Mount Gambier’s top eight business women including Jo Hodges, Ashlee Kalantarian, Gail Richards
There are plenty of amazing business women in Mount Gambier, and we’ve compiled the top eight who are making moves in the business world.
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From those leading the pack in male dominated fields to those building businesses from the ground up at only 18, Mount Gambier is full of inspiring women.
To celebrate their achievements, The Mount Gambier News has compiled a list of the cities’ top eight women in business.
JO HODGES – THE NOURISH NOOK
Moving to Mount Gambier after meeting her now husband on TV show Farmer Wants A Wife, Jo Hodges had no idea just how much her life was about to change.
Born and bred in Melbourne she made the tree change and continued her a 16 year career as professional photographer but it was a trip to a health retreat that with a new friend that diverted her path.
“It’s no secret I had a lot of issues around body, food and mental stuff going on,” Mrs Hodges said.
“When I was up there I was introduced to a really holistic way of living and just felt the most confident and most healthy I ever felt.
“After what I had been through, I went to this place and just felt so loved after and so happy and I thought I would love to create somewhere where everyone feels important.”
The idea never left her mind and nine years later The Nourish Nook was born.
“I wanted to bring in a beautiful space that wasn’t a gym where men and women felt connected, that they could move their body in ways that they hadn’t been introduced to before,” she said.
“We don’t do challenges, we don’t talk about weight, we don’t talk about measurements nothing like that it’s purely lifestyle and we wanted to bring in classes that were sustainable.”
Starting with a pop up shop to gauge the community’s interest and gain its trust, Mrs Hodges realised they had tapped into a niche market and has expanded to a team of 17 at its Bay Rd location.
The Nourish Nook now offers reformer pilates, barre classes, in house health consultants including a physiotherapist, nutritionist, dietitian and a massage therapist plus meal plans and workshops designed to educate its clients.
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Mrs Hodges said hot yoga, male and female steam rooms, infra-red sauna and a space for more cardio and strength training were on the way.
“We’ve grown organically, we started off small, we wanted to see if our idea and concept would work and we said if it does, that’s when we’ll slowly introduce more things and get bigger and bigger and we have,” she said.
“Seeing the progress with clients, I think is the most amazing thing, it still gives me goosebumps.”
The self confessed “body nerd” was not happy sitting at the front desk welcoming people and over her two years in business Mrs Hodges has become a qualified health and holistic health and lifestyle coach, a yoga and bar teacher and a reformer pilates instructor as well.
ASHLEE KALANTARIAN – ASHLEE LAUREN
From an Etsy side hustle to the runways of New York Fashion week, Mount Gambier’s Ashlee Kalantarian has become a leading bespoke and couture accessory designer.
A graphic designer by trade, Mrs Kalantarian decided to make accessories for her wedding which led to a bridal Etsy store and evolved into making millinery for local racing events.
Now Ashlee Lauren is now on the cusp of going global.
“The reason I kind of started it because I had two young babies so I wanted to work from home and have that flexibility,” Mrs Kalantarian said.
“It went from hobby to business in 2017 so in three years to be stocking in Myer and now we’re potentially looking at exporting internationally.
“The next thing we’re doing is augmented reality so we’re going to have an app on the website so that you can actually see yourself wearing the crown.”
After being discovered at New Your Fashion Week in 2017, Kesha wore a Ashlee Lauren crown the 2018 Grammy Awards and her designs are a regular at the Spring Racing Carnival.
But for Mrs Kalantarian the highlights have been the personal journey – pushing herself creatively and navigating the world of business.
“It‘s been have been a long, what I would probably consider maybe 10 years of learning I’ve had to kind of cram into three years,” she said.
“I work better under pressure and better when I‘m thrown in the deep end.
“I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve learned so far and I’m taking it more on board to be able to help other people who want to start their own businesses in regional areas and kind of giving them a bit of a guidance.
“Don’t be scared to do it just give it a try and, and there’s always people out there that will help you.”
DONNA JAESCHKE – DEGARIS LAWYERS
Growing up in Mount Gambier Donna Jaeschke landed her first legal job at DeGaris Lawyers while she was still at university.
Beginning as a clerk, she became a solicitor once she was admitted the following year as has been heavily involved in the firm ever since.
That was almost 11 years and in October Mrs Jaescke made partner, now managing the day-to-day business of the practice alongside Bill DeGaris and a team of 15 employees.
“It’s really exciting and it’s something I hoped would happen but I probably feel like it’s happened a little earlier than I might have anticipated originally but I feel just quite privileged,” Mrs Jaeschke said.
“I hope to just build on what the solid foundation that Bill and Lyn and have already created, to work with the team that we’ve got here and to just try and move forward and keep providing better service provisions for the Limestone Coast in the legal sector.”
Continuing to practice law Mrs Jaescke specialises in estate administration, succession and estate planning and general commercial law.
“People usually come to lawyers when they’re at a really difficult stage in their life, whatever that reason might be and I like just being able to help people through that process and to realise a good outcome,” she said.
ANNIE FACY – ANNIE’S NANNYS AND BABYSITTING AGENCY
It may sound like the storyline ofThe Baby-Sitters Club, but Annie Facy has turned an idea into a rapidly expanding business.
Determined not to bow to pressure to pick a career path at the end of high school, Ms Facy started nannying and discovered a gap in the market.
“I never really thought about nannying as a career, it just sort of seemed to be something I’d do for extra cash on the weekends, but I genuinely do love the progression of children and watching their development growth,” Ms Facy said.
“When I was doing that I had a lot of people messaged me and asking me if I knew of anyone else that was able to and was qualified.
“In the cities there’s a lot of agencies and options for parents to go to but not really in regional towns.”
Within six months of launching Annie’s Nannys and Babysitting Agency, Ms Facy had been nominated for a Women in Business and Regional Development award.
Now at 21 she employees nine women all with their certificate three or higher in early education, some full time working with one families, others with multiple families or casual babysitting, all with hand-picked activity packs.
But the ambitious young woman is not stopping there.
When craft groups came to halt during COVID-19 Ms Facy created craft packs to help parents keep their children and recently opened a shop front in Mitchell St where she eventually hopes to run craft days.
“In our craft packs we put everything you need to make the craft and then they have little QR code which parents can scan and it takes them to the YouTube tutorial, instead of written instructions, the kids can watch a video of my sister who sits here and does the craft,” she said.
GAIL RICHARDS – KEY 2 SALE
Starting a career in real estate straight out high school, Gail Richards has built her business from the ground up from humble beginnings in her laundry.
“I left my sales job at another real estate company when my kids were little and like most of us I think we burn ourselves out between work and family and I thought I’d lost my passion for real estate,” Ms Richards said.
A three year career break gave her some clarity and she launched Key 2 Sale in 2016.
Initially the business began helping people stage homes for sale but within months Ms Richards had gained her full agency licences as it expanded into a real estate agency.
“I always had a long term vision of combining the two and the momentum happened a lot quicker than I expected,” she said.
With a year Key 2 Sale had grown to a point where Ms Richards could not manage it on her own and her uncle Al Lamond joined the business.
“I started out of my laundry that was where my office was and then when Al came on board we opened a street front office in town,” she said.
“I‘m incredibly proud of what we’ve created, real estate, unfortunately, can sometimes have the reputation that some people aren’t, perhaps doing the right but we’re proud because our business has a great reputation.”
Now with a team of eight the business has bought a new office set to open in Sturt St in 2021.
As one of Mount Gambier’s few female real estate principals in what has historically been a male dominated field, Ms Richards said she wanted to encourage more women to have the courage to start their own business and navigate with the “mother guilt”.
“I think women get stuck in perfection that they’re not good at everything but you’ll learn along the way, you’ll be good at those things, or you’ll learn to put people on who are clever in those areas,” she said.
“My generation is stuck in that cusp where people have mother guilt because they’re at work full time. Whereas, my daughter won’t have mother guilt because her mum worked full time and that was normal.
“I think sometimes that‘s held a lot of women back because there’s this level of expectation that you can’t have it all.”
LUCINDA PORCELLI – CINDAFIT
When she is not saving lives as a paramedic, Lucinda Porcelli is inspiring women to take care of their bodies.
What began as training fitness and bikini models has evolved into Cindafit – a business offering health coaching through nutrition programs.
Now the qualified nutritionist is working towards a Masters in Human Nutrition and easing back on her paramedics to focus on her passion – promoting sustainable approach to health and fitness.
“I just feel so proud. Sometimes I just pinch myself because I can just create what I want to everyday,” Ms Porcelli said.
“I can help people find confidence and self-love within themselves.
“Giving women that confidence that they can go out and they can have these foods they love but they can still lose weight with best practice nutrition it‘s just amazing.”
As a part of her program the self confessed foodie has created more than 200 recipes which are currently available exclusively to clients via e-book but her first hardcover book is set to be released in the new year.
“My recipe book is filled with chicken schnitzels and all the things that you would normally like,” she said.
“I’ve trial, tested, calculated their nutrition and they all have individual barcodes on them so you can scan them and then the barcode links to the My Fitness Pal application.”
For Ms Porcelli the highlight of journey into business has been collaborating with feeling the support of other local businesses.
BIANCA SMITH – BEAUTIE STUDIO
Bianca Smith had no idea the decision to drop out of school to work in the beauty industry would put her on the path to business ownership.
“It was my way out and that’s the only reason I started,” Mrs Smith said.
“The opportunity after Year 11 came to me to take on a traineeship in a beauty salon which was called Passion for Beauty and I just took it because I wanted to get out of school.”
Six years later she took the plunge and purchased the beauty salon she was working in at the time.
From Beauty and Body on Main to Beauty and Body to recently rebranding and relocating to Gray St as Beautie Studio, the business has had a few identities and Mrs Smith said she was proud to see it grow.
“I’m always striving to do something new and different and push myself, and I got to the point of being an employee of a beauty salon and wanting that extra challenge,” she said.
“We used to be a one-stop-shop beauty service salon but we’re really niche and specialise in skin lashes and brows.
“We’re very passionate about bringing out people’s natural beauty we don’t necessarily stick to the fads that come and go.”
As a mum of two boys, Mrs Smith said owning a business was hard work and credited its success to her three employees.
“I‘m lucky to have a team of people that work for me, I definitely couldn’t do half of what I do without having a team,” she said.
ALEX WILLIAMS – WILLIAMS WAY INTERIOR DECORATING
When COVID-19 derailed her photo booth business Alex Williams pivoted.
The mother of two had always had a passion for home decorating and with friends often asking her to styling the homes she decided to stop putting it off and Williams Way Interior Decorating was born.
“I just had actual time on my hands to think about my life and think about what I want the future to look like once we’ve got our lives back,” Mrs Williams said.
“I just assumed that everyone went to bed dreaming about coffee tables and what their favourite stool was and what rug they’re going to put in their lounge room and turns out that‘s just not true.”
Launched in September, the business is her first step into the world of interiors with the hopes of studying interior design once her children are a little older.
Mrs Williams said the process begins with a consultation and creating moodboards before beginning the product search, running the big ticket items past the client then she installs everything.
“I want to make it as simple for my clients as I can, they tell me what they want, I do it, and so they don’t have to think about every little thing, that’s the whole point of why they’ve hired me,” she said.
“I can’t believe I get paid for it, I show them what I’ve done and they’re just so happy and it’s the best feeling in the world.
“I feel a little bit like Studio McGee’s apprentice from Dream House Makeover on Netflix.”
