Working at the intersection of ritual intelligence & venture leadership
Founded by Cleo Shortland, the Wā Programme is a 1:1, four-month guided journey from emerging idea to first form, through ceremony, deep listening, and experimentation.
Working at the intersection of ritual intelligence & venture leadership
Founded by Cleo Shortland, the Wā Programme is a 1:1, four-month guided journey from emerging idea to first form, through ceremony, deep listening, and experimentation.
Wā
(noun) time, season, period of time, interval, term, duration.
The Wā Programme
This is for you if you:
Have an emerging idea for something special to you.
Need a devoted space to nurture what feels creative and wild.
No longer want to mute elements of yourself out of fear of judgement.
Feel a pressing urgency that now is the time to bring your idea into form.
Want to ground your brilliance into aligned, sustainable action.
And you know the old way won't work this time.
The Wā Programme is a four-month 1:1 container for the founder who is ready to create something new.
From emerging idea to first form
This is a journey of identity, connection, creation, and trusting your contribution. You will leave the programme with a tangible first version of your emerging idea in total alignment with self.
Identity: Together we rework your story so that what feels out of reach or uncomfortable was always meant for you.
Relationship: Looking across potential value chains and support networks to establish a web of inter-connected relationships, each holding meaning and purpose.
Creation: Grounding into your current reality, bringing your idea into its first form, claiming who you are today.
Contribution: What emerges becomes your contribution to the world, and together we'll explore what this truly means.
"My time working with Cleo was alchemical. I had never felt so deeply held and understood, a natural gift Cleo holds.
Through ritual, contemplation, and a focus on creating the future, Cleo sped up my personal evolution in a way only very few people can.
I learned that freedom, adventure, and contribution were what I valued most, and that led me away from contracting to my own business and writing career."
— Rhea James FoxWhat is yearning to come through you, and into the world?
Kia ora, I'm Cleo Shortland, founder of The Wā Programme.
I left a stable career to bet my last savings on my own business. It worked, and along the way, I found myself drawn not to the businesses I was building, but to the people leading them. Rooted in te ao Māori, that pull became Wā.
My work will challenge you to understand what is yearning to come through you. To take that, and use your current reality to bring it into its first form. Then, to declare its existence as your contribution to the world.
What you receive
This 4 month experience gives you 8 fortnightly 2 hour sessions with Cleo, each building on the last, unlimited communication line between sessions, and a bespoke Trello board to track progress
❋ Programme start dateBegins 24 August through to 20 December 2026
❋ FormatSessions are 1:1 in-person Bay of Islands, NZ or video call
❋ Expert GuidanceCleo Shortland works with you to build a journey moving in purpose
❋ InvestmentUSD $10,000, optional payment in four monthly instalments of $2,500
“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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Rather than watching the time, we are moving through it, and with that, sessions tend to range between 90 minutes and 2 hours long.
This is deep work that requires space for reflection, ideation, and then determining experiments and aligned action for between sessions.
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I have the capacity to sit with the weight of what you're carrying. Your emerging idea, calling to come into creation, and into the world.
The frameworks I'll bring to help you make sense of it, and the rituals that will add depth and beauty as you journey through and beyond the programme.
You will be held with care, whatever you're moving through. And we will get to work on your idea even in those moments where things feel unclear.
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I’m taking a break from standard social media channels to focus more on the programme.
You can watch or listen to the Wā Podcaston Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. I film the podcast on my travels with a focus on personal stories and lives behind the brand or venture.
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I've been building frameworks for close to two decades, and a journey without one risks floating into ideation forever. I use four pillars, identity, relationship, creation, and contribution, to keep things open for spontaneity and experimentation, while still landing somewhere real by the end. Bringing your emerging idea into its first form gives you a sense of completion and the reaching of a major milestone. This is what makes it all feel alive and true.
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The real question underneath the programme isn't really about balance, it's this: what does your creation look like when you don't have four months to make it, because part of that time is finding the idea itself?
That constraint is part of the work. The frameworks, four pillars, four months, a clear deliverable by the end, hold the shape of that question so you're never floating in ideation without a destination.
Ritual moves alongside the frameworks, adding the depth that makes sure what emerges is actually true for you, not just finished on time.
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No. You don't need a guide, just as you don't need a personal trainer or an interior designer.
You already have the capacity to shape the quality of your own life and work.
Here is a ritual to help guide you in understanding if the Wā Programme is the right fit for you.
Find a quiet space and ask yourself:
What is this emerging idea costing me by staying unformed?
What would change if I had someone walking this threshold with me?
Can I meet the cost, the time, and the discomfort this would ask of me right now?
If the cost would place a burden on your family or your business, don't. If you don't have the time to commit right now, don't.
Once you have sat with those answers, you'll know. And if you want to talk it through, you can always get in touch.
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It’s important for me to note that I am not a specialist in neurodivergent care.
What I can offer is a container that invites you in through structured sessions together with the unlimited communication line, and through your independent experiments and aligned action.
Logging on to 20 messages and voice notes from a client mid-epiphany is not uncommon, and I love it. All thoughts, half-made and whole, are welcome on the Wā Programme.
Get in touch and we can talk about my approach further and whether it is a fit.
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I’m 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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Some of my favourite clients are the ones who have zigzagged, pivoted, started over, or built something that doesn't fit a neat category. That's simply where I find the most alignment, it's not that one path is better than another, it's the kind of journey I'm best placed to walk alongside.
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.