The Lazy CEO Podcast with Jane Lu

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane sits down with Kate Gaffil-Jeffries, the co-founder of Moodi - one of Australasia’s fastest-growing wellness brands. Kate turned down a six-figure graduate law offer, pet-sat to bootstrap production, and built a brand that now dominates over 70% of New Zealand’s functional drinks market and holds the #1 spot in supermarket protein bars. In this episode,...

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane Lu is joined by Meagan Pate, co-founder of STRAAND and COO and co-owner of Three Warriors , to unpack one of the biggest questions every founder faces: how do you know if your business idea is actually any good? In this episode, they get into: How to spot a genuine gap in the market versus a product nobody actually wants. How much validation you need before investin...

This week on The Lazy CEO, I’m joined by Meagan Pate, co-founder of STRAAND and COO and co-owner of Three Warriors . Meagan knows what it takes to turn a gap in the market into a global beauty brand. She’s helped scale Three Warriors into a multi-million-dollar business and co-founded STRAAND, which is rethinking the scalp care category entirely. From raising millions in capital to get...

In this episode of Help My Small Business , Jane is joined by Elysia Krstevski, founder of Meke Baby , to review Lisa’s travel company, Crooked Compass . Crooked Compass offers unique journeys and experiences you won’t find with traditional travel companies. So how can Lisa turn what makes her business different into marketing that makes people want to book? Jane and Elysia unpack how...

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane is joined again by the founder of Hairification , Jordan Mylius, for part two of their conversation. Last time, they talked about everything Jordan got right to grow Hairification to $20 million in sales in just two years. This time, they're flipping the conversation to the mistakes they've made along the way. In this episode, we get into: Why positive feedback does...

This week on The Lazy CEO podcast, Jane is joined by Elysia Krstevski, founder of Mekė Baby . Elysia came up with the idea after battling mastitis as a new mum and realising there was no easy way to safely warm expressed breast milk while out with her baby. With no product development experience, she decided to create the solution herself. Three years later, Mekė Baby has sold out seven times and...

In this episode of Help My Small Business , Jane and Ethan Yong, founder of UmamiPapi , review Neon Goat , a natural deodorant brand for tween and teenage boys. The challenge? Boys are the consumers, but Mum is the one buying it. Jane and Ethan unpack how Neon Goat can appeal to both audiences, from branding and social to building trust with parents without losing its cool factor with kids. By the...

This week on The Lazy CEO, I’m joined by Ethan Yong, founder of UmamiPapi. Ethan started making chilli oil during COVID while working his first job as a graduate, spending his weekends cooking and packing orders before and after work. A few years later, UmamiPapi is a 7-figure business, stocked in thousands of retailers including every Coles store nationally, exporting to Malaysia and the UA...

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane is joined by the founder of Hairification, Jordan Mylius. Hairification has hit $20 million in turnover in just three years and expanded into some of the biggest retailers across Australia and overseas. But getting onto retail shelves is only half the battle. The real challenge is proving your product works, staying ranged and turning that first retail opportunity i...

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane is joined by Renata Black, co-founder and CEO of EBY, the performance intimates brand that's grown from $10 million to $75 million in revenue in just 3 years, while competing against some of the biggest names in the industry. What makes Renata's story so compelling is that this wasn't an overnight success. She spent years refining the business, received 436 investor...

In this episode of Help My Small Business , Jane is joined by Gabrielle Requena, founder of Wrinkles Schminkles, to review Shay’s family-run Sydney salon, Blossom Hair and Beauty . After rebranding from The Bridal Bar, Shay wants to attract more customers beyond the bridal market - but she’s struggling to shift how locals see the business. Jane and Gabrielle unpack how to make Blossom...

This week's episode is a proper debrief with Jane on everything that's been happening lately, both in business and behind the scenes. Jane goes down memory lane, reflecting on where Showpo started, how far the business has come and what it feels like to now be sitting in her 11th office. She also chats through her new social strategy, what's changing about the way she's approaching content and why...

This week on The Lazy CEO, Jane is joined by Gabrielle Requena, founder of Wrinkles Schminkles, the beauty brand behind the reusable medical-grade silicone wrinkle patches that pioneered an entirely new skincare category. Gabrielle launched the business in 2014 with one hero product, bootstrapped it from day one, grew it to $20 million in annual revenue, expanded into 22 countries, and after 12 ye...

This week on The Lazy CEO podcast, Jane is joined again by Grace Garrick, founder of Movement Agency. After years of advising founders on how to build brands and show up publicly, Grace is back to break down the difference between building in public and founder-led branding, and how to know which is right for your business. In this episode, we get into: The risks and rewards of becoming the face o...

In this episode of Help My Small Business , Jane is joined by Kia Buckley, founder of Kikiva Collection , to review Wanda's business, Estetika , a beauty accessories brand known for its premium makeup bags. After landing Nordstrom, Wanda's facing the realities of wholesale growth: pressure to expand her product range, trademark issues in the US, and whether wholesale is accelerating her business o...

This week on The Lazy CEO podcast, I'm joined by Kia Buckley, founder and CEO of Kikiva Collection. Kia started the brand at 19 from her apartment garage with $10,000 she'd saved working three jobs. Four years later, Kikiva has become an eight-figure activewear brand, built alongside the loyal community she's grown by sharing the journey on TikTok. In this episode, we get into: How Kia built an ei...

This week's episode is all about the people red flags that can quietly cost you money, time, energy and sometimes your sanity. Jane is joined once again by her best friend Jude Batrac, a workplace culture and leadership expert with two decades of experience across Google, Coca-Cola and News Corp. Together, they unpack the five biggest people red flags they've seen in business partners, investors,...

This week on The Lazy CEO podcast, we're opening up the PR playbook with the person who lives and breathes it, and fair warning, this episode will crack everything you thought you knew about PR, have you re-evaluating your next six months, and set you up to do it better. Grace Garrick founded Movement Agency at 24, entirely self-funded. Seven years on, it's one of Australia's most respected creati...

This week's episode is a very special one! Jane is marking a big milestone, her 40th birthday, with a tell-all letter to her younger self: the anxious version, the ambitious version, the broke version, the one who cared way too much about what people thought. Joining her is her best friend Jude Batrac, a workplace culture and employee experience leader with experience across Coca-Cola, Google and...

In this episode of Help My Small Business, Jane is joined by Natassia Nicolao, founder of Conserving Beauty, the science-backed skincare brand she scaled to eight figures. With her experience building and growing a brand from the ground up, Natassia brings that hands-on expertise to review Amelia's business, Dulese , a natural refillable deodorant brought over from New Zealand to launch into the A...

This week on The Lazy CEO Podcast, Jane is back with Linda Hammond, co-founder of Quay Australia and founder of OTRA Eyewear, for part two of their conversation. If you haven't listened to PART 1 yet, start there - it's a MUST LISTEN. In this episode, they get into the chapters most founders never talk about. Linda opens up about what it actually felt like to sell a nine-figure business to private...

This week on The Lazy CEO Podcast, Jane sits down with Linda Hammond, co-founder of Quay Australia and founder of OTRA Eyewear - the woman who quietly built one of the most recognisable eyewear brands in the world, sold it for nine figures, and is now doing it all over again. Linda left school at 14 with no plan and no industry experience. What she built instead started with a market stall and a m...

In this episode, Jane challenges the idea that stress is something to eliminate entirely, and calls out the rise and grind culture that has a lot of founders quietly exhausted. This one is for anyone who has ever felt guilty for sleeping in. In this episode, you'll learn: Why not all stress is bad, and how to tell the difference between pressure that sharpens you and pressure that is just noise Wh...

In this episode of Help My Small Business, Jane is joined by Hannah Vasicek, founder of Francesca Jewellery , to review Sylvie's business Unicorn Cart - a Shopify app that boosts average order value through personalised upsells, free gifts, and cart rewards. By the end of this episode, you'll learn: Why doing one acquisition channel really well will always beat spreading yourself across five and h...

ICYMI: This week, Jane sits down with Eugene Healey, brand strategist, educator, and creator who has helped the likes of Google, Spotify, and Red Bull cut through the noise and actually stick in people's minds. If you're still running the old influencer playbook, throwing product at lifestyle stars and hoping for the best, it's not going to cut it anymore. Eugene breaks down exactly why everything...