Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose

Dianna Somerville left her home town of Wagga Wagga, Australia to drive war ships in the Navy thinking she would never return to regional Australia.  But after meeting her husband she returned 15 years ago and now advocates entrepreneurship, innovation and regionalisation that enables people to think openly about living and working in the regions of Australia.  Through her work at Bridge Hub in the agri-tech space and Regional Pitch Fest she is shining a light on the possibilities now with an awakened audience.

As a former organisational psychologist, Helen is a leader of diverse functions within the frame of MYOB.  Knowing that MYOB is a very different organisation than when she first joined 3 1/2 years ago, she feels it has grown, transformed and reshaped in a rapidly evolving tech world.  Helen looks at leadership as 3 key components. Head, Heart and Hands ensuring a strategic alignment of purpose, with the depth of authenticity and care and enabled by the execution to deliver.  Knowing that small businesses are the life blood of the Australian and New Zealand economy, MYOB wants businesses to Start, Survive and Succeed.  With waste being the enemy of productivity, the team at MYOB are constantly considering new ways of operating for the prosperity of the future, through digitally enabled businesses.

Dr. Michele Dickinson spent a long time as one of the only female engineers in a male dominated world and often felt quite lonely, had to work three times as hard, and was often dismissed as the lead engineer on a project. Michelle launched Nano Girl Labs as a social enterprise bringing profit and purpose together to create a dynamic and evolving organisation measuring the business both financially and the impact being created. The magic happens outside the comfort zone, so while inventing solutions for the world, in 2020 when her global tour had been wiped clean, Michelle and the Nano Girl Labs team launched a global digital science solution for schools in 135 countries. Knowing that children make up their minds about science by the age of 12 she knew that her impact would create life long learnings.

To enable Elle to get over her fear of rejection through connecting with people, she joined an Improv Theatre group, after realising that part of being an entrepreneur and business woman would involve sales and cold calling to get herself out into new spaces.  But it was the need for spaces to solve her own problem that she launched the New Zealand arm of Space to Co. - the Air b&b of community spaces.  They now book thousands of gatherings for Bonsai, Mahjong, Language and Zumba lessons to name a few.  Elle calls for action from our community to go after finding solutions to things you think are fixable.

The notion of nurturing the seed and it will blossom is something that Candice attributes to her Maori heritage and that has been engrained in her throughout her life.  Growing up with 7 siblings and a single mother, Candice recalls the struggle, which has helped shape her resilience and strength.  Although she didn’t thrive in the education system, through hard work and persistence Candice was accepted into University to go on to complete her Masters where she nurtured her vision for a meaningful future.  Many people along the way were highly critical of her business model but she felt the imbalance for the workers being unhappy and exploited and wanted to create more equilibrium.  As a ride share model with high transparency she now has a flourishing business which has recently been further enabled by radically generous women in the SheEO network and encourages all women to empower all other women on their journey’s.

Rosie defines herself as someone that is passionate about empowering women and supporting them to optimise on under-utilised assets.  Rosie has lead a series of different lives, across different industries and in different countries, but could never get comfortable with the negative impact of the affects on our beloved planet.  After moving solo to London, Rosie launched "Our Closet" - a dress rental business off the back of connecting a few friends to her wardrobe and finally curating a system to build a business from. Now back in New Zealand, Rosie is empowering women to curate an income with the things they own. Rosie is a great lover of listening to podcasts particularly when she is out walking in her thinking and dreaming time and believes that that you can have a "mentor in your own hands" with every new podcast you listen to... which we couldn't agree more on.

Nikki Douglas has always held a strong constitution to the planet, knowing that we are all part of the earth and the wondrous ecosystem that it is.  With service being in her core, Nicki has held roles in the Department of Conservation and now at Te Awara Lakes Trust in leadership roles, often as the only indigenous woman in a male dominated environment.  Through empathy and the ability to connect, a sense of flexibility in thinking and often taking the hard road, Nicki has recognised that you often need to step back and be the observer before then leaning in. And knowing that the harmonious culmination of the two of being an observer and leaning in is truly where we see the magic happen. With a strong focus now on securing clean water quality of New Zealand's Lakes and mobilising the activities with alignment to climate change alongside the Governments commitment Nicki is a true ambassador for living and breathing on purpose.

Hilary Walton is a strong advocate to the next generation that you don’t just grow up to be one thing and that you can never pick the way you go as often these paths find you.  As a trained psychologist, Hilary worked for the London Olympics in her first people management role and felt completely out of her depth. She felt she failed to apply some of the fundamentals of being human in a complex world. But as we all know through perceived failures are valuable life lessons.  As a mother of three and returning to work she often felt a deep sense of Guilt to make both of her life roles work, and shares some valuable tools to shed the guilt and unravel yourself from getting into a state of overwhelm in the eternal art of balance. Hilary describes herself as an extravert who is always taking on new things, setting up new initiatives and has her sights set on a role as a CEO, to become a true digital leader with empathy and empowering leadership.

Kaarin is taking the lead this year on the UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand and global campaign -16 days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.  #OrangeNZ #16days Gender based violence comes in many forms including emotional violence, physical violence, control and financial and in many parts of the world even more extreme.  Through empowering initiatives that enable women’s equality, giving a voice to women and enabling more female champions of change armed with the messages and awareness, we can move the needle for future generations.  In the 16 days of activism from 25th November- 10th December 2020, we will walk alongside UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand to support change for women in New Zealand and the Pacific.

Ingrid is a contemporary leader who is constantly evolving and analysing what kind of leader she wants to be, and has adopted a much more collaborative approach to when she first joined MYOB. Moving away from the notion of "leading the team out to battle" to learning the power of influence, Ingrid has a strong moral compass and one that is intent on ethical alignments. With considerable research undertaken this year, MYOB understands small business, their mindsets and what SMB's need to enable themselves to survive, thrive and move forward. Knowing that drastic innovation, investment in technology and to be courageously authentic have been on many to do lists for years, 2020 shone a sharp light to step up on all of these levels, to keep the ship afloat. We love her advice - "Ask the Questions that most people don't ask. Ask the questions that everyone wants to know, but too afraid to and have the courage to hear the answer."

Anita dropped out of school at 13 and spent many years working with the team at Nutrimetics.  When the 3rd party contractor was no longer able to fulfil their commitments, Anita put her hand up and said that she would take over the opportunity.  After consulting with her family, she decided to take the leap and immersed herself into launching the business.  Over the years they have restructured many times, to create a safe place for their team to ultimately become a 2020 finalist in the Westpac Women of Influence Awards.  With her team comprising of 95% young females from diverse backgrounds, Anita is able to deeply relate to them, and knows that they are depending on her bravery, courage and often crazy traits to be able to keep it all going.

As a socially minded, environmental advocate and change maker, Christina encourages us all to adopt practices of the past to enable us to go forward.  From leading the EnviroClub at school to leading organisations to change the way we do business, Christina is passionate about supporting companies and customers in behavioural change, enable informed decisions, creating carbon neutral operations and bridging the digital divide for the centuries ahead. In her role as CEO of Thank you Payroll, their focus is about putting profit and purpose side by side as they build the depth of this social enterprise to create time for small businesses.

With a strong call for action focused on creating a positive impact to ensure that millions of non recyclable coffee cups don’t end up in landfill, Nada calls for us to challenge our own beliefs on waste and the negative impact that our one coffee cup or our one sushi take away packaging can create. Again Again is a cup lending system that after 2 1/2 years is curating a new system that creates a positive influence, designs out waste and has to date saved 800 000 coffee cups from being absorbed into landfill. Knowing the nature of entrepreneurship, its great successes and true challenges, Nada has been most challenged by the push back of consumers and businesses to change their behaviour for the way things have always been done. It takes community advocates who are ultimately champions of change to drive the movement forward. Check out the Again Again Crowdfunding Campaign to support the equity raise for investment into a new technology platform that further enables their positive impact: https://pledgeme.co.nz/investments/425-again-again

As a great lover of learning, Anne - Marie has always been a big picture thinker with a more recent calling to Human Rights. After working in both the private and public sectors she partnered with two global Human Rights experts to curate the Human Rights Measurement Initiative. In exploring the notion of innovation she describes it as innovating a process, co creating and human centred design. Although Anne- Marie describes herself as an introverted person, she has often needed to dig deep to discover more extroverted qualities to go out in the world and make it happen, knowing that the benefit will be those at risk, in suffering and challenged by the state of the world.  She believes that what gets measured, gets improved and we couldn't agree more.

Over the last 16 years, Christine has been passionate about teaching and sharing her knowledge on financial literacy and began to dig deeper beyond an advisory role on budgets.  Although she doesn’t feel very brave and courageous, she is pushing the boundaries, challenging the known, asking bold questions and advocating on change to the red tape by creating solutions to debt.  Christine believes that through collaboration, joining forces and working together we can create a future model where everyone wins

Ziena Jalil has had a career of diverse roles where over time she was able to develop her own voice driven by a deep sense of purpose and passion (which you can definitely hear in her voice).  With a strong belief in fairness and equality she has learnt through generations of leadership in her family focused on integrity, hard work and respect.  As a young woman of migrant descent, a brown woman (as she describes herself) she has been extremely fortunate to have the senior roles that she has lead but always felt she had to work twice as hard to prove herself.  With a strong focus on making a difference, changing lives, giving others a voice and creating a meaningful life, her most important life role is that as a role model to her children.  She encourages our community to be that person who takes a chance on someone no matter their background or circumstance.

As the Country Lead for SheEO Australia, Julie believed in the mission and the changing landscape of capital flow change and how female entrepreneurs were leading, driving and activating that change. Believing that "patience is. a virtue", Julie has put courage and bravery as leading traits to step forward and navigate the challenges of launching a new brand into the market a few years ago with big audacious dreams. Julie is a big believer in stepping out of your comfort zone, reinventing yourself, building the notion of "play" into every moment of your day and having. the curiosity  to step into the uncomfortable spaces and really leaning in. As an advocate for equitable communities, she is learning more about the hard asks and allowing the space for those more challenging asks to find their space.

Starting out on the volunteer help line at Shine some 20 years ago, Holly always felt passionate about the cause and delved deep into the details and policies that surrounded Domestic Violence in New Zealand. With systemic barriers, safety and support walls and the general public attitude towards the issue, Holly wanted to share knowledge and insight and raise awareness to create prevalence on the topic. Holly is focused on build a world where we can be safe, shifting the culture of New Zealanders and bringing attention to an issue that was amplified during lockdown and an onslaught of demand of the services of Shine. She calls for action from our community to use your influence to play a part and advocate at a local level to get this agenda into the hearts and minds of senior leaders of New Zealand.

As a Corporate Advocacy Specialist at Tearfund New Zealand, Annie is passionate, creative and full of spirit working to create a movement of positive change in the fashion scape and supply chains. Starting her career in the fashion industry, she had her eyes wide open to the complexity of the industry and the fashion system, and a long standing interest in advocacy. She has ultimately brought these two together to create impact with the Tearfund New Zealand Ethical Fashion Guide and annual report. With the faith that LOVE ultimately conquers all, the heart of what Tearfund does is being a voice for vulnerable workers and calls for action from us as consumers, customers and humans to ask more questions, be more conscious in our purchases and purchase garments that are made to last.  

Heather is a woman who is all about human connection but firstly through connecting to who she is, by allowing space and time to think and reflect. After 25 years in her role at ASPECT and Advanced Skin Technology, she is clear about her path, what her values are and discovering the things that matter, and has chosen things along her journey to meet her values. Knowing that we are stronger together, even through pivots and change, she is a strong advocate to ensure there is always a mutual win with fair, just and equitable behaviours in the decisions she makes each day. Although she is a strong believer in risk, ensuring that the risks are calculated, well thought out and are acting with intent for the greater good of the world and supporting people to be the best versions of themselves. With a strong call for action to act locally, care for your community that will ultimately have a wave of impact on a global level.

As a passionate mother of two, a vet, a farmer and founder of The Whole Story, her journey is a culmination of life experiences all coming together to who she is today.  With a strong focus on the agricultural industry and driving it forward through the lens of sustainability, it is often surrounded by controversy and negativity through a lack of understanding and fear.  Even when she often is faced with push back from the industry as it challenges their core value set, Becks pushes forward with a deep sense of kindness and an openness to living a life of purpose.  With her purpose being to Inspire sustainable change from the ground up, Becks has engaged in stimulating thought process, times of deep thinking and allowing the words that shape her to flow through her, to build on the foundations of that purpose. She knows to be the best version of herself each day needs to be Active, Outside, Connected and Human (keeping it real). Although she often feels that the staircase seems challenging especially to tackle at once, she encourages all women to step forward disabling the risk of doing nothing at all.

As a Maori Indigenous Woman, Rachel is an advocate for gender equality with a strong focus on empowering indigenous women, an innate characteristic that she embodied as she grew up, and observing the roles of women in her community. Launching Rise2025 Global, Rachel left the safety of her corporate role and jumped into the unknown as something didn't quite fill her cup. The stats for women in leadership were dismal, she always took her mistakes as learnings and often called it out for women to let the ladder down for other women. Through daily mindful walking, the practice of gratitude and reciting the Maori Karakia - prayers used to invoke spiritual guidance and protection, Rachel has a big year ahead lead by growth, scale, opportunity and partnerships. As the co-author of Take Your Space a book for all women, supported by interviews with 14 women and their secrets to success. A 2020 Westpac Women of Influence, Global category finalist amongst other international accolades she continues to lead the way for Indigenous women. https://www.onetree-house.com/product-page/take-your-space She calls on all women to make and create space for other women, through support, coaching, mentoring and connecting and leading the next generation with great role models.

After working for 10 years in the Public Service, Chrissie had the curiosity to combine and bridge her Western Learnings & Maori Learnings from her upbringing and discovered that her passions ultimately lay in the combination of the two. Through change and evolution, listening and learning, appreciation of cultural differences, Chrissie used the notion that as a Maori woman that you "weren't expected to achieve much" as a catalyst and motivation to strive even harder. Chrissie has a passion in supporting the Equality of Rights in supporting Indigenous People with a disability to be able to ACCESS employment, health care and education. With a strong call for action - Chrissie calls on our community to Not be afraid to ask, ask hard questions, be curious to dig deeper and find comfort in uncomfortable places and spaces.

As a successful, savvy and influential woman of the world, Nikki has lived through layers of trials and tribulations, learnings and experiences to get to where she is today.  Nikki believes you need to fail to know who you are, and was often called stupid and that she had no value and hit an all time rock bottom in her late 40’s and entered a dark time in her life.  With a mantra of belief to start every day like it’s the beginning, Nikki is now working to support emerging entrepreneurs and business women to align their business desires to the needs of the world and its prosperous future.

Camia is an architect at heart with the soul of an entrepreneur. With 2 masters under her belt, she always had a passion for the evolution of cities and landed in Christchurch after the earthquakes. She however, didn't just take the traditional lens of development and developed the evolution to the age of belonging, where people could connect and build a deep sense of community. With her current project development focused on Collett's Corner they are curating a building with a difference. A People Powered Property Development with its purpose rooted in the Lyttelton community it serves and is supported by the hundreds of people across Aotearoa who collectively own it. Since inception, the project has been shaped together with the community. During this project, Camia has become increasingly aware of anxiety which shows up as electricity in her body. Knowing that anxiety is something that many people struggle with, we dug a little into this topic and how she has learnt after 5 years of deep practice to listen to it and tune into it to know that when she is anxious something is out of alignment. She spends 2 hours a day walking or cycling knowing that her creativity arrives in motion, when there is blood flowing through her body, reading mind food books to nourish and grow her spirit and being careful about her behaviours to ensure she is working to be the best version of herself.

Eva Pemper founded the brand EP Wines with a desire to continue her family legacy in the wine industry from the 80's in Croatia. With courage and bravery naturally in her blood, Eva took the leap to move to NZ leaving her family and friends and starting again, with Eva believing that both courage and bravery are two key pillars of success and propelling forward. A key driver to her success as a female winemaker in Marlborough through the challenging year of 2020, has been through continuous learning and development, to rethink her business, learn from others who had done it before and embracing the digital world.

Founding Sharsies alongside 6 other diverse mindsets, Brooke and the team at Sharsies are on a mission to create a Financially Empowered Generation to support people to engage with their financial futures.  Brooke always wanted to be an entrepreneur after engaging in the Young Enterprise Scheme at school, has a strong focus on building High Performance teams, lead by the fear of not doing something meaningful.  As a people centric organisation, Brooke has a strong focus on supporting the next gen of leaders to be brought alongside them and creating space for them to flourish.

Mandy was fortunate to grow up in a rural upbringing which she feels has had an earthing impact on her to be able to support the work that she does to lead family and whanau into a new way of being.  Taking design principles, fitting into a digital space, having diversity of teams and factoring in interventions.  All of these have culminated into the change and transformation space.  Mandy believes that personal and professional development in unison is key to our growth for the future.

Jennifer Mills is the founder of Jennifer Mills & Associates and has often been described as taking the more difficult route, bucking the system and open to failing which has crafted her true entrepreneurial spirit, within a legal frame. She has always been challenged about being a female at the leadership table with a collective of internal politics within the organisations she was part of and feels that women lack the support network to empower them for the future.  With a strong sense of purpose and a belief that it is an evolution of our growth that comes from our inner being, she is courageous, caring and determined to live as a whole human.

With a passion for the skin being part of Tracy’s DNA, she is on a mission to create fearlessly healthy faces by using less and just what the skin needs.  With an obsession in reducing waste, she believes that reusing is the answer and calls on Entrepreneurial Women to say no to single use anything.  With a strong sense of transparency built into every stage of the business she feels that as a business they are not very good at celebrating what they do well. This may well be a trait that many struggle with.

Niamh has always had a passion for people and through her work in research and insights has used this passion to uncover new opportunities which have often needed courage and bravery to step forward.    With a fascination in understating what drives peoples "why" to do what they love combined with what the world needs, overlapped by a deep sense of values, Niamh has crafted a succinct purpose of her own. Niamh lives by the saying "Feel the Fear and Do it anyway"and shares that by simply saying yes to the things she fears most is a successful approach to leaning in to them and moving through them.

When our founder Catherine first met Niamh she was nesting in Hong Kong empowering innovators and entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate. Now perched in New Zealand, with a number of important life roles on the go, she is on a mission to find the ultimate balance between entrepreneurialism and being a mother.  With a strong self belief, embracing the unknown, continuous reading and learning have shaped her to have a strong impact for the future.

As a solutions oriented, creative woman, Vicki Saunders has been an entrepreneur for over 30 years with a strong focus on doing good and making money... and the powerful movement when these two forces collide. SheEO is all about harnessing new models and new mindsets with 68 current global ventures and initiatives being activated all over the world by the dynamic SheEO community. Success for Vicki is certainly a new approach to the one we were probably all taught and that is a focus on contributing the gifts that she has, being radically generous, sharing her wisdom, stepping into fears and a focus on abundance.

As the founder of Eat my Lunch, Lisa began this journey with strong foundations of purpose and that was that in a country fuelled by fairness (New Zealand) why was there so much disparity with many children going to school each day without food or the basics of white bread and chips. After becoming disenfranchised by her role in corporate New Zealand, a passion for food and socially lead business she set out to start her business on a one for one model inspired by the very shoes she was wearing at the time, Toms. Lisa had the courage and bravery to step away from the known which have been pivotal to her success, alongside hard work, trials and tribulations.

As the owner of Lauren Parsons Wellbeing, founder of the Snack on Exercise movement and Thrive TV show, Lauren has certainly crafted a life for herself and her family that is founded on healthy lifestyle principles and values. But it wasn't always this way. She describes her youth feeling like she wished the ground would swallow her up to becoming a woman that was capable of far more than she ever imagined through the belief of one person that empowered her in her early journey.  With daily rituals of reading and listening to TED Talks, walking, 4 second hugs with her family and leaning into uncomfortable spaces, our interview with Lauren is dynamic, thought provoking and action oriented.

As a product design engineer, Greig spent much of his early career working to invent a product, to really create something extraordinary.  It wasn’t until he spent a year in the UK and was inspired by the volume of umbrellas and the lack of function and style that he began to craft out what is today known as Blunt Umbrellas.  The design, aesthetics and craftsmanship went against the grain and had to disrupt the deep roots of the industry.  After much disruption, they now have a single minded vision, are measured in their approach and have depth in their values.

Olivia has been engaged in the active practice of yoga, the philosophies and the lifestyle for many decades and launched Pulse off the back of her great love of everything that it brings to light.  With the recent launch of The Honour Festival being hosted in Hanmer Springs in Feb 2021, Olivia wants to share her love of nature, beauty, health, clean living with a like minded collective of people through a shared experience. With movement a big part of who she is and how she shows up everyday knowing that without it she would not be enabling the best version of herself, Olivia is still on the moving and ever evolving journey of discovering and connecting to her authentic purpose.

As the CEO of the Maori Women’s Development Trust in New Zealand, Teresa is navigating, pivoting and adapting their organisation just as quickly as the needs of their clients who are operating businesses in New Zealand. She describes her calling to this role as an adventure and a great alignment to her purpose to be working alongside her own people. As both an intrapreneurand an

Karen Walker enabled her early signs of creativity when she was able to dig through a box of old fabric and jump on her mothers 1960's Bermina sewing machine. Shortly after at 18 she started her brand, which wasn't a time in New Zealand to be young and creative and Karen began to challenge many of the social norms through her early expressions of creativity. With a strong focus on having great products, services and experiences this has formed the depth and layers of her brand to become one of New Zealand's most iconic fashion brands. Doing what's right, through times of change, giving and taking in an eco system of people, Karen has navigated her business through 5 sizeable global disruptions and believes that if we can harness our people, enable them the space to be bold and utilising the next generations youthful energy as a gift in staying relevant in a diverse and unique market. 

As a curious, co creating entrepreneurial woman, Faye Langdon is re imaging education as we know it by crafting learning models for the future. When she first launched the business, her and her business partner knew that they needed to back and believe in themselves and be decisive in their approach. Faye believes we have a rare opportunity and a blank canvas to re write the blueprint for our next generation and the million Gen Z's leading NZ.

As the co founder of AWWA, Kylie and her business partner Michelle crafted a period product that encapsulated all the elements that were important to them and what they wanted to share with their children.  With sustainability an important part of this, they have created reusable period underwear with innovation at the core.  In this podcast, we explored the notions of growth vs purpose for which Kylie quickly reiterated that they both go hand in hand and one can’t happen without the other, which we are excited to share her perspectives on this.  Not only have they been creating growth with purpose but also championing the government to alleviate period poverty that prevents girls in marginalised communities from attending school.

As the Chief of Excitement at the Young Enterprise Trust, Terry is leading, driving and activating an entrepreneurial mindset (and skill set) in school students across New Zealand through their incredible programs.  Like all organisations, they have needed to reimagine their organisation model with a globally changing landscape and get out of the small organisation mindset and think big with no limits.

As the Chief Of Internal Audit at ASB, Paula knows a lot about the complex layers of risk and the fine balance between jumping in head first and taking calculated risks. With risk a key trait of entrepreneurs, Paula encourages Entrepreneurs to understand risk intrinsically as with great risk comes great reward to be able to set yourself up safely. Paula's call for action from the Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose community is focused on shifting your thinking, focusing on the positives and asking the right questions of yourself with a reflective and forward thinking approach.

Growing up with the family motto of “To the brave and faithful, nothing is difficult” it has allowed Bernadette to question the status quo, challenge systems and enable change for a better future.  Embedded into the depths of the fashion industry from an early age, Bernadette and the team at The Formary are on a collective mission to be at the forefront of innovation through the end of life of textiles.

As the Chief of Good at The Good Registry, Christine is on a fast tracked mission to change the culture and behaviours around giving.  As a social entrepreneur and communicator with a passion for having a positive impact for people and planet, Christine wants to enable giving to be simple, sustainable and kind.

With an impromptu request from Christine Langdon from The Good Registry to hear more about Catherine’s very own hero’s journey, they decided to flip roles and unpack who Catherine is, what’s important to her and the 40 years prior that culminated into crafting Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose. Catherine moved with her young family to NZ last year after being disenfranchised by a busy life in Sydney that was lacking a deep sense of purpose. With space and time her new trading commodities living in a rural community in Marlborough NZ, it enabled Catherine to bring all of her great loves aligned to education, equality, good health and wellbeing, economic growth and partnerships together to form Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose. Catherine has crafted a life centred around her children, adventurous experiences and a great love of their 3 laying ladies.

Jemima spent a career in roles she describes as privileged where integrity, values, challenging the status quo and for the greater good of the world were ranked highly on their values system.  But when she realised that if a true sense of purpose was not at the centre of decision making, it can begin to compromise your values and a deep sense of the soul hurting.  In this vulnerable, raw and real conversation we are so glad to hear that Jemima’s soul is once again singing with the great love for the work she is doing to support New Zealanders become healthier inside and out at Red Shoots.

Florence is one half of the duet of Chia Sisters working collectively with her sister Chloe to create a positive impact on nutrition, innovation and sustainability through their Nelson (New Zealand) based brand. Being the the first solar powered juicer and having a strong focus on being carbon zero Florence is an advocate and champion of change. This is through supporting the reduction of carbon emissions and offsetting their remaining emissions through planting natives in Golden Bay. Florence has a strong call for action from the Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose community on this very subject.

When Yvonne Lorkin's friend and now Co Founder approached her with a mysterious text message followed by the delivery of an NDA to sign, Yvonne knew that this ferociously intelligent woman was onto something as they navigated the design of their personalised, unique approach to wine subscriptions.  With all of her learning on the job, crafting the art of asking for what she wanted and building a trusted brand, Yvonne has certainly cemented the brands place in the personalisation, hand selection of wine delivered to your door each month.

The Paper Rain Project didn't launch as a traditional Social Enterprise but is certainly living and breathing every aspect of one.  Social enterprises are purpose-driven organisations that trade to deliver positive social, cultural and environmental impact. Through the sale of their apparel range, handcrafted boards and incredible designs they are impacting so many wonderful social, community and environmental projects including Trees that count, Mental Health Awareness, The Wildlife Hospital and Extinction Rebellion to name a few. A key learning for Indigo along the way has been in the Art of Asking for advice and help, and never stoping learning on topics and subjects that you are interested to learn more about.

As one of the founding New Zealand B Corps and leader of Conscious Capitalism in New Zealand, we knew a conversation with Kate was going to be aligned, dynamic and juicy. But we didn't anticipate just how juicy. As an early riser and deep thinker she has a strong sense of drive for achievement and is learning to become more self-is to not only give but also contribute time to herself.  Although she believes the idea of being more selfish or self-ish can be uncomfortable we know that true growth and new pathways for impact can come from those deep spaces. Kate has a strong sense of who she is and who she wants to become, and shares how taking a true sense of personal leadership and embodying strength and grace as a woman can only lead to a better state of humanity. As a humanist rather than a feminist, Kate encapsulates a woman on a mission to take all of humanity on the journey. Through Blacksmith, Kate has connected to better ways of doing business through having a higher purpose, conscious culture and a whole stakeholder approach.

Vanessa has been the CEO, Editor and Publisher of Eye Magazine since 1996 after seeing a gap in the market whilst working in the media and print sphere. With a no fear attitude, she feels that our best learnings come from our failures and is at a stage in her life where the 1 dimensional model of success has become far broader and is now aligned to working less but still building success to create a better lifestyle. Vanessa strives to bring effortless luxury through her magazines, both printed and online, and high-end events where she actively supports charities such as The Heart Foundation.

With a strong alignment and focus to Good Health & Wellbeing and Partnerships to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, having Susan share her call to adventure, trials and tribulations, learnings and experiences and future impact was a perfect fit for our community. Although she is very future focused which she describes often over complicates things, her Entrepreneurial mindset and vision are very much on keeping things simple for what is needed now and the future. With accumulated impact, getting to uncomfortable places for greater learning to evolve, Leftfield Innovation are creating a strong contribution and reason for being.

Hatch was born with a collective of intelligent people (as Kristen describes her co founders) to support New Zealanders to create financial freedom through self expression. With some early challenges in the hiring process at Hatch, they are now focused on build a culture where initiative, hunger, a mutual respect and that special sauce can culminate to have positive impact for the organisation.  Through authentic conversations and fostering micro communities, Kristen encourages people to educate yourselves, build jargon free financial acumen and engage in Hatch "Getting Started" courses, to invest in your financial freedom for now and the future.

As a lover of quotes, kindness warrior and General Manager of All Good, Faye is committed to sustaining and growing an ethical business, with people and their stories at the heart of the organisation. She was humbled following a trip to Ecuador last year to visit the growers of All Good Bananas, to hear their stories and connect in a meaningful way to the work that they do, and to be able to authentically share their stories and educate New Zealand consumers about the work they do.

Niki Schuck leads, manages and drives change from her role as founder and Managing Director of NSPR (Niki Schuck Public Relations).  At the core of who she is - she is a woman who is hugely passionate about helping other people whether that be professionally or personally. With a positive outlook, no matter how grim situations seem at the time, she loves what she does and you can feel that at every touch point of her business and her role as an Activator for SheEO. Niki was working in the corporate world and toyed with the idea of starting her own business but like many women she was locked into layers of self doubt and the concerns around not having income to support her family. The NSPR model is one that supports women with the premise of health and family first.

With Josie’s best life learnings coming from a place of challenge, she has become an incredibly valued contributor having meaningful impact with the many life roles that she has played.  As the leader of The Council for International Development she has a deep and authentic understanding of purpose and why they do what they do and how the time during Covid has accelerated change, broken down barriers and enabled organisations to collaborate more.

Heilala Vanilla was founded after Jennifer’s retired father had returned to Tonga and had seen the needs and support required to develop a sound economic sustainability of the communities he spent time in and proposed the idea of Vanilla to Jennifer.  The business is on a mission to be the global leader in genuine and real vanilla; sourced sustainably and empowers grower communities.

With 5am starts embedded into Annah’s routine since her days at University it’s no wonder this incredible woman can wear so many different hats and have so much positive impact.  She has discipline, structure and a considered approach all whilst balancing out creativity and continuously stretching her mind with education. Annah attributes her focus to eating well, moving regularly, having simple practices, and creating a lifestyle that enables these.

Louise is a strong advocate for social responsibility and impact, driven to make meaningful change through positive impact being put at the heart of the economy. With many pivots during the time of Covid - 19, Lou has been focused on the foundations of developing an Impact Economy that small businesses, corporates, governments and organisations can contribute to in a meaningful way. Knowing that this is fast becoming a licence to operate, businesses need to move towards this across all facets of their organisation.

Sel launched Leigh Development to support organisations to develop and grow specialising in start ups and purpose driven organisations.  As a business coach, strategic planner, enabler of impact, a sustainable development champion and all round purpose driven woman we needed her to tell her story.

As the founding Executive Director to the Agri Women’s Development Trust, Lindy has always been focused on capturing the stories of women, to give women a voice in the community, industry and on boards.  From what she describes as an early failure (which only lasted 2 days) she built confidence and leadership to step up and into a role which contributes and connects at a human level.  Although Lindy is no longer in the day to day operations of the Trust, her role on the Board supports the strategy and guides the Trust from a place of Purpose.

With many life roles and hats, Bridget landed in the investment world by default with a role in the UK which changed the whole trajectory of her life.  Bridget works alongside New Zealand’s highly talented and inspiring entrepreneurs who are working to create a positive impact on the world.

What started as a garage gathering, this movement of women is fast becoming an experience to engage, motivate and support lasting habits for women.  With extensive research done of women, Dairne Burns is focused on supporting women to put their health and fitness as a top priority with practical tools and tips from qualified trainers, dieticians and physiotherapists.

As a strong believer in business as a force for good to drive significant positive change in the space of Sustainability, combating climate change and alleviating poverty, Jemma believes that through collective action we can shape and create a healthier world.  An Intrapreneur in her role as Group Marketing Director at EcoStore she is championing her focus on people and the planet to re make and rebuild the new norm.

Unpacking your mind, spirit and heart.  Our founder, Catherine van der Meulen has been avidly journaling for the last 15 years and began to see a thread of conversations with others who had the same great love for it, felt the benefits and used it as a daily ritual.  This podcast not only shares Erica Austin, Jess Stuart and Fiona Deehan’s perspectives but also supported with the facts, the research and the science and some tangible actions to help you to step into it.

Over the years before launching Better Packaging Co. she became aware and horrified at the amount of packaging waste being generated by the eCommerce industry and began researching sustainable packaging options.  Determined to improve the state of the environment their solutions consider the complete life cycle from raw materials to the end of life disposal.

As the founder of CR&Co which she launched just weeks before the world restructured with COVID 19, Cassie has learnt how to adapt, build resilience and build more than one version of a business plan. At the heart of who she is, is an unwavering belief that good business can do great things to bring out the best in extraordinary people. And that the world needs more #kindnesswarriors

With a strong call for action from Women from all across New Zealand to work together, collaborate and get creative with our thinking for our future, Victoria has learnt this through her many life roles, hats and experiences.  As a business woman and company director her life roles have included The President of Aucklands Northern Club, serving as a councillor on the former Auckland City Council, multiple independent directorships across commercial and charitable enterprises.  As an entrepreneur in 2007, Victoria founded Cityhop - New Zealand’s first car sharing service which aligned to her environmental values and reducing our Impact.

Aimee has a great love of data, governance and ethics and how they have all collided to create a fascinating career. Her career has culminated with a keen interest in and knowledge of openX - open data, open government and civic technology and has worked for a number of New Zealand’e most prominent scientific, internet and tech organisations.

Fiona first connected to Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose with a curious and inquisitive mind.  In the first series of podcasts one of the topics that appeared were aligned to values and the value that Curiosity and Worthiness play in her life and business.  We were keen to unpack these further and share with our community their meaning and how we can best use these values to build successful organisations.

Pep Talk Media was born from a raw place for Nadine, who had been working to define her path and life’s purpose.  She was amazed after reigniting the flame on her recently launched magazine Pep Talk that everything just went in a state of flow when she had finally curated The Why? The How? And the What?

After establishing that she in fact wears 9 hats in her life roles, Michelle is one incredibly busy woman even though at the moment she feels she has more time, which is a wonderful state to be in.  As a digital innovator for Impact and Transformational Leadership, Michelle is best known for her role as CEO of Kilmarnock where she transitioned it from a charity based model to one of NZ’s leading social enterprises.  She has recently returned to the telecommunications sector again leading transformational impact at Vodafone to have positive impact for communities across New Zealand.

In a very reflective state, Mai joined us on Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose to share the most important things that she has learnt at this time of change, and where she will focus her energy next to have the most positive impact.  As the Managing Partner of Chen Palmer, Mai is a New Zealand constitutional and administrative law expert, Professor at the University of Auckland School of Law, Director of BNZ amongst many other leading roles.

As an accounting and impact reporting firm for purpose driven businesses, Lisa has cultivated her business with a focus on social impact as the driving force behind the launch. With a mission to support at risk children, the profit from her business is injected into projects to create a better future.

Nicola spent 15 years understanding shoppers behaviours in the supermarket to orchestrate things to make people buy more and drive consumption. Something that she never thought to question.  Mainstream Green was born as a social enterprise to use her understanding of human behaviour to get people to consume less.  With a mission to educate a shift in thinking to support people in making better and more informed choices before purchases.

Elisha began her career as a Lawyer at a firm in Wellington before realising that the world had another calling for her. Like all great stories there was a catalyst and a desire for change, and she began to learn more about the Social Enterprise model to create Nisa, an underwear label that aims to help women from the bottom up. Sewn by women from a refugee background, they are on a mission to provide meaningful and interesting paid work while making kick ass undies. 

With many life roles and hats being worn at any given time, Melissa started her journey as an Entrepreneur at the age of 20.  As a single mother and a 2 year old in toe she launched her first entrepreneurial venture as she wasn’t able to afford child care.  Now Melissa is the Chair of Little Yellow Bird, the Deputy Chair of RadioNZ, an Independent Director of Beef + Lamb to name just a few.  She is continually growing her educational mindset to lead with both heart and mind through personal and professional development.

Abbie a Reynolds has cared about the environment and equity since she was young. From helping out on a Whale Stranding mission at 15 to setting up a paper recycling program at school at 16. Her focus has always been on creating a world where nature and people flourish. Whilst leading the Council, she was the key architect of the Climate Leaders Coalition and presented to the UN on Aotearoa New Zealand’s performance against the Sustainable Development Goals.  Previously the Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Council, Abbie now promotes sustainability, climate change action & systems change for a better future for the people and nature of Aotearoa.  She was a 2019 Woman of Influence winner, and now serves as a Trustee for Voyce Whakarongo Mai and on Westpac's Sustainability Advisory Panel.

Although on first glance you may think that Double Denim may well be an uber chic street wear label, this savvy female lead duet is an independent creative agency specialising in gender intelligence.  With a bold statement made that they ‘Know Women’ it comes from having convinced thousands to dance in Lycra to a Bon Jovi classic in Cathedral Square, starting a dating revolution, writing a personal memoir about sailing across the world with a one year old founding the Ace Lady Network and of course Double Denim.

Dorenda is a challenger and future thinker, helping people who want to make a difference to see the reality of, and opportunities within, the big picture. With experience in the design space and as founder of The Britten Institute, her goal is to reframe design around a set of principles that apply to any sector of human enterprise that will secure our environmental, social and financial future.

As a financial advisor, financial wellness warrior and keynote speaker, Carissa believes that financial resilience is only born when we have a Plan B. A Plan B meaning to have assessed your risks, access to cash reserves, and have the welfare of your team at the centre of all of your business decisions.

In 2019, Annika was shocked to be awarded Westpac Young Woman of Influence a Award after her then boss and partner conspired and nominated her. As a key advocate to supporting more New Zealanders to go beneath the surface of the water to explore the great depths of the ocean, she is leading this through her role at Blake NZ as a Virtual Reality Environmental Educator.

Dignity NZ is a true social enterprise creating access to sanitary items for all women. With a buy one give one model, corporate workplaces across NZ give their teams access to sanitary items to ensure young girls in High school are provided with the equivalent products. A key and intrinsic part of the Dignity NZ model focus' on Corporate Partnerships resulting in hundreds of new schools, womens organisations and youth organisations having access to products and as a result of the Dignity initiative women in the corporates feeling 85% more personally supported and 72% of the schools have reported that the students were able to stay at school during their period.  Jacinta was the campaign lead for Positive Periods and has teamed up with others in the period industry to start a campaign calling on the government to commit to better menstrual education and to provide access to period products for all students.

With a passion and two decades of experience in personal development, Jess has a strong focus on mindfulness, achieving authentic and meaningful success, change and resilience to unlock the true potential in people.

FLORA was founded to help educate and influence the community on sustainable living through Flora’s knowledge of plants and the eco system. With a passion for plants, nature and people she has created handcrafted and unique products that encourage all New Zealanders to begin their journey to self sufficiency by growing their own plants.

As an entrepreneur, designer and storyteller Kat Gee is not only creative and dynamic but a savvy business woman. After selling Kagi Jewellrey a few years ago she is currently mastering the art of full time parenting.

Small and medium sized businesses from across New Zealand are the heart beat to the country. Through this Podcast we unpack some of the tools, strategies and resources to creating a sustainable organisation design for the future.

As an experience curator, social entrepreneur, facilitator, architecture graduate, photographer and #ChChAmbassador - Erica is certainly a multi - potentialite. Combining her knowledge in architecture, her ability to deliver high level events, conferences and festivals, and experiences in the Start Up ecosystem to be Chief Experience Curator at E.A.!Curation all whilst juggling a new born baby.

As a leading voice in New Zealand agriculture, Sarah has worked for a decade behind and in front of the camera in rural media, recognised for her extraordinary commitment to telling an often untold story about how our food and fibre is produced.

As the founder of Ngatahi (meaning to come together) Hannah spends her days focused on social impact projects and empowers organisations to consider their role in building a better world and amplifying their influence.

As the President of UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand leads and drives the organisation to have positive impact on 4 key focus areas including Women’s Economic Empowerment which is the key project that Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose supports through the profit from our launch series.

An incredibly savvy entrepreneur, status quo challenging, mother to 4, Carmen has been disrupting and innovating through technology and data to solve problems and deliver game-changing value.

As a leadership, wellbeing and learning partner, Fiona supports people and organisations to realise their potential and improve wellbeing.

Dame Lowell Goddard is an astonishing woman, a former New Zealand High Court Judge and the first person of Maori ancestry to have been appointed to the High Court.

After connecting on Linked In on the topic of Purpose, Dr. Anita Perkins and our founder Catherine van der Meulen explored Anita’s own Hero’s Journey, her unique education and what enabling social and environmental change through words and connection means to her.

Bridget Williams founded Bead and Proceed after leaving a career as a solicitor. With a vision to bring more awareness and ultimately more impact through the UN Sustainability Development Goals by connecting people through a creative process.

Becky Lloyd is the CEO of Toitu Envirocare and is a passionate leader with a mandate for New Zealand to be Carbon Zero by 2050. With this mission embedded into her spirit, Becky shares how she began this journey, whats important to her, how she educated herself in areas of interest to empower her to take on such a key role for what the world is crying out for.