If business feels especially hard for you right now, it's time to turn this attitude upside down and inside out.In this episode, I draw on Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, as well as 18 years in self-employment, with a hefty dose of unhinged dose of perimenopause-fuelled candour, to offer you something far better than toxic positivity: hard fun. You'll hear:

• How to turn "it'll get easier" into what's actually true
• A gloriously honest list of what is genuinely hard about self-employment, from having your prices negotiated by strangers, to being shut out of rooms where decisions are being made, to psyching yourself up every single morning to believe this whole thing is a great idea
• The compounding long-term payoffs of staying in business that nobody talks about
• Forget consistency, instead we examine why agility of mind is the key thing that keeps you in thriving, profitable business for years to come.

If business feels hard right now, this episode reframes what that actually means. Your deposit hasn't yet reached maturity, that's all. Keep going.

Australians suffer from two different, but related phenomena: tall poppy syndrome and underdog worship. These are especially harmful for business owners' growth and happiness.

This episode pulls apart what happens when Australia's egalitarian instincts curdle into a culture that punishes ambition, using Pauline Hanson's "cattle class" jet stunt as the case study in performative humility. We explore why moaners aren't underdogs, how jealousy is actually useful data, and has joy is the antidote.

You'll learn:

• Why tall poppy syndrome isn't just a vibe – it's something 1 in 3 Australian workers can name happening to them
• Why nearly 70% of ambitious Australians won't say the word "ambition" out loud – and the one-word swap that I use that gets around this
• The Pauline Hanson jet story, broken down flight by flight — and why "I flew cattle class" might be the most calculated line in Australian politics this year
• What happens when you combine tall poppy syndrome with underdog worship (hint: it's a marketing weapon, and you've definitely fallen for it)
• Why jealousy isn't a character flaw – and the one question that turns it into your most useful business intel
• The line between sharing a genuine low and performing victimhood for reach — and why most "vulnerable" content on your feed often fails that test
• Our most popular Momentum Mastermind channel – and why it's full of dogs

If you've ever wanted to celebrate a massive milestone in your business before realising that you've got nowhere to do so - this one's for you.

What if more revenue, more clients, more team, more growth are actually making your business worse?

In this episode, I discuss something I see constantly but rarely hear discussed in public: business owners who've hit impressive milestones but somehow have less money in their pockets and less joy in their days.

You'll hear:

• Why profit is a more honest metric than revenue, and how you can have a million-dollar turnover and still not be able to pay yourself properly
• The three types of profit margin and which one actually matters
• Why cost-plus pricing almost always leaves money on the table (and the $4,000 five-minute favour that proves it)

• Eight questions to ask yourself when your business has become too heavy, too complex, and too far from what you actually want

If you've ever looked at your growing business and felt a creeping sense of dread instead of pride, this one's for you.

Outgrown your marketing message? My Ignite Visibility Accelerator is where you learn to be seen, be heard, and get paid: https://hustleandheart.com.au/ignite

What if the thing you're most tempted to hide is actually the reason people choose to work with you?

If you're suffering from imposter syndrome, need more business confidence in your personal branding, and sometimes feel like you have something to prove, then this is the episode for you.

Small business owners, soloists, freelancers and entrepreneurs are often confusing their weaknesses with what could be their biggest branding advantage. Your credibility and authority isn't determined by your credentials; it's about something way more nuanced.

In this episode, we explore why self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and business insecurities aren't necessarily problems to overcome. Sometimes they're the very things that make your work more human, more memorable, and more valuable.

We unpack why trying to look professional can quietly become a form of self-censorship, why some business owners stay stuck despite having all the right qualifications, and how changing your environment can completely change the way you see yourself.

You'll learn:

• How to turn your insecurities into a genuine competitive advantage.
• Why imposter syndrome may not be the problem you think it is.
• How changing your environment can instantly change your confidence.
• Why business owners often stay stuck by comparing themselves to people in the wrong arena.
• Why I no longer worry about not having formal marketing qualifications.
• What I mean when I say "business is a verb."
• How trying to sound professional can weaken your marketing.
• Why authenticity creates stronger marketing than perfection.
• The hidden power of vulnerability in sales, marketing, and leadership.
• What the Strengths Paradox is—and how your greatest strengths can become your biggest blind spots.
• Why people connect more deeply with humanity than polished perfection.
• One simple challenge that will change how you think about your own insecurities.

We talk about marketing without using marketing jargon, the Strengths Paradox, authenticity in business, vulnerability and trust, real confidence versus performance, personal branding and business mindset.

If this conversation sparked something for you, I'd be so grateful if you left a quick review. Reviews help more values-based business owners discover the podcast, and they're one of the best ways to support the show.

Outgrown your marketing message? My Ignite Visibility Accelerator is where you learn to be seen, be heard, and get paid: https://hustleandheart.com.au/ignite

If you're feeling stuck, fed up, or perhaps even ready to throw it all in, this episode is for you.

I'm pulling back the curtain on my eight most recent sales, where each client came from, how long they'd been in my world, and what actually moved them to buy.

You'll hear:

• What my results say about where you should be focusing your marketing and sales, to sell more, more often
• How the offerings ecosystem model works, and why the old-school ascension ladder is broken
• The magical effect of compounding efforts in our marketing and why bright, shiny distraction is costing you more than you think
• Why consistency is overrated and how to get obsessed once again, when you've lost that loving feeling in your business.

This one is the counter-narrative for every business owner who's feeling frustrated, stuck, or convinced that everyone else has a secret golden lead source they're not telling you about. They don't. And this episode proves it.

More info and to register for Bingers to Buyers, my online session on June 24: https://www.hustleandheart.com.au/bingers-buyers/

What if everything you're waiting for, everything you're wanting, every dream that feels audacious to even entertain, is within your reach — if only you had the audacity to ask? Because telepathy is not a reliable marketing strategy and manifesting is not a sales strategy.

One short, sharp email in 2020 inspired one of my most popular programs – my free Life's a Pitch!® party.

Are you overcomplicating your business development? Because one-to-one pitching is the fastest, simplest, most human way to grow your business, with or without a marketing strategy, a website, or even a business name.

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Why the spammy, automated pitchers clogging your inbox every morning are actually very good news for you

2. The counterintuitive reason why saying something people expect to hear means they won't hear it at all — and what to do instead

3. The one mental shift that makes walking into a room full of strangers feel completely different

4. The thoroughly modern strategy to get your time back by stopping procrati-research, so you can pitch far more people

5. The sneaky way most people sabotage their pitches before they've written a single word

6. What the big online gurus conveniently left out of their courses about building powerful professional relationships

Resources mentioned:

Life's a Pitch!® Party — RSVP at https://hustleandheart.com.au/pitch

Brook McCarthy sits down with her client Shaye Thayer — consulting CFO, chartered accountant, and fellow financial feminist — for a conversation that is unapologetic truth-telling about the systemic barriers women face in business.

This conversation is a call to arms for women in business to pay themselves more, and will challenge the way you think about pricing, capacity, profit, and what your business could actually be worth one day.

You'll learn:

1. Why the most experienced women in the room are often the most surprised by what running their own business actually feels like — and what's really going on beneath the surface

2. The invisible ceiling that almost every service-based business owner has built into their model without realising it

3. What most men already know about their businesses that most women have never even considered

4. The specific financial habit that separates business owners who always feel cash-strapped from those who don't — and it has nothing to do with earning more

5. What Shaye got spectacularly wrong in her first years of business — despite having spent years helping other people get it right

6. The surprising thing that is considered an asset in your business that you're probably giving away for free right now

About Shaye Thyer

Shaye Thyer is a consulting CFO for women-led businesses and a chartered accountant with two decades of experience. She works specifically with founders to build profitable, sustainable businesses that deliver real financial independence. You can find her on LinkedIn and on Instagram at @shayethyer.finance. Her next round of the Scale Lab kicks off on the 29th of April.

Connect with Shaye: https://www.wearepallas.io/

What if the thing standing between you and a full client roster isn't your offer, your price, or your website but simply your willingness to sell.

In this episode, I'm joined by the brilliant Kate Cowley, accountability coach, personal trainer, and founder of a brand new gym in Sydney's Northern Beaches that went from zero to 245 members through a sheer volume of phone calls.

Kate is one of the most driven, warm, and genuinely skilled people I know, and this conversation is packed with practical gold. We get into the real reasons good people don't do the things they say they will — and it's not laziness. We talk cold calls, objections, vibe, and the surprisingly deep connection between squatting heavy and resilience in business.

You'll hear:

• The 70/30 rule of sales conversations: why the person who talks less almost always wins
• How Kate enrolled 245 gym members by doing the one thing most business owners avoid
• What to do when a prospect has every objection under the sun, and how to uncover the real one
• How structure, routine, and compartmentalisation make the hard stuff feel less hard

If you've ever talked yourself out of a follow-up email, dreaded making contact with a warm lead, or wondered how some people just seem to do the thing — this episode is for you.

What if the future of business wasn't bigger and faster, but cleaner, greener, fairer, and kinder?

In this episode, I sit down with the legendary Kylie Flamant, CEO of the Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT (SECNA), to talk about social enterprise, our relationship with money, and what it means to build a body of work that actually makes the world better.

Kylie brings rare clarity to some of the biggest questions facing values-driven business owners: how to sell something you believe in (even when you hate selling), how to price your work without guilt, and why the most radical thing you can do right now might be going hyper-local.

You'll hear:

• Why 'social enterprise' may be the business model of the future and what that means for your business
• Why the NSW Government is now actively buying from social enterprises, and why this matters even if you're a one-person operation
• Why so many good humans find themselves struggling with marketing and sales in business – and what to do about it
• The money conversation we're not having: why women receive completely different financial socialisation, and what to do about it
• Kylie's honest take on collapse, grief, and why there is hope (but it starts in your street, not on your screen)

This episode is for every business owner who was ever told that they're "unrealistic", "too idealistic", or couldn't be successful in business while being true to their values. For owners who are building something that outlasts them.

Put down your money baggage and develop your new bulletproof money attitude at Good Money March, my free live audio program: https://www.hustleandheart.com.au/good-money-march/

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Books

• Taboo — Hannah Ferguson
• Hoodie Economics — Manning Bancroft
• Donut Economics — Kate Raworth
• How to Do Nothing — Jenny Odell (author not named in episode)
• The Barefoot Investor — Scott Pape (not named directly, referred to as "the best book on money ever" / "think before invested" — likely this one based on context)

Papers & Academic Work

• Deep Adaptation — paper by Jem Bendell

Organisations & Platforms

• SECNA — Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT: secna.org.au
• Buy NSW — buy.nsw.gov.au (NSW Government procurement database)

• Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA) — social enterprise verification
• People and Planet First — global social enterprise verification standard
• Brand Kind — freelancer collective for branding and marketing

Most all people suffer from unconscious self-sabotage. If you ever find yourself arguing against the very thing you say you want, then please know, you're not alone. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain this very common (and frustrating) patterns that I see in business coaching.

Self-sabotage can show up in surprising ways and it's costing you more than you think. If you know that you're hugely talented but can't seem to move forward, or if you're a coach who struggles with clients who say they want one thing, and then do the opposite, then this one's for you. We explore our invisible barriers, the role of our identity, and the exhausting energy cost of constantly fighting against our best interests.

You'll learn:

1. Why the most successful people still wrestle with this pattern (and what they do differently)

2. The surprising connection between perfectionism and self-violence that nobody talks about

3. What negative automatic thoughts are really protecting you from

4. Why your "I am not the kind of person who..." statements give you a massive clue

5. The counterintuitive relationship between doing, being, and having that changes everything

6. How cynicism is actually grief in disguise (and what you're really mourning)

7. The one coaching question that cuts through overthinking and gets you moving again.

If you've ever felt stuck, caught yourself overthinking, or wondered why you keep getting in your own way despite knowing better, this episode is for you.