I’m Wiradjuri and live on my family’s ancestral country in central NSW. My business is Chocolate On Purpose and I handcraft couverture chocolate with Australian native botanicals to create my bushfood chocolate range.

I’ve always been a reinventor. I was working in a bank and was involved in an armed hold-up hostage situation and as a result I developed post traumatic stress disorder. It became a hobby business for us and, as my marriage ended, I still needed regular income. I was knocked out by that robbery, and I couldn’t go back to work in a bank.

I found Global Sisters on social media and it sounded like it represented me. You become a part of the sisterhood. They run courses and have a series of coaching sessions and they put you in front of people you would never have the opportunity to be in front of.

My business Remedii, is inspired and built from my lived experience of living with an incurable disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Since joining Global Sisters my business progress has escalated rapidly, with support to overcome key hurdles, lessen my fear of failure, access extensive pro bono support from branding agency Jack Morton, and connect with my CEO mentor Russell Parker. This support has been invaluable and will enable my business to succeed and support the development of a cure for people suffering from CRPS.

I was born and raised in Japan and after coming to Australia for university, I moved here permanently in 1999. I was trained in PR and advertising, but possibly because I’m not a citizen and I have language and cultural barriers, it was really hard to get a job that I was happy in. 

I’m working in a male-dominated industry, but Global Sisters encourages me to see this as advantageous. They helped my business to be exposed in that light: challenging the man’s world. I guess it’s a bit of a surprise for some of my suppliers in Japan when they learn it is my business and that I make the decisions, not my husband. Dealing with them became easier when I could show them what I’d achieved – they now take me more seriously and know that I mean business.

I came to Sydney when I started a Master’s degree in Social Entrepreneurship in 2018. Before I started Kayu and after I finished my degree, I was trying to look for jobs, but I didn’t have experience in working in Australia, and I didn’t really have connections in Australia. I also finished my degree during Covid, when so many people lost their jobs. It was a big problem for me to find employment so I started my own business.

I started in the distilling industry in 2016 when I co-founded a rum and gin distillery with a bunch of men. I was the only female in the business and was very proactive in the creation of our gins, but I found myself doing more of the prepping of the botanicals and the recipe side of things