Built To Lead

The Betts Rebrand: Why They Closed Half Their Stores and Cut EVERY Brand But One (With CEO Michael Breckler)

Betts have just had a rebrand and chances are, you’ve seen it pop up on your social media. Behind that rebrand is Michael Breckler, the fifth-generation CEO of the 133-year-old Australian footwear brand, who has spent the last few years making some huge calls about where the business needed to go next. In this episode, Michael is sharing with me what really happened behind the scenes - from cutting half the store network and removing entire product categories, to tripling online revenue and rebuilding Betts into a brand the next generation actually wants to buy from. Key moments: 0:00 - How Michael became the fifth-generation leader of a 133-year-old family business 5:46 - When simplifying the business becomes the smartest move for growth 9:44 - The reality of closing stores, downsizing teams and making decisions that affect real people 12:42 - What it takes to reposition a legacy brand without losing the trust you worked so hard to build 17:14 - The hard conversations you have when family and business are so closely connected 21:15 - What Michael looks for when hiring A-players beyond skills and experience 25:14 - The tech, content and marketing changes that helped Betts triple online revenue 27:43 - Inside the rebrand process, from website and social content to packaging and product 30:57 - The key to staying culturally relevant 36:10 - Why being great at your job doesn’t automatically make you ready to lead people 38:25 - How to get your team on board with big business decisions (because people hate change!) 42:56 - Keeping your team accountable without holding constant meetings 50:53 - How to stay close to your customer when trends keep changing 56:13 - Modernising a family business without alienating the customers who got you there (it’s not easy) If you want to connect with Michael, visit Linkedin here [http://au.linkedin.com/in/michael-breckler-6472155a] or his IG @mikebreckler [https://www.instagram.com/mikebreckler/] Check out Betts and the teams rebrand over at www.betts.com.au [http://www.betts.com.au] If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/] Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy [https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy] Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/] and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/ [https://agentsync.com.au/]⁠ [https://agentsync.com.au/%E2%81%A0] And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/] AgentSync

Hyro: How Steve Chapman Is Building a $100M Brand With a 5-Person Team

What does it actually take to build a brand people trust, talk about and buy from before you have a huge team behind you? Steve Chapman is the founder of Hyro, the Australian electrolyte brand growing fast with high-profile investors including Sarah’s Day, Quade Cooper and Daly Cherry-Evans.  Before Hyro, he scaled Shine to more than $60 million in retail sales across 7,000 stores, so he’s not guessing when it comes to brand, retail, marketing or growth… We're covering everything from how Steve is building Hyro to a $100M brand, his ambassador-investor partnerships, AI agents and the brand strategy that's designed to stand out in one of the most crowded categories in the market right now.  Key moments: 0:00 - How Hyro is building a fast-growing brand with a tiny team and five AI agents  4:33 - What Steve learned after his first business was shut down by Facebook  7:53 - How Steve spotted the gap in the electrolyte market before Hyro existed  9:18 - The high-profile ambassadors into investors that gave Hyro instant credibility  14:31 - How Steve balances building a global brand while raising a young family  16”62 - Why Steve invested in brand and website experience from day one  19:00 - A look into Hyro’s content strategy 22:26 - Tips on finding a product opportunity in Australia 24:35 - The unhinged strategy Steve used to get Shine stocked in major retailers  28:23 - The journey into selling a product in America 30”33 - What Steve knows he’ll need to change as Hyro expands into America  32:49 - How Hyro is using AI agents across customer service, finance, logistics and operations  36:09 - Getting your team bought into AI when it’s replacing their roles 38:31  Which parts of the business Steve believes still need to stay human  39:31 - How building in public helps Hyro attract high-performing talent  40:48 - The responsibility split between Steve and his wife Taylor 43:15 - The leadership mindset that helps Steve move quickly 44:38 - The first three hires Steve would make if he was starting again today  45:13 - What’s next for Hyro as the brand expands beyond core electrolytes  If you want to learn more about Hyro visit www.drinkhyro.com [http://www.drinkhyro.com] or connect with Steve on IG @stevechapman [https://www.instagram.com/stevechapman/] If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/] Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy [https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy] Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/] and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/ [https://agentsync.com.au/]⁠ [https://agentsync.com.au/%E2%81%A0] And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/] AgentSync

We Hired Our Marketing Team Before Our Engineers … Here's Why with Frank Greef & Tahlia Kennedy

Build the product. Find the team. Then go to market. That's the playbook everyone follows. Frank Greef did it completely differently when building Kinso AI. After founding Real Hub, merging with his biggest competitor Campaign Track and exiting Real Base with a team of over 400 across multiple countries, Frank came back with one unconventional bet. Forget the product launch. Build the audience first. Attract the talent through content. And by the time you go to market the right people are already watching, already applying and already bought in. In this episode Frank and Kinso Marketing lead Tahlia Kennedy sit down to break down exactly how they did it. How to build a team that actually wants to stay. Why your employees building their own personal brand is an advantage not a risk. And how to stay human in a world where AI is making everything sound the same. This is the new playbook. And it starts before you think you're ready. Key moments: 00:00: What nobody tells you about leading at scale 03:05: Why surrounding yourself with yes people is the most dangerous thing in your business 7:24: How to know you’re actually hiring the best candidate and not least worst  10:17: How to build a team, before you have a single customer 11:18: What actually the best people to come work for you and it’s not your culture page 17:39: Gen Z isn’t lazy. They have have 10, 000 hours of native skills most founders don’t 23:56: How trusting your team to own the content frees you up to build the business 30:09: Why the approval process is killing your content before it even gets seen 33:01: The Selfish Hour. How investing in your teams personal goals is the reason your best people never leave 36:28: The Netflix character strategy. How KinsoAI built multiple audiences through one team 39:10: Why letting your team build their personal brand is your biggest unfair advantage If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/] Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy [https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy] Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/] and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/ [https://agentsync.com.au/]⁠ [https://agentsync.com.au/%E2%81%A0] And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/] AgentSync AI Delegation - https://agentsync.com.au/ai-delegation [https://agentsync.com.au/ai-delegation]

The First AI System Every Founder Should Build with Specialist Luke Heka

What if using AI in your business gets to be easier than it looks online? Luke Heka has built over 4,000 automations across 250+ businesses through his agency Sellr, and in this episode, he’s breaking down what actually works when it comes to implementing AI inside a real company.  And the best part is that Luke is a huge advocate for keeping it simple so that you can get AI off the ground and running in just a couple of weeks.  There is so much AI content online that it’s getting harder each day to figure out what works, what’s achievable and what is just marketing for the algorithm. So today, we’re getting into where most founders go wrong when they start with AI, how to identify the part of your business that will being in more money when you learn to automate it, and what an AI specialist role would look like day to day if you’re looking at hiring one. Key moments: 0:00 - The step most founders skip before touching AI (and why everything breaks without it) 5:15 - The fastest way to figure out what’s worth automating in your business 7:56 -  One AI feature that every founder can use that will save them time and money today 10:33 - Most founders are making AI harder than it needs to be 13:42- The build that’s outperforming complex AI systems and is way more simple 14:25 - Luke’s current tech stack 20:00 - How to get AI to do the work for you instead of answering questions 29:40 - Why Luke’s cut his team in half (and what replaced them) 31:54 - When you should hire someone specialising in AI for your business 36:51 - Should you move to Claude? 41:16 - The one role inside every business that AI should be built around 48:42 - The security measures you should have in place when playing with AI 54:03 - What the ‘AI person’ in your team actually does day to day 1:00:00 - How to find the one automation that will move your business forward 1:04:02 - The first three hires Luke would make if he had to start again today 1:08:06 - The mindset shift leaders need before bringing AI into their team If you want to work with Luke or join his next workshop, follow him on IG @mr_heka [https://www.instagram.com/mr_heka/] or Sellr on @selr__ai [https://www.instagram.com/selr__ai/] If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/] Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy [https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy] Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/] and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/ [https://agentsync.com.au/]⁠ [https://agentsync.com.au/%E2%81%A0] And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/] AgentSync

Build a Team That Tests, Fails and Grows Faster Than Your Competition with Grace Miller

Making decisions on gut feel and hoping something sticks? There's a word for that…. It's called guessing. And it could be costing you more than you think. Grace Miller is the Head of Experimentation and Failure at Diary of a CEO and Flight Story, the team behind one of the fastest growing podcasts in the world, scaling from 100,000 to over 16 million subscribers. And none of that happened by accident. In this episode Grace breaks down why experimentation is the most underrated growth strategy in any scaling business, how to hire for culture before skill, and what to do when someone on your team isn't performing. If you're building a team, scaling a business and tired of making decisions in the dark, this one's for you. Key moments: 2:50: You need to start experimenting in your business today 5:02: Stop hiring for just skills. The culture test DOAC uses to find A-Players 8:30: Why employee generated content is outperforming founder content 21:58: How to build psychological safety so problems surface before they become expensive 24:29: How to build a testing culture across different countries and cultural norms 26:48: They tested for a year with zero results…then one experiment changed everything overnight 33:22: How to use AI to help your team work faster without losing what actually matters 41:25: Tall Poppy Syndrome, is costing Aussie founders and what to do about it 49:29: The one thing founders need to hear before they post their first piece of content If you want to learn more from Grace, you can follow her on  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-miller-linked-in/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-miller-linked-in/]  Instagram: @graceexperiments  [https://www.instagram.com/graceexperiments/] If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/] Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy [https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy] Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/] and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/ [https://agentsync.com.au/]⁠ [https://agentsync.com.au/%E2%81%A0] And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/] AgentSync