Biography
Samantha Jackson is the first to admit that she has faced her fair share of up-hill battles. If going through high school being younger (and smaller!) than all the other kids wasn’t tough enough, Sam faced the ultimate battle of her own mortality when her parents were told to come and say goodbye as a result of her liver failure. Not prepared to accept her fate, she graduated year 12 at the end of that year as the top student in physics, human bio and chemistry … at the age of 15 … after missing 8 months of school.
The specialists said that Sam would never live a “normal” life, would always be susceptible to illness and would never, ever be able to have children. When Sam fell pregnant, the specialist said that the baby wouldn’t survive a couple of weeks. At three months pregnant, they said Sam wouldn’t be able to carry to term – this time they were right and both her daughter and her son (7 years later) were born a few weeks early. The only limitations Sam lives with now is that she keeps a low fat diet, lives a drug free life, with not even so much as a panadol and she is strictly alcohol free – her liver can’t process any of these, but otherwise manages fairly well.
Fast forward through Sam’s working years, where she was rapidly promoted until she reached her first goal – to be the youngest appointed State Manager of a Bank in Western Australia at the age of 32. Sam had a fight on her hands in the ‘boys club’ of finance, where she stood her ground to be taken seriously due to her young age, small stature and blonde hair … so she bravely abandoned her blonde locks and became a brunette.
Sam’s next moves included being the General Manager Retail of Bupa, Executive Manager of HBF and the Group Executive of both Commonwealth Bank and BankWest before reaching her mecca role of CEO of Ionic Health – all without a university degree. According to Sam she was too busy gaining experience to find time for an MBA, and when prospective employers saw her achievements they agreed – she didn’t need one.
When Sam thought she was at the pinnacle of her career, she discovered that the satisfaction she thought it would bring just wasn’t there. Sure the money was, but at the cost of not being able to help people any more – she was too far removed.
Having had no other choice but to live a healthy lifestyle, Sam always found that her habits of eating well and exercising inspired others to do the same – causing her to completely rethink her next career move. Whilst still in her CEO position, Sam commenced studying for her qualifications in fitness, strength and conditioning, nutrition and coaching and when the company she was working for closed down she saw this as her opportunity to start afresh.
Sam’s Health Coaching business thrived, attracting many diverse clients from a Wall Street Banker, a New York Radio Announcer, Australian Celebrities and every day mums, dads, business owners and CEO’s looking for ways to simply feel better, have more energy and maybe shift a few pounds. Business was going well until one day, when Sam and her husband were in Sydney with friends they spied legendary actor and director Mel Gibson at the table next to them in a restaurant.
When the two tables struck up a conversation, Mel came and joined them before bemoaning the ‘spare tyre’ he had tried everything to get rid of. Whilst the others at the table joined in the joke, Sam boldly assured Mel that in eight weeks she could get rid of that for him. He said “what are you some sort of nutritionist?” and she said yes – telling him she would teach him how to eat properly. When Mel said he already knew how to eat properly, Sam took a deep breath – this was a do or die moment. “If you knew how to eat properly we wouldn’t be having this conversation and you wouldn’t have that belly – if you think you’re doing everything that you should be, you’re kidding yourself”. Even Sam couldn’t believe she had just said that … until he said “Alright then, gimme your phone number and email address” and they swapped details. Sam was positive she’d never hear from him again.
Three days later, on Sam’s 45th birthday, her life changed – she received a text message from Mel that said “so Mighty Mouse, what are you going to do about my gut?”. The next eight weeks saw Mel lose 14kg of fat, gain a significant amount of muscle, and drop 27cm’s from his waist measurement. So impressed was he, that he recorded a video with her to sing her praises as his personal Health Coach – a title she now wears for life. Mel has never in his entire career endorsed a person or product, nor advertised anything – this first time was his gift to his brave little Health Coach from Perth.
