Justine de JongeFor almost 20 years, Vanessa Cullen has been hearing people’s stories and tackling the challenging issues for vegans and non-vegans. Whether in the small to medium sized business space or the corporate world and in her own business life, Vanessa has the life experience to help others to endure, overcome their business barriers and achieve their goals. Plus, she never stops learning. The mentor and facilitator, social enterprise founder and CEO spoke to Australian Vegans Journal about emotional intelligence, being an endurance athlete, starting her own social enterprise and overcoming chronic illness in order to be of service to others as a mentor and facilitator.
Vanessa Cullen – Mentor & Facilitator, Social Enterprise Founder & CEO
Firstly, tell us about yourself. You seem to wear a lot of hats, but generally you mentor boards, communities and individuals (particularly in the vegan business space) and you founded and have managed the social enterprise Forward Thinking Design; for almost 20 years. What drew you to this work?
My professional background is in small business/social enterprise management and strategy, branding and built environment design (largely interior fitouts of food premises, retail and offices). I established my firm, for ethical reasons, almost 20 years ago now – starting out freelance and then building up into a company with multiple offices and employees. Mine has been a journey of both formal (Harvard University management and Australian Institute of Company Directors courses) and informal business education (learning by my own doing and that of my clients). I work with founders, boards and management from sole traders starting out with a concept product or service, right up to large companies and serving on advisory boards for organisations such as the Reserve Bank of Australia. I love hearing people’s stories and tackling challenging issues.
How long have you been vegan for? What drew you to this lifestyle?
I’ve lost count but it’d be five or six years now. I’m a really sporty person but have had a lifelong struggle with my weight so I came to veganism from a health and fitness point of view. Before long, I learned more about the environmental and animal cruelty perspectives and have never looked back since.
You overcame the life threatening, chronic paediatric kidney disease Nephrotic Syndrome and still suffer from Polycystic Kidney Disease. Tell us about what illness has taught you about your life journey and resilience?
My experiences of chronic illness (my own and that of family) have taught me that life is so very, very short and fragile; there isn’t a moment to lose.
You are also an endurance athlete. With a history of chronic illness, how did you get yourself to a point when you could compete in this sport?
Sport has always played a huge part in my life as an outlet, a joy, a balance. Even as a little kid I never wanted to let my health stand in the way of being outside, being active, competing and participating. I don’t have the body for athleticism but hard times have taught me to play the long game; I’ve learned patience, endurance and how to tolerate discomfort. As I grow older, I learn more and more about being kinder to myself. But there is a drive to venture within me that if left unsatisfied undermines my mental and emotional health. So, I feel driven to find ways to move no matter what.
You describe yourself as an “endlessly curious lifelong learner”. How important is learning, and why should people continue learning throughout their lives?
Curiosity is oxygen; without it the mind cannot grow. My thirst for knowledge is insatiable and learning new things lights me up. The moment we think we know it all or that we’ll be right without others is the moment we begin to fail. Hubris will always bring people undone. Certainly the best in business are those who always seek to learn.
You mentor both vegan and non-vegan businesses. Do vegan business owners need more grit and determination compared to non-vegan businesses? If so, how can vegan businesses establish their place in the current professional world and how do they survive?
This really depends on the vegan business. If the market for the product or service is only vegans then that’s a very small market and it’s always difficult to survive with such a small market. You’d really have to own that niche outright and that’s near impossible to do.
If the products or services are for vegans and non-vegans then that business needs to strive to be the best business, not the best vegan business. They need to compete with every other vegan or non- vegan business in their category and with the same target markets. They need to have the grit and determination of any great business if they’re going to change the world.
Forward Thinking Design focuses on a circular economy approach as part of its business model. Why is a focus on a circular economy so important for new and emerging vegan businesses?
It’s critical for any business and every living thing. Circularity is the way of the future. We can’t keep taking out of the ground and nature and then sending everything to recycling or the tip. Taking a circular economy approach challenges us to question everything we do, every step we take from end to end. It guides our conscious decision-making in the way we conceive problems to solve and thereby it raises business opportunities. It guides the designs we create, the materials/inputs/ingredients we use, how we process products and services and how we return everything back into the loop so that we no longer see waste but rather assets and resources.
Can you tell us about an example of your work with a vegan business that is now flourishing?
Dilectio plant-based cheese is a business mentoring client of mine and during the time we’ve worked together I have seen them go from strength to strength. They already had amazing products and a strong work ethic but knew they were getting too caught up in the day-to-day churn. It has been such an honour and joy to support them in thinking and acting more strategically. They’ve really found the space and maturity to work on the business, just as much as in it and are such a credit to themselves in this regard.
Emotional intelligence has emerged in recent years as a major part of the personal development discussion between employees and their employers. Can you describe emotional intelligence and why is it important in the current workplace environment?
Emotional intelligence comes from being able to listen twice as much as you speak. It comes from knowing that we all know so little and that everyone else has a powerful story and point of view that deserves to be seen and heard. It’s really walking in the shoes of others and being conscious of the effects of our every thought, action and decision. No matter whether we’re the Chairperson of the Board, CEO or in an entry level position, we are all better for knowing ourselves, seeing ourselves objectively and relating to others with respect, compassion and humility. Only in that state can we have better discussions, exercise the strength in diversity, make wiser decisions and take stakeholder positive actions.
A discussion around emotional intelligence tends to lead to a discussion regarding work ethic. Many businesses reward and revere those who push themselves to the limit, which leads to burn-out and illness. Is it possible to achieve emotional intelligence and work/life balance? Can the two co-exist? Yes. A wise person said to me once that there is a difference between feeling empathy and sympathy for others versus internalising absolutely everything that comes our way. I’m an empath and HSP [Highly Sensitive Person] so this is particularly challenging for me. I tend to deeply care and feel my responsibility and the experiences of others when related to me. But we have to learn coping mechanisms and boundaries, which is a lifelong journey. We can care and be aware but leave work at work because we have to make space for the caring and awareness we need to apply outside of work, too. Giving too much to one doesn’t allow us to perform in the other, whether as an employee, manager, friend, family or community member or in self-care. We need to be aware, process and act on our awareness and then move to be fully present in the next moment. I know it’s easier said than done but as I get older and wiser I become more living proof that it is possible!
COVID-19 is the perfect example where businesses and individuals and businesses have had to change quickly, whether they wanted to or not. How can we navigate immense change and why is change important for an individual or business?
Didn’t some smart person once say that the only certainty is change? My life experiences have proven this to be so. We have to expect the unexpected and become exceedingly good at identifying and mitigating against risks. Even the smallest business should know where it is exposed, where it lacks agility, where it has ‘too many eggs in one basket’ (apologies for that not very vegan turn of phrase!). We need to see the world as full of opportunities and really appreciate our privilege and freedoms, then have critical decision-making processes in place that will help us objectively jump when we need to. Ideally, change ahead of the curve rather than as a reaction to it. Disruption on every scale is foreseeable. Those that have been able to cope are those who can see the bigger picture; that good and bad change happens again and again and again. They have come to be able to sit with this, rather than to fear change or be caught frozen in surprise.
There might be people out there reading this who are struggling with chronic illness, struggling with mental health or struggling with mindset in general. What would you say to someone who wants to make a change in their life and doesn’t know where to start or what to do? How can they get “un-stuck”?
That is the number one question that I get asked by everyone from founders, CEOs and Boards to sole trader yoga teachers and people from every walk of life. They always come to me ‘stuck’.
Often, the thing or issue that they think they are stuck on turns out not to be where they are stuck at all. That’s because being stuck tends to point to something more significant going on.
When they work with me as a professional mentor, we unpack everything with them – what’s going on in the different segments of their business, their team, themselves and so on. We tend to find a jumble of too much of everything going on and then we need to break it all down into bitesize chunks. Or, the inverse, we find some kind of lack, which could be a lack of information, resources, connections, confidence and then we can address this, bit by bit.
They need to find space from being all caught up ‘in it’, in order to work ‘on it’. Often having an outside person listen to them and bringing helpful, practical tools starts them back on the path to breakthrough.
So my number one suggestion would be that they reach out, seek help. No matter how exhausting it all might seem it’s always worth asking for qualified, caring and experienced support.
It seems that if you’re vegan, you need to strengthen your emotional intelligence more compared to non-vegans. What tips would you give to vegans so they can survive and thrive in a non-vegan world?
No matter why you went vegan in the first place – whether for your own health, the animals or the environment – you showed enough self-awareness to take responsibility for your actions and to appreciate the impact of your actions. You believed in your individual capacity to create change and so you consciously changed your habits and began to act more in alignment with your values. You took control of what was within your capacity to control. This is a power you will always have.
The challenge is to apply that same self-awareness to every part of your life and to strive to be more than just the best vegan you can be. Keep appreciating your own responsibility and consciously walk the path of being the best human you can be, towards yourself and others, living in alignment with your love and compassion.
Hold onto the notion of leading through self-knowledge, humility and respect and I believe you’ll survive and push on through every agony that your one precious and fleeting life sends your way.
To learn more about Vanessa Cullen, visit her website. You can also view her full list of services here.
