What gave you the confidence to start The Beauty Chef & how did you know the time was right?

My interest in natural health and beauty began as a teenager when I suffered from eczema and allergies and grew stronger

When I became a beauty editor some 15 years ago, I was concerned with the amount of toxic chemicals in skincare products and I felt very passionate about helping to change the paradigm in the beauty industry. I knew that beauty began in the belly from my own experience; your gut is where everything happens: where we make nutrients, where we metabolise hormones, where we neutralise pathogens, where we make detoxifying enzymes. All of these things if not working properly or in balance, can affect the skin profoundly. Also, the skin, hair and nails are the last places to get nutrients that go to more vital organs first, so if you are not getting enough nutrients, they literally starve.  So I made it my mission to help change that paradigm and educate people on how to look after their skin more holistically and more specifically, from the inside out. 

I published a book called Feeding Your Skin with Penguin (in 2004) and penned a DIY beauty column for the Sunday Telegraph for eight years as well as being the natural beauty editor for Wellbeing Mag for 12 years (which I still am). During this I made all my own skincare from scratch from plants and organic foods and researched the best foods and nutrients for skincare- both internally and topically.  

My daughter suffred from eczema around 10 years ago and as a result I was doing some research and stumbled across some research around gut and skin health and eczema and the possible link.  I put her on a gut healing protocol, part of which included consuming lacto-fermented, probiotic foods, and I saw a huge difference to her skin. So, I started making my own fermented foods and continued to see the effects to the skin and wellbeing of the entire family.. People were asking me what cream I was using because they saw my skin was glowing! I created quite a demand for my fermented foods, soon supplying to extended family, and friends of friends, so it seemed a natural progression to launch The Beauty Chef. GLOW was my first product – with 24 bio-fermented, skin loving superfoods.

What is the one piece of advice you would give budding entrepreneurs thinking of starting a business?

I know it is a cliché, but behind every successful business is a lot of hard work. I often say this to my children. Do what you love, because success requires hard work, so you might as well spend the hard work doing something you wholeheartedly enjoy. Plus, you are bound to be more successful doing something that you have fire, passion and drive for. There are many good ideas out there, but to make them concrete requires hard work and resilience.

I love the hard work, and that’s because I love what I do. As Albert Ellis once poignantly said, "The art of love is largely the art of persistence."  Another great quote I like by Thomas Jefferson is, "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it".

What has been your highlight & your most challenging moment/s to date as a business women?

It’s crazy to look at how far the brand has come! When I started in 2009, I was the first to create a product in the ‘inner beauty’ category so it was a challenge to break into the mainstream beauty market. Although the reaction from wholesalers who tested the products personally was overwhelmingly positive, the feedback from a business perspective was that they were too left of field. Lacto-fermentation and the benefits of probiotics were more understood in the health arena, than the beauty industry, so it was a very new concept for the beauty world.

I remember there was a buyer who called me and said, “I tried your powders and my skin is amazing, everyone is asking me what I'm doing differently. I want to buy your product and put it on the shelves, but right now there's no category for it.”

Now we have over 200 stockists worldwide with more opening every week, and thousands of women all over the world are taking our products. I’m always thrilled to hear feedback on how much it’s helped them.

What are the top ways you organise your life?

•  Writing to do lists.
• Being realistic about what I can get done in a day.
• Prioritising, and making sure the important things get done first.
• I have also learnt to say no. It is impossible to find life/work balance if you say yes to everything. 
• Delegating is another way I organise my life. 
• Running and founding a business can be a pretty chaotic job. ​In order to truly succeed as a successful entrepreneur, it's important to try and ensure your work life and home life are balanced and organised. 

Paul J Meyer (a pioneer of the self-improvement industry) once said “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”

Delegation must be a massive part of your job as the director of The Beauty Chef. How have you learnt to delegate as you have grown the business over the years?

Also the BBC reports that “delegating gets harder to do the higher someone goes up the corporate ladder.” I have found this to be true as moving from the world of journalism to entrepreneurism, delegation has become much more difficult. This is simply due to wanting to be involved in every single part of the process. If like me you have developed a brand from the beginning, you feel as though it is your other 'child' so it is hard to let certain things go. However, the art of delegation really is important to ensure you are free of administrative minutiae tasks so I can spend more time being creative and taking the business to the next level. 

Firstly, you have to choose the right people to delegate too, your team is important as they are the people you will entrust those tasks you wish you could be doing yourself! Incorporate delegation into what you already do and then LET GO! 

Any other organisation tips that help you stay focused and on top of your workload? 

One thing that really keeps me stay productive, focused and energised is going for a walk along Bondi Beach, in particular I love doing the Bondi to Bronte walk as well as long walks around Centennial Park. Walking along the water’s edge or through the park really clears my mind and helps me focus and keep productive throughout the day. While on a walk I find clarity of mind and often come up with new creative ideas for the business! I also find solutions to problems often come to me. I try not to ever skip out on being physical or amongst nature. That goes for when I’m on holiday too! I love bushwalking and snorkelling – it’s one of my all-time favourite things to do. When I get back to work I have key tasks set as well as the energy to get them done!

I also try to set group tasks. This is collecting all of your similar tasks for the day (or week) and doing them all at once. I allocate time per day for each important task which has really helped minimise disorganisation! This might include sitting down to my emails for thirty minutes at 10am, writing content for the website or blog in a single morning, or take an afternoon to look at new formulations and discuss these with my team of scientists. After learning how to group my tasks together and give them a strict time frame I have become 10 times more productive! I also only choose a few key tasks to focus on each day to ensure I am staying on track and actually completing my tasks rather than choosing too many priorities which can leave you feeling as if your day is turning into disorganised chaos. Staying organised is as much about what you choose not to do as it is about what you choose to do. As the weeks fill up quickly I would also recommend you start your high priority tasks at the beginning of the week to ensure you actually get through them.