People leaders are often the quietly most vital parts of a business.
Great people leaders are like a cross between HR and an executional chief operating officer - someone who takes the business strategy and breaks it down into what everyone needs to do, and then helps every manager in a business stay accountable. There are no great companies without great people policy and execution, and people leaders need to understand culture, strategy, how people tick and how to create high performance environments- all the kind of things that also make for a great CEO. So why don’t we see more CEOs coming from chief people officer backgrounds?
This episode on the pod we talk to Olivia Dyet, founder and CEO at recruitment startup Empathix and Pene Barton, CEO at Crimson Global Academy. Both these leaders came from leading people operations, and both are at the front of what great looks like in terms of AI execution and implementation both on how they work and how their teams operate. We have a great chat about how this could be a huge opportunity for more diverse leadership with so many amazing women in people and operations, how we may need to redefine what a technical leaders is in the age of AI and about the practical toolbox of AI tools everyone should be using today.
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55:22
How to build a community of 10,000 marketers
Building community can be one of the most important parts of building a brand and business.
When people talk about businesses and customers, we are really talking about a community of people. What does it take to become a valuable and useful member of a community, rather than just a business selling into a community? What are the benefits? And how do you set out to give enough value that people want to do things with you and for you?
These are all questions today’s guest is an expert in. Chanel Clark is a marketing leader who decided she needed community around her to help her grow in her role, leading marketing for Ārepa, a functional FMCG brand with a mission to help make brains better. When Chanel started The Marketing Club she thought she might get 30 people. As of April 2025, they have 10,000 members across AU and NZ.
Chanel joins the pod to talk what it takes to build such a community, and how listening to that community is the key to success.
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43:50
Creating an Extraordinary new category
On this season of Business is Boring we’re talking to leaders who are great examples of the best of business - and today we are looking at the opportunities and challenges of creating your own category. Creating a category allows you to be the leader and get away from the competition.
But it is one of the hardest things to do - as you need to create awareness, trust, new habits and understanding in the market. It takes energy, positivity, confidence, optimism, perseverance as well as a great product and business discipline. These are things that Steven Zinsli has in spades - and that host Simon Pound has seen up close by working on their brand and being an investor.
If you’re on LinkedIn you will have seen the way Steve is building in public, sharing the wins, the work and the journey to create a new category of payments for business. Today there is no standard way for any non-wage payments to be distributed to workers. There are a bunch of very ordinary options -gift cards, reimbursements or tax attracting extra payments in payroll. Their platform is built to give every employee a card and account, and help the finance function track, manage and report on all dollars allocated and spent. The amount wasted on gift card admin and unspent dollars, on admin time for reimbursement and on inefficient reporting is massive, but today people don’t think of these as all having one solution. What does it take to establish a new idea? What can others learn about communication and turning up? And how might other business people think about choosing their own lane? Hear from Steve Zinsli, founder and CEO at Extraordinary in this episode.
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49:42
A banking challenger emerges
This season on Business is Boring we’re talking to people who are examples of better ways to do business. This week we meet Jovan Pavlicevic, co-founder of SquareOne, a financial empowerment and spending card for kids, and now, Emerge, the challenger for small business banking.
In many ways Emerge is the classic disruptor, coming in and taking share from the big bank incumbents by being faster, nicer, smarter and more customer-centric than the big players. We learn what it takes to be a positive disruptor, as one thing about Emerge is that they’ve got where they are by being better to deal with, not by disrupting in destructive ways.
We’ve loved seeing Emerge so far, and keep an eye out for where they go next as they continue to advocate for more modern banking regulations and services in Aotearoa.
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53:31
From Aotea to the world: Tama Toki on energy, connection, and purpose
Growing up in a self-sufficient community on Aotea Great Barrier Island, Tama Toki owes much of his problem-solving nous and deep connection to the whenua to his unique upbringing. As the founder of Aotea (a skincare line rooted in rongoā Māori knowledge) and Aotea Energy (a company focused on renewable micro-grid solutions), Tama’s work blends innovation with purpose.
In this final episode of Business is Boring for the season, we dive into Tama’s journey, the mātauranga Māori guiding his ventures, and his vision for a future where energy and business empower communities. This is the last episode in this run for Business is Boring, and such a fitting guest to end on – Tama embodies the potential of business to build a better world, while broadening our understanding of what business can be.
Thank you to all our incredible guests and listeners for joining us on this journey!
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Think business is boring? This podcast proves it's anything but. Join Simon Pound as he talks to everyone from accidental entrepreneurs to industry leaders about their business journeys and what propelled them to where they are today. Made in partnership with Deel.
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