Collaboration & Connection For Purpose

In this episode of Change Loves Company, Dominique sits down with community architect and Impact Collab founder Abbey Pantano to explore the power of connection, collaboration and purpose-led business.

Abbey shares her journey from partnerships and social enterprise to building values-driven communities, reflecting on what she learned from burnout, lockdowns, and creating spaces where impact founders can truly support one another. Together, they discuss the magic of small networks, heart-led leadership, and why 150 is the sweet spot for meaningful connection.

This conversation is a reminder that real change happens when we build together, lead with care, and create structures that allow people and ideas to thrive.

Transcript

DOMINIQUE:
Welcome to the Change Loves Company podcast, where I sit down with the creatives, fundraisers, social entrepreneurs, artists and activists — all with one thing in common: they’re changing the world for the better through their work.

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land I’m recording on today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be.

Today I’m joined by Abbey Pantano. Abbey is a master connector and has her fingers in a lot of pies. She’s a coach at the Community Collective, a global network for community builders. She’s the founder of Impact Collab, a founder-first community where purpose-led businesses grow through momentum, connection and real-world support.

Abbey is an experienced strategist who specialises in serving impact-led founders to design sticky, systems-savvy communities. She built and sold her first coworking space business in Sydney and has spent the last five years in community. Her experience also includes her role as Community Lead at One Roof, a membership network which has onboarded 1,500 members and 35 ambassadors globally.

If you’re sensing a theme, you are absolutely right. We chatted all things social enterprise, community, and why for her, 150 is a magic number when it comes to impact networks.

Abbey Pantano, it is an absolute delight to have you in the studio with us today.

ABBEY PANTANO:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m a huge lover of you and your work, and I’m very grateful to be here.

DOMINIQUE:
Fantastic. Well, it’s going to be a little mutual fan club today, because ditto.

So tell me a little bit about the work. You currently run something called Impact Collab, which I’d like to talk to you about later, but first I’d love to hear about some of the other things you did to get you where you are today. You’ve run businesses, networks — tell me how you got here.

ABBEY PANTANO:
I’ve had my fingers in a couple of different pies, but looking back I realise all of them had community in there somewhere.

If you’d told me ten years ago I’d be a community builder, I would’ve had no idea what that meant. My background was in marketing and partnerships in the retail industry. I realised pretty quickly that I didn’t love marketing, but when I moved into partnerships, I saw how powerful it was to create something mutually beneficial and have ten times the impact and reach.

That seed was planted there. I was head of marketing and partnerships in lifestyle businesses — men’s fashion, women’s fashion. The perks were nice, but it was out of alignment with my values. I realised I was selling future landfill, and that didn’t feel right.

My first social enterprise was in 2018 — a company called The Next Sip. The fancy way to say it is I sold sustainable drinkware to hospitality. The simple way is: I sold straws to bars. Wheat-stem straws, completely circular economy. I went all in, invested heavily, landed a big client, and then they went direct. It became my MBA — learning the hard way.

After that, during COVID, I became part-owner of a coworking space. That’s when community really crystallised for me. Isolation made me realise how powerful it is to be surrounded by like-minded people. With the straw business, I’d been working alone, burning out. I wasn’t collaborating. That was a huge lesson.

DOMINIQUE:
And that leads us beautifully to the coworking and community work. How did that evolve into Impact Collab?

ABBEY PANTANO:
I wanted to create a space for heart-led, impact-driven founders who believed business could create a better society. People who didn’t want to play small, who saw money as energy that could be used for good.

We created structures for accountability, skill-sharing, and support. Then lockdown hit again and we moved everything online. We experimented, failed, tweaked, tried again. What emerged was not just a coworking replacement, but a community framework.

I call myself a community architect. My role is to create the container — the safety, the structure, the right people — and let the magic happen.

And I cap it at 150 people, based on Dunbar’s number. It’s the number of people you can truly know and care for. I want to be able to pick up the phone if someone goes quiet and check in.

DOMINIQUE:
And that intimacy is what makes the impact deeper.

ABBEY PANTANO:
Exactly. We define impact as direct or indirect contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. And what I love is the cross-pollination — sustainability, social justice, education, inclusion. All interconnected.

It’s about collaboration, not competition. About leading with kindness, curiosity, and shared humanity.

DOMINIQUE:
And your own story of migration and belonging really feeds into that.

ABBEY PANTANO:
I was born in the US, moved to New Zealand, then to Australia. I went to five schools in three years. Being “the new kid” taught me the power of being welcomed, of someone saying, “Come sit with us.” That shaped everything I do in community now.

DOMINIQUE:
Finally, you became a mother. How did that change your work?

ABBEY PANTANO:
It forced me to build systems and a team. I now work three days a week, and I’m more effective than ever. It taught me boundaries, delegation, and focus. And it reminded me why this work matters — because I want my son to grow up in a world shaped by care, collaboration, and courage.

DOMINIQUE:
What a beautiful place to land. Abbey Pantano, thank you so much for joining us on Change Loves Company.

ABBEY PANTANO:
Thank you, Dom. It’s been such a pleasure.

DOMINIQUE:
And thank you for listening.