Page 36 - Tropic Magazine Issue 13

LIFESTYLE • HUMANS OF CAIRNS

Andrew Graham

Paradiso Cairns
I remember at a young age having a
pop-up stall in front of my house in
primary school where I’d try to sell any
random items I could find hidden in my
parent’s garage. Anything I was able
to scavenge, and I thought someone
would find interesting, I tried to sell…
but needless to say that idea didn’t
quite take off.
Fast forward to when I was 17, and I
was back living at home from a year
in college, and with no direction or
career. I had managed to pick up some
work in a local restaurant part-time,
working across the different areas of
the business. A spark started to light
up inside me through my time at this
restaurant, and I truly believe it’s where
my passion for being an entrepreneur
and owning my own business came
from. The owners were two local guys
who had started with only one tiny
restaurant in our city, and then gone on
to expand to 7 different locations.
I loved the work I was doing, and even
though there were highs and lows, it
Brody Oxenham made me who I am today.
Manexo Media A few years later, I was ready for
something new. I’d always wanted to
visit Australia and I knew it was time to
By the end of my first year at university digital products, blogging, affiliate
I knew I wanted more. I wanted a career marketing, stock trading and drop take a risk. I packed up my things and
and life that wasn’t just going through the shipping. ventured out on a working holiday down
motions of uni, graduating and climbing Each one pushed me a bit closer to what under. Eventually I managed to gain
a corporate ladder. Like any teenager I wanted to do. Each one taught me sponsorship as a restaurant manager
trying to make sense of their life I started something else that I could carry over into which gave me the experience of
googling… “How do I get a job I love?” the next. I realised I could actually pair running a business in Australia.
“How do I get rich?” “Is there more to life the traditional marketing concepts from But after 5 years my desire for more
than working?” uni with the digital marketing aspects I started to kick in again. Doing the hard
I started researching like crazy. I’d watch was using. yards for someone else just was quite
videos on YouTube about investing in By 2017 I was in my third year of uni and cutting it anymore. You always have
stocks and then how to start an online felt like a totally different person than limitations to what you can do within
business. I started scrolling through the year before. I had learnt so much, someone else’s business.
online discussion boards and even picked but still felt so far away from being on That’s when Paradiso Cafe Cairns
up my first non-fiction book. the path I wanted. A job opportunity was born. Well, not just like that… It
I was hooked on the knowledge you could came up for a digital marketing position definitely wasn’t overnight. It started
pick up from just reading a single book. with this random place called the out with a random conversation with
There was a day I walked into a book Young Entrepreneurs Project. The job my best friend Jay (who is now my
store one day after uni and leaving with description literally felt like it spoke to business partner and co-owner).
a stack of “15 of the best business & self- me and what I wanted to do. I had no The original idea was a simple coffee
development books” I had read about on idea the opportunities or experiences it bar/hole in the wall espresso place.
the internet. would bring. I remember the first day we saw the
Rich Dad Poor Dad, Awaken the Giant This whole journey has helped me to location of Paradiso (at the Centre of
Within, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective launch my own business, Manexo Media, Contemporary Arts) and we could just
People, and a heap of others that everyone where I get to help business owners with tell that this was the spot. That same
tells you to read when you first discover their digital marketing and social media day we quickly made some rough
these sorts of books. I read them all trying marketing every day. I get to connect calculations, worked out a budget, and
to soak up as much as I could. I also with passionate entrepreneurs and put in the proposal for the tenancy.
started different side hustles I thought help them grow their businesses doing Just 24 hours later it was approved…
would take off. I created Instagram pages something I love. we were signing on the dotted line and
with mass followings, I started selling over the moon!

36 • Tropic • Issue 13