Meet Rose of Vessel Wellbeing

Rose Lee is a strategist, consultant and coach-in-training who has founded several companies and worked alongside thousands of businesses in Aotearoa and abroad on community engagement, business innovation, circular economies, public programming, independent publishing and creative entrepreneurship projects. Rose loves working with people to create spaces, places, products and experiences that facilitate transformation and growth. Sign up to Rose’s Substack newsletter at www.vesselwellbeing.substack.com

Currently finishing her Graduate Certificate in Professional Coaching, Rose is launching her business Vessel Wellbeing into the world. She loves to create spaces that facilitate transformation and growth.

Vessel Wellbeing is one such space which offers a compassionate guide to help you find your way through times of change.

Rose, you've had experience working across a wide range of projects and fields. What is your approach to deciding what occupation you'd like to take up next?
I’ve had a very organic approach to my career, but a connective thread has been partnering with others to create transformative experiences and supporting the wellbeing of people and the planet, as well as following my curiosity and earning enough money to live, rather than having a grand plan or attempting to climb any corporate ladders.

I’m so grateful and privileged to be born in this day and age, where I have had the opportunity to weave in and out of so many industries and fields, rather than staying in one role for life. My mum knew that she wanted to be a teacher when she was 5 years old and has been doing that for over 50 years (and still loves her job), which I find amazing but almost incomprehensible!

Most often the decision about what to take up next has come about through serendipitous events that led to opportunities in new fields… a dance class led to co-founding a magazine, applying for a mentor led to developing an independent publishing house and creative agency, running a market stall led to strategic place activation projects and feeling utterly lost led to becoming a coach. I love transformation and change, I like learning and taking on brand new challenges and I’m open to working with lots of different people to explore all sorts of opportunities.

You've worked with Manzana from the very beginning through your work at Auckland Council. Now that your contract has ended, has your relationship to Manzana changed?

I was working with the wonderful Barbara Holloway and team from Auckland Council earlier this year on their city centre place activation programme. This included supporting Manzana, as it was part of Council’s ‘City Spaces’ initiative to reinvigorate central Auckland’s vacant stores, which they run in partnership with Heart of the City and the Karangahape Rd Business Association. I was blown away by the breadth and depth of talent that the space had attracted… there are so many incredible entrepreneurs and business owners at Manzana!

Now that I’ve finished that role with Council, I’m concentrating on completing my coaching certification, consulting on a number of exciting projects, then donating the remainder of my time until the end of this year to Manzana members, offering pro-bono one-one-one coaching sessions. It feels so good to give back to these incredible women who do so much for others.

You're now working on your Graduate Certificate in Professional Coaching. What led you to want to pursue coaching as a next step?

I have to say that coaching wasn’t anything that I consciously chose to pursue. I was actually enrolled to do my Masters in 2020, then the pandemic happened, I dropped out of Uni as the business that my partner and I own had to do a hard pivot in order to survive COVID, then I was blindsided by a medical emergency that resulted in early menopause. This series of significant changes led me to re-evaluate my whole life.

During this time I felt utterly lost in liminal space, so I decided to participate in a coaching course by women’s leadership expert Tara Mohr to try and find some way forward. I recall watching a live Zoom coaching session where Tara asked one of the participants to describe a tricky issue that they were grappling with. By using a series of incredibly insightful questions, she very swiftly moved them from confusion to clarity and they discovered the answers that they needed within. 

It was then that I truly understood how powerful coaching was and I decided to pursue a qualification. Coaching is not about serving answers up on a plate or doling out unsolicited advice, but rather it's about respecting people’s inherent wisdom. By asking the right questions and providing thought-provoking exercises to work through, coaches can help people draw this wisdom and knowledge out, so that they can see more clearly, feel empowered and navigate their own unique path ahead through periods of change. 

Is there any specific sector or kind of space that you would particularly like to coach in? Who would you like to work with?

The great thing about coaching is it concentrates on ‘process’ rather than a particular industry or subject matter, so that means I can work in unlimited sectors and fields which is really exciting! However, I do have a few areas that I’m passionate about and would like to explore. 

The gender pay gap is still an issue and women, as well as other traditionally marginalised people, are not being fully represented in current leadership roles and startup spaces. I’m keen to work with these leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners to support them discovering new spaces and sectors that they develop and expand into, rather than trying to be part of an old failing system that doesn't respect diversity and inclusivity. 

I’m also keen to support women who are going through their midlife transition phase. Menopause is a life-altering experience full of amazing opportunities, but it can seem utterly daunting if you’re not prepared for it. Coaching is definitely a process that can help women chart an exciting path through the changes and fully take advantage of this transformative time in their lives.

What inspired you to name your coaching practice Vessel Wellbeing?

A vessel is a beautiful curved non-linear shape that has form and function and I love the dual meaning of the word, both a craft that provides safe passage across deep waters and a container that provides safe space for holding precious things. My vision is for my coaching practice to live up to its name and offer people a safe place in which to navigate life’s joys and challenges.

While I’m concentrating on ‘coaching’ at the moment I can’t help but think ahead to all the other ways that Vessel could support people, so I deliberately chose the more expansive and embodied word ‘wellbeing’ instead. Once I have my practice up and running, I’d like to explore and offer a number of other modalities and experiences that connect intellect and intuition as well as unify the mind, body and spirit, including somatic therapies, meditation, movement and messy hands-on creative classes to free us from the tyranny of perfection!