I was a seriously fat, happy baby and I did not walk until I was about 15 months old. There was just too much blubber to carry around!
For some reason I tended to get all the modelling gigs with animals. This job was advertising merino wool. The animal hated me and every opportunity it would try and charge me, nearly charging me into the local lake!
Rae and myself as bridesmaids on our sister Lisa’s wedding day. I was 17 at the time.
Travelling the world, aged 21, hiking the Grand Canyon. Smart people did this on horseback or by helicopter, but on my budget I had to hike it the old fashioned way and use my feet. I was fit at the time, but 10 kilometres all the way up nearly killed me!
This was our first store on King William Street in Adelaide. The place was a mess and Jeff and I painted the floor with polyurethane to save money. We basically did as much as we could as we were on a tiny, strict budget. There was no air-conditioning so we had to bring portable units in just so we could operate.
This is Sharryn, our first ever employee. She grew up in the business and was a great asset. This was a concept we tried to get off the ground called ‘Tossers’. We loved the name but the landlords did not want their building known as the ‘Tosser’ building, so it did cause us some grief. At the end of the day the concept failed due to a lack of focus. It was a good early lesson for us.
With Jacinta in Lisbon visiting our master franchisee partners.
We ran a Boost competition for the Boost Olympics and asked our staff to come up with tricks and ways of having fun in the store.
This photo was taken at a Boost conference that we do every year. Geoff Harris (far right), was just a great ambassador for the Boost business. He attended every event and dinner. I could not ask for better support from a shareholder/director.
This was the booth that we set up in Washington DC. It was an international franchise conference. We did not sell any franchises but we learnt an enormous amount on how to go about launching internationally, and we had a blast!
Boost give away a store! This was an amazing promotion that Jeff made up. It was a huge marketing success for us.
My great team. Without them I would have never won the Telstra Business Woman of the Year. From the left: Naomi, my gun CFO; Jeff, the love of my life; Kath, our PR officer; myself; Kristie, our strong-attention-to-detail corporate counsel; Brooke, the marketing manager who did an amazing job with understanding the Boost brand, and creating a great vibe in the office; Jacinta, our talented franchise manager; and of course my mum and dad, who were very proud parents that night.
With my mum at the Telstra Business Woman of the Year awards. I was thrilled she was there with me on the night.
Our annual Boost conference.
Taken from our television advertisement ‘squeeze what you love’. Jeff wanted me to squeeze one of our team members, which I wasn’t sure about, so they put my son Riley in. It made a difference as we just played around together, making the advertisement work.
From left: Samuel, my save-the-world, kind-hearted hippy; Jeff, my partner in crime; Tahlia my wonderful midlife crisis; Riley my son who I am sure has been on this planet before; and Oliver, my handsome, stylish and sporty son.