Our 2017 Festive News

Hello. 2017 has been full of great times with family, friends, travel, and doing work we love with people we love.

Here are some of the highlights (and a lowlight) to bring you up to date.

As you probably know, we love to travel. And, we especially love to see friends in other parts of the world.

We also love learning and attending seminars and this year we found ourselves at events in Toronto, Hawaii, San Diego, Austin, Las Vegas to name a few!

PJ kicked off the year’s travel with the annual pilgrimage to Austin to attend the SXSW conference with John and Betty and Scott.

I (Suzi) missed this year to be home to take care of our dog Bella, who was ailing quite badly by the beginning of March.

I then headed off to San Diego for a few days for a conference and caught up with Dina (which was awesome - we hadn’t seen each other since Dina and her family moved back to the US). We did what we do together and had a fabulous long run and great meals.

I also caught up with Sara and Greg in San Diego And, after seeing Greg during his visit to Sydney earlier in the year was really happy to reconnect. PJ also manage to catch up with Greg on his way to SxSW.

Our trips to Toronto were part of a mastermind that we are taking part in. We’ve fallen in love with the city. And, managed to be there through two big city events - Canada Day and the Invictus games (which were so inspiring). And, we got to visit Niagara Falls in style - chauffeur driven, lunch at a winery, helicopter over the falls. Very special.

In November we travelled to Las Vegas for an event. Before the conference we spoiled ourselves with a 7-day vacation in Vegas (so much fun), and managed to catch some great shows (Santana, Cher, Tony Bennett) and some plush accommodation.

Did I say we spoiled ourselves?

Travel for Fun and Friends While all the learning-related travel has elements of fun built in (usually sneaking a few days to explore a city or just relax) we had a number of fun-focused trips as well…

This year we got to catch up with family and friends in the UK, Greece, mainland USA, Hawaii and England.

We travelled to PHOENIX in April to celebrate our dear friend Robert’s milestone birthday and loved seeing him and Kim. While there we caught up with some of our fave people, our team from when we had the business in the US and of course, Scott, who continues to be a huge part of our business and our lives.

In July we visited GREECE, meeting up with Olga (my cousin) and to explore the incredible island of Naxos before heading to my dad’s home town to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles and to celebrate dad’s birthday.

We snuck in an extra, unplanned, island trip to Skopelos, the pretty and charming island known for being the backdrop to the move Mamma Mia.

We circled around to the UK catching some shows and visiting Tora and Donna in Brighton which was fun and so great to see them in their beautiful home.

We also had friends visit us in Sydney - with Lisa and Frank doing a quick trip to Australia to swim with sharks (wtf???) and Infusionsoft super wiz and awesomest guy, Greg hosting his marketing retreat (PJ attended) in the Blue Mountains.

And we spent time in Melbourne with dear friends Kate and Daryl.

Then it was off to New York (woo hoo) for a week with Betty and John. Our visit coincided with the big eclipse, which we watched from Central Park.

We caught a number of shows and tried some fab restaurants while we were there.

In November we travelled to one of our favourite’s - Hawaii. After our event (more on that below) we spent a few days in Honolulu to relax. We had an amazing ‘doors off’ helicopter flight over Oahu with Valerie. A bit scary but sooo beautiful.

And, just this week, we snuck away to Michelle and Mark’s farm for 2 days of planning for the new year. Being out in the country on their gorgeous property was conducive to big thinking (and we managed to fit in a Skype workout with Darren - in preparation for some extra eating and drinking over the coming weeks).

All in all, our passport has more stamps in it this year than it’s had for a while… and 2018 looks like it’ll be similar.

Did we say we love to travel?

Work - New Adventures On the work front it was an amazing year at HerBusiness with us streamlining the business and working closely with business women to help them grow profitable businesses and to strengthen their skills.

In February we welcomed Jaycee, one of the team (of 3) in the Phillipines, to Sydney for a week. When PJ discovered she had a liking for Hugh Jackman he covered her entire work area with dozens of photos of Hugh, including hijacking her desktop background image.

We saw growth in the year-long Mastermind that we present with our dear friend and co-conspirator Michelle, piloted a new group coaching program and continued to help women through mentoring and courses.

HAWAII Retreat

We had a couple of different projects pop up with big corporate brands asking Suzi to create training videos for their websites.

This likely came off the back of Suzi doing more live video on Facebook. This extra exposure should see us grow awareness for the business.

A big highlight this year was realising a long-time dream to take a group of women to Hawaii. We hosted a new 5-day residential program which we call the REACH Retreat, which we held in on the Big Island at Kona, at the same hotel both PJ and I attended business schools over 25 years ago (yikes).

The program was unbelievably valuable for the women that attended. Our team worked hard for months to put it together and it was so worth it. And the facilitators (Suzi, PJ, Michelle and Valerie) were pretty awesome if we do say so ;-)

And we loved having our friends Josephine, Janine and Dianne there with us.

We're so proud of the work we’re doing at HerBusiness and we’re very excited about some changes we’re making in the new year. A huge thanks to our team (Staff and interns), who continue to have our back and be brilliant supporters of our vision.

Who ever said that Real Estate was ‘PASSIVE’ income? It was a busy year with tenants exiting and new ones entering. We finished the Child Care Centre on time and a tiny bit over budget. But it really was a great success. We’re grateful to all our tenants and their business.

The Real Estate business is in a great place, allowing PJ to participate more in the growth and strategy for HerBusiness.

REAL ESTATE

PJ and Suzi

MAY 2018 BE EVERYTHING YOU DREAM FOR

Thank you so much for being a part of our year and here’s to an amazing 2018.

Personal Stuff This year’s travel meant a lot of hotel meals and fewer gym workouts than other years. But, we haven’t fared too badly, falling back into our routine when we’ve been home.

I did a half-marathon in May, which was great to train for… and did more running than gym this year (it’s so easy when I’m away to pop on a pair of shoes and go). Our trainer and friend, Darren, has been a great support, ensuring we don’t get too far off track ;-). PJ even booked in some Skype training sessions with Darren while we were in Vegas.

We believe in having a coach in any area of life that you want accountability. And, health and wellbeing is no exception.

PJ finished another subject in his Masters adventure (that’s all he could fit in with our schedule and plans to do two more subjects in 2018). Wonder what he’ll be when he grows up?

Our dear Bella This is the hardest part of this newsletter to write. Our beautiful girl Bella passed away in March.

She was 15 and a half and we’ve had her since she was a tiny little bundle that PJ brought home to to our Phoenix house Christmas 2001.

She struggled for much of the last year - she was really hanging in there (for us I think). We’re still very heart-broken and miss her clever, loving, cheeky ways. She’s still very present in the house and in our lives and we feel so grateful for the many years we had with her.

Love you forever, Bella.