Elise is owner of YSH Property, along with husband Dean. Prior to her current role, Elise was fully involved with the financial side of their business, which she now continues to oversee in a more limited out-of-hours capacity, while also supporting Dean and the team as required to meet specific targets and deadlines.

Most of Elise’s time now is dedicated to the very different and highly rewarding (and challenging!) role of home-educating their young daughter, Olivia, and facilitating a great life for her. Both Elise and Olivia maintain a high level of involvement in the business and team members see them around often.

Born and raised in country Victoria, Elise’s early years were spent living on an airfield where her father conducted his business of restoring and maintaining aircraft by day and conducting fireworks displays by night. Elise enjoyed keeping her horses, rabbits and guinea pigs as well as attending the small local school. Learning the value of honesty, the importance of quality, and the balance of hard work alongside having fun stood her in good stead for her career paths into IT and then with Dean into real estate.

Always loving systems, numbers and finance, Elise undertook a Bachelor of Business (Business Information Systems) at RMIT Melbourne and to this day continues to use all of that acquired business systems knowledge. A brief foray into the study of marketing she found less satisfying before she settled into an IT career and a busy inner-city life.

When she and Dean started renovating a Melbourne house on their weekends – inspired by the success and encouragement of Steve McKnight and David Bradley – they saw a way of applying their business and systems skills to the task and of leaving their hectic office jobs to take control of their professional lives. Together they envisaged a more fulfilling future for themselves, both professionally and personally, and the seed that led to the successful business of YSH Property was sown.

Driven and inspired by healthy living, self-improvement and a sense of community, Elise credits her determination, commitment to completion, passion for sharing knowledge and belief in quality for her contribution to building a successful business, team and office environment. Elise will say: “I find once I know something I can’t unknow it, so when I find a healthier alternative to something like VOC paints, for me there’s no going back!”

Her talent for seeing the bigger picture and providing quick feedback to enable others to own their achievements and understand impacts and limitations have also been key to the success of the business and the team. She strives to better the service offered, believes in showing gratitude, and finds enormous satisfaction in providing a happy and supportive work environment. Elise is proud of the business she and Dean have developed, proud of Dean’s problem-solving abilities and how their complementary skills have gelled, and that, decades on, they both love what they do.

Family time with Dean and Olivia, plus her extended family both in Queensland and Victoria, is all-important to Elise, so family projects like camping trips, their veggie patch, the chickens, crafts and boardgames, and enjoying the great outdoors together are very high priorities. While Elise also loves all things health and longevity related, and sharing this knowledge with family and friends, she also enjoys the challenge of learning the piano, improving her photography, time out for yoga and spending quality time with treasured friends.