My name is Nicole Mooiman & my business helps organisations navigate challenges like misalignment and disengagement while responding to pressures around sustainability and social impact, sitting at the intersection of consultancy, facilitation and regenerative leadership.
My host was Gabriel da Rocha, a social entrepreneur based in Poussan, France, running a values-driven organisation focused on regenerative leadership, participatory governance and intentional community living.
I discovered EYE through a networking event and it immediately felt like the right fit. I had a clear sense of direction but needed real-world experience to ground it. The programme offered something rare, the chance to learn from inside a functioning organisation rather than from a classroom or a book. I decided to participate to close the gap between theory and practice and build my business on a foundation of genuine entrepreneurial experience.
My time with Gabriel was hands-on from early on. After an initial period of observing team meetings and facilitation sessions, I gradually took on a more active role.
I co-facilitated team sessions, contributed to developing a participatory leadership toolkit, and helped design and test a pilot framework for regenerative leadership. We had regular mentoring conversations on systems thinking, strategic design and business development, which fed directly into building my own consultancy framework. I also introduced reflection practices for the team and worked on my operational roadmap for future growth.
The relationship with Gabriel felt genuinely collaborative, more like two people working through things together than a classic mentor-mentee setup. That made the learning feel real.
The most significant benefit was developing a concrete regenerative business framework and operational roadmap for my consultancy, shaped by real experience rather than theory alone. My facilitation and leadership skills grew meaningfully. Moving from observing to co-facilitating, receiving honest feedback and developing a participatory leadership toolkit were all tangible steps forward that I will carry into my future work. Beyond skills, the exchange opened up possibilities for longer term collaboration with Gabriel and connections to networks like the Global Ecovillage Network and intentional community organisations in France. Perhaps most unexpectedly, the human side of the experience shaped me as much as the professional side. The intercultural immersion, the collaborative working relationship and the depth of reflection this period invited have given me a confidence and clarity I did not fully have before.
Six months with Gabriel didn’t just develop my business, it grounded my approach to regenerative entrepreneurship. I leave with a clearer vision, real tools and a much deeper understanding of what this work actually means in practice.
