Liz Nable 0:00
321, Before we get into today's episode, I really need to be clear about something. This is not a political episode. I'm not here to tell you who to vote for. I'm not a liberal voter. I am not a Labor voter. I am a small business owner, and that is the only lens through which I'm having this conversation today. Here's the reality. There are approximately two and a half million small businesses in Australia. We make up 97% of all businesses in this country. We employ millions of Australians. We are the backbone of this economy, and yet when the decisions are being made that directly affect our lives, our livelihoods, our ability to build something, grow something, and sell it one day. We are not in the room, we're not in the room, because we're busy. We're running our businesses, raising our families, doing the work. We don't have time for politics, and we never have. But here's what I've come to realize, and this is what finally tipped me over the edge. If we don't take an interest in politics, politics will take an interest in us, and it already is. The recent federal budget made that crystal clear. So, this is me deciding that enough is enough. I want to take you on that journey with me through this podcast and through social media, because I don't have all the answers. I am not a political commentator, I am not an economist, I am not a lobbyist, but I am done sitting on the sidelines. So, let's learn together. Let's figure out how this political system actually works. Let's understand what decisions are being made, who is making them, and what, if anything, we can do about it. And then let's make a plan, a real tactical plan for how we, as small business owners, start to get ourselves a seat at the table, gain influence over the decisions that affect us, and make our voices heard collectively for the first time. We are not politicians by nature, we don't want to be, but we are going to have to start paying attention, and the best place I could think to start walking straight into Parliament House Canberra and asking those hard questions directly. Now I have to be honest with you about how this episode came to exist, because it is very on brand for me and possibly slightly unhinged. A few days after the federal budget, something in me just snapped. I did what I always do, I acted first and thought later. I slid into the shadow treasurer's DMs, told him exactly how I felt, told him I know small business like the back of my hand, and I work with 1000s of small business owners every year, and I asked if he'd come on the podcast. He messaged me back straight away and said yes. I panicked, did my research in the car on the way down to Canberra, and then I walked into Parliament House and had the conversation you are about to hear. My guest is Tim Wilson, MP, Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Small Business, and Federal Liberal member for Goldstein in Victoria. He's the son of publicans. He grew up literally on top of pubs in Richmond and on Little Collins Street in Melbourne. His parents ran small businesses his entire childhood, his mum bought a take away food shop, his dad built a fence business, a lawn mowing business, timber yards, and some of Australia's earliest privatized Australia Post outlets. He knows what it costs to back yourself, and since returning to parliament in 2025 giving small business owners a real voice in Canberra has become his mission, whether you sit on the left, the right, or nowhere near either. The conversation you are about to hear deserves your attention. This is just the beginning of a much bigger journey, and I'm so glad you're here for it. Let's get into it, I hello and welcome to Media Magnet, the podcast for female founders and women-owned businesses, startups, and side hustlers who want to learn how to grow their business, leveraging the media and free PR. I'm Liz Nabal, and I'm your host, personal publicist, PR strategist and dedicated hype woman.
Liz Nable 4:03
My goal with this show is to give you a behind the scenes tour of how the media works to break down the barriers between your business and the big mastheads, so you can see how easy it is to get featured simply by giving journalists what they want. At Media Magnet, you'll also get access to the top journals, editors, writers, and PR people in your industry and beyond, sharing their secrets and expertise on the how, why, what, and when of pitching, and getting featured in the media consistently. I will share with you how to build your reputation as an industry expert so successfully, the media will be knocking down your door. When I first started in small business, 12 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. I had spent 15 years as a television news reporter, working at several major networks in Australia, and then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between. Working long shifts on a news desk and traveling the world chasing stories, it was unpredictable and exciting until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next and where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business, but getting media and great free PR was not one of them. I already knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made news, and I knew how to leverage those media outlets to build my business, get more exposure, and ultimately make more sales. I was featured in every major media outlet in the country, and I never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret, and they too could build their brands with organic media and PR. Let me help you take your brand from best kept secret to household name. This is Media Magnet, the podcast, and I'm pretty pumped to have you here, you welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 6:24
Thank you for having me.
Liz Nable 6:25
How would I address you? What I would you say in a, in an official capacity like this,
Speaker 1 6:31
Tim? Tim,
Liz Nable 6:31
oh, good.
Speaker 1 6:32
If you, if you want the technical, it's the Honorable Timothy Wilson, MP, Shadow Treasurer, Federal Liberal member for Goldstein, but I prefer Tim.
Liz Nable 6:42
Okay, it's Monty
Speaker 1 6:43
Pythonesque. Actually, you know, there's that scene in the life, the Holy Grail, Monty Python, the Holy Grail, and there's there's a character, and he's called Tim.
Liz Nable 6:51
Great, Tim, that's very easy. It saves me that the rest of the mouthful of the Honorable,
Speaker 1 6:57
etc.
Liz Nable 6:58
You're the first politician we've had on the show, and this could potentially be the least political political conversation you're ever going to have.
Speaker 1 7:03
Okay. All right. Well,
Liz Nable 7:05
because I - I'm by my own admission - I'm not like a lot of small business owners, was never particularly interested in politics until recent events.
Speaker 1 7:15
Well, most people don't. Most people in small business, in my experience, don't want to be involved in politics,
Liz Nable 7:20
correct? So we don't have a huge amount of time to be involved in politics, and we don't have a huge understanding. So, I think traditionally, I don't know if you agree, small business owners aren't really involved in politics, but I think if there's ever been a relevant time to have this conversation, it's now.
Speaker 1 7:35
Yeah, well, I think I think it's that old adage, though, of if you don't, even if you don't pay any interest in your democracy, it pays an interest in you. So, it's always important to make sure we've got a good environment for small business to thrive, and the more we have that, actually, the stronger the country will be.
Liz Nable 7:53
I couldn't, I do agree, and it's interesting, because even though I was in a former life a journalist, I wasn't a political journalist, but I did grow up in a house of self starters. My dad ran his own business. Well, my mum was a school teacher, but dad ran his own business, so they were always liberal voters. But as you've.. I don't think I'm telling you anything you don't already know. There's been some shifts in the way these next few generations have thought about politics, including me, until now. So, if you don't mind me asking, what's your background with small business? Do you come from a small business family? Like, what's your.. you're obviously super passionate about
Speaker 1 8:36
it. I am, but my parents did multiple things. My father ran pubs and had a lawn mowing business, then built a fence building business, and then owned timber yards, and then owned some of the early privatized Australia Post outlets, so very strong for small business that side, other side same deal, pubs with my dad when they divorced, worked in small businesses, and my mum bought a takeaway food shop, so she, and she still sort of potters around in small business, the small business world, and I've done a multitude of things in my career. Most of the stuff you kind of get remembered for is the official titles you have, but actually I've always had a small business component to my career, because you know, these days you might call it a side hustle, but at other times it becomes your, your core source of income, because your salary work may not work out. So, I'm in, I'm in the business of backing people who back themselves. I believe very much in a self-starter economy, and I actually think that's when the country does better, and I think as we go increasingly into a world of artificial intelligence and the role it's going to play, that there's going to be more people pursuing salary work, plus a small business, or plus a side hustle, and more people, I think, who are going to be empowered to go into small business, and I want to back them hard.
Liz Nable 9:54
Politics aside, I mean, what was it? Was it that self-starter kind of. Drive that you grew up with that drew you to the Liberal Party, or was it always something that you felt passionate about?
Speaker 1 10:08
I mean, my, I didn't come from a political family, they're more political today because of me, but not that wasn't their origins at all, and but I do think it's because it came from a family where we just started from the baseline of you're responsible for your life, you're responsible for your success, you're responsible for getting hit. Everybody starts in different places, but I've just stepped out, you know, that we were, we were pretty, you know, we'd known large businesses, it wasn't a family of huge means, but my parents always took the view, you take responsibility, move for, and that's what they instilled in me, so that yes, then naturally aligns more with a kind of a liberal mindset, which is that if you, if all of our 26 million or 27 million Australian citizens took responsibility for their lives, you actually have the foundations of a successful country, and if you have people, it's not just because of the support you can give yourself, but it's when people are able to stand up on their own two feet, they're in the best position to be able to help others stand up on their own two feet, help the next generation, whereas I don't believe in a society based on dependency.
Liz Nable 11:13
So we started our first business in 2012 and you know, I was a journalist working for, you know, an employee, essentially. For I worked for Channel Nine, worked for all the major news outlets, and then we were overseas for six years in New York. Yeah, which, which does give me.. well, I think it's given both of us a unique insight into that small business startup mindset, which is different in the US. I mean, they've got a whole bunch of other problems, but in terms of supporting business, I loved how entrepreneurial they are. I loved the spirit of entrepreneurism. I loved how you could have a go at anything and no one would cut you down, everybody would back you, even if you had no experience whatsoever. You know, that's the American way. And it's
Speaker 1 11:57
okay to fail too. And then it's
Liz Nable 11:58
totally okay to fail.
Speaker 1 11:59
Failure, but actually, failure is an opportunity for learning and growth, and if you know anything about my political career, and I'm not expecting people to, but I lost my scene in 2022 I came back in 2025 and in the three years I kind of went and engaged with large corporates, and I just went, I don't like them, no disrespect to the people who work there, but it was such a bureaucratic mindset, might have been private sector, but it was all about process, and then I want to engage with, like, startups, and it's, you know, it's some of it's the wild west, but it's also people really having a go at it and taking big risks, and yeah, there's going to be big rewards with that too, all their walls, anyway, and there's energy there, yeah, about what people can build and how they can build a better future.
Liz Nable 12:46
I couldn't agree more. I think what what's lacking in Australia right now, and maybe always has been a little bit, but it feels that the divide seems really obvious to me now, is when we first started our business in 2012 it became really clear to me very early on, that we were sort of on our own,
Speaker 2 13:02
yep,
Liz Nable 13:03
and that felt you don't know that until you start a business. I was sort of going, okay, who's who's batting for us here? Like, who's going to talk on our behalf? And there's no one, and to me, like, as I guess I found myself in this position as a small business advocate, I don't know exactly how that happened, because media and PR is my core business, but I do feel really passionate about that, and I wonder, like, particularly where we are at right this minute. It seems that we're moving further and further away from that.
Speaker 1 13:33
Yeah, I agree, and I think I was actually listening a story today on Instagram of a young, but I mean, when I say young, she's not child, is about 22 or 23 and she's gone off and set up her own small business, selling her art, which is great, but she tells the story when she started on that pathway, she didn't really think she'd be spending a whole chunk of her time doing the small business things, marketing, you know, connecting to customers, building a client base, advertising, etc. etc. because if you're a self starter and you've got a product to sell, that's only one part of the totality of what you're doing, but of course people can do that, they can build something that's really successful and then maybe go and sell it one day, but be their kind of own perpetual motion machine, that's what I love about it, but I think there's this real divide now between people's different working experiences. There was actually a paper done by the E 61 Institute, which looked explicitly at the decline in small businesses and self-employed in Australia over a period of 20 years, and how there's just been this shift of people going away from self-employed or small business, and towards people taking jobs in government roles or corporates, and it's to do with both salary and non-remunerative benefits, so you know the other things that go on in your workplace, and that they're saying, well, it's just not worth taking the risk for a com. Basically, for a comfy whereas I don't sort of see that, I get why people feel that way, but I think increasingly, if you want to get ahead and you want to accrue, accumulate wealth, the only pathway is going to be to set up a small business or a side hustle.
Liz Nable 15:15
Why do you think? I think you mentioned Sienna Jobsevsky, who was your case study in your budget reply speech, 17 year old, amazing. So she's one of my clients. She was one of my clients in my media masters. I run a media school for small business owners, looking to understand how the media works, so they can get media coverage and PR. And I saw her story, I saw her on Instagram, I saw her real go viral, and then she, you know, I saw her tag you, that you had mentioned her in her budget reply speech, but the fallout from that for her, I don't know if you know, this was really interesting and sad, because she had so much trolling on her Instagram after that, from obviously not small business owners, people saying, like, I guess cutting her down, jealous of her success, that it was not a supportive environment for her, and luckily she's actually insanely like strong and brave, and she sort of had a moment where she said, you know, these don't give me any more media or don't send any more media my way, because I feel like I can't do this, and then she spoke to a few small business owners that weekend. It was the, it was the Saturday, Sunday, I think it must have been two weeks later. And she, lo and behold, I saw her on Sky News that, that, that night, and I said, "I thought you told me you weren't doing any more media, and she said, "You know, I spoke to other small business owners, and they convinced me that those people weren't my customers anyway, and I need.. I've got a platform, and I should use it.
Speaker 1 16:41
Yeah, so just to be clear, I asked Sienna before you. No, no,
Liz Nable 16:44
I know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1 16:45
no, no, because, because I was very mindful, the political environment, you know, you attract trolls and we get trolls, but when you're an adult, or you've been in politics, sort of as long as I have been, you know, you build up a resilience, whereas I think a lot of small business people, they're used to working with their customers, and when they can get a glaring spotlight on it, but, but to me, she's just emblematic of what we should be encouraging, and I was so distraught, she tagged me, and when I spoke to, or we contacted for Instagram, I think it was just how distressing it is that it feels like there's this hope sapping out because of
Liz Nable 17:20
the
Speaker 1 17:20
last federal budget, and so I'm not surprised that there was a bit of trolling from, you know, let's just say people in the orbit of the government, and I'm not saying explicitly government, but in the orbit of, or supporters of, but you know small business teaches you, I think many things, but one of them is you just gotta be resilient and get on with it, and correctly, as you say, she has a spotlight, she wanted it, and you need to leverage it, and actually lean into it even further, because it's also the best chance that you have to broaden your audience, which is actually one of the biggest challenges,
Liz Nable 17:54
I think, and we can clarify this now, because I think this is really important, again, small business owners are time poor, we don't have time for the detail, so we'd often step back and think, well, I think I just have to take whatever I'm dealt with. I have to accept this budget, or I have to accept these new labor laws, or this, you know, the abolishment of the, you know, youth labor wage, and all those sorts of things. Let's just set the record straight here. The CGT changes, a lot of small business owners, the proposed changes are being told it doesn't affect you anyway, because if your business is worth under 2 million and all these other kind of carve outs, so what are you talking about that's not right? Can you set, as a politician who I'm sure does know the detail, can you set the record straight for me?
Speaker 1 18:36
Sure, so they apply to all businesses, it's just a question of whether there are certain carves out, so there are tests in the law where, if, as you said, the $2 million threshold on turnover, if you get to a point where there's, if you reach the age of 55 and you sell as part of your retirement strategy, etc. there are some carve outs, but, and this is where I get really frustrated with the government, is well, it wants more businesses to be turning over more than $2 million
Liz Nable 19:02
Yeah,
Speaker 1 19:02
I want to be smashing it, and I want people to be selling and going on and building a better future and employing more people. And so to me, it's almost like it's okay, just stay in your box and you'll be okay. And I don't share that view at all. We should want small businesses to thrive, to be really successful, and I want people like Sienna to go. I am going to go. I'm going to build something that one day, you know, her products for teenagers in beauty products. I want, you know, a Mecca or someone like that to come along and just swoop her up and say, well, here you go, Sienna, here's the giant check, and we're going to be part of our empire now. Yeah, isn't that what we want?
Liz Nable 19:39
And that's really interesting, because again I nearly steered off this as well, because I didn't go nearly as viral as some of those other guys who did the mr. Albanese memes, but I had a lot of people criticizing what I was saying, but I tried to steer away from the detail. My biggest gripe with these proposed changes is the culture that we're. Creating in Australia.
Speaker 2 20:01
Yeah,
Liz Nable 20:01
because I guess I have the US to compare it to, and again, I'm not saying that's perfect, and I don't expect it to be that right leaning, but I think we can surely come to a better solution where small business owners are excited for the future.
Speaker 1 20:15
Yes, and that's that's my view. So, I think we, that's what's so devastating about these changes is they're not designed to back small business in to go for a pathway of success. The treasurer likes to quote a section of my book that I wrote in 2020 which talked about the relationship between income tax and capital gains tax, and my argument was, well, we should be lowering income tax, or is this solution? Let's increase capital gains tax. It's the priority of the government is fundamentally wrong. It's how do they maximize their revenue, not how do they maximize the number of people's small business paying or paying tax or contributing to the revenue base of the country and growing the nation. And so I have a very different view about that, because we need tax laws, labor laws that incentivise and encourage people to go for a future which is exciting and beneficial to them, that enables them to employ the maximum number of people. I go back to some other research, a different paper than one I was referring to before, but about small businesses, and they're particularly those in the first five years, the most productive employ the most people, proportionate to their size, and are the most innovative, because a lot of bigger players, they get through bureaucratic processes and everything else, they tend to slow down, whereas young, vibrant small business culture, which is what the US does have, is actually what drives the innovation of the economy, and we always talk about how Australia needs to be more than a quarry and a farm. It actually sounds like we're trying to kind of entrench that, and yeah, to remove that kind of spirit of enterprise, where we, if you go into it, we're in my Parliament House office in Canberra. If you go into the antechamber at the front, I have an image, the flag of the boxing kangaroo, because to me that is actually like the spirit of Australia, which is bold, confident, forward-looking, always leaning into the world and saying we can do this, and that's what I want.
Liz Nable 22:14
Yeah, I think small business owners feel so defeated right now. You know, full disclosure, one of the reasons why we sold our fitness business was because we weren't making profit anymore, because all our, the business was still doing well, but we started our business in 2012 which was, by the way, the GFC, so that wasn't an easy time to start a business either, but the profit just dwindled, because you know, because of everything we've just talked about, and so I was, and I thought to myself, if I can have an online business, which sadly I don't employ anyone locally for, you know, then I can have a chance at having another crack at this and doing something different. So I think if you know small business owners are defeated already, and then we get, and I don't want to make this something where I'm telling people how to vote or who to vote for, but speaking factually, if we're creating an environment where, in an environment where it's already hard to run a small business before the war in Iran, before a budget, before any of this, I can't imagine how we move forward when it's obvious that we're not a priority.
Speaker 1 23:21
Well, I think that that's why I'm really concerned about the lost sense of hope. I literally was just in the parliamentary chamber and gave a speech about this, where you've got inflation is a massive problem, and all of that inflates the cost for small businesses. Then you've got what's happening with rents, if you've got physical, physical premises, then you've got obviously Iran, oil prices, freight costs, etc. and all just compounds, and you can't always, particularly in small business, you can't get increase your prices on scale in supermarket, and you can't do it as part of a conglomerate where you can sort of defray it that way, so you just end up absorbing it, and it just crushes that sense of, if I just keep at this, my day tomorrow will be better. Yeah, and that maybe, whether it's because profit will be up, or because you know you'll be able to go and sell one day, whatever it is, it's your motivation. It just seems like it's sad, but I just stress to everybody, they shouldn't feel that way, as easy as to say, and harder is to live, because small businesses, when you're in control of your own destiny, and that to me is the thing that's most exciting about it, for as a career pathway, and if something new comes along, you can add to it, or you can find new pathways for building another business that you may be doing in parallel, you said before, you've had two at the same time, and so it's when you have that sense of ownership and control of your own destiny, rather than just reporting to somebody.
Liz Nable 24:50
Yeah, yeah, and to feel hope to get up the next day, because again, even in the most ideal environment, it's hard to run a small business. You don't run a small business because it's like the cheats way of getting rich. And I don't know anyone who someone said to me, one of the trolls said to me on Instagram, or all these small business owners who just start a small business to manipulate the system, and I'm like, I can feel, think there's 5 million other ways you could get rich quick, besides starting a small business is probably not top of mind,
Speaker 1 25:14
no, no, but I mean, again, there's there's multiple things people get out of small business, yeah, some people do well, there's no point pretending otherwise. I've met with some of the startup people who they're taking huge risks, but they're also going to get huge reward on the upside if it's true. But that's not what most people's experience with small businesses - they're doing it while they're raising a family, they're doing it while because they want to graduate out of full-time employment. They might have found themselves unemployed, they've still got skills, but not in full-time demand. I think this is going to be one of the really interesting things going to happen as a consequence of AI, and you can use that as kind of like a buzzword, too much. But I do think we're going to see this structural change, and so what we should want is a legal and economic environment that catches people and actually says, well, we'll propel you forward to go forth and run and be competitive, and one of the exciting things about artificial intelligence is that it can take a lot of the cost structures out for small business they'd normally have to pay huge expenses for, for 20 bucks a month. Now you can basically get a branding or advertising agency rather than 1000 so there's never been, despite everything the government's doing, there's also never been a better time to start a small business.
Liz Nable 26:25
I do agree with you. I have to agree with you there. AI, as a small business owner, is mind-blowing, because for once it, you don't have to, you know, necessarily pay massive overheads to get a level, it sort of levels the playing field in some ways, because you do have access, like you say, to design and to marketing and to all those things, so as small business owners, obviously we currently, you know, we under a certain government that's labor. What can we do? Like, what do we have to look forward to? Oh, you're obviously out there fighting the good fight, but you know what I'd like to give people some hope about, you know, and what they can do right now, and perhaps what they can look forward to.
Speaker 1 27:03
So, what we've been doing so far is just collecting people's stories through, we set up a website called notthetax.com.au because they're ultimately not the taxes the Australian people voted for, because of what was said before the election versus after, and they're very powerful, because we can use them in the political conversation, particularly for small business, but we're also looking at a forward program past these tax changes, because that's now down to parliamentary numbers, and we're waiting to see what the Greens are going to do, because they'll pass the House, because Labor has control there in the Senate, just need Labor and the Greens to vote for them, it'll happen, Greens only so far have said these taxes don't go high enough, so I'm afraid to say that I'm not that optimistic about where they're going, whereas we've taken a different view, which is we actually want to build out the case to actually protect small business, and we've started a campaign called Stand With small.org that's the web address with URL, and we're actually looking now at consulting on what a small business act specifically to protect small business, and that will include things around regulation, around single definition, which at least creates lots of legal issues, and I want to look eventually at things like tax and IR, because I think we need to be creating the legal vehicle so that small businesses are actually insulated from a lot of what the government is doing every time they add more red tape, more costs. I think we've got to look and go, well, why should it, unless you can give me a compelling reason. Why should this apply to small business? Because I actually want to protect them, and because I want the entire economy of small business, rather than what we have at the moment, which is a lot of big dominant players working with government, because the complete change in the mindset of how we promote economic growth.
Liz Nable 28:48
Does the current government have any recourse when they, I mean, obviously you know you've only got one party in power, and they make decisions as they have done with the budget and whatever else. If you're pushing for small businesses, do they have accountability to listen
Speaker 1 29:04
well only to the extent that we put small business voices into the parliamentary process. Also, what people have done in public, so people like Thomas Grief and Julian Fayette, who started that mean thing of the 47% owner of the Prime Minister. Yeah,
Liz Nable 29:19
I spoke to him today,
Speaker 1 29:20
yeah, they're good for that conversation. We obviously encouraged and supported them, but they did that independent of us, and so, and then ultimately it comes down to the next election. Who governs? We've made it clear that we'll repeal these changes if they come into effect, because we believe so strongly. But, as I said, I think it's then about how do you actually build out the case, because one of the reasons why governments want to kind of punch down, or at least feel like they feel confident punching down in small businesses, is because you're busy doing your job, running your business, doing your thing, and you're all, I don't say divided, but you're disorganized, yeah, we're scattered. Scattered, you're all over the country, people don't necessarily even talk to each other, and you're not politically organized. And what I want is to make sure that we have an army of small businesses saying we are the foundations of the success of the Australian economy, we are the future, we can be part of it, but we're not going to be pushed around like this, but you've got to do that, working with people in this building, because you need more people who represent those values.
Liz Nable 30:24
Yeah, and it's really interesting. It's like 97.6% of something businesses in Australia are considered small businesses. Yeah, collectively we don't really seem to have any influence at all. And I think you're right, it's because we're all scattered across different industries, and you know, individual businesses, and we just don't have a united front.
Speaker 1 30:43
Yeah, and I mean, you've got the big business lobby groups, and I'm not sort of specifically criticizing them, but they obviously have the resources and the time, and they walk up and down the corridors of these of this building. But actually, we rarely get visits from small business. There's a representative body called Cos Bowl, but you know, they just seek to represent the views of a sort of broad view of what's in the interest of small business, but you know, as I said at the start, you don't take an interest in your democracy, but your democracy will take an interest in you, and so you know, if I was to be the treasurer of the country, what I would love to be is the kind of treasurer for small business as well, because I believe so strongly that's how we should want our economy to be built from.
Liz Nable 31:28
That would be nice, I think, for us coming from a fitness industry. I think COVID, it became blatantly obvious to us when we were categorized as high impact or high risk or something, and we were closed for long periods of time, and the gambling lobbyists got themselves, you know, considered what essential business construction liquor supermarkets, or and we were sitting there going, "Wait a second, everybody's, you know, hanging on by a thread here, and we're the ones keeping them, you know, healthy and well, and that I think was a catalyst for
Speaker 1 32:02
us, yeah. Well, that, and I mean, a lot of, we need to remember, a lot of that stuff was done by the state governments, not all, yeah,
Speaker 1 32:07
but, but yes, it was, and to me that that whole period really clarified to me how important it was that small business has a strong voice, because I felt like they were being railroaded, and since being re-elected last year, my view has only firmed, and particularly since the last budget has been explicitly firmed, and because I don't think it's, it's not just that it's obviously hurts people today, it's not what we should want for our country, and it's not how we channel the energy of an ingenuity of the Australian people to build a successful future.
Liz Nable 32:43
One more question, just I want to leave on a high because I want small business owners to feel excited. I know you're trying to keep me down now. I want, do you have any sort of words of, I guess, wisdom for small business owners like right now?
Speaker 1 32:57
Well, I just think it's get involved, you know, don't be complacent or don't feel defeated, because you're doing amazing things in your communities, and talk to people, because I don't. When we talk about things like capital gains tax, or trusts, or whatever it is, it can seem very impersonal. Actually, people know the incredible role you play in the community, they know what benefit you do talk to your staff and engage with them about the human stories of sacrifice and the effort, and why we need a change in direction, because they can be your most powerful advocates for you, and you're your most powerful advocate, and it doesn't need to be partisan saying vote this way or vote the other, but try and get people to understand, so I think that's really important, and one of the great lessons I think of all kinds of communications is if you tell your story to people, you educate them, you enliven them, and you actually sell your own business too.
Liz Nable 33:55
Thank you, Tim. Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 1 33:56
Pleasure. Thank you.
Liz Nable 33:59
This episode of Media Magnet was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, the Media Masters Academy. The Media Masters Academy is a live online six week course taught by me and designed to teach you how to become your own publicist and give you exclusive access to pitch the country's top journalists and editors. Doors open just three times a year. Check it out at Liz nable.com along with a ton of free resources to help you get started taking your business from best kept secret to household name right now. If you love this episode of Media Magnet, please share it with your business buddies or on social media and tag me at At Liz underscore Nable, and if there's a specific guest you want to hear from on the show, or a topic or question you want to know more about, please tell me, so I can make sure the show stays dedicated especially for you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
