Hi, I'm Myrte, a GameChanger at heart...

…And I can’t remember doing anything else since I was very young. But the moment my disabled sister suddenly passed away in 2017, when I unexpectedly got full-time foster care over a teenage girl in 2018 and lost my twins to a miscarriage in 2020, it went to a whole new level.

All these losses and life challenges let to a physical, emotional and spiritual journey back to myself in September 2020. I sold everything I had – including my Tesla – and went back to basic. To the core of who I was and how I wanted to run my life and business. The journey is marked by searching, grief, sadness, joy, tears and everything in between. It took me two years and I went from the UK to the whole of Spain, to Tanzania and to Bali. “Return to Self” as I call my Identity Journey is the core of what I already did, but now from a whole new level of consciousness and direction: I connect you to yourself, you again to your business and your business (again) to the market.

On this page you can read my full personal story as well as my professional trackrecord.

Ever since I can remember, I've been building identities for and with people, entrepreneurs, leaders, CEO's and organizations. What they had in common: they were all determined to make a positive change and impact from a social perspective. I like to call it: connecting purpose into business and business into purpose. I'll take you with me on my journey and hopefully this inspires you too to dig deep in your true potential and to transform that in a (even bigger) power for others.

With your difference, make the difference – Myrte

My deepest belief...

You are more than the identity you took on.

Every one of us do not merely exist but we are here for a greater purpose. And it is up to us to seek and find what that purpose is.

You must not only look at the surface of your life, but know that there is something greater inside of you that you can tap into to.

You must go through the valleys of life which means the ups and downs to get to that place of purpose.

Remember: to find the gold you have to dig through the mud first 😉

There is this unstoppable urge I have that since I started working for myself (in 2009 when I was only 23 years old) and actually long before that, got stronger and stronger. I was always fascinated by people’s true intentions and purpose. Back then I didn’t know as clear as now, but looking back I’ve always been working on building identities. For people in my personal life, for CEO’s and leaders of big organisations, for the entrepreneur setting up or expanding a business and for organisations in general.

Blood is thicker than water. As the (grand)daughter of entrepreneurial (grand)parents, it was clear to me early on that I wanted to work for myself. When at age 23 I was asked by Mercedes-Benz to do market research for them, the step was quickly made. Employment was never an issue again.

As a marketing and communications consultant for various clients in the Netherlands, from small companies to municipalities, from professional soccer clubs to the board of the national soccer association, I developed an enormous body of knowledge and experience at an early age. I set up departments, developed and executed marketing and corporate branding strategies and was always active in connecting the people in my network with interesting contacts and business ideas. After a few years, I grew more into business coaching and interim assignments.

Until March 2020, I worked solely at the board-level as a Strategy Advisor and Trusted Advisor for entrepreneurs, CEOs and leaders. This means I was their go-to person for all topics from personal positioning to strategic organisational issues and everything in between.

And also for the person itself. Who are you in your true essence, what are you here for and what is holding you back achieving this?
I enjoy going back to the real essence and core and from there, (re)build what’s needed to create even more impact.

By going on my own journey inwards, I’m even more convinced that we all should live and work more from this powerful tool we pocess: our own wisdom. These days, I guide many fellow GameChangers from all over the world to re-connect them with themselves, themselves (again) with their business and their business (again) with the market.
I will continue doing this specifically for those who work within an impact driven organisation or who have their own impact driven business (such as myself) and want to take this to the next level. When I speak of “impact driven” I’m talking about those who’s main purpose is to improve the lives of others. Mostly by using their own past pains or experiences as a catalyst for growth.
I developed GAMECHANGERS UNITED as the flagship for all my programs and events. From 1:1 coaching to exclusive MasterMinds and retreats and my Podcast. Everything I do is designed to give you guidance and support for your identity, direction and growth as GameChanger in your industry. Besides that I organise 3 special retreat programs on Mallorca (in a finca, with a motorcycle ánd on a catamaran), I just wrote my first book and I’m a Public Speaker on topics as Female- and Social Entrepreneurship.

I will enrich my work with two special programs: one for siblings (and their family) with a disabled brother or sister and one for women who lost their baby or a child and need to grief and heal from that.

Being a genuine GameChanger profile (according to The GCIndex), I’m constantly working on transforming the future. With new ideas, strategies, concepts and approaches. Being a true empath ánd gifted with visionary and intuitive skills, I work with my clients from deep inner to high strategic levels. Exactly there where transformations take place.
These two skills, combined with my personal experiences, helped me massively when I decided to turn my life around in March 2020. I lost my business, my babies and myself back then. It was time to live up to what I’m here for, to help others go back to their authentic self and from there build an Impact Imperium myself as well. I managed to turn my life and business around in 18 months and I’m happy to share how.

Losing yourself is the biggest loss in life. Actively working on getting yourself back, is the biggest return on investment though.

Personal Story

In November 2017 something happened that turned my life upside down… And this was only the beginning of my transformational journey, both personal and professional. The most valuable outcome was to slowly find and embrace my true purpose and transforming that into an unstoppable power…

A little introduction…

I was born in 1985 in a small town in the middle of the Netherlands, called Hattemerbroek. This town had 800 citizins back then, 1 primairy school, a small supermarket and a snackbar. As the oldest of four childeren in total (with the youngest girl being multi disabled), I was already doing a lot on my own from a young age.

My father started his own company when I was 6 years old and my mother was working as a care giver ánd of course, busy with my – upon til then- 2 brothers and me. From a materialistic and functional perspective we always had everything and we were – and still are – always provided with everything we need. Our daily life was good till this extend. I still have enormous respect for my parents in what they gave and still give us.

When my sister was born in 1996 – I was 11 – things changed for me. However, I wasn’t aware of the impact back then. That would take me 36 years 😉

But besides that, this girl and I.. We are a team from day one and I love her so much.

When you get a heavy multi disabled person in your family, it’s inevitable that life turns upside down. Especially when you as a high sensitive kid (not recognized as such) entering her teenage years, the years where you develop a big part of your identity. To put one thing in perspective: it’s no one to blame, it was just the combination of things that were not facilitating my needs as a young girl. Even though all the intentions and functionalities were good, it was just a fact that I also was a “special need” kid, only it was not visible.

Growing up in a place like this in that stage of my life, where the moral back then was “no one ever died from working hard”, and where in the day to day life, no one was focussed on personal growth but in our case, on surviving because of my sister, you can imagine I got drifted away from myself. I felt alone, misunderstood, sad, hopeless and lonely. I ended up in a very unhealthy relationship from the age of 14-20 that impacted me even more.

Despite my professional successes and achievements, I was completely lost and confused about basically everything from the age of 11 until my early 30’s.

Looking back I realize now:

What I DID know back then, was that I always felt different then the “norm”.
What I DID know back then, was that I never felt at home.
What I DID know back then, was that my biggest professional achievements didn’t give me the deep fulfillment I was looking for.
What I DID know back then, was that I wanted to work and live abroad, preferably in Spain or South-Africa to work for non-governmental organizations who focus on kids.
What I DID know back then, was that I was bored in my daily life.
What I DID know back then, was that I was put on this world for a bigger purpose (but not what that was yet).

> What I DIDN’T know, was HOW to overcome all this.
> What I DIDN’T know was, HOW to move forward.
> What I DIDN’T know, was WHERE to start.
> What I DIDN’T know was, WHAT I wanted instead…

Until my disabled sister suddenly passed away at the age of 21 in November 2017.

She was a multi disabled girl who couldn’t walk, talk or take care of herself in any way, shape or form. My parents always took care of her with all the love and attention she needed and deserved. She was the light in our family for sure, but I also got confronted with an unexpected new vision on her presence.

And that’s the following: after she passed away, I was sad of course. But I also felt a big sense of relief overwhelming me. It was very confusing and painful, because “this isn’t normal”, right? That moment in November ’17 is when I slowly started to investigate this feeling.

It was also in that time, 14 months after she passed away, I took in a teenage girl who I fostered fulltime for 6 months. She was already in my life for years, but her situation got worse (not due to herself by the way) and there was literally no better place for her than my house. I’m still super proud of how we managed this together and proud of her accepting all the help presented, and how she managed to turn her life around as well! Truly amazing.

With my sister passing away ánd having this girl in my life I started, without knowing at the time, my journey of self-discovery and I faced many confronting moments because of this. For starters, by seeing my foster daughter going through a lot on a very young age, I could suddenly see that I was way too young for everything that happened to me on that age. By losing my sister and the relief around that, I could suddenly see the invisible, heavy burden that was on my shoulders for all these years. These were signs, messages from the Universe as a reminder that I had work to do here. I needed to face my fears and heal my tears. All events in your life are connected, but I did not know that yet back in those days.

At that time, I did it UNIDENTIFIED for the most part. What that looked like? Well, you might recognise this: massive chaos, even more massive confusion, anxiety, sadness, more chaos, less clarity, more confusion, less direction. And one time from the beginning 😉 It was a rollercoaster without a safety belt. Sometimes I felt like I was walking in a muddy, dark labyrinth – and I dreamed about this as well – where it was impossible to see beyond and impossible to lift my feet from the mud to move forwards.

I hated my life.

From the outside it all looked good. Materialistically and on the surface I was doing very well. I had a nice house, a nice car, nice clothes and success in my work. Back then at the local professional football club were I set up the Social Department, I won awards and I got offer after offer from different companies to work for. But I wasn’t happy. Not fulfilled and bored on a soul level. Trying to fill the void (love!) with everything that wasn’t healthy for me, from too much alcohol to working a lot and many more things that were not serving me at all. This went on for years until I reached my “enough is enough moment”.

Flash forward to March 2020. Two other big losses appeared in my life. I lost my business due to COVID and my twin babies in an early stage, due to a miscarriage. People who know me, know I’m a born mom and that this is one of my life’s wishes: to have a loving family of my own. So when this happened, I snapped.

Literally and figuratively empty. Rock bottom. Done.

This moment was my “enough is enough” moment. It was time to take control over my life and to CONSCIOUSLY continue my journey of self-discovery, self-acceptance and self-empowerment.

So I did what I always wanted to do:
I started traveling and from there slowly start building up my life in Spain. I took a little detour though 😉

I traveled from September 2020 until September 2022. In that time I lived and worked in London, all of the Canary Islands, I drove my motorcycle from the Netherlands to Mallorca where I live a big part of my year now, I worked for an NGO in Tanzania to help them grow their impact and I went on a 2 month spiritual journey in Bali and work together with a local high priest 🙂

I recorded an episode in my GameChangers United Podcast about my journey, it’s called “From Tesla to Tanzania”. Note: my spiritual journey on Bali is not included, I will record one soon about this amazing experience as well!

"Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are"

For the first time I could really see who I am and honestly… I liked what a saw!

Remember...

In the beginning of this story I mentioned the following:
1. What I DIDN’T know, was HOW to overcome all this.
2. What I DIDN’T know was, HOW to move forward.
3. What I DIDN’T know, was WHERE to start.
4. What I DIDN’T know was, WHAT I wanted instead…

But I just started and learned on the way. Here we go:

The main outcomes of my journey for me personally:

1. I overcame all I wanted and needed to overcome by just facing it.
By taking the leap and just getting started. My advice: don’t wait till you know HOW, because then you wait forever. Go and build your parachute along the way; you will be fine!

2. I didn’t know all the steps in the beginning, but during my journey, I realised it’s about HOW to move forward the next step. And not the steps after. Just one step at a time, see where you are after reaching this step and thén decide your next step.

3. Life is not Monopoly with a clear starting point. You just work with where you are at that time, in that moment. It’s up to you to decide to START AT ALL. And that’s where you should start. After being on the way for a bit, it will become more clear to you. Also here, remember the “unload-strategy”: focus on the lighter, “easy” to handle issues first, before doing the heavy work.

4. A lot of people, including myself, focus on this question when they are stuck in life: what do I want in life? But it’s not the right question, because it’s impossible for you to answer when you have other work to do first. First you need to recover, heal and grow! And then from that growth, the future things will unfold themselves for you. One quote that really helped was: “You are not stuck, you are just early in the process”. Wow… right?!

These days I’m traveling back and forth between the Netherlands and Mallorca. Before settling in Spain in definite I will be first setting up the programs and getting everything up and running. The Dutch market is a very suitable audience so I will divide my time between these two. In the Netherlands I will do my networking and live my semi-Dutch life surrounded by my family and friends. It’s really the best of both world for me like this.

By losing everything, I got myself back. It's my responsibility to live up to my purpose and help others in similar journeys.

Don't let your purpose go to waste.

The world needs you – Myrte

Professional Trackrecord

Ever since I can remember, I've been building identities for and with people, entrepreneurs, leaders, CEO's and organizations. What they had in common: they were all determined to make a positive change and impact from a social perspective. I like to call it: connecting purpose into business and business into purpose. Ready for yours?

For me, everything I do comes so naturally, that it never occurred to me that exactly THAT is my superpower. What is yours?

Award Winning Strategist

My Social Sponsor Strategy in professional Football, won multiple awards and the social business concept is still the fundament they work with (developed in 2009).

Advisor & GrowthGuide

During my 12 year of coaching and consulting, I've helped many entrepreneurs, leaders, CEO's and organizations to grow their impact. Locally, nationally and globally.

Life Coach & Energetic Healer

It's probably not a surprise that personal and professional success go hand in hand. The key to success is a holistic approach if you ask me: it all starts with you.

Author & Public Speaker

It feels like a privilege to share my experiences, knowledge and lessons on a larger scale. I strongly feel I can use my voice for a bigger purpose. In writings and as a speaker on events, corporate gatherings and online.

SOCIAL BUSINESSES & SME'S

In the 13 years working for myself, I’ve guided many social entrepreneurs to the next level. Using my programs, I helped these small and medium enterprises to create significant more social impact, recurring social revenue ánd we built a sustainable and solid business- and organisational model to facilitate their mission. As a result, they had a clear identity, direction and successful revenue model to build further on their future. Client describe my work as creative, authentic, vivid and innovating.

SPORTS

When the trend of social impact reached the professional football back in 2009 in the Netherlands, I’ve worked for years for multiple professional football clubs and for the director of the National Football Association, creating social value and strategies. Internally, externally and for personal branding purposes. I’ve designed whole social departments, broadcasted national marketing-campaigns, to award winning social business strategies that, upon today, generates multiple 6 figures in recurring social revenue.

SUSTAINABILITY

As part of my interim work, I’ve guided specific assignments for example in the solar energy and municipalities, where I designed the process of change and innovation. Meaning: helping the existing organisation to grow next level. From internal processes to external marketing- and communication campaigns. As a result they created a significant stronger market position and business model to build further on.

start-ups

As part of my interim work, I’ve guided global start-ups with a disruptive character to the next level. These were start-ups in for example tech and healthcare but also start-up hubs where different start-ups were located. As a result they gained a unique brand identity, clear direction and a roadmap for action.

Social work (global)

We are so much better and richer together. As individuals and as organisations. Not everyone has access to the level of knowledge, guidance and funding that we have in our Western world. That’s why I love to do 1-2 social projects every year to help local initiatives to grow their organisation and impact. On location of course! As a result they know how to build a sustainable social business for more identity, direction and results. So they can create (even) more impact!

Speaker (global)

There is nothing more powerful than sharing knowledge, inspiration and energy together. That’s why I love the Speakers part of my business so much! From corporates to conferences; they hire me as a speaker to talk about social entrepreneurship. From the personal side of it, to the strategic part. As a result the audience knows how to build a sustainable social business for more identity, direction and results. So they can create (even) more impact!

If you can't stop thinking about it, don't stop working for it! What would happen if you acted even more from alignment? How many more people could you help, in a way that works well for you?

Let’s work together on making this world a better place.