The unexpected end to my marriage became the catalyst and both my want to and have to moments to make my business a success.

I was not going to share this but it is actually a big part of my journey and part of what has shaped me to who I am today.  I have decided to share this as I know there are so many people this has happened to and will understand how hard it is to find the strength you need to stay focused and keep moving forward with your life.   

In about 2010 my marriage fell apart which was a very emotional time with loads of big decisions to be made.  I needed to stay strong although I was really feeling so vulnerable.

I tried very hard to hold it together for our children as they were losing the family unit in it’s current form that they had always known and also we would have to sell our family home.    

My business was working but I had no pressure of overheads as I ran my business from our home in my Bali Shed pictured below.   I did not want to lose my marriage and my business.   I really felt I should be going back to the office to work as that was more safe to support my family but felt cheated to loose my dream of my business as well as my marriage.    

I now had to support two of my children who lived at home so I had to stay focused on renting and making a new home and moving my business out of our current home and renting a warehouse.

I believe I channelled this anger into motivation for my business to succeed, it was also a distraction from my situation.  Looking back I think I just stuffed the anger deep down inside of me and used that for fuel to  push myself so hard as my fear of failure back then was so strong.  My marriage had failed but I did not want to fail in my business as well .   I hung onto my business as that gave me purpose and I needed this to work to support my family and pay my rent.

My mission was to support as many small businesses in Bali as I could.  This is the part of my business I absolutely love and made me feel good about myself as my suppliers were so grateful.  I guess my self worth with what had happened in our relationship was not great so actually coming to Bali for business became a healing process for me.  Each time I came I felt a little stronger and started to love myself a little more as I was receiving so much love from the Balinese people.  Along the way I met different healers that helped me, did blessings for me, invited me to ceremonies which all helped my healing.  Alot of these people that crossed my path are still close friends today.

I found a warehouse to rent at 6 Hercules St Tullamarine it was about 280 square metres and had a small office for Arlene and I.   My friend’s brother Jeff started to help on weekend’s to assemble furniture and help move stock and load trailers.  Eventually Jeff left his full time job and started to work for me part time.  Arlene helped me with dispatching parcels as at this stage we were only on Ebay and selling directly through the warehouse really by word of mouth.  We opened 7 days a week and when I went to Bali I ran things from Bali with Jeff and Arlene coming in to open the warehouse a few days a week to get items ready for despatch and for customers to pick up.   This worked and the business slowly started to grow.

So many friends and family came to help me set up the new warehouse and I could not have done this without their help. 

Steve and I have remained friends and he sometimes worked for me when containers arrived or at times when I need furniture moved.  It was quite a journey for us all but I feel now we are all still family it is just a little different.  

I am now grateful for my divorce I believe it has made me stronger and shaped the person that I am today.  I have been on an amazing journey and am so grateful for every step.   If you stay focused on your dreams there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Watch our Utube Video Behind Bali Abundance Episode 11