A walking talking billboard is one way to describe a company founder, especially one who loudly and proudly wears the startup tee each and every day, with a consistency that's rumoured to be unrivalled and unmatched. It’s one of the lowest cost, highest impact strategies to get your brand out there!! 

Wearing the tee has started conversations with collaborators, community & corporations, it’s also evoked inquisitive inquiry from Mayor’s, Ministers and Millionaires.

On the back of the startup tee that’s adorned my body for more than 1800 consecutive days, are the words… People, Planet, Purpose.

Those who know me best, expect nothing less than a myriad of rhythm and rhyme, alliterations, acrostics & acronyms, somewhat of a pattern playbook that flows freely when I speak, write or think. (I genuinely can’t help it).

So when carrying on the P theme, I feel these emotive words adorn me in the same manner as the P words on the shirt that’s been on my back for almost 5 years. 

• Proactive - Positive - Pragmatic - Passionate

• Provocative - Painful - Preposterous - Puzzling

Whilst we may not always see it on the showreel, there’s a real reel and positively polarising side to each and every one of us - and I’m completely comfortable admitting to it. As a founder that’s been full-time deep diving in the 'doing', it’s in these moments when I pause, sit quietly, reflect, scroll the photo reel, smile, shed tears, laugh & legitimately ground myself with grace.

I’m humbled for the honour to breathe deeply with heart & wholeness, as I experience the Collision with the Vision, in what is the month we celebrate 5 years officially as a company.

Let’s momentarily reflect….

On a cold winter morning in August 2013, a team of friends, family, neighbours & even the odd stranger, helped with a crazy little idea I had to raise money for cancer research (inspired initially to support my Mum & my fellow triathlon team mates) with the little idea I came up with called…the World’s Biggest Garage Sale. I created a Facebook page, rallied some troops and my oh my, haven’t things escalated since?

After years of holding a one-day annual event to raise money for charity via these WBGS events, pulled together by an army of selfless & sensational volunteers, I quit my corporate career in 2017. It was on the back of a conversation with a fellow founder, one who is just as (more than) polarising and passionate. A man that planted a seed and told me to focus, say yes, be disciplined and uncompromisingly own myself and all that I am that’s different, to never apologise (for being different) and to execute to the extreme.

So naturally, quitting my job, going ‘all-in’ and taking a leap into the venture void was the only way.

It was a memorable moment that mattered.

Since then, it’s been a rollercoaster ride of radical & ridiculously impactful life-changing moments along the way. 

As a positive & proactive producer & entrepreneurial style person, I believe in the impossible, I believe pain is gain, & I know that when it hurts the most, you’re likely heading in the right direction. It’s not always fun, no doubt, but life isn’t all rainbow fairy unicorns of glitter & gain.  I thank my fellow founders who reminded me of this during some of the most challenging times along the way.

Being an entrepreneur is:

- Lively & Lonely!

- Intimate & Intense! 

- Fun & Ferocious!

- Enlightening & Extreme! 

Being an entrepreneur is LIFE!

It’s hard to explain, but there’s an entrepreneurial spirit that ‘just knows’ that what we believe early & uncompromisingly is the way we must go… we absolutely look crazy on the outside, we’re definitely impossible (at times), & we often don’t make sense & we can even be frustrating & difficult to be around. I know many of my fellow founder friends appreciate the authenticity & positive approach to talking openly about the overt & outrageous standards we uphold ourselves to (& those on the journey early with us). 

At the heart, deep inside, beats a pounding passion & power, a magnified momentum that’s manifesting itself like a methodical metronome…where rest, rules & reason are at risk of making sense to the wider world. 

What I’ve learnt along the way, is that an entrepreneur relates to a feeling, an essence, energy, a deep connection to change, to challenge & to chase something that’s got the potential to innovate & invent new ways of living and giving. 

It is here in the impossible, where transformation becomes possible…

More to come.

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