Eighteen months ago I decided it was now or never with my business. I was sick of waiting around; My vision was clear and I was motivated. I had just started B-School with Marie Forleo after being guided to her through the beautiful angel, Jess Ainscough. I wasn’t ‘ready’, but with both their guidance and support I decided to start anyway. After I spent a little time convincing my husband, Trav, that the time was right- we were out looking for potential commercial properties!
It was during this time that I realised that our current business name no longer suited our vision. This meant a new name was in order.. but what??
For weeks, Trav and I were racking our brains trying to come up with our new name. We consulted friends, family, and experts- and still came up with nothing. The name was on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t make the connection. I knew that as soon as I saw it, it would be a ‘boom, that’s it!’ moment- but that moment didn’t come. I put it to the side and started working on the vision for the business instead.
I had been running past this property for a couple of years, and always wondered what they would do with it. It was old, overgrown and abandoned. When we started actively looking for a location, this space continued to come up. I kept being drawn to it because it had a fire place. I was meant to be looking for a studio, not a home, but for some reason I wanted to be in the space. After viewing a stack of other properties and even after signing a lease on another property and then backing out, I decided to make the call and go and see this run down log cabin. As soon as I walked in the door- I was inspired.
I signed the lease and we commenced work the following week.
Due to the state of the property we had to go ‘all in’; meaning we had to give up our home, sell all our belongings and move onsite- to not only finance the extensive renovation but to motivate us to keep going with it. We were planning on doing most of the work ourselves, so we figured if we were living amongst the craziness we would be motivated to keep pushing ahead.
Moving in was one of the biggest compromises I had ever made. I loved our home and was very much a house proud kinda person. I remember our first night so clearly; As we laid down to sleep that night, we held each other so tight as I began to cry.. What were we doing?! I was so scared that we had just made the biggest mistake of our life.
It was all official! We had no home. We had officially moved out of our beautiful cozy dream home and where now living in a condemned office building with no power, no water, no security, broken windows, live creatures, dead creatures, graffiti, holes in the walls, syringes, as many mosquitos as a wetland, soggy carpet, bats, cats, rats and lizards. We both spoke about how maybe this could have been a big mistake. Perhaps we should seriously reassess what the hell we were doing?? Eventually, we slowly drifted off to sleep with tears still in our eyes, and fright in our hearts.
I knew that I wanted the cabin to represent a place of health- Health both physically and mentally. A hub for nutrition, fitness, positive vibes and social connectivity. I wanted to build a business that guided people to feel, think, and live a better life.
So here we where- a week out from opening the main cabin, and we still didn’t have a name. In the end, I decided to go with Feel Think Live Better. It was a total mouthful of a name, but I knew deep down our perfect name would eventually come, and ‘Feel Think Live Better’ would then be the slogan for what our business represented.
From that point on, I started to grow my business with a name I knew wouldn’t work, on the scale I desperately envisioned it to be.
At the end of 2014, I again had that desperate feeling of now or never; I had to get this name sorted and finish creating this vision before we opened the other two cabins! I knew what I had was special and unique, but I knew that in order to get it out to the public I had to find the right name.
I connected with two girls from the coast, known as Pineapple PR. After some extensive consultation and some back and forth emails- they did it! They created that ‘boom, thats it!’ moment, and we had ourselves a name; ‘Wellwood Health – Feel Think Live Better‘ was born!
We powered ahead with the remaining renovations with fresh new motivation. We decided upon an open day to unveil the remaining two cabins, and we set a date in order to create a deadline for ourselves.
The last two cabins where the toughest due to termites, unleveled flooring, having to re-support the roof, new foundations… It was a big job! A week out from opening and we still had painting to do, carpet to lay, and a million finishing touches to get through. We managed to finish everything two hours before our opening; Leaving just enough time to shower, get dressed and get ready to watch the community roll on in to see what we had created!
The making of Wellwood Health and The Log Cabins has been quiet the journey. This place has not only brought us to our knees, but also lifted us to new heights!
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