Welcome To Delusional: Why I Ended Beauty Industry Leaders To Build Something Bigger

I just ended the Beauty Industry Leaders Podcast.

Not because I'm stopping. Because I finally stopped procrastinating on the rebrand I've been sitting on for months.

In this episode I'm telling you exactly why I made the call, what niching down actually cost me even while it looked like it was working, and who this podcast is built for going forward: founders in the messy middle, past the launch, not yet at the level where every problem is a hundred million dollar problem.

→ Why the words "Beauty Industry Leaders" were closing doors instead of opening them
 → What niching down cost me personally, and why I built resentment towards my own brand
 → Why most business podcasts only feature founders who have already made it, and the gap that leaves for everyone else
 → Who Delusional is actually for: founders scaling from half a million to their first two, five or ten million
 → My own non-traditional path through beauty, hospitality, events, pageants, coaching and now podcasting
 → Why obsession and sacrifice are part of the deal if you actually want to build something
 → The moment that changed how I think about legacy, impact and what actually matters
 → Why building without systems means everything breaks the second you try to scale
 → Why isolating yourself is the most common mistake founders make as the pressure increases

Resources mentioned in this episode:
→ Profitable Pricing Calculator: https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/profitable-pricing-calculator
→ Breakeven Cost Calculator: https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/breakeven-cost-calculator
→ ATO Industry Benchmarks: https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/income-deductions-and-concessions/small-business-benchmarks/in-detail/beauty-services

Connect with me and join the Beauty Industry Leaders movement:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/
→ https://beautyindustryleaders.com.au/

If you have any questions about the episode, have a burning question you would like me to answer on the show, or want to join our movement of ambitious beauty leaders, connect with me and the rest of our incredible community on Instagram:
→ https://www.instagram.com/sammykennedycoach/
→ https://www.instagram.com/beautyindustryleaders/

Transcript

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The type of person that is required to build a successful business today is someone who is delusional. They wake up earlier, maybe they go to bed and they work later, who knows? But they're not the type of person who does the bare minimum. If you are a business owner and you're trying to build something incredible, it takes obsession. You obsess over everything you do, you hyperfix it, you focus, you refine, you improve. You don't just sit there and call it a day. And if we're a little bit delulu and we think that way and we're crazy enough to follow through with it, if you got given that gift to have the idea and the tenacity and the grit to follow through with it, what a blessing. Ideas don't mean anything until they're put into action. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Beauty Industry Leaders Podcast. Or should I say the last episode of the Beauty Industry Leaders Podcast? And before you freak out, no, I'm not stopping the podcast. I finally made the decision to rebrand it. And I've been procrastinating on it for a long time. I know what direction that I want to go in. And after spending many months thinking about, okay, how will I do it? And will I have a launch party and what's the new branding going to look like? I just kept finding more excuses to delay it. But I've made the decision. It's time. I'm just doing it. And so welcome to the very first episode of the Delusional podcast with Sammy Kennedy. I have had such an incredible experience building an audience, building a community, and providing business support within the beauty industry. However, I know that I am meant for so much more. And with the ongoing opportunities I've had, whether it's been speaking gigs or whether it's been networking events, I'm meeting people and they want to work with me. They want the support in their business. But because they see the word beauty industry leaders, it kind of puts them off. They don't associate me with being someone that can help them because I niched. And so I did all the things that everyone tells you to do. You know, niche hard and make yourself known in that industry for that specialty. But as someone who does not usually fit into a box, that whole idea of niching actually put me into a bit of a negative spiral. I started building resentment, I started feeling really uninspired. And as time's gone on, I realize it's not that I hate what I do, I just don't enjoy putting myself into this box that everyone says you should be in. And when I looked at the beauty industry, there's so much hierarchy, and you know, it's always the same people at the top, and there's no real innovation or support for people who are new and upcoming, and I'm not gonna try to fight that. I have always been someone who just paves my own way, and so I'm gonna continue doing that, and it's time to evolve, so welcome. Now, the story behind delusional. I think you have to be a little bit delusional to want to run a business in 2026. We are constantly having to fight new laws and government rules, and small businesses just do not get a break from the government. And I don't want this to become a political thing, but I'm just saying, like as a founder, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you are battling things that are just out of your control. Inflation, economic conditions, we had the fuel prices, tariffs, like war. There is just so much going on, we don't get a break. And for you to risk income, stability, and security, whether you're not taking a paycheck, whether you're putting your house on the line, whether you're choosing to invest all your savings into a fit out or new RD for a product launch, so many founders are feeling it at the moment. And when you look at the podcasts like Diary of a CEO or other business podcasts, usually you're hearing from entrepreneurs who have already made it. They've already got the book deal, they've already hired the hundreds of staff, and they have been featured in Forbes. They've got this big media personality, they've got all the awards, the reps under their belt. But what about the business owners who are maybe making half a million dollars and they're like, how the hell do I get to $2 million? Or they're making $2 million and they're trying to scale to their first five or $10 million. Those are the types of conversations that don't usually end up happening because you're going to these events, these conferences, listening to podcasts, and the people that you're learning from, while they are incredible at what they do and they have so much knowledge and power to share, usually their problems are at a much higher level. Because when you're trying to relate to someone who's making $100 million and the problems that come with that, it may not be as relevant to the business owner who's doing half a million dollars. And so the delusional podcast is for the founders who are in the messy middle. They've already got the business and the brand idea. It's been conceptualized, it's been launched, but they're usually in that scaling phase. Maybe they're still in the first three to five years and they're just trying to figure it all out. There's so many sacrifices we make. There's so many times where we just want to give up. And let's not even get started about how lonely it can feel when you're carrying all this pressure and this stress and this responsibility. But the people around you, maybe they don't support you, maybe they don't understand it, or maybe they're kind of questioning, are you sure this is a good idea? And as much as you have this belief in the vision of what you're creating and what you want to build, what you're striving to build, sometimes the people around you are going to call you crazy. They are going to label you as delusional. And so this podcast that is for you. If you're the delusional person who's got the big vision, the idea, the dream, and you are chasing it, you're putting everything on the line, and you know that you want to make more impact, you don't want to play small, then we're welcoming conversations with other founders who are going through the same thing. We're getting experts and specialists in different areas that can support you with your business operations. And of course, I'll be sharing the raw, real, and vulnerable behind the scenes of my own journey. Something that I don't think is spoken enough about is the importance of learning from different people. What I previously found, especially when I was in the beauty industry, is that everyone loves to learn from the same people and they do the same strategies and they copy the same thing, and there's no real innovation or point of difference. And so you've got all these replicas of the same kind of strategy or model. And while some are really effective, sometimes the potency or the success of a strategy really starts to wear down because it's just been done too many times. It doesn't have that same innovative impact. And in my journey in business, I have had quite a non-traditional introduction to business. I've had exposure to entertainment, events, hospitality. I also have run a beauty salon, I've done coaching and consulting, I've run a beauty pageant, and now doing a podcast studio and podcast. There's been exposure to modeling, photography, videography, like there's just so many different things that I've either had to learn, I've experienced, or I've gained skills and knowledge in. And I believe that is what makes me have the mindset and the strategy and approach to business that I have today. I take the best of what I've found in different industries, and then I come and apply that to the thing that I'm working on. And that's what I want this whole podcast to do is find all the delusional people who are building something incredible, who are thinking outside of the box, who are testing society's normal standards or going against the norm, and you know, they don't care. They just don't care about what everyone else has to say. They don't care if they're wrong or right. They just believe in themselves and they know that what they're doing is meaningful, it's impactful, and no one can stop them. So when I was going through, okay, why am I doing this rebrand? Like, what is the intention behind it? It is to create that platform of connection and community that a lot of people lack when you're playing at a higher level. The higher up you get, the more lonely it becomes because you become less relatable. And when you start to have some level of success, people will get triggered, they'll feel threatened by it, or they'll almost try to talk you out of it. Because what it does is it creates this mirror where the person who's telling you you shouldn't do that, or they're questioning you, or feeding this doubt into you, they're starting to see, well, we both started here and you're going on this trajectory, but I'm kind of staying down here. And so people will try to pull you down, they will try and make you feel like what you're doing is crazy and that you should stop. And if you're in that situation and you're like, you know what, I just need some motivation, I need someone to connect with, some inspiration, like pop this into your earphones because I'm with you. We're on this journey together. So if you haven't heard about my story and where I've come from, hi, I'm Sammy Kennedy and I am a multi-industry founder. I've been involved in different businesses across different industries, as mentioned before. But I think more importantly, I'm just someone who is willing to give it a red hot crack. I don't think that I know all the answers or that everything I say is perfect and will get you the best business result. But I do know that through a lot of failure and trial and error, I've learned so much. And if you're ever scared of taking a risk or being wrong or falling flat on your face and questioning, oh my gosh, why did I put so much time and energy into this launch or this business and it didn't work out? I've been through that too, and that's why I want to help you. So often we see social media and we see these highlight reels about how perfect everything is and how much money people make and the cars they drive and the houses that they have. And growing up in the country, I started to realize that that stuff doesn't really matter. When you have a family member who has dementia and they start to go downhill and they forget everything and lose their whole quality of life, you have a completely different perspective on life. You start to go, okay, how am I going to live this to the fullest? And how do I want to be remembered? How do I want people to feel? What kind of impact do I want to make in the world? Because you can't take all the material things to the grave. And so if you build the business, if you create the product or the service that you know can change lives, if you scale that, like what a blessing. And if we're a little bit Dululu and we think that way and we're crazy enough to follow through with it, if you got given that gift to have the idea and the tenacity and the grit to follow through with it, what a blessing. Like, keep going. Because at the end of the day, there's a lot of people out there who have all these ideas and they're all talk, but at the end of the day, ideas don't mean anything until they're put into action. You know something that no one tells you about with starting a business now is how much risk that you have to put on the line to get started. Like it's actually quite simple if you think about it. We've got AI, we've got social media, like there's never been a better time to start a business in terms of opportunities, exposure, and marketing. But the hard part is actually learning how to stay in business. You know, the whole sacrificing your income to then inject more cash flow, reinvest, improve the brand, hire team members, get new equipment. Like there's a lot of sacrifice that does come with success. And a lot of the time, it might take five years before you start seeing anything slightly significant, but then even a decade to two decades before it really starts to compound and show you the significance of all the hard time and energy you put in. And when we look at what kind of world we're living in, it's instant gratification. It's everything needs to be easy. We don't want anything that's inconvenient or takes too much time or seems like too much effort. And so the type of person that is required to build a successful business today is someone who is delusional. They wake up earlier, maybe they go to bed and they work later, who knows? But they're not the type of person who does the bare minimum. If you are a business owner and you're trying to build something incredible, it takes obsession. You obsess over everything you do, you hyper-fixate, you focus, you refine, you improve. You don't just sit there and call it a day. And, you know, I've spoken about this before where there's a lot of people that say, yes, and find the balance and don't burn out. But that doesn't come until after you've invested a significant amount of time and energy into refining your product, your service, or your business before you can actually take that step away. Otherwise, if you do everything in balance, it's going to be a slower journey. And you know, maybe that's what you want to do, but people aren't aware of the amount of time and effort it takes to get into some level of where you feel like your business is actually worth it. From my experience, the first three years is usually you just finding your feet. You're figuring out what your brand is, what type of clientele you want to attract, the client journey and experience is getting refined, you're building out those systems, you're thinking, okay, how do we actually build a solid foundation to then scale? Now, if you go down the scaling route, it could look like more employees, it could look like more locations, it could look like being able to distribute your knowledge, your experience, your product online across a global audience. Like who knows? There's so many different ways to actually scale a business. And so you have to build that infrastructure first before you can take that next step and try to scale it. If you scale something with no systems, it will break. And the other thing is making sure that you have solid cash flow and you know you're building up cash reserves before you start to jump into all these big risky projects. Now, as you're building that business and you're starting to scale, what will happen is your nervous system will go into overdrive. You'll either be loving it because you thrive under pressure, or you'll be very overwhelmed because there's so much energy that it requires of you. And as the business starts to scale, what can happen is you start hitting all these milestones and all these achievements, and then you feel like you're kind of reaching the top, but you realize what you've had to sacrifice to get there. Maybe it's health, maybe it's relationships, maybe it's just not being able to have any time for yourself anymore. And then you feel like it's never enough. And so you start seeking more through the achievements, the external success, validation. And if you get that, it's a short fix for a long-term problem. But if you don't get it, you just feel even more burnt out and drained. And so as you're starting to build this beast of a business, it's so important that you have some kind of support system in place. Whether it is you essentially dating yourself and taking that time out for some self-care, like obviously, not every week you can have a whole day to yourself, but even if it's something small that you do each day or an hour, amazing. But also, do you have a great family or a partner or friend or someone that you can go to in those times where you're feeling down? Because the worst thing that we do is we isolate ourselves, we push other people away, and we think, you know what, I'll just keep pushing through. When really we just need someone to either hold us or support us or be there with us. And as you start to grow, the business gets more pressure, more stress, more responsibility, and you've got to learn how to start letting go, how to let go of the need for everything to be so perfect, to know that sometimes things aren't always gonna go to plan. You will make mistakes, it will be hard, but you will survive. And then to build the right team, the right structure. Like sometimes you've got to burn your business down and rebuild it as well. The type of model, the type of roles that you have with it, the type of systems and processes, it might only work until a certain stage. And then as you start to get bigger and bigger, things start to change, different processes come into play. You need higher-level employees, you need to have a better support system. So the reason why I'm talking through this journey is because we are in this day and age where everyone thinks that if you don't make a million dollars or you don't make $10 million within the first 12 months, you're a failure. You always see the Forbes, you know, 30 under 30, and you look at those people, or the 40 under 40, and they're like, how are they getting all this money? Or how are they building this massive audience and going viral? Like, we always compare to the one in a million kind of people. And for most of us, that is not always going to be the case. The best businesses will be built through a lot of trial and error and just consistency over a long period of time. You have to be consistent, but you can't just be consistent with no strategy. Being able to have that self-awareness, reflect back on what I am doing to improve? How can I like learn something from this experience? What needs to change? Do I need to get extra support? So, delusional, in a nutshell, this is the new chapter. This is bringing you on the journey to wanting to make millions and figuring out how the hell do you actually do it? Who do you need on your side? What skills do you need to invest in? What support? What systems, what structure? How do you actually navigate the personal side, whether it's relationships, whether it's burnout, whether it's that feeling of no matter what you do, it's never enough. And also just being able to switch off sometimes. Like I don't want this podcast to constantly be about you have to implement this strategy and you have to do this thing, and you walk away feeling like, oh my gosh, I have an even bigger to-do list. The other part of it is just introducing you to different founders who have gone through similar struggles or are learning along the way, or maybe they're in the messy middle and you hear their story and you can reach out to them. I know business can feel like it's a lot sometimes, and I want to assure you that we are on this journey, you and me together. Each Monday, we'll still be dropping incredible episodes. I have some awesome guests that are going to be coming onto the podcast very shortly. So please, if you haven't already hit subscribe, make sure you're subscribed to the channel so you don't miss out. And thank you so much for supporting me in this journey and entering this new chapter. Have an amazing week, and I will catch you for the next episode. Bye.