“I’m co-host of The Daily Edition on Channel Seven, I run
a lifest yle website called SWIISH with my sister, I write
cookbooks and have a brand called SWIISH DELIISH which
makes super green superfood powder and ready-to-blend
smoothies.” Add to this list her charitable initiative WISH by
SWIISH, being wife to Marcus and mother to Annabelle and
Elyssa, and Sally Obermeder, 43, is a busy woman. “I’ve got a few
jobs and they all mean so much to me,” she says. “They are all
intertwined and have come about due to my passion and life path.”
After switching careers at 30—“I spent 10 years in finance,so to literally throw it all away and start again from scratch was
nuts”—Obermeder was working her dream job in television and
41 weeks pregnant with her first child when she was diagnosed
with Stage 3 breast cancer. “The first thing I said was, ‘Am I going
to die?’” she reflects. Annabelle, now five, was delivered the next day
and Obermeder began treatment immediately: “I remember being
so sick I was crawling to Annabelle’s room because I didn’t have
the strength to walk.”
Given the all clear post-treatment, Obermeder felt a reneweddesire to make her life and work as meaningful as possible. “You
presume it won’t ever happen to you, but it does, it happens to lots
of people,” she says. “I don’t know why I’m still here, and that’s why
I’m always doing what I can to make sure [my life] isn’t a waste.”
Together with her sister, Maha Koraiem, she created the website
in 2012 as a platform to share health, beauty, fashion, family and
home advice. “We live and breathe the ethos, ‘An amazing life at an
affordable price,’” she says. “I’m a normal person, I have struggles
and commitments and a boring household budget.” The site
expanded in 2015 to include an online store—“We physically buy
all the product ourselves and ship everything from our office”—and
now also comprises SWIISH DELIISH,“the health product and
food division”. One of the brand’s most successful endeavours has
been a book of green smoothie recipes, an idea that stemmed from
Obermeder’s recovery after cancer treatment.
Though she’s a sav v y businesswoman and her brand is ever
evolving, Obermeder is most excited about building a community:
“I would love for SWIISH to continue to grow and for us to
connect with even more women who are passionate about
living their best lives.”
Mother knows best: “My mum was an amazing role model. She
was the only woman in her family to finish school and get a degree.
She was—and still is—such an inspiration.”
Helping others: “I would love to expand WISH by SWIISH even
more. I always feel so grateful and blessed to have had so much
support while I was sick. Being able to give something back
means everything.” —FAITH CAMPBELLS A L LY
OBERMEDER
READERS’ CHOICE
“BE PERSISTENT. DON’T GIVE
UP. NEVER STOP BELIEVING”