Working at the intersection of ritual intelligence & venture leadership
Founded by Cleo Shortland, the Wā Programme starts at the core of who you are, and works outward into the venture you're leading.
One-to-one coaching and founder circles.
Designed with you in mind
You're moving into new territory. Something is ending. Priorities are shifting. Your body and its rhythms may also be changing shape.
The self you built to succeed in the version before is still running the show. It did its job well. It has stopped fitting, and you can feel it.
You value discretion and confidentiality, and fluid structure that reflects who you are as your goals take form.
The experience
We start at the core of who you are, at what's true for you right now.
This is where the vision lives, expansive and alive. Getting honest about what's yearning to come through you and into the world. Confusion and uncertainty show up here too, because this is unfamiliar territory. Old mindsets and old beliefs are shedding, and that's part of the work.
We geek out on the data from how you spend your time. Goals become a process, a fluid structure that has you stepping into your future with disciplinary ease, until that process embeds itself as your natural weekly rhythm. It works with your energy until the rhythm becomes second nature. Intuitive decision making sits right alongside this work.
What emerges stays live and changing. It moves with each season, because who you are keeps growing and moving too.
Wā
(noun) time, season, period of time, interval, term, duration.
"Your positivity wasn't just uplifting, it was empowering. You have a way of helping people see what's possible rather than focusing on limitations, and helping them recognise their own strengths and potential. That gave me greater confidence in my own abilities, and I always left interactions with you feeling energised, capable, and more willing to back myself and take the next step forward. The lasting impact for me was a stronger belief in what I could achieve and the confidence to go after it."
Aime Carter, South Island Super Yacht Services
What you receive
Fortnightly 90-minute video calls, one-to-one with Cleo.
An open communication line between calls, so what surfaces gets named as it happens.
A Trello board and visual tools that hold what's emerging across time, following what you’re creating.
US$2,000 a month, cancel anytime.
Kia ora, I’m Cleo Shortland
Nature celebrates diversity and multifacety and so should we.
You can have multiple things alive in you that matter. Projects, gifts, visions that are all real and all calling for your attention. And there are ways of allowing it all without having to fit into a narrow lane. If your old self is still running the show, but it doesn't fit anymore, we need to chat about how you can get your best work to emerge.
New architecture and processes to construct the environment to bring everything to life is a must. This is where I'm here to help. I sit alongside you, listening closely, letting uncertainty clear before supporting you into possibility, process, and magic.
Book a curiosity call to find how you will create your best season yet. I’m excited to connect with you.
Step into the
Wā Programme
Book a curiosity call with Cleo to learn how to step into the experience.
"My time working with Cleo was alchemical. I had never felt so deeply held and understood, a natural gift she holds. What stayed with me was a connection that transcended the surface and the ordinary. You could always tell that holding space energised her as much as it uplifted us both.
Through ritual, contemplation, deep enquiry and a focus on creating the future, Cleo sped up my personal evolution in a way only very few people can. Blending the rational and the creative, her structures and frameworks create a safe container for deeper magic to come through.
There is a true element of belief and magic in working with Cleo that goes far deeper than the mind, and you have to experience it to understand what can be created together. I made so much progress in those years, having Cleo hold my visions with unwavering faith. Cleo is the real deal.”
Rhea James Fox, Writer
Frequently Asked Questions
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The three months programme is designed with a focus of bringing your ideas into creation, so each video call is built on the last across each of the phases:
Ideation and vision
Uncertainty and confusion
Aligned action towards creation
You arrive with whatever's most alive: a decision, a doubt, a pull you're still finding words for. I listen for what's underneath it, and we work to understand it deeper and whether anything needs to shift.
We then thread the findings into your personal framework to support you in taking aligned action.
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This is coaching built around deep listening and aligned action. It draws on a real, structured method rather than open conversation alone.
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This work suits a genuine change of season as much as a hard moment: a shift in capacity, a decision on the horizon, a pull toward something new.
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This work is built around the particular weight of being the person a business ultimately answers to. That weight has a shape I know well from almost two decades inside that world.
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It keeps this work reachable across time zones and travel, and keeps a full season possible regardless of where you're based.
I do travel a bit and love connecting on the ground and in-person when I can.
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Everything shared stays between us. This is a private container for thinking something through, held with the same discretion you'd expect from your own profession.
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This work is built on individual attention and discretion, better suited to conversation than broadcast. Find more through the podcast, or start with a curiosity call.