For Lisa Burling, of LBPR, a cheeky post on Facebook as she went to sleep recently resulted in her fulfilling a dream to meet her hero the next day.

When Virginia Wren, of Illawarra ITeC and Illawarra Women In Business, told her that Richard Branson was speaking at the National Achiever’s Congress in Sydney it set off a chain of events the concluded in them sharing the stage.

‘’When I found out Richard was going to be in the country an hour from home..I had to be there. I just wanted to breath the same air,’’ she said.

As Ms Burling sat through the day she did not know the fun post she made the night before had resulted in the chance to tick the number one item off her bucket list six months ahead of schediule.

‘’One of my best friends (Erin Maher) is the news director at 2GB,’’ she said.

‘’We went to university together and she saw..the stupid picture I had posted on Facebook..where I put my head on a photo of a lady with Richard on an island and just said “I am going to see him the next day..and if we do get together this is what we’ll look like”. I am a massive believer in if you put it out there and let the universe know you never know what might happen.’’

Ms Maher was looking at the picture at work the next morning when Ben Fordham walked past and saw. She told him about her friends dream to meet her hero and he asked for a copy because he was interviewing Branson that night.

As he wrapped up he said ‘’Sir Richard one of the things we really love about you as Aussies is you are a big believer in making dreams come true and believe that they will happen”.

He then told Branson of Ms Burling’s dream to meet him, put the photo up on the screen and said “Lisa Burling where are you..come on down?”

“I gave him a massive hug and told him that I loved him...and then I just shook for the rest of the night and woke up next day thinking “did that really happen”? 

Lisa Burling will tell a sad but inspirational story behind why she always wanted to meet Branson at the IWIB Conference and Expo Day on Friday.

Other speakers are Lynne Hocking, SaraSwati Shakti, and Erin Bubb.

The Lagoon Seafood Restaurant hosts its next Lagoon Experimental Kitchen on Friday with Degustation Through The Decades.

The interactive sensory dining experience for food enthusiasts will involve a gastronomic journey back through the last century.