What does it take to go from an eleven-year-old kid in a Bosnian war zone with no electricity for eight months, to the Sydney Olympics, to the World Barista Championship title, to building one of Australia's most influential coffee empires?

In this episode of Never Not Building, I sit down with Sasa Sestic, founder of Ona Coffee.

Sasa's family fled three wars before landing in Australia in 1997. He grew up moving house twenty times in seven years, dodging tanks and sleeping through nights with no power. Handball got him to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and when sport ended at twenty-three, he was lost.

What came next was seven straight years of losing the Australian Barista Championship, with judges telling him his English was too poor, his accent too thick, that he didn't belong. He kept going. On the seventh attempt he won Australia, then he won the world.

Today, Ona Coffee employs 160 people and Sasa owns three coffee farms across Central America. He pioneered a fermentation technique borrowed from wine that changed how coffee is processed globally, and through Project Origin he works with more than 200 farmers, funding wells that give over 7,000 people clean drinking water every day.

This is a story about refusing to quit when everyone tells you to, about building a team that stays for a decade, and about what happens when you stop chasing the perfect cup and start chasing something bigger.

What we get into:

- How a war-zone childhood built the resilience that carried him through the #Olympics and running a business

- Why he never once thought about quitting after six championship losses

- The 2006 night his own team walked out on him, and how he sold every cafe he owned except one

- Why he bought a coffee farm by accident on a trip meant to buy beans, and named it after his wife

- The "bus analogy" that lets him keep World Champions on staff for years

- Why the most expensive coffee on his menu earns the smallest margin, and why that's the point

- Whether Australia still has the best coffee in the world, and where the crown is going next

- The truth about the $5.50 flat white and why so many cafes are closing

- How AI is changing coffee operations without touching the craft

If you've ever been told to quit, watched people around you win while you kept losing, or wondered whether obsession alone is enough to build something that lasts, this one's for you.

What does it take to go from a two-year-old refugee with nothing to the Order of Australia, a respected Sydney law firm, and a charity feeding over a million people?

In this episode of Never Not Building, I sit down with Tom Zreika OAM, Managing Partner of Sterling Legal and Co-Founder of AusRelief. Tom's family fled war-torn Lebanon when he was two years old, arriving in Australia with nothing. He grew up in Western Sydney as the only Lebanese kid at his school, where the daily reality was a quadrangle full of fights and a detention centre across the road.

Today, he runs one of Sydney's most aggressive law firms, takes on the biggest names on the Eastern seaboard and wins, and has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to law, community, and local government. Alongside the firm, he co-founded AusRelief. The charity now operates in 17 countries and has fed over a million people.

50 years on, he'll still tell you straight that he doesn't fully feel accepted in this country.

This is a story about disadvantage as advantage, building twice - once for yourself, once for everyone else and what 24 years of fighting for the people the system forgets actually buys you.

What we get into:

• How a refugee kid from disadvantaged Western Sydney schools ended up at Harvard Law

• Why Tom believes a tough start isn't a wound, it's a weapon

• The defining case where Sterling Legal took on one of the biggest firms on the Eastern seaboard and won

• The €380 million Picasso family / Louvre Abu Dhabi deal

• Why he describes Sterling Legal's litigation style as "carrying a baseball bat even in family law"

• The truth about how the legal industry actually operates

• How AusRelief went from a backyard BBQ to feeding a million people across 17 countries

• The submarine expedition for Sons of Lebanon. Recovering the bodies of 44 people who drowned fleeing Lebanon

• What being awarded the OAM does and doesn't change about how you feel in your own country

• Why AI is coming for half the legal industry, and what it can never replace

• His advice to any kid being told they started too far behind

If you've ever been told you started too far behind, or wondered whether you can build a serious business and give something real back, this one's for you.

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$3B under management. 30 years. 8 acquisitions. Surviving the GFC. Keith Jones reveals where the wealthy actually invest.

This week on Never Not Building, I sit down with Keith Jones, CEO of Alteris Financial Group and one of the sharpest minds in Australian wealth management. With over $3 billion in funds under management and three decades scaling one of the country's most trusted wealth firms - through eight acquisitions, the GFC, and now the rise of AI. Keith has seen every cycle worth learning from.

What we get into:

- Where the drive to build actually comes from

- The mindset that separates real founders from idea collectors

- Surviving the GFC and what it taught Keith about leadership

- Scaling through acquisition without losing the culture

- The future of financial advice in an AI driven industry

- What 30 years in the game taught him about trust

If you're building a business, managing investments, or trying to read the next economic cycle - this one's essential listening.

Guy Nappa didn't set out to build a $100M empire. He started packing boxes in his family's warehouse during school holidays.

Today he's the COO and Co-Owner of Oz Hair & Beauty - 30 stores, $100M in revenue, and Australia's #1 e-commerce executive two years running.

In this episode Guy unpacks the unglamorous side of scaling fast. The systems that saved them. The mistakes that cost them. The nights things went catastrophically wrong. And the mindset of three brothers who built something extraordinary together without losing the family along the way.

Honest, specific and packed with lessons for any founder in the middle of building.

If you enjoy conversations about leadership, resilience, and building from the ground up, follow Never Not Building and share the episode with someone in your network.

What does it take to defend people when the stakes are life changing?

In this episode of Never Not Building, I sit down with criminal defence lawyer Jahan Kalantar, founder of Executive Law Group and one of the most recognizable legal voices online.

Jahan has built a reputation for fearless advocacy in the courtroom and sharp insight on social media. But behind the headlines is a story about resilience, identity, and building a modern professional brand in an old school industry.

We unpack the mindset required when your work involves defending people in some of the most high pressure situations imaginable, and how Jahan turned law, content, and purpose into a powerful platform.

What we get into:

• The reality of defending clients in serious criminal cases

• The moment Jahan knew he had a future in criminal law

• Why some cases cross a personal line for him

• Growing up as a Middle Eastern Australian and navigating bias

• Building a law firm with purpose and reputation

• The rise of legal commentary on TikTok and global attention during Depp v Heard

• Turning thought leadership into opportunity

• Why empathy and conviction matter more than image

If you enjoy conversations about leadership, resilience, and building from the ground up, follow Never Not Building and share the episode with someone in your network. You'll find the episode on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcasts.

Belonging is rarely instant; it’s built slowly through consistency, credibility, and trust.
In this episode, we sit down with Monika Tu, one of Australia’s leading figures in luxury real estate and a standout agent on Luxe Listings Sydney.
As the founder and CEO of Black Diamonds Group, Monika specialises in representing ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with a strong focus on the Asian luxury property market, including Chinese buyers, and international high-net-worth clients seeking prestige Sydney real estate.
Her work spans off-market luxury homes, trophy properties, and high-value transactions across Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, where discretion, cultural fluency, and long-term trust are essential. Monika’s deep understanding of cross-border property investment, Asian buyer expectations, and global wealth migration has positioned her as a trusted advisor in the international luxury real estate space.
But her journey wasn’t linear. After starting over in a new country, Monika navigated identity, culture, and leadership in an industry where credibility isn’t given, it’s earned.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Monica positioned Black Diamonds Group in the luxury market
- Building authority and credibility without an existing network
- How trust is earned with ultra high net worth clients
- Managing growth while protecting brand standards
- Staying disciplined as visibility and opportunity increase
Worth watching if you’re in a season of growth or reset. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Commercial property has long been seen as an exclusive game. In this episode, Scott O’Neill breaks that belief apart.

Scott is a former civil engineer who engineered his own path to financial freedom by 28 and went on to build one of Australia’s most influential property investment groups. We unpack what it really takes to scale wealth, manage risk like a professional, and build a business that outlives you.

This is a grounded, honest conversation about patience, discipline, and thinking in decades, not deals.

In this episode, we cover:

- Why cash flow is the real foundation of long term wealth

- The shift from employee thinking to owner thinking

- How Scott evaluates risk without emotion

- Lessons from helping 1,800+ clients build property portfolios

- What most investors get wrong about commercial property

Streaming now on all major podcast platforms.

If this episode added value, subscribe to Never Not Building and share it with someone who’s serious about building long term wealth.

Leave a comment with your biggest takeaway and let us know who you want to see on the podcast next!

Jeremy Cabral spent nearly two decades helping build Finder into a global platform used by tens of millions of people each year.

In this episode of Never Not Building, we talk through how that growth actually happened and what had to be in place for it to last.

We cover:

- How Finder used content and SEO as long term infrastructure

- Why flywheels mattered more than targets or milestones

- Decisions that protected trust as the business scaled

- What changes when a company grows to hundreds of people

- The point where health and energy became limiting factors

- How AI and content now affect business visibility

Streaming now on all major podcast platforms.

Ravi Sharma is the founder of Search Property and the voice behind one of Australia’s largest real estate YouTube channels. What started as a way to document his own investing journey turned into a platform that now drives trust, education, and real outcomes for thousands of people.

In this episode, Ravi breaks down how he built his property portfolio alongside a growing business, why YouTube became his long term play, and how being himself online helped him stand out in a crowded industry. We also get into regional versus metro investing, rent vesting, delayed gratification, and the deal that taught him the most.

If you’re building a business, a portfolio, or a personal brand, there’s a lot in this conversation that will land.

What does it take to turn a pair of scissors and an idea into a global activewear brand?

In this episode of Never Not Building, Andrew Raso sits down with Vic Gigliotti, founder and CEO of Muscle Republic, the Australian fitness label built on heart, hustle, and community.

From hitting rock bottom and sleeping in his warehouse, to building one of the country’s most-loved activewear brands, Vic shares the raw truth behind entrepreneurship; the setbacks, the breakthroughs, and the relentless mindset that kept him moving.

If you’re building a brand, leading a team, or chasing your own comeback story, this episode is a must-watch.