Live Podcast: An Intimate Conversation on Ambition, Growth & Personal Wealth with 4 Leading Female Founders

18:32Bronte Campbell OAM:So I was like, okay, I think the biggest thing was that for us was like, what comes next? And so I guess from seeing all these people like, you know, freezing all these cool things in their cubes, we're like, okay, obviously there's this like want and need for like skincare infused ice facials. So that's when we decided to launch our freezable serums. So we formulated these new serums made in Korea that you could add to your cube and freeze. and that just kind of changed our business like overnight. So what maybe started off as something that was like$50 in AOV doubled to like$100 in AOV. It's kind of interesting that we just added so much value to that initial product and people are just like, why would I buy the cube if I don't buy the serum?

19:14Bronte Campbell OAM:Which kind of makes a lot of sense now. So yeah, it's been like new product development. I think that's been the biggest challenge that we've kind of like pivoted into.

19:24Anna Podolsky:too. And this is a follow on question to you or to anyone else who wants to go, but what has been the biggest bottleneck to growth? And so in your case with product development, what has that meant that's been the challenge of that?

19:37Bronte Campbell OAM:Yeah. So like skincare, I guess, is another completely different ballgame. So like the lead times are longer, the MOQs are like bigger and like, you know, there's all these compliance things around skincare. So it's not like we can go to market as quickly as we did when we came up with the idea for ContourCube. So like tools and that kind of thing are a lot easier than skincare. So that's probably one of the challenges we're facing at the moment. But then again, it's like, what else can we launch? That's not just skincare. What other tools can we do? Does it have to be ice therapy? Maybe not. We can go into heat therapy.

20:09Bronte Campbell OAM:So it's like, I was just talking to somebody in business as well, and there were like, no categories kind of off limits. So just really thinking about what we could launch next. That It doesn't take that long, I guess.

20:21Anna Podolsky:That sounds exciting. And so for our other beautiful women here, customers, capital, team, ops, supply chain, brand, something else, what has been your biggest bottlenecks for growth for anyone that wants to go? For us, we launched about five years early and we're waiting for industry to catch up.

20:42Katharina Cser-Mostyn:So there's government regulation that goes on with it. There's packaging compliance. The wine industry, as we know, love them, are very traditional and do not like change. The screw cap was revolutionary and now I'm doing it again. So for us, the biggest bottleneck has been timing. But what we've done in that time is actually establish ourselves as the only option. So that as these contracts come back, they have to go through us to get anywhere. So timing has been a real issue. and I know a lot of you will be in a business that feels stuck and stagnant and what I've learned through this process is that if your business is stuck right now it is because you are stuck and if you can just turn inwards and grow yourself new opportunities new thoughts new ideas new beliefs will come and they will help you navigate that period yeah I think

21:42Sarah Forrai:reflecting on this question, I think I really see that team or some sort of cultural or people thing is always the blocker. I think Sarah, you're the one who said just before that basically anyone can take a bunch of money, put it into meta, generate revenue, right? Essentially building a business is taking capital and driving, turning that capital to create value for customers and then hopefully bring back profit to yourself. So literally nothing is off the table. And therefore it comes back to you and the team. And yeah, I did a HBS, like a Harvard Business School case study earlier this year.

22:21Sarah Forrai:And what they did was look at the most successful American companies, publicly enlisted, but I think a lot of what they're doing still applies to even smaller scale companies. And they looked at what are the factors that made those businesses the most successful? Like, was it the industry? Was it the founder, like the CEO? Like, what was it? And what they found was four things were attributed to business success quite unanimously. The first one is setting a clear strategy. The second one was the power of like great execution. The third one was at a high performing team culture. And the fourth one was organizational simplicity and how things, how easy things are to get done.

23:01Sarah Forrai:So literally all those four things point to team. So yeah, that's kind of my big realization. I feel like I've learned the lesson over and over again as we've grown as well, that how much the people around you and yourself really matter if kind of the world of business, in theory, nothing is off the table if you have the capital.

23:20Doone:That's very funny you say that, because I feel like as a member of the team, I am sometimes the blocker. Just like upskilling, getting the knowledge ready to go. Like I live a lot of my life and what I have coined the capability gap between like what I'm actually capable of doing and what I want to execute. And I live in this like gap and I'm like, I just want to close it as quickly as possible. There's some laughter. I think some people know about this gap. And I mean, team is the best thing to be able to pull around that. So like now we have a little bit of capital, we can start to get people to close that gap for us because there is some things that I'm not able to do.

23:58Doone:I think for us in a product business, it's got to be really perfect and it's going to keep getting iterated on. Like if you're wearing activewear, things that are close to your body and close to your skin, it's really important that it feels good, that it looks good, that it's comfortable. And if you can't hit all three of those things, then nobody really cares about how ethical it is or how good it is for their body. Like you have to do the job that you're supposed to do. So those three things have been really difficult. And then finding a supply chain that can really manage that and scale with that is, has, was a really big blocker for us.

24:33Doone:We've now managed to do that. But for anyone who's building a product business, even an apparel business, like that was like five years of finding our people and five years of like constantly like going out and knocking on doors and like flying over to America and meeting this person and meeting this person until we're finally in a product lab and in the US who is doing these like incredible things. and like the first people in the world to develop a plant-based elastane into an actual fabric like no one's managed to do that we did it we shouldn't have done it first people in the world to release a tapeless zipper in a jacket um beat north face by 18 months like we shouldn't have been able to do that we did that but it's like finding the people that can close the gap like i personally cannot understand the technology that goes into making a plant-based waterproof membrane or making a dye out of caffeine.

25:17Doone:Like I can't like discarded coffee grounds. Like I can't do that, but it, it's taken a while to find the people that can, and then we've been able to close that gap. So that's been closing. Some of those gaps has been great. And then finding out that there's just like a million others is, is the journey that we're on. And then we're just going to live in there and I'm just going to like get comfortable in there. Yeah. Yeah.

25:37Anna Podolsky:I live there. I live there. It's really annoying. I want to move out of there. Fie wants me to move out of there too. I want to move on to kind of the economics of scaling. And so when we think about, you know, growth, not just as something that you can do quickly and scale, but what does growth do to the business financially? And specifically, this question is for Anna since she has gotten her company to 200 million ARR. My God. As Laika has grown, what have you learned about the money side of scaling a business and, and tell us more about the money side of scaling a business?

26:16Sarah Forrai:Um, yeah, I, I think, um, gosh, it's, it's been a wild journey. And, um, I guess from the start, my ambition, like I mentioned before, like I love animals. I just want them all to live forever. Um, and it's going to happen one day guys. Um, and therefore you know from the start we've been really focused on growth we wanted to grow our impact we'll venture back so it was really around reaching scale I've always been very conscious of I don't believe in growth at all costs like we were doing it the right way I'm strong business you know fundamentals in unit economics but then inevitably being venture scale at some point it switches and it's like okay now be profitable and you know at the end of the day it's also a great thing as a founder and a leader because then you can control your destiny.

27:02Sarah Forrai:You don't need to be, you know, tied to a cash, a limited cash runway. You don't need to be, you know, raising money all the time. I think what's really surprised me, I guess you mentioned economies of scale, Dune, and that's certainly our type of business. Like the more, the bigger we are, the more economies we have. We can, you know, buy meat and veggies for more, I guess, at bigger scale, more procurement discounts, bigger negotiations, et cetera. I think what surprised me the most is actually the effort needed to be put into that. It doesn't just happen. And so much of it is cultural. I'd say our team is super growth orientated, like, you know, give our team like a crazy growth target.

27:47Sarah Forrai:Everyone's like on it and like super buzzed and just like, you know, wanting to make it happen versus an EBITDA target or like a gross margin target. And it's like, hmm, this doesn't excite me as much. But also it doesn't just happen. Like you have to be, you know, doing say negotiation training and figuring out how to go to that supplier and get that great deal to then drive to your bottom line and really think about, you know, things like operational, how you execute, streamline, et cetera. So I think that's been, yeah, probably my biggest learning is just driving the culture and kind of prioritizing that kind of EBITDA and profitability.

28:27Sarah Forrai:It's not natural and it's not a given. And I look at other companies, like I've been doing a lot of boring reading around very cost-efficient companies. And one that comes to mind is Ford, which is, who knows how much longer they're going to be around, to be honest, and the Teslas and Chinese manufacturers taking over the world. But once upon a time, they built the car industry. Like they were the first car. And their stories around Henry Ford going around and like saving every cent and like, you know, being just super, super setting the tone on what cost efficiency looks like. And therefore that trickled down the company, but it doesn't just happen.

29:04Sarah Forrai:So yes, culture and focus, I guess, is what it comes down to. And yeah, we're still on the journey of getting really tight there.

29:13Anna Podolsky:And a follow-up question for you. What is the number that you're watching now, you know, that you wouldn't have been watching a year ago or when you started?

29:23Sarah Forrai:Yeah, I think EBITDA, which is essentially your bottom line. Again, it's the more we're still focused on expansion. We're launching internationally next month. We've just launched our Tiger brand. But what we've realized is the more, I guess, cash flow we can get from our core business, the more we can reinvest into these new ventures and just how important it is to have that core running really efficiently and well.

29:52Anna Podolsky:And to anyone else who wants to answer, next kind of follow on question is, what have you stopped spending money on?

30:03Bronte Campbell OAM:I think we've stopped spending money on like agencies. Like I feel like they can always kind of, well, Facebook marketing agencies is one that we've taken back in house. And I think as founders, like we're the best people to understand how we can market our own products. And like, I feel like sometimes agencies can spin things to make it sound really positive. So I think that that's, that was a really important thing for us to take back on. Um, we also had a Amazon agency that was helping us for a while. Um, but again, they weren't really optimizing our Amazon page. They were kind of just maintaining it and it really wasn't adding any value to our growth or anything.

30:37Bronte Campbell OAM:So we kind of stopped spending on that. Um, and instead kind of are now working with a consultant that is like an expert in the Amazon platform. And she's really looking at all these things that we've never looked at before. Like apparently eyes facials are trending for men. So like, you know, we're like, you know, targeting our market to that area now. And yeah, all these like opportunities on Amazon we never thought of. So sometimes you have to do a bit of an audit of like, you know, what you're spending your money on and then just being like, actually, is that adding value to the business or not?

31:06Bronte Campbell OAM:And like, yeah, maybe stop spending on that. But yeah, that's probably the main thing.

31:12Doone:I just started spending money. So there's nothing I've stopped yet.

31:18Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I was discussing this with my husband and maybe tell me if you can relate. I've been self-funded the whole time. So I've never accepted funding from anybody else. So for us, I've always been a tight ass. And I'm really happy because I've just spent a year working with a, um, like e-commerce growth coaching company running growth calls for them. And I spoke to maybe 300 founders over a year. And the number one thing that I heard is the biggest problem in our industry for women, specifically in e-commerce right now, is everyone's got revenue, no one's got profit. That's a huge issue, guys. That's not a business, that's a liability.

32:01Katharina Cser-Mostyn:So I haven't stripped back on any spending because I never had the money to spend. We've always been tight.

32:08Anna Podolsky:I guess kind of rolling off the back of this, we're talking about, you know, growth and acquisition, you know, for the business growth. But when we're talking about customer growth specifically, instead of finding more customers, kind of growing the customers that you do have through retention and LTV, for anyone who wants to answer this question, do you think the best consumer brands of the next decade will be built by being better at acquisition or by being better at keeping their customers for longer and kind of innovating for their existing customer base?

32:42Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I think the brands that are going to withstand the weird shit show that is right now are the brands that become three-dimensional. And I mean that in the sense that there's so much noise on social media. I'm seeing a lot of brands migrate back into the real world, retail, trade shows, anything that is touchable, where you can build a relationship, where you become real to the consumer, because that then strengthens the trust that takes them back to your website and continues the sales. So that's what I'm seeing as a trend. Like this.

33:17Anna Podolsky:Like us IRL right here. Wine pouches are in all of your bags. You'll be able to find her details. Yeah. Oh, look, I think we have to blow our customers' minds.

33:31Sarah Forrai:I think it's all about product and experience and creating something that people want to talk about. We track NPS, so promoters, neutrals, detractors. At Leica, we're really focused on creating product and our service that just builds promoters and people just want to shout off the roof about their experience. One of my favorite books on this is called Power of Moments. And it's around creating, yeah, just those moments when your customers lives that they just can't stop talking about. I think we've all been there where we've bought something or had something happen. We're just like, oh, my God, it's amazing.

34:07Sarah Forrai:I really believe that's how acquisition grows.

34:10Anna Podolsky:I am in a group chat with one of Anna's VCs and husband. And the other day, shea water. and the other day one of the guys, I mean it's sad but this will illustrate the point of Anna's strategies. Well strategies but like just genuine kind of ability to connect with customers in a deeper way. One of the guys shared a photo and it's a candle from Laika that says in loving memory of Tabitha, I think his dog's name was and his dog had just passed away and Laika knew about it because he had canceled his subscription. And, you know, I don't know that about Laika. We've never had to have a candle sent to us, but, you know, he sent it and it started a conversation in the group chat.

34:58Anna Podolsky:And it was one of those kind of moments where I was like, wow, like that is so beautiful. And like, we were all just then able to talk about it together and like kind of have that moment for him. And also for, you know, we were talking with Gigi, like it's just so beautiful and so special to be able to do those kinds of things. Yeah.

35:15Sarah Forrai:It's like, that's an example of a powerful moment where, oh my gosh, it breaks my heart to think about the moment someone has to log into their account to, you know, and to put that like, oh, I just don't even want to say it out aloud. But that's something that we kind of realized early on is that, you know, that's the kind of moment that we need to show up for and be there for our customer. And, you know, I guess that WhatsApp group, you know, hopefully a lot of people were touched by that. And if there are thinking about, you know, getting a new puppy or something down the road, yeah, that's hopefully where a brand that kind of comes back into their mind.

35:53Anna Podolsky:Yeah.

35:53Sarah Forrai:I should screenshot it and send it to you.

35:57Anna Podolsky:Okay. I want to talk about big bets and betting bigger. Obviously, as we've said, you know, growth stops being about necessarily having the right answer and kind of starts being about, you know, the bigger vision, enjoying the journey, doing things that don't come just at a cost and about making bigger bets and kind of cool, cute, calculated risks. So Katarina, this is for you. At every stage of growth, there are moments where you have to make a decision before you have enough evidence. And obviously you've been saying that, you know, you haven't raised money, so you've got to be quite calculated in the big bets that you take.

36:35Anna Podolsky:What has been one of the biggest bets that you've made in the business, but one that you just genuinely didn't know if it was going to pay off or not?

36:44Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I went and decided in my infinite wisdom to buy a wine filling machine, a wine pouch filling machine before the category existed. How much is that?

37:00Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I own it I love it do I regret it maybe have I found an easier simpler cheaper way to do it yes but I invested a couple hundred thousand dollars in machinery before the category existed just purely believing that I could make this happen but silver lining we're the only ones that own it in Australia. So now people have to come through us to do anything in the industry. But I had truly no concept of what could go so wrong with that at the time.

37:33Anna Podolsky:Has that become like more successful in kind of making you more conservative or more willing to take risks because it has paid off, even though it was a little bit, you know, tricky one?

37:48Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I think more conservative. When I originally started the wine company, I was still earning a ton of money through my other business. And I think this is going to make me sound really bad, but I'm just going to be honest with you. When you're earning that kind of money, you lose perspective of what things cost. And it's really easy just to spend it because more's coming, no worries. And you're not looking at those unit economics like we've all been talking about. And when I made the decision to leave that company, I lost a lot of money and all of a sudden every decision mattered. So it made me more frugal, I would say, because now I live inside my spreadsheets to like the scent.

38:32Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I know everything that everything costs. I never had to know that before.

38:38Anna Podolsky:For everyone else, there are two options of questions that you can answer. number one what's a bet that didn't work out for you or number two what's a bet that you wish you

38:48Bronte Campbell OAM:made earlier if you had have known what you know now okay so controversial but our bet that didn't work out was tiktok shop so like i know that everyone raves about it and everyone is like it's the most amazing thing ever and someone who's native to the tiktok platform i was like cool i'm going to set it up and it's going to work. But it requires so much more capital investment than you think. So it works on an affiliate model. So you basically just gift heaps of product, like hundreds and hundreds of products a month. And you're like, cool, I'm going to gift hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of products a month.

39:23Bronte Campbell OAM:This is in the US. And you get, you send it out and you kind of get very average content created from that. The content is then suppressed. So TikTok suppresses the content. It doesn't let the content have a moment. So then they want you to spend money against those videos. So they really force you to put marketing behind that. And then on top of that, there's commission that you have to pay the affiliates and then you have to discount really heavily. So all of that just kind of blew my mind. And I constantly, I feel like I'm rage baiting this. Like, ah, like I seriously, I like constantly see people on LinkedIn and they're like, look at this, like MediCube just did how, you know, however millions of stuff on TikTok, right?

40:10Bronte Campbell OAM:TikTok shop. And I'm like, that's because they're loaded. They have so much money. They're obviously gifting millions of dollars worth of product to their affiliates and then putting millions of dollars behind it in marketing. So like, I don't know, it's not, it might, it might just be for my niche, but like it just requires a lot more money than you think. So we kind of pulled back on that. And also it's still not in Australia.

40:33Doone:I know. It's so annoying. I've had so many bets that didn't work out. I mean, I had a whole other product business that like I'm winding up now that was in like swim equipment, equipment, like help with your swimming. So like pool boys and kickboards and fins and stuff, which is just not a big enough market. And also I can't scale two brands at the same time. That's insane. So yes, like all the time. But like, I probably I'm quite conservative in that I make really small bets and make them tests. And then if that works, or if it doesn't work, like learn from that and sort of move on. Like, I, I really, I really don't like making like really big bets.

41:16Doone:Like probably my first business, which was completely self funded was like, was quite a big bet up front. And like that business will wind up like, I think I end up losing like 10 grand overall from that business, which is like, I'm actually pretty happy with that because of how much I learned during it. Like sometimes there is the big thing that you have to do. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to do this business if I hadn't made that business first. Um, there's just so much, there's just so much I learned around logistics and I was launching on Amazon and in order to be stocked on Amazon, like there are agencies that help you do that because it is like so complicated and so difficult.

41:49Doone:Um, whereas like, it was just like me, like trying to figure everything out, but that's like brought all over into my business. So I genuinely like if, if like tomorrow everything fell over, like I have to be kind of okay with that. And, um, I sound like so corny, but I do think like the only real failure is like failure to try the thing that you really want to do. Like the failure to start with a failure to like, that's, that's the only one that's permanent. That's the only one that you maybe still think about, yeah, like I've failed a lot in my life. I failed like on the sporting field over and over again, but the ability to keep showing up and keep, keep having a big dream and chasing it to me, that feels like success, even though each result along the way might not be what I expected.

42:43Doone:Like I also thought that starting an econ business would be a lot easier than it is. It's not very easy. It's very hard, but that's fine.

42:53Sarah Forrai:Oh, yeah, I can answer both your questions, what I failed and what I wish I did earlier. So we have an investor who's like, you know, big, literally big dog in the pet food industry, like knows the pet's face inside out. And many years ago, I came up to them and I was like, hey, I'm thinking about launching cats. And they were like, why would you do that? Cats are so difficult. they're so fussy like no no people don't care about their cats go dogs I know I know I know I've got two cats too they're amazing um but yeah do dogs just do more dog things like do treats and supplements and other things I was like okay this person knows what they're doing like cats seem hard no no no um so we launch our treats we launch supplements um they're doing I mean they're doing well but they're always a very small part of our business like I know 90-95 % of what we do is our meals.

43:47Sarah Forrai:And the interesting thing is we did launch Cats three months ago. And I think within the next month or two, that's going to be a bigger business than extras and treats. So I was like, my lesson there is like, there's no such thing as an expert. Like you got to do the critical thinking, the work, talk to your customers, definitely take small risks if you can like pilot things and test things out. But just, yeah, I'm like still so annoyed at myself. I'm like, damn. And then it's annoying because this kind of, you know, the extras that we do, it's always like, oh, we could do, we could innovate and kind of really lean into them and kind of, but then it's just always a trade-off of opportunity costs.

44:32Sarah Forrai:Like where does our focus and energy go into? And it's never the small thing, right? It's always the big thing. um so now they're kind of hanging over they're amazing like they're you know I don't want to we've got functional treats for for dental health and all this stuff but yeah cats are

44:48Anna Podolsky:more in demand the cats the cats we should have done cats earlier but what's the bet that you

44:55Sarah Forrai:that didn't work out oh the the extras yeah it's not that it didn't it's just it wasn't the best thing for us to do versus other opportunities. Okay.

45:05Anna Podolsky:Let's talk a little bit about building a business that can last and stand the test of time. When we talk about building a brand, you know, that can grow quickly, it's very different to growing a brand that can last potentially forever. So when we're thinking about what creates that difference, what are you doing now? And this is for everyone. What are you doing now that's creating value five years from now rather than just revenue this quarter. And I feel like this is a bit of a recurring theme tonight. Yeah.

45:37Doone:I mean, I would say like the value creating now is like our customer base and the people that have been there for quite a long time. There's people that have been there since the start. Now we're bringing new people in. The people that I am obsessed with now are like the new people that have just joined. And like, if you've just joined either a mailing list or as a first time customer, like I want to provide so much value to you that you want to stay in this for the long term, because it's like five years in the future. Like we definitely want to have that, that community being that strong. That's, that's what's kept us going for two years without ever advertising is like this core group that just absolutely understand and get what we're doing.

46:18Doone:Um, to the point where like, it's a really tough time economically at the moment. It's really hard. If you're in retail, it's really hard. Anyone who's in the room is in retail knows that like the last like year, the last few months have been really difficult, but it's difficult for consumers. Like everybody is really struggling at the moment. So what is a way that I can like enrich their lives now that's also going to enrich it in the future. So for all our first time customers that came on in the last three months, we've been holding like free online workouts, like that are 10 minute, like we've done a 45 minute one, a 10 minute one, 30 minute one to like break up their day and like the, you know, the low points of your day.

46:53Doone:So that's like either like around like four or 5 p.m. Or like sometimes like a little lunchtime, like 20 minute, like energy change that you get from movement. And that's like, that's got nothing to do with product. Then you have to be wearing the product, but it's something that's like valuable and trying to get better movement, better mindset. And then we can look at like a better product and all of those other things. But those extra value adds that are a bigger piece of the brand, like our customers, the feeling I want to give them is joy and optimism about tomorrow. Because there's so much pessimism about tomorrow.

47:32Doone:And product is one way of doing that. Like product that looks after your body that's not going to poison you for your entire life. That's quite an optimistic thing. That's great. But there's heaps of other ways that we can do that. So I don't even know what all of them are yet. I'm just starting to unearth them. But yeah, that's something that I'm really focused on.

47:53Bronte Campbell OAM:I think I'm the same. Yeah, it's just kind of getting to know our customers better. So like we've been like physically emailing our customers that have come back and purchased with us like 13 times. They bought the serums 13 times. And you're like, wait, why? Why though? Like, I have no idea why you're buying my serums. I can guess why you're buying them. But like, you know, we've had feedback for random things. Like I'm using it for my son's itchiness on his leg. I'm like, what? That's so random. But like, I think that's going to help us with like better decision making for like what newness we're going to launch later.

48:25Bronte Campbell OAM:What else will we be doing? Yeah, we physically called our customers. We physically called them and got them on the phone and offered them like, you know, like we'll give you like a whole like Contour Cube like gift if you like jump on a call with us. That was really nice to speak to them. I think just in general, just like building a community like that really back you. I think that will help you always like in the future. So like we just started like, to be fair, like our content has been kind of boring. Like I'm doing it all myself. And like, you know, it can be a little bit it can be a little bit repetitive.

48:56Bronte Campbell OAM:Right. So now I was like, how can we like re-engage our community again? And I kind of was like, hey, guys, what do you want us to make? And I made this really like interesting video with like, you know, that narrator style content like this is Sarah. No, no, no. so anyway we did that and we're like what do you want us to make next and they were all jumping in and they're like oh you should make this you should make that and I was like okay cool um we'll we'll go to Korea and make it so like if like 5 ,000 of you say like we'll go to Korea oh 1 ,000 sorry if you say like you know you want us to go to Korea and make it we'll do it and then the next day we had like 5 ,000 people commenting that like you should go to Korea okay they think it was their idea but really we were going to Korea anyway and so like we booked the flights And they're like, oh, my God, no way there she's going.

49:38Bronte Campbell OAM:And like we kind of took them on the whole journey of like coming and building the products with us and creating like serums and showing them all the packaging and all the cool stuff that we were doing in Korea. So I think just like bringing in your community and into the whole design process, I think, is really cool. And I think your story at the end of the day, like whenever we set an EDM, sometimes we get feedback that's like, oh, every time I ice my face, I think about you and your mom. and I'm like oh that's really cute like like you know they don't just buy into the product they're buying to you as people so yeah customers cute I have a totally different perspective on this

50:19Katharina Cser-Mostyn:but first I have a question for you girls are you all using OmniSend because you should be with all the EDMs you're sending out you know it's like half the price right since we're all looking at like cost not even promoting just switch to omni send immediately you'll thank me later okay so my asshole perspective on this is i don't have the patience for any of that so does anybody in the room maybe not love the warm and fuzzy community aspect honestly okay me and one other lady so here's what we're doing my girl to bring our brand into the next five years and protect us and what we're doing for community engagement per se is we've shifted who our community is so I personally do not have the inner soul for the warm and fuzzies that you guys do and I love you for what you do I don't have the patience so I've shifted from individual consumers to government employees think about it government employees control bigger budgets and if you have a product for example wine pouches that would suit an event like for example specifically the olympics there's a lot that you can do in that space so for us i've redirected the focus of our business because I'm tired.

51:53Katharina Cser-Mostyn:I want the money now. So we're going for the Olympics and bigger contracts, which has worked for my personality. It's my strength, my skill set, and it's allowed me to not feel guilty listening to you girls talking about how you love everybody, and I don't.

52:10Anna Podolsky:What I'm hearing is Contour Cube facials at the Olympics with the Prime Minister.

52:18Katharina Cser-Mostyn:Commonwealth Bank is sponsoring it and they need merch. If anyone does merch, I will show you the platform to get on to, to get government contracts in preparation for the Olympics because it's happening. It's going to be athletic and match.

52:29Anna Podolsky:Seriously. At the Olympics. Seriously, you. Guys. Hello. If this happens, you heard it here first in the room. We've got to, like, reconnect after. We've got to do this here. Yes.

52:41Katharina Cser-Mostyn:We do. Do you have any comments?

52:42Doone:Would you like to add them?

52:44Katharina Cser-Mostyn:She's like, no. I know a lot about Olympics and about clothing and Olympics.

52:52Doone:And there is a way smarter way for me to get involved than going through government. But only because only because I'm like deeply enmeshed in that community. And I understand like how difficult clothing is at the Olympics. Yeah. But for like it is such a big it is such a big opportunity. Like have a look at L.A. in two years. It's already two years away. It's going to be massive. And because America is so commercial, like look at what happened at the World Cup. Look at how different that was from any other World Cup that we've ever had. Look at how much more commercial that was. I think that that flow on into Brisbane will be really interesting.

53:30Doone:um typically Olympic contracts are really tight um but everything is getting looser everything is getting looser rules around athletes are getting looser like there's more and more opportunity than there's ever been in this space it's not just like the absolute big players so it's a really good it is like a good North Star for me in apparel it is like absolutely not it is absolutely not where I want to be at all. I want every single person in the stands wearing it. I do not want the, it's just not a customer either. Like, um, that's sort of like owned by other people, but it is a very, there is so much that goes on.

54:10Doone:Like I would personally never put my money with IOC, International Olympic Committee or AOC, Australian Olympic Committee, because those are, those spaces are just like sort of owned by other people. And it's, to be honest, I have really strong feelings about how every single athlete along that project line gets completely screwed over and all their images get used and they make nothing. And they just turn around and say, if you don't like that, you just don't compete. It's like, well, it's my dream since I was seven years old. So nevermind. You can just use my image for your advertising in purpose.

54:47Doone:So I have strong feelings about it from that point of view. But what I would say is that there's so much that goes on outside Olympics and so many ways to get around it now that never used to be there. Like every year the contracts get looser. So there's like, by the time Brisbane comes, like watch what happens in LA by the time Brisbane comes, it's going to be so much. So I think it's really smart.

55:07Katharina Cser-Mostyn:The meeting started three years ago.

55:09Doone:Yes, they did. But the contracts and like, yeah, it's like the, the athlete contracts are the ones that I look at for. Like, what are your opportunities that play outside of the official space is where I go to rather than the official space. So I'm like, I don't love everyone. I don't love the IOC is the end of that story.

55:32Sarah Forrai:I want to bring the warm and fuzzies back. Okay. So customers, yes, we're back to customers and building customer love. One of my favorite kind of initiatives that we've got in the team is called the Laika Zoomies. So basically our customer care team, they get a small budget for the year and they can spend it how they like, delighting customers. And so it just puts the power in their hands, very small. It's more the thought that counts. I'll give you one example. There was a dog that lived on a boat and they were sailing around Australia. So they would stop at various ports along the way and sort of every box they had to change their address and like plan a few ahead and be like they did a lot for their dog.

56:15Sarah Forrai:and so one of our customer care team members had the idea of just getting them a little like life jacket with their name on it so that arrived at one of the ports and then yeah it was they were very surprised posted it all over socials and yeah I think we got quite a bit of buzz from that but yeah just little things like that that yeah sure we're thinking about our customers it's so fun to hear like what the team comes up with as well. yay woman Taylor Swift it's very Taylor Swift inspired I feel like she does that kind of stuff

56:49Anna Podolsky:too um okay we're gonna wrap it up by bringing it full circle we started by talking about you know ambition and the kind of the life that you wanted to to build that's bigger than the business and then we've gone down the business route we've talked about growth we've talked about money we've talked about all these things so when we kind of zoom out and we think more about personal wealth, freedom or happiness? This is a question for everyone. How do you think about business wealth versus personal wealth? And what does financial freedom mean to you now?

57:22Sarah Forrai:Yeah, this is, it's so wild. The journey I've been on. Yeah, I mean, I was born in Ukraine. My parents immigrated here. We came with very much nothing. And growing up, we didn't have very much. So it's really weird to be in a position where I am now. And I almost can't, I don't really comprehend it really from a wealth side. Like I just, it's not something I think about or have entirely processed. But I think the thing that I've realized the most is like purpose is what matters. And I've had, you know, people ask like, why don't you just, you know, this was years ago. So why don't you just retire and enjoy life?

58:00Sarah Forrai:It's like, well, what is enjoying life? Like it's doing things that you love and enjoying that and getting up each day with meaning. So that to me is, I don't know, my North Star. And yeah, I guess I'm just trying to comprehend the money side around it. But I think it's a slippery slope and a dangerous path if that's kind of the entire focus that you kind of put your energy towards. Yeah. And more dogs and cats that live in your house. Oh my God.

58:30Katharina Cser-Mostyn:And other animals too. Another topic. I'm from Hungary. My neighbours. Yeah. And my family are all academics. They've all got like multiple PhDs and then I went and became a dancer. So my goal has always been to invent something so boring like the zipper or Velcro. That's always been what I wanted to do. So I think my driver is building something that's going to outlast me. I don't have any kids. We're not having kids. so for me I just want to leave an impact and wine pouches seems to be that thing so it just has to go it has to there's no other option what is enough I think like when you talk about wealth like I also I grew up in Malawi which is a very small country in Africa um I saw people that were not they don't get to like wake up in

59:25Doone:the morning and decide whether it's, they're going to do a hard thing that day. Like their lives are just so hard. Like the charcoal carriers who carry charcoal overnight because it's illegal so that everybody can get their fires, but they carry it. They walk 10 hours a night and then they walk back during the day and then they sleep for three hours and they come back and do it. Like not everyone gets to wake up and decide to do something that's hard. When I was in training, everyone would say, oh, it's so hard and so much discipline. And it is, but it's also like a privilege to be able to do that, to wake up and be able to pursue something that you want to pursue, like the freedom of that, that's enough for me.

1:00:01Doone:And like enough financial freedom to be able to do that, to be able to take those risks and starting a business is a risk. And I'm in a good enough position where I can take that risk. And that, that is enough. Like, even if again, like it has to be, even if it all stops tomorrow, I still have to be okay with it. And like, I can't believe that that is a place that we've got to, like my family moved here with like the i'm one of five children dad no job mom no job my brother is cerebral palsy and still requires special care like i have no idea how they made any of it work so i don't know i just think that yeah and enough to have freedom to choose the choose the hard things you want to do and not have them forced upon you that's like that is yeah that's that's the goal

1:00:49Bronte Campbell OAM:i'm half hungarian

1:00:53Bronte Campbell OAM:uh it's an interesting question um i feel like i see business wealth really separate from my personal wealth and like you can have a business that generates you so many millions of dollars but people think that like you're a millionaire and the millions of dollars are in your bank right but i so i see them separately i'm like cool that's that's a revenue driver and it's like being put back into the business to grow it and then the personal wealth side it's like yeah great. I can take a wage from that business, but I really think that it comes down to like diversifying and like, I can draw a wage from that, but I can also use like my coaching that I do for social media to generate wealth there.

1:01:31Bronte Campbell OAM:Um, I repurpose all my content onto YouTube shorts that pays me as well. So like, yeah, just personal wealth to me is kind of just diversifying and like, yeah, just having loads of different income streams.

1:01:43Anna Podolsky:I feel like there's a couple of busy girls here too, by the way, now that we're talking about like locations and stuff also in the room shout out to Bruzy Girls um would you all please give these wonderful speakers a round of applause thank you so much for sharing so deeply and beautifully I'm so grateful to have you here what we're going to do now is have a couple of nibbles a couple of drinks stick around for a minute meet the women who are here from OmniSend mingle with each other. Come and say hi to our beautiful speakers. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone.

1:02:22Sarah Forrai:Thank you.

1:02:44Katharina Cser-Mostyn:on our phones too. Video calls from the L train, group chats that never shut up. Neighbors texting you the score before your TV catches up. Come on! Get a load of this guy. Catch up on a dog. Yeah, we've got thoughts. Too loud? In Chicago, you're gonna hear it. Because nothing here gets built without conversation. Nothing moves without connection. So, if you think you know AT &T, it might be time to rethink that. Because their network has improved, like, a lot. so Chicago can keep speaking its mind with AT &T Wireless and AT &T Fiber. Chicago won't stop talking. Our improved network backs it up.

1:03:21Katharina Cser-Mostyn:AT &T, connecting changes everything. AT &T Fiber, limited availability in select areas.