About us

We get it. And we’ve got you!

We are part of your village.

We are here to help you grow.

We help to drive you forward by ensuring you have the tools, processes, support and expertise you need.

So that you can stand strong to withstand the storm and see beyond the horizon.

WHY
LIFT55

How does the
Lift55 synergy happen?

Lift55 is the result of a founder of five companies (this being the 6th)

who over her journey, has needed expert help in all kinds of areas,

but struggled to find the right people along with cost effective ways to

learn and grow on a start-up budget.

Idea and Research

You know the problem people are facing, and you’ve got the solution.
You know there’s a market opportunity and you’ve done some research.
You’ve got your idea and you’ve got the competitive edge to change the game.

Lift

Now it’s time to harness the power of connection. Join our village so you and your team can attain clarity of purpose and define what steps are needed to get you moving effectively.

Thrive

Developing strong and resilient mindsets to withstand challenges and potholes is the key to thriving. It is all about helping your business to grow and perform with tailored guidance and support.

Build

Co-Constructing your workshops and coaching to optimize your team. We up-skill you, and your team to assist with activities you may not be familiar with, transitioning our knowledge to you and helping develop a ‘T’ shaped skill set so you can drive forward.

We are here to open up pathways for your business to thrive.

Regardless of where you are at in your business journey, there are problems all over the show, and as much as you try to anticipate them, you don’t know what you don’t know!

Nor have you trained or had experience in every aspect from product development, capital raising, strategic partnerships, sales, communications, marketing, PR, digital growth, website development, budgeting or leadership.

Right now you are probably in the throes of trying to develop your product or service, find customers, build brand awareness, build a database, get leads for your sales funnel, over deliver for your clients, develop your team, be effective with your processes and strategies, raise capital and develop strategic relationships, scale and plan your finances.

Whatever stage you are at.

Whatever problems or challenges you are facing.

We have got you covered.

Lift.

Is all about helping you and your team attain clarity of purpose and define what steps are needed to get you moving effectively.

Build.

Build is to optimize your team! We up-skill you and your team by assisting with activities they are not familiar with, transitioning our knowledge to you and help develop a ‘T’ shaped skill set.

Thrive.

Thrive is generally post launch and is all about helping your business to grow and perform with tailored guidance and support.

Lift55 was created because we get it!
And we’ve got you!

Lift55 is the result of a founder of five companies (this being the 6th) who over her journey, has needed expert help in all kinds of areas, but struggled to find the right people along with cost effective ways to learn and grow on a start-up budget.

Starting out is a bloody challenging time. You have the best intentions. You have a great idea! You can change the world. You also hit great big proverbial walls daily and have to keep picking yourself back up and trying to find new lanes, approaches, energy and resilience …. All on the smell of an oily rag!

Dairne (Daz) Burns is all about helping people shine. She always has been, her two core values are connection and usefulness. So Lift55’s vision is simple. Organisations thriving sustainably. Lifting organisations by building capacity and potential within their team to resiliently thrive!

Connection is a game changer. Synergy is our secret sauce. We want to change the world by supporting businesses to get their foundations rock solid, with zero BS and maximum value add so you have long term success! Our positive vibes are strong and real because we genuinely love what we do with and for our awesome clients. When there is a win to celebrate for our clients, we are the proudest, loudest, hands-up-in-the-air-est support crew behind you.

Empowering our clients with relevant and specific tools, information and guidance to grow, achieve and confidently lead your unique journey is our focus. We are lifelong learners, we embrace new thinking and approaches, we love the opportunity to learn from everyone we work with, and we show up with integrity to challenge accepted standards.

Organisations thriving = Lift55!

Meet Our Team!

Daz Burns

CEO & Founder

Daz is one of the most hard working people we know, starting businesses from scratch, looking after her three kids and managing netball are all in a day’s work, she puts her head down and gets things done! It is evident that when she sets herself goals no matter how big or small they are she will crush them (and you can guarantee that she would still do more every time!).

Her name is Dairne, but you can call her Daz to save any confusion. This lady is one wicked Human that has a resume a mile long! Managing the Waikato Bay Of Plenty National League Netball Team as well as New Zealand Secondary Schools Netball Team, Marriage Celebrant, Author, Entrepreneur, Lyrical Mastermind, Degrees in Teaching and Early Childhood, Mother of 3 and that is only naming a few of them!

People like Daz are hard to come by these days. If there is someone in need she is the first to ask how she can help or what our community can do to get behind them! (Any excuse to organise an event!). Generally, Daz is bound to have a contact who would be keen to help out, she’s the first person to connect good humans together. When she walks into the room energy levels rise dramatically and there is never a dull moment when Daz is around whether that means lip syncing battles, belly laughs, team bonding activities or just having a good yarn!

Daz is a member of the Microsoft SMB Council. Along with Co. of Women, SheEO and Entrepreneurial Women with Purpose. She is a member of Soda Inc. and Sport Waikato Leadership Alumni and received a Callaghan Innovation Getting Started Grant for R&D. Daz holds a Bachelor of Teaching and a Diploma of Sport in Recreation. Being a Director of Burns Construction, The Good Day Matrix and Lift55, along with Founding of Know No Bounds Charitable Trust, she has epic life experience and skills to help other people shine! Daz does anything she can to make sure people can get to where they want to be!

Summing up Daz in a bio is an extremely difficult task as there are so many things you don’t want to miss out so here are a few more key things below:

She’s a truck driver’s daughter
Passionate about everything she does!
Can not tell a lie to save herself
Loves anything and everything stationary
Always one to give constructive advice/feedback
Constantly learning new things
You will never catch her without her handbag with everything you will ever need (literal definition of the kitchen sink)!

So, if you are keen to talk about anything and everything, business, family, or to test her lyrical knowledge, then flick her an email at daz@lift55.com We can’t wait to hear from you soon!

Cory Watt

Digital Growth Specialist

The digital space can be hard to navigate but Cory is able to clearly translate all ‘tech speak’ to everyday humans, and you can trust he knows what you need as he is full of knowledge in the digital space, with a Bachelor of Information Technology he is fully equipped to help you and your businesses digital needs such as Search Engine Optimisation, Facebook and Instagram Advertising, Social Media Campaigns, Google Analytics, Website creation and anything in between!

Cory is known around our office as our naughty little brother, who is always down for a laugh and a keen instigator of mischief, paired with his great sense of humour. Cory thrives in fast-paced situations with his quick-witted cheekiness!

Cory brings his passion for helping others every day to the office, he also brings in updates about the latest supermarket deals, a glass full of the best filtered water only, his expertise in parallel parking, his fidgeting habits of pen clicking and foot-tapping, as well as a colourful desk full of sticky notes! Cory is extremely thoughtful, goal-driven and detailed in everything he is a part of, he is one that is always down for a challenge and often blends “HOW GOOD” into conversations!

His ability to connect with people and help turn their ideas into reality is a true strength of Cory’s. He has vast experience in creating and developing Digital Marketing/Website packages covering a range of different areas such as Property Management, Football Academies, Online Fitness Applications, Wellness Platform and Consultancy agency.

Football, which he strongly helps us to understand is NOT soccer, is a big part of Cory’s life, and is something that actively brings joy to his life, he is our in house expert around the Football transfer window in Europe, anything Manchester United he is all over it and is ALWAYS down for a chat about anything Football! Having played throughout his life he is now trying to get his two young girls to kick a ball instead of picking it up and running away with it.

When Cory isn’t working towards helping others be their best selves and spreading laughter around the office he is spending quality time with his young family and partner, running in a half marathon, eating some delicious sushi, taking the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to DIY deck building, and playing some football!

Here at Lift55, we are extremely thankful for Cory and everything he brings to our team. Cory is our Digital Marketing mastermind and we are super pumped for you to meet him and to work together to help your business Lift, Build, and Thrive!

Sam Kennedy

Content & Digital Producer

Sam is our Content and Digital Producer with amazing skills, talents, qualifications, and experience to over deliver on expectations every time. He seriously creates cool stuff! Sam loves a cold Speights summit on a Friday afternoon, outdoor adventures, old school Irish music, a heated game of office cricket or spikeball, Lonestar, any music created in Aotearoa and making Tik Toks. One of those is a lie, we will leave you to decide which that is once you meet him!

Sammy is our level headed, cool, calm and collected whānau member who can always see different perspectives and suggest better ways to nail out tasks to produce the best outcomes for our team and clients. Not to mention, he is the “influencer” of our office with his own billboard to boot!

Sammy is a truly proud Canterbury man hailing from Christchurch and is a boots n’ all supporter of every single sport there is to watch in Aotearoa and internationally! He is incredibly competitive and he particularly loves cricket, golf, rugby and the great outdoors. Sam is our office cross country runner and often has a story to share of running through windmills and goat tracks on a Monday morning. Trying to beat him in step count challenges is next to impossible!

Sam has a Bachelor of Arts from Otago University and a Diploma in Digital Video Post Production from the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Christchurch. In his videography mahi, he has worked for Sky Sport, TVNZ and Discovery to name a few (we still offer him our services for All Blacks games to ‘hold the cables’ while he flies the drone – he hasn’t taken us up on the offer yet). A career highlight of Sammy’s was filming The Great Walks Series for the Department of Conservation.

Sam is the guy who is genuinely friendly and nice to everyone he meets, somehow always managing to find something in common no matter who they are. He is always up for a good yarn and solid laugh. Sam is a family man, with gorgeous wife Julie they have two beautiful children and a cute little dog Oscar. Sam is so kind and thoughtful and always checks in with our team and clients when he knows things are going on from challenges they are facing to birthdays they are celebrating.

Sam is our Content and Digital Producer with amazing skills, talents, qualification and experience to over deliver on expectations every time. He seriously creates cool stuff!

Sammy loves a cold Speights summit on a Friday afternoon, outdoor adventures, old school Irish music, a heated game of office cricket or spikeball, Lonestar, any music created in Aotearoa and making Tik Toks. One of those is a lie, we will leave you to decide which that is once you meet him!

Sam is such a special part of our whānau here at Lift55 and we can’t wait for you to meet him soon.

Emily Ussher

Communication & Content Manager

Em is our all round Ninja, with great knowledge and skills in business, email communication, copywriting, administrative planning and organising, accounting, blog development, content creation and PR 101.

She is R-E-S-I-L-I-E-N-T – No matter what we throw at her, it is never too big.

Emily Ussher Ussher (Please imagine Yeah! by Usher playing in the background). Around the office we call this force of nature Em, but if you saw her on a netball court, you’d know her as EmU.

Emily embodies what it means to be part of a team, she is a hard worker who has exceptional communication, collaboration and problem solving skills, along with the incredible knack to pivot on a dime and think from multiple perspectives. Em is 100% a people person and can genuinely find common ground with anyone she meets. And good gracious, this lady is one of the kindest and most supportive people you could ever meet, all while also having an amazing sense of humour.

A Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar and Alumni, she has a Bachelor of Health, Sport and Human Performance and is our amazeballs Communication and Content Manager here. Emily loves to learn new things, always has a new book she is reading and when there is information to find, she has a tight relationship with Aunty Google.

Watching any sport with Emily is a highlight in our office, whether she is canoeing with Lisa Carrington going stroke for stroke in the Olympic Gold Medal race from her office chair or talking to the All Blacks through the screen on strategies to get a try more efficiently. Though she loves all sports, her heart lies with netball, in 2021 being part of the Waikato Bay of Plenty National League Netball Team, the Hamilton City Netball Centre Open Grade Team and the Rangers Premier Team.

Whānau is #1 for Emily, she loves Ohinewai, carpool karaoke, watermelons, adventures, classy stationary, apples with peanut butter, roadies, emojis and a good backstory. Emily always brings the energy and passion, she is observant, the first to say yes and the last to leave when shit needs to get done.

We have an attitude of gratitude for having Emily as part of our whānau here at Lift55 and we can’t wait for you to meet her soon.

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We empower entrepreneurs to thrive, by equipping them with the tools, processes, support and expertise they need to confidently navigate their journeys.

Lift. Build. Thrive.

Contact Info

027 894 0947

kiaora@lift55.com