Integritus Prime

Winning the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award a week ago has taken some time to sink in – actually, I am still processing. When my name was announced, I felt surprised and a little overwhelmed. Entrepreneurship can be a long and uncertain journey, especially when much of your work happens quietly, one person or one group at a time. We often keep moving from one project, client, challenge, or idea to the next without pausing to appreciate what has been built.

This award gave me one of those rare opportunities to pause. It made me look back at the years of work, learning, risk, persistence, service, reinvention, and faith that brought me here. More importantly, it made me reflect on what this recognition means beyond the award itself.

1. I genuinely did not expect to win. I applied because a client strongly encouraged me to do so. They saw something in my work that perhaps I was too close to see for myself, and they were persistent enough that I listened. Even after submitting the application, I did not expect to win. You see, much of my work happens behind the scenes. It takes place in coaching conversations, workshops, classrooms, consultations, training programs, retreats, guided meditations, and quiet moments when someone begins to understand themselves differently. It is focused on helping people feel safer, stronger, more confident, and better able to make choices for their own lives. Empowerment work does not always produce the kinds of results that can be easily photographed or displayed. Sometimes the result is a person finally setting a boundary, or a leader becoming more aware of how their behavior affects others. Sometimes it is a person understanding their trauma responses, finding the courage to speak, or learning how to manage stress and anxiety. These shifts may happen privately, but they can transform families, workplaces, organisations, and communities. That is why winning surprised me. I did not know whether this kind of work would be seen as entrepreneurship in the more conventional sense. The award affirmed that creating tools, services, spaces, and opportunities that help people sustainably change their lives is also a form of innovation (not just building an app) and a form of sustainability (not only environmental). Quiet work still has impact, even when we cannot always see how far it travels.

2. This is a significant win for mental wellbeing. While I am honoured personally, I also see this as a win for the growing recognition of mental wellbeing in Fiji. My work is trauma-informed, which means it acknowledges that people’s experiences, environments, relationships, and histories shape how they think, feel, respond, lead, and connect with others. For many years, conversations about trauma, stress, anxiety, emotional safety, boundaries, and healing were often kept private. People were expected to cope, remain strong, and keep going. Yet we know that mental wellbeing affects every part of life: our physical health, relationships, work, leadership, decision-making, confidence, and capacity to contribute. To have trauma-informed work recognised through a national entrepreneurship award feels significant. It signals that work supporting emotional and mental wellbeing has value—not only as a personal service, but as part of building healthier organisations, communities, and societies. Of course, the work is by no means complete – there is still stigma to challenge, greater access to build, and much more learning needed to dismantle the harm from systems like patriarchy, neocolonialism and capitalism. But national recognition creates another opening for these conversations. It helps affirm that wellbeing is not a luxury or an afterthought. It is a key part of how people thrive.

3. What comes next carries a new stamp of credibility. An award does not change the values behind my work, but it does change the platform from which I can continue it. The projects, partnerships, programs, books, app content, coaching, facilitation, and new ideas that come next will now carry a national stamp of credibility and greater visibility. I am grateful for that visibility because it can help the work reach people who may not have encountered it otherwise. It may open doors for new collaborations and allow me to bring trauma-informed approaches into more spaces. Most of all, I hope it helps more people recognize that asking for support, developing self-awareness, and caring for their mental wellbeing are signs of strength.

I am grateful to the client who urged me to apply, to every client who trusted me, and to every person who has attended a programme, read a book, listened to my work, downloaded the app, shared feedback, or recommended me to someone else.

This award may have my name on it, but it reflects a much larger community of trust and support for inner work. I receive it with gratitude—and with a revitalized commitment to keep doing work that empowers people, strengthens wellbeing, and creates meaningful change.