EO Melbourne kickstarts the year 2023 with The Masterplan

A great way to kickstart the year was to set one’s goals for a productive year ahead. EO Melbourne recently invited the dynamic duo of Master Life Strategist and Coach Shannah Kennedy and Leadership Coach Colleen Callander for a powerful presentation on The Masterplan during a breakfast event.

Shannah Kennedy is a high-performance master planner and one of Australia’s foremost strategic life coaches. She is the bestselling author of The Life Plan and global best seller Plan B. Colleen Callander is an award-winning CEO, Founder of Mentor Me, and the author of Leader By Design.

Their presentation revolved around The Masterplan – The Ultimate Self-Mastery Program on Life (Self-Awareness), Leadership (Self-Leadership) and Longevity (Self-Management). Participants walked away with a 76-page workbook covering the 18 core topics around Life, Leadership and Longevity that helped them create their Masterplan and Action plan to future-proof themselves and their businesses.

The attendees took away great learnings from the event, such as the importance of planning, focusing on one’s self, creating personal values and living by them, and improving one’s habits and daily life.

“It was such a privilege and joy to present at the first EO Melbourne networking breakfast. We met so many incredible EO members doing incredible things and were open to elevating both personally and professionally,” Colleen Callandar commented.

EO Melbourne has lined up more remarkable learning events for the remainder of FY 2022-2023. If you want to enjoy the benefits of being an EO Melbourne Member, visit our https://www.eomelbourne.org/join page.

EO Melbourne at the Australian Open 2023 Superbox Experience

with guests from EO Sydney, EO Brisbane

and EO Adelaide

With the epic return of The Australian Open this 2023, EO Melbourne once again had the opportunity to see the much-awaited sports action live and now with an incredible vantage point through the Superbox Experience.

This time, the excitement was brought a notch higher as members of EO Adelaide, EO Brisbane and EO Sydney joined EO Melbourne in this multi-chapter event. 

It was the first chapter event of EO Melbourne for 2023, a great way to welcome the new year with a bang. EO Members were able to watch the scheduled games from the 20th to the 22nd of January. EO members who are tennis enthusiasts had a comfortable super Centre Court viewing experience in the exclusive entertaining suites. 

“The event was really nice. We had incredible rooms at the games. We had great matches, great conversations, and great people there from all over Australia, and I hope we do a lot more of them,” said EO Melbourne President Damian Blumenkranc.

For the full 6 hours, these Superboxes offered members a social evening and gripping tennis experience complete with atrium access and gourmet food and beverages to enjoy. Behind the private glass, they were able to cheer for their faves to their heart’s content as well as find the opportunity to connect with other EO members. 

“It's a unique experience which I wouldn't have experienced otherwise,” one of the guests shared. An EO Melbourne member also remarked, “I simply love tennis and EO, so this was the perfect combo.”

Apart from world-class learning events and skills-specific workshops, EO Melbourne also provides its members with a venue to exchange business stories that would help them learn and grow, such as social events like the Australian Open Superbox Experience, supporting the needs of the 360° entrepreneur through community and personal experiences.

If you think you have what it takes to be an EO Member and are interested in what it offers, we invite you to our “Startup to Scaling Up” Membership Information Night on 9 February 2023, where you will be able to learn more about EO Melbourne.

EO Global travels in 2023

There are many benefits to being an EO Member and one of its many perks is being able to travel where they get to meet like-minded people from various parts of the world, who share their passion for business, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Being a global organisation with a high-quality support network of 16,500+ diverse business leaders from more than 60 countries, EO provides a lot of once-in-a-lifetime experiences for its members where they also get to explore other places and widen their knowledge. This year, there are several travel opportunities for EO Melbourne members, which both the chapter and the global network have organised.

Some of the most popular EO global travels are the EO Explorations. It kicks off this year as it returns to “the land of fire and ice” with the 2023 EO Iceland Exploration happening from 6 to 11 February 2023. In FY21/22, this Exploration sold out and it is brought back this year to allow more EOers to experience Iceland with a trip only EO can offer.

The most famous sight in Iceland attracts visitors from all over the world: the Northern Lights, a spectacular natural phenomenon. At Aurora Basecamp, guests experience a real-time indoor simulation before venturing outside with an expert guide to view the breathtaking wonder live. Even if you’ve seen them before, each time is a truly memorable experience.

Other EO Explorations lined up this year are the 2023 EO Tanzania Exploration, happening from 30 April to 5 May 2023, and the 2023 EO Mexico Exploration, which is scheduled from 26 October to 1 November 2023. 

In the EO Tanzania Exploration, guests will feel the calming strength of the Serengeti’s animals and people and relish in the warmth of Zanzibar’s waters and intoxicating way of life. After several soul-filling days in the Serengeti, they will fly a few miles off the coast of Tanzania to idyllic Zanzibar, an island oasis teeming with natural beauty, rich history and unparalleled Zanzibari hospitality. They will learn about their turbulent past, indulge in flavorful cuisine and allow the salt water to renew them.

On the other hand, the EO Mexico Exploration is an opportunity for EOers to discover the spirit of Mexico in Oaxaca and the Yucatan in a way only EOers can. This event includes a special treat: on the final night, guests will join other EOers from the LAC region to celebrate the opening night of LACademy.

Apart from the EO Explorations, there are also other EO events where members get the opportunity to fly to other countries. For one, EO is organising its first-ever Leadership Academy for Womenpreneurs. The four-day immersion programme will integrate leadership content, EO experiential learning and social time to create a transformational experience for EO’s women leaders. This powerful personal formation programme will be held in Borobudur, a UNESCO heritage site in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 20-23 February.

And the most-awaited global event of EO is the 26th Global Leadership Conference, this year to be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 25 to 27 April 2023. 

Year after year, men and women of EO from around the world make the choice to raise their hands and courageously take on the challenge of creation and leadership. They rally at the Global Leadership Conference (GLC) to learn, grow and think bigger than before. At the GLC, they get the opportunity to engage with fellow entrepreneurs from around the world in one place – one conversation – for the purpose of growing together.

Closer to home, EO Melbourne is taking its Chapter Retreat this year in lush Bali, Indonesia. From 21 to 24 May 2023, EO Melbourne Members and guests will come together to Unleash The New Paradigm with a new mission of self-discovery and a new perspective. Activities and speakers are lined up where they can gain new experiences and possibilities to be stimulated, inspired and armed to take the leap to their greatest potential discovery.

These are just a few global travels that EOers look forward to this year. If you’re interested on how to become an EO Melbourne Member, visit our https://www.eomelbourne.org/join page.

EO Melbourne elects FY 2023/24 Board at the AGM, plus an inspiring talk from Fable Food CEO Michael Fox

The Annual General Meeting is one of the important events in the EO Melbourne calendar. It is the time of the year when members play their role in the election of the Chapter President and Board for the next financial year. 

Recently, the chapter has gathered and elected its Board for the FY 2023/24, ratified by the current Board. The following are the newly elected officials, who will start their term in July 2023:

President: James Murray

President-Elect, Communications Chair and Finance Chair: Costa Vasili

Strategic Alliance Chair: Damian Blumenkranc

Mentorship Chair and Key Executive Chair: Tom Ormerod

Accelerator Chair: Anthony Lam

Membership Chair: Kate Save

Membership Co-Chair: Jeni Clift

Membership Engagement Chair: Rob Roy Rankin

Learning Chair: David Fastuca

Forum Chair: John Bevitt

Forum Co-Chair: Ben Beattie

During the AGM, Michael Fox, CEO and Co-Founder at Fable Food Co, gave a talk about the lessons he learned from the failure of his first business, Shoes of Prey, and how he has brought those lessons to Fable Food.

“Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" are the famous words of known basketball coach John Wooden, to which Michael also subscribes.

His experience with Shoes of Prey was something he and his co-founders described as "the kiss of death," "one of the most horrific days of their lives," and "learning the hard way" as they witnessed the collapse of their business, which led to losing $35 million of investments and laying off over 200 people after 10 years of hard work.

The experience left Michael "physically ill" to go back to the entrepreneurial track. Still, starting a new business he eventually did, and Fable Food Co was born.

Taking in both the highs and the lows of his Shoes of Prey start-up journey, Michael shared his experiences of expanding a business, not being able to scale to the mass market, and personally applying the lessons learned to his new enterprise, Fable Food, making it right this time, and building his latest venture into a successful business.

What also made Fable Food successful is Michael’s personal commitment to the company’s purpose. Growing up as a meat-loving Queenslander, he became a vegetarian in 2015 and is now vegan for health, environmental and ethical reasons. He co-founded Fable Food to help people reduce their meat consumption.

EO Melbourne Members found Michael’s entrepreneurial journey a fantastic story with great learnings and key takeaways, such as:

• Do your research on your product fit carefully and thoroughly

• Cut deep when you need to reduce expenses

• Be careful who you take investment from, look for smart money

There will always be challenges in every business and failures are inevitable. But what’s important is how to bounce back and turn things around to make them in your favour. 

With these lessons from Michael Fox’s talk and the promise that the new Board can bring to the table, we look forward to a more exciting journey for EO Melbourne in the upcoming FY 2023/24 and the years ahead.

A look into EO Melbourne’s first half of FY 2022-2023

See what’s in store for the rest of the year

The calendar year 2022 has come to a close and we welcome the New Year 2023 with a positive outlook. For many, this is the time to look at the past year and learn from it in order to work towards a better year ahead. For several businesses and organisations, such as EO Melbourne, this marks the first half of the financial year 2022-2023, a perfect time to step up the momentum for the next six months.

The EO Melbourne Board for FY 2022-2023 has worked hard to come up with a packed Q1 and Q2 that would cater to the 360-degree needs of its member entrepreneurs. It has invited top-notch speakers and workshop facilitators who shared their inspiring stories and practical insights, which are valuable to those traversing their respective entrepreneurial journeys.

Among the notable guests that EO Melbourne had for the past six months was Jack Daly, who conducted his "The Proven Path to Hyper Sales Growth While Living a Life By Design" workshop. Other workshops that the chapter organised were the "Never Fly Economy Again" Virtual 'Point Hacks' Workshop with iFLYflat Founder and CEO Steve Hui and the "Get Your Business Out of Your Brain" Virtual Trainual workshop with Trainual Founder and CEO Chris Ronzio.

EO Melbourne also had other amazing resource speakers, such as the advisor to the advisors, Craig Ferguson who gave an insight on the Australian economy and where it is heading; Al Qaeda's longest-held prisoner and now International Speaker & Best Selling Author Steve McGown who talked about survival, the importance of making important decisions, acceptance and communication, and the concept that Freedom is an attitude; and Fable Food Co CEO and Co-Founder Michael Fox who shared the lessons he learned from the collapse of his business, Shoes of Prey, and how he applied them to Fable Food.

Some virtual events were conducted like the Virtual Masterclass Series: Everything you need to know about Offshoring and the 'Scaling and Selling a Global Digital Agency' virtual event with Andrew Collins.

EO Melbourne Members and attendees also found great insights from events like "The Deal of a Lifetime" with EO Member Ben Trinh and the myDNA event where they learned about the personalised, DNA-powered approach to their health & wellness. The chapter also conducted two Accelerator and Key Executive Learning Days, one on “Cash” and another on “Strategy”.

But it wasn’t just all about learning and workshops as members also had some fun time connecting with fellow members during the EO Exclusive Drive Day with our Strategic Alliance Partner, MB Berwick, which included a lunch at Jackalope. The chapter capped the year 2022 with its annual Christmas Long Lunch, this time, at the lush Levantine Hill. Accelerators and Key Executives also had their Christmas Party at Perry’s Club, co-founded by EO Melbourne Member Paul Ghaie.

As the year 2023 begins, the second half of FY 2022-2023 looks even more exciting as the chapter starts with the Australian Open Superbox Experience for its members. There’s also the Australian F1 Grand Prix Experience that they can look forward to in April. The third Member Connect Dinners where members can enjoy dinner in an intimate setting of 10 people are also in the works.

Other events in the pipeline are the Masterplan Workshop: The Ultimate Self-Mastery Program on Life, Leadership and Longevity, International Women’s Day with Dr Nicole Yap and the Greg Crabtree Workshop. EO Melbourne Members, Accelerators, SLP and Key Executive Forum members can look to more exciting and invigorating events in the coming months.

Moreover, the highlight of the FY 2022-2023 is the EO Melbourne Chapter Retreat, which will be held on the beautiful island of Bali in Indonesia.

Sounds exciting? If you are interested in becoming part of EO Melbourne or have someone in mind who fits the requirements of the EO Membership: founder, co-founder, owner or controlling shareholder of a company in Melbourne and surrounding areas; and holds one of the above titles for a company that grosses more than US$1 million annually, then you or the potential guest can express your interest in attending our Membership Information Night “Startup to Scaling Up” by visiting our https://www.eomelbourne.org/event2023. 

Andrew Collins talks about Scaling and Selling a Digital Agency at the EO Melbourne event

Andrew Collins, Group CEO of Mailman, is proof that age and an unfamiliar territory are not hindrances to one’s road to success in the entrepreneurial journey. In one of EO Melbourne’s learning events, Andrew shared how he, as a young Australian entrepreneur, acquired a small business in China and transformed it into a global leader in sports media, serving the largest sports organisations in the world, including NFL, NBA, UFC, Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United, to name a few.

At the age of 27, on his fifth trip to China, Andrew acquired Mailman, one of the first foreign-owned advertising agencies in this country that specialised in postcard media, for US $175,000 and then scaled it to become a leading digital agency. This was in 2007, which he considered as the survival phase of his journey leading to 2010 when he had pivoted the business to digital consulting in the sports and entertainment category. 

The huge rise of the internet and electronic media in China allowed Andrew to expand his business offerings and enabled him to streamline his services towards designing digital media campaigns for the global travel and sports organisations. Liverpool FC, the first global football team to embrace China, became Mailman’s first international client ahead of their summer tour.

By the end of 2021, with over 300 employees, Mailman was serving over 100 global sporting organizations across 54 markets. Recently, Andrew sold the company to Endeavor (NYSE: EDR) for a record sum for an Australian-founded business in China -- a great feat for a young entrepreneur! Andrew now resides in Singapore providing support as the company expands with Endeavor’s global network.

In his over a decade of living in China, Andrew became part of EO Shanghai, serving the organisation in various capacities, which is why he was delighted to be able to share his journey with fellow entrepreneurs from EO Melbourne and across the South Pacific. Attendees of this EO Melbourne virtual event learned so much from Andrew’s entrepreneurial experience, especially his hard work, passion and determination to achieve the successes he has reaped over the years. 

EO Melbourne holds quarterly Accelerator and KE Learning Days

Starting a business is no easy feat, much more than accelerating its growth in a short period of time. Though it is a challenge for many entrepreneurs to speed up their business growth, it is quite achievable, as long as they have the necessary tools and people to help catapult their businesses to greater heights.

Such is the purpose of the quarterly Learning Days that EO Melbourne offers to its members and those in its Accelerator and Key Executive Programs. The Learning Days are part of its Accelerator Program's curriculum, which catalyses first-stage entrepreneurs to propel their businesses to the next level. Materials are available for pre-work and Learning Day proper exercises.

Each Learning Day is centred on a particular topic: Strategy, People, Execution, and Cash.

Recently, EO Melbourne held its Accelerator and Key Executive Learning Day - Strategy, wherein participants learned to create sustainable top-line growth. The keys to this are knowing one’s core customer, having a clear brand promise and developing one’s BHAG® (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) for sustainable revenue growth.

Another Learning Day is coming up in January 2023, which will focus on People. It will enable participants how to become a magnet for A-players who are dedicated to results. Growth companies’ most difficult decisions involve getting the right people in the right seats. One of the big questions is: Is everyone in the company aligned, pulling their weight, and contributing as they should?

The succeeding Learning Day will be on Execution, which allows participants to develop a strategic advantage over their competitors, and on Cash, which will tack on cash acceleration strategies to fuel growth.

Participants of the recent Accelerator and Key Executive Learning Day - Strategy gave positive feedback on the learning event.

“There are great tools for overviewing strategy,” one said. “The organisational checklist was the most useful tool presented today,” a participant commented. “Strategy is, for me, the hardest thing to get started on and get right out of the four focus areas of the scaling-up process,” another remarked. Another participant added, “It gave me a new perspective on some existing thoughts.”

If you want to learn more about EO Melbourne’s Accelerator Program and how to join, you can check out our Accelerator page. On the other hand, only EO Melbourne Members can get their key executives to join the Key Executive Program. Read more about it here. 

The value of EO’s KE Program to key executives and entrepreneurs

In every business, people are essential to drive the organisation forward, reach one’s goals and allow the company to operate in the long term. This is why strengthening your 2iCs and key executives is necessary to keep your business running smoothly and steadily as well as enable it to grow and expand to new markets and horizons.

The good news is that EO Melbourne has a Key Executive Program (KEP) that enables its members to learn growth strategies from EO and execute them into their businesses with key management buy-in and participation. This program allows an EO member to have a key executive from their business take part in EO learning events and EO Accelerator learning days and become a member of a Key Executive Forum.

Through this program, EO members are able to communicate and learn jointly with their key executives as they share the unique benefits of EO with a key executive from their business. In addition, it empowers EO Members and helps them align with their key executives as EO provides them with the tools, accountability, community and support to aggressively scale and master some business best practices and become better leaders. Also, the benefits are two ways as the program serves both the entrepreneur and the key executive.

EO Melbourne Member Harry Sanders, Founder of StudioHawk, had his General Manager, Lawrence Hitches, join the chapter’s Key Executive Program. Both shared the benefits of the program, helping them in their respective professional development and their organisation’s growth. 

"I had a great experience as an EO member and got so much value out of Forum, I really wanted Lawrence to be part of that experience. Being able to talk about his 5% issues without judgment in a safe environment, share experiences, learn heaps, and events and networking helped Lawrence understand the broader business community in Learning Days and really cemented him as a leader. The business has gone through many challenges and first had seen the effect Forum has had on being able to overcome them,” Harry said.

Lawrence was enthusiastic that he has become part of EO’s KEP. "I heard great things about EO from Harry and other people about how much learning and insights you can gain from talking to like-minded business people owners and people with similar challenges ahead of them. EO provides many workshops and communities that have helped our business in hard times. Implementing EOS practices has helped restructure our org chart to be solid and more accountable. The value of the KEP program is immense and I’d recommend it to any EO member to sign up their key execs."

Another Key Executive that has joined the program is Cindy Liu, an accountant at Masseuse Massage Chairs. She shared how becoming part of the KEP has impacted her growth as a professional. "I have been in the Key Executive Program for 2 years now. I have learned so much from every interaction I have had with both the group learning days and our individual forum. To start with, it is a great opportunity for me to step out of the business to learn things from the business strategy level rather than just day-to-day operations. The importance of that is I get to experience what it feels like as a business owner seeing things from a bigger picture rather than just working within my own department. The alignment with the business owner is critical from that perspective."

At present, EO Melbourne has two forums for Key Executives. They also get to attend the quarterly Learning Days as well as other learning events that the chapter offers for those in the program. To know more about our KEP, visit https://www.eomelbourne.org/key-executive-program. Interested to join EO Melbourne? Check out our https://www.eomelbourne.org/join page. 

Steve McGown talks on “Freedom is an Attitude” at the EO Melbourne learning event

"5 years & 8 months is a long time. I believe that I'm like any other person. I’m no different. We all have problems, and we shouldn’t judge one another, as we have different coping mechanisms and breaking points. I do, however, believe that our attitude separates us and determines how we cope. Some people give up too easily."

"If they are not going to kill me then I might as well use this time to go home a better person."

- Stephen "Steve" McGown

EO Melbourne recently had Stephen McGown, Al Qaeda's longest-held prisoner and now International Speaker and Best Selling Author, as its speaker where he shared his survival story and how it can be applied to one’s entrepreneurial journey.

In 2011, Steve, then a tourist on a motorcycle, was abducted by Al Qaeda up in North Africa, Mali. He was taken beyond his will far into the Saharan desert for the following six years to be either negotiated out of captivity or executed. In 2017, he was released to return home to his family.

In this EO learning event, Steve talked about resilience and overcoming adversity amidst harsh weather conditions, a different culture, language and religion. He also discussed the value of making important decisions, the importance of acceptance and communication, and the concept that Freedom is an Attitude.

As a normal guy whose life was thrown into disarray, he has become a much sought-after speaker with his self-taught methods of adjusting, being resilient, and making the most of what life throws at us. In this session, he will inspire you and leave you questioning your own attitude and dilemmas.

His survival story can be directed to many specific areas of interest, including one's entrepreneurial journey. Living outdoors in harsh conditions meant that he had to acquire a variety of new skills including how to protect himself from the elements as well as how to communicate across language and cultural boundaries. But most of all, he learned how to stay alive; remain positive and be present when everything was stacked against him. Uncertain as to whether he would ever be released or die in the expanse of the Sahara, he made a decision to not let his situation get the better of him. He decided to rather hold onto hope and take control of his attitude. 

Hearing his story, participants found inspiration from the “amazing story shared by the speaker.” There key takeaways from Steve’s talk are the importance of the power of the mind, a positive attitude is everything, that you can control your attitude and approach in life, and resilience and a positive mindset are key and relationships can save lives.

Steve is the best-selling author of 6 years a hostage (Captured by Islamist Militants in the desert) which was nominated for Book of the Year in South Africa. He is involved in running workshops about resilience and was voted best speaker of the year at a number of EO chapter events internationally.*

*According to ICMI (https://www.icmi.com.au/stephen-mcgown/).

Women of EO ANZ connect with self, others and nature at the inaugural retreat

It’s a retreat like no other as 28 formidable, entrepreneurial South Pacific women from seven EO chapters in Australia and New Zealand, including one from the USA, gathered for four days in the inaugural retreat of the Women of EO ANZ.

Participants from various EO chapters, including those from EO Melbourne, travelled to the unique and beautiful Kuku Yalanji Country, which is the land of the Kubirriwarra people, as they held the Women of EO ANZ 2022 Retreat on 25-28 August at Silky Oaks Lodge at The Daintree, Queensland. With the theme of “Connect with Self, Others and Nature,” the retreat was for the Women of EO ANZ to take stock, re-invigorate and connect with themselves, each other and the natural environment. 

Staying true to its theme, the retreat was structured in a way that provided the participants with the time for reflection, connection, learning, feeding the soul and a sense of fun. The idea of a retreat stemmed from the Women of EO ANZ’s September meeting, where members expressed being overwhelmed with exhaustion and mental and emotional fatigue. They embraced the suggestion for a retreat as it aligned with the group’s goals of creating greater connections and encouraging retention of women members across Australia and New Zealand.

The retreat was facilitated by Kylee Stone of The Performance Co., who is a very successful and respected facilitator and personal development coach. The program consisted of a formal learning day, yarning circles to articulate and process learning, meditations and reflections to embed learning, and informal yarning circles to further explore topics of interest. Participants also enjoyed various activities, such as river drifting, lunch in the rainforest, indigenous art lesson, life story through song, and a silent disco.

“(It’s) such a pleasure to meet in such an incredible location amongst these beautiful women. We are truly privileged to have access to these life-changing experiences,” shared EO Melbourne Member and Mentorship Chair & Key Executive Chair Jeni Clift.

Other participants were also very satisfied with the whole experience. Here are some of their feedback:

“This was my first women’s event and I really get the value that this community has.”

“I’m going to tell every woman in my Chapter that she should join WoEO!”

“What a blessing to meet women from around Oz and NZ! – Loved our friends from across the ditch!!”

EO promotes diversity in its membership and encourages various interests among its members. In fact, EO has a program called MyEO that enables EO members to curate a tailor-made curriculum of groups and events. With MyEO, members get the exact experience they want and value and desire.

MyEO Women is a MyEO Premier Group dedicated to supporting the retention and recruitment of women to the Entrepreneurs’ Organization through building a collaborative, diverse and supportive member community that offers rich networking and learning opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

(Photos from Women of EO ANZ.)

EO Melbourne takes part in the APAC Bond University Executive Program

EO recently held its first-ever university-based EO Executive Education Program in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region and EO Melbourne members have taken part in this milestone program. It was held at Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia’s first private University and is ranked #1 in Australia for student experience.

The “Building the Forever Business Program” was an immersive five days of world-class on-campus learning that combined academic theory and entrepreneurial practice with a practical action plan to implement in one’s life and business. It culminated with each class member presenting their action plan to take away and implement.

This program was organised to build on the legacy of EO Executive Education Programs at Harvard, London Business School, and the Entrepreneurial Master's Program (EMP) at MIT. It aimed to enhance the members’ EO journey and support their transformational growth. Moreover, it was created to encourage regional connection with peers, supported by a mindset of shared experiences and group learning.

EO Melbourne Members Jeni Clift, Nick Clift, Steve Constantinou, Sam Hunt, and Costa Vasili joined other EO Members from various regional and global chapters for this Executive Education Program. The facilitators in this program were Dr Justin Craig from Bond University, Carlo Santoro from EO Melbourne and Nick Bloor from EO Brisbane.

Members of the inaugural Class of 2022 were raving about their experiences at the EO APAC Bond University Executive Programme. “Life changing.” “Transformational.” “Loved the living case studies…would have paid the money just to listen to them.” “If I had known there is ‘Nothing more practical than a good theory,’ I wouldn’t have run away from it all my life! We learnt many theories and frameworks and then witnessed how they are applied!”

This program is another milestone for EO APAC in enhancing the members’ EO journey, supporting their transformational growth and gathering like-minded leaders to connect with each other through shared experience and living up to the EO Core Value of “Thirst for Learning.”

EO Melbourne brings back Jack Daly with a hyper sales growth workshop

EO Melbourne has recently brought back one of its highest-rated speakers of all time – Jack Daly. Jack is an internationally sought-after speaker and has been called the best professional sales trainer in America because of his expertise in sales growth, sales teams, and sales culture. 

EO Melbourne has secured Jack Daly for this learning event that allowed participants to know more about how to scale their companies with "hyper sales growth" and live an exceptional "life by design". 

Dubbed "The Proven Path to Hyper Sales Growth While Living a Life By Design", the workshop included pointers on how entrepreneurs could grow their sales force by recruiting, training and developing their people. It also taught participants how to build a winning culture that differentiates them from their competitors.

According to Jack, the path to increased profitable sales includes creating a culture where people want to deliver their 100%, putting the best performers in the sales seats and having a consistent application of proven systems and processes. Winning sports teams follow just such a formula and too often, sports teams at every level are coached better than most sales teams. For Jack, who is not only a Sales Coach but also a CEO and entrepreneur, it is time for that to cease as he aims to coach businesses on the winning formula.

Those who came to the workshop have nothing but praises for Jack. “He’s possibly the best speaker I have seen since being in EO,” one said. Moreover, they found the whole session and its content very informative and valuable to their learning growth. “There are practical takeaways to implement in my business and in my life,” another remarked. 

One attendee stated, “the session was incredible as it has a very high value from a sales perspective,” while another shared, “the content was relevant, delivered well and focused on genuine things to do.”

Learning events like this are aimed at supporting the personal and professional growth of EO Melbourne members and those that join the EO programs. If you’re interested to be part of EO Melbourne, please visit https://www.eomelbourne.org/join for more details.

Mentorship is having someone walk with you on your entrepreneurial journey

Mentorship pair Conor O’Malley and Nyree Hibberd.

Much has been said about the entrepreneurial journey being a lonesome path, but not when you’re surrounded by like-minded individuals, such as being part of a group like EO and having someone to walk with you, such as a mentor, for instance.

This is how EO Melbourne Member and mentee Nyree Hibberd, CEO at Koh Living, and mentor Conor O’Malley, a known Executive Coach who calls himself “The CEO’s caddy”, described their mentorship experience.

Conor still remembers the first time he and Nyree met, which was at the induction day of mentors and mentees at last year’s intake. He recalled, “I met with Nyree, and we had a great conversation, however, I had to leave early. Nyree very kindly offered to continue our discussion and offered to leave that space by walking with me to the train station. From there, I thought, this sounds like something I'd really like to do, which is to work through the EO channel and support Nyree.”

Nyree, on the other hand, is thankful to have someone who can be with her during this part of her entrepreneurial journey. “I'm a big believer in the motto or saying that ‘you don't know what you don't know.’ As a business owner, it seems like I don't know a lot. So, it was all about connecting with the right person to help me progress in my path, personally and in the business,” she stated.

One of the things that Nyree learned throughout their sessions was finding answers to things she wanted to know. She described how she was learning new things along the way, “Conor's approach was really to question – asking, probing – almost, ‘you know the answer but you've got to find it in there and then let me know.’ This really worked for me, so using questions more is what I actually do now with the staff as well, which is quite good because before, I’d also tell people the answer, ‘just go and do this and this,’ and they wouldn't learn the same way as I would. I wasn't learning by just being told, so that was quite good in comparison for me.”

She further expounded on the learnings she picked from her conversations and interactions with Conor. “I think I went into it with a ‘what next, what now’ and ‘how do I get it from here to where I know it can go.’ So, the key learnings were really about pushing back on me and seeing myself as the leader rather than the doer because there's no scaling if I was going to be still 5% in everybody's role. That was the big thing.”

“The second thing was about holding the space,” Nyree continued. “I've got a couple of challenging relationships at times within the business, and it’s just this kind of concept of allowing them to hold their space, that I didn't need to jump in and do anything. I just respected that they had that opinion and felt the way they did, and it allowed me not to jump into their story and not enflame situations as well. It kind of worked quite well. 

Then the third one is with my son, personally holding the personal state not just with my son but with my partner as well. I would often get home, I'd have dinner, put my son to bed, and I'd sit on the couch with my computer and keep going when my partner was around, but there was no real quality time. I don't know if it naturally just stopped or I made a decision to, I can't remember. But when I’m with them, it is to literally be present and not try to do two things at the same time. So, yeah, these are the three really big things for me.”

But it was not just Nyree who was learning from their mentorship. Conor also has picked new ideas and lessons from Nyree’s experiences. “From a commercial perspective, Nyree and her business partner are in a really interesting stage of growth in their business and, in my words here, ‘taking it to the next level and then looking at what the next horizon is.’ There's no doubt for me that there was a really good learning opportunity of working with an entrepreneur who's taking a business, with a business partner, from scratch to an amazingly successful business to where it is now, and going, ‘Okay, what next? Where next?’” he remarked. 

Conor added, “It’s the opportunity to co-learn, co-create and, in some cases, introduce people in my network to Nyree, some of whom resonated and some didn't. That was real learning for me in terms of who in my network resonated and who didn't. And there's no right or wrong there. For me, that was commercial learning, walking – and we literally did – as we had many walking sessions and conversations around an entrepreneur taking a business to another level and looking at what the next three-year vision really is and how to get there.”

He also stated that the whole experience did not only contribute to his professional growth but also to his personal development. “On a personal level, COVID was part of our journey, and I was learning from Nyree in terms of her perspective and how she and her family and I were managing through COVID. It was a challenging time, and there's no doubt that I certainly learned through that time as well,” Conor enthusiastically shared.

For Nyree, their sessions also had her thinking about how she deals with her business and personal areas of her life. “I read this book called, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, and I realised that one of my bad habits or difficult challenges is trying to over-add value rather than allowing other people to take initiative and responsibility. That's one of the main things that seemed to keep coming up as a theme that had a big effect on me and how I run the business because I was constantly in people's roles, feeling like I had to help them do their roles rather than give them the tools they needed to do the role themselves. I enjoyed actually being able to be challenged on that and step back and watch what happened.”

“The other area was in my personal life where I've got a four-year-old son, and just that balance of spending time with him, I really found it quite challenging because the business is so busy that even when I was with him I wasn't present. So, Conor had this saying, ‘for the sake of what,’ but we changed it to ‘for the sake of who.’ When I started doing activities with my son, even if I was walking down the street with his pram, I would ask myself, ‘for the sake of who am I doing this?’ And it'll be for him and it's to spend time and to talk about cars or whatever he wants to talk about rather than me thinking what am I supposed to be doing right now. So, it was a nice tool that I used personally to just bring myself back to where I was, at the time,” Nyree explained.  

Both Nyree and Conor were glad to have walked together along the business path, sharing their stories and exchanging insights with each other. Although they have already finished their Mentorship Program, they were grateful to have formed a connection as a mentor and as a mentee, which has blossomed into a friendship.

In Conor’s words, “The metaphor I have in my coaching practice is to be a caddy. I'm a golfer, and I see myself as the person's caddy who walks alongside that person, and Nyree knows that she's got a caddy walking alongside her and she can reach out. Let's say, in this case now that the programme is over, the caddy's walking outside of the ropes, but anytime she wants to, she can pull this caddy in. I'll be on the bag and I'll walk inside the ropes with her.”

EO Melbourne holds more learning events for its Members

EO Melbourne Member Benjamin Trinh (left) shared his “Deal of a Lifetime” during a learning event. The event was hosted by fellow EO Melbourne Member Dean Cherny (right).

A virtual “Points Hack” workshop, a talk on a “Deal of a Lifetime”, a Learning Day on Cash, and a Trainual virtual workshop. These are just some of the recent events that EO Melbourne has organised for its Members and those in its Accelerator and Key Executive programs.

Living up to its core values of “Thirst for Learning” and “Together We Grow”, EO Melbourne continues to bring to its community thought-provoking learning events that can benefit them in their growth and development.

Never fly Economy again: A Virtual 'Points Hack' Workshop with iFLYFlat

Steve Hui, Founder and CEO of iFLYflat and also known as Australia's Points Whisperer, shared with event attendees how they could turn their company into a points-generating machine and never fly Economy again.

Business owners sit on a gold mine of opportunity to use points to fly Business Class saving between $2,500 and $5,100 per trip. The fastest way to earn millions of frequent flyer points is using credit cards to pay company expenses.

His workshop allowed the participants to learn how to earn maximum points for the lowest fees and understand the numbers behind the calculations that prove the value is worth doing, select the best business credit cards, redeem points and know which points to use per destination, and many other hacks that are helpful to entrepreneurs.

The deal of a lifetime: How Ben Trinh started, scaled and sold his business to a billion-dollar company

Benjamin Trinh, Life Ready Health Group CEO, current EO Melbourne Member, and former EO Melbourne Board Member, shared his journey from when he founded his business with only $10,000 as capital, how he grew it to over $50 million in revenue and eventually sold it to one of Australia's largest private health insurance companies — in the deal of a lifetime.

The deal resulted in 12 of his friends, early investors and key employees becoming millionaires, all the while remaining as a Director and the CEO of the business.

Ben also talked about his highs and lows, as well as mistakes and wins. He also unpacked the key principles, strategies and mindsets that go into starting something that will grow and endure.

"Get your business out of your brain" Trainual virtual workshop

Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual, discussed how organisations could put everything about their business in one place, making it easy to cascade all the information to their teams and get them on board faster than they can imagine.

The “Get Your Business Out of Your Brain” Trainual virtual workshop enabled attendees to learn actionable tips on how to start documenting and delegating what they do so that they have time to do more of what they love. Audience participants had the opportunity to take part in exercises and Q&A with Ronzio and walked away with the ability to start building their own playbooks with the digital companion worksheet.

These learning events imparted to EO Melbourne participants hacks, tips and key insights that could help them in growing their businesses and take advantage of opportunities around them.

EO Melbourne celebrates EOFY and Board Handover with a Gala Dinner

The 2022/23 Board.

EO Melbourne Members and their partners and guests gathered for an exciting and fun Saturday night to celebrate the End-of-Financial-Year (EOFY) and mark this new chapter with the Board Handover during the annual Gala Dinner. 

2021/22 President Socrates Capouleas (right) hands over the leadership to 2022/23 President Damian Blumenkranc (left).

The chapter thanked 2021/22 President Socrates Capouleas and the Board and then welcomed 2022/23 President Damian Blumenkranc and his Board:

President: Damian Blumekranc

Accelerator Chair: Anthony Lam

Accelerator Chair: Ashley Bent

Communications Chair: Costa Vasili

Finance Chair: James Murray

Forum Chair: Rob Roy Rankin

Forum Chair: Richard Fuessel

Learning Chair: Kate Save

Learning Co-Chair: Matthew Beesley

Member Engagement Chair: John Bevitt

Member Engagement Chair: John Liston

Membership Chair: James Murray

Membership Co-Chair: Meirav Ambar

Mentorship and Key Executive Chair: Jenifer Clift

Strategic Alliance Partnership Chair: Socrates Capouleas

Ken Matthews (2nd from right) was recognised with the President’s Award during the night.

Winners of various awards were also honoured during the evening. Hailed as the Accelerator of the Year was Mena Mikhail, Founder of Heven. The President’s Award was awarded to Ken Matthews, Managing Partner at Matthews Steer Accountants and Advisors and Board Member at Family Business Australia. The chapter named Miguel Donnenfeld, Co-Founder of Creativa Videos, as the Danny Guest Awardee for Bravery in Business.

UNA took the 1st place at the Forum Cup.

During the night, the winners of the Forum Cup were also announced. Bagging 1st place was the UNA forum, followed by MOSO in 2nd place, and Feverish in 3rd place. Each team received special prizes for accumulating the highest forum points throughout the year.

The chapter also recognised Accelerator grads Kate Blundy and Alex Schnyder who have now joined as EO Members.

On a different note, the Global Communications Committee has rewarded the EO Melbourne chapter with US$1,000 as one of the top five chapters in the region with the highest percentage of member profiles with the EO branding on LinkedIn.

Congratulations to all the winners! With this year’s theme focused on unleashing the Power of EO Melbourne, we look forward to a fun and more exciting FY 2022/23 for the chapter!

The beauty in diversity: a mentorship experience

Learning comes from various things and in many ways, and oftentimes, how we differ from each other helps us widen our knowledge and understanding of the space we live in and move around. Such can be said for mentor Emma Duffy, Learning Director at ProActive Training, and mentee Hayden Brass, Founder and Managing Director of Zea.

Mentor Emma Duffy and mentee Hayden Brass share their mentorship experience and learnings from it.

Other than running a business and being business owners, they haven’t necessarily spotted their similarities or commonalities. But despite having different businesses, they found themselves at a very good start when they met for the first time at the Mentorship training.

“Working together in the training session that Carlo ran, I thought that was a really strong start to the whole program for us as I feel that we got to know each other pretty well and understand what we both wanted out of the program and that we at least got a framework to build on from that,” said Emma.

Hayden concurred, “We have very different businesses, which are, in some ways, what you’d want. Although we had no common ground for this, I think we've learned a lot from each other in that way as well because we've had different experiences and different industries, which has been really great. So, it's been a great element of the mentorship.”

He continued, “We started off really strong catching up almost the same time every month and being able to come away with different viewpoints that I have not necessarily thought of. 

We have quite different businesses, quite different lives, and quite different ages as well. A lot of different elements allowed for really valuable insights and learnings from that perspective. I think that just having those differences made it really valuable in making me think outside the box and think about things differently.”

The whole journey has also provided them with more insightful experiences and new learnings. For Emma, it has encouraged her to think in an unusual way. She narrated a time when she was frustrated with not being able to give training ideas to Hayden because what her business did could not necessarily fit his needs or his team’s needs. 

“After our last catch-up when it came up again, I thought, ‘Well, I'm not going to walk away and stay frustrated or feel like I don’t have an answer in my area of expertise.’ In fact, it has prompted me to come back to my desk and actually do a whole lot of research into various apps and system processes that are available in the marketplace and find ways so that when we catch up next, I could go back to Hayden and say, ‘Well, these are some ideas that you could take into your business and use in your business.’ So, it's really stretched me to think a little bit differently about what businesses need in terms of training. It's then pushed me and my business partner to really reconsider how we set up some of our own compliance requirements in the business and how we could potentially develop them into a type of software that we could take to the marketplace. It's a huge gift that that sort of thinking pushed me to do something really different for me, my day-to-day work, and our business. I would never have done research on apps and processes otherwise,” Emma explained.

On Hayden’s part, he has gained a lot of ideas and perspectives from their mentoring sessions throughout the year. “What happened was with the first six months, and they're very well aligned, we had these three sets of goals which we set around leadership, etc. I think for me it was a lot about being able to come to the table with a little leadership challenge or a hiring challenge and then hearing a perspective that's quite different and new. That's been really valuable. It's also been good in that we've been able to bounce different ideas off each other within a meeting. I'd come either pre-planned, and we've done it before, and mentioned a few key things that we wanted to cover. It's given us a chance to reflect on it and review it, whether it's a staff leaving or a staff deciding to ask for a big wage increase or whatever challenge it might be that I’m having. It's just that back and forwards and getting that new perspective on whatever it might be.”

For the duration of their mentorship journey, both Emma and Hayden enjoyed their interactions and the key takeaways they get from their conversations.

Emma shared, “I really enjoyed the consistent and regular catch-ups. Hayden's business has gone through amazing growth in the last 12 months in the time that we've been working together. It was really interesting to see and learn about that. That was I guess one of the main things, from my point of view. It was just great. I've really enjoyed those conversations and I walked away each time hoping I might have added a little bit of value.”

As for Hayden, “It was a very broad goal that I've set in becoming a better leader. I think it doesn't come down to one or two things. It comes down to a multitude of things that have happened in the mentorship program and also in the growing of the business and coinciding with one another to get that. It's a long way to go, but definitely, I think I've achieved that in that 12-month period. A lot of it comes down to little bits and pieces that have come together to make a big difference in mindset or ways that we are reacting to different scenarios. It's all been really valuable from that perspective.”

And what’s the secret behind a successful mentorship experience that others may consider when getting into mentorship?

“Commitment is definitely one of the biggest ones,” Hayden remarked. “You need to go in there with the commitment that you're going to do this on top of your normal workload and normal forum and whatever else you've got going on. The other aspect would be to be really clear on what you want to get out of it when you're applying for it, who the type of mentor that you're looking for, and what is the specific area that you want to get the most value from because if you're very specific on that, that helps the team to assign a good mentor to you. I think it’s being very specific on those and differentiating it to what you want to get out of your forum or other learnings or whatever that might be and have a really specific goal for your mentor-mentee relationship because that can make a big difference as well.”

Emma was in agreement on the importance of commitment to make one’s mentorship journey a valuable one. “I completely agree. With preparation, just to do a bit of thinking beforehand to maximize the one hour, Hayden was really disciplined about contacting, setting the meeting time up, and turning up. We were there for one hour and then we were gone. It didn't linger on. There was really a focused time commitment.”

EO Melbourne’s Mentorship Program is one of the significant programs of the organisation that members can take advantage of and benefit from. Each experience is different and unique, and the value it can provide to both the mentor and the mentee can be priceless.

Unleashing one’s leadership potential through EO

How do you unleash your leadership potential? For Entrepreneurs’ Organization, it is important to support the needs of the 360° entrepreneur through business, family, community & personal experiences and help them grow, develop and reach their full capacity as business leaders. 

This is why EO’s Global Leadership Conference (GLC) plays a critical role in defining what leadership at EO means, serving as a source of inspiration and a key moment to building a community for tens of thousands of EO members. GLC is EO’s flagship event that empowers members with the tools, insights, and networks they need to unlock their capabilities. 

The theme for this year’s GLC is ‘Unleash’ – helping every member unearth greater success, find their greater purpose and have a greater impact on those around them. It saw an innovative in-person and virtual hybrid format that made it accessible to all through in-person events in Washington, D.C., USA and Barcelona, Spain, and virtual access on its online platforms. Over the course of five days, talks, workshops, webinars and interactive sessions helped EO members hone their skills and abilities as individuals and as a collective – finding opportunities, not challenges; stepping stones, not roadblocks.

Speakers from different industries shared their journeys, insights and learnings to inspire participants to look within their respective experiences and apply the lessons they captured from these sessions. Headlining the GLC 2022 was supermodel-turned-super businesswoman Tyra Banks, who talked about her beginnings, the challenges and the successes she experienced in her journey. Here are a few takeaways from some of the speakers during the conference.

• “Don’t delegate your core competency. The biggest lesson I’ve learned during quarantine is that it’s not always about defence, you have to play offence. You have to figure it out. Another lesson I learned is that there’s strength in numbers.” - Tyra Banks, Executive Producer & Host of America’s Next Top Model and CEO of the Tyra Banks Company

• “Our ability follows where our mind leads. Unleashing our potential is a strength we all have. ‘Unleash’ is more than the theme of this year’s GLC. ‘Unleash’ is a rallying cry for us, entrepreneurs, to level up, to be more of who we are, to bend the future.” - Marc Stockli, Managing Director of MOS Advisory Services

• “I learned that sometimes life doesn’t work out the way that we plan it, it very seldom does, but I learned that I am the one who chooses how I want to live my life. Some goals are hard to reach, they may feel like an eternity, and my goals were definitely unrealistic. But instead of being demoralised by the vastness of that goal, I decided to break it down into one day at a time. By doing so, it just didn’t feel like it was that overwhelming.” - Karina Hollekim, professional Free-skier, BASE jumper and Co-founder and Head of E-Learning for Young Happy Minds

• “The key is utilisation. One of the biggest lies is that knowledge is power. Now, is it really? At best, knowledge is potential power. It becomes ‘power’ when we utilise it and when we apply it. The number one skill to your success is your ability to learn rapidly. If you and your team could learn rapidly and translate that learning into action, it’s the ultimate competitive advantage, bar none.” - Jim Kwik, Founder at Kwik Learning

• “Nothing that is meant for you will ever get away if you’re open to it. It’s okay to take a turn and a change into a new direction that is completely different from where you started and where your passion lies. It doesn’t have to be these major, big changes that we make. It could be small, little changes that we make along the way, utilising the tools and opportunities that we already have in our hands, creating different outcomes for ourselves.” - Tala Raassi, Fashion Designer, Entrepreneur & Author

• “What is your victory going to be? What’s the story that you’re going to tell with your life? What is your purpose? What is your company’s purpose? What are you going to give to your employees so that they can live a life of purpose? What are you going to do with the blessings of your life? As you guys go forth, I want you to think about what I said at the very beginning – this whole ‘help one, help many’ thing. Who’s your one? Go back to wherever you live and let’s just solve it for one person. But I think I know what’s going to happen. You all don’t know how to stop at one. One’s going to turn into two, two into four, and all of a sudden, a roomful of people that are changing the world.” - Mick Ebeling, Founder and CEO of Not Impossible

• “I was never willing, at any point, to say ‘I’m done, I give up’ because defeat is not a real thing until the second you say, ‘I give up.’ And even when I saw the Thuggs, I was done for the season, but I wasn’t done for my life.” - Brian Smith, Founder of UGG Australia

More insights were shared by various other speakers in the different Learning Blocks – Potential, Community, and Impact – and the Breakout Sessions during the conference. The GLC is an occasion for EO to come together and unlock the power of community. It provides an opportunity to use our connections to make entrepreneurship a force for good in the world and to unearth how we can have greater impact as an organisation.

The Excitement Soars High at the iFLY EO Melbourne Family Event

It was a fun Sunday for EO Melbourne families as participants had a thrilling experience at the iFLY Family Event held on 3 April 2022 at the iFLY Melbourne attraction. 

Recognising the importance of entrepreneurs spending quality time with their families and loved ones, EO Melbourne has always been putting together family events for its members and their families to enjoy.

Adults and children alike had the opportunity to soar high in this indoor skydiving facility without having to jump out of an airplane. The facility is the first 14-ft diameter iFLY wind tunnel to be built in Melbourne. 

Participants first had hands-on training with a professional coach as they were briefed on the safety procedures of the activity. They were also provided with flight gear to prepare them for their indoor flight. The good thing about this activity is that no previous experience was necessary and anyone over the age of 3 years old could participate.

Members have nothing but commendation for such a fun and one-of-a-kind experience. “It’s a great unique experience to share with the family,” Damian Blumenkranc said. 

EO Melbourne is part of the global network of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a unique, experience-based network that supports the needs of the 360° entrepreneur through business, family, community & personal experiences. Our chapter offers world-class learning events, skills-specific workshops and a venue to exchange business stories that help our members learn and grow.

Futurist Sarah Owen talked about “Future Forecast 2024” to EO Melbourne

How will young people think and behave in 2024? 

Trend forecaster and futurist Sarah Owen, Co-founder & Global Futures Director at SOON Future Studies, recently shared how SOON Future Studies has uncovered “the global drivers of change as well as 30 emerging trends that will help drive business decisions over the next few years.”

SOON is a futures think tank focused on human insights. Hosted at The Taboo Group, office of EO Melbourne Member Andrew Mackinnon, the "Future Forecast 2024" EO x SOON Event with Sarah Owen was attended by EO Melbourne Members, Strategic Alliance Partners and members of the SLP Forum. 

At this event, Sarah, also a social scientist with a background in studying youth culture and social media, revealed that “In 2024, a social, political, and environmental tipping point will drive people to drastically reform and rewire their world. From reinventing the notion of work and challenging the current growth narrative to reshape societal norms and developing entirely new digital realities, this report outlines the emerging mindsets and movements unfolding in the next few years.”

She pointed out that “We live in a liquid society; a period in time where the concepts of identity and individuality are becoming more and more elastic.”

Sarah then gave an overview of the different Drivers of Change and possible News Headlines in 2024. She also talked in detail about the various Key Trends, such as Life Wellbeing, Meta-worlds, Age of Awareness, Reworking Work, Revenge Travel, Retail Revival and the Post-Growth Paradigm, illustrating the emerging trends for each.

The insights shared and discussed allowed the participants to better understand how Gen Z and Millennials would approach work, travel, food, gaming and shopping in the future. It then gave the members ideas on how they can align their businesses with the emerging trends taking into consideration the various drivers of change.

Participants say that “the content was great” and “it is so diverse and eye-opening” that they hope for “more future events because this was incredibly inspiring.”  An EO Melbourne member who came to the event shared that he got at least eight good take-outs from the session.

Leadership teams from various sectors now look at futures studies with interest as these studies provide them with tools for dealing with uncertainties, building resilience among their teams, and mapping out the future of their businesses or organisations.

Mentorship: it’s a two-way learning

It was a first-time for both mentee Laiken Kerr Clarke, Director at Medisound, and mentor Catherine Duncan, COO at Matthews Steer Accountants & Advisers, to take part in EO Melbourne’s Mentorship Program and both found it enjoyable. Plus, they found the program nicely structured, which allowed them to go through their objectives for this mentorship journey.

“We did have that prior time where you thought about your goals and what you wanted to achieve through the mentorship. I think it just set a nice foundation that you could work off from, as you continued on along the journey with the mentor,” Laiken remarked.

Recognising common ground

Catherine recalls how they began with their journey, “Laiken and I met at that session where we were paired up. How they set that up that morning of us getting to know each other, I found it really good fun. I think we got to know each other pretty quickly in a short space of time.”

To which Laiken concurred, “We just had the same outlook on a lot of things – the same values and the way we saw the world and our kind of place and role in it. It was definitely something that I picked up immediately. Also, we have similar interests like yoga and the spiritual side of things, which clicked us quite quickly. It was a nice surprise, I guess. It wasn't something that I thought would happen to go into it, but it was a very good addition. We had lots of interests outside of business that was aligned.”

And there’s an interesting story to their similarities, which Catherine explained. “Apart from the fact that we've both got an accent as well, which is another similarity, the really quirky, funny thing was Laiken’s name and the background to that. It’s a place in Scotland where I actually lived 20 minutes from, and it's a very remote part of Scotland where she was referring to. So, I thought that was quite spooky, actually. We were very well matched in a lot of similar interests, which were fantastic.”

Finding direction through their conversations

As they found many parallelisms and similarities in their background, Laiken and Catherine also learned a lot from each other. “There were so many that came out of it, so it's hard to just go down on one,” Laiken pondered. 

She continued, “I heard a great quote a little while ago and it was something like ‘good mentors give useful answers but, great mentors ask great questions.’ I think that's what Catherine did really well and just effortlessly. Coming from that side of it, it helped me to solidify what I wanted to do and which direction I wanted to go. That then propelled me to make certain decisions based on those questions and conversations that we had. So, I think that the key learnings would definitely be to ask better questions and really dig down into what your motivations are for why you are choosing to do certain things and go in certain directions.”

But the questioning and learning were not just coming from one side of the mentorship because Catherine, too, was picking up insights from Laiken. “For me, the questioning part is interesting because, likewise, Laiken does ask a lot of really good questions. I think a lot of our discussions ended up about whatever Laiken was doing in the business or thinking about doing. It was actually tapping into how she was feeling about it. It’s that connection with both the health and the whole being of the person. It’s not just about your business but also about your heart, soul and mind. That was really easy to help align Laiken into where she was going because she's very clear and structured in what she's doing. And she's done wonderful things and got an incredible vision of where she wants to go.”

“It was just really tapping into that and checking in with herself along the way. Doing that with Laiken reminds me to do it with myself. That's the thing when you're working with somebody. It's about applying it back to yourself and going, ‘Oh, am I doing that for me, too?’ It's very easy to do it with somebody else because you're talking to someone than applying it to yourself. So, that was great learning for me. I guess it's that validation of surrounding yourself with good and like-minded people but in totally different industries and totally different walks of life, yet you have so many similarities that you can navigate together. I just love that I always come away percolating what we talked about. So, it was always two ways for me,” Catherine added.

Recognising a solidifying, powerful experience in mentorship

Not all the time one can experience a positive experience in mentorship, but for those who do, it can be so impactful to them. In the case of Laiken and Catherine, their mentorship experience is something they will always treasure. 

“The whole experience in itself is really solidifying, how powerful that can be. Also, a lot of people would struggle to find a mentor, but just the uniqueness of this relationship is quite nice. I had thought there might be an element of forcedness or that it wouldn’t quite work, but it's just been really a nice experience and something I’ve really enjoyed, and I’m very happy I got into it,” Laiken professed.

Catherine couldn’t agree more. “For me, it comes back to that whole thing of validating. When you talk to somebody in a place of trust, you get deeper into those visions and those goals that you become more familiar with what the purpose behind it is. For me, another learning is you need to talk things out what you're thinking just to really validate back to yourself. What is the purpose? What am I trying to do? Why am I trying to do this? It’s a simple thing of talking about building different relationships with a certain person and then seeing what difference that would make if you do that across a wider range or how that would change you. Those deeper discussions really resonated with me, and Laiken’s been great in sharing that and just helping me validate the need for those deeper discussions and deeper relationships with people who you can trust. It's been great to get that opportunity through EO to do that.”

There’s so much that mentorship can offer. In fact, many entrepreneurs have recognised the value of mentorship in their journey and growth. If you’re interested to know more about EO Melbourne’s Mentorship Program, visit https://www.eomelbourne.org/mentorship.