Send us Fan Mail

I used to work 12-hour days at the family bowling alley for a $20 note. Some days we only had three customers. Now we have $15,000 days.

This is my story, and for the first time I'm not telling it alone. Alyce Swarts takes the host's chair to take me back through two decades in my family's businesses, from arcade machines to $800,000 of debt to rodeos and a new bowling alley, plus everything I've built on my own: a booked-out beauty salon, a course, business coaching, watch clients and this podcast.

It's the highs, the lows and the lessons I'd want any founder to hear before they bet on themselves.

We also talk about something I'm building now: the DELUSIONAL Founders Dinner Series. I know what it's like to have big ambitions and not always have people around you who understand them. These dinners are about bringing ambitious founders and business owners together for real conversations, new connections and a room full of people who are building something of their own.

Want to be considered for an upcoming founders dinner? Apply here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfC8Hb6yLQKYzrp5CTbs-pf7kBfY3GkSIEOIrC7aTcc6Pryhw/viewform

We get into:

→ How our first two rodeos lost $80K and $60K, and how the later ones helped fund a new bowling alley

→ Why our venue now makes in one to two months what the old one made in a year

→ How Bruce the bull went viral after eight years of daily posting

→ The copywriting shift that had me booked out at 18

→ Getting paid $1,000 instead of $150 for the exact same skill

→ What my watch clients taught me about who really has money

→ Why I master one missing skill every year, and how I made over $100K in my first year of business coaching at 18

→ Why I'm creating the DELUSIONAL Founders Dinner Series and bringing ambitious business owners into the same room

If you've ever played down your achievements, or felt like the only one in the room who's betting on yourself, this one's for you. And if you're looking for more people who understand what you're building, I'd love for you to apply to be considered for one of our founders dinners.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Welcome, and why Alyce is hosting
00:03:00 Eight family businesses and $800K of debt
00:15:00 The visionary, the executor and the strategist
00:19:00 Bruce the bull: eight years before going viral
00:24:00 500K in 14 weeks at the new bowling alley
00:27:00 Burnout, and coming back to bowling
00:31:00 Booked out at 18
00:37:00 A cancelled degree and a course launch
00:41:00 Same skill, 10 times the price
00:50:00 Who really has money
01:02:00 Mastering one missing skill every year
01:10:00 DELUSIONAL Founders Dinner Series
01:17:00 My most delusional move
01:23:00 Give yourself a decade
01:29:00 Why Delusional, and why now

Apply for the DELUSIONAL Founders Dinner Series:

We're bringing ambitious founders and business owners together around the dinner table. If you'd like to be considered for an upcoming dinner, submit your application below.

→ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfC8Hb6yLQKYzrp5CTbs-pf7kBfY3GkSIEOIrC7aTcc6Pryhw/viewform

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/delusionalwithsammykennedy/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

Your mind only cares about keeping you safe. It doesn't care whether you're rich. So if you want a big life, you're going to have to work against your own wiring.

Alyce Swarts is an entrepreneur, speaker and mentor who works with ambitious women and female founders on the internal side of business, the subconscious, nervous system, beliefs and identity behind the person executing the strategy.

She studied interior design architecture, landed her dream job at a prestige Perth building company, and quit a month later to start her own female wellness events brand.

This conversation is about why strategy alone isn't enough, why you procrastinate, and what it actually takes to become the version of you who already has the business you want.

WE GET INTO:

→ Why Alyce believes procrastination and self-sabotage are really you going against your identity

→ Her "two lists" method for big goals, so your brain sees proof it's working

→ Why your current reality is the result of who you were three months ago

→ The hourly alarm exercise that shows you what your mind is really thinking

→ How Sammy asked "how would a multi-seven-figure owner show up?" when relaunching the bowling alley

→ Why Alyce's first retreat sold out when she was told it was too risky

→ Emotional discipline: feel it, then come back to the business

→ Why she calls social media "service media"

If you've done all the strategy and still feel stuck, this one is for you. Alyce is blunt, and that's exactly why it lands.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Cold open and welcome

00:01:00 Who Alyce is and the work she does

00:03:00 Quitting her dream job after a month

00:04:00 Starting Aligned Wellness

00:07:00 Why procrastination is an identity problem

00:10:00 Getting specific about the life you want

00:16:00 Give more than you take

00:19:00 Pay yourself and stack your wins

00:29:00 Two lists for big goals

00:31:00 The crumble before the quantum leap

00:34:00 Acting as the person who's already there

00:36:00 The hourly identity check

00:41:00 Emotional discipline in business

00:44:00 Slow mornings and gratitude

00:55:00 Your reality is your identity from three months ago

00:56:00 Selling out the first retreat

01:21:00 Assume it will land with the right people

01:23:00 Social media is service media

Got a question about your own business right now? Drop it in the comments, I read every single one.

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/delusionalwithsammykennedy/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

Brand strategists slid into Cass Emmerson’s DMs to tell her it was impossible to build six brands in one room, in one day. She's now done it around eight times.

Cass left a high-powered corporate career in her 40s to build a brand consultancy - and refused to wait three years to start travelling. I've known her for about six years and watched her build her business her own way, often against the advice of the coaches around her.

This conversation is about what brand actually is (hint: it isn't your logo), why it should come before your offers, and how getting clear on what you value makes every business decision easier.

WE GET INTO:
→ How Cass signed contracts before resigning so she started with 10K months already locked in
→ Her year-by-year plan: brand management, then consultancy, then one-to-many
→ Why she capped her business at 30 people — and how that gets her to 50K months
→ Her four pillars of brand: purpose, positioning, personality and picture
→ The client who discovered her $6,000 offer meant she only needed four clients a month — and closed everything else
→ Why your offers will change, but your brand shouldn't
→ The real difference between a refresh and a rebrand
→ Why she paid $1,200 for a venue when she was told to book a $500 one

If you've ever felt like your business looks like everyone else's, or you're chasing a number that doesn't match the life you want, this one will make you rethink both.

CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Cold open
00:02:00 Welcome Cass, and building the parachute on the way down
00:04:00 Locking in 10K months before leaving corporate
00:07:00 The five-year plan: management, consultancy, one-to-many
00:08:00 Six brands in one day
00:12:00 Saying no to advice that doesn't fit your life
00:15:00 How much do you actually need to earn?
00:19:00 30 clients and 50K months
00:22:00 What most founders miss about brand
00:24:00 The four pillars of brand
00:27:00 Finding your point of difference
00:39:00 Start with your why
00:42:00 Brand or product first?
01:03:00 Refresh vs rebrand
01:06:00 Build for where you're going
01:15:00 Community and the offline trend
01:17:00 Permission to do it your way

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/delusionalwithsammykennedy/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

What would make you sell your house and put the money into a business you weren’t even sure would work?

For Craig Joel, part of the answer was being naive enough not to fully understand how hard it was going to be.

Craig is the founder and CEO of Now Book It, but his story started long before software.

He bought his first restaurant at 24, learned some brutal lessons about tax, numbers and running a business, then spent years inside hospitality before spotting a problem restaurant owners kept complaining about.

We talk about what happened when he put everything behind Now Book It, the moment COVID shut down virtually his entire customer base just as the company had finally become profitable, and how they went from signing roughly 150–160 restaurants a month pre-COVID to as many as 400–500 in some months afterwards.

Then we get into the part most founders barely think about until it’s happening: selling the business.

We get into:

→ Why Craig believes hospitality, financial and marketing acumen are the three skills that can make or break a hospitality business

→ How listening to restaurant owners complaining about booking fees and losing control of their customer data became the opportunity behind Now Book It

→ The roughly $600,000 initial software build, why Craig sold his house to protect his equity, and why he says knowing what he knows now might have stopped him doing it

→ Going from finally reaching profitability to watching COVID shut down the restaurant industry, then building a takeaway solution in four days

→ How Now Book It jumped from around 150–160 new restaurants a month pre-COVID to 400–500 in some of its biggest months

→ Why AI makes software dramatically easier to build, but relationships, integrations, distribution and customer understanding create the real moat

→ What Craig learned selling Now Book It, including EBITDA, revenue multiples, earnouts and why you need to know your numbers before talking to a buyer

→ Why the highest offer isn’t necessarily the right exit when your team, your role and what happens to the business afterwards actually matter

You can spend years obsessing over how to start and grow a business without ever thinking seriously about how you’ll eventually leave it. Craig has lived both sides, including what happens when the founder sells but isn’t actually ready to walk away.

Chapters:

0:00 Meet Craig Joel, founder of Now Book It
1:00 Selling the house and going all in
3:00 Starting in hospitality at 16
6:00 Buying a restaurant at 24
10:00 The three types of acumen business owners need
14:00 Finding the problem that became Now Book It
17:00 Finally profitable… then COVID hit
22:00 Why human customer service still matters
23:00 The $600,000 build and bootstrapping Now Book It
28:00 AI has changed the cost of building software
33:00 The booking fee problem Craig wanted to fix
38:00 Pricing Now Book It and investing in AI
45:00 What breaks when a business scales
49:00 Selling the business without planning to sell
57:00 Valuations, EBITDA, multiples and preparing to exit
1:00:00 Why Craig stayed after selling
1:16:00 Craig’s advice for founders considering an exit

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

The difference between debt that grows your business and debt that quietly destroys it often comes down to one thing: whether you actually understand the numbers before you sign.

Cameron Tilley has been our finance broker for almost two decades, which means he’s had a front-row seat to some of the Kennedy family’s more delusional business decisions. He’s also seen businesses across countless industries borrow, expand, refinance, struggle and grow.

We get into the side of business finance most owners only learn once it hurts: why profit doesn’t necessarily mean you have cash, how banks actually assess your business, when debt makes sense, what being overleveraged really looks like and why getting the right advice before you need money can completely change your options.

We get into:

→ Why Cameron believes even a 10% profit margin can be cutting it skinny when things go wrong

→ How a business can report a $400,000 net profit and still end up bankrupt because of cash flow

→ The numbers behind our bowling alley, from almost running out of money during the fit-out to getting finance moving after just nine months of trading

→ Good debt vs bad debt, and why an income-producing asset is very different from buying something because you want it

→ How leverage changes across houses, commercial property, business assets and specialised assets like a bowling alley

→ Why going straight to your bank can limit your options, and Cameron’s explanation of what a finance broker actually does

→ The cash flow system we’re building around weekly breakevens, separate bank accounts, tax, buffers and seasonal revenue

→ Interest rates, refinancing, fixed vs variable debt and why flexibility can matter just as much as getting the lowest rate

If you’re building something ambitious and debt is part of the plan, this conversation will make you think much harder about what you borrow, what you buy and whether your cash flow can actually carry it.

Chapters:

0:00 Meet Cameron Tilley
3:00 The most “delusional” businesses Cameron has financed
5:00 Credit card surcharges and hidden business costs
8:00 How much financial buffer does a business need?
11:00 Building the right professional team around your business
15:00 Profit margins across different industries
20:00 What a finance broker actually does
23:00 When should a business refinance its debt?
26:00 Why profit and cash flow are not the same thing
32:00 Arcade or hospitality venue? Our real expansion dilemma
34:00 How to know when you’re overleveraged
36:00 Good debt vs bad debt
41:00 How banks assess business owners and ABN history
44:00 Finance broker vs going straight to the bank
47:00 Building a better cash flow system
53:00 Using seasonality to plan your marketing and revenue
56:00 What interest rate rises mean for small businesses
59:00 Fixed vs variable debt when you’re still growing
1:01:00 Restructuring, tax changes and protecting your exit
1:08:00 Submarines, planes and Cameron’s strangest finance requests

Got a question about your own business right now? Drop it in the comments, I read every single one.

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

What actually keeps a business alive when customers are more cautious, cash flow is tighter, and “average” no longer cuts it? The answer isn’t simply more sales.

Five years ago, getting people to spend was easier. In 2026, customers are researching more, comparing harder and asking whether what you sell is genuinely worth their money.

In part two of this series, I’m breaking down what I believe business owners need to focus on now: protecting profit, building cash reserves, fixing unprofitable pricing, improving team productivity, controlling debt, sharpening your positioning and making it ridiculously easy for customers to buy.

We get into:

→ Why knowing your weekly breakeven number changes the way you manage cash flow

→ The $10,000 cash buffer I struggled to build, and why automating savings finally made it happen

→ Why more sales can actually create more problems when your pricing isn’t profitable

→ What 50–60% staff capacity is telling you before you even think about hiring again

→ The danger of overleveraging, including $150,000 purchases that don’t have a clear path to ROI

→ Why lowering your prices when customers say “that’s expensive” can make the problem worse

→ How constant discounts train customers to wait instead of buy

→ Why “average” marketing, service and customer experience are becoming the danger zone in 2026

This is about building a business that can handle pressure without forcing you into reactive decisions, and becoming the business customers deliberately choose when they’re thinking harder about every dollar they spend.

Chapters:

0:00 Why selling is harder in 2026: Part 2
1:45 Why profit has to come first
3:28 Work out your weekly breakeven
6:22 Building cash reserves before you feel ready
8:05 My $10,000 cash buffer
12:13 Reassessing pricing and operating costs
13:50 Fix productivity before hiring more staff
15:16 Turning fixed costs into variable costs
17:38 Debt, overleveraging and $150,000 purchases
20:03 Your brand needs a real point of difference
22:25 How consumer spending has changed since 2021
24:30 Why lowering your prices can backfire
26:12 Discounts can train customers not to buy
28:14 Why average is becoming the danger zone
29:21 Remove friction from the buying process
31:47 Give people something worth talking about

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

Business has never been easier to start. So why does it feel so much harder to actually sell?

In part one of this two part series, I'm breaking down what's actually changed in the Australian economy over the past five years, and why so many businesses are getting caught out. I also get personal about my own family's history with debt, because I've lived through exactly the kind of over-leveraging I'm warning you about, twice.

We get into:
→ How the COVID savings boom created a false sense of security for businesses
→ What happened to the household savings rate, and why it matters for you
→ Australia's debt problem, and what it actually means for small business owners
→ The real case study of Stax, and how a $30 million business ended up $23.7 million in debt
→ My own family's story, from a $800,000 failed business to $3 million in debt today
→ Why Betts closed 20 stores after 134 years in business
→ How consumer behaviour has fundamentally shifted, and what that means for your marketing

If you've felt like the rules changed and nobody told you, this episode is that explanation.

Chapters:
0:00 Cold open
1:07 Why business feels harder than five years ago
3:19 What I'm covering in this episode
4:12 The COVID savings boom explained
6:03 How the household savings rate collapsed
8:00 Australia's $1 trillion debt problem
10:07 What Commonwealth Bank's spending data shows
12:00 Why people are craving real connection again
13:38 How buyer psychology has changed
14:42 ANZ's new property price forecast
15:15 A real decision we made about our own debt
18:38 The Stax case study begins
20:34 No one cares about your struggle
21:25 My dad's $800K mistake
25:41 We could never afford school shoes
27:44 Why I'm telling you all this
28:00 The Betts collapse
33:00 A second family business, same mistake
36:17 What NAB's survey says about buyers now
40:00 What's coming in part two

Got a question about your own business right now? Drop it in the comments, I read every single one.

Sources:
→ ABS, Household Saving Ratio: abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/national-accounts/australian-national-accounts-national-income-expenditure-and-product/latest-release
→ ABC News, Australia's $1 Trillion Debt: abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/analysis-national-debt-hits-one-trillion-but-its-nothing/107058026
→ CommBank, Household Spending Insights: commbank.com.au/articles/newsroom
→ ANZ Research, Property Price Forecast: smartpropertyinvestment.com.au/investor-strategy/28035-capital-city-house-prices-tipped-to-fall-10-as-downturn-deepens
→ Stax Liquidator's Report: news.com.au/finance/business/retail/collapsed-aussie-activewear-brand-stax-owing-17m-to-nearly-13000-shoppers-as-documents-reveal-full-scale-of-debt/news-story/46fe4723596cb0948c213974adbac481
→ Betts Voluntary Administration: smartcompany.com.au/retail/shoe-retailer-betts-close-20-stores-voluntary-administration
→ NAB, Consumer Sentiment Survey Q1 2026: nab.com.au/news/economy-markets/nab-consumer-sentiment-survey-q1-2026-cost-pressures-peak-as-consumers-switch

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial

Send us Fan Mail

90% of podcasts fail by the third episode. Before you buy a single piece of equipment, watch this.

In this solo episode, I'm breaking down everything I've learned after two plus years of podcasting, what it actually costs, what the real ROI timeline looks like, and the mistakes I made that you don't have to.

We get into:
→ Why most podcasts don't even make it past episode three
→ How to actually structure your show before you record a single word
→ The real ROI timeline, and why podcasting is more like investing than marketing
→ DIY versus hiring a premium agency, and how to know which one is right for you
→ What my $30,000 studio fit out actually taught me
→ Why the show is called Delusional, and what that means for founders
→ How a podcast quietly turns into high-ticket clients and rooms you couldn't buy your way into

If you're even a little bit considering starting a podcast for your business, watch this before you spend a single dollar.

Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to Delusional
1:07 Why 90% of podcasts fail by episode three
2:45 How to research and structure your own show
4:12 Who is actually listening, and when
8:38 Why the show is called Delusional
9:40 Building a community, not just an audience
15:15 The ROI timeline nobody tells you about
16:03 DIY vs hiring a premium agency
16:48 Why I didn't believe in myself starting out
21:39 The real cost of a full studio fit out
22:37 How a podcast turns into high-ticket clients
26:17 Industry association: the thing you can't buy
27:44 Final thoughts before you hit record

Got a question about starting your own podcast?
Drop it in the comments, I read every single one.

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:

→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedyofficial