Sustainable Success Show

Your Business Could Be In Trouble: Signs Owners Ignore | Business Influencers

Michele Mattiuzzi · October 30, 2026

Leadership · Sales & Marketingin

Interview with Michele Mattiuzzi

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Podcast: Sustainable Success Show

October 30, 2026 · 30 min

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Your Business Could Be In Trouble: Signs Owners Ignore | Business Influencers
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Key topicsYour Business Is Dying - You Just Haven’t Admitted It YetBusinesses rarely collapse overnight. Michele can reveal the warning signs owners often ignore long before the numbers become impossible to hide. He can explore the signals he looks for inside a business: declining P&L performance, key people walking away, operational bottlenecks and leadership egos preventing necessary change. For entrepreneurs and business owners, this becomes a practical conversation about how to recognise problems early, challenge assumptions and make difficult decisions before a business reaches crisis point. Building and scaling businesses has been his speciality for years. He has worked behind the scenes helping organisations grow, solve problems and navigate difficult situations - giving him a perspective that goes beyond the usual motivational business advice.Second Pair of Hands: Why the Founders Who Scale Fastest Bring In an Operator Before They Need OneMichele Mattiuzzi co-founded Harvey Norman's Business and Education Division and helped take it from zero to about $200 million in under two years, and today he steps into founder-led businesses as the operator who finds the commercial bottleneck and fixes it. Most founders wait until growth stalls or the numbers turn before they bring in experienced help, and treat it as a rescue. He argues the businesses that scale fastest do the opposite: they bring in an experienced operator while things are still working, so the structure is in place before demand outruns it. He walks through the warning signs he looks for when he first walks into a business, the operating decisions that need settling before a sales team grows, and why the early call costs far less than the late one. Listeners leave knowing when to bring in an operator, and what to hand over first.First Response: Why the Best Business Decisions Are Made Long Before the EmergencyService in a Counter-Terrorism First Response unit with the Australian Federal Police at 21, protecting two Prime Ministers, came before co-founding Harvey Norman's Business and Education Division and scaling it from zero to $200M in under two years. In that unit nobody improvises on the day; the decision is made in the drill, months earlier, so the body knows what to do when thinking stops. Most boardrooms do the opposite: they wait for the P&L to slip, the key people to walk, the bottleneck to bite, and then decide under the worst conditions a leader will ever face. This walks through the operating structures and decision routines a business should fix while things are calm, and which ones are worthless once the pressure is on. Listeners leave with the drills to run this quarter, not the ones they will wish they had run.View all topics →

About Michele Mattiuzzi

Michele Mattiuzzi, podcast guest

Entrepreneur. Business Builder. Strategic Advisor. Actor. Former Tactical Operations Officer.

$200M Harvey Norman Business & Education Division built in under two yearsAUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE Counter-terrorism officer protecting two Prime MinistersHOME AND AWAY Recurring ActorLUXURY AUTOMOTIVE Car Enthusiast & Industry Connections

Michele Mattiuzzi has built a career that is anything but conventional.

At 21, he joined a specialist tactical operations and counter-terrorism environment within the Australian Federal Police, where he was involved in protecting Prime Ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd and became a weapons instructor. Just a year later, he made another extraordinary career move - into television.

For almost a decade, Michele was a recurring actor on Australia’s Home and Away, before going on to work across other major television productions. But while acting gave him a public profile, Michele’s real passion was building businesses - often from behind the scenes.

He went on to help build a Harvey Norman IT business from the ground up to approximately $200 million in just two years, while working with major global technology brands including Lenovo, Microsoft and Intel.

Today, Michele works closely with founders, CEOs, startups and established businesses that are looking to scale, have hit a commercial bottleneck or need an experienced operator to step in, identify the problem and help find a way forward.

He has spent much of his career deliberately operating behind the scenes - helping businesses grow, challenging assumptions, solving commercial problems and recognising the warning signs when an organisation begins heading in the wrong direction.

His journey hasn't been defined by success alone.

View profile →

About this episode

In this episode of Business Influencers, host Chris Salem speaks with Michele Maffuzzi, entrepreneur, business leader, and former tactical operations officer, about the signals business owners often overlook.

From losing valuable employees and unclear business structures to missed marketing opportunities and resistance to change, Michele explains why identifying problems early can make all the difference.

His key message? Know your strengths, listen to different perspectives, and don't wait for a crisis to make a change.

🎧 Tune in to the full conversation and discover what your business might be telling you.

#BusinessInfluencers #BusinessGrowth #Leadership

Guest: Michele Mattiuzzi

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