Blake spent nearly a decade in sales on the Sunshine Coast, mastering the art of hitting targets while slowly losing the will to live. Eventually, the spreadsheets and small talk wore thin, and he made the call to move back to NZ in search of something more meaningful. That “something” turned out to be building a wellness ecomm brand with a mate—an idea that’s since snowballed into a thriving business that Blake now runs almost entirely solo. From sourcing to shipping to setting up the backend automations no one else wants to touch, he somehow does it all.

He’s a born problem-solver—the kind of person who will happily spend six hours watching YouTube tutorials or reading obscure forums to fix a plugin or learn a new platform from scratch. If there’s a rabbit hole, Blake’s already ten tabs deep and probably halfway to building his own version. Some might call that intense. I call it his superpower.

When he’s not working or Googling his way to enlightenment, Blake is usually deep into a game with a good storyline, obsessively bingeing and discussing our latest TV hyperfixation with me, or lovingly tormenting me with unsolicited fun facts he picked up on his 2am internet dive. He’s thoughtful, quietly brilliant, endlessly curious—and the kind of guy who will absolutely find the answer, even if it doesn’t exist yet.

Laura has spent the better part of a decade designing for some of New Zealand’s biggest household names—Briscoes, Rebel Sport, The Warehouse Group, Bendon and more. But big corporate brands eventually left her craving something more personal: work with real meaning, real people, and fewer corporate PowerPoint decks.

These days, Laura channels her world-class design chops into helping businesses tell their stories in a way that actually feels like them. Whether she’s dreaming up a new brand identity or tweaking letter spacing until it’s “just right,” she brings both head and heart to everything she touches. And she’s not just here to make things look good—she wants to understand the soul of your business. The quirks. The challenges. The wins. Then she quietly weaves all of that into design that speaks for itself.

Laura brings the same care and intention to her relationships as she does to her work. Whether it’s designing a brand that feels truly you or surprising you with a wildly specific gift you mentioned in passing two years ago, Laura really hears you. She doesn’t just listen—she remembers, she reflects, and she shows up (often with impeccable wrapping and a punny card).

Off-duty, Laura is a cozy gamer, a master of the meme, a connoisseur of cursed birthday cards and the first to check in when you’re having a rough day. She’s endlessly creative, deeply empathetic, and has the rare ability to make you feel both totally seen and lightly roasted at the same time. In short: Laura is the heart and soul of Stage One and we would not be doing what we're doing without her.