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Boost Juice founder Janine Allis has shared how she came ‘close’ to being raped and murdered twice as a ‘naive’ solo traveler – and how a short-lived summer crush on David Bowie’s yacht saw her return to Australia seven years later with a baby boy .
Allis, now a multimillionaire and the woman behind some of Australia’s most successful companies, believes it was the seven years of traveling the world in her 20s that she developed the resilience to weather the storm of starting her business. own business.
The founder of Boost Juice, a juice and smoothie bar that has found customers in 13 countries, Allis told The Entourage’s Make It Happen Summit that at age 21 she was alone, completely broke and living in the south of France.
She entered a local bar and lied that she had experience as a flight attendant, explaining that at the time, it was nearly impossible for potential employers to check her resume without internet or cell phones.
Allis (pictured) believes it was the seven years she spent traveling in her twenties that she developed the resilience to weather the storm of starting her own business
Allis spent two years in the Mediterranean as a flight attendant on a boat bought by the late rock star David Bowie (pictured bottom right aboard the yacht)
David Bowie is pictured aboard his yacht Denab Star at the height of his superstar fame
So Allis got a job as a flight attendant and spent the next two years sailing the Mediterranean on a boat bought by the late rock star David Bowie.
On the yacht, she rubbed shoulders with Princess Anne, comedian and actor Robin Williams, and Rupert Murdoch’s wife and model Jerry Hall.
She even played Frisbee with Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.
Allis said she was lucky enough to accompany her famous friends to the Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix, but there had also been dark times.
The Boost Juice founder said her naivety as a young solo traveler left her with all sorts of scrapes and that her family back home rarely knew what country she was in.
“It gave me resilience,” the 57-year-old told the Daily Mail Australia.
“As a young 21-year-old driving around the world and coming back with a two-year-old as a single mother, there was seven years of resilience.
‘I didn’t speak the language, I got myself into all sorts of trouble, almost being raped and murdered twice.
As a teenager, Allis modeled for Greyhound and CB Action Magazine, and later worked odd jobs like teaching aerobics and being ‘by b****’ at a Melbourne club.
Working from her Melbourne kitchen for the first few years, Allis sold her childhood home in 2000 to fund her Boost dream, saying of this decision: ‘We were all there’
‘To be in Tenerife and get drug money to take things across (the border), or people in the back of your car offering you a contract to take them to a hiding place.
“But it created resilience, because naivety put me in situations where failure was not an option, because failure in those circumstances was a very bad outcome. So I had to look for solutions.
‘I could only rely on myself. I had no one else to rely on. There was no Facebook, there was no internet, there were no cell phones to call for help.
“When you really trusted yourself, there was an incredible resilience that created what I still use today.”
Allis joked that while some daughters take their mother home with them as souvenirs from their travels, she gave her mother her first grandchild as a present.
Allis joked that while some daughters take home a souvenir from their travels, she gave her mother her first grandchild (pictured, the Allis family with their beloved dogs)
She said her son Samuel, now in his late twenties with his own children, (pictured) was born abroad from the tail of a ‘romance’ on David Bowie’s yacht
She said her son Samuel, now in his late twenties with his own children, was born abroad from the tail end of a “romance” on David Bowie’s yacht.
The single mother was forced to return to her family home in Boronia, east Melbourne, and worked odd jobs to make ends meet.
As a teenager, Allis modeled for Greyhound and CB Action Magazine, and later worked odd jobs like teaching aerobics and being a door b***h at a club.
However, she said it was when she met her husband Jeff that her true entrepreneurial spirit was unleashed and the idea for Boost Juice was born.
Allis worked from her kitchen for the first few years and sold her childhood home in 2000 to fund her dream, saying of this decision: ‘We were all there’.
The entrepreneur said the key to starting a good business was to provide a product that you would personally want to consume.
Soon Allis will travel to Switzerland with her teenage daughter Tahlia in a few months’ time ‘just to open my eyes’.
‘What new ideas are there? What new concepts can I look at? What other things can I do? What can I take that I can actually contribute to Boost?’ she said.
“When I say that the meaning of life is learning, I truly believe it with every atom of my being. I can learn from anyone and anything.”
Allis (pictured) plans to travel to Switzerland with her teenage daughter Tahlia in a few months ‘purely to open my eyes’
Allis was an investor in the TV show Shark Tank, wrote a book called The Accidental Entrepreneur and participated in a series Australian Survivor (pictured)
Allis was an investor in the TV show Shark Tank, wrote a book called The Accidental Entrepreneur and appeared in an Australian Survivor series.
She also leads a podcast “Superwomen… We ain’t” with Gram Consulting Group founder Margie Hartley, in which the women discuss their successes and failures.
Allis and her husband sold 70 percent of Retail Zoo for nearly $70 million in 2010, but remain major shareholders and contributors.
Boost Juice is now part of the Retail Zoo group that also includes Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill, CIBO Espresso and Betty’s Burgers and newly opened stores in Cambodia.