She left Kazakhstan at 16. She built a community that changed lives across Aotearoa.

Elina Ashimbayeva arrived in New Zealand alone at 16, before she even knew where it was on a map. It took years for Auckland to feel like home, and some of those years were harder than she ever let on.

For five years she ran Storyo, a storytelling platform that amplified the voices of women, gender-diverse people, and people of colour. She interviewed 200 people. She built events where strangers became best friends.

Elina refuses to call it a success. For her, it was something bigger. What she calls an ancestral assignment: the work you're quietly meant to do.

In this episode, Elina talks about the loneliness of finding belonging, what 200 interviews taught her about self-doubt, and why you don't need to build something huge to make a real difference.