About Tara

Welcome to my official blog!

My passion and purpose is in helping people and assisting others in growing; personally, professionally and financially – all whilst having FUN! I truly believe that when you connect with your passion and values, you find a newfound purpose in life which motivates and drives you to become the successful, true-spirited person that you are.

What is your passion and purpose? Have a wander through my blog; I have some great content that will help you in shaping your vision and goals, and empower and encourage you in mapping your course, striking out on your journey, and crossing the finishing line.

Firstly, here’s my story so far – it’s pretty long, but I thought since you’re interested, you may as well know the whole lot!

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak and at about age 6 I set out on my first business adventure; selling discarded toys door-to-door. I think I gave my mum a heart attack when I told her I first went round one side of the neighbourhood to ask if they had any toys they didn’t want anymore, then I went round the other side of the neighbourhood to on-sell what I had collected.  She made me go back to all those houses, give back the money, collect the toy and take the toy back to the original owner.  I didn’t realise I was doing the wrong thing – I thought I was being very ingenious! So I guess I learned my first business and life lesson: always be ethical and honest in your dealings with people.

However, the entrepreneurial streak just didn’t go away, and when I was riding my horse one day I decided I was going to start a horse poo business!  Trouble is, I was 13 and didn’t have a car license to lug around all of those bags of poo, so I roped my dad into being my business partner for a cut of the revenue. He’d arrive at the place where I was agisting my horse, trailer hooked to the car, and then we’d start hauling these bags into the trailer so I could do some door-to-door sales. What I didn’t realise was that people only loved horse poo for their roses when it was dry, not wet and mushy! So the first lot was a bit of a right-off and I learned my second business lesson: do your research first so you know what you’re doing!

Thereafter, I spent my Saturdays cultivating my little, then huge, pile of horse poo so I could satisfy my clients’ needs. After awhile, I didn’t have to go knocking on new doors as I had a steady base of repeat and referral business.  So I learned my third business lesson: treat your clients well and you will be repaid ten-fold.  Thing is, after quite a few months of hauling around horse poo, I decided shovelling wasn’t my thing so I gave the business away.

I then wandered aimlessly for about 7 years, working in office type of roles and feeling extremely dissatisfied with being an “employee”. It was the end of 1991 and I had a contract with Kimberly-Clarke Australia as a PA on their new Tantanoola Pulp Mill. There were heaps of contractors on site and one thing I started to notice was a lack of secretarial support staff for the engineers and other professional contractors on site. I had built a sound reputation on site for my office skills and a little light bulb went off in my head… I would start a secretarial business and let everyone know on site so they could be my first clients! So I put the plans in motion and the business became official on my 21st birthday.

It was around this time that I became a student of personal development and devoured as many books and seminars as I could handle. A high school drop-out (I didn’t finish Year 11), I also invested in my training and earned my Diploma of Freelance Journalism and started doing some freelance writing.

I initially worked the business from home, however, I outgrew it as I had progressed to offering a PR / marketing service, design service (including some small web design jobs), print brokerage and resume writing service. Around 1996, I discovered the Internet and made the decision that I was going global!   I read everything I could get my hands on to do with websites, SEO, marketing, etc, and put together my first business website – with PageMill (!!).  It wasn’t a pretty sight; however, I started getting orders from people all around Australia for some DIY Resume Kits that I put together.  It was then that I realised the POWER of the Internet.  As a result of my business efforts, I won national business awards and in 1999 was State Finalist in Australia’s most prestigious Women’s Awards, the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, Westpac Business Owner Award, and Young Achiever, for both that business and another one I started in 1997; providing customer service and competitor evaluations and analysis to the hospitality / travel and retail sectors.

I loved everything that I did with the business, but after 9 years I started to get itchy feet and I wanted to explore new things; so another business chapter came to a close and I sold my business.

At 30, I felt free and alive – I thought to myself, “I can do anything!! What will I do next?” So I wandered for about 9 months to once again discover my passion and purpose; realising that my purpose in life is in helping others. I loved the satisfaction I received from my previous business in helping others.

However, I wasn’t satisfied in servicing local people; I wanted to go global! So in 2001, I started an online careers service at a time when Seek and Career One was relatively new, and there were only a couple of other switched on businesses on the Internet who were in my niche. In a relatively short period of time I grew this business to be one of the most well respected businesses for career services – both online and offline.  I also developed my own job seeker software products, authored four career-related books, and served as subject matter expert and writer for various publications and books.

Having coached people for many years, I completed my formal training in 2008 and gained my Certification as a Professional Coach. This led me to branch out to business coaching, where I primarily assist start-ups, entrepreneurs, and people in home based businesses.

2008 was also an exciting year which saw me co-authoring a book with Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and Neale Donald Walsch (amongst others) in “Living an Abundant Life: inspirational stories from entrepreneurs around the world”.

I am passionate about helping people and being a catalyst to them achieving what they want out of life. I feel blessed every day that I am on this journey.

Here’s some general personal stuff:

• In addition to owning an energetic Irish Terrier, I sponsor Aitong, an African orphaned elephant; Jasper, an orphaned tiger; Justo, a gorgeous little boy in Angola, and previously Delmy from Venezuela.
• My hobbies and interests are: coaching, business, entrepreneurship / philanthropy, personal development, travel, writing, reading, poetry, photography, spirituality, wildlife, elephants, alpacas, current affairs, property, and AFL.
• I have travelled extensively through our beautiful, vast land.  I love our country… love nature and find great pleasure and motivation in the serenity we gain from our Earth.

Well, now you know my story, I invite you to stay connected by subscribing to my blog. As the blog grows, you will find some interesting content that will enrich your life and assist you in stepping out on your journey of transformation and results – in both your business and personal life. As an ongoing student of life and business, I am excited at sharing with you the stuff I already know, but also the new knowledge that I come across in Life’s Continuing Journey. We can all become Masters of our Life Plan and Live Life with Passion and Purpose. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Warmest wishes,