A Look At The Business Savvy Of Olivia Newton John

Olivia Newton John was a multi talented person as she was a star in the music and acting world. Her most notable acting role was in the 1978 musical film alongside her co-star John Travolta. During Newton John's lifetime, she released 23 solo studio albums, 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and her most successful song being Physical. Not only was it her most successful song, it spent No. 1 for 10 straight weeks from late 1981 into 1982. It was the top song on Billboard's greatest songs of the 80s and spent the most time in Hot 100 charts in during that decade. Besides being talented as a actress and singer, she had talent when it came to the business side of things.

In 2005 Newton John co founded the luxury resort Gaia Retreat & Spa. What interested her in the property was the appearance and color of the landscape. Forbes reported, "Olivia fell in love with the property fell it possesses a magical quality and even dreamt about calling it Gaia Resort." Before selling the resort this past October, they received notable achievements like being named the world's leader retreat by world travel, the world travel awards, and the best spa hotel in the world in 2015. The property was sold for $30 million and bought by a private Australian investment group named  Tattarang.

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Olivia Newton John has homes in Florida, California and Australia. Her Santa Ynez home cost around $4.69 million. In 2019, she sold her New South Wales home for 3.9 million and the majority of her properties as a result of her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis a year prior. Her husband John Easterling has full ownership of her California horse ranch and Newton John spend the last days of her life over there. A month later, her Australian vila, located in Dalwood, sold for $4.6 million. With all the money she acquired from selling her properties, she was able use it for her philanthropy efforts. She was able to launch the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Center with the help of government funding, which costed $189 million in total. She also started the Olivia Newton John Fund and spent her time animals rights and environmental causes.

This is a venture many including her devoted fans may not know or remember that she was involved with. Back in the 80s, she was a co-owner of a fashion label and boutique stores. The idea for her boutique Koala Blue, short for Korner of Australia L.A., was inspired by her missing being home and the food in Australia during the concert tour for the album Physical. She wanted to create a place where she can find these treats that she missed so much from her native home. Her friend Pat Farrar agreed to form Koala Blue as she was also considering opening a shop before their conversation about it.

Newton John explained how the idea came together and said, "we went back to Australia last Christmas, and we looked at the clothes and saw designs with kangaroos and koalas and wallabies; it was the perfect timing for us since these things were very different, very novel." The first business opened doors in 1983, located at Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, and included the Australian snacks that she was craving for and missing out on at home. They had aspirations to have 120 stores, but the highest amount they had at one point was 60. All their businesses shut down in 1993 as the recession during that time was too much of a blow for them to recover from. This was not a venture that lasted for decades, but it still served Newton John a way to still experience Australia through fashion and food while being away from home for long periods at a time.

Her personal battles with cancer inspired her to create the Olivia Newton John Fund, which is a charity that sponsors worldwide research for plant based cancer treatments. The research will be used to educate both caregivers and patients gentle ways to combat cancer. The fund is currently involved in five studies related to breast cancer and cannabis. It is currently involved with five studies with some of them being related to the relationship between breast cancer and cannabis and how that could help counter it.

According to the National Cancer Institute about 35,000 plant species have been researched to see how effective they are as cancer treatment. Out of those 35,000, 3000 have been found as effective treatment. On the fund's website there is a store that has not been opened yet, but with the death of Newton John might give extra inspiration to launch it as soon as possible.

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Sources: Billboard, People, Fox Business, Daily Mail, ONJ Foundation, CR Fashion Book

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