Supermodel to Super Entrepreneur

In 1989, I was approached by a New Zealand based company to promote their lingerie. I chose an unconventional strategy — a licensing arrangement bearing my name with designs that I could co-create with them. Elle Macpherson Intimates was born and became a great success. While commonplace today, this idea was unorthodox at the time. In 2005, I again expanded my brand with the creation of Elle Macpherson The Body® products, partnering with Boots Alliance. The bath and body line were distributed through Boots in the U.K. generating £10 million in retail in its first year.

WelleCo was born in 2014 as a natural evolution of my own wellness journey. I had begun to notice how run down I felt, and my usual host of vitamins and supplements were no longer effective. I was struggling with my sleep, my skin was dry and dull, my hair was brittle, and I felt unmotivated. I didn’t feel like myself that way. I wanted answers, so I sought the advice of Dr. Simone Laubscher PhD, a clinical nutritionist and naturopath, at her Harley Street clinic in London.

She helped me to better understand my body which, it turned out, was severely inflamed. She blended a custom anti-inflammatory super greens formula for me which later became The Super Elixir™. Within weeks, my energy surged back, I felt lighter and leaner, and my skin and digestion improved. It was great!

WelleCo is successful because it is based on my real-life personal experience and deep, long-term passion in the subject. A global purpose underpins WelleCo, with strong core values that reflect my own and implementing a meaning and benefit that is bigger than the brand or collection themselves.

It also is formulated with extremely high integrity ingredients and the business has a will to deliver the highest quality and most effective benefits without compromise.

WelleCo recognised the power that lies in wellness, as well as the link between natural beauty and its expression into the world through being well, a strong benefit which we convey in our beauty-through-wellness message.

Identify what you love and give it a purpose bigger than yourself, bigger than just your business aims.

Be here. Be now. My favourite place to be is wherever I am. It’s not a destination, it’s how you feel in your heart.

I would say passionate, purposeful, and precise.

I love family time to relax and get re-centred in love and laughter. When the day is done, my first priority is to reconnect with loved ones. A real treat for me is when the boys are visiting home in Miami (they are both off on their own adventures now), we love having dinner together and catching up. I relish evening relaxation when I quietly sip my nightly cup of Sleep Welle Calming Tea. That really helps the mind, emotions and body to rest, recover and rejuvenate. It’s a non-negotiable, especially after a full-on day.

Many. Thankfully, I always find that it’s the challenges that bring growth and innovation. Business is seldom a smooth road, but if I had to name one challenge, I would have to say it’s been when the outside world around me becomes demanding and intense. That’s when I focus on staying relaxed yet alert so I can follow my own heart as my compass, rather than reacting to what is being demanded of me. It’s those times that I find difficult to stay in touch with my inner self, my values, my truth and self-faith. Stabilising that inner connection means finding stillness in amongst the general fracas and there is the real challenge. I’ve found the best cure is to just focus on one day at a time.

I’m not convinced it’s about strength, actually. For me, it’s more to do with trust and centredness. I find it essential at all times to connect to my inner self, my core values, and to trust my heart to be my compass. Without this connection, I can find it very difficult to remain centred and clear. I focus on stillness in the face of conflict, uncertainty or doubt – only across a calm sea can clear insights bring the wisest choices. So I take care of my mind, body and spirit every single day with breathwork, meditation and mindfulness, and stopping daily to find gratitude for all that is in my life.

My career highlight is the present. It’s the now. Working with WelleCo. Being in a business where the purpose is greater than ourselves. It’s about helping people rediscover the beauty within themselves. Beauty is soul deep.

Other highlights include:

• Six Sports Illustrated covers
• Merchandising my own calendars
• Being coined, The Body by Time magazine
• Hosting Saturday Night Livein 1996
• Playing Joey’s girlfriend, Janine Lacroix on Friendsin 1999
• Closing the Olympics in 2000
• Entrepreneurial ground-breaking choices such as licensing
• Starting WelleCo in 2014