Handpicked with Naomi Simson

What's slowing your business down could become your biggest competitive advantage. James Yang, founder of Kaizen Solutions (a productivity suite for remote teams), asks Naomi Simson the hard questions every Australian startup founder faces: why do our businesses fizzle while American companies scale globally? How do you shift from selling to individuals to landing corporate clients? When do you stop competing and start acquiring? <...

Strategy is easy. Execution is where most businesses fail. In this episode, Naomi Simson sits down with Mat Wilk, founder of Ballast Point Construction and creator of the Inner West Tech & Startup community, to tackle the challenges every entrepreneur faces: how to move from planning to doing, how to build partnerships that actually work, and whether being a polymath helps or hurts your business growth.

Mat shares his belief th...

Every successful business starts with a problem worth solving. In this episode of Handpicked, Naomi Simson sits down with Mark Woodland, founder of Kismet, who's tackling one of Australia's biggest challenges: the administrative burden crushing families caring for aging parents. After successfully building and selling Explore, Mark is now automating healthcare admin for the "sandwich generation"—those caught between caring fo...

Time is your most precious resource—so why are you spending it on admin at 11pm? Naomi Simson and Slavic Teplitsky from Deel reveal exactly how to get your time back. From consolidating 16 time-sucking vendors into one streamlined platform to giving employees instant access to their earned wages (saving everyone's time), this episode is a masterclass in reclaiming hours you didn't know you had. If you're time-poor, you're sys...

Every founder says yes too often—and it's killing their business growth. Naomi Simson sits down with serial entrepreneur Sheree Andersen (founder of Elephant and Trove corporate gifting platforms) to reveal the pivotal moment in RedBalloon maturing and learning what to say no to.  Discover why business success comes from what you refuse, not what you accept. Learn business focus strategies, the cost-to-serve analysis eve...

Six kids under six. C-suite roles at Australia's biggest retail brands. A law degree completed just to prove her brothers wrong.

Amy Louise doesn't do things halfway.

From shop floor to boardrooms. Amy's built her career scaling iconic Australian retailers while raising six children in what can only be described as controlled chaos.

But here's what she wants to know: Is burnout really a badge of honour? Or are we all deceiving to o...

Liam Forde ran a big business in London. His confession? "I turned into an asshole."

So he spent the next 26 years teaching people not to be like him—creating transformation experiences for leaders across 40 countries.

Now he's relocated to Australia for his grandkids—and he's starting completely fresh. No networks. No contacts. No idea where to begin in the Australian market.

His questions are brutally honest: Where do...

January 2020. New CEO. Six-month-old baby. Seven weeks later? COVID hits.

That's how Cara McLeod stepped into the CEO role at Mahlab—and somehow that chaos became the launchpad for international growth.

But here's the problem: Mahlab does bespoke strategy work. Everything is custom. Every project needs people. More growth = more headcount. The classic service business trap.

So how do you scale what on paper looks hard to scal...

What do you do when you've built a successful business in a niche that most people don't even know exists? Oliver Lonergan went from selling lollies in primary school to running Professional Picture Hanging—a 12-person operation spanning Australia's east coast and London, with major contracts including Crown Sydney and luxury hotels. At just years out of school, he's facing the classic scale-up challenge: how do you grow from...

Join Naomi Simson as she mentors Jash Fullinfaw from The Print Bar through the critical challenges of website re-platforming, scaling print-on-demand operations, and maintaining customer experience during rapid growth. From SEO migration strategies to revenue model prioritisation, this episode delivers actionable insights for any e-commerce business navigating technology transformation while preserving what makes them special.

The ...

Join Naomi Simson in conversation with Adriana Brusi, Managing Director of CrowdsNow, as they dive deep into the real challenges of startup life. From the three critical mistakes that derail new businesses to why authentic relationships trump expensive marketing campaigns, this episode reveals the uncomfortable truths about building a business that lasts. Discover why your customers should be your best ambassadors and how to create...

Hello, I'm Naomi Simson — and we’re back with a brand new season of Handpicked, my podcast where real business owners bring me their real questions.

Season five is here (can you believe it?), and wow — the entrepreneurs have really brought the big ones this time. We’re talking about everything from how t...