Director | Xtend Barre Northern Beaches | 2019 National Franchise Woman of the Year | 2019 ACT/NSW Franchise Woman of the Year | 2018 Franchisee of the Year
Liz’s passion for entrepreneurship and business happened completely by accident. Her dream had always been to be an investigative journalist and news reader and she spent years working around the globe as a television news producer, writer and reporter, including 6 years in the news capital of the world, New York City. It was while living in New York, just after the birth of her first child, Ruby, that Liz discovered the barre workout in 2009. ‘I took two to three classes a week and had never been fitter or stronger. I looked around that room in my first class and thought, this could be huge in Australia’.
After returning to Sydney with her husband and young family in 2011, they found themselves caught in the middle of the GFC downturn and spent the next year doing long hours at a 24 hour news desk and rethinking what the future looked like. And so Liz returned to that small seed of a business idea, bringing the barre workout to Australia and within 6 months had opened her first Xtend Barre Studio in Mosman. Fast forward 6 years and Liz now owns 4 Xtend Barre Studios on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, sits on a National Franchise Advisory Board, and works as a consultant helping other small business owners navigate the media and use PR opportunities to grow their business. She is also a regular contributor to various health + wellness, business and media organisations and publications. She was recently awarded the 2019 Australian Franchise Council’s Woman of the Year. In 2018, she won Xtend Barre Franchisee of the Year and Business Person of the Year and her studio in Mosman won Fitness Business of the Year.
