The Purpose Effect

At the start of the pandemic, Saori Okada left her job working in media analytics in New York City to start Mogami Wellness, her wellness coaching business.  Based in London, Saori now coaches organisations and community managers on how to build trustful and authentic teams using Japanese concepts of wellbeing. In this episode we talk about 'Ikigai' the Japanese concept that is often tra...

Are we individuals?  Or do we have a collective soul?  How do the life experiences of our ancestors affect us?  How do we live in community, including everything and excluding nothing? Monika Wyss is a Systemic Therapist who uses Family Constellations to help clients address a range of issues from trauma, depression or anxiety, to mindsets affecting relationships, money or work through uncovering...

Sylvia Yu Friedman has spent much of her career campaigning against, writing about and directing funds to end modern slavery.  She is an international expert on Japanese war time sex slavery and an award winning filmmaker documenting sex trafficking in Asia.  Her most recent book, A Long Road to Justice is a memoir about her work and highlights the stories of the women and girls trafficked in Asia...

Human Design is a self-knowledge system that combines western astrology, I-Ching, Kabbalah and elements of Vedic Philosophy to  determine your 'type' (there are 5 - Generators, Manifesting Generators, Manifestors, Projectors and Reflectors) and how you can use this understanding to live in energetic alignment.  In this episode I talk to Human Design Coach Bee Osman about how Human Design...

Mel Loh is a co-founder at Investera, an investment education platform which aims to change the face of investing, starting with empowering more women investors.  Women have more money now than ever before in our history, so it is crucial that we are active investors, builders and influencers in how our financial landscape develops - whether that is through traditional investing or crypto.   Topic...

In the first of our series on Women in Web3, I'm talking to Bree Yek.  Bree is the co-founder and CEO of Carb0n.fi, a company using blockchain technology to incentivise carbon offsetting and make carbon markets more transparent.  If you are new to web3 and are interested in use cases that support sustainability, public goods or carbon trading programmes, Bree gives a great overview. Topics in...

Suswati Basu is a journalist, activist and the host of How to Be, a podcast about what it means to be a human 'being' rather than a human 'doing'.   Suswati's activism began with speaking out against gender violence and now also encompasses disability and mental health advocacy.  In this episode, we talk about her advocacy work, the importance of having conversations with...

Shen-Tel Lee is a graphic designer, multiple business owner and community builder, based between Sydney and Kuching in East Malaysia.  In 2020, Shen-Tel started Kuching Food Aid, a community led project to deliver food aid to communities badly impacted by the Covid 19 lockdowns and suffering food insecurity.   Shen-Tel managed to rally her community and raised significant funds in record time.  Sh...

If you struggle to pay attention, you're not alone.   In the western, highly digitized world, we experience distractions every 8 minutes.  Many of these distractions come from the technology that is supposed to be giving us more time - our digital devices.  In this episode I talk about how to pay attention and some of the practices that might help us regain our focus.  In this episode, I cove...

While the idea of creating your reality through the power of thought is nothing new, "manifesting" has gained a lot of momentum recently.  Google searches for ‘manifesting’ went up more than 600%.  On TikTok, views of manifestation content are surging past 9 billion. So what’s going on?  When the world feels deeply unstable, it’s natural to look for ways to take back control over our rea...

When we talk about Purpose-Driven Business, it's impossible not to talk about a few other words beginning with 'P' : People, Planet and Profit - i.e the Triple Bottom Line.  In this episode, I talk to sustainability educator, author and policy adviser Jennifer Kuklenski about big questions like how to do Business for Good; whether it is enough to simply 'do good' or whethe...

Marie Kondo's KonMari Method of tidying up in order to 'spark joy' isn't really about minimalist perfectly organised wardrobes.  It's a practice in letting go.  Rebecca Jo-Rushdy, Malaysia's first certified KonMari consultant talks about how we practice letting go with our belongings, but the true aim is to learn how to apply this to mindsets, habits and behaviours th...

Steph L Dickson is the founder of Green is the New Black, a lifestyle, media and events platform dedicated to sustainable, conscious living. She is also the host of the Live Wide Awake podcast. In this episode, I talk to Steph about how to meet sustainability where you are, with what you have and go on an adventure with it.  We also talk about exciting new developments in circular fashion, respons...

The last two years have been slow.  And while Covid 19 has come with it's challenges, I wasn't ready when 2022 suddenly sped life up.  In this episode I dive into the slow movement and how slowing down might help us live better. I'm talking about the origins of the slow movement, minimalism, slow thinking and slow food.  There are also some To read more from this episode: Books: 1....

When Shay Stone isn't animating projects like Encanto or Zootopia , she is helping people design the lives they want through the lessons in her new book Be Better Than You . Shay has a unique and insightful perspective on how we can get the most out of our lives and ourselves.   For Shay, life is not a pursuit of happiness, or even necessarily finding your purpose.  It’s about finding yoursel...

For women, funded by women; Lucy is on a mission to put more money into the hands of women.  In particular, the groups of women who are the most underfunded .  Co-founder and CEO of Lucy, Debbie Watkins and I talk about  the institutional reasons why women are critically underbanked.  We talk about financial inclusion, the misconceptions around women and finance and what happens when women have be...

When it comes to starting businesses, the popular narrative is that you need to move fast, scale quickly.  Hustle culture teaches us that slowing is counterintuitive at best and possibly a recipe for failure. But what in order to grow, you actually needed to stop?  In this episode I talk to Georgina J.S.  A journalist turned publishing entrepreneur who now helps other women business owners navigat...

Welcome to Bites of Purpose!  New bite sized monthly episodes on a single topic that will help you discover, build and lead lives of purpose.  This month, I'm talking about how to do hard things.  Part of this is mindset, but the other really important part of the equation is environment.  In this episode I break down the mindset and environmental factors that can support you in doing your ha...

In 2017, shortly after the birth of her first child, Malisse Tan was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma cancer.  Faced with a very different kind of motherhood than what she imagined for herself, Malisse decided that if she was given a second chance at life, she was going to make sure it was lived with purpose. Fast forward to 2022 and Malisse is a mother of two and the founder of Bobble - a busines...

What better way to ring in 2022 than with top astrologer and tarot reader Sarah May Low?  Sarah and I sat down at the end of last year to talk about what 2022 has in store for us.   In this episode, we talk about the major life moment that made her re-assess everything, the relationship between spiritual and psychological practices, and how tarot and Astrology can help us all become the best versi...

To wrap up 2021, I wanted to reflect on some of the things we have learned this year.  So I asked some of the women who you’ve heard from on The Purpose Effect to share their lessons and what they are bringing forward into 2022. These ‘pandemic years’ have been full of disruption, change and have been deeply unsettling.  But it has also made us more resilient.  We have learned to slow down.  To le...

Claire Sancelot is the founder of The Hive, a chain of zero - waste retail stores in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stocking everything from bulk grocery products, household cleaners, toiletries and feminine care.  It is also a community hub that educates shoppers on how to reduce their household waste and their impact on the environment. Claire and I talk about how she began her zero waste journey, w...

Adele Barlow is the founder of Copy & Co, a boutique copywriting agency and the author of a number of books on finding purposeful work.  Her latest book, ‘Modern Woman’ is a collection of essays on the balancing act modern millennial women perform every day.  As Adele writes:  “ the ideal worker is available 24/7, but so is the ideal mother.  Millennial women have been told to dream big, but i...

Agi is the author of ‘Generation Panic’, an extremely helpful and relatable guide to managing anxiety for those within 'Generation Panic' (or GP'ers as she calls them) - who Agi describes as "strong, brilliant, ambitious people, but they often have a big dollop of insecurity that makes them wobble at certain moments of their lives." Agi left a career in financial services...

Shermaine Wong, Manisha Jagan and Lina Esa are the founders of Cult Creative, a digital platform and networking app for the Malaysian creative community.   Like many great inventions, Cult Creative was born out of necessity.  The Covid pandemic not only dried up a lot of creative work, it also made it almost impossible for creatives to network, upskill, or find opportunities for when businesses op...