Boost Juice founder claims foreigners ‘work harder’ than some Aussies

The founder of Boost Juice Janine Allis has claimed that foreigners and regional Aussies “work harder” than locals in a tell-all podcast.

Boost Juice founder Janine Allis has candidly admitted that “foreigners work harder” than some Australians.

In a wide-ranging interview on the Colour Plane podcast, the multi-millionaire business powerhouse said the people she employed had to be “tough” and “determined.”

“I’m generalising,” she admitted, but acknowledged that foreigners and people from regional backgrounds have “had it harder” and were more determined to succeed.

“If anyone comes to you and they are from a regional town or from overseas they are most likely going to be a harder worker than a local,” Ms Allis said.

Reflecting on her journey with Boost Juice, the company she started “from nothing” while on maternity leave, Ms Allis explained the simple reason behind this belief.

“Business is hard,” she said. “You need people with the tenacity to keep going.”

People from overseas and regional backgrounds generally have that quality, Ms Allis claimed, to not be “beaten down” by the many obstacles and setbacks in business.

The founder of Boost and Retail Zoo is one of Australia’s most successful businesswomen and iconic rags to riches inspirations. However, life hasn’t always been this way.

A string of business failures, career missteps, and humble origins have taught her about the cutthroat world of business – a place where she believes only one per cent of people can succeed.

These lessons have also taught her to avoid a certain kind of employee.

Referring to young workers that are starting out in their careers, Ms Allis panned employees that complain about “needing time to think about myself” and wanting “a bit more life balance”.

“There’s nothing wrong with this path,” she clarified, “but don’t get into business”.

Boost Juice founder Janine Allis.

“I was always the least educated in any room”

This tough approach to business isn’t pulled from thin air.

Known as the “accidental entrepreneur”, Ms Allis’ early life in the outer-city districts of Melbourne are a far cry from where she is now.

Reflecting on her upbringing in the small suburb of Boronia, she recounted that “there was no one there that had their own business or went to university”.

Ms Allis overcame what she described as a ‘barrier’ of low expectation when she travelled overseas at the age of 21.

Although she had dropped out of a tech school in Year 11 and never attended university, she found herself working as a camp counsellor in the USA, a nanny in France, and a stewardess on David Bowie’s yacht.

An array of dangerous, where she got herslef “into all kinds of trouble,” honed her business sense and know-how.

Yet it was her time working for the international superstar that proved the most valuable.

“I always thought there were two types of people,” she confided. “Us normal people and then super people like Bowie and Jagger.”

Living and working alongside Bowie meant that by the time she returned to Australia and started her business, she “never felt more than or less than anyone else”.

Altough she described herself as “always the least educated in the room,” the lessons learnt from travelling have made Ms Allis a power-house entrepenuer — humble origins and all.

Janine Allis on the Colour Plane podcast. Picture: Colour Plane/Youtube

University and dress codes, who cares?

Ms Allis’s success has often been labelled ‘unconventional.’

The Shark Tank regular travelled the world into her late twenties, became a single parent, and “started again” at 27 while her kids where “still on the boob”.

Her leap of faith with Boost Juice forced her to sell the family home, with the business growing out of a tiny rental property in Malvern.

Recognised as a success story of the never went to university path, Ms Allis has some advice for young people feeling the pressure to get a degree.

“I do truly believe in Australia that it’s not like America, where if you haven’t done university it’s not a negative,” she said.

“University has its place depending on what you want to be, I think if you want to do law take that path.”

But she criticised parents that encourage their kids to go to university just to prove they can “finish something”.

In that case, she questioned jokingly, “does it show them anything besides that they can get good drugs and drink?”

Instead she advised young people to treat experience as the greatest teacher, especially when it comes to mistakes and failures.

Her experience working as a single mum in Sinagpore, where she was judged for her clothing rather than the merit of her work, proved a defining moment.

From that day she decided her businesses would never have dress codes again.

“I don’t judge people on what they wear, I judge them on what they do,” she insisted when discussing her 640 Boost stores internationally.

Taking people as they are (and the risks that come with it) have defined her success, but it hasn’t come easily for the mum-of-four.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” she reminded podcasters Jack and Jesse, “I remember one time I thought about the last time I ate and it was four days [ago].”

Yet arguably this determination, maverick attitude and self-professed naivity explain her huge stature in the Austrralian - and now international - business world.

“I didn’t put any barriers on what I could do,” she said proudly.

I didn’t think I could do it, but I always thought I could find a way.”

Janine Allis with Darwin Boost Juice team leader Jeil Savla.