The story behindMatriarch.
A second chance, a game, and a business born on a couch.
A couple of years ago
I gotsick. Really sick.
I've been in business a long time. I've run various things, including one that employed over 20 staff and kept the bills paid for over a decade. But my resume isn't why I'm here. The reason is a little weirder than that.
I spent over two years in hospital feeling like a potato with needs, and then slowly — carefully — I started to heal enough to think about something other than the symptoms in my body.
Then I went quietly batty. Laying still and doing nothing isn't really my style. I'm the kind of person who loves to build things, analyse things. My husband Scott used to take me on dates and we'd end up playing the "what would we do if this was our business" game. Yes, I think that's a game.
So there I was, potato-style on the couch, hunting for some kind of purpose so I didn't waste this strange and beautiful second chance I'd been given. I started building websites for people — familiar ground, and I'm good at it — but I found that mostly people don't need a new website. They need to know why the one they have doesn't work. And that's just the game.
So Matriarch was born. She serves women because I'm bloody good at this and I want women to benefit. That's a statement of my politics, my ethics, and my heart.
What Iactually do.
I research your specific situation and help you find the path forward.
Not a framework applied to your business. Not a mindset reframe. Not a $47 course and an affirmation. I go and look at what's actually there — your market, your competitors, your pricing, the specific thing that isn't working — and I tell you what I see. Then we figure out the path forward together, starting from what you won't compromise.
I've spent 15 years working with small businesses. I've sold in person and online, everything from carrots to software. The throughline? My values are always reflected in how I structure my business. Which means I understand what it costs to do it that way — and why it's worth it.
The clients I do my best work with are building something that doesn't have a template. They're pioneers in their space — values-led, structurally unusual, tired of advice that either ignores their constraints or tries to talk them out of them. They don't need someone to fix them. They need someone who gets it.
If you're asking how do I grow without becoming the thing I didn't want to become — that's the question I'm here for.
Feministpractice.
I'm a fat disabled woman who spent two years in hospital thinking about what I wanted to do with whatever came next. This practice is the answer. I built it for people who are navigating systemic oppression in their businesses — not as a niche, but because that's my life and the lives of the people I want to spend my time with.
Feminist practice means naming the actual hurdles. It means not pretending that building a business while Black, disabled, queer, or trans is the same as building one without those constraints. It means doing it visibly anyway — because every person from a marginalised group who builds something sustainable makes it easier for the next one.
This practice is explicitly for women, trans women, non-binary and gender queer people, people of colour, and disabled people. If that's you, you're already in the right place.
What people say.
"Reading this report felt like being genuinely seen. Not just as a business, but as a person."
"This report has been extremely helpful. The insight has been amazing. I love that you saw exactly where the issues were."
"Thank you for your guidance. It's been invaluable."