Let’s be honest, when people think about finance, money and home loans, they immediately conjure up images of boring men and women in dark suits that just talk numbers.
Well today, Mark Bouris was anything but. His address to the Newcastle Business Club was warm, candid and easy to listen to, occasionally spiced up with expletives that made you feel like you were there with Mark when the original conversations were taking place.
Mark Bouris founded Wizard Homes Loans, later brought on Kerry Packer as a business partner then together they sold the company to GE at a huge profit. Mark later went on to found Yellow Brick Road, the brand that he is still the face behind today & a company he is clearly passionate about.
The biggest take outs of the day that I want to share with you are:
- know your purpose
- be a disrupter in your industry
- take care of yourself
- don’t take yourself too seriously
Do you really, truly know your purpose?
Mark’s advice was “if you know your purpose and you are good at it, you will succeed!”
The story Mark shared with us today about knowing your purpose was when he was in Kerry Packer’s office, about to sign off on the $25million deal to become business partners. Kerry asked him 3 questions, the first of which was this – “What business are you in?” Whilst Mark was thinking about his response and whether in fact this was a trick question, Kerry said “And don’t say f*****g home loans.” Kerry answered the question for Mark “You are a disrupter, I like disrupters, I have a history of investing in disrupters, so I’m going to help you out here. You are in the business of people’s hopes and dreams.”
I think we all know what we are good at and what we like doing but can you succinctly say this or write it down? Can you make it sound interesting? Would it make someone want to buy from you and not one of your competitors?
I challenge you to take some time before 30 June to get clear on your purpose and how you are going to articulate this to your market. This will ensure that you set yourself up for success for the new financial year.
Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” TED talk might help you – here’s the link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sioZd3AxmnE
Can you disrupt your industry or how you do what you do?
Listening to a number of entrepreneurs over the last few years, a common theme has been innovation and disruption.
What can you do in your business to disrupt your industry? Is it in what you are selling? Is it in the way you are selling? Is it in the way you are connecting with your tribe?
Mark talked about how his successful career has been built largely on having disruptive businesses that challenge the market and provide smarter solutions.
When Mark decided to offer home loans in addition to Yellow Brick Road’s initial offerings of financial planning, superannuation, tax and accounting advice he was quoted as saying that new players were needed to “keep the big banks honest and ensure that there’s strong competition in the marketplace”. Yellow Brick Road’s “one-stop shop” model offering all types of financial products was very innovative at the time and certainly had a captive market.
Are you taking care of you?
Mark impressed the importance of health and how it affects your performance as a businessperson. He is an advocate of exercise and sees food as “medicine” and clearly this is paying off for him. Can I say that his arrival was very much anticipated by a large number of women enjoying their pre-lunch champagne!
Once again he talked of his friend and business partner Kerry Packer. Kerry died aged 68 but due to declining health, was miserable in the last 10 years of his life and he has even been reported as saying that health is “far and away the most important thing”.
So what are doing or what will you do to start looking after the health of yourself & those around you? Do you need to make some changes to your diet, your exercise regime, your self-care regime? Personally I also advocate a good diet and exercise and more recently have turned to kinesiology and meditation to further enhance my wellbeing & inner health.
Don’t forget to have fun!
Having a business should be fun, profitable and rewarding. If this isn’t the case for you, you need to start mixing things up a bit and make some changes. Do you need to change you business model? Do you need to have a fresh start and change advisors? Do you need some time out to evaluate where you business currently is and where you want it to go? A perfect time to make changes is right now – a new financial year, a new you!
So don’t take yourself too seriously, don’t be a slave to your business and don’t forget to have fun!