During my years at UIP, I was surrounded by movie stars, but my professional life took something of a backseat when it was overshadowed by a big shift in my personal life.

In 1995, I met Jeff Allis. We had been set up by my girlfriend Rachel, who arranged for us to meet at the Melbourne Skyshow. I would certainly not say it was love at first sight. Jeff was late and by the time he arrived I had somewhere else to be; it was one of those days. And I thought he had bad teeth and an attitude to match. Jeff remembers not liking the jeans I was wearing. He also thought I would have been better looking from the description Rachel gave him. (In all fairness, she told him I looked like Elle Macpherson! Jeff told me later, I was attractive, but no Elle. You will never die wondering what Jeff is thinking.) We said hello and went our separate ways. And that was it — or so I thought.

Working with movie stars and finding my soulmate

After the failed ‘date’ Rachel continued her campaign about how terrific she thought Jeff was. She kept talking about how great we would be together and, after about ten days, I caved in and called him. Jeff hadn’t really impressed me, but my friend was nagging me and I figured I had nothing to lose. At the time, I was working on the promotion of the movie Rob Roy and Jeff was program director for Austereo Radio Network’s Fox FM, so I rang him on the pretext of picking his brains about publicity opportunities. We arranged to go to dinner that week, but he rang the morning of our date and cancelled, telling me something about Adelaide and a sister giving birth. What was he thinking? I was this man’s future, for heaven’s sake! He didn’t even reschedule when he returned. He was not exactly giving off keen signals, and I was wondering whether I should just move on. I have always believed in the idea of a soulmate and I did not intend to settle for anything less.

Jeff finally got around to ringing me back and rearranging our first date. And that’s when things clicked. Although it was not love at first sight, it was love on first date. Conversation flowed, we laughed easily and we realised we both had the spirit of adventure. I remember thinking, I really, really like this guy. I’m not sure if I can call our getting together destiny, but a few dates later when we had our first kiss, the earth did move and I did see fireworks. Even today we talk about that first kiss.

Let me tell you about Jeff: he is a warrior, and he will succeed at all costs. If you were in battle in the Middle Ages, you would want him leading the charge. He has a fierce reputation in radio, with people like Kyle Sandilands calling him a ‘radio god’. He features in many books, and within the radio world he was a programming genius, flipping Triple M from the bottom to the top in a few months. He coined the catchphrase ‘rate or die’, so you can imagine it was not all smooth sailing dating Jeff. When I was publicising the movie Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, she took a few of us and our partners out to dinner to say thank you. Alicia was touring and promoting the movie with her mum, and she was a real delight to be around. Arriving at Alicia’s dinner, I could see that Jeff was in a ‘Do I really have to be here?’ mood as he began to down the champagne on offer quite quickly. We were taken to our seats and Jeff was seated next to Alicia, with me opposite him. Polite conversation started and all was going pretty well when Jeff turned to Alicia and asked her what other films she had been in. She politely told Jeff about her latest movie. Jeff was excited because he had seen it. I looked across at him thinking that his mood had improved and all would be fine. Unfortunately, we had not been dating that long and I didn’t quite get the read right. Jeff told Alicia it was the worst movie he had ever seen and the only movie that he had ever walked out of! If a pin had dropped, we would have all heard it; the whole table fell silent. All heads turned quickly to Jeff. I jumped in and said, ‘Oh, he didn’t mean because of your acting’ (uncomfortable giggle). ‘It was the plot he didn’t like.’ I think it was a career-limiting dinner, to say the least.

Jeff, as program director at Austereo, was used to securing celebrities for promotions and programs, and so was also used to dealing with some of the very big egos that exist in radio. In other words, he should have known better. When I was on David Bowie’s boat, I learned very early exactly how delicate the artist ego is. Once I said to David that I loved him in the 1983 movie The Hunger, telling him the make-up was amazing. He quickly turned, looked pointedly at me and said, ‘It was, in fact, the acting that was convincing.’ As he turned away, lesson number one, don’t mess with an actor’s ego, sunk in.

Seeming to have no idea that he had just insulted our generous hostess, Jeff continued to open his mouth and insert his foot. He candidly said he had not even seen her new movie Clueless. Alicia’s mother turned to Jeff and politely, but in an ice-cold voice, said, ‘You would not like it’, and turned away. Needless to say, our discussion on the way home was not pleasant. Over time Jeff apologised for this night. And, like all understanding spouses, I bring this story up as much as possible, ensuring his punishment continues well into our marriage.

Another story I like to bring up is one that displays the ‘whatever it takes’ attitude Jeff had during his radio days. While he was working for Austereo’s Fox FM, everyone there was at war with the rival station Triple M — it was a ratings war, and, in their minds, it truly was rate or die. Jeff and his colleague Sean had heard that Triple M was launching its new major promotion for the year and that all the top advertising agencies had been invited to the launch. Triple M was throwing a massive party with no expense spared, and with all the personalities, glitz and glamour that only the 1990s could provide.

Jeff and Sean knew they had to find out what Triple M was launching, so they asked a make-up artist at Channel 7 to make them look like advertising executives. Then, with their new moustaches (it was the 1990s), baggy suits and ponytails down their backs, they attended the launch party. Jeff recalls shaking hands and talking to archenemies, all while trying to keep a straight face. As soon as Triple M completed the presentation, Sean and Jeff snuck out through the back door, giggling like schoolgirls, drove to the Fox FM offices and formulated a plan to ruin Triple M’s launch.

The Triple M promotion was based on a space theme, so Jeff and Sean worked through the night and created a promotion that was based around a sex in space theme. They then launched the promotion prior to Triple M, meaning Triple M would look like a copycat if it went ahead with its promotion. The cost of Triple M’s launch party was in vain, and the potential spend that it was hoping to receive never materialised. Needless to say, Jeff was not that popular when Triple M acquired Austereo. It could have been a career-limiting move, but he prevailed and ended up running both the Triple M and Austereo programming for the entire country.

Sean and Jeff were great mates and Sean was the best man at our wedding. Jeff and Sean were innovators in radio and rewrote the playbook on how radio works — those rules live strong today. Sean Pickwell died of cancer in October 2019, leaving the love of his life, Robin Bailey. He had so much more to achieve in his life. When my husband caught up with him two weeks before he passed, Sean shared his amazing views on life and death. Sean wrote an open letter that made the front page of The Courier-Mail on how he believed we should live our lives: with gratefulness and no regrets.

Over the first few years of our relationship, whenever people from Jeff’s past told me they knew Jeff from his work in radio, I would hold my breath. What they said next could be really, really good or really, really bad. Either way, there was a general respect for this amazing man, who did achieve the unachievable in radio (more on this later).

Aside from a few hiccups and stories such as these, our relationship went from strength to strength, and Jeff and I had decided we would be together forever. However, I was still ‘patiently’ waiting for him to pop the question. Even fate sometimes needs a little nudge, so for several weeks I took Jeff to every romantic spot I could think of. Finally, it was the Yarra Valley and Domaine Chandon (Moët & Chandon’s Australian winery) that did it. This was my last-ditch effort to ‘set the scene’. I made sure he had a couple of courage drinks and then we went for a quiet walk, through the vineyard and down to the beautiful, blue lake at the bottom of the hill. We all sat to look at the white swans in the distance: Samuel, Jeff and me. Just when I was giving up all hope of him asking me and running out of ideas for romantic rendezvous, I turned to see Jeff on one knee. My heart jumped up into my throat as he asked me to marry him. He had with him a beautiful engagement ring to seal the deal (so had obviously cottoned on to my machinations). Once I said yes (surprise, surprise), Jeff turned to Samuel and asked him if he could be his dad and gave Samuel a ring. Jeff is a true romantic. I will always remember that day, even if I did ‘help’ to set the scene.

Things had moved quickly with Jeff. He had moved in with me six weeks after our first date, we were engaged after four months, married after eight months and I was pregnant with our son Oliver after 12 months.

Dormant DNA

Having learned an enormous amount at UIP about the power of PR, I left after two years to have our son Oliver and started to freelance. Six weeks after Oliver was born, I was doing the publicity to launch Triple M’s new rock, sport and comedy format. (Triple M had bought Austereo Radio Network and the new format was Jeff’s strategy to revive the failing station. Luckily they forgave him for his earlier indiscretion.) At the same time, I set up the marketing and publicity for a comedian who was touring with Stealth Productions — a business Jeff ran with his mate Sean. When I found Jeff, he unleashed that elusive entrepreneurial spirit within me; I never went back to work for someone else again.

It was also during this time that Jeff and I tried our first joint business venture — a novelty book called Love Cheques. We had spotted a similar book in the United States, and we hoped we could convert the concept, put our own local slant on it and bang! have the next big thing on our hands.

The book contained cheques that you used as little gifts — an IOU message, that kind of thing. I thought Love Cheques would be the beginning and we would have Kid Cheques, Mum Cheques, Dad Cheques and so on. Love Cheques did okay, but the series I had dreamed of never materialised. We also published a book called The Asian Mind Game, by Chin-Ning Chu. We thought this was going to be another winner but, after a book tour and launch, there was very little to show for all our efforts. With two ventures under our belt and no money, we decided that publishing was not for us. We learned a lot and that’s one thing Jeff and I have never been afraid of. So what if we’ve never tried it before? We’ll learn.

Failure is a breeding ground for success

In 1999 we embarked on a joint venture with my ex-accountant, and I travelled to the United States to scope out the juice bar trend. I loved the category, was a big home-juicer and saw a huge opportunity for the concept in Australia.

Opening the first store in this joint venture was really exciting and I worked very hard on the launch, getting hands-on with every facet of the product and the business and learning along the way. But after many frustrating months we learned rule number one of business the hard way: the right partners are critical.

I was running around like a mad person trying to learn how the hell you start up a juice bar. Back then the internet of today was pretty nonexistent so that was no help — but I did it. Opening this first store was indeed the first time that I felt that ‘you are a woman and clearly not capable’ mentality. It was a bumpy ride with the initial partners, bumping heads over everything from red ceilings to how many blenders. I was, quite frankly, learning on the job but I was learning fast — sorting out the recipes, equipment, store set-up, et cetera. When we had our first meeting, after the first store had opened, the question was raised: ‘Who is going to run the business going forward?’ Someone around the table said, ‘Well it would be Janine, of course.’ The two other partners (an accountant and a lawyer) outwardly laughed. Hmmm, I thought, you do know I am in the room right? I left that day and decided that meeting was the last straw. I told Jeff ‘we’re out’ and we took the money that we put in out and off we went.

Initially I was devastated: I had put thousands of hours of work, blood, sweat and tears and I felt it was all for nothing. But, after a very quick pity party, we realised that even though they had the shop, I had the IP all in my head, and the thousand or more hours of learning how to start a juice bar — because I did it. One thing I have learned in life is that more often than not, when something bad has happened to you, it turns out it was exactly what was meant to happen. This was certainly the case here.

Less than eight hours later, Boost was created.

It was the year 2000 and the GST had just been introduced; we were off and running. I started by purchasing a copy of QuickBooks, an off-the-shelf accounting package, and I then arranged to get a QuickBooks expert into my home to teach me how to use the bloody thing. I had no real idea about accounting, but I was determined to know all the technical aspects, so I would know my business inside and out.

After our ill-fated partnership, we were anxious to start again and not repeat any of the same mistakes — we would have full control over all decisions, including the site for the store. Jeff’s ‘real job’ as program director for Austereo Radio Network took him interstate two nights a week. This enabled him to scope out possible sites in other states, and he found a site he wanted to explore on King William Street in the CBD of Adelaide. It was an old building that was heritage listed. He convinced his father, who lived in Adelaide, to sit at a table in front of the potential store and count the number of people who walked by and record specific details; he then broke this information into categories: men, women and age group. Happy with the flow, Jeff soon signed the lease and then called me with the news. This single act of signing a lease in a state that I did not live in truly shows the naivety that we had in starting a business. It ended up being an advantage — having the business in a different state forced me to work on the business instead of in it. But to be honest, I was so thrilled to get started and create Boost the way I knew it should be done that Jeff could have signed a lease on Mars.

I find often in the business world people get caught up in analysis paralysis and never actually get started. Sometimes you just have to jump in and start to learn on the job — this certainly worked for me.