As you read from my story, I never did year 12 or went to uni, but I did go to the school of life. Being a traveller teaches you skills you don’t learn anywhere else — or not as quickly, anyway. I pride myself on my problem-solving skills and I put that down, in part, to the travelling that I did. You learn to look a little way into the future and see danger before it hits — an invaluable tool in business. When you have only yourself to rely on, you learn to trust your instincts and find resources within yourself you never knew existed. Here are some specific lessons I learned in my early twenties that can be applied to many start-up business settings: Here’s what I learned in my first years of starting Boost: These days, people talk a lot about ‘integrity’ and ‘values’. They’ve become buzz words, used to impress — but do you know what integrity really means? It’s true that if your company is known as being one of integrity, you will attract and keep like-minded people — honest, reliable, moral people. Yet ideals often seem to disappear if the bottom line is affected. The words ‘integrity’ and ‘values’ mean nothing if they’re not backed up with solid hard work and the right decisions. So, what is integrity? To me, integrity means always telling the truth and acting in a way that is right for the business, no matter how hard that may be and no matter what the cost. You can’t please everyone all the time. Some people may believe you haven’t acted with integrity — whether it’s an employee you had to let go, or franchisees who think it’s your fault they haven’t made more money. You can’t always help what other people think, but as long as you know you’ve done the right thing, you can feel at peace. Having true integrity has made Boost what it is today. The words ‘integrity’ and ‘values’ mean nothing if they’re not backed up with solid hard work and the right decisions … To me, integrity means always telling the truth and acting in a way that is right for the business, no matter how hard that may be and no matter what the cost. Let me give you an example that shows how important integrity is. We had a senior executive in the business who was an amazing talker. When he spoke, his words and tone instilled confidence, and he always seemed to have the answers to all the hard questions. However, this man lacked true integrity — it was all about his ego and making sure that he looked as good as he could. He would often lie and just tell you what you wanted to hear. As we came to discover, these can be the most dangerous types of people to have in your business, because it takes a long time to realise what they are really like and, in that time, they can do a lot of damage. By the time we uncovered what this man was doing, his area of responsibility was in a terrible condition and we had started to get a high level of resignations — and, worst of all, the culture of the business had changed. Your business’s culture is just like fitness — it can take months to get your fitness level up and only weeks to completely lose it. We realised we had (admittedly unknowingly) gone against one of our biggest rules: only hire people with the utmost integrity. At the time this man was hired, we thought he had integrity but we were sadly mistaken. Often mistakes make the business better, and this is true in this case — we now have better systems in place to make sure this does not happen again. Here’s how to act with integrity and ensure it in those around you: Recently, a staff member came to me and asked me how to motive the team. I said, ‘That’s super easy: hire motivated people.’ If you surround yourself with people who are looking to you for motivation then you have the wrong people in your business. Unfortunately, I can’t teach you how to find the will to do so but I can tell you that you need all the will in the world to get where you want to go. Motivation, inspiration — call it what you like — is different for each of us. To succeed, you must unlock that deep personal energy. So, what motivates you? If you can’t answer that question, it’s time for you to find out. Without that knowledge, you’ll never experience the total joy of achievement. I can’t give other people motivation, but I can provide a culture where their achievements are recognised and rewarded in a way that is meaningful to them. When it comes to motivating staff, I look for their ‘hot buttons’. For some people, a small gesture is enough — a metaphorical pat on the back when all seems lost. Others may take more convincing and may appreciate incentives, such as time off work or a small gift of appreciation. I believe that motivation is born from working with great people and achieving great things together. The bigger your purpose, the more fulfilled you’ll be at the end of every day. Many things motivated me on my business journey, but the biggest one in the early years was fear. I had everything on the line: we had sold our family home, all of the cash was in the business and we were renting. Not to mention our home doubled as our office. At 34 years old and with three children, I truly did have everything to lose. There is nothing like putting yourself in this position to give you motivation! The business had to work no matter what so, one way or another, I had to find the solution to every problem. Fear was there as an underlying factor on the journey but something else also popped up — and that was passion. I found that not only did I love the world of retail and business but also, to my surprise, I was actually quite good at it. My brain worked in systems and in high detail. Whenever something went wrong, my mind immediately went to solutions, and then to ways of ensuring a problem of this type never happened again. Suddenly, the business didn’t seem like work anymore — I loved it! And when you love something, motivation to continue is a by-product of the journey. Having passion is the easiest way to make money, but it’s the hardest thing to find. You can teach anything and train anyone, but you cannot instil passion in someone. Passionate people are few and far between. To me, they are like gold. They stand out. People are attracted to them and believe in them; people want to be them and invest in them. Do you have to be loud, extroverted and opinionated to be passionate? No. You can be quietly passionate. This may mean you’re overlooked — but not for long. Along with integrity, commitment and a strong work ethic, passion is always recognised. Having passion is the easiest way to make money, but it’s the hardest thing to find. You can teach anything and train anyone, but you cannot instil passion in someone. So what do I mean by a passionate person? Essentially, passion is tied up with loving what you do. To achieve a goal, you need to throw your heart and soul into it. If you don’t, you’re in trouble. When we have a problem at Boost and Retail Zoo, everyone on the team is focused on the solution. Their eyes sparkle with the challenge, and they will do whatever it takes to sort it out — whether it’s getting on the next plane or working through the night. When Boost first began, the business took over our lives. Jeff and I were surrounded by work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That level of commitment gets tiring very quickly if you’re not passionate about what you do. When you are passionate, it doesn’t feel like ‘work’. To be passionate, you need to be doing something that means something to you. You can’t fake it. If you do, you won’t make it. I have done an enormous number of media interviews over the past 15 years, and the key thing that I’m often told afterwards is that I ooze passion. When people ask me about Boost, my eyes start to sparkle, my body gets taller and then I’m off — spouting all sorts of information about this business that has been so much a part of my life. What I also have found is that passion is relatively rare — and so I’m lucky that Jeff has it in spades as well. Sometimes, I would say that a fine line exists between passion and obsession. (These days, when you ask my husband about a horse, his whole face lights up, and he can happily tell anyone who is listening the pedigree of any horse you care to mention.) But this energy and obsession is why others like passionate people and want to be around them — they’re addictive and others want some of what they have. Anyone who has achieved incredible goals has passion, without exception — whether they’re a top sportsperson or an amazing musician, passion and commitment are the common bond. My Survivor soul mate Pia had been a ballet dancer when she was young. She always said to me what her mother told her as she went on to perform: ‘Tits and teeth, darling!’, and off she went to perform. For me, having no tits, I found this hysterical, and now use this for fun. If you are not feeling confident then at least with tits and teeth you look the part. Self-doubt is your greatest enemy. Confidence is everything. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you too. Even if you have doubts, hide them! Your confidence is your shield — it will protect you and your team from that highly contagious disease known as defeat. (This is different from pretending you have all the answers when you don’t — something I would never recommend.) Self-doubt is your greatest enemy. Confidence is everything. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you too. Here are some tips for building your confidence: There are varying degrees of this behaviour, but if someone is guilty of these traits, you have no choice other than to remove them. Remove people like this quickly, because they do enormous damage that can take months to repair. These insecure behaviours are like cancer in your organisation. Ask yourself: would you do business with you? Many doors will open or close for you depending on your reputation, which will precede your presence every time. The people with whom you’re doing business will have made it a priority to learn about you before you meet. What they discover — usually through the filter of other people — will either give you an edge or create early difficulties for you in your dealings with these new associates. Ask yourself: would you do business with you? Many doors will open or close for you depending on your reputation, which will precede your presence every time. A ‘firm but fair’ reputation is the best one to have. What is yours? Does it need work? Try this exercise: write down five attributes that you’d like people to say you have. Stick that list in the front of your diary and refer to it often. Are you achieving your desired reputation? I strongly believe that the presenter is more important than the presentation, the messenger more important than the message. If you have a good reputation, guard it with your life. However, if it has been tarnished in some way, now is the time to work on it. The only way to get it back on track is through action, not words. Don’t tell me that you’ve changed — show me. I remember dealing with an advertising agency that promised Boost the world but didn’t deliver. In fact, it dumped us at another client’s request. The ad agency rep claimed that he wasn’t responsible, but he should have been honest about the process. If he’d kept me informed about what was happening, instead of blaming others when it was over, the situation wouldn’t have been such a disaster. That rep is still trying to win me back over. I’m listening, but I’m cynical. He’d have to do (emphasis on doing , not talking) something amazing to win back my trust. All this is not to say that I don’t believe in giving second chances. After all, everyone makes mistakes — just make sure you get it right the second time around. Remember: every person and company has a reputation for something. It is the core of what you are. Jeff had a reputation for being a tough guy in radio and, even when he became a father and got a bit older and wiser (and a bit less tough in his core), he kept up his tough-guy behaviour because it suited his role at the time. I have worked with many businesses and suppliers over the years and have found it’s usually no surprise why companies have the reputation that they do. What type of business it is and what type of reputation it’s creating is usually highlighted when something goes wrong. If it’s a great business, managers and staff will go above and beyond to fix the problem, regardless of who is at fault. These types of businesses focus not on short-term losses but on the long-term reputation that they’re developing — and so they thrive. The other side is the type of business where, when things go wrong, managers and other staff put their heads in the sand and go into blame mode. This is a short-term view and often these types of businesses are the ones that don’t survive — and the owners are left wondering what they did wrong. Your business reputation is everything — it is why you will get repeat customers and referrals. A personal reputation is the same. I believe that my reputation is firm but fair — if you commit to me that something will be delivered by a certain date and you do not deliver it without any communication, I definitely have a reputation for not accepting this for too long. Guard, or improve, your reputation with the following: Self-discipline is the most common trait of great and successful leaders, while a lack of restraint can create big problems. Commit a few undisciplined acts in politics or business and soon you’re being asked to drag yourself around the chat-show circuit. Take alcohol, for example — just one alcohol-fuelled stupid instance at a work function and you could lose hard-won respect. As I’ve mentioned, one of my first jobs was working for an advertising agency as a media assistant. Back in the 1980s, the Christmas party where I worked was legendary. One year, a senior executive was absolutely blind drunk. He made a pass at anything in a skirt, threw a typewriter through a window and assaulted another client. He was fired the next day. The shame of it was that this guy was a good, solid executive who was simply a nasty drunk. If he’d had the discipline to respect that it was a work function, he could have had an amazing career in advertising. In other words, if you drink and work, you’re a bloody idiot! Nobody gets smarter after a few drinks. As a rule, I never have more than two drinks at a work function. Whether you’re drinking with colleagues or suppliers, anything you say can and will be used against you the next day. Set aside time each day for exercise. If you have the discipline to look after yourself, you’ll feel better, look better and function better. As an added bonus, fit-looking people seem to garner greater respect from others, probably because others see that personal discipline will carry over into business. Being self-disciplined doesn’t mean being self-denying; it’s not about working harder, it’s about working smarter. Self-discipline is getting to your children’s sports days, being home when you told your partner you would be, keeping appointments and being on time. Self-disciplined people aren’t the ones in the office from dawn to midnight — they’re organised enough to get their work done within a reasonable time frame. Here’s how to choose the right elements for self-discipline: Here’s how to take your self-discipline up a notch: No-one learns anything while talking. Everyone has ears and using them to listen might be the most underrated quality of all. It goes hand in hand with asking questions, which is one of my favourite pastimes. Are there people you admire? People you consider successful? If you get the chance, talk to them. If they’re not immediately accessible, perhaps send an email to their corporate website or attend a public presentation they’re giving. Asking questions of successful people helps to remove the aura of achievement that surrounds them. You could ask them how they got started. (Usually you’ll find the start point was a very basic opportunity, perhaps something available to many — only successful people have the foresight to grab opportunities with both hands.) You might ask how they find the best people, how they motivate their staff, and whether there is anything they’d do differently if they had their time again. See if they have one or two pieces of great advice they could share. Generally, most people like helping others — why not let them help you? When I started out, there wasn’t one particular person whose success I aspired to emulate, but there were two people who helped me. Geoff Harris (co-founder of Flight Centre) had a profound effect in assisting Boost’s growth. After he came on board, the business was able to go to the next level. Lesley Gillespie from Bakers Delight has also been very generous with her time and insight. She is an amazing woman who has been a great help to me. At Boost and Retail Zoo, we’re constantly looking for great talent on every level. A few years back, we were in search of a great board member — we felt that we needed more experience in international expansion on the board, and were recommended a man who had run a successful franchise business in the United States. We decided to try him as a board member. We paid for his first-class flight over from the US and put him up in a five-star hotel. We then put him on the road with our senior company store and franchise managers, so he could understand and learn about our business and get a feel for where he could contribute. The feedback from our senior managers was horrific. They told us that all he did was talk — telling them how good he and his business were. He did not ask any questions on the financials, the product or the Australian market; he just talked and criticised. When I was told this, I initially thought that they may have been exaggerating a bit — until I got into the board meeting with him. The meeting opened and so did his mouth, and it just kept going. People were polite for a little while, but pretty soon I’d had enough and told him to shoosh. Yes — I said, ‘Shoosh. That is enough.’ He looked at me in shock and then told me his wife tells him the same thing — at which I suggested he listen to this wise woman. When he was quiet enough that we could ask questions of him, he didn’t have any answers. We asked him how the Australian model and his model compared, what the differences in the systems and processes were, how our labour rates compared with his and what he’d discovered during his time on the road. He did not have one answer to the questions that we put forward — because he hadn’t cared to listen and find out or to gather enough knowledge on our business to be of any value. He was shocked and mortified that we did not add him as a board member. As I said, you never learn anything from talking. Improve your listening skills with the following: Here’s how to really become a true listener: Albert Einstein purportedly once said, ‘It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’ You may not have all the answers to every problem you face. You just have to believe that you have the resourcefulness to find the solution to any problem — rather than asking your boss or mentor to come up with the answer. If you’re going to shine in the business world, you must be the person who presents the solution, not just the problem. I like it when a staff member comes to me and says, ‘We have a problem and I think we should do this to solve it.’ Like solving a puzzle, finding the right solution is a big reward in itself. If you’re going to shine in the business world, you must be the person who presents the solution, not just the problem. We all have problems, but not everyone tries to come up with the answers. The employee who just sits there, looking like a puppy that needs rescuing and waiting for me or someone else to save the day, will not win Employee of the Month. In fact, if employees do that too often, I might start questioning if they’re the right people for the job. Think about it — don’t you find that people tend to spend far too much time talking about the problem and not enough time finding the solution? People moving into ‘protection’ mode is one of my pet hates — when a problem occurs, they care more about not being blamed for it than about finding a solution and then putting a system in place so that the problem does not occur again. In 2002 we were opening a store in Hornsby, New South Wales. The store was built in South Australia, shipped by truck and then put together in the shopping centre. Every store is specially designed for each site, so we can’t just move one store to fit another site if there’s a problem. The Hornsby store had cost us about $100 000 to build, and this was very early in the business when funds were at their tightest. Sharryn, my manager at the time, was on site making sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to. She called me at 10 pm on the night that the whole shop was meant to arrive and told me that the shopping centre had made a mistake and that they would not be able to get any services to the position, ever. If we could not open this store and had to write off $100 000 in shop fit, the business would be in a financially stressed position — one that we might not be able to recover from. To her credit, Sharryn was on the phone to everyone and anyone for a solution. She managed to raise the centre manager and the construction manager for the site — and just would not take no for an answer. The store arrived and the so-called impossibility of getting services to the spot suddenly evaporated. We had services and all was good. This is one of the biggest thought processes to learn in business — there is always a solution to every problem; you just have to stay at it longer. The person with the answers is you! Here’s how to stop looking at problems and start finding solutions: Jonathan LaPaglia once wrote that lying on Survivor is like beach to the sand: it’s part of the game and we all understand and expect to be lied to. To be honest it is so much fun being naughty and guiltlessly lying because lying in the real world does not get people very far and the benefit of lying is short-lived. Honesty is the bravest path you can take, and it is an essential element within a company’s core integrity. It takes a brave person to be honest — in work and in life. Nobody likes to hurt another person’s feelings, but most of us hate finding out that someone has been dishonest with us. Often people don’t mean to tell lies; instead, they filter the truth to justify their actions. This means that the picture you get is somewhat distorted, but the truth is in there — somewhere. If you make a mistake, admit it. In most cases, trying to cover up an error will simply result in more problems. Trust is the first casualty of dishonesty. As a boss, I find that I get over someone’s mistake very quickly if the responsible person owns up. We can then work together to find a solution. Once there’s a question mark over someone’s honesty, however, trust can take a long time to rebuild. Honesty is the most refreshing part of business — a problem shared should lead to a problem solved. Here’s how to keep yourself honest: Power up your honesty with the following: Financial success does not create emotional prosperity, so you need to make sure the person sharing your dreams is with you all the way. The truly rich life is a balanced one — unless you keep your work and family in harmony, your economic gains will be meaningless. Having the right partner at home is vital. If your partner supports your dreams, your path will be a lot easier and, ultimately, success will come sooner. The person you rely on may be a life partner, a friend or a family member. They may not necessarily agree with you, but this person must support you 100 per cent in your goals. The last thing you need is someone whispering negatives in your ear all the time. Jeff and I are Yin and Yang — different people, but a perfect fit. We each have our own nuances and our own individual methods of operation, but we’re highly effective as a team. He is the perfect complement to my style: an entrepreneur and the man with big ideas, but not always the attention to detail to make them reality. I am the planner and doer, the person who makes things happen. We often laugh that if it were just me in control of Boost, we’d have 10 amazing stores. If Jeff were in charge, we’d have a thousand — although they might have gone broke. His backup has been integral to my success. When Riverside Private Equity bought into Boost in 2010, one of their primary concerns was having a husband–wife team running the company. It was their experience that such a team can quite often be a compromise of skills and expertise, so they gave us one of those long fandangled personality tests to see where we both sat. Based on the results of this test, we now have in perfect graph form what we knew intuitively — we are the perfect business couple. Every area I’m weak in, Jeff is strong in, and vice versa. Your partner is critical in your journey. I see lots of couples where the wife is completely underrated and the roles are set in stone — the husband is the main breadwinner and the wife takes care of the family. This set-up all seems to go well in the early years, when the kids are super-needy, but it starts to crumble as the family evolves. Hubby is still mentally stimulated at work, the kids are in their teens, or older, and are more independent, but the wife is — hmmm — lost. We all need a purpose, we all need to be challenged; however, in this situation what does the wife’s purpose become? Women aren’t just there for their husband’s and children’s needs. Just as you should seek support from your partner, you should also encourage your partner to explore and fulfil as many of their skills and dreams as possible. These skills and dreams could be anything, but the earlier you start supporting your partner, the better your relationship will be over the long term. And hey! Just like our Boost story, you never know where you could end up. I can’t imagine what my life would be like now if I had fallen in love with a man who wanted a stay-at-home wife, but I think it’s unlikely I would still be with him. I have become the best I can possibly be because I had a husband who encouraged me to have a crack at anything and believed in me to take on the world of retail. Don’t let your ideas be squashed for the sake of your family — you can fit everything in. And remember — happy wife (or husband), happy life. Here are some components for perfect partners: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Every cloud has a silver lining. If at first you don’t succeed … Looking on the bright side is not just for Pollyanna. Being positive is crucial to achieving success. Decide that you are going to be successful, and then be unfailingly upbeat in your pursuit of that goal. A firm decision makes you unstoppable — no ‘maybe’, ‘could’ve’ or ‘should’ve’ allowed. You will get knockbacks along the way. Problems may arise from every corner. How do you remain positive in the face of constant negativity? By knowing there is a solution and that you will find it. If 10 people tell you your idea will not work, how do you keep believing that the eleventh person will love it? Well, it depends on who those first 10 people are. If Jeff or Geoff Harris were to disagree with me, I’d probably have to reconsider my position. If it were a person with no retail or business experience, I simply wouldn’t listen. So many people have missed out on attaining financial freedom because they couldn’t handle the knockbacks. If someone says no to you, don’t close the book on the idea. It just means that the idea or request was not right for that person at that time. Release the power of positivity with the following: Take your positivity to the next level with the following: Negativity is like a disease that can bring down the best and the brightest. The average person can have 200 negative thoughts every day. How exhausting! If positive thinking is one of your greatest weapons, negative thoughts can be your biggest threats. They will bring you down, no matter how good you are. From my perspective, a service-oriented company is at the mercy of its staff’s emotional moods. It’s vital to recognise underachievers or dysfunctional personnel and either retrain or remove them. Some people simply do not like dealing with people. This doesn’t mean they’re bad, just that they shouldn’t be in the service industry. As the boss, my mood has a huge impact on my team, and it can dictate the atmosphere of the environment around me. Every person on the team can also have the same effect on those around them. One negative person in an office can upset the whole apple cart! We all have bleak moments — we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. But we also have the power to choose how we feel about the situations we encounter every day. Not every situation will be great, but you will see a lot more abundance and opportunity with the ‘glass half full’ way of thinking. Throughout my journey I was driven by fear of failure, and in some ways it was a great motivator. This fear, for example, made me double- and triple-check everything I did to ensure that I did not miss anything. Fear kept my adrenaline at full speed, but there was a massive downside — you can manifest what you fear, simply because that’s what you’re focused on. I’m not sure if I truly believe in books such as The Secret , but I do believe that if you have a positive mindset and you are looking for the good, then the good follows you. The more you focus on something (good or bad), the more likely it is that what you’re focusing on is going to happen. In the early days of Boost’s success, I was a complete stress-head. Anything and everything would send me off, and everything was a drama. I was a terrible wife and mother and I was terrible to myself because I was so stressed. It got to a point when I stopped and realised that I actually hadn’t eaten anything for three days. I was as thin as I have ever been (except for a month into Survivor ) and, while my mind and body was all about making sure the business was a success, I was not living Boost’s ‘Love Life’ philosophies, not even a bit. I was negative in my thoughts and my health. This was a massive wake-up call, so I shipped myself off to a health retreat to get myself back on track. Once there, I came across a ‘healer’ (as you do at health retreats), who recommended I read Conversations with God. I’m not against religion, but it has never been something that I have wanted to be a part of. I do believe that I am quite spiritual, but I think spirituality comes from within, not from a church. The title of the book put me off straightaway, but I had nothing else to read so I gave it a go. After the first few pages, I was ready to throw the book in the bin, because the author was basically saying that he was writing ‘through God’s words’. I persevered, however, and in the end I could not put the book down. I have no idea whether or not the book really contained ‘God’s words’, but I did like the messages. One key message was that you should not try to be better — you should just be better. Do not want to be a type of person, simply be that person. And the second key message for me was there is only love and fear — if you live in fear, you will manifest this; if you are grateful for what you have and are positive (or live for love), that will be what you manifest. I do believe that books and people come into your life at different times for a reason, and this book (and the others in the series) did help me change the way I thought. I let go of fear and took more control over my stress, and that helped change the way I thought. Hundreds of books can tell you the same message. Forget about what you have or have not done in the past — all that matters is what you do now and into the future. Be grateful for what you have and don’t focus on what you don’t have. Here’s how to get rid of negativity in your life:Lessons from the traveller
Lessons from the early days of Boost
Integrity: if you ain’t got it, you got nothing
Motivation — move it or lose it
Passion — love what you do
Confidence: tits and teeth
Reputation — your greatest asset, and the hardest thing to repair
Discipline — a daily battle to achieve
Listening skills — the reason we have two ears and one mouth
Be solution-focused — try it, it will change your life
Honesty (okay, not on Survivor)
Choosing your partners in crime
Change how you think — yes, it can be done
Fighting negativity. You can do it!
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