Journey
The person behind ReachDesign and the kaupapa that drives everything.
Vernette Shapland
Walking alongside pakihi owners with honesty, systems, and aroha.
About Vernette
Vernette Shapland is Māori (from Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa) and the founder of ReachDesign.
She built this business, and rebuilt it, through things that would have finished many people off: losing half her clients overnight during COVID, taking out a loan to survive, navigating grief from multiple losses at once, burnout, and a PTSD diagnosis. She kept going.
She does not lead with credentials, she leads with her story: because she knows that when someone goes first (really sharing the truth of where they have been) it makes it safe for others to do the same.
That is the "Vernette goes first" kaupapa, and it sits at the heart of everything ReachDesign does.
She brings professional expertise (systems, tools, automation, process design, strategy, and finance) along with lived wisdom: the messy, hard won stuff that never makes it into a business plan. Both matter equally.
Outside of work, you will find her in the olive grove, exploring the Wairarapa coastlines, and mentoring others who are finding their way in business.
The real story
I did not start ReachDesign because I had everything figured out. I started it because I knew what it felt like to be a small business owner with no real support, and I wanted to change that for someone else.
Along the way, I have been through the kind of things that do not usually make it onto a business website. COVID wiped out half my clients overnight. I took a loan. I pivoted everything. I also navigated grief (multiple losses at once) and came out the other side of burnout and a PTSD diagnosis.
I am not sharing that for sympathy. I am sharing it because it shaped who I am as a guide. Because when someone sits across from me (on Google Meet, in their van, at their kitchen table) and says "I am really struggling," I do not just hear the business problem. I hear the person.
I am Māori (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa). The values I carry into this mahi (whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, aroha) are not add ons. They are the foundation.
I built ReachDesign to be the kind of support I needed and could not find. The kind that is practical and human. That meets you where you are. That helps you build something you are proud of in ten years, not just ten months.
No reira, tēnei au. Here I am. Kia ora.