Working at the intersection of ritual intelligence & venture leadership
Founded by Cleo Shortland, the Wā Programme guides founders and owners through the threshold between what they’ve built with their hands and where they’re being called to lead next.
Through ceremony, deep listening and experimentation, surface your intellectual and creative brilliance in this four-month 1:1 journey to bring what’s next alive.
Working at the intersection of ritual intelligence & venture leadership
Founded by Cleo Shortland, the Wā Programme guides founders and owners through the threshold between what they’ve built with their hands and where they’re being called to lead next.
Through ceremony, deep listening and experimentation, surface your intellectual and creative brilliance in this four-month 1:1 journey to bring what’s next alive.
Wā
(noun) time, season, period of time, interval, term, duration.
You've built something real. Now it's time to create from who you're becoming.
The Wā Programme
You have
An idea you've been circling for years
A practice that works and a version of yourself that no longer fits it
People who need you to stay as you are
The feeling that something is becoming and you can't turn back
A quiet urgency you haven't acted on yet
And you know the old way won't work this time.
A four-month 1:1 container for the founder who is ready to create something new.
Each session has a softness for big thinking. Structured enough to hold bold ideas. Deep enough to carry your change. And grounded in action that seals your becoming.
This is the space for your personal evolution.
A taster of the journey
The Wā Programme is a curated journey through four key themes, leaving room for all ideas, possibilities, and unexpected discoveries along the way.
Identity Together we rework your story so that your dreams become your expected outcomes.
Relationship We reimagine your connections with yourself, others, and your environment so that the journey ahead feels truly desired.
Creation Creation is when you ground into your current reality, because how you choose to act from here is what defines who you are today.
Contribution Giving back from what has been received.
“I've become a wealth magnet, redefined what working on my own terms looks like, and I'm looking fucking amazing from all the work I've put into myself.
You have to experience it to understand her power, and what can be created together."
— Rhea James FoxNo two journeys are ever the same. Each shaped by my observations of what is most true for the person in front of me.
My practice draws on 20 years of legal smarts and venture leadership woven together with the art of creating and facilitating ritual. I understand that there are major highs, dredging through shit, and plain old repetitively boring times when it comes to actualising dreams, and the way towards them is never direct. There is plenty of thinking, doing, and magnetising. And through my experience across diverse mediums and industries, you will have an intentional, nourishing and cleverly designed experience to move through.
Rooted in te ao Māori, my worldview is relational, cyclical and grounded in place. When I sit with you at a threshold, I bring all of it.
Kia ora, I’m Cleo, curator of journeys
What you receiveThis 4 month experience gives you 8 fortnightly 2hr sessions with Cleo, each building on the last, unlimited communication line between sessions, and a bespoke Trello board to track progress
❋ Programme start date10 August to 13 December 2026
❋ Format1:1 in-person in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand and/ or online
❋ Expert GuidanceCleo Shortland, Curator of Journeys, works with you to build your journey moving in purpose.
❋ InvestmentUSD $10,000
“I needed someone who understood people, business, and also law.
Cleo is a great thinker because of her innate ability to get deep into people’s psyche and personality in order to understand them. To my mind, she has a special sense of spirituality about her that enables her to have these special traits."
— Nick KearneyFrequently Asked Questions
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Sessions range from 90 minutes to two hours intentionally. Rather than watching the time, we are moving through it.
Two hours allows us to undergo proper work. We open with ritual, move through themes, and land with focused outcomes before returning to reality. Each session is a ritual experience.
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Cleo Shortland works at the intersection of the rational and the creative derived from her time building ventures herself, while creating the rituals that add depth to the lived experience.
It is through this that you can expect one who can sit with the weight of what you are carrying, and meet you with both the frameworks to make sense of it and the ritual intelligence to move through it.
You will be held however you show up. And we will get to work on your idea even when things are unclear.
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Cleo and Wā aren’t on standard social media platforms but you can access the Wā Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. You can also sign up to Letters from Cleo to receive occasional updates on Cleo’s global travels, rituals and offerings.
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Good! I don't work that way.
There's a difference between a framework and framing. Frameworks are handed to you. Framing emerges from the work itself. It is introduced once clarity arrives.
My approach leaves space to free flow. This is where the real thinking happens. And once something starts to take shape, we begin building a gentle structure around it.
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Each mentor, coach, and guide has different gifts to offer, so it is important to understand where the need comes from before seeking support.
Here is a ritual to help you.
Find a quiet space and ask yourself:
What keeps me up at night about my business?
How do I want to feel after a session?
What environment helps me do my best thinking?
Once you have sat with those answers ask yourself: can Cleo help me with these? And if you need some extra support, you can always get in touch.
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It depends, and I want to be honest about that. I am not a specialist in neurodivergent care.
What I can offer is a container that does not require you to show up perfectly. The work happens between sessions too. Through an unlimited communication line, at whatever hour you become ready. Logging on to 20 voice notes from a client mid-epiphany is not uncommon, and I love it. All thoughts, half-formed and whole, are welcome here.
Get in touch and we can figure out together if my approach is a fit.
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Cleo Shortland is based in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, working locally and abroad with clients in Australia, North America, UK and Europe.
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No, quite the opposite.Some of my favourite clients are the ones who've zigzagged, pivoted, started over, or built something that doesn't fit a neat category – usually in the quest of finding something more fulfilling.
I've done the same myself, so I'm not here to hand you a cookie-cutter roadmap. What we build together is shaped entirely around you: your story, your strengths, and the vision that excites you most.
Unconventional paths often lead to the most interesting places giving you greater clarity and direction.