from strength to strength and building your business. With me are two of Australia’s top experts in that field.

Business coaches Anna Samios of Performance 7 and Louise Connor from Corporate Edge. Welcome both. It’s so

great to have you here. Now, many conveyances and property professionals tell us they’re overwhelmed with red

tape administration compliance and that is even before they start to do the work. So, let’s talk today about maybe

how they can overcome that. Let’s start with you Anna. You teach businesses about scaling up. So for those of you

who haven’t heard the term before, can you take us through what scaling up is? Yeah, nice. Thank you. Um, scaling up is

a methodology that’s come out of MIT’s birthing of giants program and Stanford University and it’s an amalgamation of

just tools that we use to facilitate great conversations to successfully and

sustainably grow a business. So I think a lot of people have got a dream to build a bigger business and to to scale

their companies but then got get stuck in between this is where the business is now and this is where I want to take the

business into the future. It’s how do we actually do that in a you know in a step-by-step process that doesn’t burn

everybody out and actually helps you succeed. So we we’ve got a methodology and a framework that we’ve been applying

um in Australia for the last 10 years. I think some of the most successful people who have implemented the framework are

obviously Christian Beck’s companies um leap infotra and the whole suite of companies you know Christian started the

you know his business and he had 25 employees when he started brought in the

scaling up methodology and of course the rest is history so it’s a framework it’s a scaffolding that we use to help

companies successfully scale now you ran an accounting firm then you’re a business coach but you have a

special interest in mentoring women Oh, I love it. I think um you know, I absolutely have a sweet spot for

professional services and especially women who are running um these businesses. And I I think there’s

myself, you know, I set up my first company when um with my husband Peter when I was 25. We had the

entrepreneurial seizure just, you know, 6 months after we got married. And um

you know I think as women we often go in and help businesses and help our partners succeed but then there was

always this burning passion for me. I actually wanted to do something on my own. So um yeah helping women and having

lived through that experience of two companies scaling them um has been

interesting is an different dynamic for women I think than men when they’re growing their businesses. We will chat a bit more about that

later. Let’s bring in Louise from Corporate Edge. Louise, your company has focused on behavioral change within

companies, promoting a village culture as you call it. Can you take us through more about that?

Yes. Well, thanks Amber. Um, really delighted to be here today. Um and absolutely loving to share and talk

about what the village culture really means because whenever we’re thinking big businesses or small businesses um

having that real connected community or the a group of people who really help you to be successful um is really at the

heart of our beliefs and the things that we work with uh customers and and clients on. Uh so I really echo uh

Anna’s uh sentiments there around thinking carefully about you know who are the people I’m bringing in to help

me scale my business. What is the culture that I need? And I think one of the things that we notice most whenever

we’re thinking about helping clients be the very best that they can be is what

are the mindsets and the approaches that I am taking because people can run a great business with two or three people

but how do I get it to 25 people and what’s the shift that needs to happen within me in order to really bring that

to life. Um, so I think um, from corporate edge we’re super lucky and

that we get to work with a really wide range of businesses, but at the heart of all of those is the behaviors of each

individual leader in the business. Um, and that’s something that we’re really excited to to bring to big business and

small. So what does a connected community look like? Well, the connected community really is a mindset that brings together

um you know the ultimate uh cause like what’s the reason that we started this business in the first place? What are

the things that whenever we are uh whenever we were dreaming big I loved how you said that Anna you know whenever

you sort of had that great ambition that real entrepreneurial mindset what was the reason that we started this business so what’s the cause that that that

brings us all together the second part is then the community that I create around that so you know who are the

people who are like-minded how do I create that sense of belonging that sense of inclusion that sense of

well-being really for people in my community um and then the third part is the communication so in what ways am I

communicating with my clients, with my stakeholders, with investors if I have them? Um, how am I bringing everybody

along and and really making that c the culture I guess of the of the

organization something that everyone quickly understands. They understand how I need to behave when I’m in this

culture. Um, and also they can really take ownership of that. uh which means that instead of you being the person

driving every decision and you being the person who everyone comes to for every decision, we start to get a whole

community of leaders who actually can make decisions in the best interest of the business because everyone’s aligned

and on the same page as that. So, it’s about seeing your company consistently grow to higher levels, but I know many

people listening will just know how hard it is and how long they work. How is

this achievable? either of you can answer this when they’re already feeling like they’re chasing their tail and

they’re working super long hours. Well, one of one of the key things that I hear whenever I’m working with businesses, business leaders, um, is

this understanding of how much are they taking on? Because especially at the beginning whenever you are the the key

person in a business, there aren’t, you know, a huge array of people to do things for you. Um, and then as you

bring people into the business to assist with that, it’s sometimes very difficult for business owners to let go of those

little jobs. Uh, so one of the key things that I hear all the time is people saying, you know what, it’s just quicker if I do this myself or you know

what, I’ll just I’ll just do that. Don’t you worry about it. And the mindset comes from a really great place. People

are really caring about the their employees and their team that they’ve built. However, what that ends up in is

that they they are overloaded and very very busy. Um, and through the best will

in the world, they don’t want to give their team too much because they don’t want the team to be over too busy and overwhelmed. But what we find is that,

you know, actually your team is bored because you’re doing all the work and you’re working weekends [snorts] and

nights and early mornings and all of the the different hours that God sends you and actually your team’s bored. So, you

think they’re busy, but in fact, the team’s bored. And so I think it’s this real mindset and you know one of our big

focus areas in behavior change is how do I start to really shift my mindset to

get the business that I want but yeah the you know if your team are are sort of knocking off straight at 5 and and

you’re still working until 9:00 at night. How do we start to rebalance that and start to rebalance

and nodding [laughter] you make some great points. I think um it is a real mindset shift and I think

people um especially if they you know professional service firm be it a conveyance or a legal firm whatever it

is when we’re selling human labor or hours our time our our hope is always to

kind of get in there and get the job done and help the customer as fast as we can and complete the task. Um, and

that’s great if you’re a doer, but at the moment where you actually need to lift and you know, you know, go from

being working in the business to working on the business, it is an absolute mind shift.

And I think one of the things that I like recommending and reminding people that, you know, sometimes people say,

“Oh, it’s faster for me to do it myself.” [laughter] And that’s a classic one, Anna. And I think the kind of thing really is is to

remember that when we were starting out as graduates or when we were starting out as our first job, we actually some

we slowed someone else down to teach us. So [clears throat] now probably it’s time for us to slow down and teach

someone else and pay it forward. Um so sure it’s faster for me to do it, but

that is not scalable. That thinking is not scalable. You cannot replicate and multiply if you’re the one always

hoarding onto that IP. Absolutely. And I actually try to encourage people to think about it to

assist them with that mindset because I think the mindset is I’m protecting my team which comes from a really good place.

However, I say you’re actually robbing them of an opportunity to learn and grow because this is how we learned. This is

how everybody had to scrape their knees on, you know, all these interesting little the old you boring tasks, all the doing.

But actually that is the thing that taught you how to become a better executive. It taught you how to be a

better business um owner. So you know how do we people listening to this that are going I don’t have time for this. But what

you’re saying is it’s not about time necessarily. It’s a mindset. Yeah. And prioritizing it. I think um

especially if you’re developing a professional service firm and you’re thinking about um you know one of your

roles as a business owner is to always maximize the valuation of your business at the point that you’re always doing

everything the value of your business declines because you have keyman risk or key person risk. So anyone coming in to

value your business is going to say you know am I buying a business or am I buying one personality and what is the

risk when that person leaves? So I think maybe in short term it might be faster

but the long-term ramifications for you know the valuation of your business and we know that the for a lot of people

apart from their home their business is their biggest asset. Yeah. So what are the little behaviors that we

have to bring in the change in the mindset to help us scale beyond where we are now and move to the next level.

Yeah. And can I sorry can I just say on that point what I would notice as well is that you become the bottleneck

and so you become actually what you think you’re saving the organization money or you’re saving your business

money actually you’re wasting money because people in your business are waiting to talk to you about the decision they’re waiting to see what you

think they’re waiting to see and then suddenly you’ve got 40 decisions to make in a week when actually you could narrow

that down to probably five key important decisions that you need to make and that cost of the waiting, the spinning the

wheels, people getting frustrated in your team, great people who you’ve got in your team, not being able to do the

job that you’ve employed them to do is very frustrating for people. Anna, you’ve talked about reducing the time it takes to manage your team by

80%. That’s a huge number. How is that possible? Oh, it’s very doable. I think the first

part um the first part you really have to do is just sit down with yourself and

you know obviously get someone to facilitate you come in and facilitate you but at the moment where you actually

craft what we refer to as a one-page strategic plan you get absolute clarity on what are the top priorities that need

to happen within the business I think a lot of people especially if they’re a technician or from a professional

service thing the to-do list is a massive shopping list how do we actually

when we’re curating the onepage strategic plan, place a bet on maybe one or two or three key priorities and know

that there are some critical things that we have to get done this quarter to move the business forward and to grow the

business and there are things that can probably wait for you know maybe until

next quarter. Once you have that clarity hand on heart of what that priority is

and you can only have that clarity and that hand of hand on heart moment when you actually go through the rigor of the

strategic planning process then you say okay these are the two or three things the team or and myself are going to

focus on this quarter. It means everything else will have to wait. When you prioritize those tasks, you then

have to calendar manage like anything. You know, um Aristotle said there is freedom through discipline.

The more disciplined you are, especially in that planning process and over our calendar and our behaviors and our

mindset and um self-t talk is a massive component here. So, I really applaud the

work that you do. Um you you free yourself up and then you just prioritize the real stuff

and delegate. You know, you delegate. Do not abdicate. Yeah. You know, and coach your team through it. If you’re a leader

and you have a team um that you’re supporting, the number one thing is is be available to coach them and support

them. Your job as a leader is to help them and and maybe clear the path that

if these are the two or three priorities that we’re working on, how do we clear the path for our team to make sure that

we succeed? So, Louise, just say I’ve done what Anna has told me to do and I’ve freed up some time. I’ve managed to free up some time.

Where would I be best to direct that time? Well, I think that the time is actually what Anna has outlined there, which is

the coaching and mentoring of your people because through that um allocation of jobs or allocation of

things for them to do, you’re giving them complete ownership of that. And that is terrifying to people. [laughter]

I mean, what if they muck it up? That’s exactly right. What if they make a total mess of it? Now, you’ve employed

this person. You’ve probably worked with them for a while. They’re completely bought in. They want to do the right

thing. Your job then becomes to help them to do the right thing and do it in

a way that’s up to your standard, that meets the needs, that achieves the goals, that’s on the strategic plan. So,

the role uh is is scary. It is scary. It almost feels like I’m stepping off and doing something completely different

because those technical skills that Anna was referring to, you know, those are the things that made you famous. Those

are the things that people go, you know what, like Louise is great at this. We should get her in to do this. And there’s a certain amount of your ego

that gets a little pat, you know, whenever that comes around. And so this is now like a reimagining of the role

that you’re playing in your business. Uh which is quite is terrifying. So I absolutely um have worked with many

leaders on that where they say, “Well, what am I going to do? If they’re all going to do this, what am I going to do?” And it’s like, well, your role now

is the CEO or your role now becomes the chief operating officer, which is making

sure that things are being done at the speed and the, you know, sometimes there’s going to be course corrections. I don’t know how many strategic plans

I’ve looked at and thought there’s a lot of things on there. I like your I like your number, Anna. Three is is a good

number of things to have for a quarter. Um, so is that your definition of leadership? Just doing the role that

you’re supposed to be doing. Absolutely. and making sure that people have then the skills and ability to do

the roles that they’re meant to be doing. Um, and if I need to step in and coach, if I need to step in and do a

little bit of mentoring, um, then I’m available to do that. So, I’m able to

keep my finger on the pulse. And I guess as we look at different styles of

organizations and different styles of businesses and different sizes of organizations, there are going to be

times where it’s not possible to completely give away all of the doing jobs. There are going to be some doing

jobs, but we need to be quite careful and strategic about what are those things that we hang on to. And then what

are the things that it’s absolutely appropriate that our finance coordinator or the finance person is going to do all

the data entry and they’re going to get it all up to a point and then you come in and do the approval and then you come

in and do the kind of the check as opposed to you saying I’ll just I’ll just help you with that. I’ll just I’ll

just enter [laughter] that for you. See how your strategy would work in big firms. Most conveyancing firms are are really only three to seven people. That

would be a pretty standard size. So, does that philosophy still work? Yeah, I think so. I think you just have

to really determine what’s the right balance between those technical specialty skills that I have and then

what we would say your visionary skills. So, that’s you know getting the right plan in place. So, taking the time, you

know, doing a strategy as Anna has suggested um and I completely endorse um

you know that is probably going to be a day’s work. It’s going to be time out of the build out of the out of the office

hopefully to to actually get your head into the right space, get the get the plan onto the page. So, you need to have

time to do that and you need to work out what’s the right balance between those two pieces going to be. Um, even if I’ve

got, you know, six or seven people, I still need to be in that leadership role. Sort of, you know, you’re

conducting as opposed to being in the choir. You know, you’re really, you’re looking at, are we on track? Can I see

where we’re headed? Am I flipping the pages for the choir or am I getting lost up in in the moment? And I think a lot

of particularly in small business where there are lots of jobs where we don’t, you know, we don’t have somebody who does marketing and someone who does the

website and somebody who does the finances and someone that’s all probably one person doing those things. It can be

very easy to uh to lose sight of that that big picture. Yeah. I think um you made a point

earlier on about um how your technical skills is almost and you get that

that rush that [laughter] reinforcement from the market that what you you know from a customer that what you’re doing is so

great and it’s like this magnetic thing that you really enjoy and then you decide to go out on your own and and set

up a business and hire people and yet everyone is still coming to you and I think there is a moment in time where in

the beginning it used to pat you how did you say it? It gives you pats your ego. [laughter] It pats your ego. I love it.

It pats your ego. But as you scale and organize, as you scale your business and as you grow, I think the bottleneck is

really apparent. And I think people sometimes resent that because they feel trapped then. And it’s that mindset

change that we’ve got to go through of I know I’ve got to slow down. This IP that I’ve got in my brain that

I’ve developed over decades, you know, it’s great. How do I start transferring it to other teams and leveraging it and

bringing in that power of not just one of me but 10 of me and and then coaching and supporting you

know um once the rubber hits the road reality really hits but being available for your team and not buried in the

work. So if we drilled it down even further Louise just say your company has two or three people or or even a sole trader

then how does that apply? Yeah, I think this is where we really need to draw on that connected community because even if

I’m a soul trader, there are a lot of other people out there for me to draw on

their knowledge and draw on their skills. And so as a you know really

understanding particularly as a soul trader maybe you’ve got one person helping or assisting you um you know

what is that cause? What is the reason as you said Anna you know you’ve come out of a business you really love or you’re excellent at this one thing but

is that is that your whole purpose of being whenever you went out in your own what was the what was the thing that

really thought you know what I’m going to be excellent at this and I see myself being able to do it on a wider scale or

do I want to stay in this just one man band kind of idea and either is fine but

it’s just understanding what is your ambition within that this podcast is proudly sponsored by

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website, you know, like you know, getting your staff to do things perhaps that you’ve done yourself in the past, but then how do you

incentivize them to actually step up and do those extra roles perhaps? Louise

makes a really good point and I think from um managing your time and managing where you are and like from a practical

perspective of how you do it and find the time. One thing I did years back was I

actually pretended that my business was a paying client and I blocked out time in my calendar to

actually say the business is a paying client. It’s not going to move. It’s not

going to do anything else but you need to focus on it and go through the tasks

that you allocated so that you can get it there. I think people have ambition and a hope and a dream and maybe they

are starting up small but I think when they started their business they had a dream for something bigger and you know

this onepage strategic plan or a game plan whatever you want to call it I think there is a dream and a hope that

people have that sometimes it extinguishes because they are just buried in the dayto-day compliance and

paperwork but how do we actually lift them out of it and you need to really be disciplined in your calendar. Yeah.

And my recommendation is is block blockout time just like it was a paying customer. And I love that because I think that is

that real choice that you’re making. And that’s really powerful. You know, if we feel that things are happening to us,

that’s whenever we can get despondent and get bit defensive whenever when someone might help ask to help you. Um

whereas when I’m making a choice, I’m choosing to do this today. I’m choosing to have this as my paying client. then

that’s a quite an empowering way of thinking and it really helps reinforce that mindset of even though I might have

two people in my team, I’m still the CEO of this business and this business is almost my client. So, I really love that

as an idea. I think too the other point is like um sometimes from the isolation especially

if you’re working on your own and building up a community. One thing that really helped me was um I created a

mastermind group and I think sometimes the there’s a you don’t want to kind of

create a a community thing of people that are direct competitors to you in your own world. So I created a

mastermind group with other people similar to um what I was doing in the marketplace but international. So we

we’ve got people and we still get together every day um every Saturday when we can um just even if it’s a

check-in but this mastermind group of and it’s through um Northern America, South America and also through to

Southeast Asia. So we kind of cover the time zones we can but creating maybe even a virtual community. I know it

really helped me during co where we just doubled down and supported each other. There’s no conflict of interest. There’s

no competitive landscape. there are people out there who are looking who are just like you looking to connect.

Um and I think maybe be the first person to create that community and create that support for yourself. It’s very lonely

when you’re um a solo person with a bigger dream. Um surround yourself with

good people. There’s got to be for many small businesses, especially ones working out of their living room or

their office at home. It can be quite isolating. Annie, you talk about having a bee hag or a big hairy audacious goal

which similar similar to a northstar perhaps. What are some examples? Oh, good question. So, the bee hag

concept, it’s an ugly American term. It’s come out of Stanford University and Jim Collins’s work with good to great

where they research thousands of great businesses and what is the difference between a good business and a great

business. And one of the things that they identified that all of these businesses had a bee hag or a big hairy

audacious goal and it’s literally um like a north star. I like calling it our

southern cross for our Australian clients. What is this big guiding light? What is this difference that we want to

make on in the planet or we creating our business? What is our raise on detra? Um

and what is the impact that we’re going to make? It famously came out of um the

probably the most famous one was JFK’s example of you know by the end of the decade we’re going to land a man on the

moon and bring him home safely. That was the goal and then the question was well how did we do it and they

started reverse engineering um the goals and the actions that they had to take place. I think for the my favorite piece

of that phrase as ugly as it is is the big hairy it’s the audacious part. It is

a big hairy audacious goal. So it really challenges us when we’re putting together our game plan and and figuring

out where we want to take the business where you ask yourself as a business owner or as a founder. You have the

audacity to believe what? It’s not like an actual goal or an achievable goal.

It’s like an audacious goal. So, I’ve had, you know, we’ve challenged a lot of our clients and some of my favorite ones

have been I had I was working with one regional business and um he said, “Look,

Anna, all I really want is if I can create a business where we can create 50

sustainable jobs in the community so our kids don’t have to leave um and go to

the big smoke and we can retain our community, our community spirit. That would be great.” At the time he had 15

employees, but for him it was like quite audacious. I think for performance 7

I’ll share mine because I was really challenged. Like I’ve got a CEO mastermind group that I facilitate and

the interesting thing is when you share these concepts your your your CEOs start

pushing it back on you. So they started coaching me and the CEO group that I had was exit lassian at ex Twitter and um

some really interesting experience in the room and they said right miss what’s your new big hairy audacious goal and at

the time I had just come back from Paris where I’d gone with my daughter one of my dreams was to take my daughter for a

mother daughter trip to Paris which sounds rounded but at the time I went that that when is that going to happen

but you know you put it on paper you commit to it and somehow the universe brings it to life. And when I came back

from Paris, um I was talking to the CEOs and I said, “Do you know what I found really amazing? Louis Vuitton actually

gen and their stable of um brands generates 1% of France’s GDP.”

And I think how do you do that? So then they kind of pushed back on me and they said, “All right, you know, um my

original behag was to help 10 companies scale.” And I got to that pretty fast.

um interestingly applying the frameworks but then the big hairy audacious goal

had become achievable so it starts to fizzle out so you need to keep on set a

new one so then the next one that we created was um for performance 7 to be

the energy force that powers 1% of Australia’s GDP

and you’ve influenced by Elvie Hammet [laughter] um but I think it kind of it makes you

ass and but it starts to then structure a lot of your decision making when you’re strategic planning. It starts to

prioritize in a different way and bring a rigor to it. So it’s a very powerful mechanism when it’s facilitated

properly. Um I think deep down people have this dream and they have this audacious goal and um but putting the

structure around it you go that’s my you know stake in the sand. We’re talking about scaling businesses

Louise. in order to scale your business, what are the key drivers of success? Well, I think it’s absolutely um as Anna

has outlined for us, you know, it’s things like having a great clarity or having great clarity on that

focus of where do we want to go? Um making it as audacious and and big as

possible. Um and having the right people in your team to do that. And now whenever I say the team, I think we’re

using that team that term loosely. uh which so it might be the actual team who you employ but it might be a network of

uh support people or it might be a network of um other small businesses who are also aligned to that goal and I and

it comes down to the mindset the choices that I’m making daytoday week to week am I putting that time in my diary to do

the thinking around this and make sure that I’ve got the right people almost um getting into the helicopter you know and

having a look rather than if you’re in the you you know, in the trenches, in the field every day, it’s very, very

hard to see where you’re going. Um, and so you really need to schedule in that time to get into the helicopter and kind

of get up and have the aerial view of what’s happening with this business. You know, are things going in the right

direction? Are some of the decisions that we’ve made paying off or are we

running actually something that’s, you know, not on track and we need to pull back? Um, and you know, that will happen

at various volumes. I say, you know, some some smaller businesses, you might be making a decision that’s, you know,

$1,000 or $10,000 and some of the bigger businesses that we’re working with, you know, it might be $20 million that we’ve

invested and we’re going to pull back. But it actually doesn’t matter. I think the principles are very much the same

which is knowing where you’re going working out who the people are who you need to take there with you um and

making sure that we have got the good communication in in place so that we are

all aligned and keeping on track with working towards that goal. So if you as

the leader of that group of people or of that village as we like to call it, um

if you as the leader are making sure everyone’s working on that goal, then it means that your job becomes actually

relatively easy because it makes whenever you’re really clear on where you’re going, it actually helps clarify complex even complex

decisions can actually become boiled down to is this taking us in the right direction. And so I think there’s

there’s sort of not it’s not a complex model even though it feels it when you’re in the in the in the midst of it.

Anna, yeah, you get Yeah. There’s there’s a there’s a dynamic that’s happening as you’re growing your business. Um getting very

very clear on the culture and that includes the definition of success which is where the B hag is really powerful.

But also the counterbalance is always cash flow. Yes. So, as leaders, we’re kind of balancing out preserving a fantastic

culture and building this great community or a village um of our people and things that actually honor our

spirit as founders of the business. And then the other side is cash flow and and

um you know that that cash flow literacy that we need. I know quite often we sit there and look at financial statements

and we look at profit and losses and you know the all the boring stuff that we have to do but the reality is is the

businesses that are really successful in scaling um master cash flow. Yes.

And I wanted to talk about barriers. So that would be a classic one. Yeah. So because growth sucks cash.

Growth sucks cash like there’s no tomorrow. And especially if you’re adding in overhead or perhaps um labor

that is not um you know invoice generating it’s not income generating it’s not billable labor. So a lot of

people have this definition that I’m scaling my business therefore it must be I’m growing more people I’m adding more

people and it’s the more people I have you know the the ego kind of expands

with the bigger your team is and what we’re seeing a a we’re seeing a lot into the marketplace now is um you’re

bringing in a great team and you you hire your people but we’re actually seeing how are we supplementing now that

that with AI and AI agents and what is our policy around the AI and the AI

agents that we’re developing and we’re actually seeing a supercharge in the definition of growing a business because

when we’re bringing in an AI or an AI agent, some people are fearing their roles but effectively it’s supplementing

and it’s complementing us. So it’s actually supercharging. If we embrace the technology, we can actually

obviously you can you can make more money and therefore you can earn more money. Um um and you know you can ask

for more money because you’re actually far more productive. So um if you can reduce the costs and and you know the

costs that actually suck cash flow and use something a bit cheaper or um

and more effective in powering the business then you can grow. Louise, would you agree with Anna’s

assessment of AI in terms of it being complimentary to a business? Absolutely. And and we’re very much

seeing it as that accelerator. So we’re very much saying um it’s never going to take away it’s never going to replace

the really great connection that people have and you know one of the trends that we’ve absolutely seen in 2026 has been

people coming back into the office. Initially it was sort of forced but I think there’s been an absolute um

passion for people coming back in really working together and and learning together. You know that one of the great

things about a village is it’s a great place to learn from each other. Um and there was a feeling that you know things

like those mentoring relationships or that coaching that Anna talked about at the beginning you know that doesn’t

happen as readily when you are doing it on a team’s call or a um a zoom call.

Um, so those little incidental moments are absolutely really what we get from the connection and I think AI is then

abs taking away some of those jobs that maybe would take me half a day to write a pack of you know to present to the

board and it’s giving me a framework to do that very very quickly. Um, so yeah, we’re absolutely seeing AI as a as a

huge as a driving force for good and for also accelerating some of those trickier

decisions that we’ve had to make or helping us think through them in a different way. It’s a great It augments

what we do and I think but it could never take away um our ability to critically think.

Absolutely. You know, our ability as humans to be creative and imagine

is something that’s just glorious to our own neuronet network. So I think we can

fear it. Um and yes, you know, it has to come in within parameters. There’s definitely, you know, there’s there are

issues with it. Um but I think if we embrace it from a workflow perspective

and we embrace it to help us do um our work more efficiently you know those you

know that editing and you know the stuff that we’re seeing that it can become quite laborious. I think it’s a real

accelerator um for businesses. It pre preserves cash flow and then you can

reallocate that cash money or those resources perhaps into marketing perhaps into promoting your business more

developing these communities and funding things activities that are actually going to scale your business Anna’s

identified cash flow as one of the barriers to scaling. Is there anything else that you can identify? I I would say that one of the things is

just your own mindset. So I think that scaling you you can have the dream but we really need to think about what’s the

behavior that on a day-to-day week-toeek basis I am demonstrating with my team because you can say to your team this is

my big goal this is the things that we’re going to do and they get really excited they are inspired by your vision

they get on board they’re motivated and then your behavior is the thing that is like a little pothole that they think oh

well that you wanted me to you want us to go to in this direction but you’re not helping

do that like uh then I I’ll just have another look at that. I’ll just before we send that out to the client, I’ll

just have a quick look at it or no, just send that to me for approval. Um and so I think these barriers of the mindset

and the way that the behavior that you demonstrate on a day-to-day basis can be the thing that inadvertently and I

really want to stress that I know it comes from a good place particularly with people are founders of businesses

comes from a great place. They want to do the right thing. They’re doing it because they’re trying to protect that brand or that vision that they have.

However, it is actually really the counterproductive piece because it’s a

choice that we have to make of like how how am I going to show up as the leader of this team and really shifting the

mindset to being um someone who is enabling as opposed to doing all the

stuff. So, this question is for either of you. We’ve been told by smaller conveyances they must change or grow or risk being

overwhelmed. There’s a lot of red tape at the moment. they got AMLCTF compliance. So, I’d like to get your

thoughts if they’d be better off considering perhaps merging or entering a franchise agreement. I mean, we talk

about scaling. Is is that the sort of option that you’d look at? Do you want I’ll go for this one? Um, I

think the first step is there there are always lots of opportunities out there where you can take your business and

we’ve got to, you know, there’s like a shopping list of things that we could do and take it. I think the first bit is to

sit down with yourself or with the team and actually facilitate what is your true sense of where you want to take

this business. You have to honor your own um dream of where you wanted to be your business and um and give that its

rightful airspace to kind of say this is when I set up the business. This is what I was hoping to achieve.

Okay, where could I take it? I know I’ve got all these roadblocks and challenges that are stopping me from actually

achieving it. But if I go back to when I was when I had that moment that I wanted to start this business, what is it that

I wanted to achieve? Get it in a game plan um or or a strategic plan. Look at

it. Sometimes it takes time. They marinade. These kind of plans, you know, they take time.

I might say a glass of wine can sometimes help with courage. You know, a glass of sparkling can sometimes um

help. And then if one of the choices comes out there and your your your hope is kind of saying, you know what,

franchise looks like it might be an option for me to research, then go ahead. But don’t feel like you have to

fall and make a choice. I think you you are always in control of your fate.

Yeah. Don’t take control of it. Go through the rigor, the process of it

and and challenge yourself. Dare, you know, dare to dream big. Absolutely. And I would say if it if the

franchise arrangement complements the set of skills that you have or perhaps

enables you then to not do some things that perhaps you don’t have strengths in then that would ended up being quite a

good partnership. But if it is doing things that actually you love doing then

you really have to think well is this helping me meet my goals? Is this helping me? Is this a model that’s going

to work for me as I move forwards here? So, I think it really is that self-reflection back back to the old

self-reflection, [laughter] self-awareness and mindset. Be true to yourself and and and give

yourself time to think it out without any influence from other people. I think one of the mistakes a lot of business

owners make um is they’re asking everybody else for advice, whether

they’re qualified for advice or not. So I think carefully curating the people

that you’re going to ask for advice who have demonstrated [clears throat] success or you feel like they’ve done

something like that. Listen to them. But don’t go around asking every person who

can breathe for advice if they don’t have relevant experience to guide you. And just on on that piece as you’re

doing that thinking you know you you said there get in a room with yourself. I would actually encourage you to get in

a room with someone who’s going to challenge your thinking as well. because it’s very hard to reach that

audacious goal that you talked of earlier, Anna. I find it’s very hard to do that by yourself

because you will always edit to something that you think is achievable. Um, and so it’s really it can be really

helpful. You know, that one person in your life who says, “Come on, I think you can do better than that.” Or, “I think I’ve seen you do I’ve seen you do

harder things than that.” you want that person to be in the room with you so that you can set something that kind of

gives you that little thrill or that sort of thinking of I don’t think I would be able to do that. Well, you know

that you’re near something that’s the right the right level. Um and so I think it is it’s surrounding yourself with

people who are not just no I think that would be enough. I think you did. [laughter]

Look, we’re almost out of time. Before we go today, Annard, if for people listening and watching, can you give us

some key suggestions for scaling up and growing your business? I think the first piece is absolutely take control of your

calendar and be ruthless with it. The second one is if you can get a great EA

or a VA and train them up really effectively, not only from a business perspective, from a personal piece

thing. Um, it does actually free up the clutter in your mind of all the things you have to try and remember.

Build a really strong team. I mean, as a CEO, your number one task is actually

player selection. Mhm. Your number one task is to actually find and recruit and retain great people who

believe in the same behag and want to preserve the same culture as yourself. And then lastly, get into the market.

You know, you can’t grow a business with your feet under a desk. You need to get out there and network and promote and

and be with be. We were born in communities and I think with this working from home and also this um

hybrid way of working isn’t always the best um for our um our mindsets and our

personalities. So I think get out there and the business will come. I promise you

Louise some key suggestions um quite similar which is you know get really clear on what it is that you want

and don’t limit yourself with perhaps things that have happened in the past.

Um, I’d also start to build a bit of self-awareness around what are some of the things that I might be doing at the

moment that are holding me back. So, you know, what are the what are those little

discussions that you’re having with yourself around it’d be quicker if I did it myself or you know what, I don’t

think I’ve really got time to train this person or they didn’t do a very good job last time so I’m not going to let them do it this time. What’s the choice that

you’re making? And then finally, really tapping into that network of people who

are already in your life. And if you don’t have them, then seek them out. What are some of those things to to create that community, to keep

challenging you, and also to see what’s possible? Some great advice, Anna and Louise. Thank you so much for joining us on

Settlement Day. Thanks very much, Amber. Thanks, Anna. Great. Thanks,