For more than 20 years, Maggie Doyne and the people around her have been building something that once seemed impossible.
Maggie is Co-founder and CEO of BlinkNow, author of Between the Mountain and the Sky and the subject of Jeremy Power Regimbal’s documentary of the same name. Together with co-founder Tope Bahadur Malla and a largely Nepali team, BlinkNow has grown from a small children’s home into a wider community-development organisation working across education, family support, women’s empowerment, health, sustainability and poverty prevention. Maggie’s work has been recognised by CNN Heroes, the Dalai Lama, Forbes, Elizabeth Gilbert, Katie Couric, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and The New York Times Magazine.
More than 285,000 people have already watched the documentary. It has received more than 30 festival awards worldwide, including Audience Choice and Student Choice at Telluride Mountainfilm.
Watch the film: https://www.betweenthemountainandthesky.com/
What comes through strongly in this conversation is the impressive leader Maggie has become.
She and Tope openly look for people who know more than they do, build around different strengths and give people genuine responsibility for their piece.
As Maggie puts it: “Everybody’s the CEO.”
Whether someone is with the cows, leading the school or teaching in a classroom, their contribution matters. BlinkNow has grown slowly, organically and through listening to community rather than following a predetermined plan. Maggie describes this diversity of leadership and co-leadership as an important part of their “secret sauce”.
The conversation moves through family, leadership, communication, regulating yourself so you can “hold centre”, the long development of BlinkNow, and the deeper work of preventing children from becoming orphaned by addressing multidimensional poverty.
Maggie also talks about BlinkNow’s growing role in helping other social-impact leaders and organisations. This year, 84 organisations applied to take part in the BlinkNow Leadership Academy and Summit. BlinkNow is increasingly sharing what it has learnt as an open-source model with community leaders around the world. And Maggie makes an important point: there is no shortage of people who want better for children. Every community has dreamers, changemakers and people already doing this work. The opportunity is to find them, support them and help them move faster.
If Maggie’s story moves you, watch the film, support BlinkNow, and/or get involved by finding the people already doing this work in your own community.
What you’ll hear
• Addressing the root causes of orphanhood through education, dignified work, women’s empowerment, health and stronger communities
• BlinkNow Summit, STEPS Program, sharing learning beyond Nepal and the possibility of DO Nepal
• “All it takes is one stable grown-up to change a child’s life.”
• Parenting, communication and learning to be steady, warm, firm and boundaried
• Why Maggie and Tope deliberately find people with skills they do not have
• “Everybody’s the CEO” and giving people real responsibility for their area
• Making time for sleep, nature and recovery to stay in the work for the long haul
• Why Maggie sees no shortage of dreamers, changemakers and people wanting better for children around the world
Guest links
• Maggie Doyne: https://www.maggie-doyne.com/
• Maggie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiedoyne
• BlinkNow: http://www.blinknow.org/
• Give to BlinkNow: http://www.blinknow.org/give
• Between the Mountain and the Sky film: https://www.betweenthemountainandthesky.com/ [sign up to be notified of the next global screening]
• Between the Mountain and the Sky book: https://www.amazon.com/Between-Mountain-Sky-Mothers-Healing/dp/0785240284
• BlinkNow Summit: https://www.blinknow.org/blog/blinknow-summit-brings-together-leaders-working-for-nepals-children-and-families/
• BlinkNow Strengthening Public Schools Through Partnerships (STEPS): https://www.blinknow.org/scaling-programs/
Conversation mentions
• Anna Beuselinck’s Natural Genius: https://youtu.be/sL0mWUU06nY
• The DO Lectures: https://thedolectures.com/
• Maggie Doyne's DO Lectures talk: https://thedolectures.com/speakers/maggie-doyne/
• Jeremy Power Regimbal: https://www.jeremypowerregimbal.com/about
• Lauren Holden Kilbane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenholdenkilbane/
• Sarah Blondin's meditations: https://www.sarahblondin.com/
Chapters
00:13 Maggie, the film, Vancouver Island and preparing for the long haul
03:03 Anna Beuselinck, DO Lectures and the ripple effects of one vulnerable talk
05:47 Family, communication and making the person in front of you matter
12:52 Holding centre, regulation and growing up alongside the children
15:42 Listening, co-leadership and slow organic growth
18:54 “Everybody’s the CEO”: finding people who know more than you
24:40 The children growing up, prevention and addressing multidimensional poverty
29:18 BlinkNow Summit, STEPS and sharing the model beyond Nepal
31:26 Love of life, staying in the work and the possibility of DO Nepal
Explore further
Discover Natural Genius: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Other platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568387
Subscribe to hear future Natural Genius conversations.
Credits
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Kiama and Vancouver Island, 7 August 2026.
Produced at the Kiama office, 7–12 August 2026.
Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au
