Who Are You Beyond the Business?

You can sell the business. Working out who you are without it is a different journey.

In Episode 02 of Authentic Intelligence, Johnny Shin sits down with his former Merrimac State High School classmate Andrej Maletic, founder of Go Raw Desserts, co-founder of Dezigner.ai and CEO of the Kokoda Youth Foundation.

Andrej’s journey began in Croatia and took him through Germany to Australia. He went from corporate life at Michael Hill to building Go Raw Desserts from local farmers’ markets into a nationally distributed brand.

When the company sold, Andrej and his wife, Jessie, took time to travel, reconnect with family and consider what they wanted the next chapter of their lives to look like.

In this conversation:

• Moving from Croatia to Australia and learning to adapt
• Leaving corporate certainty to build Go Raw Desserts
• Choosing quality and integrity when the financial cost was significant
• Reframing rejection by understanding the value you offer
• Selling a business that had become part of your identity
• Marriage, communication and Jessie’s contribution behind the scenes
• The story of the Love Ball
• Building Dezigner.ai and using AI without surrendering your own judgement
• Andrej’s full-circle return to the Kokoda Youth Foundation
• Preparing for fatherhood, giving back and leaving something for the next generation

This is a conversation about more than what Andrej built. It is about who he had to become along the way, the people who shared the journey and what he chose to carry into the next chapter.

Not artificial. Authentic.

Conversations about leadership, wealth and the human decisions behind success, with Johnny Shin.

Follow @authenticintelligencejs for episode highlights and future conversations.