Why We're Partnering With a Women's Business Community — And Why It Makes Perfect Sense

riders&elephants × She Is Unleashed: A new kind of partnership for emotional culture.

Today we kicked off something a little different for riders&elephants. We launched a 12-month partnership with She Is Unleashed — a women-in-business community that runs weekly networking groups across Aotearoa New Zealand.

On the surface, you might wonder: why would an emotional culture company partner with a women's networking organisation? Where's the overlap between ECD facilitation and business networking events?

The answer, it turns out, is almost everything.

Who is She Is Unleashed?

She Is Unleashed was founded by Kim Brown after she returned to New Zealand from Australia, building a business but craving something deeper than surface-level networking. She wanted a space where women could be genuinely seen, supported, and safe to grow — both personally and professionally.

What started as that search for real connection has grown into a community of women across New Zealand, with networking groups running weekly in multiple regions. Their tagline — Lead With Heart, Build With Fire — tells you a lot about what they're about.

These aren't your typical hand-out-a-business-card, 60-second-pitch networking events. SIU groups are built around genuine connection, vulnerability, and supporting each other through the real challenges of running a business. Their philosophy is grounded in what they call the Four S's: helping women feel Safe, Soothed, Seen, and Supported.

Why this partnership makes sense

At riders&elephants, we believe emotions are data. When we understand how people feel, we unlock better collaboration, better leadership, and better outcomes.

She Is Unleashed believes the same thing — they've just been applying it to the community and personal development rather than the workplace culture. Their leaders already create spaces where people connect. They already know that vulnerability drives real growth.

When we met Kim and her team, we realised we'd been working toward a similar goal from different directions. They had the community. We had the tools. 

How the partnership works

We've designed a 12-month pilot programme that gives 12 SIU community leaders across New Zealand access to ECD tools, training, and support. Here's what it looks like:

Quarterly meetups — Four 90-minute sessions throughout the year, each focused on a different emotional theme. Q1 is Change. Q2 is Culture. Q3 is Leadership. Q4 is Stakeholders & Customers. Each meetup is facilitated by Kayleigh Woodings, one of our Master Elephant Riders.

ECD course access — All 12 leaders work through one of our online ECD Specialist Courses, building their confidence to facilitate emotional culture conversations in their own communities.

A dedicated community space — A private hub inside our Elephant Rider Community, where SIU leaders can share experiences, ask questions, access resources, and support each other between meetups.

New conversation guides — For each quarterly theme, we're creating custom ECD conversation guides that leaders can take straight into their weekly networking groups. These make it easy to run a meaningful emotional culture activity without needing to be a certified facilitator.

What happened at the kick-off

Today's first session focused on the theme of emotions & change. We ran two ECD activities: one exploring how leaders felt during the best and worst change experiences they've had at work, and another reflecting on a recent period of personal change.

The conversations were exactly what you'd hope for. Honest. Vulnerable. Real.

Cards were on the table — literally — and within minutes, these women were sharing stories about career pivots, personal challenges, and the emotions they rarely get to name in a professional setting. The kind of conversations that remind you why this work matters.

We also walked everyone through the partnership plan for the year, toured the community space, and showed leaders how to share their experiences back with the group after they run activities at their own events.

What this means for The ECD

This partnership represents something we've been thinking about for a while. The Emotional Culture Deck was created for workplaces — for teams, leaders, and organisations. But the principles behind it apply wherever people gather.

Community groups. Networking events. Leadership circles. Any space where people come together and would benefit from talking about how they feel rather than just what they think.

She Is Unleashed gives us the chance to explore what happens when you put emotional culture tools in the hands of community leaders — people who already believe in the power of connection and are gathering groups of people every single week.

Early signs? They run with it.

What's next

Over the coming months, we'll be sharing what we learn from this partnership. How the leaders use the tools. What works in a community setting versus a workplace one. What conversations emerge when you bring The ECD into a space that's already built on trust & vulnerability.

Our Q2 meetup in May will focus on Culture — exploring how people feel in their best versus worst workplace cultures, and setting intentions for the emotional cultures they want to create.

If you're a community builder, a networking group leader, or someone who runs regular gatherings of people and you're curious about how emotional culture tools could work in your space — we'd love to hear from you.

Because the conversations that matter most aren't just happening in boardrooms. They're happening wherever people are brave enough to ask: how do you feel?

The riders&elephants × She Is Unleashed partnership launched on 5 March 2026. To learn more about The Emotional Culture Deck click here or explore how it might work in your community, reach out to us to find out more team@ridersandelephants.com