Trilogy presents the Viva Lunch Session with special guest Janine Allis, Thursday July 28. Tickets $154 each, $720 for half a table (5 tickets) or $1390 for a full table (10 tickets). Buy now from iTicket.co.nz
Janine Allis still laughs at the irony. The founder of Australian juice and smoothie business Boost Juice was living in a modest rental property with her husband and three children, trying to dig her way out of financial dire straits when an Aussie magazine announced she’d made the rich list, valuing her at $26 million.
“It was very funny,” says Janine, on the phone from Melbourne. “I went shopping that day, and said to Jeff, apparently we can afford it. It was a real taste of reality versus perception.”
Thanks to Janine’s seemingly in-built ability to trouble-shoot, those stressful bean-counting days the product of a “perfect storm” of factors including the sale of the family home and the passing of the GST bill are a thing of the past.
The self-described suburban mum opened her first juice bar in Adelaide in 2000. Now Boost Juice can be found in several countries, including India, Spain and Estonia, bringing in $2 billion in global sales. As well as Boost, her business empire Retail Zoo owns four food franchises including Salsa’s Fresh Mex, Cibo Espresso and Hatch Chicken Shop.
Then there are the businesses she's invested in through Shark Tank, the incubator-reality show that has earned her a reputation as a savvy but approachable negotiator, not to mention inspired countless air stewards who pitch her with their business ideas mid-flight.
“More than anyone else!” she laughs. “I guess because they know I can’t get away.”
When Janine speaks at the upcoming Viva Sessions lunch, she promises a light-hearted talk about her unconventional rise to success and the personal attributes that are vital to get there. But don't expect an earnest lecture or a guide to taking the easy path if there's one thing Janine is known for it's her ability to overcome barriers with a sense of humour and grit.
“In life, people give up too easily, and it’s the ones who don’t give up who are successful,” she says.
“You don’t necessarily climb Everest because you love the feeling of burning thighs, but there’s a satisfaction that comes with thinking, ‘wow, I’ve done something really tough’. It’s that sense of pride in overcoming hurdles.”
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Advertise with NZME.Her global backpacking experience including a stint as head steward on David Bowie's boat was the first step towards instilling her can-do philosophy. She left school at 16 and didn't go to university but racked up a diverse range of jobs before launching Boost Juice in Australia, inspired by a trip to the US, where juice bars were taking off. Naivety was a blessing, she says in her book The Accidental Entrepreneur, because without it she might never have taken on the magnitude of the task ahead.
“Every day I’d create a new spreadsheet, a new system, because things would go wrong. If there was a hole there, you’d have to work out how to fill it. If you made a mistake, you’d have to think of a way to ensure it would never happen again.”
It didn’t help that the early days, at home with three kids (her fourth came later), she was cut off from her peers. It wasn’t until four years in, when she was named Businesswoman of the Year, that it occurred to her she was one of few women leading successful businesses at the time. Yes, she has struck the occasional old-fashioned attitude, but for the most part, she says she’s never let anyone’s perception of her get in the way.
“I don’t care how people look at me. They could think of me as a dumb little girl, but I’d always approach a situation the same way: what’s the outcome? When you go in with that attitude, it means it’s never just about how people treat you; it’s also how you allow people to treat you. I’ve never thought I’m less than anyone else. I always knew what I knew and got on with it.”
Success is about hard work but mostly it’s about attitude, she says, coming back to the two acronyms that have stood her in good stead throughout her life. Don’t be a VERB (a Victim, who feels Entitled, and wants to be Rescued while casting Blame on others). You’re better off to strive to SOAR (someone who finds Solutions, takes Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility).
“If you do that,” she says, “great things can happen.
“I always had the view that failure is not an option. You just have to stay at problems longer until you’ve found a solution. No is not the answer: you keep going until you get the answer. It goes back to when I went travelling when I was young and dumb and I found myself in all sorts of predicaments. If you didn’t find a solution the options were dire.”
The week we chat she is travelling to India, where Boost Juice has five stores, for the company’s biannual conference. But first she’s taking a yoga retreat, expanding on her five-mornings-a-week, pre-board meeting Ashtanga practice, something she’s become so passionate about she’s about to do her teachers’ training, getting in over her head all over again, only this time on the mat.
“I don’t necessarily want to get to a point where I become a teacher. It’s more to learn more about anatomy. I turned 50 last year and I’ve never been stronger or fitter and it’s all thanks to yoga. I honestly think it’s made me a better person. I make much calmer decisions than when I was younger.”
