Eastern suburbs: Most inspiring women in business revealed

The eastern suburbs is packed with incredible businesswomen. To celebrate their achievements, here’s our list of six of the most inspiring women in business.

The eastern suburbs has plenty to shout about when it comes to women in business.

From those working in beauty and fashion to tech gurus and media pioneers.

To celebrate their achievements, the Wentworth Courier has compiled a list of the region’s top six women in business.

ZAHAVA ROBINSON – BONDI PODIATRY

There’s many a university student who goes into an exam with butterflies in their stomach.

But for Zahava Robinson it was different. She was in labour.

Not that it was going to stop her.

“Basically I was like, OK I’ve already done all the work so if I don’t do this it’s going to be a headache,” Ms Robinson said.

“I was having contractions every 20 minutes during the exam and I gave birth the next day.”

Zahava Robinson with her husband Alex and son Aaron

Ms Robinson completed the last of her final her exams in podiatry when baby Aaron was just two weeks old.

By the time he turned six weeks, she had begun her four month full time clinical placement at St Vincent’s Hospital which meant she was away from home almost 12 hours a day while husband Alex took care of baby Aaron.

“When I was doing crazy hours with a newborn there was a bit of an attitude from some of the others on placement of ‘you should be at home with home with your baby’,” Ms Robinson said

“If I didn’t take up the opportunity I would have had to start from scratch in a few years time.

“Yes, it was intense but it was in a lot of ways the best 2020 I could have wished for.”

Just before Christmas Ms Robinson opened her solo practice, which focuses on cosmetic podiatry, in Bondi Junction.

She offers services including nail reconstruction and “medical pedicures” for people with conditions such as diabetes.

“I’m not just doing their nails. I’m checking for things like whether they have circulation in their feet,” Ms Robinson said.

“People who are coming to me with diabetes cannot cut their own nails if they have neuropathy – it’s a loss of feeling in their feet.

“It sounds crazy but they could literally lose a toe.”

Little Aaron is now eight months old and Ms Robinson plans to continue to expand her practice.

JESS SULLIVAN – F45 WOOLLOOMOOLOO

This environmental scientist turned firefighter is now setting the world alight after starting what has quickly become the gym of choice for A listers and everyday locals alike.

With the likes of actor Mark Wahlberg, musicians Sam Smith and the Pussycat Dolls and cricketer Dave Warner and his ironwoman wife Candice among those to join in her classes, you never know who you’ll bump into a F45 Woolloomooloo.

Jess Sullivan owner of F45 Woolloomooloo with Mark Wahlberg

“We’ve had a few well known people come into the studio but Mark is definitely the biggest,” Ms Sullivan said.

“Once they (the famous faces) come in our members are so into their training and giving their energy to the class that’s its only afterwards they say to me was that …?

“And I go, ‘Yep it was!’”

While the 39-year-old, who more recently opened a second gym F45 Haymarket, seems to have a varied career history, she said the skills were surprisingly interchangeable.

“Having the corporate background I understood things like the development application process and licensing requirements,” Ms Sullivan said.

“I think being a firefighter helped too because running a gym is all about putting out spot fires.

“You gotta be on your toes and you have to thrive in that fast paced environment.”

Jess lives and breathes fitness.

Five years after her former colleagues at Redfern and City of Sydney fire stations helped her run classes on their days off, Ms Sullivan now employs around 10 staff.

Ms Sullivan said the secret to business success was simple – you’ve got to live your dream.

“I love every single day of my work,” she said.

“If you’re not passionate about it, something like the fitness industry chews you up and spits you out.

“It’s gotta be more than a job because it’s long hours. As soon as that music starts and you see everyone’s faces I leave more energised than when I start.”

NICOLE CHRISTEY – MADE TO MASK

When the pandemic came along and caused a shortage of masks, avid sewer Nicole Christey put her game face on.

It all started when a friend asked Ms Christey to sew some handmade masks for staff to wear at her cosmetic clinic.

An avid sewer since age 14, the Surry Hills resident has dabbled in fashion for years and decided to post a photo of her creations to her Instagram account and it quickly went viral.

Since then she’s had to recruit her mum and her mother’s friends, who quilt recreationally, to help as every time there’s a surge in cases or a mask mandate, demand soars.

Nicole Christey owner of Made to Mask

So far they have hand sewn more than 3500 masks for customers across the globe.

While Ms Christey still works her day job as a bootcamp instructor for Barry’s in Kings Cross and Surry Hills, she’s making plans to continue in the fashion business post COVID.

The good news is it doesn’t look like this side hustle with muscle is going anywhere.

“Ideally I’d love to join the two things (fashion and fitness) together. I’ve been saying for a long time I’d love to get into athleisure and activewear but with the market being so saturated, it’s about finding that niche. I’m thinking maybe something more on the men’s side.

“I’ll do what I have always done for now. Make something for myself and post a photo and if that gains traction I’ll hone in on it.”

THE SALON BY ASH CROKER

Getting your roots done shouldn’t be a headache.

After 15 years watching her clients pay top dollar as she worked in high end salons, hairdresser Ash Croker opened her own and modelled it on a day spa.

Just 18 months and two renovations later she has a staff of seven, a two month waiting list and the Clovelly salon was recently named the best in the eastern suburbs in an exclusive Wentworth Courier reader voted poll.

“You should have the dayspa experience. Not leave feeling like the music was too loud or that you couldn’t find parking or that you didn’t get the type of tea that you wanted,” Ms Croker said.

“We have a beautiful refreshment menu with Australian wines and teas from Byron Bay. There’s an essential oil steam towel and a sanctuary out the back with hanging rose quartz.

“Now we’re looking to put in reclining massage chairs.”

Ash Croker is in demand across Australia.

Prior to COVID, Ms Croker was regularly welcoming clients from as far as New Zealand for appointments.

With borders beginning to reopen, she’s starting to see her Queensland and Victorian based clients return, largely for the free hand painting colour service for which she is renowned.

“It’s a custom bespoke painting technique to enhance what the sun would do to peoples’ hair,” Ms Croker said.

“It’s super low maintenance and grows out really well.

“It’s good for a lot of peoples’ complexion because you’re keeping the natural colour at the roots so it ties in with your eyebrows and skin tone better.”

The Salon has a day spa vibe.

With her business flying, Ms Croker is now rolling out a retreat training package for other

salon owners to implement with their staff.

Ms Croker’s staff have been the envy of the industry thanks to the regular getaways she organises for team building.

ANNA KOOIMAN – STRONG SEXY MAMMAS

She was a Fox News anchor with an enviable career in New York but when Anna Kooiman met and married a bronzed bloke from Bondi not only did she give birth to two beautiful children but a whole new business.

Ms Kooiman is a fitness enthusiast from way back who ran her first marathon in high school.

Prior to her big break in TV, she’d been a qualified fitness instructor running bootcamps.

Anna Kooiman in her Fox News days

But after giving birth to her first child Brooks, now three, she realised there was a sizeable gap in the market which only widened by the time Annabel, now eight months, came along.

“Pregnant women are sort of in this space where you’re either told to put your feet up and not do anything or you see girls doing Olympic lifting on Instagram so it’s all a bit confusing,” Ms Kooiman said.

“Postnatally it’s the same thing. There are women who don’t have the time or energy and then there’s the ones who want to leap right into it.”

After relocating to Bondi with her growing family, Ms Kooiman re-entered the fitness industry.

At first it was just teaching group fitness classes, some of which included pregnant or post natal women.

But after researching the unique requirements of pregnant women and mothers, the Strong Sexy Mammas movement was born.

The Strong Sexy Mammas crew

The every growing digital library is bursting with home workouts filmed by Kooiman in various stages of her pregnancies and post partum recovery.

“I don’t thinks mums should feel broken years after they’ve had babies.

“Whether it’s incontinence, back pain, hip pain, weak shoulders or bad posture it impacts the way you live your life.”

EDWINA GRIFFIN – ATONE

It’s easy to feel like there are two kinds of people in the east – those who do sun salutations after their daily trek on the Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk and those who gag at the thought of a kale smoothie.

But with the world’s first personalised immersive virtual reality guided meditation app created by one of our own, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Edwina Griffin founder of AtOne

Raised in Bronte and now living Clovelly, health and wellness expert Eddie Griffin created AtOne after encountering scores of people in her more than 20 years in the industry who told her they “couldn’t” meditate.

The app, which is compatible with the Oculus Quest virtual reality headset beams relaxing virtual scenes such as the beach or a forest and couples them with music and essential oil scents.

All the while it collects biofeedback which the user can analyse at the end of the session.

The app is a world first

“Even though sometimes when we don’t think we had a ‘good’ meditation (not that there is such a thing as a good or bad meditation, but people will label it this way), the changes in heart rate and heart rate variation figures will give measurable data to show that we did in fact benefit,” Ms Griffin said.

“Often a meditation we don’t think is great (usually based on whether we felt good or had a busy mind) can still be shown to have been highly effective for our body.”

Users of the app vary from stressed mums to the elderly disabled who can’t get out and experience the immersion of nature.

Meanwhile the corporate packages of the app are targeted at workplaces where staff are subjected to high stress and need perform at their peak.