From Thousands To Millions

Entrepreneur Sam Bashiry talks to self-confessed nerd Luke Trewin about building a business out of experience and opportunity.

Luke Trewin grew up in various towns around Australia, learning to make friends wherever he found himself. Discovering he had a knack for computing and Linux, he started his own server aged 13 and started making money from online advertising and reselling Jackass merchandise he’d bought on eBay to schoolmates.

By 16, his mum had kicked him out of home and he dropped out of school; at 26, he founded Modern Visual (modernvisual.com.au), a website design and development business which has now been going for more than six years.

Learn the secret to Luke’s success, from his trade apprenticeship to the opportunity that saw him start his business with Sam Bashiry in Episode 19.

Silvia Kramska grew up in Slovakia, she moved out of her parents home at the age of just 17, she lived in a variety of locations across England for around 5 years. Then following her fathers advice, she eventually made the ambitious move to Melbourne, Australia. She began her journey in a coffee shop on the famous Degraves Street earning around $12 per hour, this was a massive step back coming from a stable income back in England. Additionally she lost all of her contacts and friends, Silvia stuck it out for 6 long months, doubting that she would be able to maintain her lifestyle here in Australia.

Silvia explains how she developed a passion for exercise/fitness training after loosing a substantial amount of weight while working at the tennis academy, this drove her to start doing competitive body building. After 2 years of hard work and determination she went on to complete for Australia in the world championships back home in Slovakia.

Silvia started to travel to Los Angeles yearly, she began to notice the popular vegan cafes, when she returned to Australia she opened up 2 cafes of her own. On her second trip she decided to try a popular fitness class, when she did so she met Jason (Founder of Rise Nation). She insisted that he consider opening up a gym in Melbourne but he had plans for New York. She persisted and kept visiting LA and eventually convinced Jason to open in Melbourne, she sold her cafes and turned all of her focus to Rise Nation.

Listen to this incredible story to find out what drives Silvia to continue to push limits and achieve incredible success with Sam Bashiry in Episo

Host Sam Bashiry combines his two passions – entrepreneurship and property development

– in a chat with Brent Thompson of Siera Group, a property business levelling up in

Brisbane.

Brent Thompson grew up with a builder for a dad but was repeatedly discouraged from

following in his footsteps. It took just three months at university for him to discover tertiary

education wasn’t his calling and, following a carpentry apprenticeship, Brent began his

construction career.

Now, as the founder of Siera Group (www.sieragroup.com.au), Brent is on the up and up –

both as an entrepreneur and as a builder who has grown from developing 10-townhouse

blocks to 30-unit buildings.

Find out how Brent broke the news to his dad that he was going into the construction

industry with Sam Bashiry in Episode 19.

Entrepreneur Sam Bashiry talks to expert investor Tolga Kumova about the importance of family and having someone believe in you.

Son of Turkish migrants, Tolga Kumova grew up in Melbourne with the big dream of being a currency trader. His taxi driver father emphasised the importance of study and his mother put all her faith in his persistence and intelligence.

In a now-famous story, during the global financial crisis he lost his parents’ life savings. While trying to earn it back for them, he struck gold – literally – by handling the IPO of Doray Minerals in Western Australia, one of the richest gold mines in recent history. Since then, his speculative savvy has helped him repay his parents’ losses many times over.

Find out how a strategic poker bluff helped Tolga secure his first stockbroking job and what happens when he goes running in Episode 20, with host Sam Bashiry.

Sometimes you meet someone for a short time but then fate brings you back together and you get to be friends. For me, that person is Joe Salanitri.

Joe and I both went to Salesian College in Melbourne. We had the kind of relationship where we’d say ‘hey’ in the hallways, but we weren’t close and we lost touch for many years. Then when I saw him on Instagram I thought, ‘I went to school with that guy’ and decided to reach out. (We brushed past each other even earlier, actually.

Joe says he used to work at the dealership (where I bought my first Subaru.)

Joe, his brother Carlo and his friend Andrew, started the comedy trio Sooshi Mango in 2015 after one of Joe’s rants – about a driver who didn’t gesture ‘thank you’ after he pulled over to let the car pass – went viral. They did a bunch of videos making fun of ethnic parenting, even taking on Italians vs Greeks, the kind of wog humour that Nick Giannopoulos (now a good friend) became famous for, but updated for Australians today.

So you can expect to find clips of ethnic mums using smartphones and even one referencing the pandemic, ‘Ethnic Isolation Hypocrites’.

One of the characters wears big red tracksuit pants, a tight top, a massive gold chain and watch. “I almost wished society let me be that character, like that full-on wog. Just proud, who gives a fuck,” says Joe. “One of the biggest laughs in my show is when I dress as this character.”

Host Sam Bashiry speaks to digital marketing expert Sam Founda of Social Connection about the value of investing in yourself through education and experience.

Sam Founda started working in affiliate marketing at an agency before he realised there was more to the whole process than sales. The agency model wasn’t for him, so he struck out on his own and created Social Connection, which specialises in getting brands traction on social media channels.

He talks to entrepreneur Sam Bashiry about why he paid thousands of dollars to shadow some of the top digital marketers in the world, what he’s learnt from them and what he’s teaching through his work and writing.

Tune in to hear Sam Bashiry and Sam Founda discuss how to get an education outside of school and why you should share your knowledge in Episode 16.

Entrepreneur and host Sam Bashiry gets Johnny Di Francesco to open up about the business failures that helped him succeed with 400 Gradi.

Johnny left university after just one day to pursue his dream of opening a restaurant. Aged 19 with plenty of experience in the kitchen but none running a business, it wasn’t until his third attempt that he had the momentum to help him succeed with 400 Gradi, which has 13 locations worldwide.

He talks to Sam about why he makes pizza, what he’s learnt by teaching, and what it takes to make the best pizza in the world – but also how winning is nothing without dreams, passion and hard work behind it.

Tune in to hear Sam and Johnny discuss the benefit of having fresh eyes, how resilience leads to success and what to do with 10,000 hours in Episode 15.

Host Sam Bashiry chats to his personal trainer (and the original advocate of this very podcast) Danny Kennedy about what it takes to be mentally and physically fit and well.

Danny qualified as a personal trainer in parallel with finishing high school but deferred his business journey when he was selected to attend the Australian College of Basketball. The then 18-year-old moved from Horsham, in regional Victoria, to Melbourne to train at an elite level before an ankle injury sidelined his basketball career.

He embraced his personal training business and founded Danny Kennedy Fitness, which has given him a platform to encourage personal improvement through content such as his blog, podcast and series of free workouts. He talks to Sam about why it’s important to invest in yourself.

Listen to Sam and Danny discuss the joy of sharing, how to build resilience and his top three rules for success in Episode 14.

Host Sam Bashiry talks about the hidden side of dealing with success and failure with ‘Angry Dad’ Mark Orval.

Mark Orval entered the public eye as an AFL player with Collingwood in the 1980s, but it was not until his sons Dylan and Mitchell started filming his rants and posting them on YouTube that he gained fame as the titular Angry Dad.

But there is more to Mark than expletive-filled reactions: in a new documentary called F@#k Off Mitchell! The Angry Dad Story, he opens up about his AFL career-ending injury and the underlying depression that has dogged him his whole life. He opens up to Sam about the effects the doco has had on his friends, family and strangers.

Listen to Sam and Mark chat about why it’s important to recognise and treat depression in Episode 13.

Entrepreneur and property developer Sam Bashiry speaks with fellow entrepreneur and property investor Sasha Karabut about growing up poor, making mistakes and making it big.

Sasha Karabut grew up in a small town outside Toowoomba, Queensland, and has probably done more in the past decade than many fit in a lifetime. After finishing school he enrolled in an architecture degree but ended up chasing a highly paid mining job in the middle of Australia before relocating to a construction job in Brisbane.

After realising his lavish life was fuelled by drugs and debt, Sasha turned things around by starting his first business, a car repair service specialising in hail damage, before adding property investment and mentoring entrepreneurs – through his consultancy PushPeak – to his skillset. At just 28 years old, Sasha is the Australian incarnation of Jordan ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Belfort’s lessons.

Find out why Sasha saw praise as a sign he was failing and what he did to push himself towards growth in Episode 12.