IT'S IN OUR BLOOD

Born and raised in Adelaide by a single mother, we were taught from a very young age to understand the value of hard work. Our mum, Ailsa, owned and operated a very successful secondhand baby-wares store for over 20 years and was quite ahead of her time with her business model. 

We spent many hours in the shop after school and every weekend, so we saw first hand the commitment required to run a successful business. And of course, we helped out where we could, so getting our hands dirty has never been foreign to us. 

Our upbringing has given us the greatest appreciation for how small businesses operate. We almost feel that it was part of our destiny that we now have the opportunity to not only run our own business, but also to work with other small business owners across Australia.

Our time on ‘The Block’ facilitated our move into the interior design field, and this is a place in which we feel we truly belong. We have thoroughly enjoyed growing our interior design business and we are so proud of the spatial transformations we have undertaken to date. However, our entrepreneurial spirit has inspired us to keep following our passion and expand our creativity into other areas.

Design is our profession but on a personal note, nature and the environment is one of our true passions and is such a defining element of the type of mothers we are. We feel so strongly that we have an essential role to play in helping our children to shape their environmental awareness and their appreciation for nature and habitats.

THE IDEA

We have always been big dreamers and we feel strongly that sometimes in life we are guided to do things. This is how it was with al.ive body®. The idea came to us while sitting on the beach after we’d just finished styling our Albert Park renovation project.

We were reflecting on how difficult it had been to find unique hand & body products that would complement the aesthetic of our home, but that would also provide a natural, non-toxic formulation and be a joy to use. We considered partnering with other brands to have a role in designing a product, but then we realised we could dream bigger… we could build our own brand.

We had such a clear vision of what we wanted our product to look like and we knew that we could not settle for anything less than perfect. This pursuit of perfection did come at a cost to us emotionally and financially, however not once did we waiver from our promise to persist until we were both 100% happy. 

There was no doubt in our minds that building this brand would allow us the opportunity to give back and to use our platform to raise awareness for environmental conservation. Planting a tree for each product sold is the lifeblood of our brand – it was always going to be a part of our business model. Our plan is to fund an al.ive body® forest and we are well and truly on our way.

We are firm believers that successful business owners are the ones who know every aspect of their business from the ground up. We have developed not just the product, but every process involved in getting this product out to our customers. We are steering this ship and we know exactly where it’s headed. 

THE DESTINATION

The al.ive body® journey has been many things; exciting, daunting, inspiring, a vessel for our creativity, tired to the bone hard work (and a few breakdowns along the way) but above all, a true love. Since we launched, we have been blown away by the response we have received, and we could not be more grateful. 

We were so nervous to be launching during the Coronavirus outbreak and while it has likely impacted sales to an extent, we have still been able to exceed the sales target that we had set for ourselves by nearly 11 months. We believe that this speaks to the quality and uniqueness of the product and that is the greatest feeling in the world.

We could not be prouder of the final result and we pinch ourselves seeing how “at home” our products look in people’s homes, just how we had intended. To have designed a product that has received such a warm response from our customers and industry insiders is something we are very proud of and we will continue to work to grow our business.