REPRESENTED with Annie Gichuru

Lately, I’ve been noticing a heaviness in the air. In conversations, with clients, even in myself. And I don’t think it’s because people have stopped caring, but because caring has started to feel heavy.

If you’ve been showing up for racial equity work with sincerity and your heart feels a little weary, this episode is for you.

I talk about the emotional weight that often comes with meaningful inclusion work, especially in a world where diversity, equity and anti-racism efforts are being challenged and misunderstood.

I share:

🎙 Why inclusi...

Have you ever stopped yourself from taking action because you were scared of getting it wrong?

Maybe you’ve wanted to make your business more inclusive, but the fear of causing harm or being seen as performative kept you from moving. That fear is real, but it’s also the very thing that keeps progress out of reach.

In this episode, I’m unpacking how fear shows up in racial equity work, why it feels so different from anything else we do, and how it quietly holds us back from the change we want to create...

Round 12 of REPRESENTED just launched and what emerged in the welcome ceremony calls is exactly what the online business world needs to hear right now.

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on the conversations happening when white business owners finally get honest about the invisible gaps in their businesses. The things they're not seeing, the daily erosions they've never had to think about and why "knowing better" isn't the same as "doing better."

You'll hear about:

Only 18 % of new makeup launches today include shades that adequately serve darker skin tones, a stark reminder that for many, the beauty shelf still says “not you.”

In this episode, I welcome Rumbidzai “Rumbiie” Tamai, Zimbabwean-born and Australian raised, with more than 11 years as a makeup artist and educator and now founder of the inclusive beauty brand AnakaGlam. In our conversation, we unfold the journey from exclusion to creation and explore how beauty, identity and wellness intersect.

We dive into:

 🎙 The moment she realised the beauty industry wasn’t made with her...

What does it feel like to be held so well that you can simply be yourself?

In this moving conversation, I sit with Johanna Parker, a coach, speaker, trainer and end-of-life celebrant whose work shows how inclusion can be lived inside one of the most tender moments we share...saying goodbye.

Jo traces a path from youth outreach and crisis response on Melbourne’s streets to officiating ceremonies that honour culture, story and community. We talk about what it takes to design farewells that reflect who a person was, not what a template dictates. Jo sh...

What if true service shaped every part of your business, from sales to how you treat clients? In this episode, I’m joined by award-winning life and business coach Fideliz Cruz, founder of Kingdom Women Entrepreneurs and author of Your Divine Assignment. We talk about prophetic mentorship, partnering with the Holy Spirit in decision-making and why love is the clearest measure of our work.

Here’s what we cover:

In this special guided reflection, I invite you to slow down, breathe and ask yourself the kinds of questions that reveal where your inclusion practices are strong and where they may need more attention.

We’ll explore:

This is a chance to pause, reconnect with your valu...

AI tools are everywhere in our businesses now, helping us write copy, create images and design programs. But what happens when the technology we rely on carries hidden biases that exclude the very people we want to serve?

In this episode, I'm breaking down the key insights from my recent AI Bias Aware 3-Day Experience, revealing:

If you've been wondering whether your business truly welcomes everyone (who's your ideal client...

The coaching industry is at a crossroads. With AI attracting many especially the vulnerable to replace human connection and bias showing up in new, digital forms, how do we stay grounded in what makes us fundamentally human?

Today's guest, Julie Parker, has been watching these shifts unfold for over two decades. As the founder of The Beautiful You Coaching Academy, she's trained thousands of coaches worldwide while navigating her own profound awakening about racism, privilege and the responsibility that comes with influence. 

From a childhood in rural Australia to confronting uncomfortable truths about diversity in h...

AI is becoming part of our everyday lives, from the way we market, to who sees our ads, to how we create content. But here’s the thing most online business owners don’t realise: AI is not neutral. It carries the same biases that have long excluded people of colour and marginalised communities.

In this episode of REPRESENTED, I’m pulling back the curtain on the new face of bias in online business: AI bias. I share:

   🎙 A personal story that reveals why “being a good, inclusive person” isn’t enough in the age of AI.

There comes a point in every coaching journey when we have to ask ourselves whether we’re truly living out the values we say we hold. For many coaches, that moment comes when they realise inclusion is not a box to tick, but a practice that requires courage, repair, and consistency.

I’m joined by Dallas Travers, the founder of the Client Centred Sales System and a coach who has built her business on values of integrity, sustainability and inclusion.  She helps values-driven business owners build sustainable businesses rooted in integrity and impact. Dallas opens up about her o...

There’s a place where mornings begin with the sound of roosters, where visitors are always welcomed with food and where neighbours stop by just to say hello...unannounced. That place is my village in Kenya and my time there taught me something powerful about how we run our businesses as coaches.

In this episode, I’ll be sharing the African values I grew up with and how they can transform the way we coach, build trust and serve from a place of genuine care. Plus, you’ll hear practical ways to bring more humanity into your busine...

What happens when you pause, not to come back stronger, but to become more aware of what you’ve left unattended?

In this solo episode of REPRESENTED, I’m reflecting on what it means to truly rest — not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, and creatively.

Off the back of my solo trip to Kenya, I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens when we step away from the go-go-go pace of life and begin to notice what’s been dormant in us.

This episode isn’t about productivity hacks or bounce-back culture. It’s about r...

What would you give to go back... just for a moment... to the home you grew up in? To be wrapped in your father’s arms, to laugh in your mother’s kitchen, to sit in the stillness of a place that once shaped most of who you are?

In this week’s episode of the REPRESENTED podcast, I’m sharing something deeply personal with you. For the first time in 16 years, I returned home to Kenya—alone. No husband. No kids. Just me and the people who made me.

This was more than just a trip. It...

Taking a short podcast break during Australian school holidays and will be back with you from 4th August.

This is an opportunity for you to re-listen to some of your favourite past episodes or take the time to watch the guest interviews on YouTube.

If this podcast has been of value to you and supported your understanding of anti-racism work, I'd love you to leave a rating and review so we can reach more people who this podcast might be the only way they deep their toe into this work.

Leave a rating...

In the world of online business, we're often told to focus on niche, funnels, and content. And whilst those areas of your business are important, your ability to hold safer space is the real difference-maker.

In this solo episode, I’m sharing why learning to hold safer space is the most important skill you can develop as a coach, creative or course creator. It’s about building trust, showing cultural sensitivity and becoming a leader who sees and honours the full humanity of your clients.

I talk about:

 🎙 What it actually means to hold saf...

Inclusion work may no longer be trending but that doesn’t mean it’s no longer necessary. 

In this solo episode, I’m speaking directly to the online business owners who felt the urgency, who cared deeply, but who’ve gone quiet. Whether it was burnout, uncertainty, or simply life moving on, I see you.

This episode is a reminder that racial equity work was never meant to be a moment. It’s a movement. And when the pendulum swings back and it will the people who stayed in the work will be the ones we look to...

AI is here. It’s quick, efficient, and already shaping the way we do business from the words we use to the clients we attract.

But what happens when we let AI do the heavy lifting and we stop checking if our values are still at the centre?

In this solo episode, I’m unpacking the quiet dangers of relying too heavily on AI without doing the deeper work of inclusion. From bias baked into your copy to sounding like every other coach in a saturated market, we’re naming the risks and what to do ins...

What happens when financial literacy becomes more than just a skill but a vehicle for healing, empowerment, and transformation?

In today’s episode of the REPRESENTED Podcast, I’m in conversation with Fabrice Omankoy, founder of Black Wealth Connect, a bold and brilliant platform shifting the way we talk about money, ownership, and community within the Black diaspora.

Fabrice’s journey is anything but typical. From growing up in a small Australian town to playing pro soccer and eventually finding his purpose in finance, he shares how discipline, curiosity, and the audacity to name things as the...

What does it mean to belong when no one around you looks like you? How do you hold on to your identity while building a new life on unfamiliar land?

In today’s episode of the REPRESENTED Podcast, I’m in conversation with my dear friend Pearl Proud—a psychologist, executive consultant, and founder of Pearl Proud Consulting Group. Pearl has lived in Australia for nearly 40 years after migrating from apartheid South Africa, and in this powerful episode, she shares how love, boundaries, and a deep sense of purpose shaped her life and leadership.

Here’s what y...

Did you know that conversations around race are the most avoided topic in workplace DEI efforts? Despite corporate commitments to diversity and inclusion, real conversations about race often get pushed aside, left simmering under the surface, unaddressed and unresolved.

In this episode of Represented Podcast, I sit down with Khayshie Tilak Ramesh, an award winning leader committed to making the invisible visible. With her background in legal spaces, conflict resolution, and community advocacy, Khayshie shares the truth about why these conversations are so hard and why they’re absolutely necessary.

We discuss:

Did you know that less than 2% of the world's documented history is dedicated to African stories? Despite being the cradle of humanity, much of Africa's rich history remains untold or worse, misrepresented.

In this episode of the Represented Podcast, I sit down with Valerie Keter, a Kenyan historian and filmmaker committed to truth-telling and preserving African heritage. Valerie’s work brings to light the stories that colonial narratives tried to erase, showcasing African architecture, the significance of traditional hairstyles, and the lasting impact of colonisation that still shapes our societies today.

We...

Can faith and performance exist in the same breath?

As we build on from the past two episodes in this heart to heart to women of colour, I’m reflecting on how my Christian faith, the very thing that’s sustained me for over 20 years in Australia, also got tangled up in performance culture.

I share how I misunderstood humility as playing small, how colonial Christianity made whiteness the standard of purity, and how so many women of colour have taken on the silent burden of being the “good Christian woman” by self-sacrificing, people pleasing, and endl...

If you’ve ever found yourself resting but still feeling guilty, or needing to do something even in your quiet moments, this episode is for you.

In Is It Safe to Slow Down? I’m speaking directly to the women of colour who’ve spent their lives performing, striving, and adapting because survival demanded it.

But now?

You’re wondering if there's a softer way to live. And you're not alone.

In this episode, I share: 

🎙 How generational trauma shows up in our relationship to rest
🎙 Why rest can feel unsafe...

What if your need to constantly prove yourself… wasn’t just about ambition?
What if it came from years of being told, directly or silently, that who you are isn’t quite right?

In this tender and personal episode, I’m speaking directly to women of colour. To the ones who’ve softened their accent, hidden their cultural identity, overachieved, and overworked… just to be seen as “enough.”

I share my story of leaving Kenya, adapting to life in Australia, and the silent performance I took on from changing how I spoke, dressed, and worked, to tying...

In this follow-up to last week’s deep dive into the roots of colonialism, I’m shifting the focus to what it actually looks like to decolonise your business in practice, especially if you’re a solopreneur or coach.

We’re going beyond the surface to talk about:

🎙 Why your assumptions about your "ideal client" might be rooted in bias

🎙 How colonial mindsets sneak into your messaging, lead magnets, and business relationships

🎙 The influence of AI bias on your marketing and how inclusive language alone isn’t enough

🎙 Why bro marketing and hust...

Have you ever wondered what colonialism has to do with your coaching business today? In this eye-opening episode, we’re taking a step back to explore the roots of colonialism, beginning with the pivotal Berlin Conference of 1884-1885.

If you've been inspired by recent episodes featuring my students courageously navigating racial equity, today's deep dive is essential listening. We're unpacking how historical events like the colonisation of Ceuta by Portugal set the stage for global exploitation, economic inequalities, and systemic racism we still see today.

You’ll learn:

🎙 What colonialism truly means and why it...

What happens when you realise the version of “equality” you grew up with was shaped by privilege?

In this episode of REPRESENTED, I’m joined by Tania Carcenac, a life coach, women's circle facilitator and graduate of my REPRESENTED program, who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa. It’s a conversation about proximity, privilege, and what it takes to truly unlearn the messages we’ve absorbed about race, even when we think we’ve done the work and are therefore one of the "good ones."

Tania shares what it was like growing up in a system...

This week’s episode is one of the most heartfelt and honest conversations I’ve had on the podcast.

I’m joined by Sarah Townsend an activator, coach, facilitator and graduate of REPRESENTED who shares what it really looks like to move from silence and fear to meaningful action in the work of anti-racism.

Sarah came into this work believing she was already “one of the good ones” conscious, inclusive, and kind. But as you’ll hear, what she uncovered about her own inaction, discomfort, and internalised beliefs completely shifted how she now shows up as a coach...

Later this week on March 21st is not only my birthday, but also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It's a day that calls on all of us to reckon with racism, because racism is not something in the past, it's alive and evolving today.

In this episode, I take you on a journey through the Eras of Racism. From the Transatlantic Slave Trade right up to today’s world of AI bias.

Here’s what you’ll take away from this episode:

🎙 What raci...