Building Balmee Beauty From Concept to Rapid Growth & Lessons Learned with Co-Founder Phoebe Perring

Grab a wine, Coffee or cup of tea.... Hot takes with Millie has begun! ✨ Connect with Kaarme ✨ Käärme Jewels: https://www.instagram.com/kaarmejewelsIn Real Time with Millie, the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/inrealtimewithmillieMillie: https://www.instagram.com/millie.kaarmejewels/ ✨ Wanting to scale your brand? ✨ Ecommerce Equation is where its at:https://ecommerceequation.com.au/inrealtimewithmillie

Welcome to the new In Real Time studio! Millie shares a Kaarme team update and what this year taught her about leadership. Then she breaks down her full Q4 plan: early Black Friday access for her community, A, B and C launches, and why the real win is what you plan after Black Friday. ✨ Connect with Kaarme ✨ Käärme Jewels: https://www.instagram.com/kaarmejewelsIn Real Time with Millie, the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/inrealtimewithmillieMillie: https://www.instagram.com/millie.kaarmejewels/ ✨ Wanting to scale your brand? ✨ Ecommerce Equation is where its at:https://ecommerceequation.com.au/inrealtimewithmillie

Olivia Jean started selling bags at 15, packing orders and walking them to the post office after school. Years later, she had a bestselling Rover tote, a growing TikTok audience and a business that still wasn’t growing the way she wanted. In this episode of In Real Time with Millie, I’m talking with Olivia about building a bag brand from her bedroom, finding her hero product and learning that views don’t automatically turn into sales. We get into the months the Rover tote was sold out, taking control of her ads, creating content that shows what a product actually does and giving new launches time to find their people. Olivia is honest about the decisions behind the growth, including the ones she’d make differently now. If you’re building a product-based business, this one’s for you, queen. ✨ Connect with Olivia Jean ✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byoliviajean/Website: https://oliviajean.com.au/ ✨ Connect with Kaarme ✨ Käärme Jewels: https://www.instagram.com/kaarmejewelsIn Real Time with Millie, the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/inrealtimewithmillieMillie: https://www.instagram.com/millie.kaarmejewels/ ✨ Wanting to scale your brand? ✨ Ecommerce Equation is where its at:https://ecommerceequation.com.au/inrealtimewithmillie If you enjoyed the episode, follow the show and leave a review. It helps more founders find these conversations.

What if the smartest thing you could do for your business was stop chasing what looks successful and start listening to what genuinely feels right? In this episode of In Real Time with Millie, Millie sits down with actress, entrepreneur and Pass Around the Smile founder Cleo Massey for an honest conversation about building a business through authenticity, intuition and genuine human connection. Cleo shares how she moved beyond the identity and pressures of the acting industry, followed the unexpected pull toward spirituality and transformed a personal blog into the thriving Pass Around the Smile community. Together, Millie and Cleo explore the realities of comparison, people-pleasing, scaling a purpose-led business and learning to prioritise peace without abandoning your financial goals. They also unpack why community cannot be manufactured, how to distinguish intuition from fear and why chasing the wrong audience, partnership or version of success will only take you further away from yourself. In this episode:

Alli and Heath didn’t have a website, a business plan or even a separate bank account. What they did have was a leather bag people couldn’t stop buying. In this episode of In Real Time with Millie, I sit down with the founders of Sesa Studios to unpack how an unexpected Christmas sell-out became a fast-growing Australian fashion brand. We get into the realities nobody glamorises: manufacturing delays, cash flow, setting launch dates before the stock exists, reinvesting every dollar, learning Meta ads and building a business while working full-time. Alli and Heath also share what it’s really like building a brand as a couple, with Alli leading the creative direction and Heath bringing the structure, data and strategy. Plus, we talk about why creative founders get bored with their bestselling products far too quickly, what it takes to prepare for genuine growth and the question every founder needs to ask: if Beyoncé posted your product tomorrow, could your business actually handle it? An honest, hilarious and refreshingly real conversation about starting before you feel ready, navigating the inevitable breakdowns and continuing to back the product that’s already working. ✨ Connect with Sesa Studios ✨ Sesa Studios Instagram: @sesa.studiosWebsite: sesastudios.com.au ✨ Connect with Kaarme ✨ Käärme Jewels: https://www.instagram.com/kaarmejewelsIn Real Time with Millie, the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/inrealtimewithmillieMillie: https://www.instagram.com/millie.kaarmejewels/ ✨ Wanting to scale your brand? ✨ Ecommerce Equation is where its at:https://ecommerceequation.com.au/inrealtimewithmillie