Our Story

Let me set the scene for you.
Whilst I was setting up Beautiful Minds, a journey that gave my life meaning and has helped me to help millions of children and families, I was working in a yogurt factory in Queensland to pay the bills.
I was juggling shifts at the stinky factory and they were back-breaking. Throwing on a hairnet at 3am. Spending hours squeezing yogurt into tubes by myself in an icy room. After the shift finished, I’d change and scoot tired and sore to work on my new business.
It was brutal, but a down payment on the dream.
I’d had a vision of changing young girl’s lives and in particular, focusing on anxiety and confidence issues, which there was no real support for at the time.
I had a tough time dealing with anxiety as a teen. It got so bad at one point that I didn’t physically leave our family home for a whole year.
So, back to the story. I saved up enough money to create flyers and a small ad and put on my first Beautiful Minds workshops for kids.
Our first workshop had only four girls in it. I was thrilled!
Word spread about the work I was doing. The phone didn’t stop. Straight away I was having an impact on young people and those were the happiest days I’ve known.
For the first two years after I started Beautiful Minds, I worked in that factory 5 days a week, from 3 am. As the business grew, I hung up my hairnet and dedicated my life to working with young people.
In 2019, I met my life partner and now business partner Brendon.
He works as the CEO now, but keeps a low profile. He came aboard with a background as a storyteller in Hollywood, and relationships with some of the world’s best experts in well-being, media and entertainment. We’ve built some amazing products together. The journey has given us our greatest opportunities and also the greatest challenges. We’ve never lost our sense of fun or humour. I wouldn’t do it with anyone else.
Since 2003, we’ve helped change the lives of over 1.8 million young people. We work with 935 schools. Our widely popular retreats and family camps are expanding overseas. We work with some of the world’s biggest companies and craft programs and projects with those world renowned experts.
We’ve now got a chance to help families around the world, something I never imagined squeezing yogurt all those years ago.
Stay tuned,
Marina Passalaris – founder of Beautiful Minds