“The Find A Tree programme has had a profound impact on me, both personally and in the way I approach my business.

One of the biggest lessons I took away from the programme is that you don’t have to wait for one big opportunity, breakthrough, or perfect moment to make your dreams happen. You can start exactly where you are, with what you have, and take it one step at a time.

Find A Tree taught me to deconstruct my goals. Instead of looking at a big goal and feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs to happen to achieve it, I learnt to ask myself: “What is the smallest thing I can do today to move towards this? Then I do that one thing, and from there, I take the next step.”

This has been particularly pivotal for me as a creative entrepreneur and as the founder of SOLEIL. Building a fashion brand comes with so many moving parts, and there have been moments where the scale of what I wanted to achieve felt much bigger than my current resources or capacity. Before Find a Tree, it was easy for me to look at a challenge and focus on how far away I was from the solution. The programme helped me shift my focus from the size of the problem to the possibility of the first step.

Now, when I encounter a challenge or set a new goal, I try not to ask myself, “How am I going to achieve all of this? Instead, I ask, Where can I begin?”That change in perspective has influenced the way I plan, make decisions, and move my business forward. I have become much more intentional about breaking larger goals into smaller, achievable milestones and trusting that consistent progress eventually compounds into something much bigger.

On a personal level, Find A Tree has also taught me to be more patient with my own journey. It reminded me that progress doesn’t always have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Sometimes progress is sending the email, making the connection, completing the application, learning the skill, finishing the task, or simply taking the next step when you don’t yet know exactly where it will lead.

The most powerful part has been looking back and realising that many of the things I once thought were too big or too far away have actually become reality, not because I suddenly had everything figured out, but because I kept taking small steps towards them.

Find A Tree changed the way I see ambition. It taught me that I don’t have to make one giant leap to reach where I want to go. I can build towards it, piece by piece, step by step, until one day I look back and realise I have already arrived.”