2024 Women to Watch
This year we showcase over 80 South Australian women to watch throughout the year. From business, to careers, arts to science. This year’s selected women highlight the depth and diversity of the women in our state and also the vast array of opportunities to develop a business or career in South Australia. Find our more about our inaugural Women to Watch initiative here.
Abbie Allen has been in business in South Australia for twenty years, launching her business Lifestyle Elements Concierge in 2004 at the age of 23. Since then she has gone on to help hundreds of clients, as well as mentoring business owners throughout the world looking to start their own concierge business. If that wasn’t enough, last year in 2023, she finally made a childhood dream come true and published not one but three books in her cozy ghost mystery series set in an imaginary town in The Adelaide Hills. Abbie has three daughters with her husband Tim, who also works in the business (as well as helping to edit her books) and they live in the Adelaide Hills where Abbie is also involved in coaching for the local netball club.
// Favourite inspirational quote
“Don’t compare your behind-the-scenes with someone else’s highlight reel.”
// Let’s get to know you
I grew up in the country near Karoonda (where I’m lucky enough to have my dad and twin brother still on the farm) with my parents, my sister and my two brothers. In year ten I was lucky enough to come down to Adelaide to go to boarding school. I went to the University of South Australia and studied a Bachelor of Management majoring in Marketing. Even though I was one of the top in my class, it took a long time for me to find work, and I ended up stared working in the business run by the lady I nannied for whilst at uni.
Interestingly, it was my experience as a nanny, where I also did things like organise carpet cleaners, pick up parcels and pet sit that would lead to the idea which would become my own business Lifestyle Elements Concierge. After another role at a TAFE campus, and a year of travelling overseas with my now husband, I returned to Adelaide and started Lifestyle Elements Concierge in February 2004. That business, although with many very tough moments, has allowed me and my husband (who joined me after seven years, two weeks before our first daughter was born) to grow our family, buy our own home, and have a degree of flexibility in our lives which we are very thankful for.
However, there has always been one thing that I have dreamed of doing, for as long as I can remember, which was to become an author. Now that I’ve done it, so many of my school friends have comment on how much I used to talk about that! When I turned forty I declared two things. One, I was going to return to horse riding lessons, another love, and two, I was going to write and publish a book. A lot of mindset things shifted for me, including the ridiculous belief that self publishing wasn’t real publishing. I took the leap, and published The Ghost of Lilly Pilly Creek in March 2023, with only the goal of publishing, not writing a best seller. I was surprised and thrilled when people loved it and was motivated to write two more in the series. It is something I realise now I was always meant to do.
// What makes you a Woman to Watch for 2024?
I am one to latch on to a dream and make it happen, no matter how long it takes. I’ve been running my own business for twenty years, starting at the age of twenty-three when I had no idea what I didn’t know. I now have the longest-running personal concierge service in Australia, with many clients that have been with us for almost as long as we have been in business, and having helped other concierge business owners throughout the world realise their dreams. I have now pursued my childhood dream of becoming and author and made it happen. One of the reasons I have done that is to show my three daughters that you can achieve your dreams, no matter your age, even if perhaps they look a little different to what you thought. I have inadvertently inspired adults in my world to do similar things which is a thrill.
// If you could share one takeaway from your business or career journey, what would it be?
I always imagined when I started my business that I would have “taken over the world” by now. But I now realise that taking over the world is challenging and exhausting and wasn’t a fit for my personality and my family. I now know that the real focus should be on designing a business and a life that works for you, and enjoying the process of discovering what this will look like and how it will come to be.
// What would being a 2024 Woman to Watch mean to you?
If being a Woman to Watch in 2024 can inspire my daughters to live their dreams, and to remember as they become adults that it is never to late to achieve your goals, then I will be thrilled. If I can do the same for at least one other person who learns about my story, then that would be wonderful.
// What would you like to see for the future of South Australian women and girls?
I would like to somehow have gender mean absolutely nothing when it comes to business and career, but also have the many positives women bring to the working world better recognised and utilised.
Get in touch with Abbie:
LinkedIn: Abbie Allen
Website: www.abbielmartin.com & www.lifestyleelements.com.au
Check out all of the incredible Women to Watch for 2024 here as their profiles are uploaded throughout the year.
To become an SA Woman Member, check out our Membership Options here.
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