You're in Charge

Casey Treloar on risk, mentors, and the cost of the opportunity you never took. From packing up her life for Tasmania to buying a cow ranked number one in the country on her DNA, she explains why she's been a yes man all her life, and why she's now learning to say no. Full episode of You're In Charge out now.

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The family farm couldn't continue, and Casey Treloar knew there was a story to tell. Her dad wasn't ready to share it, so she asked if she could, filmed a live video in the paddock, and woke up to hundreds of thousands of views. Casey on vulnerability, advocacy, and what it gave her dad. Full episode of You're In Charge out now.

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The most expensive opportunity is the one you never took.

That's how Casey Treloar thinks about risk, and it has shaped her whole career. Casey reports for Seven News Adelaide, runs a livestock business on the side, and says cows literally created her career in media.

When her family's dairy farm couldn't continue, Casey asked her parents if she could tell their story. Then she filmed a live video in the paddock, surrounded by the cows. By the next morning it had hundreds of thousands of views. Her lesson: we can never be afraid of vulnerability, because that's what people connect to, and that's what makes them listen.

She's honest that there's a lot of hardship in agriculture. She's just as clear that there's a lot of beauty in it too, even in the moments that can be gruesome.

So she's learned to say yes. Learning to become a yes man, and to accept the opportunities that come along the way, means you never settle for second best.

In the final episode of Season 2, Casey sits down with Sav Perera to share the full story, from the farm to the newsroom.

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Casey Treloar reports for Seven News Adelaide by day, and breeds and shows dairy cattle in her spare time. In this final episode of Season 2, she sits down with Sav Perera to talk about how cows created her media career.

Casey shares how a quirky Celebrity Milk Off at the Royal Adelaide Show led to work experience, then a job, at Channel 7. She explains why she believes we only put up our own barriers, and how she's pushed through in two male dominated industries.

She also opens up about the moment her family's farm couldn't continue, the live video she filmed in the paddock, and what it taught her about vulnerability. From handling online negativity to finding beauty in the hard moments of farming, Casey is honest about all of it.

Sav and Casey dig into risk, saying yes to opportunity, and the lesson of learning to say no. Casey also shares what she wants to master this year, including how to tell the story of a red cow named Ruffles.

Recorded on Kaurna Land. You're In Charge is brought to you by ThincHer, an initiative of ThincLab at Adelaide University.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:40 Breaking into agriculture and media

02:51 How cows created a media career

04:05 Balancing two passions

04:59 Breaking through male dominated industries

06:27 Schools, pathways and the next generation

09:02 Around the Barn and finding a mentor

10:35 When the family farm couldn't continue

14:26 Handling criticism online

17:30 Why farmers need to share their stories

19:56 The beauty and the hardship

21:02 Risk, opportunity and never settling

24:06 Learning to say no

26:05 Self-care and what cows mean to her

28:21 Why cows

30:35 Innovation, genetics and the future of dairy

33:52 What Casey wants to master this year

36:35 Sav's takeaways and wrap up

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A dad who wanted out, a husband ready to sell, and a founder who wasn't ready. Sheree Sullivan on leading the sale of Udder Delights, keeping a stake, and the backlash that followed. Full episode of You're In Charge out now.

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Sheree Sullivan on the profit percent question she couldn't answer, the HR dispute she handballed, and why she asks what the lesson is the moment something hurts. Full episode of You're In Charge out now.

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Sheree Sullivan went from a jazz piano degree to running one of Australia's leading Brie and Camembert makers. Her family's goat dairy, Udder Delights, came close to going under more than once, and she says pain has been her biggest teacher.

In this conversation with host Sav Perera, Sheree shares the costing wake-up call that changed how she ran the business, the HR lesson she learned after handing a hard conversation to someone else, and why she now asks "what's the lesson?" the moment something hurts.

She also opens up about selling Udder Delights while grieving her mum, why the dollar value is only one part of a sale, and what she did differently the second time around with Grünthal Brew.

If you're starting out, you'll hear her practical advice: know your profit percent, get a bookkeeper, work out what you're prepared to sacrifice, and do an organisational chart of every role in your business to find your first hire.

Recorded on Kaurna Land. You're In Charge is brought to you by ThincHer, an initiative of ThincLab at Adelaide University.

Chapter timestamps

00:00 Welcome to season two and meet Sheree

01:20 From jazz piano to cheese and brewing

03:55 A family of side hustles and a goat dairy

07:52 Learning to make cheese when nobody else could

09:59 Doing everything when you start a business

11:08 Fail fast and the five year commitment

12:00 The profit percent wake-up call

16:14 The HR lesson

18:52 Cash flow, sacrifice and Rich Dad Poor Dad

21:49 Near bankruptcy: metal in the cheese and the insurance fight

24:07 Where the motivation comes from

25:32 Selling Udder Delights

32:59 Why start again? Finding the why behind Grünthal Brew

35:23 The practice night panic attack

38:33 What's different the second time around

41:05 From doing to leading: the org chart

44:29 Letting go of control: boundaries, values and systems

48:50 Advice: finish what you start, and what you're prepared to sacrifice

52:04 Get a bookkeeper

55:14 What Sheree wants to master

56:48 Sav's takeaways

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Sheree Sullivan didn't buy her first house until she was 40.

Before that she lived in a shed, then a shop, then a flat, and kept putting her money back into investments and the business. A friend called her the poster child for delayed gratification.

The hardest part wasn't the hours. When her dad and her husband both said they wanted out of Udder Delights, Sheree wasn't ready. She led the sale anyway. She says she was grieving while she was leaving, because the business was her baby.

Then came the backlash. She was very sick when the sale closed, the news reached the media before she could tell people herself, and online the comments said she'd sold out. She had risked everything for 20 years, finally taken the risk off the table, and kept the business in South Australia. She says plainly that she was angry.

It's a different picture of success than the one most founders post about. It looks like waiting, sacrificing, and letting go of the thing you built.

Host Sav Perera's takeaway is a good one to carry into your own business: the thing that scares you about it can be the thing that empowers you to take risks and go further.

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Andrea names the financial jargon that makes business feel like a closed club to a lot of women, then talks about the Women in Business program she started in government to close that gap. From there the conversation turns personal: imposter syndrome, "fake it till you make it," and her own self-talk, "tough it up, princess," the thing she actually tells herself when it gets hard.

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Andrea moves from why nobody starts a business "perfect" into the part guests rarely say out loud: she's bad at fitness, feels like there's never enough hours in the day, and hasn't figured out work-life balance so much as learned to be present wherever she is. She talks through burnout, the things politics has taught her are simply out of her control, and closes with her message to young women in business, it's your baby, arm yourself with the skills and do it.

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