Throughout the years, many people have asked how it all started for me, and how on earth I came to be doing what I’m doing today. The truth is, I am totally an accidental entrepreneur. I’ve frequently reinvented myself and changed things up almost every decade. But the real catalyst for finding my way to success? Well, hitting rock bottom. 

In this episode, I share my journey from the early days of life as a bookish farmer’s daughter in Northern England, how I grew into a confident university student and the corporate career in fashion I worked my way up in. I take you through the days of meeting my now-husband Jason in London to relocating to his native Australia. Navigating the challenges of starting my life in business from scratch in a new country was hard - however, the worst was yet to come.

I take you through the pivotal moment we hit rock bottom: Jason’s loss of his corporate job resulting in us eventually having $50 left in the bank. This came at a time when I was exploring my dreams of starting a business, and I asked myself what right I had to put my family at risk. However, it was Jason’s unwavering belief in me that reignited my vision to leave the corporate world and start out on my own. 

Fast forward 12 years, and I've built and sold businesses, authored best-selling books, spoken on stages around the world and even received an honorary doctorate. The key to rising from rock bottom came down to this: owning my own brilliance, expertise, imperfections and particular experience of life.

I hope by sharing my journey, you’re given permission to know that you have everything inside you to unleash your own brilliance. Ask yourself these questions: Who are you not to be more brilliant? Who says you can’t be more brilliant? What will change when you embrace your brilliance? 

Join me as I inspire you to become your most exceptional self, no matter the challenges life throws your way.

LINKS:

Elevate with Janine

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Hello, my lovelies.

How are you?

Welcome to a new episode

of unleashing brilliance.

And today, what I thought

I'd share with you is a

little bit of my backstory.

I'm often asked, I've received

so many emails over the years

from people saying, where

did it all start Janine?

How on earth did you

get to be doing what it

is that you're doing?

My response to that is I am

totally an accidental and if

you actually look at my life,

I reckon every 10 years, I've

pretty much reinvented myself.

In fact, my speaker agent,

often refer to me as the

queen of reinvention, which

I remember at the time

hearing it, having a little

giggle and going, really?

And it was only on

reflection of my story that

I went, actually, yeah.

I have changed things up

every decade pretty much.

So, in response to all

of those that have asked,

this is what today's

episode is all about.

And I hope that by sharing

my journey to here, it will

give you permission to know

that you have everything

inside of you to become more

brilliant tomorrow than you

are today and to give you

the courage and the bravery

to unleash your brilliance

even more to the world.

So where did it

all start for me?

Well, I was actually born

into a farming community

in the north of England.

My dad was a farmer

and my mom pretty much

was a stay at home mom.

And I grew up with, lots of

words of wisdom from my dad.

He used to say where there's

muck, there's brass love,

which essentially meant,

if I work really hard then

the results would come.

And on those days where

I'd come home from school,

it'd be like, Oh my God,

this is the worst day ever.

He'd go, it'll be reet.

It'll be reet.

Which pretty much went,

you know, you know, put

on your big girl pants

and you'll be fine.

school was, pretty

average for me.

I was a real bookworm.

And I was teased quite a

lot at school for, know,

being probably a little bit

quiet, had mousy brown hair,

lots and lots of freckles.

I was a bit of a slow

developer on the puberty side

of things and you know, found

me with my nose in a book.

So I was teased quite a lot

until, around the age of 17 or

18 when I discovered Madonna's

fashion style, Princess

Diana's or Lady Diana's

electric blue eye shadow and

mascara as it was at the time.

and of course, hair

dye, you know, hair

dye changed my world.

And through school, I was

getting really great results.

And I remember a teacher

saying to my parents at

a parent teacher evening

one night, you know,

your, your daughter

should consider applying

to Oxford or Cambridge.

Now, as a North of

England girl, it didn't

even enter into my mind,

into my psyche at all.

And in fact, what I did

is I instantly went into

that box of, why would

I want to go there?

And why on earth would

anyone accept me?

So from an early age,

this lack of self belief,

really started to...

take root in terms of

the decisions that I was

actually making for myself.

But what it did do is it

triggered off a curiosity.

And, because nobody

in my family had ever

been to university.

And so we'd never really

had those conversations

around the dinner table.

But this conversation

with the teacher triggered

off a curiosity for me.

And I, so.

I started applying and I

actually got into, Aston

University in Birmingham

to do a Bachelor of Science

degree and, super excited.

I had to achieve certain

results at A level, but

we faced another challenge

then because as a family

we couldn't afford to

send me to university.

So thankfully at that time

the UK government, offered out

a grant system and I applied

and I was fortunate enough

to be given a full grant, to

be able to attend university.

There's no way I would

have been able to go if it

hadn't have been for that

grant system at that time.

And I'm forever grateful for

that because, that pretty

much changed the trajectory

of my world prior to that, my

dreams had been on a certain

level, subsequently to being

given the opportunity to go

to uni, everything changed.

And so at the age of 18,

I packed my backpack, and

off I went in England.

Those of you that are

listening that are from the

UK know that in England,

we tend to leave home and

we go and live on campus.

And at the age of 18, I left

home, and never returned.

Uni was brilliant.

I graduated, you know,

after four years with a

bachelor of science degree,

a whole heap of memories.

Thank God, social media wasn't

around then and a hell of a

lot of debt at the time, or

a big overdraft at the time.

And this time I packed my

backpack and I headed off to

London to start a graduate

training scheme at a company

called Coats Viyella.

So I started my corporate

career working in

the fashion industry.

And in fact, only the other

day I received a note from

two incredible women that I

met on that very first day

of that graduate training

program saying, Oh my God,

it's 30 years since we

started day one, it's like.

Goodness me.

So yes, 30 years ago,

I moved to London and

I started a graduate

traineeship at Coats Viyella.

And over the course of

the next seven or eight

years, I worked my way up.

I ended up in the position

of group marketing manager.

And it was at this time that

I'd met my now husband, Jason.

So we met on the shop

floor, we met at work,

we fell in love, he was

an Aussie, he was from

Perth or he is from Perth.

And I.

decided to move to Australia.

So, in the year 2000, on the

1st of December 2000, I packed

my backpack again, and this

time I arrived in Melbourne.

I arrived in Melbourne with

the trusted backpack, my

permanent residency visa,

a resume and my husband.

And that was pretty much it.

And suddenly I had to rebuild

my career in a country where

I had zero social proof.

I had to rebuild my network

in a country where I knew no

one and apart from you know,

my brother was here and I

had to rebuild my life, which

let's be honest, my vision

of my life in Australia had

been created from watching

endless episodes of Home and

Away and Neighbors at uni.

So I had a certain view of

what Australia was going to be

like, but to say it was scary,

is really an understatement.

I reckon it's one of the

scariest things I've ever

done, to be honest, moving

to a country where I

thought it would be easy.

you know, we speak English.

My understanding was it was

pretty similar to where I was

from, but it was one of the

hardest things I've had to

do in terms of rebuilding my

career, rebuilding my network,

rebuilding my confidence here

and learning to navigate,

the different cultural

norms that existed here.

So, over the next 10 years,

those of you that are really

smart will be working at

my age by now, but over the

next 10 years, I rebuilt

my corporate career and

I ended up becoming the

group marketing director

at Oroton Group looking

after two incredible brands,

the Ralph Lauren brand.

I was looking after that

here in Asia, Asia pac and I

helped, relaunched the Oroton

brand, its website and worked

with the creative director

at the time to take the

Oroton brand into Hong Kong.

But at that time, I still felt

there was more, you know, I

had three awesome children.

At the time they were, I

think three, five and seven.

I've still got them by

the way, but they're a

little bit bigger now.

You know, had a home,

had a career, but I felt

like there was more.

I was giving a lot to

other people, giving

a lot to my team.

To, the EC, the executive

committee, the executive

board at Or to Mr.

Lauren over in the U S to the

media, to key stakeholders.

I was coming home and then,

you know, giving a lot of

my time to the children, to

my children, to my husband.

And to be honest, in

all of this, I felt like

I was losing myself.

I knew I was great

at doing my job.

I could do it

standing on my head.

I loved it.

I, I loved playing around

the edges and, creating

and launching brands

and rejuvenating brands.

I loved everything about it.

I was traveling the world

going to Fashion Week in

New York twice a year.

It was fabulous, but

something was missing.

I felt like my brain, wasn't

being challenged in the way

I wanted to challenge it.

And so I decided that there

was more and that, I had to

take ownership of that more.

And it's a whole other

story, which you'll hear in

future episodes, :but I left

my corporate career and,

guaranteed set out on my own.

And I started building

my first business,

LBD Group, a women's

networking organization.

It was totally bootstrapped,

totally self funded.

And about two years into

that, the big hit came in

that my husband, Jason,

lost his corporate job.

So the company that he

was working for went

into receivership.

We had zero cash coming in.

The company was still

bootstrapping and we were

racking up credit cards.

Quite frankly, it was,

you know, everything was

going on the credit card.

And it got to a point one

day where, Jason told me

we had 50 left in the bank.

And.

that evening, it just

hit me and it hit me.

right do I have to

follow my dreams?

What right do I have to

pursue something different?

I can go and get a job.

I can turn this around.

What right do I have

to put my family and

my children at risk?

And they were at risk

because we'd had to move

out of our house into the

shittiest house in the street.

We'd had conversations with

the kids about Christmas

and birthdays are on pause.

Don't ask us for

milkshakes at the weekends.

We'd even spoken.

a little bit in jest, but

also a little bit seriously

to some friends about we might

need to camp in your backyard.

Things are getting

quite serious.

And the reality of the

50 left in the bank hit

home and I just lost it.

I just, burst into tears

and Jason found me crying

my eyes out at my desk.

And I said to him, I'm

going to go and find a job.

I'm going to go

and find a job.

What right do I have

to put you to put the

children under pressure?

What right?

I can go get a job.

I can do marketing

standing on my head.

And he turned around to me

and he said, don't you dare.

Don't you dare do that Janine.

I believe in you.

And those words, I believe in

you was all that I needed to

relight the fire in my belly

because I went, you know what,

if he believes in me, if my

husband believes in me, then

I've got to believe in myself

and it relit this fire in me

and over the next 10 years

since then, 12 years almost

now, I've built and I've

sold the LBD group, so I've

built and sold a business,

I've run a non for profit

where over five years we,

created a gift giving circle

and supported an incredible

community of women and

kids, here in Sydney to help

break the cycle of poverty

and prostitution and drug

dealing being the only jobs.

I've written three

bestselling books.

I've traveled the world,

speaking on stages

with incredible people.

and I now work with

individuals to help

them unleash their

brilliance, to achieve

the growth that they want.

I also, a couple of years

ago, I got invited back to

my university to be given an

honorary doctorate of science.

And to give the speech at

that graduating ceremony

this year, that is a moment.

Honestly, when I got

that letter from the

UK, another moment where

I burst into tears.

So that moment where Jason

said to me, I believe in

you changed everything.

And the reason I'm sharing

this is not about, Hey,

look at what I've achieved.

Hey, look at how I've,

grown myself and grown

this business out of being

on the brink of disaster.

How I turned, you know,

a 50 left in the bank to

a seven figure business.

It's not about any of that.

The reason I want to share

this story is because of the

personal learning that I had.

You see, for so long, I

was striving and proving

that I was good enough.

This relentless quest to

prove that I was good enough

left me often exhausted on

the brink of burnout and

constantly battling imposter

syndrome because I had

this crazy fear failing.

And it was only when I

stopped, it was only when

Jason said to me, I believe in

you, it was only that moment

where I stopped and I realized

that around me, everything

is constantly changing.

Everything is constantly on

the move and we're seeing

it right now, aren't we?

We're seeing this constant

change around us economically.

Where we're being challenged,

in terms of, our businesses

and where the money's

coming from, we're being

challenged financially in

our businesses, but also

financially at home, we're

being challenged in terms

of all of the uncertainty,

politically and globally,

we're being challenged

with what we're reading

and seeing in the media.

We're being challenged from

a health perspective on

the back of the pandemic.

And now we're being challenged

socially, in terms of how all

of this is filtering down.

So the reality is there's

change is constant.

It's happening at a macro

level and it's happening for

all of us at a micro level.

And I realised at

that moment that Jason

said, I believe in you.

That despite all of this

change, I faced it before,

despite all of the change at

that time, I faced it before

and what I realised is the

only thing that is constant

amongst the chaos is you.

Who I was being, who I

wanted to become, and

the same is you, right?

Since I owned that, since I

went, you know what, who am I?

Who am I being

every single day?

And who do I want to

become since I owned that?

Since I stepped into

owning me, into owning my

brilliance, into owning my

expertise, into owning the

fact that I can experience

heartache, tough situations,

I can pull myself out of it,

owning the fact that I have

this experience of life.

It was only when I started

being intentional about owning

that, about stepping into

my brilliance, about knowing

the impact that that makes

every single day, only by

doing that did things change.

And I want you to think

about this because the

same can happen for you.

Everything around you is

changing all the time.

Businesses are changing,

your clients are evolving,

the economy is evolving.

Everything is changing.

But the only thing that

is constant is you.

Who are you?

Who are you being and who is

it that you want to become?

When I started owning that.

When I started stepping into

my brilliance, that is when

everything around me changed.

That is when I

started becoming the

author, the speaker.

When I started owning

the clients that I

wanted to work with.

When I started really

committing to the business

that I wanted to build, but

also building it on my terms.

Committing to the life that

I want for myself, for Jason

and for my three children.

I want you to imagine

what more you could

achieve if you could step

into your brilliance.

The questions I want to

leave you with in this

episode are Who are you

not to be more brilliant?

Who says you can't

be more brilliant?

And the second question I want

you to consider is what will

change when you are brilliant?

Because here's the thing.

Undertaking any meaningful

endeavor requires each

and every single one of

us to be exceptional.

It requires you

to be exceptional.

And when we can accept

our own imperfections and

stop beating ourselves up

for what we don't have.

When we can start

accepting our limitations

and stop making excuses

for our mistakes.

When we can start owning

who we are, who we are being

and who it is that we want

to become, accepting those

imperfections, accepting

those limitations, when we

can do that for ourselves,

we give permission to those

around us to do the same.

Stepping into this

space is a choice.

It is a practice and

it is a discipline.

And I want you to think about

because who you are, who you

are being, and who you want

to become is all your choice.

Thank you for listening

to this episode,

where I've been.

I wanted to share

with you my story.

It hasn't all unicorns

and rainbows and

champagne popping moments.

There has been a lot of

challenge, a lot of picking

myself off the floor and

a lot of really digging

deep of deciding and

making the choice around

who am I in this moment?

Who am I working to become?

And who am I being to

everyone around me?

Until next week, enjoy

and have an awesome week.