Podcasts by First Act
First Act shares the origin tales and inspirational stories of Australia’s most innovative business owners and personalities. Hosted by Kochie’s Business Builders’ editors Cec Busby and Adam Bub, these frank conversations deliver a deep dive into the genesis of success. Cec, Adam and their guests unpack the motivations that fired up their journeys and explore the road travelled to reach their goals.
Further podcasts by First Act
Podcast on the topic Wirtschaft
All episodes
Secrets of a serial entrepreneur: How Scratch’s Mike Halligan became a dog food mogul from 2023-04-17T21:00
Melbourne entrepreneur Mike Halligan is a bit of an overachiever. He’s mastered the worlds of eCommerce, marketing, blogging, apps and subscription services – all driven by his desire to find solut...
ListenSauce it to 'em: Manu Feildel's journey from chef to entrepreneur from 2023-04-03T21:00
He’s one of the most recognisable faces on Australian TV thanks to My Kitchen Rules, but that’s only one part of the Manu Feildel story. Coming from a family of French foodies, Manu caught the cook...
ListenWhat Lisa Cox wants you to know about disability and disrupting expectations from 2023-03-20T20:00
Lisa Cox has a no-BS approach to life. Her ability to cut through fluff has been key to her success as an internationally respected disability advocate, award-winning author, business consultant an...
ListenPut the zing in it: Refugee-turned-entrepreneur Yarrie Bangura's tonic for success from 2023-03-06T20:00
Warning: This episode of First Act deals with trauma and may be potentially distressing for some listeners. Yarrie Bangura is a survivor. At the age of eight years old, her family fled the civil wa...
ListenTaco 'bout success: Clovis Young's Mad Mex revolution from 2023-02-20T20:00
From SoCal beaches to the streets of Darlinghurst, Clovis Young’s journey to becoming a fast food mogul has been a winding one. Growing up in sunny California, Clovis fell in love with the fresh f...
ListenWheels of fortune: How Camplify’s Justin Hales turned sharing caravans into an ASX-listed startup from 2023-02-06T20:00
Camplify is an Australian startup success on the road to world domination. Based in Newcastle, NSW, entrepreneur Justin Hales came up with the idea of connecting RV owners with holidaymakers throug...
ListenClean energy innovator, billion-dollar startup founder: Richard Turner is the essential entrepreneur from 2022-12-19T20:00
Richard Turner is a fountain of entrepreneurial knowledge. He’s founded four successful businesses in different industries from food distribution to labour hire to renewable energy – with three of ...
ListenZara Cooper fell head over heels for barefoot shoe brand PaperKrane and found love along the way from 2022-12-12T20:00
PaperKrane flew into Zara Cooper’s life and brought the winds of change with it. The mum of three was a customer of the cult barefoot shoe brand when she approached co-founder Kate Corleison with a...
ListenHow Rebecca Klodinsky built the Queensland bikini brand beloved by the Kardashians from 2022-12-05T20:00
Rebecca Klodinsky is one of Australia’s most successful young entrepreneurs. She’s the founder of cult swimwear brand IIXIIST - which she bootstrapped herself with just $2000 at the ripe old age of...
ListenNo money, no food, no education: How Forever Projects is changing lives in Tanzania from 2022-11-28T20:00
In 2010 Mark Dombkins and his wife Anna moved to Tanzania with their children in the hope of extending their family by adoption. Three years later, the couple returned to Australia as a family of e...
ListenWho Gives A Crap’s Simon Griffiths is a toilet paper mogul on a mission from 2022-11-21T20:00
Here’s a story worth giving a crap about. In 2012, Simon Griffiths sat on a toilet for 50 hours to raise money for Who Gives A Crap – a social enterprise that would sell toilet paper and give 50 pe...
ListenSonia Majkic started her first business at the age of 12. Now, her $25 million business is booming from 2022-11-14T20:00
Over the past five years, Sonia Majkic has made $25 million with her Australia-wide digital marketing company, 3 Phase Marketing. She’s been named on AFR’s Fast 100 List and won numerous accolades ...
ListenLiving the green life: Catherine Velisha’s journey from fruit picker to packer to managing director from 2022-11-07T20:00
Catherine Velisha is passionate about all things fruit and veg, but that wasn’t always the case. It was never her intention to run the family business, Velisha Farms. Yet since taking on the role o...
ListenFrom side hustle to media success: How Man of Many’s Frank Arthur found a niche that took off from 2022-10-31T20:00
Like many great entrepreneurs, Man of Many’s Frank Arthur has two driving forces that kicked off his early career: a major passion and a job at Macca’s. The passion was for product design – which w...
ListenHow a skincare obsessive used science to build a beauty brand that's better for the planet from 2022-10-24T20:00
Natassia Nicolao is on a mission to save the beauty industry from water waste. As the founder of Conserving Beauty, she has developed a range of waterless beauty products that are a real game chang...
ListenFrom food labs to the aisles of Woolies: Dr Vincent’s apple innovation is changing lives from 2022-10-17T20:00
Does an apple a day keep the doctor away? Dr Vincent Candrawinata knows the answer. He’s the founder of Renovatio, one of Australia’s fastest-growing health and wellness brands specialising in anti...
ListenExpert networker Leela Cosgrove went from Brisbane’s mean streets to Richard Branson’s island from 2022-10-10T20:00
Entrepreneurship may have seemed an unlikely choice for Leela Cosgrove, founder of business growth consulting firm Strategic Anarchy. Growing up in Brisbane’s housing commission estates, Leela was ...
ListenCelebrity chef Dan Churchill: The Aussie who’s changing how New Yorkers eat breakfast from 2022-10-03T20:00
He’s the Aussie chef who’s made it in the US, popping up on shows like Good Morning America and The Drew Barrymore Show. And every day, he’s serving up Aussie breakfasts and coffees to discerning N...
ListenHow Daniel Flynn made social impact easy for everyday Aussies with Thankyou from 2022-09-26T21:00
Daniel Flynn is an eco-warrior. As the managing director and co-founder of Thankyou, Daniel and his team are flipping consumerism on its head to deliver meaningful change. In a world where brands o...
ListenHow Marion Grasby cooked up a global food empire loved by millions from 2022-09-19T21:00
Cook, media publisher and entrepreneur, Marion Grasby wears a lot of hats. As one of Masterchef’s favourite contestants, Marion quickly won the hearts of Aussie viewers with her Thai-Aussie flavour...
ListenWhat do pet owners want? Justus Hammer has figured it out with Mad Paws from 2022-09-12T21:00
If you’re mad about pets, you’ll be mad for our next guest … Justus Hammer. Justus is the founder of Mad Paws, Australia’s largest online pet care platform. Dubbed ‘Airbnb for pets’, Mad Paws match...
ListenSarah Cordiner was the first woman in her family to get a higher education. Now she’s a global edupreneur. from 2022-09-05T21:00
Sarah Cordiner’s used to breaking boundaries. As the first woman in her family to get a higher education, Sarah bucked convention from the start. Education is her passion and it drives her purpose....
ListenLuxe Listings’ Simon Cohen has nailed the art of negotiation in high-end real estate from 2022-08-29T21:00
Simon Cohen knows a thing or two about the lifestyles of the rich and famous. As the founder of CohenHandler - Australia’s number one Buyers Agency - his job is to find the ultra-rich the most extr...
ListenThe man behind the Seabin Project: Pete Ceglinski’s ingenious invention to save our oceans from 2022-08-22T21:00
Pete Ceglinski is a surfer, industrial designer and ‘eco-preneur’ whose game-changing invention, the Seabin has captured millions of kilos of waste from our oceans. It’s a simple idea - a bin for t...
ListenFamily business dramas? Two Men and a Truck’s Richard Kuipers has survived it all from 2022-08-15T21:00
From his early days as a Dutch backpacker bartending in the ’70s gangster’s paradise of King’s Cross to growing his family business from a backyard caravan, Richard Kuipers is a man with stories to...
ListenHow Australian women’s fashion trailblazer Jane Cay made Birdsnest soar from 2022-08-08T21:00
Jane Cay is one of the most humble entrepreneurs you’ll meet. She also happens to be one of Australia’s leading fashion retailers and has grown her business from a small boutique store in country N...
ListenMichelle Fotheringham is saving ‘corporate escapees’ from the daily grind from 2022-08-01T21:00
People, culture and organisation are Michelle Fotheringham’s bread and butter. As the cofounder of Werkling – an on-demand talent platform - Michelle spends her day-to-day immersed in helping busin...
ListenWhy Jax Garrett is becoming ‘the Kris Jenner of the gaming world’ from 2022-07-25T21:00
Jax Garrett puts the ‘game’ into ‘game-changer’. In 2018, the Newcastle-based entrepreneur founded GGWP Academy, an E-learning and Influencer marketplace platform to help gamers globally become ful...
ListenHow Skins founder Jaimie Fuller took on doping, homophobia and corruption in sport from 2022-07-18T21:00
Jaimie Fuller always loved sports so it seems inevitable that he would one day find his place at the helm of a sporting company. His passion led him to become an outspoken advocate; championing fai...
ListenMarketing expert, cancer survivor, ‘no bull’ motivator: The wisdom of Sharon Williams from 2022-07-11T21:00
Sharon Williams is a marketing maverick and PR maven. While other agencies were still wrapping their heads around personal branding and business strategy, Sharon was coming up with her own trademar...
ListenOut of his darkest moments, Cuppa.tv's Luke Cook has created a movement of vulnerability from 2022-07-04T21:00
Luke ‘Cookie’ Cook is on a mission to change how we see and speak about mental health. Since launching his business Cuppa.TV during the pandemic, Cookie has put conversations about mental health an...
ListenLawpath's Tom Willis knows how to market your small business from 2022-06-27T21:00
He may be the cofounder of one of Australia’s most successful legal startups, but Tom Willis’s driving purpose is to help businesses be seen. Marketing is his raison d'être and he’s spent over a de...
ListenAnaita Sarkar’s secrets to a booming green business and TikTok fame from 2022-06-20T21:00
Anaita Sarkar knows how to back herself. The serial entrepreneur left behind a career in marketing to found her first brand, Olivia&Co, despite having no experience in fashion or small business. Se...
ListenFlights of fancy: How Naomi Simson took RedBalloon from backyard business to Australian success story from 2022-06-13T21:00
TV viewers may remember her as the red-jacketed judge on Shark Tank. But long before she landed on TV screens, crushing or uplifting the dreams of the nation’s entrepreneurs, Naomi Simson founded o...
ListenRoxy Jacenko on why every day's a bitch from 2022-06-06T21:00
#nofilter should actually be synonymous with Roxy Jacenko – the PR maven, entrepreneur and influencer is always unabashedly herself. In a world of pretenders, Roxy is the real deal. From founding ...
ListenHow Stephen J Hunt went from dish pig to $100m pub baron from 2022-05-30T21:00
Stephen Hunt knows a thing or two about the pub business. He began his journey as a humble dish pig and decades later is the proud owner of the Hunt Hospitality Group, where he employs over 300 peo...
ListenMelissa Wu’s deep dive from Olympian to triple business threat from 2022-05-23T21:00
A four-time Olympian and three-time entrepreneur, diving sensation Melissa Wu is as busy in the pool as she is out of it. Juggling training and business is all in a day’s work for Melissa, who was...
ListenJunkee Media’s Tim Duggan on the triumphs and trials of being a trendsetter from 2022-05-16T21:00
Tim Duggan has always been a person with his finger firmly on the pulse of the popular zeitgeist. But his ability to see what’s next is not some kind of crystal ball trickery. Rather it’s born from...
ListenWhat would Amanda Rose do? Meet Western Sydney's woman of the moment from 2022-05-09T21:00
Amanda Rose is a force of nature. She’s a serial entrepreneur and a tireless champion of both women in business and her local stomping ground, Western Sydney. Amanda’s a #BossLady with a ‘take no p...
ListenNexba's Troy Douglas on becoming a global soda mogul with strong LGBT pride from 2022-05-02T21:00
Troy Douglas was just 23 when he and {now} brother-in-law, Drew Bilbe started Nexba – a sugar-free drink brand that has taken Australia by storm. In this episode of First Act, Troy takes us back t...
ListenHow Jodie Fox survived the rise and demise of a multi-million dollar shoe brand from 2022-04-25T21:00
Jodie Fox was always meant to be a lawyer but the universe had other plans. A chance conversation on a Gold Coast beach led to her abandoning her career to start Shoes of Prey with cofounders Micha...
ListenFrom Bachelor to baby daddy to boss: The rise and rise of Matty J from 2022-04-19T07:00
First Act - Season Two from 2022-04-11T12:18
Mel Perkins talks Canva, the importance of mentors and bringing design to the masses from 2019-07-19T02:10
Dean Foley talks entrepreneurship, the genesis of Barayamal and life post the air force from 2019-07-12T02:50
Lisa Messenger talks the making and breaking of her brand and the importance of risk and resilience from 2019-07-05T02:43
Usman Iftikhar talks failure, life as a migrapreneur, launching Catalysr and meeting Prince Harry from 2019-06-27T21:58
Tyson Koh talks night-time culture, Keep Sydney Open and life after RAGE from 2019-06-19T04:12
In this episode of First Act, host Cec Busby gets up close and personal with the founder of Keep Sydney Open, Tyson Koh. A self-described reluctant activist, Koh explains the genesis of the grassro...
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