A season just for you
Working one-to-one over a season: deep listening, clear insight, aligned action, for the founder or owner meeting a change, ready to follow their curiosity into what's next.
The Wā Programme. Founded by Cleo Shortland.
A season just for you
Working one-to-one over a season: deep listening, clear insight, aligned action, for the founder or owner meeting a change, ready to follow their curiosity into what's next.
The Wā Programme. Founded by Cleo Shortland.
A change of season
Wā means season: time, a period of change.
Life can move in seasons that look different to our environment. This work meets what’s changing for three focused months, for the founder or owner sensing a change already underway, ready to understand what it's asking of them, and of the business alongside it.
How it works
Something has changed. Family dynamics and responsibilities shift, health becomes a priority, the way you see things changes, your desires move. Whatever shape it takes, it's the shift in what's important to you that this work actually holds.
That shift becomes the anchor. Running a business calls on a rational, logical mind, and this work adds a second layer of intelligence alongside it, the intuitive and emotional. From there, we thread what matters into your mindset, into your personal systems and frameworks, into what you do day to day, and into how you ask your team to show up for you.
Built for the founder or owner moving through a change of season, this adapts as the season does. Together we explore what has to stay, and where there's room to create more space for what's important. This can be particularly painful for the hoarder of duties, the person who holds onto everything themselves, but the process stays gentle and easeful, working steadily on removing what's weighing you down.
We look into your dreams, and weave your life and work so they point in the same direction. Applied to the moments that actually shape a career, a position can be heard as a need instead of a demand, and what's actually being asked for becomes clear, in yourself as much as anyone else.
Most of what surfaces in a call, you've already said yourself. My work is reflecting it back clearly enough to use. Weaving and threading until your new framework builds the confidence this change of season is asking for.
"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
Working one-to-one, six video calls across three months, timed around a season. Scheduling can be fortnightly or scheduled around the realities of a full schedule. Between calls, an open line stays available, so momentum holds throughout. The practice draws on naming the needs a person might be carrying into a decision, each with its own signals and its own questions.
Your investment
US$2,000 a month across the three month season, US$6,000 in total. This is priced as a full season of continuity: six calls and an open line between them, held together as one container.
Kia ora, I’m Cleo Shortland
Life is always moving, and so is a business. That's why I like to look at these shifts as seasons, from high summer, full, vibrant and demanding, through to the winter of pause and rest, when it's time to bring someone else in to help carry the work. My work is to weave. I listen closely, understanding what is important to you, and work that into the larger picture.
The Wā Programme invites you to follow your curiosity, and step into what’s most alive.
Step into the experience
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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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.
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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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Wā, karakia (Māori incantation), and whakapapa (a sense of place in the world) shape how each session is held. A relational, cyclical worldview, rooted in place, learned over a lifetime.
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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.
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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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Threading works best with enough space between sessions for a theme to settle, and enough structure that momentum holds. Six sessions across a season, scheduled around your calendar, holds both.
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I receive clients in and around spring and autumn seasons only, wherever you're based. Book a curiosity call to talk about timing.
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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.