Ground Cafe, a Standing Success!
We are James and Monique – Creators of Ground, an organic living foods cafe on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Here’s our story for you!

James and I met on the beautiful Lord Howe Island where James is originally from.  When we first met we were prioritizing our social life over our health and wellness (which I think is important to share as many people assume we’ve been eating clean and caring for our bodies our entire lives). We were feeling the negative effects of this lifestyle and deep down we both knew that there was something more out in the big wide world that we desired to discover. It didn’t come to us instantly, once we opened ourselves up to learning, an overload of information and life adventures came our way. We moved house many times, started university many times and just couldn’t put our finger on what we were searching for. One day we realised that what we were looking for lied within us, we discovered that to find happiness we had to look inside. Once that insight happened, amazing people and information flowed into our lives. We started reading motivational books and began to research everything from mediation, wellness, business, self-love, clean eating, finance and everything in between. A series of events lead us to live a completely organic, vegan, active lifestyle, and we have never looked back. We started really loving and nurturing ourselves and our personal development. Instead of going out for drinks we would stay home with tea and watch a great documentary, instead of going to restaurants for a quick meal we would go to markets for organic produce and prepare our own meals from scratch which was so much more satisfying.

Overtime James and I (both having hospitality backgrounds) naturally started planning what would come to be known as Ground. At the time of planning we had zero financial capability for the project. We both believe in the power of manifestation and to us that means knowing details, writing it down on paper, entertaining the possibility, and visualising it being true. We had mapped out most things… what the menu and interior would look like, what people would feel when they would come to Ground and how the place would contribute positively to the world.  Not long after having refined our vision to include 100% organic and raw foods, we had a life changing phone call…

My Dad, Greg Pollard, after his business partners sent his shop in Buderim into disrepair, was toying with the idea of giving us the lease to do something we wanted in there. After a little convincing of the benefits of doing exactly what we wanted to do, he gave the go-ahead and all that was left was some start-up funding which by this time we had managed to save. We now had an opportunity to create something that we loved, and we hoped, would greatly benefit every person who walked through the doors.

We got in there and scrubbed the floors, we bought furniture from op shops. The retail shelf at first was an old bookshelf that I have had since I was 7 years old. We are lucky to have some incredible friends who are so talented so we had an amazing team helping us design and create to bring our dream to life! We painted walls, found tables in random places and hired two german’s Jenny and Sebastian (WHO ARE AWESOME and have become two of our greatest friends). We came up with the final menu the week before we opened and put our last $250 in the till for the float. It could have crashed, we could have run out of money BUT we didn’t. We opened the doors and people started rolling in. A lot of our guests at Ground have become our best friends, they have seen the menu and the space itself evolve so much since the first day we opened and have grown with us. We could have told ourselves ‘we’re too young’ ‘we’re not experienced enough’ BUT we didn’t, we knew that this is what we were meant to do and what makes us come alive so we will continue to evolve and work hard to always keep true to our dream.

The biggest misconception in our lives is that people think we must of been living this way for our whole life, that we had heaps of money to start this and they think it isn’t possible for them, that they couldn’t have this sort of opportunity.. here’s the truth! You can! All we did differently was not get bogged down by our ugly past and the seemingly big obstacles along the way, we learnt and grew from each and every experience, embraced opportunities and loved ourselves enough to invest and prioritize time for education, self-love and good food. It’s been a beautiful journey so far. It is incredible how at peace you can feel when you are doing something you love. Our mission at ground is to inspire you to transform your wold, by educating and inspiring you on your journey of everlasting health and happiness. We do this buy feeding people 100% organic living foods in the cafe and through our online presence on instagram, facebook our NEW BLOG  where we will be posting inspiration and information to help you live the healthiest and happiest life you can. I hope you enjoyed this introduction of us and that it empowers you to follow your dreams. Love yourself because you are awesome!

Love Monique & James