The Real Biz Life Chronicles

Send us Fan Mail What if the riskiest thing you can do with AI is wait for it to settle down first? I sat down with Paul Claessen for another expert-led conversation. Paul opened by admitting something I did not expect from someone who lives and breathes this stuff. He thought AI was a threat to his own business and to many of his clients’ businesses, too. Where he landed by the end of our chat is...

Send us Fan Mail What if the one thing that made you a difficult employee is the same thing that made you a successful business owner? When I read Sue Pember’s introduction at the start of this episode, she got emotional, and once you hear her story, you’ll understand why. There is a version of Sue who spent decades believing she was a difficult employee. The diagnosis that arrived almost twenty y...

Send us Fan Mail Does HR work for the employee or the employer? Elisia Coetzee answers that one in a way most people do not expect. She works for what is right. When a client asks her to bend the advice to suit what is convenient, she gives the same answer every time and is willing to walk away from the engagement rather than put her name to advice that is wrong. That same principle sits underneat...

Send us Fan Mail Samantha Elder started her business selling strapping tape. She ended up building something far more personal. Samantha is a physiotherapist and founder of Summit Wellness, a developing wellness practice in Mount Lawley focused on physiotherapy and clinical Pilates. She has worked across hospital systems in Australia, Japan and Singapore, and brings a deeply holistic approach to h...

Send us Fan Mail What if the moment your business is finally worth selling is the exact moment you stop wanting to? I have sat across from Ben Elliott as his client for a few years now, so I knew this conversation would be good. I did not expect it to quietly rearrange how I think about the whole point of building a business. Ben is the founder of KHT Accounting & Wealth, a Perth accounting an...

Send us Fan Mail Why are smart people so stupid? It's the question Aden Date wanted me to ask him, and the answer reframes how I think about being a business owner. Aden is a Perth-based performing artist, consultant, trainer and business owner, and to his knowledge, the only person in Australia doing improvised theatre for a living. His clients are scientists, surgeons and exhausted executiv...

Send us Fan Mail What if the move that's quietly stalling your sales team is the one most founders are praised for making? I sat down with David Mercado, founder of Sales Geek Manchester, and what struck me most was how openly he challenged the things we've all come to accept as good business decisions. He's spent over twenty years building sales teams inside some of the most demand...

Send us Fan Mail What if scaling your business to $30 million in eight years is the worst thing you could do for it? I sat down with Kane Tyler Smith, founder and CEO of Smartfix and Hypotential, and I have not stopped thinking about this conversation. Kane built one of Australia's largest residential multi-trade services companies from a single ute and $40,000 in year one. By 33, he was runn...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners think they're covered. They're not. And they usually find out at the worst possible moment. In this episode, I sat down with James Wilson, Managing Director of Delmont Insurance Group, to unpack the exact gaps that leave business owners exposed and the checks that close them before something goes wrong. Here's what you'll walk away with: Th...

Send us Fan Mail Three decades in recruitment. Hundreds of deals. One conversation you won't forget. Glenn Beauchamp has spent nearly 30 years placing people in Perth's tech industry. In this episode, he reveals the nonverbal tells most people miss, the one travel question he asks every candidate that has nothing to do with holidays, and where hiring goes wrong before it even starts. If...

Send us Fan Mail Karen Weaver was the girl who couldn't read out loud in class. Today she's authored over 40 books and built a million dollar publishing empire.  In this episode, Karen opens up about navigating PTSD, nearly losing everything when her daughter got sick, and what it actually looks like to live inside a single life principle for an entire year. We talk about why so many peo...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the way you've been seeing the world was never actually yours to begin with? I sat down with Laki Mafi for a conversation that went places I wasn't expecting. We talked about survival mode, about masks, about what it really means to hold space for someone. And there was a moment where Laki shared something that stopped me cold. He said that when you&apo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sat down with Vee Gunasegaran, co-founder and self-proclaimed Don of Cuppa Cartel, Perth’s premium workplace hospitality company. A former cabin crew member, Vee left Emirates and moved to Perth, stepping straight into what looked like a similar lifestyle. We talked about what it really looks like when a business falls apart, what it costs emotionally, and what...

Send us Fan Mail What if everything you have been told about purpose is wrong? I sat down with Vanessa Vershaw, founder and managing director of Vanessa Vershaw Group, and what unfolded was one of the most honest conversations I have had on this show. Vanessa is an award-winning workplace psychologist, strategic advisor and high performance coach with over 20 years inside Fortune 100 companies, AS...

Send us Fan Mail Why Cheap Branded Pens Cost You More Than You Think Most businesses treat branded merchandise as an afterthought. Matthew Cody has spent nearly 30 years making the case that this is exactly where brands get remembered, or forgotten. Matthew is the owner of Cody Group, a premium branded merchandise company serving businesses across Australia. He grew up in his family's busines...

Send us Fan Mail Hamish Tedeschi has spent more than 20 years making bets on himself that most people only think about. He is the CEO and founder of Mechanical Rock, a Perth-based tech company that solves hard business problems with software, and a shareholder and advisor across multiple businesses. In this episode we get into the year that nearly broke him, what employee ownership really looks li...

Send us Fan Mail What if the person who changed your business was the one who refused to let you stay comfortable? I met Paul in November 2021. I was not in a great place. He saw something in me I could not see in myself, and he has shown up every day since. Running a business is genuinely difficult. But that life you imagined when you backed yourself, the freedom, the fulfillment, living and work...

Send us Fan Mail What if the decisions you trust most are shaped long before logic ever enters the room? I sat down with Dr Darren Keegan, a strategist, decision scientist and AI-native consultant whose work lives at the intersection of intuition, judgement and human behaviour. Darren has spent years designing immersive business simulations for global organisations, helping leaders see how decisio...

Send us Fan Mail What does leadership look like when it’s stripped of titles, ego, and performative confidence? In this episode, I sit down with Kate Molinari, founder of Striide, to talk about the kind of leadership that people don’t just tolerate but actively choose to follow. Kate has led teams inside some of Australia’s biggest media organisations, including Seven West Media and Nine Entertain...

Send us Fan Mail What if finding your voice isn’t about confidence at all, but about starting before you feel ready? In this episode, I sit down with Laura McRae , founder of Podcast Support Services and host of Podcasting for Business Owners. Laura is thoughtful, grounded, and refreshingly honest about what it really takes to show up when you’re naturally introverted, behind the scenes, and unsur...

Send us Fan Mail What does growth really ask of you once the excitement wears off? This final episode in our exclusive series is an honest, unfiltered conversation about the cost of building a business beyond the numbers. Not the strategies that look good on paper, but the personal shifts, identity changes, and uncomfortable decisions that quietly sit behind sustainable growth. I’m joined by Paul...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when business gets stripped of ego, perfection, and the need to always look like you’ve got it together? I sat down with Michael Watts , business advisor, systems thinker, stand-up comedian, and deeply present father, for a conversation that went far beyond strategy. This episode is about what really happens behind the scenes of business ownership and what it takes to...

Send us Fan Mail What if the thing that limits you isn’t your circumstance but the story you’ve been telling yourself about what’s possible? Hein Wagner was born blind. Yet he’s run the Antarctica Marathon, sailed the Cape to Rio, broken the World Blind Land Speed Record twice, and built a global career teaching people how to turn obstacles into opportunities. He calls himself “a blind man with vi...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the pursuit of becoming a better man intersects with food, faith, and genuine service? Jayson Smith stepped into my studio and didn’t hold back. He’s Perth’s most trusted Personal House Chef, but what struck me most wasn’t his culinary skill. It was the depth. The honesty. The inner work he’s done that reshaped his life, his marriage, his fatherhood, and his busi...

Send us Fan Mail What if the way you’ve been looking after your teeth is the very thing holding your smile back? I sat down with Dr Nerma Tulic, one of Perth’s most trusted cosmetic dentists and the founder of Beam Theory, to unpack the habits, misconceptions and quick-fix trends that keep so many people stuck. What she shared made me rethink my entire dental routine. Nerma has spent more than a d...