About Dr Leanne Faulkner
Dr Leanne Faulkner works at the intersection of business ownership and wellbeing and she's changing the conversation about both. For years, the wellness industry has told the self-employed to work smarter, meditate more, and manage their stress better, but that's not the full picture.
Her answer comes from lived experience and rigorous research. She built Billie Goat Soap from a boutique brand handmade in her kitchen into a multi-million dollar business sold nationwide and internationally, receiving several prestigious business awards before selling in 2012. Then she stepped back and asked: Why is this so hard? And why does no one talk about the real cost?
That question led to a PhD and a discovery that would reshape her life's work. Her research revealed that the mental health challenges faced by the self-employed are structurally different from those of employees.
Business owners don't just experience work stress, they experience power imbalances, boundary erosion, and loss of agency in businesses they're supposed to control. They hand their autonomy away to difficult clients, to undercharging, to hustle culture until their businesses control them, not the other way around.
And here's what the research made clear: stress in small business isn't a mindset problem. It's a power problem, and everyone in the business ecosystem affects how it manifests.
Put simply, good mental health when you work as a soloist doesn't happen in isolation. When you're self-employed, the relationships you have with others in your business environment can affect your ability to work well.
This isn't wellness advice. This is structural change.
Working with key stakeholders, Dr Leanne Faulkner helps both corporate clients and self-employed suppliers maximise their experience working together to boost engagement, and therefore productivity for both parties.
Today, Leanne provides corporate advisory services to help businesses better understand the realities of self-employment. Corporate clients move from thinking about contractors as a transaction, to engaging contractors in a business relationship.
Leanne is also a popular keynote speaker, and has worked with many industry groups who have significant small business clients. Leanne doesn't just talk about mental health, she reframes it. Her keynotes are transformative, exploring how business owners can harness personal power, regain work control, and lead from a place of clarity and confidence. She's an engaging, authentic speaker who connects with audiences of any size, bringing a fresh way to think about wellbeing at work.
Leanne has consulted with the ATO, Beyond Blue, Everymind, and COSBOA to help them develop support systems for small business owners. She won the COSBOA Small Business Champion award in 2015 for her work in the mental health sector. She's contributed to most of the key mental health resources now available to the small business sector, and has two published research reports on the NSW Government's State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) website. She's also lectured for the University of Newcastle, teaching small business growth and innovation.
Her philosophy is simple but revolutionary: Power is the new stress-buster. Not ego. Not control-over others. But choice, clarity, and control-of your own work, time, and relationships.
Dr Leanne Faulkner holds a PhD in small business owner mental health and has worked with hundreds of business owners, leaders, and organisations across Australia.
She lives in NSW, where she practices what she preaches: running a business designed around power, dignity, and a life she actually enjoys living.
The Billie Goat Soap Story
Many people in the business community might know me as “the soap lady” or the “goat lady”. Our youngest son had suffered from eczema, and in an effort to ease his discomfort I learned how to make goat’s milk soap as a gentle protective skin care alternative.
In 2004, Billie Goat Soap began. It was a humble affair initially and started in my kitchen. By 2010 we had grown to employ 20 people and sold the products in over 2000 outlets around the country, plus several international markets.
Billie Goat Soap was the NSW Business Chamber Business of the Year in 2010, and the Myer Supplier of the Year (general cosmetics) at around the same time. I sold Billie Goat in 2012.
The challenges that came with growing a small business came at a cost to my mental health. Needing support, I was shocked to learn that there was nothing available specifically for me – a small business owner. There were resources available for employees and the general public, but nothing for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Turns out, the gift was never the soap. The gift was the entrepreneurial experience that has now allowed me to help thousands of others who are on their own business journey.
When we work together, we all thrive.
Leanne's work has increasingly been with large organisations and government agencies. She has identified that business partners who understand the realities of small business ownership have a marketplace advantage.
Leanne's research and insights about business ownership help corporates and government to adopt "small business friendly" policies and practices. This is increasingly important due to the shift to flexible project-based work preferences and tight expert talent pools.
Email: [email protected]
