team at Lockelec have just won the 2017 Coles Supplier of the Year Award. We discussed: dealing with constant set backs the momen

Dave Bradley joined me on the podcast this week to talk property development. Dave began his property investing career in Ballarat with his then business partner Steve McKnight (Trench Talk guest, episode #009). As accountants, they accumulated hundreds of positive cash flowing rental homes and apartment blocks in their quest to replace their accounting practice income. Today, Dave’s focus is property development, his current system for growing his own wealth includes holding close to zero rental properties. We talked about his change in strategy including how he is now using land subdivision and town house development to make money faster. We also covered: evaluating risk out sourcing how to find development deals to purchase, and much, much, more. If you'd like to know more about Dave you can find him at bradleypropertygroup.com.au. To get every episode of Trench Talk on release please remember to hit the subscribe button in your chosen podcast player. Enjoy Trench Talk episode #015 with Dave Bradley… ---