Success and More Interesting Stuff

Maggie Beer’s recipe for turning passion (and paté) into profit

How’s this for an honours list?

• Winner of the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year
• Senior Australian of the Year
• Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Australia
• Author of 11 books
• Star of multiple cooking shows
• Order of Australia (AM)
• Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
• Public company name with multiple products to her credit

Maggie Beer is an icon of the Australian food industry. Her larger-than-life personality and likeability have endeared her to a range of Australians from budding chefs to aged care occupants. 

Maggie has backed her own skills and played an important role in encouraging people across this country to try their hand in the kitchen. She also can take credit for introducing the verjuice to the Australian kitchen.

She also happens to be the only Australian with a self-named public company.

Not bad for someone who left school at 14 years old. Now, Beer sits down with me for the latest edition of Success and More Interesting Stuff. We discuss her life before food, those first years operating the (now) world famous Farm Shop in South Australia, and what lies ahead for this Australian treasure.

TIME CODES

0:00 - Intro
3:00 - Early life
18:40 - Early career
28:20 - Entrepreneurship in the food industry
38:40 - Transition to the financial world
48:10 - Other passions

Meet Maggie Beer - she has an incredible story to tell

Cooking from the heart is the humble and simple philosophy of one of Australia’s most well-known personalities. In a career spanning four decades - and in spite of zero formal training - Maggie Beer has become a beloved figure on our screens and gained a presence in many an Australian kitchen or bookshelf. 

Even I was surprised to learn this first lady of Australian food’s career did not begin until she was in her 40s!

Now, Beer sits down with me for the latest edition of Success and More Interesting Stuff. We discuss her life before food, those first years operating the (now) world famous Farm Shop in South Australia, and what lies ahead for this Australian treasure.

Leo Barry was a star of ”the big dance”, now he’s making a mark in small caps

Leo Barry was everywhere during AFL Grand Final week this year. With a Sydney Swans scarf draped around his neck, you could be mistaken for thinking he is employed full time in the club’s marketing department.

In truth, Barry always has a lot on his plate. From the moment he was drafted by the Swans, he has been on the run. The Swans relocated him to Sydney, placing him in boarding school out of the limelight of Melbourne. Soon enough, he cracked the big time, becoming a premiership player and an All-Australian defender.

But away from the football pitch, “Leaping Leo” was preparing for his next career. A career that has ultimately led to him part-managing some $500 million in funds across the ASX small cap universe.

In this edition of Success and More Interesting Stuff, Leo and I discuss what happened next and how he transformed himself from a football legend to a finance superstar.

TIME CODES

0:00 - Intro
1:54 - Move from football to finance
6:53 - Early life
14:22 - Lessons from a career at the swans
24:05 - Beginning of career in finance
33:36 - Lessons from a career in finance
47:40 - Future of Leo and Fairview
51:21 - Outro

Meet Leo Barry and his passion for sport and small caps

The full episode comes out on Wednesday 28th December.

The man trusted by Kerry Packer, Solomon Lew and Barbra Streisand (yep, seriously!) for stock market guidance

Even after 55 years as a stockbroker, Brent Potts is still going strong. Every day, Potts arrives at his desk to talk to the smartest investors around. He never misses lunch with clients or colleagues. So much so that even in spite of the Coronavirus, he organised for a local Japanese restaurant to deliver food to his workplace (and for that matter, all his colleagues) at Blue Ocean Equities.

Over the past half-century, his client rolodex has included Nine's Kerry Packer, Premier Investments' Solomon Lew, ex-Adsteam boss John Spalvins, and even Barbra Streisand.

Potts has seen just about everything in the Australian market. Through the 1980s, his business partner was the flamboyant Rene Rivkin. Since then, he has built several broking businesses of his own. Each time he sells, he starts again and constructs another operation. He also tends to back his ideas with his own money - something that has served him and his clients well over the years.

In our latest edition of Success and More Interesting Stuff, you’ll hear from Brent first-hand about his career, his take on modern investing, and the future of his storied life.

Time-Codes

0:00 - Intro
2:00 - Early life
4:40 - Early career
11:35 - Finance in the 1970s
14:14 - Relationships with key clients
29:20 - Lessons from the 1987 collapse
33:12 - Starting over
36:57 - Brokerage in modern finance
41:20 - The importance of workplace culture
45:35 - Differences in finance from the ’70s to today
50:10 - Lessons from the market
55:45 - Future of Brent Potts 

Meet legendary stockbroker Brent Potts

Brent Potts is a legend of the Australian stockbroking industry and after 55 years he is still going strong. Potts has seen just about everything in the Australian market and has some colourful stories to tell. The full interview with Brent Potts goes live on Tuesday 20th December.

How Domino’s boss Don Meij built a $5.7bn global pizza powerhouse from the suburbs of Brisbane

None of it really makes sense. A young man from Queensland teaching the world about Pizzas.

Don Meij was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, moving around as a child before landing at Redcliff in North Brisbane. He trained to be a teacher but somehow got hooked on being the best Pizza delivery person in the district. 

The next step was to become a franchised shop owner of a small chain called Silvio’s-dial-a pizza. Silvios merged with Domino’s Pizza within a few years, and Meij was at the helm in Australia. A meteoric rise from a delivery boy.

Don, though, was just getting started. Domino's was cooking its competitors; in 2005, the company was listed on the ASX. Meij and his ambitious team, with the support of its major shareholder, fast food king Jack Cowin, were preparing to take on the world.

Today, Domino's Pizza (ASX:DMP) is an ASX 100 company valued at more than $5.7 billion and has a growing global footprint. While it has been a whirlwind ride, there has also been some indigestion. Battles with disgruntled franchisees and the emergence of multiple food delivery companies have tested the leadership of Meij. Now he has global inflation to contend with. 

Never to shy away from a challenge, Meij seems as energetic as ever.

Trailer: Meet Don Meij, the delivery driver behind Domino’s rise to the top

The full interview with the Don Meij the founder and Managing Director of Domino’s Pizzas goes live on the 13th of December 2022. Here’s a taste of what is coming up.

Introducing Season 3 of Success and More Interesting Stuff!

Success and More Interesting Stuff is back for its third and best season ever. Kicking off on December 13 and running through to January 24 the series talks to 7 of the most successful professional investors and business operators in Australia.

Each guest has a superbly colourful story to tell. Each one took risks that the rest of us would find to daunting to seriously contemplate. Once the decision was made each one threw everything, they could muster to make the journey a success. Driven by a competitive spirit to win the ultimate prize, each one encountered setbacks but pushed through.

 

Morgan: History is rhyming (and it could be bad for stocks)

In this final episode of Success and More Interesting Stuff, we turn back the clock and talk to legendary fund manager Peter Morgan.

Peter was a 'master of the market' in the 1990s at the helm of Perpetual Investments. When he left in 2002, the group was managing about $12 billion and was outperforming the market year after year, notching up returns of more than 14% per annum.

Peter and Warwick Negus went on to turn heads with their boutique venture 452 Capital. But about a decade ago, doctors diagnosed brain cancer and gave Peter less than a year to live.

Although this diagnosis eventually proved incorrect (though not before an intensive round of chemo), his time as a professional money manager was over. He still avidly watches global markets, but with only his own funds on the line. Nonetheless, he thinks experience has made him an even better investor these days.

In this episode Peter talks about learning from the 1987 sharemarket crash and the dotcom bubble. He looks with the discipline of an ex-auditor at modern reporting metrics and shares his conviction that Australia's culture of regular dividends might be holding us back, closing with a timely challenge for domestic enterprises.