What life is like after winning The Block

It takes months of back-breaking labour, sleepless nights and emotional strain, but the winners of The Block say it’s not just the cash at the end that makes being on the TV show worthwhile.

The Blockhead champions say the long-running reality program opens plenty of doors, revealing stylish new careers and lucrative business opportunities.

As it wraps up this week, The Block will crown its 11th winner and the future looks bright for the lucky couple. Past winners have gone on to become TV personalities, launch design and e-commerce businesses and even start music careers, in the case of pop singer Amity Dry.

“There would be no way we’d be here right now if it wasn’t for The Block,” says Lysandra Fraser, who won Sky High in 2013 with her twin sister, Alisa.

The women, who were both police officers before becoming reality TV stars, now run their own eponymous interior design business and online art store.

Fraser admits The Block helped the pair crack into the cutthroat design business.

“We’re realistic of the fact that it’s hard out there for designers that haven’t had the publicity that we’ve had,” she says.

It’s a sentiment shared by fellow winner Shannon Vos, who won Glasshouse with his brother Simon last year. Simon now runs a construction company, and Shannon an interior design business.

“I think at least 80 to 90 per cent of my work is because people know me from winning,” Vos says.

Both Vos and Fraser now also make a living on the side by being brand ambassadors – Vos for Listerine mouth wash and Fraser for Steel Blue boots – as a way to subsidise their income.

But they concede the initial cash windfall from the auction was enough to get the ball rolling on their dreams.

“It’s nice to have that buffer zone with the winnings,” says Vos, who pocketed $435,000 with his brother from the show.

“If we had crashed out and got $1000, I don’t think we would have the time to chase other avenues.”

​Dea Jolly, who walked away with almost $1 million in prize money from winning Triple Threat, also says the money helped kick off her design business.

“Obviously we did really well with the win, which allowed us to do lots of things,” Jolly says.

But Jolly, whose husband Darren was an AFL star prior to the show, says she was originally reluctant to ever get in front of the cameras.

“I was quite happy in the background of Dazza’s career,” she says. “I knew that I’m a straight talking person and that I have an opinion and I’m not afraid to say that … I knew that I would be polarising.”

Yet despite being cast as the show’s straight shooter, Jolly says she has no regrets.

“Lots of opportunities have been offered to us … Our life looks completely different to how it did before we were on The Block.”

And despite thanking the show for their success, all three contestants agree that winning was not a silver bullet.

“It’s not like you just finish the show and suddenly you get this life where you get paid to do all this cool stuff,” says Vos. “It’s hard – there’s no instant money, there’s no instant work just waiting for you.”

Fraser agrees. “I think a lot of people think it’s easy to be on reality TV show … [But] we work our butts off. We are up until one or two o’clock in the morning, up at six – we never stop.

“But at the end of the day you can’t ever regret it because we wouldn’t be in this situation we are in now… As cliched as it sounds, it literally did change our lives.”