"If you are confident about your business success, always plan for the future, not always for the moment you are in."
Mark Fazio is the twin to MATE CEO David along with being the General Manager of Sales and Marketing at MATE, an independently owned, Sydney based challenger telco provider that is taking on the big players in the industry through great customer service and exceptional value for their customers. Professionally, Mark is an excellent results-driven leader with a talent for organisational sales growth and planning.
MATE was founded in 2015 by Mark and his brother their Aunt’s backyard in Western Sydney. Now, 6 years later, they have become the fastest-growing independent telco in Australia and with what started as a garage operation, MATE’s current position is certainly a big step up and a testament to Mark’s hard work and experience.
Mark’s experience in sales and marketing spans 19 years in leading technology and entertainment companies including Microsoft where his roles included Asia Field Marketing Lead and Asia Xbox Channel Marketing Lead. Prior to this, Mark was also the National Retail Operations Manager at 20th Century Fox and is an expert in Product Marketing, Account Management, go to market planning and customer acquisition strategies.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Mark Fazio: Hello, My name is Mark Fazio and I’m the brand creator and General Manager of MATE, an Aussie born and bred telco company.
My mates call me Faz!
I’m an identical twin with my brother David who is the CEO of MATE.
Personally, I don’t have kids myself but the most important thing for me in life is my family, especially my nieces and nephews who give me all the purpose I need to do what I do every day.
I’m a person who is motivated by my parents who made the choice to migrate to Australia from Italy in the 60’s without nothing more than the shirt on their backs to give us every chance in life.
My modo in life (not mine but can’t remember who said it), people don’t always remember what you did, BUT they never forget how you made them feel.
What is the most interesting thing that has happened to you at your company since you started working there?
Mark Fazio: For me, its the journey of MATE.
It started back in 2016 with nothing more than a laptop on a filing cabinet in my aunties backyard (yes MATE was a backyard operation at one point).
My twin brother David had the vision of getting out of the corporate world to create a better life-style for his family and extended family.
MATE started with one person in my auntie’s backyard, we won the award for the 2nd fastest tech growing company in the Deloitte Fast 50 2018 (only 2nd to aftepay) all while still being in my auntie’s backyard.
We are now obviously a full-blown organisation, still privately owned and funded, with over 80+ staff with 100,000+ customers.
Using out Italian background family values to create the culture in the business which has been at the core of its success is honestly the most interesting thing that has happened in this company.
No one can achieve success without some help. Who helped you become successful? Can you share a story about that person?
Mark Fazio: So many people have helped me be successful from my parents to my siblings and to my friends. Their support and encouragement with everything I’ve done in life has helped me with the drive to achieve what we have done at MATE and what I have achieved personally.
Personally, I can’t go past my best mate Mat Watson, who since we were 5 years old has had my back in everything that I have done with no judgements and has always turned up when needed.
Professionally, my mentor and the first person who really saw the value in me at a young age is Matt Farmer (currently Head of Retail at TP-Link).
He saw through any faults that I had and always found the value I could bring. He gave me a shot when most didn’t, and I cannot thank him enough.
His guidance and advice (even still today) have led me to be who I am professionally and personally.
Matt gave me a shot as a National Account Manager (managing Dick Smith at the time) when I had no experience and I never looked back.
We have a recruitment theory at MATE, things can be taught but ‘attitude, drive and determination is even in you or not’.
Matt saw the drive in me, he gave me a platform to use it and now look at where I am, can’t thank him enough.
Can you tell our readers how your company is different in your industry? Give us examples to illustrate those differences.
Mark Fazio: I think the differences are explained in our mission statement and what we call our ‘business definition’.
Our mission is that we are the everyday people, providing services consumers need, with the value and service they deserve.
Our definition is that we are a ‘customer happiness business’ that happens to sell telco products.
We are very aware we are not perfect (who is), we are also very aware that there is a lot of competitors in our industry and a good reputation can be lost very quickly.
I know a lot of companies say it but its the ‘service’ our ‘everyday people (MATE staff)’ deliver to consumers that is our first differentiator. I feel like we focus on the right mix of systems vs humans to make the whole interaction with us as personal and meaningful as possible.
Secondly, being privately owned, every customer that chooses us just simply means more! And when they leave it cuts deep because we consider them a mate!
Thirdly, our values drive our outcomes, we won’t always be the cheapest, we won’t always offer all the fancy tech BUT what we will always offer is what you need and the MATEship that goes with that which we know our competitors simply do not offer.
Adapt or die is a necessity when navigating challenging times. Tell us how your industry is changing since the pandemic started.
Mark Fazio: The telco industry has changed since the pandemic in 3 ways for us:
- Consumers consider telco services more ‘essential’ than it has ever been before (most think its the most essential service they need outside of food and water).
- Also from people who did not want to make the jump to the nbn, the pandemic made them do it as they saw the nbn being the best possible internet solution Australia can offer.
- Having to work and do school from home in a big way has driven the consumer to think about the ‘quality’ of their telco choices vs the ‘cheapest price’.
Many readers wonder what are the biggest challenges you had to overcome in 2021 to remain successful?
Mark Fazio: For us it was purely accelerating the hiring of staff to fulfill our customer service needs but at the same time still progressing with business needs like system upgrades.
The balancing act of ‘building for scale’ while at the same time not affecting our quality was/is bloody hard.
Also the amplification of work that came with a pandemic over the past 2 years (especially in our industry) and taking the time to stop, communicate with the business and know how our staff are really feeling is truly an art to master.
How did you overcome these obstacles? What helped you the most during these difficult times?
Mark Fazio: How we overcame these obstacles was purely through our business culture.
To explain, the first 19 employees were siblings, cousins, and close mates!
Some people say don’t work with family, but if you can get working with family right, the sky is the limit!
The togetherness we have created is evident through all people that work in our business (80+). Everyone is a MATE, every person is family.
Back to when we started in my auntie’s backyard, she used to cook homemade Italian meals for us at lunch. When we moved to our office, we took her with us, and she still cooks for us today (not so much during covid).
I think this shows you our culture and honestly this is how we have overcome every obstacle.
MATEship, it just means more right!
Share some lessons you learned while adapting your business practices during the past couple of years.
Mark Fazio: If you are confident about your business success, always plan for the future, not always for the moment you are in. This will take away challenges in the future when you have scale.
In saying this, there are always things you need to do now and there is a way to do that BUT always think about how this needs to be done in the future.
KPI’s and attitude drive outcomes so be clear on ‘business critical goals’ vs things that are nice to have.
No matter the craziness your business is going through, always make time to be clear and concise about your goals.
Planning, process, communication, and measurement (what I like to call PPCM) will always keep the business on the right track.
Who, what, when, where, why and how (what I like to call 5WH) will always keep the people in your business on track.
What advice did you wish you had received before the pandemic that you’d like to share now with aspiring entrepreneurs?
Mark Fazio: Plan your support network outside of your business!
I definitely got lost in the business and it was the only thing I did for a good 12 months.
I lost myself personally a little bit and I saw it affecting the way I was communicating and accomplishing things which was the complete opposite of who I am.
Don’t underestimate the need to disconnect even if you think you don’t have too.
Unless you are curing cancer, take a break, it will still be there later for you to do.
All great companies are spearheaded by great leaders, but tell us how your team supported your decisions? Is there a particular example that stands out the most?
Mark Fazio: Two tactics we/I took to achieve this:
- As i’ve mentioned before, our modo of people don’t remember what you did, but they never forget how you made them feel!
I just knew if our people knew that they felt part of a family more than just being an employee, the vision you have as a business leader is going to hit home for them in a much more meaningful way.
- Wear your heart on your sleeve and honesty is the best policy!
We were always upfront with the team when things are happening. We manage expectations as much as possible. If things are going to be shit, we say they are going to be shit BUT we support them every step of the way.
What do you plan on tackling during 2022? Share your goals and battles you expect to face.
Mark Fazio: 2022 is about building even better foundations for future growth.
We also have goals to grow our business significantly and can’t do this without the right foundations.
The battles we will face is execution at the right times and in the right places. Who knows what is around the corner (especially in this day and age).
The telco industry is heating up, more competitive pressures and consumers back to thinking about prices over quality now that the pandemic to a certain degree is coming to end.
How do you grow as a business, stay profitable but at the same time offer the right value to consumers!
My view is if we did this during a pandemic, we can do this again!
Go hard or go home they say right..
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, I do have one more question for you. When was the last time you did something for the first time and what was it?
Mark Fazio: Circuit training! I joined a 12nd gym franchisee locally to where I live. I’m no gym junkie at all so doing this was really outside of my comfort zone.
I wanted to get more motivated with exercise and going to a standard gym wasn’t making it happen for me.
12nd has trainers and a group of people all going around at the same time. 45 mins of intense training gives you the workout you need without taking too much time from your day.
It was tough the first couple of weeks, my legs were like jelly but its a lot of fun if you get into the right frame of mind with it.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Mark Fazio for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Mark Fazio or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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