The person behind Emotionally Brave
Understanding people has been a lifelong journey.
Building capability in people has been my life's work.
I’m Ellie, the founder of Emotionally Brave.
My work brings together lived experience, leadership, frontline community and human services practice, business experience and trauma-informed thinking.
I created Emotionally Brave to make complex emotional ideas easier to understand—and, more importantly, easier to use in real life.
My approach isn’t about telling people how they should feel or behave. It’s about helping people understand why we respond the way we do, recognise what may be sitting underneath behaviour and develop the knowledge, language and practical skills to respond with greater awareness, intention and choice.
I learned customer service before I learned business theory
I grew up working in my family's corner grocery stores.
Customer service wasn't something I learned from a textbook. It was part of everyday life.
I learned how to listen, understand what someone actually needed, navigate difficult conversations, solve problems, build trust and take responsibility when things didn’t go according to plan.
​
Those lessons stayed with me as my career developed through major Australian organisations, including Bunnings and Officeworks. Over two decades in retail and business leadership, I built experience across people leadership, operations, customer experience, workforce development and organisational change.
​
For me, people and business have never been separate things.
​
Strong organisations are built by understanding people. Meaningful change happens when good ideas can be applied in the real world.
.png)
.png)
