Never Not Building by Andrew Raso

Rose Rayner made enough money to retire in her twenties, then came back and built a supplement company despite thinking most supplements were “expensive urine.”One collagen product changed her mind, and she spent seven years building the version she thought should exist.Today, Calmerceuticals is growing fast, Rose is aiming for a $1B brand, and the business is preparing to push further into the US.In this episode we get into stepping away from business young, why retirement didn’t stick, the seven year product development process, resilience over passion, the days that nearly broke her, handling online criticism, sell outs and retention, scaling without a traditional marketing calendar, what consumers get wrong about supplements, and the US expansion.Appreciate you listening. If you got something from this episode, a like, comment or share really does help us reach more people. Follow Never Not Building and I’ll see you on the next one.

Every car dealer group in Australia said the risk was too big. Matt Wright took it, and sold the business six years later to Toyota Tsusho for $120M.Matt arrived in Australia at 20 with a backpack and a working holiday visa, and worked his way through sales floors in Melbourne before founding Cars4Us in 2019. The business was built on a single move nobody else in the industry would touch, paying customers for their car on the spot, before he ever had possession of it. That decision became the reason customers picked him over the established groups, and it was the foundation for scaling to 260 staff and matching the market leader on volume within 60 days.We talk about:- Why growing up around money can be more of a disadvantage than an advantage- How to spot an opportunity in a market that everyone else has written off- Scaling a team, culture, and business without outside investors- Knowing when to sell, even when the business is still growing- What life actually feels like on the other side of a nine figure exit- Why he's now putting his own money behind three founders instead of building another company himselfMatt is one of my good friends, and this is a conversation I've been wanting to have with him on the record for a long time. If you've ever taken a risk that everyone around you said was too big, his story is the one to listen to.Streaming now on all major podcast platforms.

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 craftIf 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 LawWhy Tom believes a tough start isn't a wound, it's a weaponThe defining case where Sterling Legal took on one of the biggest firms on the Eastern seaboard and wonThe €380 million Picasso family / Louvre Abu Dhabi dealWhy he describes Sterling Legal's litigation style as "carrying a baseball bat even in family law"The truth about how the legal industry actually operatesHow AusRelief went from a backyard BBQ to feeding a million people across 17 countriesThe submarine expedition for Sons of Lebanon. Recovering the bodies of 44 people who drowned fleeing LebanonWhat being awarded the OAM does and doesn't change about how you feel in your own countryWhy AI is coming for half the legal industry, and what it can never replaceHis advice to any kid being told they started too far behindIf 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.Follow Never Not Building so you don't miss what's next.

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