Meet The Community
Do we have enough colours in a rainbow describe the many talented Creatives & Business owners out there? Meet the Creatives & Entrepreneurs who enjoy living out their passions and inspiring others to do the same. Hear their stories below! Ask a question to the Community?
Hadia Elahi
Artist - Creative Writer - Freelance Journalist
Meet psychology student, Hadia, who has a burning passion for anything creative. She, through her studies and personal experiences, has formulated a keen interest into the wonders of the human mind. From what it can achieve, to an exploration into the different creative perspectives it can afford us.
Through business writing and into more creative forms, she aims to capture different voices and human experiences, such that to impart wisdom and personal growth to her readers.
Hadia hopes to embark in a professional career in business consulting after completing her university studies.
Business Top Tip
Be Creative. Try and imitate the natural wonders of the world around you. Explore your surroundings to find beauty and inspiration from all facets of life. Then you can try and extract the essence of these findings into your work. This can lead you to where you need to be, what you are able to create or form a muse for your ideas.
Chelsea Brice
Fashion & Personal Stylist - Makeup Artist
My mission in life is to Empower people.
I do this by styling, by making people look great and feel confident.
After years of developing her own skills around effective communication and self-improvement, Chelsea wanted to tie in her love of good fashion with the desire to make a real difference in people’s lives. On completing her “Advanced Certificate of Professional Style and Image” with Australian Style Institute she started her personal styling business to inspire people to achieve confidence both inside and out.
“I love helping real women and men look and feel their best, leaving my clients excited to get dressed every day. I understand what makes a body shape of any size or age look amazing irrespective of budget and how important image is for our growth, well-being and success”
Chelsea approaches all styling sessions with the intention of not only having you look amazing, but also leave feeling confident and ready for whatever you’re up to in life. She will assure that you feel comfortable, encouraged and empowered throughout the whole style experience.
Business Top Tip
What What Makes You Feel Good!
“When you look your best, you ooze self-confidence. I believe that style is so much more than fashion. Style is dressing with confidence.”
How we start our day is so important, which is why that morning ritual of getting dressed needs to be an empowering one to prepare us for the day ahead. If we look amazing, we feel amazing, so imagine how differently your day could go if you left the house feeling like the best version of YOU.
Fiona Wilkinson
Pet Services - Education for Humans about Animals
Fiona is the fearless founder behind ‘Fiona’s Pet Services’, having been in business for over 10 years caring for animals, including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice and birds her love and passion keeps growing for animals and pet care.
She is a qualified and experienced volunteer at many animal care services and has hopes to bring the love between humanity and animals closer together.
Business Top Tip
The cliches are very true...
- No, Don’t ever give up!
- Prove people wrong
- Hang in there!
- Go for your dreams, don’t compromise who you are inside
- Even if it takes time and effort and money – You just don’t want to have regrets in life as you get older
- Take the plunge, just do it!
Glenn Westmore
Creative Inspiration - Education
Glenn Westmore is Inspiring others to discover their hidden creativity!
We are all born with the seeds of creativity but they somehow get lost in the humdrum of life. When we tap into our hidden creative capabilities, which on the surface may not immediately appear to be practical or even useful, only when you unpeel these concepts that you discover the joy and wonder of what lies beneath.
It’s almost as if our creative side is brought to life like magic when really it never left us, it simply laid dormant awaiting the opportunity to sprout! We can find a treasure trove of unexpected delights! This is why I feel that creativity somehow has to almost be relearned or rediscovered.
Business Top Tip
As with most things business inspiration comes from perspiration.
Curiosity ignites the passion and creative drive. The necessary sweat comes from the doodling and fiddling that invariably follows!
The world of business is a creative journey for those who dare to pursue it, with many hidden treasures to find. Go for it!
Emma Hollow
Artist
Hello! I’m Emma Hollow and I am a bit zany but a life force of creativity.
I am a Melbourne artist who specializes in zany, bright paintings that capture nature and portraiture through the use of vibrant shades of Acrylic paint. My artwork can be best described as eccentric with a dash of quirky! Each of my paintings explore colour in an unconventional way to form realistic images of water, trees, humans and landscapes.
While my artwork is open to interpretation, it primarily aimed at uplifting the viewer to evoke feelings of light heartedness. We live in a world where life can be pretty serious and we often forget to see the beauty in the colours, people and nature around us.
Business Top Tip
I love experimenting in Art. Art is all about experimentation to discover new ideas and different ways of creating. Sometimes the smallest detail can mean the difference between ordinary and extraordinary.
Aayu Naturals
Natural Products
Aayu Naturals was born with the intention of bringing to the rest of the world, a unique variety of products engineered and manufactured with the concepts of wholesome goodness, sustainability, environmentally friendly social enterprise at heart.
Our current range includes
+ Body Scrubs
+ Handmade Soaps
+ Original Teas of Ceylon
Our vision is to make accessible products that are filled with natural goodness and vitality. Made exclusively in Sri Lanka, our products are a modern take on the knowledge and experience that has been passed through a culture spanning millenniums. All our products are intended to optimise wellbeing and add goodness to your daily life. In line with the Sri Lankan values of simplicity and humility, awareness of these products by the rest of the world has been limited. Aayu Naturals brings these largely unknown and untapped sources of goodness to the world at large.
We hope by doing this, we can help local communities invest in themselves, promote sustainability, support entrepreneurship, employment and financial independence for many. So why not do two good deeds at once? One for your self and one to assist developing communities. Thank you and ayubowan!
Business Top Tip
Never stop learning. Whether you're a small outfit like Aayu Naturals or one giant enterprise, one common thread of success is that you need to always learn. By learning from both successes and failures, you continue to evolve and improve your products and services. If you stop learning and stop applying those learnings you will never progress. You're only ever as good as the lesson you learnt from your last mistake.
Julie T
Writer - Psychotherapist
Julie T is a Melbourne writer who has been on a journey.
She writes for pleasure.
For Julie T, writing has developed into a passion hobby that now belongs to her. She invites others to enjoy her work and feel the same pleasure in simply exploring and reading through.
"My deeply personal journey has been truly amazing and finally led me be doing the work I’ve always longed to do".
Julie T also specialises in Soul Centred Psychotherapy, Counselling, Hypnotherapy, TFT, EFT, NLP.
"During my 30 year career in administration I studied part–time to keep my intelligence alive. My training has allowed me to fit together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of my life and understand how finely tuned our bodies are in order to allow us to survive traumatic experiences and how we make life decisions that arise out of trauma. I have discovered skills and abilities within myself which I never suspected and that I can now fully express and explore."
Business Top Tip
Don't give up on your dreams, find what they are & work towards them!
LayYong Ong
Multiple Business owner - Health Enthusiast - Gymnastics & Health programs
Hi, I’m LayYong a business owner and a health enthusiast.
I am a student of Marshall Thurber and one of the greatest gifts he gave is the insights into Leaders Give. Givers Get. It has taught me many lessons, including there is no barrier or limitations to giving. It’s never too late nor too old.
I currently co-own a fitness studio – Gymnastic Bodies Singapore and a health prevention program Vitalay, with Dr. Stephen J. Wilson.
I live in Singapore with my husband and dog, Bronzy. Apart from running my businesses, I love to practice gymnastic strength training to reach my goal of doing a freestanding handstand.
Business Top Tip
Business takes many forms and is one aspect of life. Remember there is no barrier or limitations to giving. It’s never too late nor too old to start anything in life!
Dom Walles-Capasso
Entrepreneur - Melbourne Barista - Customer Service expert
Dom plays multiple roles from tennis coach, dad & hubby, business owner, husband to an entrepreneur, and ofcourse barista, Dom takes the most amount of his pride in providing his best possible in Customer Service and it’s obvious from the moment you meet him. And the best part about it all is that through the excellent Customer Services Dom’s sparkly personality shines through.
Business Top Tip
Love, Care & Quality in business and life alike. And don't take things too seriously, remember to have fun!
Steph Meegan
Copy Writer - Artist - Journalist - Blogger
“I write therefore I am.”
As an artist, I’m always evolving and learning new ways to manipulate both words and paint, in order to express myself. I hope to make the audience feel something, to elicit a response. Art is about connecting with other human beings to share in a collective experience, a manifestation of the collective unconscious.
Steph Meegan Davies lives in Melbourne, Australia. She is a student of the Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University. When she’s not writing she’s often underwater.
She is a writer, artist, philosopher, student and teacher.
Steph grew up in Tasmania at the foot of Mt Wellington before crossing the Bass Strait to study journalism at The University of Newcastle as a teenager. She has taken the road less traveled — from Nova Scotia, to the Central American Cloud Forest she inhabited in 2006 ; or the regional town of Icheon, South Korea where she worked as a Phonics teacher. She’s still journeying, although these days she is deep diving into her inner world to find the stories which matter to her, that make her feel something.
Passionate about words and ideas together with learning and development, ultimately, she would like to teach writing to people with disabilities. She has a desire to work with vulnerable members of society, including refugees, whether to teach them English, or to help them express their feelings through words, to tell their own stories.
Business Top Tip
Writing is a way to express who you are and what matters to you. There is
a saying that, 'there is no bad writing'.
What this means is that the most important thing is to write anything in order to express yourself.
This can be edited and distilled into something more concise later on.
Jan Cameron
Artist - Former Race Horse Jockey
After a career ending fall from a racehorse resulting in serious head injuries, I lost my ability to draw as I once had. Part of my recovery was spent crying in my garage trying to force myself to write and draw again. I discovered painting helped ease my head aches and frustration. As my concentration gradually improved I ended up painting a lot of colour, which really helped brighten my mood.
I found art was an amazing rehabilitation and has helped considerably in my recovery.
For many months I was down and out as I struggled to read and write and even paint, I found the artwork lifted my moods and positivity and gave me something to focus on and look forward to.
People seem to enjoy my artwork and I think if it is at all possible to brighten someone else's day with my art, I'd be happy :-)
Though I am quite well now, I’m still recovering through the recent injuries on occasion I do feel a feeling of being ‘Lost’; losing the ability to ride was losing the thing that your soul loves, to not be able to function, not being 100% capacity not having a passion or goal to focus on is not an easy task and not something I thought I would ever go through. ‘Letting go of your past’ can be a very fearful activity especially when you think you have already found your personal passion..
I believe that an artist is anyone that enjoys doing creative ‘stuff’, from chalk drawings on the street to charging $1000 for paintings or making anything new and inventive. I believe everyone is an artist when they use their creative side.
Business Top Tip
While riding, I’ve had many experiences of broken legs, dreams of riding being shattered, riding hard, then falling, incurring injuries, getting back on the horse again, literally. So how do you pick yourself up again with disappointments after disappointments through your career? - The way to do this is to refocus.
- Aim your time to be positive
- Change your perspective to stop and realise that your life not as bad as you think; it will always get better
- Know that sometimes life asks you to chill and come away from your normal life for a bit - It can be frustrating, but trust that your dream is going to happen anyway AND trust in yourself that YOU can overcome the odds
- Persevere to get what you want
- Appreciate HOWEVER slow it is, your improvements
- Chill out on your expectations - cos you can smash yourself
- Make adjustments
- Recognise how you face things under stress, know yourself
- Your choice is not to give up
- Do Not let anything stop you, you can still chase your dreams but sometimes this is at different paces
- Learn how to refocus to get there and chase your dreams.
- Have great Patience and let it happen it’s own time
Sarah Augusta Murphy
Contemporary Jewellery Designer - Maker
Sarah Murphy maintains her practice in Canberra at M16 Artspace where she creates her work to exhibit nationally. In 2011, she received her Bachelor of Visual Arts from the School of Art, Australian National University – Major Gold and Silversmithing. Since then she has been a finalist in various contemporary jewellery award exhibitions, including most recently The Contemporary Australian Silver and Metalwork Award at Castlemaine Art Gallery in 2015
Of her work, Murphy says ‘Rhythm, repetition and movement are the fundamentals which are often the driving forces behind my work. I use repetition as a rhythm and a play between worlds of colour, movement and shape. In life we experience repetition every day. The simple act of walking, breathing or the sound of our own heartbeat. The gesture or movement of the human body, creating its own random yet syncopated pattern. The use of repetition in my work creates structure. The presence of structure in our lives gives us the sense that we are somehow in control of our own existence. I enjoy creating jewellery with these characteristics and exploring how this might affect the relationship between the wearer the viewer and the piece itself. We make decisions about the items that we wear and how it might affect our sense of empowerment will also reflect in our daily lives'
Business Top Tip
What tips do you have for Creatives starting out?
Well, starting out for me was all about trying lots of different things until I eventually found what inspired me the most. There are tons of short courses out there, so go for it!
Everything you learn along the way will shape the way you think and approach each new project.
Serena Low
Midlife Career Mentor
At 35, Serena Low said goodbye to 11 years as a government lawyer, and set out to find an answer to the question that refused to go away: “Is this all there is?”
In her quest for direction and a fresh purpose, she discovered the transforming power of personal development when used in combination with integrity, wisdom and intentionality, and how it can help the demotivated, dissatisfied and stressed-out professional find their way and flourish again.
In between writing, coaching, dreaming up new projects, and keeping up with her children, Serena upgrades herself by reading widely, attending courses, and being mentored by inspiring thought leaders who are authorities in their fields, so she can continue to offer the most current, relevant, and useful resources to clients.
With 11 years of legal experience enhanced by additional qualifications in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, archetypes, social and emotional intelligence, and coaching, Serena is on a mission to help midlife professionals get powerfully clear on their purpose and message, ready for the best years ahead.
Working with people who see the need for change to better their position in work, in life, in relationships both personal and business, Serena delivers strategies that transform, teach resilience, encourage perseverance, and supports her clients emotionally to achieve outcomes that are in harmony with who they are becoming.
Business Top Tip
There is a Hero within all of us, the joy of business allows us to see more of ourselves than we dared to dream of in our everyday lives. Take every opportunity you can.
Coach Gaz
Coaching Leader & Owner of Juggernaut Personal Transformation
Coach Gaz the amazing, unstoppable, incredibly respected, well liked, light hearted Coaching Leader & owner of Juggernaut Personal Transformations, now well established & situated in the heart of Melbourne's most famous and historical location of Banana Alley for it’s industrial style training & fitness. Coach Gaz is disrupting his industry and bringing even more education and heart to the true philosophy of holistic fitness.
Business Top Tip
Unstoppable is achievable, and is a journey; the same holds true in the world of business.
Kisaku
Modern Artisanal Fashion
Kisaku works with passionate Indonesian designers and artisans specialising in crafting batik and other heritage-infused fashion collections.
Kisaku is derived from the Indonesian word “Kisahku” which means “My Story”. Kisaku is all about…prints and patterns that carry with them stories of yesteryears, fabric and designs that accentuate our personalities, and lending a hand to the future generations who will keep our stories going.
We were honoured to have Feli join us at our Pre-Launch Creativity Event in September to tell us more about the shared passion between herself and Lenny (co-founder) for their home country Indonesia, the longing for contributing back to the society and general persistence and stubbornness which happen to be Kisaku’s greatest assets!
Business Top Tip
Ethical Fashion is possible. Age old tradition meeting modern design is possible.
Lenny (one of the Kisaku founders) says that the success of their business in the future will not only benefit Kisaku, but also the parties who join them.
"If we succeed, it's not just Kisaku’s success. Kisaku is the collective of the brands we represent. If we succeed, it is owed to the brands, along with the artisans that we work with".
“At Kisaku we have a mission to guide the businesswomen (the artisans) who have sold their products in the event(s) to be able to break through the Australian market. Empowering them means that the community is empowered also”. You can plan to do the same.
EI Centre & Book Author of the Children’s Book - My Five iFriends - A ‘real life kid story’
Education Consultant - Author
Meet Annitta, she’s the founder of EI Centre which is an educational consultancy business specialising in developing and delivering programs in the field of emotional intelligence. EI Centre provides courses to schools, industry and the community.
Annitta’s passion in life is to inspire children and youth to read stories that make them feel good about themselves and their lives. She tries to encourage positive thinking and reflection so that they may grow up knowing that even in the hardest times there is a way to overcome problems and diversity.
Annitta is also an author with a focus on children’s literature. Being a creative writer Annitta’s latest novel My Five iFriends illustrates the importance of positive friendships and the explores the real life experiences of a child growing up in primary school.
Annitta is currently employed as an education manager and teacher at RMIT University. She has been responsible for leading and aspiring staff and students from diverse backgrounds and ages to pursue excellence and passion in their daily work and life challenges.
Annitta has managed to guide large teams to achieve success, meet targets and find their inner strengths and capabilities which overall encourages happiness and productivity in the workplace. These strategies have ensured resilience and versatility in the work sector and have uplifted motivation for all staff in their daily work and personal life situations.
Business Top Tip
Easiest way to keep writing is to write in short bursts - create a mind map of what you want to write about including chapters.