Stunning Michelle

I came from an incredible upbringing with great education, love, and support from my family as well as running with any opportunity my parents worked hard to provide me. Studying at the NZ School of Dance and graduating with a position as a dancer with Black Grace in Auckland was all I had dreamt of. 12 years of hard work, sweat, tears and sacrifices to get to this point was all I had dreamt of as an aspiring 20-year-old performer.

Three years later, losing my Mum to terminal brain cancer at the age of 23 spiralled me into a path of self-discovery and turbulence. I chose to rebel and break away from societal norms. I was hurting, I was confused, and I was angry at losing the most important person to me. I ended up in the taboo world of commercial modelling and adult entertainment – I believe this stemmed originally from self-worth issues I needed to heal and confront. The career I found myself in for 7 years consisted of being paid to party and look pretty – fuelled by alcohol, money, bright lights, good times and blurs.

I decided to start my own talent agency to help empower and guide similar souls wanting to express themselves in a fun and professional environment where they could grow and feel worthy, appreciated, seen, and discovered to take their passions further. My biggest passion and energy in life is creating opportunities for others based off what could have been done better on my journey. Now having over 110 contractors nationwide I feel blown away by the magnitude it has grown to.

After Covid hit, events completely came to a halt, and I decided to relocate to Wellington for seven months where I went back to what was most important to me: Family. After rebalancing and grounding, I found myself being headhunted for an Auckland based technology company, creating a world’s first product in the Metaverse. The uncertainty of being involved in something that had never been created inspired me to deep dive into the nooks and crannies of who I was at a soul level. Being a host on Talkback NZ and my technology role as community manager consisting of public speaking, sharing my insights, views and opinions made me self-reflect on honing down who I was – identity first. If you don’t truly know who you are, how do you ever expect to fully understand another?

My Biggest Life Lesson to date: Deciding to love myself unconditionally knowing I’m the only person I can’t run from. I’ll finish with one of my favourite quotes from the book, Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis: “Girl, get a hold of your life. Stop medicating, stop hiding out, stop being afraid, stop giving away pieces of yourself, stop saying you can’t do it. Stop the negative self-talk, stop abusing your body, stop putting it off for tomorrow or Monday or next year. Stop crying about what happened and take control of what happens next”