Building Something Real From Pain: Reflections on Lived Experience Entrepreneurship

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to trust that your story is powerful enough to build something real from.

It was a true honour to join Natasha Siryj and Janine Defontaine on this Finding North panel, facilitated with heart (and some epic tech resilience!) by Hayley Harris. Together, we unpacked what it means to bring our whole selves into self-employment - the grief, the fire, the faith, and the freedom.

In this session, I shared how my journey into lived experience work didn’t begin with ambition. It began with heartbreak. I was 14 when my father, a decorated Air Force General in Egypt, went blind overnight. At 16, I buried him and became a full-time carer for my mother, who battled mental ill health until her death by suicide. The systems meant to care for people like her failed us - and I decided I would never just work within broken systems again. I wanted to help transform them.

Today, through Lived Experience Solutions (LEXs), I work at the intersection of culture, grief, and systems transformation. This panel reminded me that I’m not alone. There are others - leaders, mentors, dreamers - who are quietly and powerfully reshaping the world through lived experience entrepreneurship.

💻 You can now watch the recording here

 Passcode: jCP2VL?F

To everyone building a life and business rooted in lived experience - I see you. And as I said in the session: “If you’re waiting to feel ready, you might wait forever.” Start where you are. The power is already within you. Thank you, Finding North, for this opportunity.

LEXs is Michael Elwan's Perth-based practice, working online across Australia. Services include training and workshops, lived experience consultancy, Social Work Supervision, Lived Experience Leadership Supervision, Frontline Supervision, therapy and keynote speaking. Training and workshops can be commissioned for organisational leaders, practitioners and frontline teams, and carers, families and communities. Explore LEXs services.