Delusional

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IMPORTANT UPDATE

*Please note that some of the stats from Fresha will be incorrect as their surcharge fees have changed since the time of recording.

Fresha have changed their fees from

In-person 

Previously: 2.29% + $0.20 per transaction (plus additional $0.10 tap to pay authorisation) 

TO NOW: 1.29% + $0.26 per transaction (plus additional $0.10 tap to pay authorisation).

Online

Previously: 2.29% + $0.20 per transaction 

TO NOW: 1.59% + $0.28 per transaction

"Will all my clients leave?"

That is the exact question I see business owners ask in Facebook groups every single week. And it is the exact reason most of them never raise their prices, even when their business is barely breaking even or running at a loss.
In this solo episode, I am giving you the real strategy I have used with over 400 business owners to confidently raise prices without losing the clients who actually matter.

→ How to calculate your break-even hourly rate and find out if you are actually undercharging
→ Why your real costs are rising 20 to 30% even when inflation says 3%
→ The new EFTPOS surcharge law coming this October and what it means for your profit
→ A real breakdown of payment provider fees that could cost you over $8,000 a year in the wrong choice
→ Why hitting $75K in revenue means you legally need a 10% price increase
→ The services that almost never make money in this industry, and what to do instead
→ Why copying your competitor's prices is quietly destroying the whole industry's profit margins
→ The exact way to tell your clients about a price increase without sounding apologetic
→ Why losing a client after a price increase is usually a sign you are doing it right

This is the reality check I think a lot of you need right now, especially heading into end of financial year. If you have been putting off this decision out of fear, this episode is your sign to stop waiting.

Purchase the Profitable Pricing Calculator here 👉  https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/profitable-pricing-calculator

Connect with me and join the Beauty Industry Leaders movement:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/
→ https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/

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

It is 9:00 PM on a Friday night and I am sitting in the podcast studio.

I am supposed to be packing for Bali. But I need to talk to you first.

The last six months have been the hardest season I have gone through in business. A retreat that barely broke even. A podcast studio that cost ten times what I budgeted for. A $7,000 credit card balance just to cover wages. Months of $20K revenue against $19K in expenses. And in the middle of all of it, finding out I was a top five finalist in the Seven News Young Achievers Awards for all of Western Australia.

I felt like a fraud. I felt like a failure. And I almost gave up.

This is the episode about the messy middle. The part nobody posts. The season that breaks you before it shapes you.
→ How I financially overextended myself and what I would do differently
→ The 1:00 AM anxiety spiral that forced me to finally face the numbers
→ What I did in 48 hours to start releasing the pressure without it all falling apart
→ The five-day turnaround where a bucking bull sale, unpaid invoices, and three new clients all landed at once
→ Why I think I have outgrown the role I have been forcing myself to stay inside
→ The life path number, Chinese zodiac, and human design profile that gave me more clarity than six months of pushing through
→ The 6/2 human design profile and what it finally explained about the way I work, burn out, and recover
→ The one mindset shift that matters most when everything is falling apart

If you are in a hard season right now, this episode is for you. Not the polished version. The real one.
Do not give up. You can pivot, adapt, and reassess. But the only way you truly fail is if you stop.

Connect with me and join the Beauty Industry Leaders movement:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/
→ https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/

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

She applied for Big Brother ten times.

Ten rejections. Ten "not this time." Ten times she came back anyway.

And she eventually got on.

That is the entire PR philosophy in one story. Keep going. Stay in the room. 
Your no is someone else's not yet.

In this episode, I sit down with Heidi Anderson: PR strategist, keynote speaker, author of Drunk on Confidence, and one of the most genuinely unfiltered and practical voices on pitching yourself and building media credibility I have ever had on this show.

This is not a vague conversation about "putting yourself out there." This is a real, tactical, laugh-out-loud hour of actually learning how to do it, including a live build of a full PR strategy for a brand new fictional facial service called the Milk Maintenance Facial. Yes, really.

→ The 20-20-20 formula for pitching: research, write, and pitch in the right order 
→ The biggest mistake people make when sending a pitch, and it is not what you think 
→ Why nobody cares about your product until they know your story 
→ How to find the scroll-stopping hook that is already buried in your content 
→ The pre-launch, launch, and post-launch PR framework most people get completely wrong 
→ How to leverage a media feature so it keeps working for you weeks after it goes live 
→ Why "miles in the saddle" is the only PR strategy that truly works long term 
→ The deathbed framework Heidi uses when fear is louder than ambition 
→ Why Heidi was rejected by Big Brother ten times, and why she kept applying anyway

If you have ever thought your story is not interesting enough, your business is not big enough, or you need to wait until you are more ready before you start pitching yourself, this episode will dismantle every single one of those beliefs.

Your story is already worth telling. You just need to learn how to frame it.

Connect with Heidi Anderson: → Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_heidianderson/ → Website: https://heidileeanderson.com.au

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

She built a salon she was proud of.

She hired a team. She signed a lease. She showed up to treat clients the morning after egg retrievals.

Then she ended up in hospital with a heart rate she couldn't bring down.

And she was still thinking about work.

In this episode, I sit down with Tamika Sharp, founder of Skin and Beauty Collective in Perth, for one of the most raw and honest conversations this podcast has ever had. Tamika has been publicly documenting her IVF journey, and in this episode she goes even deeper: the miscarriages, the diagnoses nobody caught at first, the financial pressure of spending $40,000 on fertility treatment while running a salon and never paying herself a wage, and the hospitalization that finally made her stop.

This one is for every woman holding everything together on the outside while quietly falling apart behind the scenes.

→ Six rounds of IVF, three miscarriages, and the financial and emotional toll nobody prepares you for 
→ Running a team through egg retrievals and laparoscopic surgery 
→ The silent endometriosis and killer cell mutations her first clinic completely missed 
→ The doctor who told her she was too stressed for a baby to implant, and why that became her turning point 
→ Selling the fit-out, going back to solo trading, and finally taking home a wage 
→ The beauty industry's quiet truth: business owners paying their staff more than themselves 
→ Rosacea, post-pill acne, and the skin conditions that aren't being treated at the root cause 
→ What coming out of chronic burnout actually looks and feels like day to day

Tamika was 26 years old when we recorded this. She had already been through more than most people face in a decade. And she still showed up and gave everything.

This episode will stay with you.

Connect with Tamika Sharp: → Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skinandbeautycollective_/ → Website: https://skinandbeautycollective.com.au

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

She applied for awards twice and went home with nothing. No trophy. No feedback. Just the bill.

Then she won Australian Clinic of the Year, only the third WA business in history to ever take that title.

And now? She's building an entirely new awards program so nobody else has to go through that process blind.

In this episode, I sit down with Rachel Diaz from Love Beauty Skin Clinic and Elke Richter from Skin Inspired, two of the three founders behind WASSABA, the brand new Western Australian Skin, Spa, Beauty and Aesthetics Awards.

This conversation goes way beyond awards. It's about what's been missing in the WA beauty industry for years: a place to be recognized without flying to Sydney, a community that actually supports you, and education that goes deeper than "just post more content."

In this episode:
👉 How a joke at a national awards night turned into a real organization within months
👉 Why the founders can't enter or judge their own awards, and why that matters
👉 The difference between a "fluffy pink clinic" application and the one that won Australian Clinic of the Year
👉 Why it costs $20K to $30K to take your team to national awards, and why WA needed a local alternative
👉 How WASSABA gives feedback to every applicant so you can actually improve
👉 Categories for cosmetic tattooists, body sculpting clinics, makeup artists, and spray tanners, groups that are usually left out
👉 The Profit and Planning Summit on June 17th covering pricing, end-of-financial-year prep, and brand strategy
👉 Why awards aren't about validation; they're about reflection, visibility, and knowing you're on the right track

Whether you've never entered an award in your life or you've applied and walked away empty-handed, this episode will change the way you think about putting yourself forward.

And if you're in WA and haven't looked at WASSABA yet, this is your sign.

Connect with WASSABA:
www.instagram.com/wassaba.official
www.wassaba-official.com

Connect with Rachel Diaz:
www.instagram.com/lovebeautyskinclinic

Connect with Elke Richter:
www.instagram.com/skininspired_

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

100 episodes.
$500 in my bank account when I started.
A $25,000 contract I had no idea how I was going to pay for.
And a rebrand I've been sitting on for over 12 months.

This is it. The full, unfiltered story of how Beauty Industry Leaders went from a post in a Skool community to 25,000 downloads across 1,247 cities, and why the next 100 episodes are going to look very different.

I'm not holding anything back in this one.

I talk about the woman who tried to bully me out of starting this before I'd even recorded a single episode. The $680-per-episode cost of audio-only production when I could barely afford food. Splitting my grandma's meal prep containers into thirds just to make it through the week. Breaking my mic three weeks after it arrived. Recording in my studio apartment with blankets draped over the wardrobe to kill the echo. And the 150+ retakes per episode that nearly broke me.

But I also talk about the friendships that changed my life. The guests who made me cry. The moment I realized long-form content was my superpower. And the identity crisis I've been quietly battling for the last 12 months, wondering if I'd outgrown the very brand I built.
This episode is where I share what's next.

I'm announcing the rebrand. I'm telling you the new name. And I'm sharing why this evolution has been the hardest and most necessary decision I've made since starting this podcast.

In this episode:
→ The full origin story of Beauty Industry Leaders, from the first idea to the first download
→ Signing a $25K contract with nothing in my account
→ The podcast agency journey: what worked, what didn't, and why I brought everything in-house
→ Building a $30K studio on a $3K budget
→ My top five episodes and what each one taught me
→ Why storytelling outperforms strategy content every time
→ The content funnel: short-form to long-form to community
→ The 12-month identity crisis I never talked about publicly
→ The official rebrand announcement and what it means for you
→ And a tease of the family business docuseries that's coming next

If you've been here since episode one, thank you. If this is your first episode, welcome to the most honest version of this podcast I've ever put out.

Here's to being a little bit delusional.

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

She came to Australia from Hong Kong with nothing familiar. No friends. No family nearby. No safety net. 
She built a business with my grandfather and ran it for decades. 
👉 And she never once paid herself a salary.

This episode is different from anything I've ever done on the show.

I'm sitting across from my grandma, Julia Lau. I call her Po Po. She's turning 80, and she's never been on a podcast, never done an interview, and until a few years ago, had never said "I love you" out loud to anyone in our family.

But she's the reason this podcast studio exists. She's the reason my parents' bowling alley survived. And she's the woman who quietly held our entire family together through eight businesses, decades of financial hardship, and more sacrifice than any of us fully understood.

In this episode, we go deep into the real, unfiltered story behind everything I've built:

• Leaving Hong Kong and raising kids in a country where she knew nobody 
• The miscarriage, the homesickness, and the depression she carried in silence 
• How my grandfather pivoted from nursing to acupuncture with no business training 
• Running a business at breakeven for years because no one told them how to structure their finances 
• Paying 17% interest on their mortgage on $300 a fortnight take-home pay 
• Her honest reaction to my mum choosing a non-Chinese husband 
• The moment she and Gong Gong decided to back my dad financially, even when they weren't sure 
• What she really thought when my degree was cancelled and I pivoted into marketing 
• And the cultural wall that kept her from ever saying "I love you" until I challenged her on it

I also share some hard lessons I've been sitting on about pricing, investing, fire sales, and why the belief system I inherited almost kept me stuck at $60K a year forever.

This is the most personal episode I've ever recorded. And if you've ever built something with your family, or you're trying to create something that outlasts you, I think it'll hit home in a way you don't expect.

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

A big brand  offered me $985 a month to promote their products.
Free samples. Commission. Cash incentives.

👉 I said no.

And in this episode, I explain exactly why.

I've invested over $80,000 into this podcast and $30,000 into the studio. So when one email from one of the biggest brands in the world landed in my inbox, it nearly tested everything I'd built. Not because the offer was bad, but because saying yes would have undone years of brand trust in a single Instagram story.

This is a real, honest breakdown of how the partnerships you choose, the products you stock, the people you hire, and the ambassadors you attach to your name will either elevate your brand or erode it.

In this episode:
→ Why I turned down a paid collaboration from a global brand, and what it taught me
→ The hidden cost of choosing products based on price alone
→ How to use established brands in your business to borrow trust while you build your own
→ Why the influencer I worked with had 60K followers but brought zero clients, and the demographic mistake behind it
→ The body sculpting launch party I attended that attracted the exact wrong audience
→ Why your dream client needs to see themselves in your content, not a picture-perfect model
→ How to explain premium equipment and products in language your clients actually understand
→ The difference between Chanel and Kmart, and how every product, person, and purchase in your business is placing you on that spectrum

If you've ever been tempted by a partnership that felt like easy money but didn't quite fit, this episode will give you the clarity and the confidence to say no, and the framework to say yes to the right ones.

I want to empower women in the beauty industry to create an impact, build an empire, and leave their legacy. Ready to become an industry powerhouse? Get more clients, more income, and your time back without burning out. Be among the first to access exclusive scripts, strategies, and systems to get booked, banked, and in demand.
https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/booked-banked-and-in-demand

If you have any questions about the episode, or have a burning question you'd like me to answer on the show, or if you'd like to join our movement of ambitious beauty leaders, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/

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

He's raised over $60 million in capital, built an agency from scratch over 20 years, and his brand strategy breakdowns have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people online.

But when Sammy asked Es Chandra what advice he'd give his younger self, his answer wasn't about funnels or ad spend. 👉 It was, "Just chill the fuck out."

In this episode, Sammy sits down with Es Chandra, founder of Glide Agency and one of Perth's most respected marketing strategists, for a conversation that goes way beyond social media tips.

Es breaks down the real reasons most beauty and wellness businesses struggle with marketing, and it starts long before the ads are turned on. From booking systems that undo the work your content is doing, to businesses offering so many services that clients can't figure out what to book, to the difference between a brand and a logo, this episode is a strategy reset for anyone who's been guessing their way through growth.

In this episode:

👉Why most beauty businesses have a strategy problem, not a content problem
👉 What your website actually needs before you spend a cent on advertising
👉 Hero products vs. foot-in-the-door offers, and how to use both
👉 The "law of least resistance" behind McDonald's, Aldi, and Kmart, and how to apply it to your salon
👉 Google Ads vs. Meta Ads: when to use which and why
👉 Agency vs. in-house marketing: how to decide what's right for your stage
👉 Why building a personal brand is the most underused growth lever in the beauty industry
👉 The burnout, the ego, and the moment Es realized his business needed to match his life, not the other way around

This is one of those episodes you'll want to listen to twice. Once for the marketing frameworks, and once for the life lesson buried at the end.

Connect with Es Chandra: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/es_chandra/

Website: https://glideagency.com.au/

I want to empower women in the beauty industry to create an impact, build an empire, and leave their legacy. Ready to become an industry powerhouse? Get more clients, more income, and your time back without burning out. Be among the first to access exclusive scripts, strategies, and systems to get booked, banked, and in demand. https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/booked-banked-and-in-demand

If you have any questions about the episode, or have a burning question you'd like me to answer on the show, or if you'd like to join our movement of ambitious beauty leaders, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/

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

Her first employee was ready to leave the day after she went on maternity leave.
She was 38 weeks pregnant.
The stress was so severe her doctor induced her early.

And that was just the beginning.

In this episode, Sammy sits down with Isla Grace MacPherson — beauty salon owner, mum of two, and the woman behind one of Perth's fastest-growing brow and lash studios.

But this isn't a story of overnight success.

Isla started in her childhood bedroom with a dining chair pulled from the kitchen table. She had no clients, no qualifications worth bragging about, and at one point, she waxed her friend's entire arms before realising she had no strips.

When COVID hit, she turned a spare room into a home salon with nothing but a wax pot, a set of brow dyes, and 300 Instagram followers. Within months, she was fully booked. But being fully booked wasn't a business — it was a trap.

So she signed a lease, took a $50K loan under her partner's name, and started building the fitout from hell. Then she found out she was pregnant.

This episode gets into all of it:
👉 How a surprise pregnancy mid-fitout nearly derailed everything
👉 The employee who agreed to stay through Christmas — then resigned at midnight via email
👉 Why she was induced early due to extreme business-related stress
👉 The moment she sat in a termination clinic for her second pregnancy because she was terrified of losing the business
👉 How her partner Shawn took a personal loan, built the fitout by hand, and held the family together
👉 What a $45K surprise tax bill teaches you about actually understanding your numbers
👉 The $130K fitout reality vs. the $50K fantasy — and what she'd do differently
👉 Going from 300 followers to 15K and a post that reached 36 million people
👉 How she went from working 6 days a week on clients to 2 days on the tools and 1 CEO day
👉 Why she cut her own eyelashes with scissors as a kid — and how those same girls now pay to sit in her chair

If you're juggling kids, clients, a team, a fitout, or just trying to figure out how to build something real without losing yourself in the process — this one's for you.

Connect with Isla:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/islagrace/
Website: https://islagracebbs.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/isla.macpherson.7/

If this episode hit home, take a screenshot, share it to your stories and tag @beautyindustryleaders and @sammykennedycoach — we'd love to hear your biggest takeaway.

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