GROWING up near Lisbon, Anna Saio loved helping her mum arrange cushions and "style" the family home.
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Any thought of pursuing her love for design and colour, however, was cut short.
"My dad was a pharmacist, my grandmother too. I was always a creative child but it was always the case in Portugal that you do a 'proper' course at university," she recalls.
Ms Saio completed her pharmacist degree and began her career, also lecturing for 20 years and discovering a love of teaching. But a chance move to Newcastle, where her engineer husband was working, eight years ago changed her life course.
"As I met new people I saw many were starting things later in life, doing stuff they loved," she said.
Inspired, she abandoned her PhD studies in pharmacy and studied interior design.
After working as a trainer at a design school for six years she started her own business, Colour Palette Australia in 2017.
The business offers a range of courses ranging from the accredited Diploma of Leadership and Management in partnership with Essential Skills Training and Recruitment to the industry-recognised Diploma of Colour Styling and Consultancy, which she teaches in partnership with Hunter Valley Paint Place.
She says her method of teaching is very hands on and she gives them all the tools she uses in her own business to learn and progress.
"The thing is I have my knowledge, no one is stealing from me, I believe in collaborating and not competing with others. I know not everyone things like that but that's my way of life and my philosophy," she says.
Ms Saio says her main purpose in operating her business is to empower women who often get to a fork in the road after their children are school age and are not sure how to proceed. That feeling has been reinforced by her own friendship circles.
"I love teaching, I love developing content and my main intention was to help women have that second chance, be independent and have a career," she says.
That motivation has very much been shaped by her own life experience.
"When I arrived here people said 'Why are you studying design, people won't hire you because you come from overseas and have an accent' and I was like 'You know what, no," she says.
"It was hard at the beginning but it just gives me more strength and I just go for it.
"Challenges, we all have them in our life, we just need to not be afraid of failing and do our best and that's what I do. Failing is a strong word but for me it's another chance of learning, that's how I do things and keep moving forward."