PurpleSpace Confident Conversations

Michelle Irving is a true pioneer and thought leader in the Chronic Illness space. She is the Founder and CEO of “Career and Chronic Illness” and has over 15 years experience in Mentoring and Executive Coaching for people navigating their career while living with chronic illness. Her work comes out of her own lived experience of navigating chronic illness and a demanding career.

Michelle is on a mission to de-shame and transform conversations around illness and her organisation is now expanding to work with employers to educate and equip managers to support their people who are living with chronic illness. In this interview you will hear practical ways by which we can navigate chronic illness while building our successful careers - in ways that work for us and our bodies. You will be struck by her warmth and authenticity as she maps the journey and challenges we face when diagnosed with chronic illness.

She speaks powerfully about her own life before and after chronic illness - learning how to have difficult conversations - what to say, when and to whom. Developing professional boundaries while managing emotional, mental and physical capacities in order to define and progress her career of choice These experiences have informed Michelle’s powerful body of work that is now transforming the lives of others with chronic illness.

Michelle is Australian and started her working life in financial services straight after school, returning to university to study philosophy and subsequently pursuing a career in the civil service during which she became chronically ill. Her story, as to what comes next, is fascinating and you will come away with inspiration and ideas to try as we experience the new normal of our lives with chronic illness.

Michelle’s passion and commitment to living a life with purpose through finding sovereignty and agency is deeply moving. These interviews are brought to you thanks to remarkable people who choose to share their learning about developing inner confidence so that others can learn faster.

The first tranche of six films is brought to you with thanks to LSEG who are working to build a culture of belonging for everybody and accessibility is a key part of that. Once you have listened, we ask one thing from you: send the link to the film to five others who you think might be able to pass on the messages to five others. We are on a mission at PurpleSpace to cascade a universal definition of inner confidence as a strong expectation of a positive outcome and to share the practical things we can do to navigate our working worlds while managing disability.

Enjoy this episode.

I first noticed Emma Olivier when she set up her own company, Twenty Percent, an advisory company based in Australia that provides high-quality services to help organisations unleash the power of the 20% of Australians who have a disability.

I was immediately struck by her ability to be out, loud and proud about her own experience of disability. When we finally met for dinner in London I saw at first-hand how she is a woman who means business and is ambitious for meaningful systemic change when it comes to disability inclusion. I am a huge fan of her work.

She starts her presentations with the opener ‘don’t limit yourself by what others say.’

Emma encourages us to create our own view of how we want to be perceived. In this film and through our conversation together, you'll hear her thoughts about how inner confidence relates to our capacity to create our own personal brand. And own it.

She speaks powerfully about her life. Emma was born with one hand and she talks about her school life in the 80s, when we didn’t really celebrate difference: we celebrated being the same as everyone else.

Emma credits the ‘gift’ of disability as being a problem-solving skill, which she has used to carve a successful career. She has 30+ years of consulting experience having first started her career with Arthur Anderson. She then moves on to Accenture where she eventually becomes a Managing Director. While there she becomes executive sponsor for disability inclusion in ANZ Accenture for three years. During this time, the employee reference group grew significantly and was a finalist in the 2022 Australian Network on Disability awards. There’s a running theme through Emma’s job titles, managing huge operations for complex organisations. You will be riveted and come away with many ideas to try.

These interviews are brought to you with thanks to remarkable people choosing to share their learning about developing inner confidence so that others can learn faster.

Once you have listened, we ask one thing from you: send the link to the film to five others who you think might be able to pass on the messages to five others.

We are on a mission at PurpleSpace to cascade a universal definition of inner confidence, a strong expectation of a positive outcome, and to share the practical things we can do to navigate our working worlds while managing disability.

Enjoy this episode.

Belinda May is a passionate advocate of the need to develop inner confidence. In our film together you will hear her describe that process being ‘like oxygen’, enabling us the freedom to explore who we are.

Belinda speaks candidly about her life, before and after her diagnosis of a life-threatening disease for which there is no cure. The medication that saves her life, also threatens it. Belinda will share the impact of her disease and her early childhood tragedy with raw and sometimes spicy truth, and the inner confidence she gained as a result of both. She is a dedicated proponent of laughter and of being curious about our circumstances with compassionate humour.

Initially, feeling she had no chance to secure a job after college (despite a secret thought of being a global flight attendant), Belinda became fascinated by law and decided to take what she describes as the ‘safer’ route by studying to become a lawyer.

At the height of her career as Partner at Dentons, she is the senior member of the Dentons Consumer Products team, where she practices a unique blend of consumer product safety, products liability and accessibility law. It was during her tenure at Dentons that she received her diagnosis and has been on a journey of awareness, self-acceptance, compassion and building inner confidence, ever since.

Belinda started Dentons’ Disability/Accessibility ERG and has been named to a number of leadership positions, both inside and outside of the organization. In addition to being recognized as a 2024 Best Lawyer In America, she recently received the rare and humbling honour of being a Chambers Ranked Band One Attorney, nationally and individually, for products liability/regulatory. She was named a Global Ambassador for PurpleSpace, the world’s only professional organization hub for disability ERG leaders, their employers and allies. She describes her work with PurpleSpace as amongst the most meaningful of her life’s experiences and passions.

Belinda continues as co-chair of the Dentons Disabilities/Accessibility Employee Resource Group (ERG), a member of the US Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee and a past member of Dentons Global Inclusion Advisory Council. She is an Allyship 3.0 Leader, and was featured in the firm’s Global Storytelling Montage and Purpose Statement, having introduced “Storytelling” as a key component of many of the Firm’s employee resource groups and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Her work as a Stanford University Ambassador, “Applied Neuroscience of Compassion” and her work as a PurpleSpace Global Ambassador, reflect a life passion embracing common humanity. You will be riveted by Belinda’s story, her passion and her drive and come away with some ideas to try. I particularly loved her description of seeing her diagnosis as a gift of awareness, which she feels has led her through many successes in life.

These interviews are brought to you with thanks to remarkable people choosing to share their learning about developing inner confidence so that others can learn faster.

Once you have listened, we ask one thing from you: send the link to the film to five others who you think might be able to pass on the messages to five others.

We are on a mission at PurpleSpace to cascade a universal definition of inner confidence, a strong expectation of a positive outcome, and to share the practical things we can do to navigate our working worlds while managing disability.

Enjoy this episode.