Boost Juice founder Janine Allis has told how she came ‘close’ to being raped and murdered twice as a ‘naive’ solo traveler – and how a short-lived summer romance on David Bowie’s yacht saw her return to Australia seven years later with a baby boy.
Now a multi-millionaire and the woman behind some of Australia’s most successful businesses, Allis believes it was the seven years she spent traveling the world in her 20s that helped her develop the resilience to weather the storm of to start his own company.
The founder of Boost Juice, a juice and smoothie bar that has found customers in 13 countries, Allis told Entourage’s Make It Happen Summit that at the age of 21 she found herself alone, completely broke and living in the south of France.
She walked into a local bar and lied that she had experience as a flight attendant, explaining that without the Internet or cell phones at the time, it was nearly impossible for potential employers to check her resume.
Allis (pictured) believes it was the seven years she spent traveling in her 20s that gave her the resilience to weather the storm by starting her own business
Allis spent two years sailing the Mediterranean as a stewardess on a boat bought by the late rock star David Bowie (pictured bottom right aboard the yacht)
David Bowie is pictured on board his yacht Denab Star at the height of his superstardom
Because of that, 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 celebrity friends to the Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix, but there had been dark times too.
The Boost Juice founder said her naivety as a young solo traveler got her into all kinds of trouble and that her family back home rarely knew what country she was in.
‘It gave me resilience,’ the 57-year-old told Daily Mail Australia.
‘As a young 21-year-old traveling the world and coming back with a two-year-old as a single mother, there were seven years of resilience.
‘I didn’t speak the language, I got into all sorts of trouble, coming close to being raped and murdered twice.
As a teenager, Allis modeled for Greyhound and CB Action Magazine and later worked odd jobs such as teaching aerobics and being a ‘doorb****’ at a Melbourne club
Working from his kitchen in Melbourne for the first few years, Allis sold his family home in 2000 to fund his Boost dream, saying of the decision: ‘We were all in’
‘Being in Tenerife and being offered drug money to take things across (the border), or having people in the back of your car offering you a contract to take them to a safe house.
‘But it created resilience because I got into situations through naivety where failure was not an option because failure in those circumstances was a very bad outcome. So I had to find solutions.
‘I could only rely on me. I had no one else to trust. There wasn’t a Facebook, there was no internet, there were no cell phones to call for help.
‘When it was you really trusting yourself, there was an incredible resilience that created what I draw on even today.’
Allis joked that while some daughters bring home a souvenir for their mother from their travels, she presented her mother with her first grandchild.
Allis joked that while some daughters bring their mother home from their travels, she presented her mother with her first grandchild (pictured, the Allis family with their beloved dogs)
She said her son Samuel, now in his late twenties with children of his own, (pictured) had been born abroad after a ‘romance’ on David Bowie’s yacht
She said her son Samuel, now in his late twenties with children of his own, had been born abroad after a ‘romance’ on David Bowie’s yacht.
The single mother was forced to move back to her family home in Boronia, in Melbourne’s east, and worked odd jobs to get by.
As a teenager, Allis modeled for Greyhound and CB Action Magazine, and later worked odd jobs such as teaching aerobics and being a ‘doorb***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.
Working from her kitchen for the first few years, Allis sold her family home in 2000 to fund her dream, saying of this decision: ‘We were all in’.
The entrepreneur said that the key to starting a good business was to provide a product that you would personally want to consume.
Allis will soon travel to Switzerland with her teenage daughter Tahlia in a few months ‘just to open my eyes’.
‘What new ideas are there? What new concepts can I look at? What other business 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 to learn, I truly believe it with every atom of my being, I can learn from everyone and everything.’
Allis (pictured) plans to travel abroad with her teenage daughter Tahlia to Switzerland in a few months ‘just to open my eyes’
Allis has been an investor on the TV show Shark Tank, written a book called The Accidental Entrepreneur and competed in a series of Australian Survivor (pictured)
Allis has been an investor on the TV show Shark Tank, written a book called The Accidental Entrepreneur and competed on a series of Australian Survivor.
She also fronts a podcast ‘Superwomen… We ain’t’ with Gram Consulting Group founder Margie Hartley, where 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, which also includes Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill, CIBO Espresso and Betty’s Burgers and recently opened stores in Cambodia.