The People Powered Business Podcast

Hello and welcome to Episode 331 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Do you ever catch yourself justifying a decision to your team three different ways before you've even finished the sentence? Or slip in an apology before giving a completely reasonable instruction? If that's you, you're not alone, and it's costing you more than you think. I see this constantly with the business owners I work...

Hello and welcome to Episode 330 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have you ever watched a sporting team go into the halftime break looking completely defeated, then come out in the second half looking like an entirely different team? That shift doesn't happen by accident. Something happens in that locker room, and whatever those coaches are saying, it works. So what if you could borrow that...

Hello and welcome to Episode 329 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have you ever felt like you're drowning in information but still not sure what action to take when it comes to managing your team? Maybe you've downloaded templates, Googled answers, asked AI for help and still found yourself second-guessing whether you're doing the right thing. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. The...

Hello and welcome to episode 328 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Are you hearing about Payday Super everywhere right now and wondering what it actually means for your business? If managing payroll already feels like one more thing on a never-ending list of jobs, the thought of another compliance change might have you feeling like you're putting out fires before they've even started. I keep...

Hello and welcome to Episode 327 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have you opened the latest wage review announcement and immediately wondered what it means for your payroll, your cash flow and your compliance obligations? If you're already feeling the squeeze of rising business costs, the latest Fair Work Commission decision may have you doing some quick calculations and asking what happen...

Hello and welcome to Episode 326 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Do you assume your HR paperwork has you covered… until something goes wrong? Maybe you’ve grabbed a few templates online, updated an old contract once upon a time, or downloaded a handbook and called it done. The problem is, when staff issues pop up, those documents are often the first thing business owners realise aren’t act...

Hello and welcome to Episode 325 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Are you stuck doing everything yourself because handing work over feels harder than just getting it done? Maybe you’ve thought about hiring a virtual assistant before, but the whole process feels confusing, risky, or like one more thing to manage when you’re already flat out putting out fires in your business. This week I’m s...

Hello and welcome to Episode 324 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Are your interviews actually helping you hire the right person… or are you accidentally feeding candidates the exact answers you want to hear? If you've ever walked away from an interview thinking someone was perfect, only to realise a few weeks later they were all talk and no substance, you're definitely not alone. So many s...

Hello and welcome to Episode 323 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Have you reached the point where you know a role in your business no longer makes sense, but the thought of making someone redundant feels overwhelming? Maybe business has changed, technology has improved how work gets done, or you simply can’t justify carrying a salary for a role that’s no longer needed. The problem is, one...

Hello and welcome to Episode 322 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Are you using AI to help you manage your team… but secretly wondering if you’re getting it wrong? Maybe you’ve asked it how to handle a tricky staff issue, calculate pay, or even draft a warning, and just hoped the answer was right. The reality is, AI can feel like a lifesaver when you’re already flat out, but it can also lea...

Hello and welcome to Episode 321 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Are you stuck doing everything in your business because it just feels quicker and easier than explaining it to someone else? Like you’re constantly putting out fires, jumping back into tasks, and wondering why your team isn’t stepping up? You’re not alone and this is exactly where so many business owners get stuck. I keep see...

Hello and welcome to Episode 320 of The People Powered Business Podcast. You've hired someone. Finally. After the job ads, the interviews, the back and forth, they said yes and they're starting Monday. The hard part is over, right? Wrong. Almost half of every person you hire won't make it through their first twelve months. Not because they were the wrong person. Because nobody set them up to succe...

Hello and welcome to Episode 319 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Got someone on your team who just is not cutting it, but every time you think about dealing with it, you put it off for another day? Maybe you are hoping they will sort themselves out, maybe you are gathering more “evidence”, or maybe you are trying not to rock the boat. Either way, the issue rarely fixes itself, and the long...

Hello and welcome to Episode 318 of the People Powered Business Podcast. Do you have someone on your team right now where something just feels... off? Maybe you knew when you hired them, maybe it crept up on you slowly — but either way, you're still holding on. And if that's you, this episode is going to hit close to home. This is one of my most listened-to episodes and I'm bringing it back becaus...

Hello and welcome to Episode 317 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, we are tackling one of the most confusing and high-risk areas for business owners right now, the difference between employees and contractors. I’m joined by Jeanette Jifkins from Onyx Legal, and together we unpack why this isn’t as simple as choosing what you want to call someone. We explore how recent Fair W...

Hello and welcome to Episode 316 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, we are diving into how to write a script for any tricky team conversation, whether it’s performance-related, awkward, or just something that’s been sitting on your to-do list for far too long. I walk through why these conversations are often avoided and how that avoidance is actually costing your business mor...

Hello and welcome to Episode 315 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode I’m tackling a leadership trap I see all the time in small and growing businesses: confusing being a nice boss with being a good boss. With recent research showing that four in five Australian employees are disengaged at work, and a significant percentage actively looking for a new role, it’s worth asking an u...

Hello and welcome to Episode 314 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode I’m talking about something most business owners know they need to do but often avoid: difficult conversations. We’ve been exploring why these conversations feel so uncomfortable and how to approach them, but today I’m focusing on something different – the real cost of not having them. Whether it’s the high pe...

Hello and welcome to Episode 313 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, I’m diving into the real reason you’re avoiding that conversation you know you need to have. You’ve thought about it, rehearsed it and told yourself you’ll deal with it next week. But avoidance isn’t laziness. It’s protection. I unpack why so many business owners put off difficult conversations around perform...

Hello and welcome to Episode 312 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, we’re unpacking a confronting but powerful question: is your team’s performance actually a reflection of your leadership? When something goes wrong in our teams, it’s easy to look straight at them. But what if under-performance isn’t about capability at all? What if it’s about clarity, communication and consi...

Hello and welcome to Episode 311 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, I’m diving into a topic that so many business owners struggle with but don’t always want to admit, micromanagement. Are you a micromanager? Do you find yourself swooping in, rechecking work that has already been delegated, rewriting emails that were perfectly fine, or feeling anxious when someone else is resp...

Hello and welcome to Episode 310 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Today I am sharing a conversation had on The Australian Small Business Show, another podcast that I cohost with my husband Matt Heighway. In this episode, we tackle a big question many small business owners are asking right now, is employee loyalty dead? Drawing on our experiences and observations of the next generation enter...

Hello and welcome to Episode 309 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, we are talking about something every leader has to do, but many quietly avoid: giving staff feedback. Giving feedback isn’t just part of your job, it is the job. When it’s done well, it drives improvement, builds trust and shifts behaviour. When it’s done poorly, it creates confusion, defensiveness and diseng...

Hello and welcome to Episode 308 of The People Powered Business Podcast. Today we’re digging into the vault and rereleasing one of our most popular episodes, back from late 2020. Today we are taking a look at the other side of employee engagement. We have spoken a few times on the podcast about employee engagement, what it is, why it’s important and how you can improve it. However, we haven’t befo...

Hello and welcome to Episode 307 of The People Powered Business Podcast. In this episode, I’m diving into hiring in 2026 and unpacking what’s actually changing, what’s staying the same, and why many of the old recruitment tactics just aren’t cutting it anymore. Whether you’ve hired recently or it’s been a while, the reality is the hiring market is still competitive, candidates are moving fast, and...