Supporting Young Women to Flourish, with Mandy Dante
Introducing Mandy
Mandy’s book club recommendation: In The Flo, by Alisa Vitti
Mandy is the founder and CEO of Flourish Girl, an ex-speech pathologist, TEDx Speaker and an Australian Accredited Facilitator. She is the first senior female facilitator at The Rites of Passage Institute, paving the way for their school programs for teenage girls across Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. To date, Mandy has worked with over 4,000 teenage girls across Australia. Originating from her time as a speech pathologist, Many has empowered children with a range of communication disorders to find their voice, and carries this passion forward into the work she does today: empowering teenage girls to become unstoppable women through transformative school and mother-daughter programs with Flourish Girl.
What’s something you learned early on when creating Flourish Girl?
Not to doubt the magic I have. When you’re passionate about something, you’ve got to trust it. Even now, I still have to remind myself, “just throw it out there.” It might be a song you’ve written or another creative piece. Either way, people will judge you, so just throw it out there. I wish I had listened to my mentors and done that more, leveraging my strengths.
What’s something you would do differently next time?
Definitely ask for more support. Early on, I got a lot of good advice from mentors and others, but I felt like it was all on me to deliver those actions. I wish I had asked for more support, not only practical support but also emotional support. Going out and speaking to people you really respect, have more experience than you or you just find intimidating can be scary.
I was definitely battling imposter syndrome, worried about not having years and years of experience in industry. What really helped me was to find a community of people who I could lean on and openly say, “I don’t know if I can do this,” and they could be there to support me through the hard times. That really helped, although I wish I had sought it out sooner.
What role does trusting yourself play in starting a business?
It always comes back to trust, trusting the path ahead of you. I’m still just figuring it all out, and I feel like the greatest advice I wish I had early on is to do more internal work on myself. I think establishing that trust in myself early on would have set a really strong foundation for me to go after my big dreams… use my assets to go big. Opportunities flow from that.
One piece of advice I can give is to not compare yourself to other people, because they’re not you. Be patient and persistent in your passions.
For me, I’m such a dreamer that I’m always having visions of what Flourish Girl will be one day. There are these crazy things that I want to do, like run a conference, and I’m not afraid to entertain those dreams. If they become reality, that’s awesome, and if they don’t, that’s fine too. It’s just a way of being. I’m a huge visionary and I think that’s what really got me through those early stages of Flourish Girl.
How has the relationship between your personal identity and Flourish Girl’s identity evolved over the years?
Flourish Girl is constantly throwing new colors out there and bringing new people onto its canvas. It’s always growing, and there’s beauty and magic created along the way. Flourish Girl isn’t just me anymore; it’s an incredible group of women, men and non-binary.
I’ve had to step away and know that success isn’t equivalent to my worth, and failures aren’t equivalent to my worth. It’s been a journey over the last few years to really detach myself from that, even though it’s easy to fall into because Flourish Girl is my passion; it’s my baby.
Now, I’m still in the business but in a different way. I’ve stepped away from the ground work. We’ve brought on facilitators who have been trained, so I don’t need to be in face-to-face programs anymore. I’m focusing more on how we bring our mission forward, how we get more funding and coordinate with schools better. We have worked with over 45 schools in Victoria and have a target on how many girls we want to work with.
What inspires you?
The next general of young women. I’m constantly inspired by the stories I hear from young women who share in our workshops. Two teenage girls reached out to me in the last couple of months to say, “hey, I want more information about your programs because I want to bring them to my school.” I’m just in awe of the creativity they have at their age. It always inspires me and throws more fuel onto the fire for me to keep going. It’s magical.
Where can you see Flourish Girl in 5 to 10 years’ time?
In five to ten years, we’ll definitely be all across Australia, and I’d love some international expansion too, especially at the 10 year mark. Right now, we’re just in Victoria. One of our facilitators just moved back home from Australia to Germany, and I’m like, “Flourish Girl in Germany! It’s coming!” Maybe even Sri Lanka, giving back to my cultural roots. I throw out wild ideas that I’m really excited about because I’m really passionate about this.
I would also love to bring Flourish Girl to mental health communities. I want to create lots of different tools for girls, parents and teachers that teach how to create safe spaces and have authentic conversations with teenage girls. I think that would be amazing.
Find Flourish Girl
Website: flourishgirl.org
Email: facebook.com/flourishgirlorg
Instagram: instagram.com/flourishgirl_
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/flourish-girl