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Speaker 1: Guys, there is something we've been chatting about for the

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Speaker 1: past a week on the show.

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Speaker 2: I'm very excited. It's big, it's massive, it's in the

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Speaker 2: city and it's brought Melbourne back to life.

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Speaker 1: It really has and it's open. Mega Mayhem Shoppers give

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Speaker 1: their verdict on Melbourne's new megastore.

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Speaker 3: Three hundred team members will be on hand to help

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Speaker 3: the fifty thousand people expected in stall. Founder and CEO

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Speaker 3: Joe Horgot front and center.

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Speaker 2: Thousands cued to get here.

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Speaker 1: Loves of you were there on Friday.

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Speaker 3: I was the brand new Mega store has opened in

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Speaker 3: Burke Street. Joe Horgan joins us this morning. Joe, good morning,

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Speaker 3: good morning. Thank you so much for having mer baby.

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Speaker 4: Yes, my latest and biggest and it's agonizing.

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Speaker 2: To have baby.

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Speaker 3: Congratulations, Like, we have so much to talk to you about.

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Speaker 3: But first of all, congratulations because I went in on

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Speaker 3: Friday and saw the store and it was the most

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Speaker 3: joyful experience being in there. There were mums and daughters

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Speaker 3: and dads and sons and grandparents, kids, and everyone.

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Speaker 2: Was so happy.

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Speaker 3: It's a really inclusive, beautiful space you've created, So congratulations.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much. And the way you've described It

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Speaker 4: is exactly the way we wanted it. So the fact

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Speaker 4: that that was your experience tic tick tick.

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Speaker 2: The city was buzzing about the new mecca.

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Speaker 4: It was a little bit build it and they shall

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Speaker 4: come right.

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Speaker 5: In terms of size, I've visited the Sydney store.

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Speaker 2: Yes, really good, thank you.

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Speaker 5: Now please tell me it's bigger.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot bigger.

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Speaker 5: It's more than Sydney.

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Speaker 4: It's about two and a half time Society is.

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Speaker 2: It's enormous.

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Speaker 3: So if you haven't been into the city or seen

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Speaker 3: it yet, it's the it's the old men's wear store

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Speaker 3: of David Jones.

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Speaker 2: Is that right? Beautiful heritage building.

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Speaker 4: It is an exquisite heritage building, as we now know

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Speaker 4: because we've peeled back all the layers and you know,

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Speaker 4: literally five layers down this unbelievable tratso floor at the store.

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Speaker 3: Outside of being a great next door, is a magnificent

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Speaker 3: building and you can tell how much you've sort of

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Speaker 3: paid homage to its history as well.

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Speaker 1: Try anything freaky in the renner.

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Speaker 2: Surely I can't even go there.

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Speaker 5: On that.

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Speaker 1: Can we go back to the beginning. You founded this

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, where'd the idea come from?

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Speaker 4: I was working in cosmetics for Laurel and I was

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Speaker 4: going to launch Color Cosmetics into the Australian market. I

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Speaker 4: went overseas to see what was going on. I went

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Speaker 4: to fred Siegel and Santa Monica, which was this kind

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Speaker 4: of crazy old garage, different concepts in it, and there

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Speaker 4: was this beauty concept. It was small, it had indie

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Speaker 4: brands in it, and I was like, oh, there is something.

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Speaker 4: From the air, there is something. And at that point

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Speaker 4: when we started, we started with seven brands because it

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Speaker 4: was such a nascent, emerging trend to have these indie brands.

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Speaker 3: And so the first store was the Tuac Roads store, right,

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Speaker 3: which is still there now.

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Speaker 2: That was the original one.

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Speaker 4: Well, yes and no, the original one was a postage

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Speaker 4: stamp of a size. All of my dreams were in

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Speaker 4: that tiny postage stamp of a store. When we went

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Speaker 4: into back Street, we just got the giggles, honestly, just

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Speaker 4: how enormous it was.

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Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, we are chatting with the

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Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Mecca, Joe Horgan is joining us.

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Speaker 5: Hey, Joe. Lauren walked in this morning and she'd had

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Speaker 5: a treatment at the weekend, but she spoke about how

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Speaker 5: nice she felt, didn't you you sort of there was

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Speaker 5: there's a real glow about you.

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Speaker 2: I'm I'm not just.

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Speaker 5: Saying it's manufacial, but what's it like to know that

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Speaker 5: you're helping women in that way, women who just want

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Speaker 5: to feel a bit better about themselves?

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Speaker 3: Do you know what?

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Speaker 2: It feels? Really really good?

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Speaker 4: But whole purposes to embolden through beauty, make people look,

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Speaker 4: feel and be their best. And we talk in Mecca

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Speaker 4: about the fields all the type. We don't talk about

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Speaker 4: the look so much. We talk about the.

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Speaker 5: Fields because everyone deserves to feel just that better about themselves.

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Speaker 4: Right. The whole point when we started twenty eight years

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Speaker 4: ago with this lofty ambition to upend the beauty experience,

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Speaker 4: which is hilarious to think you can do that out

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Speaker 4: of a postage stamp, but anyway, it was, let's never

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Speaker 4: show visuals of beauty on faces. Let's just talk about

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Speaker 4: products and what they do, and let's do face charts

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Speaker 4: so that people don't see, not them compare, they don't

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Speaker 4: compare to anything else. And so that was for the

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Speaker 4: first seven or eight years, we just didn't have visuals

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Speaker 4: in any of our imagery.

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Speaker 1: We're spoken about it before like you go into Genes

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Speaker 1: where she put on the genes, it's I don't look

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Speaker 1: like Beckham on the post.

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Speaker 3: I also read something recently where you did an interview

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Speaker 3: and you were saying that when you first told your

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Speaker 3: parents you want to do this, they thought it was

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Speaker 3: a bit crazy, but they didn't say anything to you

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Speaker 3: for about twenty years until it was highly successful, and

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Speaker 3: they said, just.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we did doubt this.

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Speaker 4: Do you know that's actually to do with when we

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Speaker 4: signed the lease for this new Berg Street flagship store.

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Speaker 4: At that point they said, literally, we cannot believe this

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Speaker 4: is comforull Circle, because when you were first id eating

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Speaker 4: around Mecca, we would walk through the two department stores

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Speaker 4: and see these enormous, cavernous beauty halls, and we'd come

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Speaker 4: home and just sit there like, oh my goodness, what

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Speaker 4: is she thinking?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to going to be living at home.

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Speaker 3: It's so cool a female founded business of this huge success,

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Speaker 3: as well as it's just such a joy to watch.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a beautiful success story. I was only off

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Speaker 1: the air. I hope you took a moment to appreciate

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Speaker 1: how fa you've come. Last Friday when there was thousands

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Speaker 1: of people lined up.

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Speaker 4: But do you know what, there have been so many

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Speaker 4: people with me the whole way through. So people who

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Speaker 4: literally started twenty seven years ago with me are still there.

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Speaker 4: The person who's leading the entire project, that's just one

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Speaker 4: of them. And so the joy for me now is

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Speaker 4: I genuinely get to be the stage mother who just

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Speaker 4: literally make pomp Palms goes. I cannot believe what you

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Speaker 4: guys have done. And they're the maniacs because they're the

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Speaker 4: ones that dream up. Okay, let's do this, let's push that.

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Speaker 4: Why don't we go into Dormal skincare. Do you know what,

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Speaker 4: why don't we do all these different ways of doing fragrance.

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Speaker 4: Let's just have censoriums. Nobody else in the world does it,

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Speaker 4: but let's do it.

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Speaker 2: Let's try and stage Mum's like, let's go. We need

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Speaker 2: to go up.

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Speaker 3: Jess.

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Speaker 1: The flagship store in Melbourne's Birk Street is open. You

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Speaker 1: can go and check it out. Joe, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Congrats on the success, Jess.

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Speaker 4: Lauren, thank you so much for coming.

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Speaker 5: Thank you.

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Speaker 4: I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we loved the store. Thanks for coming in

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Speaker 3: And Lauren, Lauren wake up feeling good following them on

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Speaker 3: the socials