Tess Shanahan Wilson & Shaun Wilson On Ambition, Marriage, Peak Performance, & What Success Really Looks Like

**Lauryn Bosstick** (0:00)
Today, we have Tess Shanahan, who is an Australian media personality, podcast host, content creator and entrepreneur. Her husband, Shaun Wilson, is the founder of Bondi Sands. We really enjoyed these two, enjoyed having him on the show. With that, Tess and Shaun, welcome to The Bossticks.
Welcome to The Bossticks. Starring Lauryn Bosstick and Michael Bosstick. Together, they are The Bossticks.
This blocks you out basically all day. Then if you want to get in, you can request to get in, but it's a pain in the ass. It's a countdown and you have to request a break, and it could be like five to 15 So you also can't get in there just mindless because it'll also kick you back out.

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (0:41)
Oh, that's good. Do you like it significantly helped?

**Lauryn Bosstick** (0:43)
I looked at my screen time the other day on social, and my maximum time on all social apps is like 30 minutes per day. I was on that X, I was going deep.

**Michael Bosstick** (0:55)
Don't you think there's something that makes you mentally tough about just putting the phone away?

**Lauryn Bosstick** (1:01)
You know what I've noticed? The biggest thing about it is that I don't think people realize how unconsciously you pick it up and just tap it. What I realized is how much in the beginning I was doing that, and now it just basically stops.

**Shaun Wilson** (1:13)
Apps, emails, all of it.

**Michael Bosstick** (1:15)
Everyone's addicted. Everyone is addicted. No one can lie. Everyone is addicted.

**Lauryn Bosstick** (1:19)
Think about it. You're in an Uber or you're driving or you're sitting around.

**Shaun Wilson** (1:21)
Any downtime.

**Lauryn Bosstick** (1:23)
Any downtime.

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (1:23)
And then it goes out creativity. It's like all those moments of boredom where you're supposed to think and creative, explore, look around you. We just don't do anymore.

**Shaun Wilson** (1:30)
Who was talking about that yesterday? Was that Jim Quik?

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (1:33)
Jim Quik, yeah.

**Shaun Wilson** (1:34)
He was saying that about connection and content for the first in the morning, what you need to do.

**Michael Bosstick** (1:39)
How did you guys meet?

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (1:40)
How did we meet? We met actually at a Bondi Sands event, very fitting, probably about I reckon three or four years before we actually got together.

**Michael Bosstick** (1:49)
Did you walk up to her and say hi?

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (1:52)
He did actually. I was there with my boyfriend at the time.

**Shaun Wilson** (1:57)
I actually think of Bondi at the time, she was an ambassador for us for a little bit in terms of some content. But we did have partners at the time, but I do remember when we first met at the Osborne.
This blonde bombshell.

**Michael Bosstick** (2:11)
So did you walk up? Was there a move, a strategy?

**Shaun Wilson** (2:14)
She actually came to the bar.

**Tess Shanahan Wilson** (2:16)
No, I introduced myself because I think we followed each other. Obviously, I've done content for you guys, Bondi. We had a quick chat, we got along really well. I think my boyfriend at the time was like, who was that?

**Michael Bosstick** (2:27)
What's interesting to me about your brand is that it seems like you built the brand without really having a face to start.

**Shaun Wilson** (2:37)
I think the strategy from a founder point of view was our customers were the founders, and that was part of our strategy, making sure the brand identity was our customers.
The face is really just Australian content providers at the start, they're evolved over time. But initially, the start was all about our customers and really focusing on that.

**Michael Bosstick** (2:56)
When did you launch the brand?

**Shaun Wilson** (2:58)
2013 was the official launch.
It's a pretty quick journey, 10 years from starting it, worked in corporate like any entrepreneur, limited resources, but some sort of opportunity within the category. And the first couple of years, we had full-time jobs and throwing all the money towards it, remortgaging the home. But it grew very quickly in the first three to four years in Australia. And we looked at international expansion after that.

**Michael Bosstick** (3:23)
And what was the first thing that you noticed that was like an epiphany where something was really working and clicking?

**Shaun Wilson** (3:28)
It was really the category. From a professional spray tan, we saw a big gap between professional spray tanning to do-it-yourself products. And we thought, how can we produce a selling quality formula in a do-it-yourself product, have the Australian positioning and focusing on social media as a strategy? So that was really the whole concept. And that was the focus.