The Secrets of My Success: The Story of Boost Juice, Juicy Bits and All

By Janine Allis

Janine Allis explains how she grew Boost Juice bars into a global phenomenon.

How do you turn a single juice bar into a global company with more than 6000 employees and $160 million in global sales? Ask Janine Allis. In The Secrets of My Success, Australia’s hottest entrepreneur tells the inside story of the growth of Boost Juice, including her personal journey from housewife with no formal business training to successful entrepreneur. Along the way, she discovered the 30 business and leadership tips she calls her ‘recipes for success’. The Secrets of My Success also explores how Allis’s personal philosophy based on a love for life has brought the company loyal customers and created satisfied, dedicated employees.

• The perfect guide for budding entrepreneurs to reject the traditional wisdom that the only way to succeed in business is with a business degree
• An inside look at the successful management and leadership philosophy of one of Australia’s greatest entrepreneurs
• Includes a full-colour photo insert section.

For today’s entrepreneur looking for non-traditional paths to extreme success, The Secrets of My Success offers practical business and leadership wisdom combined with Allis’s own compelling personal story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Mar 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781118648247

Book preview

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The Secrets of My Success

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: My Boost journey

1 Blitzing in the blender of life

Just a simple girl from a simple world

First job, bad hair and many lessons

The adventure that was supposed to last three months

Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll

2 Smoothly settling down (not!)

No sex, drugs or rock ’n’ roll

Working with movie stars and finding my soulmate

Dormant DNA

Spinning my wheels

3 Holding all the apples

Boost or bust

Vision to fruition

Making the decision to franchise

Surrounding yourself with greatness

Running at full tilt

Risking it all

Picking the right partner

Adding a Boost to Viva

Business Woman of the Year

4 Keeping the juices flowing

Cracks in the foundation

Proactive boosters

Hitting the wall

Building a Zoo

Pausing to reflect

The secret

Part II: Thirty recipes for success

5 Executive juices

Integrity

Motivation

Passion

Confidence

Reputation

Discipline

Listener

Solutions

Honesty

Partners

Positive thoughts

Negative thoughts

6 Staff smoothies

Teamwork

People

Relationships

Protégés

Leaders

Delegation

Meetings

7 Power blends

Assumptions

Mentors

Principles

Respect

Confrontation

Money

Negotiation

Success

Credibility

Communicating

Customers

Part III: Expanding skills and overcoming obstacles

8 Blending a great team

Hiring the right ones

Firing the wrong ’uns

9 Mixing up your marketing

Why our marketing strategy worked

10 Picking the franchising fruit

The Boost franchising method

11 Loving life

There’s more to life

Prioritise

It takes two

Get help

Work out how much you need

Enjoy extracurricular activities

Taking care of yourself and your health

12 Throwing away the pulp

Handling conflict with your colleagues

Setting realistic expectations

Learning to say no

Respecting others

Acting the part

Eliminating the fear

Avoiding burnout

Conclusion

The Boost Juice timeline

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First published in 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

Typeset in 11/13.5 pt ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std

© Allis Investments Pty Ltd 2013

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author: Allis, Janine, 1965-

Title: The secrets of my success and the story of Boost Juice — juicy bits and all/Janine Allis.

ISBN: 9781118648179 (pbk.)

Notes: Includes index.

Subjects: Allis, Janine, 1965-

Success in business.

Businesswomen — Biography.

Women-owned business enterprises — Management.

Dewey Number: 658.4092082

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

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Internal design by Peter Reardon, pipelinedesign.com.au

Internal images:

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© iStock.com/CGissemann;

© iStock.com/Natikka;

© iStock.com/photomaru;

© iStock.com/AlasdairJames;

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© iStock.com / Antagain

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of any copyright material. Please contact the publisher if you are the copyright holder of any material used in this book which may have been incorrectly credited so we can correct any future reprints or editions

Printed in Australia by Ligare Book Printer

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Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

To my patient husband, Jeff, who does not always get the credit he deserves. To my mum, Joan, for her selfless commitment to me and my four beautiful children. And to those four very different, yet individually amazing children — thank you for your patience. Thank you for your forced flexibility, and sitting through more than a few dinner conversations with your Dad and me talking Boost! Without these loves of my life, nothing would be worthwhile. Thank you Jeff, Mum, Samuel, Oliver, Riley and Tahlia for making my life complete.

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Acknowledgements

I have mentioned throughout this book that if you surround yourself with great people, great things happen; I am who I am because of the people I choose to be surrounded by. One of these people is my best friend, Amy Hart-Doering, who is an accomplished businesswoman and mother, and also had the challenging job of helping with the writing of this book. I thank her for her blunt honesty, humour, and her endless patience with my grammar and all the words that I made up along the way — remember I did go to Knox Secondary College.

Amy has the amazing ability to get the best out of me, she has a kind and compassionate heart, and I love having her in my life. This book would never have been completed without her bossiness, her timelines and her insistence that after every yoga session we did together (which is a lot because we do it five times a week!) we work to get this book just right. I love you and thank you.

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Introduction

I walked into a book store last week and realised there really is a book on anything you could possibly be interested in. If you want to know how to speak to the dead, a book is available; if you want to make a cupcake, over 300 books are available on this subject alone (I checked online). There are over 10 000 business books printed each year — what you can learn from many very successful (and some not so successful) people is mind-boggling.

There are books on dealing with generation Y and on how to work less for more money, and hundreds of books with steps or particular units — like Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. There are many more ‘how-to’ books, such as How to Win Friends & Influence People and, one of my favourites, Good to Great. I also like the animal business books, like Eat That Frog, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, Purple Cow or (my favourite title) Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive.

So why on earth am I writing another book to add to the enormous number that is already out there on shelves and in e-stores? I can tell you one reason I’m not doing it for, and that’s the money! As you will read in part I, I tried publishing with my husband, Jeff, and now know is not for the faint-hearted — unless you are a JK Rowling or a James Patterson, writing books is not a business that you get into for the money. (And I’m not holding my breath waiting for Universal Studios to pick up the phone and tell me they want to do my life story and that Julia Roberts has agreed to play me. Mind you, I think Andy MacDowell would do a better job.)

There are, however, three main reasons I’m writing this book.

The first is that I often get stopped by young women or men who have started or are about to start their business, and they tell me that I have inspired them to do so; that they have followed my journey, believe that they have a similar spark and now want to start on their own business journey.

The second reason is for me — when I started to write my story, it was the first time that I had actually stopped to look back and revisit the Boost Juice journey and how it all unfolded. Two of the most common questions I’m asked is whether I could have imagined that the business would grow to where it is today, and whether I knew when I started that it would become a real Australian icon. The honest answer to these questions is I never really thought about it, but I always believed that there was no other option but to succeed in creating a profitable business that I was proud of. The reality was that I was too busy growing the business and putting out the fires along the way to think about the business not being where it should be. I was (and still am) a terrible networker, and the isolation caused by this meant I didn’t know whether what I was doing was better or worse than another businesses — I just assumed that it was worse, so I kept pushing forward. I also had people along the way who kept raising the bar, so I never really felt that I had arrived at the final destination. (When you have a friend like Geoff Harris, whose business turns over billions of dollars, your business always appears small.) Writing the book enabled me to relive my thoughts on each part of the journey and see the young scared woman who was winging it along the way. Through the writing, I was also able to watch her as she grew up. Writing the book has also enabled me to think back in other ways, and focus on the people who were with me along the journey. I can now look at these people with a more mature head on my shoulders, and understand some of what they did through their eyes — not the eyes of a scared, stressed young mum — and appreciate everything that they had to offer.

The third reason for writing this book is you — the person who is reading these words that I am typing on my laptop while in the background my young daughter is playing dress ups, my oldest is interrupting me by sending me texts saying he arrived in NZ safely (and no, he has no plans yet), my second son is also interrupting me by asking to go for a surf and my youngest boy has ‘Call of Duty’ turned up far too loud — all of which I would not have any other way.

The story on how Boost started may inspire you to make a change in your life, or you may simply find it an interesting read. The tips and insights through the second and third parts of the book are things I wish I had known before I started in business — all the mistakes I have made have cost money, often at a time when we could least afford it. Most of the tips and lessons learned are what I use in everyday life and all are what I do business by. Throughout the book, I’ve also included insights and extra detail from three people who were very important in my Boost journey: Jeff, my husband, Geoff Harris, co-founder of the hugely successful Flight Centre, and Kristie Piniuta, our in-house lawyer for many years and now with her own legal practice (Kubed Legal). These add another perspective to my journey.

And (as the title promises) there truly are some of my secrets in this book — there are many things in the book that I have not written about before or that are not in any interview you may have read about me.

Or the book may be one of those that you pick up, read a bit and put down to be finished at another time. I know I have at least five books on the go at any one stage, and usually an audio book as well.

Whatever your reasons for reading this book, I hope you enjoy my journey, and I will feel I have done my job if you do take something away from the tips and lessons learned. I hope through Boost Juice bars and our other businesses that we can continue to grow and produce products that you love. And I truly wish you as much luck as I had in creating my business that I love.

And remember — love life!

Part I

My Boost journey

When you ask many successful businesspeople how they got started, they may tell you about the little businesses they started in primary school — the ingenious corner lemonade stand, the school candy-bar sales or the lawn-mowing service employing other 12 year olds. The types of businesses that led these overachievers to climb that first rung on the ladder to success. Sales charts, forecasts and ROI calculations lined these kids’ walls like Andy Gibb lined mine. The entrepreneurial spirit seems to be part of their DNA.

My story is drastically different. You could say that my entrepreneurial spirit was ... umm — dormant. Okay, it was non-existent. To be honest, if you’d asked me what an entrepreneur was in primary school, I may have thought it had something to do with food and would have had no idea how to spell it. It was 20 years after primary school that foreign entrepreneurial DNA somehow began to morph my behaviour.

During the 20-year, pre-DNA takeover, I travelled around the United States, Europe, parts of Asia and Australia. I had 30 jobs, got fired from some, moved on to others, made money, lost more, met the wrong man, had a beautiful baby and met my soulmate. What I didn’t realise at the time was all the lessons and tools I was picking up with each triumph and pitfall. Each piece of my journey was enabling me to have the strength to take a tiny idea and turn it into a passion.

Of course, I don’t really think having the skills to become a successful entrepreneur literally needs to part of your DNA. I also don’t believe there is a cookie-cutter process for success, or that success has to be hard or come easy. What I have attempted to do in this and the following chapters is to share with you my journey; it has many ups and equally as many downs. (You can also get a summary of the main events in the Boost journey from the timeline.) If someone had done the same for me, perhaps the learning curve would have been less bumpy. This is a short, honest glimpse into my archives so that you can see I’m human, just like you. I too trip over the kids’ toys, go to work with my children’s fears and problems running through my head, laugh, cry, make mistakes, learn from them and try to grow.

I hope that you take something from the following and follow your dreams.

Chapter 1

Blitzing in the blender of life

Growing up, I was a typical suburban kid. My passion was netball and I spent as much time as possible outside throwing a ball at the brick wall in our garden. After leaving technical college, my first job was in advertising — during the 1980s (think shoulder pads, big hair and liquid lunches) — and even gave modelling a go. Sensing there was more to life, I worked three jobs to save for a travelling adventure. Telling my mother I would be away for three months, I set off — returning six years later with a two year old.

Just a simple girl from a simple world

I once read a book that suggested we actually ‘pick’ our parents. If that’s the case, I picked the quintessential Aussie Mum and Dad. Mum stayed home and Dad made the bacon. Dad worked for Fibremakers, a carpet-making company, in a management position. His aim was to move up the corporate ladder during the week and enjoy his time off on the weekends.

I’m the youngest of their four kids, born in Knoxfield, about 30 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD. Back in the 1970s, the suburb was semirural. Our home was a tiny green weatherboard house — only 10 squares — but it was set on a quarter-acre block of land that had previously been an orchard. It was full of fruit trees. (Uhmm … perhaps the love of fruit started here?) We were outside children by necessity. Weekends were spent at the football oval for my brother, Greg, or the netball courts for my sisters and me. Our family was obsessed with sport. Netball was the one thing I was truly interested in during those years. I played and trained six days a week (even as an adult, I played netball until I stumbled into yoga at 41). Okay — healthy living and a bit of obsessiveness started to shine through during my childhood, but the availability of fruit and overachieving netball skills do not a businesswoman make.

Jeff says …

Janine always had spunk and threw herself into any challenge with great zeal. The best sign of what was to come was watching her on the netball court; there was no lack of vigour, for a fierce contest was within this woman.

My childhood was relatively uneventful; I and my siblings were much loved, and it was a stable upbringing. Life was simple, with not too much money being left over after the expenses were paid, so everything we did have was appreciated. I remember as a child the joy of seeing black and white television for the first time. I also remember going to the movies and watching that huge man on a horse, telling everyone how good for you it was to smoke Alpine Cigarettes — as opposed to the other horrible, unhealthy cigarettes. I wasn’t sold on the habit of smoking but, on the big movie screen, I did notice the vibrant green of the grass, so when I returned to the black and white TV, I made a point of telling my whole family what colours we were missing.

Holidays were 8-hour road trips to Robe, in a car without air conditioning or seatbelts. For Christmas one year, I got a bike that was second-hand with a damaged seat. (Mum told me Santa had damaged it on the way down the chimney and, of course, I believed every word because I knew Santa existed.) Looking back at my childhood, my memories are happy ones; my parents ensured we never