Offering Her Staff a FOUR DAY Work Week, While Building One of the Fastest Growing New Media Agencies in Australia

On Episode 53 of the?“Future of Australia”?podcast, I speak with?Marilla Akkermans, the Founder and Managing Director of Equality Media, which?grew 129% last year, to do over $3.2 million in annual revenue.

This made?Equality Media, on the Financial Review list of 100 fastest growing new companies in Australia, one of the FASTEST GROWING new businesses in Australia.

[Click Here to Listen to the Podcast in SPOTIFY, or?Listen in iTunes, or?Listen in SoundCloud, or search 'Future of Australia' or 'Derek Stewart' in your iPhone or Android podcast app]

We Discuss...

• Did not want to go to university to study something she did not feel passionate about, fell into media, like many people do
• Spent 5 years in a big global agency, considered it her apprenticeship, loved to be a generalist, liked to know the process
• The shock of going client side, learning how a client would pick a goal or an audience, the battles they would face on a daily basis, how to plug into external resources

• Being a workaholic, coming back too soon to the office with a 16 week old baby, and realising that she did not want to go back into full time work and feel guilty
• “There is no balance, and you cannot switch off when it is your own agency”
• “We are accountable”, and why that is a key thing that she promises her clients and her staff
• Not allowing work life balance for herself or her staff in the early days, and now doing a 32 hour work week, making it flexible, can be four or five days a week
• “We are an honest and transparent agency, charging for time, rather than for rebates or zero dollar fee clients”
• Being profitable every month in business, despite paying more than the market rate of $40,000 for entry level staff, because no one can live on that
• “Trying to find the right staff has been the biggest challenge”, being quick to let someone go if it is not working for the whole organisation
• Asking herself what she would think of her own policies if she was an employee at her company, running through ideas with the team, treating people as adults
• The hard part of getting women back into the workforce after having kids, and how to make a sustainable workplace
• Why a four day work week is so polarising, and people are so conditioned to be on 24x7, and even if they are half dead, and not as fresh or creative
• Being flexible with work for new parents who work for her, to making staff as supported as possible, while not penalising those who never have kids, valuing commitment

[Click Here to Listen to the Podcast in SPOTIFY, or?Listen in iTunes, or?Listen in SoundCloud, or search 'Future of Australia' or 'Derek Stewart' in your iPhone or Android podcast app]

Podcast Episode History:

Episode 1:?"Family Business & Real Estate: How Husband and Wife QLD Entrepreneurs Found A Gap in The Market"

Episode 2:?"Law & Accounting Firm A.I and Automation + Doubling Revenue TWICE in 12 Months"

Episode 3:?"Expat Entrepreneurship & Maximising Your Marketing Dollars"

Episode 4:?"Turning a Hobby Selling Quirky Gifts Online Into a Multi-Million Dollar Business"

Episode 5: "Owning 20+ Properties In His 20s to Buying 40 Per MONTH for Clients"

Episode 6: "Engineering Entrepreneurship and Managing BILLION Dollar Assets"

Episode 7: "One Day Away From Shutting Down to 1000% Annual Growth"

Episode 8:?"From Losing Your Co-Founder to 59% Growth the Next Year"

Episode 9: "Female Entrepreneurship And Starting a Business 11 Days After Giving Birth"

Episode 10: "From Door-To-Door Salesman To $11 Million Annual Revenue Within FIVE Years"

Episode 11: "From Podiatry Intern to 60+ Employee Health SuperCentre"

Episode 12: "From Selling Burned CDs to $350mm in Annual Revenue"

Episode 13: "Developing a Growth Mindset and Perth Entrepreneurship Going Global"

Episode 14: "From Army Officer to $23mm Annual Revenue Canberra Consultancy in 3 Years"

Episdoe 15: "How High School Best Friends Created One of The Fastest Growing Media Agencies in Australia"

Episode 16: "Creating Entrepreneurs, Corporate Innovation and Helping 10 Year Olds Make $1000+ Per Month"

Episode 17: "From $200,000+ in Credit Card Debt to Seven Figure Annual Income"

Episode 18: "How Construction Consulting Became a Multi-Million Dollar Niche Success"

Episode 19: "Why A Fast Growth Law Firm Embraces Tech and Teaches Its Entrepreneur Clients How to Negotiate"

Episode 20: "From Neuroscience PhD to 70 Employee Fast Growth Consultancy"

Episode 21:?"From Inspirational Facebook Posts to the Fastest Growing New Apparel Business in Australia"

Episode 22: "From Sleeping on the Factory Floor to 3rd Fastest Growing New Business in Australia with $40mm+ Annual Revenue"

Episode 23: "From Graduate Finance Job at 18 to Growing Revenue $55 MILLION in 12 Months"

Episode 24: "Paying Drivers MORE The Secret to the Fastest Growing New Logistics Company in Australia"

Episode 25: "From Kicked Out Of High School to Published Author Running A Multi-Million Dollar Digital Growth Agency"

Episode 26: "From $1,000,000+ in DEBT to 6th Fastest Growing New Business in Australia

Episode 27: "How EMPLOYEE-OWNED Consultancy Became 10th Fastest Growing New Business in Australia"

Episode 28:"From Cold Calling in a New York City Phone Booth to Australian Public Company CEO"

Episode 29: "How a Direct-To-Consumer Leak Proof Underwear Business Became The 8th Fastest Growing New Businesses in Australia"

Episode 30: "Why Helping People Lose 6kg+ in TWO WEEKS Made Shark Tank Invest"

Episode 31: "From Road Tripping Around the USA in a Van to Running One of The Fastest Growing Digital Media Agencies in Australia"

Episode 32: "How Predicting Technology Trends Enabled Vamsi to Build One of The Fastest Growing New Businesses in Australia"

Episode 33: "Becoming One Of The Fastest Growing New Recruitment Businesses in Australia While Having Two Weddings and Five Pregnancies in the Founding Team"

Episode 34:"From Making $1,000,000+ Mowing Laws at 17 to Becoming One Of The Fastest Growing New Engineering Businesses in Australia"

Episode 35:"How Tony Turned a Struggling Digital Gifting Company Into a Fast Growth Success Story Selling 400,000+ Gift Cards per MONTH"

Episode 36: "Using Automated Disinfecting Lights and Robots to Tackle COVID-19 and Becoming The Fastest Growing New Healthcare Business in Australia"

Episode 37: "Becoming One of The Fastest Growing New Management Consultancies in Australia by Doing The Opposite of The Big Four"

Episode 38: "Being The Solution to Climate Change, with a BILLION Dollar Goal and Turning That Into a Fast Growth Success Story"

Episode 39: "From Starting a Restaurant in Germany as a University Student to Creating The Fastest Growing AirBNB Management Business in Australia"

Episode 40:"Making Impact While Making Millions, With the Fastest Growing New Social Enterprise in Australia"

Episode 41:"Qutting a Dream Job at Google to Build One of the Fastest Growing New Businesses in Australia"

Episode 42:"Building The Fastest Growing Commercial Real Estate Buyers Agency and Moving Away from Residential Property Investing"

Episode 43: "From Princess Diana’s Personal Trainer to Creating the Fastest Growing Fitness Franchise in Australia"

Episode 44: "Transforming an Idea for Gluten Free Beer to 1700+ Locations, Creating One of The Fastest Growing Beer Brands in Australia"

Episode 45: "Solving BILLION Dollar Supply Chain Problems and Why COVID Changed Everything"

Episode 46:"From Wales to Sydney, Seeking Autonomy as The Motivation for Starting one of the Fastest Growing New Recruitment Companies in Australia"

Episode 47: "Creating Websites at 10 Years Old, Working in a Top Tier Law Firm, to Founding the Fastest Growing New Legal Tech Business in Australia"

Episode 48: "Borrowing $500,000 To Win His First Client, Becoming the Fastest Growing Marine Consultancy in Australia with 35 Staff in Three Years"

Episode 49: "Helping Aussie Brands Go Global, Building One of the Fastest Growing New Freight Companies in Australia"

Episode 50: "From 100 Hour Weeks In a Wine Bar, to Machine Learning Algorithms for Real Estate, and Creating One of the Fastest Growth Tech Companies in Australia"

Episode 51:"From Driving Brand and Business at Nike & Levi Strauss in Europe, to Private Equity, before Starting One of The Fastest Growing Strategy Consultancies"

Episode 52: "From Studying Philosophy and Astrophysics to Starting one of the Fastest Growing New Publicly Traded [ASX: WZR] FinTech Companies in Australia"

Hi, my name is Derek.?"FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA"?is a project I am running to interview the Founders, CEOs and Entrepreneurs behind the?FASTEST GROWING new businesses in Australia.?

It has been voted one of the?top Australia business podcasts.

"FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA"?is about interviewing, celebrating and sharing the knowledge, aspirations, struggles, goals and achievements of these people with a broader audience.

If you are interested in contributing, learning more of keeping in the loop with our updates and email newsletter, email me at?[email protected], or give me a call or text on?0404 689 897.

www.FutureOfAustralia.com