Biz

Annie Nguyen arrived in Australia with a background in finance and business, but couldn’t land a job as a barista. So she spent less than $200 setting up a tiny market stall selling Vietnamese iced coffee instead. That stall became ANNEES, now a beloved and growing chain of coffee shops popping up across Queensland. In this episode, Annie shares how she turned genuine human connection into an actual customer-service system, what Shark Tank taught her about backing your own vision, and why starting a business might require far less money, polish and certainty than you think.

On today’s episode, you’ll learn:
How Annie turned “great customer service” into a repeatable system her team could actually learn, without making it feel scripted. (They remember every customer by name!)
What Annie learned from pitching ANNEES on Shark Tank while six months pregnant, being questioned about whether motherhood would slow her business down, and walking away without a deal but a plan instead.
How to know when growth requires you to stop doing everything yourself, trust your team and “get out of the way.”
How Annie learned aspiring founders can “start embarrassingly small” instead of waiting for the money, infrastructure or perfect grand plan.
THE END BITS
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Got a work life dilemma? Send us all the questions you definitely can't ask your boss - send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain anon!
HOST: Lisa Lie
GUEST: Annie Nguyen
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Courtney Ammenhauser
SENIOR CREATIVE PRODUCER: Thom Lion

ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Sasha Tannock
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anaita Sarkar is the co-founder and CEO of Hero Packaging, author of How To Sell Anything Online and her authenticity shines through to her MASSIVE TikTok following.
But in this episode, she’s not here to give you the polished founder story. Anaita shares the mistakes that left Hero Packaging staring down a $600,000 inventory bill she didn’t know was coming, the moment she questioned whether she was actually a good business owner, and what it took to fight her way back. She also shares some of the most practical advice we’ve heard on BIZ, including the simple experiment she used to test whether there was actually a market for Hero Packaging before betting on the idea.
On today’s episode, you’ll learn:
How Anaita tested demand for Hero Packaging with a landing page and a $20-a-day Google Ad before properly launching.

Why 50, 100 or 200 people actively showing interest in your idea could represent a much bigger potential market.

How a growing business can look successful while dangerous financial problems are building underneath it.

Why blindly handing your finances to an expert can be a costly mistake, and what Anaita learned from discovering a $600,000 inventory bill had been missed.

THE END BITS
READ OR LISTEN to Anaita's book "How To Sell Anything Online"
Support independent women's media.

Got a work life dilemma? Send us all the questions you definitely can't ask your boss - send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain anon!
HOST: Lisa Lie
GUEST: Anaita Sarkar - Hero Packaging
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Courtney Ammenhauser
SENIOR CREATIVE PRODUCER: Thom Lion

ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Sasha Tannock
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're constantly told to earn more, save more and somehow become better at money. But what if feeling financially secure isn't just about the numbers?
In this episode of Biz, Lisa Lie and Em Vernam sit down with financial educator Jess Brady to unpack the emotional side of money, and how the way we think about it can shape the choices we make.
Jess explains what your "money monster" is, and how to stop it quietly sabotaging your financial goals.
We also get practical: how to automate your money so you can stop wasting time online banking, what a "fruit tree" goal is and why having one can change the way you think about your financial future.
In this episode you'll learn
How childhood experiences around money can create "money monsters" which subconsciously sabotage your relationship with money
How to eliminate those emotional barriers to create financial freedom
How to automate your finances and stop constantly checking your bank account
What a "fruit tree" goal is and why you need one
THE END BITS
READ OR LISTEN to Jessica's Book "Get Growing: A No-Nonsense Guide to Cultivating Wealth and Financial Freedom"
Support independent women's media.
Got a work life dilemma? Send us all the questions you definitely can't ask your boss for our Biz Inbox episodes - send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain anon!
HOSTS: Lisa Lie and Em Vernem
GUEST: Jessica Brady - Money Educator
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Courtney Ammenhauser
SENIOR PRODUCER: Thom Lion
VIDEO PRODUCER: Marlena Cacciotti
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone loves the idea of being their own boss. But what happens when your side gig becomes a real business?
In this episode of Biz, Lisa Lie chats with Cherie Clonan, CEO of The Digital Picnic, about what it actually takes to make the leap from employee or freelancer to business owner.
Cherie gets brutally honest about the reality of building a business with bub in tow: three years without a salary, the pressure of making payroll, the temptation to quit, and why business ownership isn't necessarily the freedom fantasy we're sold.
She explains how she knew The Digital Picnic had "legs", what changes when you go from selling your own time to building a team, and why the biggest leap might actually come after becoming a freelancer.
Plus, Cherie shares her simple "horizons of growth" framework to balance the day-to-day work of keeping a business alive with the bigger ideas that drove you to start it all.
In this episode you'll also learn:
How to tell if your side hustle actually has legs
Why you don't necessarily need to quit your job to start a business
The reality of going years without paying yourself
The moment Cherie realised she had become the bottleneck in her own business
What changes when you hire your first employees
THE END BITS
Support independent women's media.
Got a work life dilemma? Send us all the questions you definitely can't ask your boss for our Biz Inbox episodes - send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain anon!
HOST: Lisa Lie
GUEST: Cherie Clonan - The Digital Picnic
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Courtney Ammenhauser
SENIOR PRODUCER: Thom Lion
VIDEO PRODUCER: Marlena Cacciotti
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it actually take to spot the next big business before everyone else?
In this episode of Biz, Lisa Lie sits down with Phoebe Pincus, CEO of Startmate, who spends her days surrounded by founders, investors and a LOT of startup ideas.
Start up investing may sound intimidating, but Phoebe walks us through how to actually begin, where to find the right startups and what you need to know before putting your money behind them.
We get into the reality of how many startups fail for every success story, how investors can account for that when spreading their bets, and why investing in founders whose vision creates a future you actually want to be part of can become a powerful motivator.
In this episode you'll learn:
The power law principle and why startup investing is fundamentally different from traditional investing
Why getting a read on the founder trumps any other data points
How to spot the patterns that keep appearing in successful startups
The people skills that actually matter, and why successful startups are a much longer journey than they look from the outside
How to invest in a future you actually want to help create
Where to start if you've never invested in a startup before
How to find and gain access to the right startups
THE END BITS
Support independent women's media.
Got a work life dilemma? Send us all the questions you definitely can't ask your boss for our Biz Inbox episodes - send us a voice note or email us at podcast@mamamia.com.au. You can remain anon!
HOST: Lisa Lie
GUEST: Pheobe Pincus - Startmate
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Courtney Ammenhauser
SENIOR PRODUCER: Thom Lion
VIDEO PRODUCER: Marlena Cacciotti
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.