Are you ready to create the business you’ve been dreaming of?
Ignite your business goals, fine tune your existing business or make your new dream business become a reality. Whether you want to change the world, invent an incredible product, take on the big brands, inspire people, take your business global or start a movement it’s time to get started!
This book is the essential guide for people who are serious about following their calling to create the business they’ve been waiting for and know that they have the potential and determination to do it!
Combining the inspirational stories and expert business advice of 25 business leaders this book shares the life-changing power of what can happen when you ignite the fire in your heart.
Dr Olivia Ong
(https://www.drolivialeeong.com)
Dr Olivia Ong, known as the Heart-Centred Doctor, is a Melbourne-based rehabilitation medicine and pain physician with 15 years of clinical experience, and an expert in resilience and burnout.
After being hit by a car in 2008, Olivia was told she would never walk or practice medicine again. She spent years as a patient in hospitals and rehab facilities in Australia and US in an attempt to regain some of the capabilities that were torn away from her. Little did she know she was going to get a whole lot more than she’d bargained for. After an intensive three-year recovery process, she walked again. Today she shares her experience with others.
Olivia has been featured in and written for Thrive Global, Yahoo Finance, International Business Times Singapore, and Australian Business Journal.
(https://www.aquoonline.com.au)
In 2013, Amy Aquilini was being helicoptered to the Townsville General Hospital, clinging to life. Little hope was held that she would survive the horrific event that got her there, and it was said that if she was to survive, she would NEVER become a functioning member of society again. The TTH became home for the next fifteen months where she (along with her immediate family) worked extremely hard with the medical professionals to get her back to living some sort of life – with a Traumatic Brain Injury and limited function in my dominant (R) arm.
She now spends her time coaching people walking through traumatic circumstances. She’s a keynote speaker who has spoken at various events throughout North Queensland and a Serial Entrepreneur, here to rewrite history by shining her light on the world as an inspirational warrior queen that has ignited her confidence to conquer and soar.
Lauren French
Lauren French is the Owner and Designer of Motto Fashions. Motto is a women’s fashion brand that is famous for on-trend and limited styles that are bright and colourful. Motto was founded by her parents in 1986, and in 2007 she took their existing bricks and mortar model and transformed it into a multi-million dollar omnichannel experience.
Lauren has been a finalist for the 2022 AusMumpreneur Awards, 2022 Smart50 Marketing Award and received Gold and Bronze place at the 2022 She-Com product awards. Motto’s success hasn’t come solely from its designs – they are so much more than a fashion label (although they’re pretty great too *wink wink*). Motto brings a community of women together who are looking to reinvent themselves, and are struggling with their personal style. They’ve had kids and spent so much time investing in everyone else for the last 10 years, they suddenly meet themselves again and things aren’t like they used to be. That’s where Motto comes in. Their clothing transforms women’s lives – it gives women back their power, their confidence, and their love for themselves.
Jaimie Abbott
(https://www.jaimieabbott.com.au)
Jaimie Abbott is an award-winning media professional and international keynote speaker and has spent two decades in the industry working as a radio and TV journalist, political media adviser and political candidate, elected local government councillor, Managing Director of her own public speaking and media training company and a Communications Adviser for the Royal Australian Air Force.
With over twenty years in the media and speaking world, Jaimie teaches business owners and entrepreneurs how to improve their public speaking skills and has a signature online course called Paid to Speak, which teaches entrepreneurs how to sell from stage and how to become highly paid speakers.
Jaimie is a mum to 2 beautiful boys, Harvey and Harrison.
Priscilla Jeha
(https://www.thetogethersociety.com
https://www.stagnesrituals.com)
Priscilla Jeha is Founder of both marketing and communications agency, The Together Society; and the new, natural detox brand, St Agnes Rituals.
Priscilla has always believed that a curious and adventurous spirit is fundamental to her sense of fulfilment; allowing her to bring new depths and a fresh perspective to her personal and professional ambitions. In a London pub in 2012, Priscilla set herself a lofty trio of personal goals, calling it her ‘Air, Land and Sea Challenge’. Over the next few years, she set about facing (and conquering) some of the most challenging situations that she would ever know.
Priscilla previously held the GM role in an ASX listed ad agency, but in early 2020 she left to form her own company, The Together Society. The agency was born as the result of personal conversations with CMO’s and Heads of Marketing who had shared their pain points on the traditional client / agency structure.
Priscilla’s newest and most purposefully-lead adventure will be drawing on all of her experience to launch her new toxin free living brand, St Agnes Rituals.
Dr Zara Celik
Dr Zara Celik is an integrative health and nutrition practitioner, wellness expert and high performance mindset coach who is dedicated to intuitively transforming lives and empowering people to connect with Source, have abundant energy, vitality to thrive geometrically in all areas of their lives.
Dr Zara is an alchemist in human physiology and biochemistry where she uses the skin conditions, symptoms and maps it to specific organ involvement along with extensive clinical testing to find the root cause of symptoms, which took her a decade in clinical practice to master. She is the only practitioner who specialises in the “Microbiome Diet” globally.
She is a mother of four children and is founder and managing director of multi award winning wellness Amara Wellness Centre, which recently got featured in Global Business Leaders Magazine as one of the 30 Innovative Companies. Amara Wellness Centre was awarded as Best Wellness Centre in Australia,Best International Spa, and Best Wellness Studio and Client Excellence Award.
Bianca Stawiarski is the founder and managing director of Warida Wholistic Wellness. She is a strong Badimaya (Badimia) and Ukrainian woman, who is a centred and purpose driven healer, consultant, coach, speaker, lecturer, best-selling and international co-author, trainer, and change-maker. Bianca infuses her calming, resilient, earthy, Indigenous connectedness into all that she does.
As well as the work she does on Country, Bianca is sought out by organisations, companies, and publications from across the globe. She holds a master’s degree in counselling practice, a diploma of life coaching, post graduate diploma of counselling, certificate in equine assisted psychotherapy, a bachelor’s degree in Aboriginal studies, and a diploma of contracting (government), amongst other qualifications. She has currently paused her PhD
As part of her life’s work, she is exploring ngardi guwanda (deep listening), Indigenous Healing and lived experiences of plural communities (people with lived experience of dissociative identity disorder). Bianca hopes that this can benefit some of our world’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people and provide a platform for people with lived experience to have their voices heard.
Tarisai Shinya
(https://www.savannahfashions.com.au/)
Tarisai Shinya is the Zimbabwean-born Founder and owner of Savannah Fashions. She is also an experienced Registered Mental Health / Drug and Alcohol Nurse Leader, a Bronze Award Winner of The Women’s Business School and finalist of the Ausmumpreneur Multicultural Business Excellence Award 2022. She is passionate about women’s empowerment, and is extremely community-focused to make a difference. After moving to Australia some years ago and developping terrible homesickness, she resolved to wear quality clothes and accessories that represented her identity and African Cultural background, showing bold, vibrant, and colourful African Prints.
She also wanted to share her culture, especially being a mum of 3 children. She wanted her children to appreciate her and their culture. She is proud of her cultural background, and is knowledgeable and appreciative of other countries’ cultures and dress.
Maryann Tsai was born in Taiwan and migrated with her family to Perth when she was ten. She’s a qualified engineer and entered the corporate world as an account manager before having her son, who had various challenges, so she remained his primary carer until he began school. She has always been interested in baking and is a massive foodie who had big dreams of owning a bakery.
In 2020, she launched Missy M Sweets. This baking business produces homemade, small-batch, preservative-free goods such as decadent cookies and brownies, and customised dessert gift boxes with Asian-inspired flavours for locals in Perth.
One of her greatest achievements was to be selected as one of 30 ‘Sister Pitch’ presenters for the Global Sisters national virtual pitch event in November 2021. As a result, she was paired with the support of CEOs and executives to assist her to grow her business.
In August 2022, she launched a second business called Reach Her. This enterprise trains marginalised women by providing them with training in the areas of baking, hospitality , business education and creative & mindfulness programs so they can gain an entry into employment.
(https://www.bub2sleep.com.au/)
Donna is the Founder of Bub2sleep and a Certified Sleep Sense Consultant, supporting families 1:1 Australia and world wide to be able to enjoy the miracle of sleep in their homes, every night. Donna is a mother to 3 girls, currently 17, 15 and 11, has been married to her husband Dave for 20 years and living in Perth, Western Australia.
She developed a passion for creating healthy sleep foundations for her own family using a gentle, holistic, nurturing approach and has made it her mission to share this valuable knowledge with other families. Since then, she has supported thousands of parents around the globe to regain their confidence and implement her solutions to resolve their own unique sleep challenges with long lasting success. Working with families who are pregnant, up to children 7 years of age.
Supporting families to move away from exhaustion and overwhelm to a place where they can truly experience the joys of parenthood.
(https://www.amandajsanders.com.au/)
Amanda Sanders was inspired to start her business SpiritAbility by a family member who was struggling to find adequate support for her and her severely disabled son. She was let down by the industry’s cookie cutter approach to disability care.
SpiritAbility empowers people living with a disability by giving them greater choice of support services. They recognise that every client is unique. They don’t judge their differences, but accept them and allow them to be who they are, while always supporting them.
The journey here has not been easy for Amanda. In fact, some days have ended in exhaustion, despair, or with her crying buckets. There are reams of red tap to tackle, continual tax challenges to navigate – and then there was the pandemic.
But, she learned, every challenge is surmountable if you take one hurdle at a time. Don’t look too far forward is her mantra, and it works.
In 2022, she was honoured to be named a finalist in the Rising Star award and the People’s Choice for Favourite Coach in the Ausmumpreneur Awards. In the same year, SpiritAbility was selected as a finalist in the Business Orange Awards in three separate categories and a finalist in the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards.
Melissa Pierre
Melissa started CaRelief after assisting her mum with NDIS and finding the process extremely frustrating and disappointing.
She decided to educate herself further with the NDIS process and submitted a plan that her mum wanted and needed. The results were amazing! In less than a year, her mum’s quality of life significantly changed for the better. She went from being covered for just socialising to all her medical and respite services covered. 4x more funding than first applied!
Leveraging her sales and management background, Melissa decided to create an agency to help support people with NDIS and Respite services.
CaRelief’s main focus is to assist NDIS participants to achieve optimum outcomes in their plans and not just settle for what NDIS just dishes out, offering NDIS Daily In Home Support & Daily Activities, NDIS Support Coordination & NDIS Getaways, Respite and Temporary Accommodation
Sarah Bourke
(https://wwww.allproplumbingsolutions.com.au/)
Together with her partner, Sarah Bourke started Allpro Plumbing Solutions.
Allpro Plumbing Solutions specialise in the design, installation, and distribution of a sophisticated roof drainage solution of Siphonic, Pressurised and Hybrid rainwater management systems throughout NSW. Shortly after starting the business, Sarah had to her Primary School teaching job and jump on board to further develop and grow her family business into what it is today.
What was once a one man and van, has today become a thriving business with several staff, contractors, vehicles, and strong portfolio of completed and upcoming projects. With plans on further expanding our business into the distribution and manufacturing space of plumbing drainage products
At present she has 4 beautiful children, ages 9, 7, 2 and 1. Being a mum is the hardest job in the world! But it is also the most rewarding. One thing has not changed and that is ‘to ensure that ‘her job’ suits the needs of putting her family first’ and by creating and managing her own businesses it sure does!
Leisha Major
Leisha Major is a change maker, helping businesses explore better ways through IT solutions. Leisha has more than 24 years of experience in IT and she’s enthusiastic about making a positive difference in how customers operate their business. She runs The POP Team based out of Sydney with her husband Peter and as a business they pride themselves on family values, innovation and connection.
Leisha knew subconsciously from a very young age that she wanted to do something with computers. Her calling is to help people understand what the computer needs to do. She makes sure that people who don’t necessarily understand, or love, computers the way she does get the most out of how the computer works. She is a liaison, a systems analyst and a translator between the hard computer terms and making them meaningful to the person.
Megan Harrison
https://www.formysisters.com.au/)
Entrepreneurial powerhouse Megan Harrison brings more than 15 years’ experience in the health, safety and sanitisation industry, both as former health and hygiene advisor in the mining industry and Founding Director of WA’s leading sanitisation company, SanSafe. With a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science and Nutrition, a post-graduate diploma in Health Promotion, and a Masters of Occupational Hygiene and Toxicology, Megan’s involvement in public health initiatives is substantial, including advisory services on developing and delivering complex industrial training and assessment programs, as well as designing protocols, policies and budgets.
Megan took SanSafe from a startup to a multi-million-dollar business within a span of only 12 months. Today, SanSafe continues to operate as a proactive solution to modern-day health challenges, and is supported and managed by a qualified, experienced and passionate team.
Recently, she launched For My Sisters, a company on a mission to end “period panic” at schools, workplaces and beyond by making period products reliably and freely available where they are needed most.
Beatrice Toh
(https://www.heydoodle.com.au)
Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Beatrice Toh moved to Melbourne in 2006 to study architecture at the University of Melbourne. After graduating, she worked 8 years as an architect before life made other plans on her behalf.
Inspired by her 3 young children – who constantly challenged her to create new activities that were fun and stimulating; Beatrice founded HeyDoodle, the first Australian company to focus on erasable silicone activity mats. She has a passion for creating products that make learning fun and easy and has grown the range to over 30 designs in 3 years. HeyDoodle has since won multiple awards and are now stocked at over 550 stores Australia wide and a further 20 countries worldwide.
Beatrice is always on the lookout for new opportunities and enjoys problem-solving. She loves building relationships with new people and is blessed with a fantastic community in both her family and business circles. Beatrice is a big believer in sharing – resources, ideas, experiences, and that in this world where we can truly be anything, being kind is number one.
Monica Rottmann
(https://www.cultivatecalmyoga.com.au/monica/)
Monica Rottmann is the Founder of Cultivate Calm Yoga, a Yoga and Meditation Teacher, NLP Coach and Business Mentor.
In 2015 her life fell apart when she was diagnosed with breast cancer while her Dad had terminal cancer, all the while she navigating a divorce. Monica’s lived experience with overcoming adversity, together with her psychology degree, Yoga and Meditation Teaching, and NLP coaching, make her a wise, compassionate and supportive coach for entrepreneurs to follow their passion and not let their past dictate their future.
She’s an example of post-traumatic growth and has rebuilt her life with her wonderful partner Tim and their daughter Ruby. She has a vocal cat that howls on Zoom calls, and she has an obsession with baby wombats.
Marika Gare
(https://www.perthvirtualservices.com.au/)
Marika Gare grew up in Perth and is the multi-award-winning owner and founder of Perth Virtual Services, providing small and medium businesses with business solutions. Having a highly successful business herself and having worked with such a variety of other business owners, she shares what she has learnt from her personal journey to help them optimise their business.
Marika is mother to a beautiful son, who inspires her every day to be a better mother, person, and business owner. The love for her child is the reasoning behind everything she does, providing solid foundations, showing him resilience and passion, and encouraging him to follow dreams.
(https://www.dancelife.com.au/
https://www.dancelifeunite.com.au/)
Chris Duncan began a lifelong passion and relationship with the world of dance and entertainment at a very early age. After extensive training in all genres of dance, Chris opened her first studio at age 19 and went on to direct successful students to international careers in dance and musical theatre.
In 2012 Chris purchased DanceLife Pty Ltd from founder Clint Salter, and over the following three years set about developing the events component of the company known as ‘DanceLife Unite’ from one successful Sydney-based dance competition to a nation-wide network of events and National Finals. Chris is also the Managing Director of ‘DanceLife Australia’ – the online media portal – which is now the leading digital news service in the Australian dance and musical theatre industry.
Chris now turns her focus to assisting other DANCE-BIZ owners achieve their dreams and lives by her mantra: CREATE, BELIEVE, INSPIRE, ACHIEVE.
Sarika Kapoor
Sarika began her first business in 2008 when she launched Pre Uni College and has since launched three others – Speaker Club, Writing Club and her most recent, Pre Uni College Digital in March 2020. Sarika remains steadfast in her commitment to help develop the minds and leadership skills of younger generations. She created Pre Uni College Digital to ensure every child receives adequate, yet personalised opportunities to nurture their intellectual curiosity. Pre-Uni’s platform offers live in-person, remote as well as hybrid courses that provide literacy and numeracy education so children can confidently conquer national examinations, scholarship examinations and more. The platform is not only maximised for students but offers parents unique ways to stay involved in their children’s learning experience through syllabus workshops, live classroom visits,24/7 tutor support and reporting. Pre-Uni educators teach at all times so that children receive focused learning rather than mere classroom supervision.
(https://www.fimimsphotography.com.au/)
Renowned as one of Australia’s leading personal brand photographers, Fi is passionate about working with female thought-leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners to help elevate their brand and amplify their message in an authentic way, inspiring others to work with them.
Over the last 10 years Fi’s work has taken her to Paris, San Francisco, Bali, Auckland and interstate here in Australia. But her favourite place to work is in her hometown of Melbourne.Fi offers mentoring and coaching through Shine, her membership community for women in biz, and her signature course Powerful Branding Bootcamp. Fi also offers in-person workshops and events that offer education on branding, marketing and mindset.
(https://www.virtualforte.com.au/)
Jessami Kingsley is a motivated, energetic, and highly organised professional with a passion for empowerment, flexibility, and work life balance. She has 20 years’ experience working in global organisations in roles ranging from Project Management/Governance and Event Management.
Jessami lives on the Bellarine Peninsula with her husband and two children. After having her second child, in 2020 Jessami took a leap of faith and established her Virtual Assistant (VA) business- Virtual Forte, with the main purpose of being present for her family.
As the Founder and Managing Director of Virtual Forte Jessami quickly identified where she could utilise her strong organisation skills, professionalism, and experience to assist a multitude of clients across varying industries to improve and enhance their business operations and productivity.
(https://www.sonjakeller.com.au/)
Sonja is married with three children and resides in the beautiful Blue Mountains NSW. Sonja is a Social Worker, Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor with over 20 years’ experience working with children, young people, and adults. Sonja is also a highly sought-after Self-Care Coach to busy women entrepreneurs, and the creator of DBT Emotional Rescue Cards, an amazing support resource for anyone’s mental health tool kit.