I've managed to fit a lot of life into my 20s so far.

So, let me take you back to the very start.

↓ THE BEGINNING

100 acres, Kyogle NSW

2003

Born in Kyogle

I grew up on 100 acres with my three siblings in a tiny town inland from Byron Bay called Kyogle.

No traffic lights.

No roundabouts.

Just a working-class family who taught us the value of money from a young age. Or, in Mum’s words, “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

I remember my friends asking for iPads for their birthdays.

I asked for goats.

Or horses. Or chickens. Or a dog. Or a cat. Once, I even asked for hermit crabs. Looking back, I think those animals taught me more than I realised at the time.

And although I grew up in quite a broken family (yep, I ran away from home multiple times a month), I still felt like I grew up rich.

Rich in ownership. Rich in responsibility. Rich in resilience. Rich in independence.

All of these experiences (and some pretty extreme character building at times) taught me the kind of lessons money can’t buy.

The horse riding lesson years

2014

My First Business

At 11, I turned my love of horses into my first little business.

I’d give horse riding lessons after school, still wearing my primary school uniform. It was probably the most cash-positive business I’ve ever had. It was very much a “ride at your own risk” kind of situation.

Every dollar went straight into a glass jar under my bed.

Then one day, I put my prices up from $20 an hour to $25.

No one questioned it.

I remember thinking, “Wow. This is what it’s like to be in business.”

It wasn’t exactly a once-in-a-blue-moon lemonade stand either. I kept that little business running for years, right through to the age of 18.

Safe to say, those ponies eventually paid for their own keep and taught a lot of kids how to ride.

But more importantly, they taught me some of the fundamentals of business: that you can trade your time, your skills and something you’re good at for money.

I fell in love with creating something that was mine.

So I kept creating.

And kept learning.

And, naturally, kept finding more skills I could sell.

Fitness qualifications, first solo business

2019

I Started Building

At 16, I started my fitness qualifications and launched my own fitness business.

The second I got my certificate, I was ready to go. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had a pretty solid go-to-market plan, and you bet it was in action that same day.

This business taught me some hard lessons.

That sometimes, not everyone will support you or cheer you on.

That you can’t rely on validation or approval from your friends or family. You have to back yourself and be the single clap in what can feel like an empty auditorium.

I worked fucking hard. I don’t know who hurt younger Zoe at the time, but I was hungry to make it work and have something of my own.

I was up before the sun, working before school and sneaking out just before the bell, only to rush back later to teach my classes and head off to one of my many other jobs.

I felt like Barbie with all my different uniforms and roles. I’d turn up to school with bags full of clothes, ready to change into whichever version of me I needed to be that day.

I was working every job I could get, learning how to make my own money and realising I didn’t want to wait for someone else to create my opportunities.

I got pretty good at knocking on doors.

And sometimes, at allowing myself in.

Hamilton Island → the Great Barrier Reef → Airlie Beach

2021

I Left Home

At 18, I left, got on my first-ever flight that, ironically, was the flight that I got on to leave my small humble hometown. I moved to Hamilton Island.

I didn’t have the whole plan figured out. I just knew I wanted to go, grow and figure it out for myself.

I have a single bed and a shared small room. I picked up extra shifts and collected all the overtime I could get.

I worked in the sports club and then started working out on the water. The Great Barrier Reef became my office.

I went from teaching classes in the gym to taking two snorkels on the reef. I learn every fish and coral fact, entertaining guests for hours, I moved from the island to Arilie Beach, where I continued working on the boats, running group fitness classes, teaching Pilates, and then working in real estate.

Again, it felt like I was juggling many hats, but soaking up the experience.

Markets, Vinnie’s racks, resold denim

2022

$100,000

With all my jobs and the hours I was clocking, I kept saving my hard-earned pennies and living well within my means.

I set myself a goal: $100,000 in cash, sitting in one singular bank account, before I turned 20.

I was determined to hit it.

When I say determined, I mean I was selling my clothes on Facebook Marketplace, selling random belongings to my friends and doing whatever I could to get myself over the line.

And right before my 20th birthday, I did.

Six figures saved in one singular bank account.

I had learnt the value of money from a very young age, and eventually, I realised Mum was right all along.

Money really doesn’t grow on trees.

I had to work for what I wanted. And truthfully, I didn’t really want the material things.

I wanted to prove to myself that I could take care of myself.

That I could be financially free.

That I’d always have the ability to choose my own life.

Seeing Mum feel like she couldn’t leave a toxic relationship because of money made financial independence mean something very different to me.

I wanted to be able to give back to her for everything she had given me, while making sure I never felt stuck in a situation simply because I couldn’t afford to leave it.

I spent weekends selling clothes at markets, scouring the racks at Vinnie’s for cheap, pre-loved denim and reselling it for five, sometimes ten times what I’d paid.

The workers at the op shop knew me by name.

It wasn’t really about the money.

It was about what the money represented.

Freedom. Choice. Security.

It was the first time I saw what could happen when I backed myself, worked hard and stayed disciplined.

I didn’t just learn how to save money.

I learnt how to make it.

England, an English winter, au pair hours

2024

My First Property

I didn’t just learn how to make and save money. I learnt how to invest it.

At 21, I bought my first investment property.

The contract went through while I was living as an au pair in England, working Perth hours and waking up at 1am, all while looking after three kids and doing whatever work I could to make it all happen.

Then, at 2:47am one English winter morning, the letter came through.

2:47am

Transaction complete. Funds released.

No confetti fell from the sky.

There was no one there to celebrate with me.

It was cold.

It was dark.

Everyone was asleep.

But I remember staring at that screen feeling unbelievably proud of myself.

Because I knew exactly how I had got there.

The little girl who learnt that money didn’t grow on trees. The 11-year-old with a glass jar under her bed. The teenager working before and after school. The girl who sold her clothes and spent weekends at markets.

All of it had led me here.

And when I zoomed out, I realised something.

I was on the other side of the world, alone at 21, with no one there to celebrate with me.

But I was also living the life I’d once dreamed about.

WA trades & construction, then Levee

2025

I Bet On Myself

The job I was working in the early hours of the morning?

I got it after three applications and some pretty crazy follow-up.

I remember the job ad saying they wanted someone hungry, driven and motivated by money.

I thought, well, yep. That’s me.

And I didn’t stop until I got the job.

The funny part?

I didn’t even know what I was selling until my first day.

Then I found out it was in the trades and construction industry in WA.

I thought, Great. A state I’ve never been to, an industry I’ve never worked in and knew very little about.

But I knew I just had to make it work.

So I did.

Within my first three months, I’d built more than $250,000 in revenue.

I worked long hours, had a lot of uncomfortable conversations and threw myself headfirst into one of the most male-dominated industries I’d ever worked in.

I was pretending I knew what tradespeople were talking about while frantically learning an entirely new language along the way.

Six months in, I decided to back myself again.

I left the agency and built Levee, a talent acquisition business built around creating leverage through the power of people.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I started noticing something.

Everywhere I looked, the people I was learning from, building with and looking up to were men.

Not because there weren’t incredible women doing incredible things.

I just wasn’t seeing enough of them.

So I started looking.

For women who were building businesses. Taking risks. Backing themselves. Figuring it out as they went.

I didn’t know it yet, but that search would eventually become something much bigger.

A backpack, a hostel bed, a new city

2026

Perth

Instead of just launching my business from afar, I decided to move to Perth and show my clients just how committed I was to making it work.

At the end of 2025, I packed up my backpack and moved to Perth, Western Australia.

I knew no one, Zero friends and No family.

I was starting from scratch, building a business and an entirely new life at the same time.

And honestly, it felt weird.

After spending so long overseas, moving back to Australia almost felt like I was quitting.

I’d told myself I was going to see the world, take every opportunity and keep going.

Now I was coming home.

But I knew Perth made sense for the business, so I decided to do it anyway.

The business part was the easy decision.

Finding my people was harder.

I’d met so many ambitious, entrepreneurial, like-minded people while living in America, England and Indonesia, and I wanted that again.

So I looked everywhere.

Facebook groups. Events. Online communities. Even Bumble BFF. At one point I remember thinking, Am I really on a dating app made for best friends? This is getting desperate.

And then there was the small issue of somewhere to live.

My first address in Perth was a hostel because I couldn’t find a room.

And you know what?

I actually made some great friends there.

But there were definitely moments where I’d look around and think, Oh no. What have I done?

Everyone would ask, “Oh, so you live here, you’re Australian?”

And I’d have to explain: “Yeah, but I’m actually from the East Coast. I’m just finding a room. I’m in the same position as you are, except I’m not doing my 88 days... and I’m a CEO living in a hostel.

For now… (que awkward laugh)

I didn’t know it then, but that season taught me something.

Starting again doesn’t always look glamorous.

Sometimes it looks like a backpack, a hostel bed, a new city and a whole lot of figuring it out.

But I wasn’t there because I’d failed.

I was there because I was willing to start from scratch to build something I believed in.

The community. The first sold-out event.

2026

Hot Girls Do Business

You know those people I was talking about?

Yeah. They were harder to find than I thought.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

If I couldn’t find the community, I’d build it.

So I did.

I built the community I wish I’d had when I first started in business.

And, if I’m being honest, the group of friends I wish I’d had when I first moved to Perth.

A place for ambitious women to back themselves, build businesses and change the trajectory of what’s possible.

I wanted to create somewhere you could walk in and feel like you belonged.

Where your questions could be answered.

Where your struggles could be shared.

Where it was completely normal to say,

“Yeah, me too.”

That’s keeping me up at night too.

I’m struggling with that too.

I’m feeling imposter syndrome too.

Our first event sold out.

And that told me something.

Perth needs more of this.

Maybe the world does too.

And now I’m here.

Still in Perth. Still building. Still figuring it out.

And ready for whatever comes next.

Maybe the next adventure won’t mean moving to another country.

Maybe it’s the adventure of seeing how far I can take this.

Of changing the trajectory of what it looks like to be a young woman in business.

Because, let’s be honest...

Do I really just look like a pretty face? ;)

I’m only just getting started.

And I’m glad you’re here.

Let's work together