00:00:00
[Music] Anna Mo welcome to my podcast I love youve got not notes as well I've got so
00:00:32
many notes okay sorry sorry sorry do you want to start again no that's are we
00:00:35
good to go um you first of all um I I've done so much research about you and
00:00:41
anticipation of you thanks for coming on you are so welcome thanks for having me
00:00:45
well you you your team reached out to me and said would you want to enter on and
00:00:48
I'm like are you are you kidding me I'd love to so no I won't hold it
00:00:52
against them actually but from what I can GA this is your first ever non- business podcast yeah it is it is you're
00:00:59
the lucky man man well I appreciate that so yeah so I had to sit through a whole
00:01:03
lot of podcasts that you've been on about business deals in China and stuff that's way way above my pay grade oh
00:01:10
well hopefully there was some little nugget in there that you enjoyed so why why why now why would you want to do
00:01:17
like a an like a more a personality based podcast look I just think that your podcast is great for us D you're
00:01:23
good value good fun and I think you bring out the best in people so why not well I appreciate that that that is my
00:01:29
goal um I have like two main goals one of them is to make sure all the guests have a really good experience um but
00:01:34
also it's got to be a good listening experience as well cuz otherwise yeah um
00:01:38
you're in trouble aren't you you go the follower numbers so you still you still
00:01:43
have Kanye though he'd be supporting you he's he is the best I'm I'm obsessed
00:01:46
with him um first of all couple of uh couple of random ones what's your favorite Taylor Swift song Oh I I'm not
00:01:53
much of a muso I did go to Taylor Swift but I'm not actually that much of a Museo I went there because I think it
00:01:59
made my children realize and appreciate that they have to work hard to get to things like Taylor Swift so they were
00:02:03
incredibly jealous that I got to go but that's all about setting up aspirations
00:02:08
for them that was I know I know it's kind of mean but at the same time you've
00:02:13
got to build desire in your children right so that they actually sit back and say I've got to work hard to achieve
00:02:18
these things so you had um V VIP tickets what what does that mean where are you I
00:02:24
don't even know actually I went with I went with my girlfriend live who is absolutely obsessed with Taylor um and I
00:02:31
think it was it was a couple of months out and she was like I'd just love to go
00:02:34
to Taylor swi will you come with me I was like Absolutely I'll be there I'll
00:02:37
be there with you no problem at all and then she spent the next couple of weeks trying to get tickets couldn't get
00:02:42
tickets and I was in the office one day and uh and I turned around to ell go oh I've got a couple of weekends away
00:02:49
blocked out of my calendar to go over to O to go listen to um Taylor but unfortunately I don't have tickets and
00:02:55
he's like oh what you want tickets and I was like yeah well that'd be great I
00:02:58
mean live would be over the moon we got tickets and so he picks up the phone calls a bu and gets me tickets and next
00:03:04
thing you know I'm on the phone to live and I'm like hey babe we're off we're
00:03:07
going we're going to Sydney um and so so we went watch it was it was it was fantastic I mean she is an incredible
00:03:15
performer um you know she's definitely quite productionizing her approach to
00:03:20
things but that's what makes her great and she knows how to connect with her
00:03:23
community in a way that I've never experienced before oh she's like a a one
00:03:26
person mega church yeah it's crazy see you're not even a fan you did it to
00:03:30
spite your kids fory no I didn't really but it was that was the you know the
00:03:35
side message and learning off the back of it right is and it's it's 100% right
00:03:40
I've got our eldest son is absolutely obsessed with football but is he just going to be able to get a trip to you
00:03:47
know the UK to go watch Premier League game no he needs to work for that you've
00:03:51
got to have things that you want in life right and if you if you don't have that
00:03:55
road map of knowing they're achievable and attainable then it's really hard to
00:03:58
know where you can get to them in future well by buying a team Oakland FC what lesson is that teaching him uh well the
00:04:04
lesson there the lesson there is that there's opportunity in places that you
00:04:10
don't necessarily see it right so that that for us was about figuring out how
00:04:14
you can give the player Pathways that there aren't currently in New Zealand because to get out of New Zealand and be
00:04:18
more Global so my my you know one of my big things in life is actually um unlocking unlocking capabilities and
00:04:26
empowering people to realize that there's so much more than what you've got got within the closed Borders or
00:04:31
Windows of s New Zealand um and I think you know we we learned that with zuru the sense that you can be a massive
00:04:37
Global organization coming from being little humble kiwi kids but there's so
00:04:41
many more ways that that can be adopted in places and and areas of your life that that can be adopted over and in
00:04:46
sport outside of rugby um and obviously a few Olympic sports where we definitely
00:04:51
punch above our Weighton there hasn't been that opportunity in basketball or
00:04:55
football so it was about saying how do we help to unlock that potential and he's sit with pson already you know he's
00:05:01
just been signed up by Bournemouth um coming straight out of Phoenix that's exciting those are the journeys that we
00:05:07
want to we want to enable and kiwi kids and give them the passion right life should be all about following your
00:05:12
passion and figuring out how we can be empowers of that is what ockland FC is about I mean it's massive Gap right I
00:05:21
mean the fact that we didn't have a team here and we didn't have that competition
00:05:24
in New Zealand you know across a and z there's I think it's 2.2 million football players across Australia and
00:05:30
New Zealand um and and we've just never had those Pathways opened up before um
00:05:35
and there was no you know apart from Phoenix and New Zealand there was no other team here how do we build a
00:05:39
competition in New Zeal when we don't have a derby and is it just a from from
00:05:43
a personal perspective is it just a fun thing to fun thing to have and to do um I don't I mean let's wait and say we've
00:05:51
got team we've got a team being pulled together I think it's I think it's going
00:05:55
to be an absolute roller coaster um yeah you don't necessarily buy a sports team to make money you've got to have
00:06:04
you've got to have a bigger purpose behind it yeah uh so for us it's definitely about unlocking that I mean
00:06:10
it's it's the biggest sport in the globe um you look at the NLS for example and
00:06:14
and and uh the US and the pathway that they've got on and growth and potential
00:06:19
and there's no reason we can't replicate down with the APL absolutely oh and
00:06:23
another thing I saw on your Instagram you recently went to um I'm a big fan of
00:06:26
this guy as well Steven Bartlett Diary of a CEO love him you you went to his live show you you got the photo
00:06:33
afterwards what did he learn from you like I saw the photo I thought this is really odd like does does he first of
00:06:41
all does he know who you are and what you've done like it's crazy I feel like
00:06:45
that was just part of the journey but it was actually really he's a really lovely
00:06:49
guy and he seems like a very deep and genuine guy um but he gave us you know 2 hours of his time to a group of people
00:06:59
that enthralled and deeply engaged and he's a very engaging individual and he's
00:07:04
got a lot of incredible life lessons he's um a thorough and considered listener uh and he really is very deeply
00:07:12
respectful of those people that come on to his show and I think he gets the best
00:07:15
out of them as well and there's a lot to Aspire to and learn from him and how he
00:07:21
portrays and projects and and just goes about his life um so we were very lucky to be in that audience to be able to get
00:07:28
that sort of that um accumulated view of knowledge and information that he's garnered off of so
00:07:34
many incredible guests that he's on had on his podcast so it's a great it's a
00:07:37
great it's a great great podcast he it's fantas a great podcast it's one of my
00:07:41
fav and he he um you know how he does like Instagram tiles with quotes on from time to time he had one up today uh
00:07:47
success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm would you would you agree with that yes I
00:07:54
would absolutely agree with that um yeah success is a series of just very small achievements um and along the along that
00:08:03
Journey you are failing and rebuilding just constantly over and over again so yeah I would wholeheartedly agree with
00:08:11
that yeah definitely yeah and and that's the interesting thing I suppose this is what
00:08:16
everyone would want to know why would you go from zuro to to zil why wouldn't
00:08:20
you just kick back for a bit you know um get on a couple of like shitty boards or
00:08:26
something and you know just spend more time with your you know deep your deeper time with your kids or something why do
00:08:32
something else I I wanted to make an impact and I don't think you know I don't think being
00:08:38
on a board you get to truly make a tangible difference you know for me I love being in the thick of it I love
00:08:44
being in the Nitty Gritty of things I love learning um I I and I I really enjoy Building Product that's what gets
00:08:52
me excited that's what really gets me up and out of bed every day I want to be
00:08:56
making something that's useful right and and for me with something like Zeal you know the
00:09:02
power of five right they say if you impact one person that can influence five and that's where you get momentum
00:09:08
stay to build and that's where you can change society and that's where you can
00:09:10
change Norms um so for me it was really important to think about what we could do
00:09:16
to unlock potential in others and I think that's really important from a New
00:09:21
Zealand perspective right is is what are we doing to help encouraging our youth to contribute to do more to get head and
00:09:29
to feel confident in what they're actually moving towards so for me Zeal was really about initially looking at
00:09:37
how we could democratize that path to employment um so it started off really looking at what were some of those
00:09:43
barriers to employability um where were where were individuals struggling to get
00:09:48
themselves work ready and how can we break down some of those those barriers right and and when we started
00:09:54
researching into that space you know you've got um you've got people struggling to get into work because they
00:09:59
don't have a driver's license for example they don't potentially have the
00:10:02
skills that they believe are necessary for a role one of the biggest barriers to becoming employable was actually
00:10:07
having a CV so the first thing we started with in that Journey was a CV Builder a free CV Builder so you didn't
00:10:13
have to go pay 50 bucks at a website to get a subpath CV um and and and building
00:10:19
that and enabling people to be able to get career ready was really important to me um but then off the back of that it
00:10:27
was how do we allow indiv indviduals to succeed and businesses to thrive and what is the platform that can enable
00:10:33
that so that's where that's where Zeal kind of came from and again like I say
00:10:38
it's all about for me it was about being able to give back so it was really important in my journey of zeal to be
00:10:44
doing something in New Zealand with New Zealand talent and building something that had a global applicability because
00:10:50
again I care deeply about uring whatever we do here um that we're learning how to
00:10:55
how to build something for a global stage and have you got massive aspirations for it uh yes absolutely
00:11:02
yeah absolutely see you're um you're in a blended uh family and we'll get into
00:11:08
your relationship later if you want but there's five kids that you've got and my
00:11:11
sister lives in point sh she says she sees you doing the school drop off you every other morning um yeah aren't like
00:11:17
aren't you busy enough like aren you know aren't you tired why don't you just
00:11:20
have a break I think it's fantastic that your children see hard work right I
00:11:26
don't think that I don't think a working family is a detriment to the children at
00:11:31
all in fact quite the opposite right our youngest is now seven so I mean we start
00:11:37
the day at you know quarter past 6 by 7:00 all kids are out the door we're hi
00:11:42
Piper Family Ally myself five children walking our way up to the coffee shop for for drop off um and you know they're
00:11:51
on the school bus by 20 7 um and so you've got the rest of the day to yourself like why wouldn't you get up
00:11:57
and get cracking into something at that point in time and figure out what you can do that that nurtures you and it's
00:12:03
that's what it comes down to right is life is all about finding your passion
00:12:06
following your passion figuring out how you can give back to others and what you're contributing to society and then
00:12:12
just getting stuck into that and moving towards those goals and a really productive fashion and for me um raising
00:12:19
children is very symbotic to raising and starting a business you know the two things can go hand in hand um dealing
00:12:27
with dealing with dealing with people managing and and you talk about it being a series of failures right like every
00:12:32
single day you learn you fail with your children and you figure out how to get back up cuz that not going away you've
00:12:38
got to find Solutions and that's the same thing as as running a business and
00:12:42
starting up in a business and um you know being a mom is is is hard work it's
00:12:47
stressful it never stops it's never ending starting a business is hard work hard hard work stressful never stops
00:12:52
never ending and so there's a lot of parallels between the two but ultimately
00:12:55
I think they can work really well hand in hand um I'm I'm a very uh active
00:13:02
relaxer uh I'm not good at sitting still and sitting on my hands um I like to be
00:13:08
I like to be contributing somehow in some we we've only been going for 13 minutes I get that impression about you
00:13:14
like you are have have you do you have ADHD or anything or have you been I don't think so I'm definitely not
00:13:20
diagnosed it's it's controlled if I do yeah how old are you what's ADHD is a
00:13:26
super power though I I love ADHD I think if you can if you can take that harness
00:13:32
it and learn how to direct it in the in the right way it's like it's it's
00:13:36
absolutely a super power cuz I I Reon I re I've got to undiagnosed because I'm
00:13:40
just at that age where it was never diagnosed but it's like I'm quite happy
00:13:43
being an active relaxer I feel like I get a lot more done not as much as you though how far did you run this morning
00:13:48
just um 10K this morning just to clear my head listen to the final business podcast that you've been on that I quite
00:13:54
10K yeah ran past um ran past your your your building site I could see that in the distance oh there you go there you
00:14:00
go it's nearly a completed building site which is always good um do you have um
00:14:05
xshot bullets all through your house oh yeah oh yeah oh my gosh and I this I hate it I mean I walked into down the
00:14:14
corridor yesterday and my little seven-year-old pulls out a blaster and starts firing at me and I instantly my
00:14:20
whole body just went rigid and I was like do not do that to me like there's nothing worse than seeing those things
00:14:26
come flying at your head so I'm slowly confiscating them from the home that doesn't mean when other people's
00:14:31
children turn up I don't deliver them one on a platter but it's uh yeah we
00:14:35
have a lot of bullets around the house yeah I can imagine I can imagine I've
00:14:38
I've got a photo I want to show you um oh no here we go no no no no I just want
00:14:42
to know um yeah what comes to my mind when you see this this is from um your early years is this tooa or Cambridge oh
00:14:48
I love that that's in tooa yeah so how old are you then how old do I look two yeah a couple
00:14:56
of years old and you you're wearing a dress up from what I can GA later on you
00:15:00
became like a bit of a tomboy oh I'm surprised I'm wearing a dress M must
00:15:03
have this is definitely family photo opportunity time you know sitting on the trampoline in the middle of the backyard
00:15:08
trying to get us four children to sit still was hard enough you let alone get me into a dress but it's it's a great
00:15:14
photo though isn't it it just looks very very kiwi 1980s um you're very just incredibly
00:15:22
normal was that what your upbringing was like we were your appearance wealthy at
00:15:26
all or no just hard sort of hard working hard very hard um Dad was an engineer uh
00:15:34
so he he was at um kley Pulp and Paper Mill so that's the reason we were in uh
00:15:40
TOA so you could literally see the mill from this backyard um but he was incredibly hardworking and to give you
00:15:46
an idea of that you know the very first house they ever owned you know Dad literally built it himself by hand he
00:15:53
was the electrician he was the plumber he was the builder he was everything and he was doing that at the same time as
00:15:58
working probably a 50h hour week at at the paper mill and Mom meanwhile was trying to
00:16:03
raise young children inside this home that Dad was constructing himself um everything he wanted to achieve in life
00:16:13
he was willing to learn about to deeply understand and then to partake in either
00:16:18
building it himself or finding the best people to do so um so he never shied away from hard work he never shied away
00:16:24
from learning and curiosity and growth and so they were incredibly Foundation elements to how we are now as as
00:16:31
individuals as well but I mean our upbringing was I love this photo because if I think about our upbring beer feet
00:16:36
like I just you know I just remember beer feet a lot of egim Mite sandwiches um and Mom always gave us brown bread
00:16:43
because she thought that was going to be better for us since I was the only C up
00:16:46
SC with brown bread veggie Mite sandwiches every day the same lunch um yeah just uh you know in this this
00:16:53
trampoline I learned to back flip and forward flip and I mean we we had a lot of fun in this backyard cops and robbers
00:17:00
um but ultimately at the end of the day there was this uh allowance for Independence and freedom which I think
00:17:08
was such a testament of how Mom and Dad raised us they gave us enough R to hang ourselves and to learn from our mistakes
00:17:14
but they also set very high standards around how we behaved and how we performed as people you know they deeply
00:17:19
appreciated kindness but also having um very very uh strong manners and uh a respect for your elders and the people
00:17:30
around you um and an acknowledgement of what others were doing to help you get ahead so we had yeah we had a really
00:17:37
strong set of standards in the family and I think that was so so important but at the same time we were we were wild
00:17:42
kids we uh we definitely scared off a babysitter or t i don't just say that like we were the family that you did not
00:17:50
want to babysit really like in what way were you just naughty you are we just we
00:17:55
just we love to we love to challenge right everything's aom competition and and our family as children even to this
00:18:02
day with our children right everything's a competition so I mean we used to do
00:18:05
things like you know and just such childish things but the babysitter would come over and would literally put like a
00:18:11
bucket of water on the top of the toilet door so when the baby said open the toilet door the bucket of water would
00:18:16
fall on them or we used to have competions that's what we used to do before we had a bunch of balloons yeah
00:18:21
exactly exactly that's where it all came from um or I mean we used to have competitions to see who could W the
00:18:28
babysitter was watching TV sneak down into the kitchen um get a frying pan and make a batch of pancakes without getting
00:18:35
busted you know so we'd literally do things like that we would sneak in and we get the flour the eggs the milk we'd
00:18:41
make pancakes and then we'd take them out to the babysitter sh they were sitting at at a watching TV you can just
00:18:46
imagine how mortified you as a babysitter find out that we had an electric pan in the bedroom down down
00:18:50
the corner and they hadn't been you know necessarily looking after us but we were
00:18:54
well known for our Antics and it was all in good spirits but we were definitely spirited so you always sort of had
00:19:02
um yeah maybe I'm just drawing too much of a connection here but that sort of
00:19:05
disrupt attitude yeah I think again it came down to the the we were allowed to be
00:19:12
creative and independent and kind of pave our own path and yes there's definitely parallels to that around
00:19:19
being disruptive um so so so you leave school um you go to university because you want to be the the only Mo to get a
00:19:27
degree yeah well interesting interestingly enough I always as a child wanted to be a vet and so I uh was going
00:19:35
to go to university uh to be a vet I later learned that University is more about having fun than it is about
00:19:39
learning but um you know that's okay decided I wanted to to become a vet so went down to mass University I got down
00:19:46
to Massie and in the the first term sort of holidays I was working with one of the local vets um and so I just sort of
00:19:53
run up the vet clinic and said hey can I come and Shadow one of the vets for the
00:19:57
next couple of weeks and I shadowed uh him for a couple of weeks and I remember at the end of that time he turned around
00:20:02
to me he said Anna I'm not going to let you become a I was like what do you mean
00:20:06
why can't I become a V and he's like I'm not going to let you the person you are
00:20:11
spend the rest of your life shoving your hands up cows beehinds because it just doesn't make
00:20:19
sense please do not why Why didn't it make sense well look I just think thought he prob I wasn't probably going
00:20:25
to be very good at doing that obviously um he didn't quite that as my career
00:20:29
path which was actually the best advice I could have possibly been given at that
00:20:32
point in time so I very quickly de enrolled myself from uh from vet and moved across into what seemed to be a
00:20:43
good parallel uh degree down at Massi University because I was you know well set up down there um and again I wanted
00:20:49
to be the only mob to actually finish and get a degree uh and food Tech was a really interesting degree four-year
00:20:56
degree uh really focused around sort of um Supply Chain management optimization as well as engineering Machinery setup
00:21:04
um um manufacturing facilities within the the food and beverage space and nutrition so a really interesting degree
00:21:10
uh that I actually quite enjoyed um and then yes went on to to frore and oh where did you live in py what area were
00:21:19
you in I was right in the thick of it right in the thick of it and and you know a dingy student fled I think there
00:21:26
were eight of us in there it was nice it was it was it was good what the what was
00:21:30
what was the bar or bars then were you were you a bar yeah I was I was I would Brewers Apprentice no what was um I
00:21:37
worked at the fits oh the fits oh the fits were still you there that's a terrible place oh it was yeah terribly
00:21:43
good in the sense that it kept me away from drinking behind the bar feeding everyone else lining my pocket with a
00:21:49
bit of cash so I didn't have to get out of there with a student loan um for me
00:21:53
it was always really important that I didn't have to be tied from a financial
00:21:57
perspective to um alone or or some sort of um external Factor so you must have you must have
00:22:04
seen some things there I went there once with a couple of mates who played rugby
00:22:06
for Kar and they did a thing called a pelican where one of them put fingers in his own throat and vanted into his
00:22:11
mate's mouth and he didn't get kicked out you didn't get kicked out of the probably
00:22:17
would have been celebrated okay so so you work at fror and then um your your two brothers uh Matt and Nick um Matt so
00:22:25
uh so I went on to so Frugal was an interesting one actually they came to down to University and uh down to Messi
00:22:32
and they were looking for uh interns to to come into frore and into their own research and development team and um
00:22:40
they put up posters around the campus for a fourth year student to to come and do their their internship with them I
00:22:46
was only my third year at that point in time or or just partially through my third year I thought this is perfect
00:22:51
I'll go and apply for this job anyway um even though I was in a fourth year winon
00:22:55
Headed off with the R&D manager that point in time and uh she turned around and employed me um for this graduate
00:23:03
program uh and so I went I went down to fror and started working there over throughout the term holiday and as I
00:23:11
came close to the end of my time there she handed me a full-time contract and said oh we want Tolo You full time once
00:23:16
you've finished your your fourth year and I turned around to her and I sort of
00:23:19
said oh I'm actually only my third year and she was like excuse me that was not
00:23:25
what this was all about you're supposed to be in your in your final year so we
00:23:28
could bring you on board into a graduate program and um they actually ended up helping sponsor my last year of my
00:23:35
degree so that I would actually lock in and come back and work for them fulltime
00:23:38
once they finished so finished up uh at University and at this point like Matt was my old brother Matt who actually uh
00:23:46
founded zuru so he was um he's an incredible engineer incredible product guy um just really brilliant around the
00:23:54
the the future um and future proofing your business and and building product into into that space um but he he had
00:24:02
been sort of peppering me and hounding me a bit earlier before I'd actually finished and graduated University to
00:24:07
come over and start withou and I sort of said to him oh look I've got to go to
00:24:10
frore I've got this scholarship that they've given me to go on to Frugal so I
00:24:15
went there for a couple of weeks and he's like come on Anna get over here you
00:24:18
got to come you got to come and join us over here it's like the time is now we
00:24:21
need you we're desperate for you just get on a plane to China and I turned around to my boyfriend at the time and I
00:24:27
was like should we go to China he's like yeah go to China sounds like a plan um
00:24:31
and so it you know I'd gone into I'd gone into fral which is an incredible
00:24:35
company great business had amazing mentors around me but I was probably a bit of a pest right I just I would just
00:24:43
you know wander around peer over everyone's shoulders get involved in whatever project was going on I probably
00:24:48
wasn't adding a huge amount of value and I look back on and reflect back in it
00:24:51
and I just I just probably needed a bit more um and so as soon as I realized that was what the corporate world looked
00:24:57
like for me I I uh literally said to Matt the next time he called okay get me a ticket um and so I was on a plane
00:25:04
probably 5 days later so with fre mad at you so they they sponsor you last year I
00:25:09
I had such a great relationship with the with the team in there I actually remember sitting down in in Sandra's
00:25:14
office at that time and telling her and she just looked at me and she goes you would yeah you would and then just sort
00:25:21
of smiled and I was like I'm so sorry and then and then the worst part as well
00:25:27
is that at that point in time I was playing football and we had a we had a a work football team and we were
00:25:32
supposed to be going over to um Brazil I think it was to play in a tournament over there with our work team and so
00:25:40
Sandra's boss Jackie who I I still now work with um and and keep in touch with
00:25:46
um turned around with me she's like you can't leave before the football tournament you've got to come to at
00:25:50
least that I was like I think I'm just going to if I do that I'm really getting
00:25:54
myself into a deep P so we're just going to uh Segway at this point in time yeah
00:25:58
I jumped on plane headed over to China um into into one of the most extreme situations probably in my life yeah yeah
00:26:07
so so the The Story Goes that the three of you Matt Nick and yourself you you each had like um an inheritance of
00:26:13
10,000 bucks each from somewhere from our grandma so that was from my grandmother passed away so that actually
00:26:20
happened probably a couple of months after I had moved over there um that she passed away so when you moved so you
00:26:27
move over to China at the age of oh was I 21 21 so so what what is what is zero at that point oh um yeah just a very
00:26:37
small um rundown manufacturing square with a a few workers in it starting of you know a bit
00:26:46
of an R&D tool shop few production lines um manufacturing at that point in time
00:26:52
the hot air balloon and starting to starting to um a fora into what was our first product that probably gave us a
00:27:00
bit of um Global reach which was a product line called night Sports and that was a range of light up soccer ball
00:27:06
football basketball um and fr was that these no yes yeah that's them yeah so
00:27:13
how how he them oh 21 I'd say yeah JZ you look so you all look so young eh no
00:27:19
this was our next Factory so I must be I must be 23 or that's way way down the
00:27:22
track yes yes paint a picture of those those um those it sounds pretty bleak but it yeah how did it compare to we had
00:27:30
a sound lak but it was incredible right I mean when I look back on what we you know the environment was that we
00:27:38
lived in you wouldn't necessarily wish it upon your children but at the time it
00:27:43
was exciting right like we were just these young kiwi kids with big goals big Ambitions big big desires um we hadn't
00:27:50
growing up in you know in a world where we were entitled or we thought we deserved a certain um level or quality
00:27:58
of life um and we were we were very open and receptive of anyone and all you know
00:28:06
I had grown up an environment where Mom and Dad had taught us to be I think just
00:28:11
good citizens and good people um so moving over to China it was I mean we were living in some pretty rough
00:28:19
circumstances no doubt about it yeah paint a picture so you were living in an office and there was like a a shower
00:28:25
above the toilet or something no oh it was yeah we we're so man and I lived up
00:28:30
in China so I was in China for 16 years living in China fulltime um and by that I mean you know in the later years I'd
00:28:37
come home once a year for maybe a 10day holiday but in those early years I wouldn't have come home probably for the
00:28:42
first three years of going over there um and we're living in um an an environment
00:28:49
that is um it's an hour and a half outside of guano the biggest you know the the biggest city next to near us was
00:28:57
was guano we were living in a small place called W which had about a million people by population and I can safely
00:29:05
say I would have been one of the only female white faces in in huadu um so we didn't have friends we did not have
00:29:11
people that you could anchor into or call or use as a mentorship it was literally Matt and myself my our cousin
00:29:17
Simon was over there as well um uh and then just an incredible crew of and and team of um Chinese and employees over
00:29:28
there who who were honestly phenomenal some of our team over there are still you know with suru today and running the
00:29:34
business at very high levels and Senior positions in the organization but I mean
00:29:40
it's hot it's sticky it's dirty it is um it is fastpaced there's language
00:29:47
barriers there's cultural nuances that you can't even start to understand and
00:29:51
comprehend um there are you know there's no Road Rules there's you know there's a
00:29:56
society there's a society that you just um you you learn to appreciate so deeply
00:30:02
because it's it's grounded in this resourcefulness and this desire to get
00:30:07
ahead that you can't even appreciate or articulate unless you've lived in it and
00:30:11
been part of it um and the pace of innovation and change and and speed of Discovery is something that's
00:30:18
unparalleled so I mean I would say we learned business the Chinese way and that was the greatest asset we could
00:30:23
have ever received um so yeah I mean I remember that first day uh driving from the airport um to the factory where
00:30:33
where Matt at that point in time was was living and Nick was living there a little bit as well at that point in time
00:30:37
um but he was stting to commun a lot more down to Hong Kong um Hong Kong being sort of the melding pot of the toy
00:30:43
industry from a buying perspective and a sales side of thing so he was really anchoring that front end of the business
00:30:49
down in Hong Kong um and I remember arriving at the factory and just first off being an a at the at at the sort of
00:30:57
the product AC ity the get up and go the buzz the the the sort of the drive of of
00:31:02
everyone there um but you know man and I have bedrooms that are off the side of our Center office um where we've got you
00:31:11
know 10 desks in there um our showers are at one end of that um there's a toilet um down the bottom of the
00:31:18
staircase which is utilized by all the factory team and at the start we didn't
00:31:23
have a working shower block up near our bedroom so we literally had a shower over top of the toilet for the factory
00:31:29
floor and when I say I couldn't stand up in this I could not stand up in it it
00:31:33
was full of mosquitoes so your shower was literally 30 seconds and it's it's
00:31:38
all a gas heating system which is triggering on and off you never know if it's going to work um but it was
00:31:43
literally 30 second shower in and out get up there you know pad up to our room in a towel get changed in the bedroom
00:31:51
walk straight out into the factory floor like it was it was definitely an interesting an interesting time and we
00:31:56
had um a Chef there that was cooking cuz she generally to cook for all of your your your factory team so she was
00:32:03
cooking for all the factory team and ourselves um but we had a budget of about 2.5 R&B per meal so's that that
00:32:12
would be like literally 40 cents oh my God it's like you're in prison yeah well and so I just I just have
00:32:21
these memories of and and we always laugh about it m night of of the chef and she'd yell out
00:32:28
which me it was lunchtime and MMA used to just hear that and be like oh gosh back into the and there was this one
00:32:35
dish that was because I was always very jous about any of the meat I was like you're not buying meat for that price
00:32:39
like what is this mystery meat I'll just stay clear of of the meat but there was
00:32:44
a dish that I felt was really safe and it was pumpkin cooked in oil until it was literally mush with salted peanuts
00:32:53
drawn over the top so it was like oily pumpkiny peanuty mesh and I that was the one dish that I considered and deemed
00:33:00
very safe so I would eat that most days of the week and then we would um would supplement that with McDonald's um and
00:33:08
McDonald's at that time was very Progressive because McDonald's did delivery this was far before Uber Uber
00:33:13
Eats so um yeah M and I would treat ourselves with with McDonald's as well where we're living there so it was
00:33:18
interesting we didn't have we didn't have transportation we didn't have a car
00:33:21
at that point time we were taking you know public buses where you're standing
00:33:24
up in a public bus and you you'd commute with that and into town and no ability
00:33:29
to really communicate well um and then you've also got to remember that you know someone like myself walking down
00:33:36
the streets stand out you stand out and so everyone's touching you and feeling
00:33:40
you and stroking your hair and wanting to talk to you and it's it was a really
00:33:45
different environment but it was it was incredibly humbling and it was incredibly defining of the people that
00:33:50
we were then and that were become now so I mean I love China I love it I love the
00:33:56
people of China I love the loyalty I love the hustle I love the grind I love the dedication the hard work and
00:34:01
everything it gave to us was so powerful yeah cuz the like the Ana that's sitting
00:34:06
in front of me today it seems very very Posh it's hard to imagine you're living
00:34:10
on um your pumpkin I'm fing Posh don't you worry no no no um but yeah I suppose
00:34:17
like from where you are now you can look back fondly on that but at the time there must been that days where you
00:34:22
thought what the are we doing do do you know what though I don't think there
00:34:25
were I don't remember that I don't ever remember second guessing it I don't ever
00:34:31
remember um remember thinking why on Earth am I in China and why am I here and I think that's a really important
00:34:37
Nuance of surviving difficult sit situations or times or moments right you have to look at the positive in it if
00:34:44
you don't you will not survive it and I think it's really similar to to business
00:34:48
as well if you're in a tough or a stressful moment within your business or or life and you get too deeply
00:34:56
reminiscent about that go too deeply down the the the the rabbit hole of that moment then it's really hard to keep on
00:35:04
powering through and pushing through and getting out of that scenario um so for me living in China was just always
00:35:11
exciting and exhilarating and new and and and um there was always something to learn and there was someone to grow from
00:35:20
and to be and a life that you could change so I mean there was some there was some beautiful nuances to it right
00:35:26
like the the of Chinese weddings we got to experience or or babies that were born into the family like families and
00:35:33
relationships we got to understand Chinese holidays we got to celebrate like all of those cultural elements were
00:35:39
really really incredible and we got to learn and see all of that firsthand as as because we were so deeply and
00:35:47
intricately linked into the country and tied to the country and I think you know
00:35:51
we went we went into that move to China with an open mindset and um and return for that and and a deep respect for
00:35:59
people and in return for that we got to work with some of the best and the brightest and the greatest people within
00:36:05
China and and we're able to develop a business that is truly phenomenal and quite unparalleled in its industry and
00:36:11
on a global scale it is it's incredible and it's it's not a not an industry that
00:36:15
you'd ever think there's a gap in the market I mean you think of I don't know
00:36:18
Mattel or Hasbro or I don't know who your competitors are and it's like there
00:36:23
was no sort of obvious Gap there and these three siblings from New Zealand somehow did it it's just remarkable what
00:36:30
what was yeah what was your goal in the early days like was it to be one of the world's biggest toy makers look I think
00:36:36
your goals don't start that big right and I think too hard yeah the the goal
00:36:40
out of the gate was how do we make money how do we become profitable how do we eat something other than how do how do
00:36:45
we actually sell these toys and make sure that they get sold off the shelf right like so the first goals initially
00:36:51
are so much smaller um and then you get to the point where you're like hey we've
00:36:55
actually got something that works here wow we got into these accounts in this country what's the next country that
00:37:00
we're going to open up and so it's all about those that staged approach right
00:37:05
um yes you've got this bigger long-term goal of being wildly successful in the
00:37:09
industry that you're going into but it has to start smaller um and and I said
00:37:13
it the start right it's all about those in in like those consistent movements
00:37:17
all in in that streamlined and common direction that that leads to success and and I always say it's about commitment
00:37:24
and consistency you know without commitment you don't start without consistency you don't conquer so how do
00:37:29
you show up every single day with that consistent approach to achieving for a bigger goal so yeah we got to the point
00:37:35
where it was like phenomenal how do we now you know we've done this this exceptional job in international how do
00:37:40
we now win in the US so once we've won the US great how do we now become one of
00:37:45
the 50 biggest toy companies in the 10th and then in the top five and so it just
00:37:49
it constantly evolves and then the goal post just keep on sort of changing they keep on changing and and I think that's
00:37:54
really important because you've got to be able to you've got to be able to
00:37:57
celebrate those Milestones when you get to them as well um and so if you're always just reaching for that huge
00:38:03
audacious audacious one you don't really have anything to celebrate along the way
00:38:07
and it's not that look I'm not a big believer um in in necessarily celebrating your wins to the N degree um
00:38:15
I think that you should um talk about good news once enjoy it move on um but when things are going bad or poorly you
00:38:23
should talk about it all the time and figure out how you're going to change it
00:38:26
um so yeah it's it's look business is interesting right because you ultimately
00:38:32
have to be spending your time in the places you you least want to a lot in in a lot of cases because that's where the
00:38:37
hard work needs to be done and that's where you've got to make change happen
00:38:40
so um when you're a founder or a business owner you've got to be constantly evolving and figuring out
00:38:46
what where you add support and where you help and where you uh accelerate to enable you to keep on growing and keep
00:38:52
moving forward but yeah it's all about momentum and once you get it you've just
00:38:55
got to maintain it hold on to it and keep trying to supercharge it absolutely there's so many good takeaways in
00:39:00
this I've got another photo for you is this was this another photo was this the
00:39:04
game was was this the Tipping Point for Z ah that was one Tipping Point I think there's lots of tipping points um Robo
00:39:14
Fish your is that my job think they still sell them never like 12 bucks at farmers and oh yeah wet cools and like
00:39:21
how many of them would you would you guys have sold and now and when we first launched this we sold 30 million in the
00:39:26
first I think it was 18 months 30 million this was a great story actually um Chinese inventor sha
00:39:33
pinglu um and he worked for a competitor company called IFI um and at IFI he had
00:39:41
actually taken them the concept of this Robo Fish um and presented it to them as
00:39:46
something he thought should be added to to the range and the owner at that point
00:39:49
in time of IFI said no wasn't something he wanted wasn't going to go down that
00:39:54
path um and we happened to be privy um to seeing it in action and it's a phenomenal bit of engineering right
00:40:02
you've got this tiny little fish that's you know 4 cm long it's got full
00:40:08
Electronics inside of it so that it moves and it swims like a real fish it's
00:40:11
weighted so that it can dive and doesn't get stuck at the surface of the water it
00:40:15
has to dive down 5 meters across every three Dives and it's it's very highly
00:40:19
intricate um and how it works it's got carbon activated sensors so there as soon as it touches water it bursts into
00:40:25
life um it's a phenomenal Masterpiece of engineering you seem so proud like so
00:40:30
you're talking about one of your kids yeah pH are good it just you know it helps me visualize um you know just it
00:40:38
it really was a phenomenal piece of engineering and and likewise the manufacturing of it that came thereafter
00:40:45
which um was equally is is phenomenal um but shaing he yeah he took the he took the
00:40:51
idea to his current his current boss who said that he didn't he didn't want to uh
00:40:55
go ahead with it so sheling had him signed off on a bit of a document that said that he had the rights to be able
00:41:00
to go and license it elsewhere he came to us we picked up the license we took it to Market and then IFI sued us for
00:41:07
stealing their IP um we ended up at that point in time we were quite young and naive and to be honest a little bit
00:41:13
scared um we sort of had this big player in the industry that was coming at us for um stealing intellectual property
00:41:19
from his organization we were 100% in the right shaing had left the organization he' got a signed documents
00:41:26
saying that he had the ability to take the product elsewhere he had IP um he was in a really good head space and in a
00:41:34
good position on it but we were quite nervous so we ended up settling with IFI in that situation um if I had my time
00:41:41
again I would not have settled with them I would have absolutely taken it the whole way like for how much I can't even
00:41:46
remember how much we settled for to tell tell you the honest truth we like millions or something oh no no no no not
00:41:51
at all no no like literally not a lot at all um but what we did do is we shared the distribution of the of the IP um so
00:42:00
uh yeah this was a phenomenal product um we launched it it was a massive Tipping
00:42:04
Point for us as an organization we yeah like I said we sold about 30 million of them in the first 18 months um it took
00:42:11
us Global it really built credibility um it taught us how to scale um it definitely helped open doors from a
00:42:18
distribution perspective not only with retailers but also um with countries as well so it was it was a f it was a
00:42:26
phenomenal product yeah yeah you seem so proud when you you talk about it so passionately it's nice
00:42:31
to remin isn't it you know you kind of you show me a photo and it takes me back
00:42:36
yeah because I get the feeling you're um such a Forward Thinking person you don't
00:42:39
spend a lot of time stearing in the the rear view I don't at all so all of these
00:42:42
photos I've really enjoyed this journey you taken me on because I never I never
00:42:46
reminisce and then um it's a bunch of balloons came after that um yeah I mean
00:42:51
there's some this I just you made me think as well about this when we had the
00:42:54
factory went bankrupt on us with this product as well right when we had hundreds of thousands of pieces to ship
00:43:01
to Walmart and Target and we had this was a factory was a French Run facility and it went bankrupt um and we had to
00:43:11
literally reset up a new facility in the course of a couple of weeks turn around
00:43:16
all of our production get the the entire um manufacturing lines set up all the quality testing all of the Machinery um
00:43:25
and have our product shipped out to to to Walmart and Target in a very very um small amount of time and and to your
00:43:31
point around it being a Tipping Point at that point we had to succeed you know our credibility was on the line because
00:43:38
this was our big break into some of the biggest retailers globally so um that was that was definitely a stressful time
00:43:44
uh but off the back of that we learned a lot around the capabilities and the adaptability that that there was in
00:43:52
China to be able to make change happen fast and and for us to be able to drive it as well I mean this is where us being
00:43:59
in China having our teams located there and being so close to the manufacturing and the supply chain was absolutely um a
00:44:07
huge asset to to zeru and our ongoing success so sorry then you were talking about bunch of a bunch of balloons yeah
00:44:13
so so something which didn't even occur to me um so that was invented by some
00:44:18
some guy called Josh Malone an american guy and then um so is this how it works someone has an idea they pitch it to you
00:44:25
and then you either buy the idea or you you don't buy the ideas yeah a lot of
00:44:28
the time it just it depends really on on the product so um Rober fish was an inventor item a bunch of balloons was
00:44:35
something like an OT no no inventor was involved in that that was us in or something like a rainbow corns again
00:44:41
that was one that we've developed in end as well or a mini brand so it really
00:44:45
just depends on on the product but absolutely when you see something great um and you know that you can add value
00:44:52
for the inventor it's a very symbolic relationship so so this guy Malone what
00:44:58
would he make out of that oh I don't even know the numbers off the top of my
00:45:02
head but very wealthy man um I mean he does he does well out of it and so he should and he's been an incredible
00:45:07
partner in that Journey um I mean we went through a lot with bunch of balloons uh that was that was one of
00:45:14
these products where you know as soon as we licensed it we knew that there was going to be a flurry of activity around
00:45:21
figuring out how to knock that off and how to take it to Market faster and or cheaper than what we were able like
00:45:28
copycats yeah absolutely so many so many copycats so for us it was really about figuring out how we could beat the
00:45:34
copycats um at their own game and again being in China enabled that in us but also um I talked to Matt earlier on this
00:45:40
engineering capabilities for him he assembled a team to really automate and set up a fully automated facility there
00:45:47
for us to be able to manufacture a bunch of balloons at scale um and that ability
00:45:51
to do it for the cheapest price possible out of China enabled us to be able to protect the IP behind that brand but we
00:45:58
went on to win you know a $45 million lawsuit um with that product and that was four years four years that I spent
00:46:06
defending um the IP behind a bunch of balloons with Josh Malone he was incredible in that Journey as well um
00:46:11
but again if he'd been taking that product to Market himself he would have never been able to defend the IP um the
00:46:17
company that he' just be steamrolled right he'd be absolutely steamrolled and
00:46:21
and the company that uh ultimately were the the biggest culprits and in knocking
00:46:26
off a bunch of owns a company called T Brands they actually started as SE on TV so as SE on
00:46:32
TV the the late night ads are they have an whole aisle in Target and Walmart they owned those aisles so what they
00:46:40
have that others don't is an instant distribution point and multiple points at retail and some of the biggest
00:46:46
footprint retailers in the globe um so what teley brands is able to do is they're able to take great ideas they
00:46:53
quickly turn them around in China without really a care on the quality side of things because they're all about
00:46:59
getting volume um and then they place them on the shelves at a Walmart on Target and then they slowly
00:47:04
incrementally if a product sales well work on the quality work on the price point so they came at Bunch balloons in
00:47:10
exactly that same manner um they didn't care about quality control or ensuring
00:47:14
that the product was of good value they threw up you know hundreds of thousands of units into Target and Walmart stores
00:47:21
and then they tried to steamroll us with the fact that they had the the retail placement who knew the twig was so so
00:47:27
dirty in that the toy game is Dirt like it's very very dirty but then is that
00:47:31
kind of what you guys is X shot kind of like that to Nerf uh it is and it isn't
00:47:37
because there's no IP there's no inven features about that right kids have been
00:47:40
picking up sticks as if they are blasters since you know hundreds of years ago so it's very different in the
00:47:46
sense that there's no intellectual property so that's the diff that's the
00:47:49
delineator something like Bunch balloon is wholly inventive and you know the IP has stood up um that that like I alluded
00:47:56
to before that that went through three separate litigations where T Brands slightly incrementally changed the
00:48:01
product to try and get around IP we were able to have our IP stand up in three different litigations three courtrooms
00:48:09
over an extended period of time because we have an inventive feature so that's
00:48:13
what's critical um it was it was wholly distinctive wholly unique wholly inventive um and we had the
00:48:19
documentation to be able to prove that so that's where it's that's where it's a
00:48:22
very different scenario so T Brands the number of companies have steamrolled um they have had hundreds of litigations
00:48:29
and I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of litigations the owner of telebrands had
00:48:34
never turned up in a courtroom and be taken all the way through trial we were the first people to ever take him all
00:48:40
the way through trial and I remember so clearly when he came to our Hong Kong office to to try and settle with me and
00:48:46
get the rights to a bunch of balloons and I sat at the table and I told him I'm no one certain terms were we going
00:48:51
to be licensing the product to him that he was scum um and that we would not be backing down and he turned around to me
00:48:58
and he said little girl this is the stupidest decision you'll ever make and I just looked at him and I was like
00:49:04
we'll see we'll see just put the fire in my belly how old how old were you at the
00:49:09
time little girl I would have been uh 27 i' say something around there maybe a
00:49:16
little bit older maybe a little bit older um but yeah he and and like I said it was the first time i' ever been in a
00:49:22
courtroom um and I've never seen anyone look more uncomfortable um and you know
00:49:28
we won we won the trial um I spent so much time on that uh we won the trial we he wasn't able to appeal it we run three
00:49:36
times in a row he went through every means possible to try and turn over our patents and IP um and then he got to the
00:49:42
point where he said to us that he wasn't going to be paying the final sum um and
00:49:48
so I remember calling him up one day and I said I know your wife I know your children I know you I've had a private
00:49:55
investigator following you I know your cash is I know where your money's sitting I know where your reserves are I
00:50:00
suggest you pay us otherwise we'll be opening up the can of worms and just hung up the phone on him and we got paid
00:50:06
two days later God it was really interesting working in that sort of environment but
00:50:13
yeah he was I mean he's got a whole book written about him knockoff king um because that was his business model and
00:50:19
he just he just crushed and suppressed and steamrolled inventors on a constant incremental basis because IP is so hard
00:50:27
to to hold up that that phone call that you made sounds really mean but I suppose the only way to fight a bully is
00:50:33
to you have to you have to front up to them don't you you have to you have to
00:50:37
and you've also got to be bold about what you do and that's I mean that's a
00:50:41
big part of life right life is a series of decisions you got to make the right decisions at the right time and be bold
00:50:45
about what you stand for and what you're trying to achieve yeah so was it around
00:50:49
around this time that you you um metet your partner Blake and you had you had three children oh gosh um y three
00:50:55
children with BL from Hawaiian Hawaiian yeah so that's thus the reason they all
00:51:00
have Hawaiian names yeah oh do they what are their names uh Kanani Miley and Koo Miley Miley Hannah Montana energy oh
00:51:12
not not it's m a i l e spelling so so you you you were um you were preg you worked sort of all the way through right
00:51:20
oh yeah yeah absolutely I mean that was that was the beauty of being able to be um you know a founder of a business in
00:51:27
Your Own Boss uh and being able to have children so yeah I worked all the way through I think I went down to Hong Kong
00:51:35
um the day before my due date uh and you know you you're not supposed to be Crossing Borders until your last two
00:51:42
weeks so I had the doctor up in China sign a letter that said my due date was one date and the doctor down in Hong
00:51:48
Kong had a date that was wholly different um so I turned up there uh a day before the Hong Kong doctor's due
00:51:55
date and two days two weeks before the Chinese doctors due date um to cross the border at the right point in time and uh
00:52:02
I uh went down and shared an apartment with Nick down there while we waited for my eldest to come um but I mean I was
00:52:09
yeah like I said I was so lucky I mean I had him and two days later I was back on
00:52:13
conference calls and as soon as he got his passport I think it took me around 10 days as soon as he got his passport
00:52:17
we're back up across the border and into the office so um yeah it was oh my God
00:52:22
that's amazing yeah but I just you know there was nothing there was nothing that
00:52:26
was life right life was you know building zuru and building it to be the best it could possibly be and children
00:52:34
got to come into that environment and just slot right in and fit in and and become part of it so I mean Kanani
00:52:42
literally I had my desk in the open plan office and at one end of it I had a changing mat and next to the changing
00:52:50
mat was a crib and he came with me each day and I'd had him on and and an incredible routine right everything was
00:52:58
very structured a because you know you've got to get sleep at night time and B because I had to work during the
00:53:04
day so he was on a really structured set of timing I had um an amazing Filipino nanny who would come in she met me at
00:53:10
the office in the morning and she'd helped you know work through the day's
00:53:13
routine um but for me it was really important that he was there with me so I wanted him right beside me at the desk
00:53:18
you know it was first time mom you just want your baby there with you and I was very privileged that I got to have that
00:53:24
right and I mean I've got photos of him learning to crawl in this dirty dirty
00:53:29
Factory floor you know and that was that was how his life started he literally learned to crawl in the middle of a
00:53:36
factory in the middle of nowhere China and then so what made you decide to tap out of tap out of out of zuru oh you're
00:53:43
jumping around oh japers kid z we'll get back to the kids and family stuff but I feel like this will sort of
00:53:50
finish off the um the the zuro the zuro story um look I one thing about my life is that I I I always want to be doing
00:53:59
more and learning more and achieving more and that's really important for me
00:54:03
is is that there's a lot of personal growth um and so to build something like
00:54:08
we did together at zeru is is quite incredible right working with your brothers and and in an environment um
00:54:15
that we did and to build something so phenomenal is is rare and exceptional and exciting and exhilarating um but one
00:54:24
thing for me was that I also wanted to do something more for myself um and so I set a goal for myself when I was 35 that
00:54:31
said don't let be the greatest Mountain you ever climb do something else before
00:54:34
your 40 yeah I've heard I've heard that so so Zur are you having zuru is your K2
00:54:40
and zil is your Everest well would there be another Mountain this more Mountains you even
00:54:46
know how many mountains there's going to be right like let's not cap this didn't
00:54:49
we talk about goals ever changing yeah yeah yeah look it's just about it's just
00:54:53
about enjoying what you're doing in that moment and getting solely fulfilled
00:54:58
through it you know and and what we've done with zuru is incredible and that's
00:55:03
part of the journey that will never be replaced never be replicated never be seen probably for a very long time um
00:55:10
for three siblings to come out of New Zealand and do something like that it's
00:55:13
unheard of it's so incredible right the success is unparalleled yeah and so now
00:55:17
I get to use that as a foundation to keep going and so I'm very privileged so
00:55:23
is it is it a big call to leave or the your brother is okay with it like how how oh we're good we're I mean how does
00:55:30
that conversation start they they fully understand and accept your decision and yeah they they're supportive I mean it's
00:55:36
never easy those conversations like they're tough and we went through so much together and we lived in the
00:55:40
trenches together but ultimately those blood relationships are always going to be there and we are so
00:55:47
close you know you've got to remember how long we lived and spent and breathed
00:55:52
and and and and worked together you know like Matt and I were so closely entwined
00:55:58
in everything that we did on a daily basis for 15 years in the middle of China right like you form a bond that is
00:56:03
you can't even imagine it right because all we had really was each other um and
00:56:08
so there's there's a deep level of respect and Trust there and we wholeheartedly support each other in
00:56:13
everything that we're doing which is which is really nice so I mean Nick and
00:56:17
Jamie were just over on the weekend Matt I I was just talking to him and CT yesterday like we're still you're always
00:56:23
going to have that really close relationship and I think that's the special thing about family yeah and when
00:56:27
when they talk to you now about stuff that's going on at zuru like is there any sort of fomo or is it just like
00:56:33
thank God I love it I just want to see that business keep going from strength to strength it's my baby still right and
00:56:38
you never you never have to walk away from that and that's the beautiful thing
00:56:42
right like celebrate the success in others celebrate the success in in anything that you've been able to
00:56:47
contribute to because that's the beauty in life like I just want to see that
00:56:51
business continue to grow continue to prosper and and yeah and will that's the
00:56:57
great thing is because it's been built on such an incredible Foundation yeah so
00:57:00
so they so they buy you out or pay you out however you want to phrase that and do this was a personal podcast wasn't it
00:57:06
not about business yeah oh yeah is this business oh no no but I feel like this is important because I I wonder how you
00:57:12
feel about um I mean there that's my personal there's so much written about
00:57:16
about that I wonder if it makes you feel uncomfortable or oh I just don't need to
00:57:19
discuss it yeah yeah yeah but are you New Zealand's richest woman don't know I
00:57:24
don't care about that sort of stuff yeah I don't like that sort of thing but what
00:57:27
what about when um when you read uh like in the paper about your house and yeah like helicopter pads and and things like
00:57:33
that like is is that does does that feel invasive or or personal or you don't
00:57:38
mind you don't care all of that's very invasive I just think that New Zealand
00:57:42
media has got a long way to go to be more constructive right and I think there's so much we can celebrate why not
00:57:50
enable more Empower more celebrate more and engage in ways that are truly pushing Society forward and I think
00:57:58
that's the great thing about um about podcasts about micr credentials about the the Freedom of Information that we
00:58:06
have now there's so many ways that you can learn and you can be empowered um
00:58:11
sensationalization and clicks are always going to be there they're always going
00:58:16
to be part of what a lot of media Outlets believe is the right approach um but ultimately for me I want to I would
00:58:24
love to see a world an media Outlet or uh an option where we truly help the nation get ahead and the only way we
00:58:35
really all get ahead in a in a in a sort of in a comprehensive in a in a community based Fashion Is by learning
00:58:43
to celebrate one another learning to celebrate successes and starting to actually think a bit more deeply around
00:58:49
how we educate how we Empower how we upskill one another so that as a as a nation we can keep moving ahead and you
00:58:57
know our our metrics in the oecd are abysmal at the moment and there's a reason for that and and if we don't all
00:59:02
come together as a nation to figure out what we're doing to get ahead we're
00:59:06
going to continue to keep going backwards so do I think that any of you know that media side of things add value
00:59:13
adds value no do you think is an opportunity to add value yes yeah do you think part of it is stemmed in like tall
00:59:19
popping just there does seem to be like a negativity in this country a towards people that have done well for
00:59:24
themselves yeah I look at the end of the day the only way to change that is to change the tone of
00:59:30
voice and there's so much we have to be grateful for there's so much we have
00:59:36
that can be celebrated there's so many great people doing amazing things entrepreneurialism will continue to
00:59:42
power up our country and move us forward in education right um because that's
00:59:46
where the jobs are made um that's where intellect is created that's where um
00:59:53
we're bringing uh new IP that adds value from a GDP perspective like that's where
00:59:58
we continue to build an incredible society and that's how we continue to get ahead as a nation um that and then
01:00:05
obviously um as well making sure that we're actually empowering people to come
01:00:08
through and want to take those paths is really really important um and so how do
01:00:12
we change that narrative that's not my job that's someone else's um do you want
01:00:16
to get into politics at some point that can be something you can pick up absolutely not really that's not going
01:00:21
to be one of your mountains could you imagine AR you get too frustrated I did yeah you'd get too frustrated at
01:00:28
the lack of I just I don't think yeah I don't think I was cut from that cloth I
01:00:34
don't know yeah I yeah yeah I don't know I think I think you'd be whatever you do
01:00:39
whatever you put your mind to doing um you think you're going to be very good
01:00:43
at it um but I think you'd find it too um we'll leave that to Chris okay
01:00:49
yeah yeah are you a Laxon fan do you not talk about politics at all I don't talk
01:00:53
about politics but I I appreciate Chris he's a great person he's a great man and
01:00:58
I like that he's coming in and and trying to run the country as a as a business and holding accountability and
01:01:03
sitting kpis and and pushing people towards those so yeah it's great man hey
01:01:08
so you've you've got a wedding coming up we're recording this in at the beginning
01:01:11
of July you're getting married in Fiji next month yep yep yep yep yeah to um
01:01:16
Ali Williams former all black so um be honest with me when you when when you are you a rugby fan like were you uh not
01:01:23
overly I mean I grew up in a family with three brothers yeah family as well yeah I grew up in a w
01:01:28
family Three Brothers so there was a lot of rby on the TV my brothers all played
01:01:33
um so you're just you you're you're part of it but no I've never I've never grown
01:01:38
up specifically as a rby fan so but you were were so you went like an Aly Williams fan like oh my God had no idea
01:01:45
who he was when I first met him what he stands out like but you've got to remember I hadn't lived in New Zealand
01:01:50
oh yeah to New Zealand I I didn't open the heral to save myself right like we
01:01:55
were complet completely removed from anything that was happening in New Zealand and I was barely ever coming
01:01:59
back here so what I even watched an All Black's game in my time over there probably every now and then but it was
01:02:05
over a pint of beer at a at a pub and enjoying a burger rather than some pumpkin mashed so it was yeah it was
01:02:12
definitely it was definitely I I had no idea who was when I first met him um and
01:02:18
yeah so so that was where where where did you meet uh we met in barley at a friends a mutual Friend's Wedding oh
01:02:25
amazing yeah first first impression um first impression he threw me in a pool go it did not go down that way do
01:02:35
you think you're a Robo Fish needless to say yeah I swam like one too I just yeah
01:02:40
burst to life when I hit the water um yeah so needless to say I wasn't a huge
01:02:45
Ellie fan when I first met him um but yeah and then he he sort of had this look of shock of like what have I just
01:02:51
done then he tried to redeem himself and I you know again I grew up with three brothers so I was Prett and I lived in
01:02:57
China for 15 years so I was was quite durable and then um yeah how have you found the blending family thing so he's
01:03:05
got you you've got three kids from previous marriage he's got two kids from
01:03:09
previous marriage that's a lot that's a lot to it's amazing yeah um we both
01:03:14
deeply love children uh he is a phenomenal father um he's a great friend he's a great father he's an incredible
01:03:21
partner um someone who is truly so supportive of whatever I do and whatever the children do um he has entirely
01:03:30
embraced my three as his own you know and he and he always says he's so lucky
01:03:35
to have got boys um and likewise his daughters are Fury angels to to my daughter and just the relationships that
01:03:42
the children have been able to build has been really special um you know we have
01:03:47
obviously we've been building um uh home at the moment on our place in westm and
01:03:52
whilst we've been building that we've been living with the of us and and two
01:03:57
dogs who are the equivalent size to small adults uh in a three-bedroom home so it's been tightnit really close
01:04:05
quarters incredibly loud environment um but that has been the making of our family it has been the most bonding time
01:04:13
imaginable you know you couldn't whisper in the house without someone hearing you
01:04:16
so so all of the children have had to learn to be very accepting very patient very willing to understand one another
01:04:21
because they've been living in such Close Quarters and that's that's that's
01:04:25
it's been incredible you know Kanani our eldest he's you know teaching the rest
01:04:31
of them you know dedication and commitment to a cause and he's so driven to what he does you know Jessica the
01:04:37
next one down I said before she's been literally the fairy Angel to to Miley
01:04:42
who's a little bit more conservative more reserved and so she's getting bought out of her shell in the most
01:04:46
beautiful way the youngest two I thick is thieves you know they've been together since literally they were one
01:04:53
or just just shy have even one they've been together and so they don't know
01:04:57
anything different and you know there is no commentary around step brother and sister they are siblings they are
01:05:02
brothers and sisters Ellie is Dad I'm mom Mamay it doesn't M yeah it's so it's
01:05:09
so close like the family is there's not really a divide and it is beautiful and
01:05:14
we are very very lucky and they all add so much to each other and those those those shared learnings and lessons are
01:05:20
really quite special that that they're able to grow yeah you must be mely proud
01:05:24
of that because if there's no divide I mean yeah that's uh that comes down a
01:05:27
lot to you and Ali I think and yeah I think it's you know we don't have any
01:05:31
different rules across the kids you know and there's there's this really strong
01:05:35
principles base that we're both aligned on as well you know I think we grew up
01:05:39
in similar environments with parents that um that had really high standards were really strict and cared deeply
01:05:46
about um you know intrinsic human values and so one of the the most special things about our our relationship is not
01:05:54
only that we've both performed at is such a high level we know what it takes
01:05:58
to work at that level so we both Empower each other to do so um but we've got a
01:06:02
shared aligned Vision on how we want to raise the children um and that makes a difference it makes it really symbolic
01:06:09
it's an easy relationship um we both fully align on how we want to parent the
01:06:15
standards we want to set the creativity we want them to be nurtured into um the desire to to to make them children that
01:06:23
appreciate what they've got and want to work hard for a a future for themselves
01:06:28
and a path or vocation that they choose rather than something that has been dictated to them so we're all about
01:06:34
freedom and Independence and and ensuring that they don't just get given anything right they' got to work for it
01:06:41
yeah but how how do you how do you do that how do you avoid spoiling them I think it's really it's it's hard but
01:06:46
it's so simple you know it's hard you don't want you don't want um a temped on
01:06:51
your I like this is a far smaller example but I'm thinking um you a few years ago JJ and I we with there was a
01:06:57
family adoption and we took our nephew to LA and we were flying business class so I was like we'll get him business
01:07:02
class as well and you yeah it's kind of that's a very small level but it's like
01:07:07
you're trying to give them lessons along the way we're like now these seats are
01:07:11
very expensive but if you work hard and you try your best you can have seats like this when you're older and it's
01:07:16
it's really hard but you don't want to put yourself in economy class with the
01:07:19
kids do you no but I put them in economy oh do you yeah 100% why wouldn't you
01:07:24
damn it I should have done that but honestly we do 100% we do because they're old enough now to be accountable
01:07:30
and responsible and S an economy and they need to know that that's not something you just get div you don't
01:07:36
walk onto a plane and naturally turn left that's not where it starts I did not do that until I was well into my 30s
01:07:43
and even then I cringed it every single time I I did that out of the gate right it was that was hard and that took a lot
01:07:50
of hard work to get there and so it you're right it is so so difficult and we spend a lot of time talking about
01:07:57
that and it's it's the small things it's the little elements it's being
01:08:00
consistent about how we do them it's making sure that they have to work for everything that they get you know I um
01:08:07
remember having a conversation um when Koo decided he wanted to play tennis and um I was I'm not just giving you a
01:08:15
tennis racket and he's like but I need a tennis Rec I was like you can go to
01:08:18
school when you have tennis at lunchtime I'm sure the teachers will have a racket
01:08:21
that you're able to use and so he was just borrowing a racket and then one of
01:08:24
the other parents were like you know this poor Kitt he's got to ask for a racket every time and gave him a racket
01:08:29
and I was Furious about it because I was of the opinion you know that doesn't
01:08:33
just happen when he's decided that he's really committed to the sport and he
01:08:37
really loves the sport he can work for five weekends in a row around the home to make some money to be able to buy his
01:08:42
own tennis racket right because you've got to you've got to build that desire
01:08:46
and that will in children um and if you don't if you don't have a will and a
01:08:52
desire how will you ever be Innovative how will you ever be creative how will you ever overcome barriers down the
01:08:57
track like you've got to have adversity in your life and so there's so many
01:09:01
things that are completely frictionless around the environment that we live in and and how we're raising our children
01:09:07
so many things so how do we build that friction how do we build that adversity how do we ensure that the children don't
01:09:14
just get given it and so that's the fundamental principle from your perspective that's actually the hard
01:09:20
path to take cuz you you and I I'm guessing um our upbringing will probably really similar and I'd ask for things
01:09:26
and my parents would just say we can't afford it ab and that was the end of the
01:09:29
story but your kids would like Mom's lying yeah ex well exactly so we we I can't ever use that line I just have to
01:09:37
I have to I have to say to them can you afford it or why do you deserve it and or make me a case study for it so it's
01:09:45
they must think you're the meanest person in the world sometimes I mean this is this is a
01:09:51
terrible parenting moment but kind of a funny one at the same time and this was just last week um but I mean this just
01:09:56
sort of tells you a little bit about our environment so the obviously the long weekend the girls so the girls school
01:10:04
they have this habit of putting a parent teacher day before a long weekend so the
01:10:09
girls got the Thursday off and the Friday off and the Saturday Sunday right so they had a four-day weekend rather
01:10:14
than three-day weekend now the boys school never has PE parent teach parent uh sorry teacher only days they have
01:10:22
longer school hours they really you know are expected prob to to have quite a high standard around how they show up
01:10:28
and how they um they turn up they have more you know Chapel days on the weekend etc etc so the kids were feeling the
01:10:34
boys were feeling really put out by the fact that the girls again got Thursday out so I got home on Thursday night and
01:10:41
Poo's got this you know a bound a ringbound like a speech set of notes and he says can I talk to you Mom Dad I want
01:10:50
to talk to you I've got something to discuss he's seven takes us up to the
01:10:53
bedroom he's sitting on the bed he like is going to be fun and he goes through
01:10:57
the five reasons why he shouldn't have to go to school the next day when the
01:11:00
girls had to go didn't have to go to school so I mean it was great it was funny things like you know I'll get to
01:11:05
spend more time with you in the morning you get to sleep in going to take us to the school bus which was a wi um he said
01:11:11
it make us bacon and eggs for breakfast another one um the next one was you know
01:11:15
he was the only kid all week that had homework every single night and he got it done he hadn't complained which he it
01:11:19
was actually true as well which is quite impressive for him um I can't remember
01:11:23
what the other reasons were anyway there were five reasons for five reasons so all the kids Ellie and I sitting on the
01:11:27
floor as he's giving us his reasons and then we got to the end of it and I was
01:11:31
like I don't even want I don't always want to be the good guy you know deep
01:11:34
down I just wanted to give it to my baby boy you know but I turned around I like
01:11:38
I I can't make this decision you know from my perspective I I say no but you
01:11:43
know how this family needs to work is that we need to have a voting system so um ultimately you kids are one vote the
01:11:50
five of you are one vote and our family Allie's one vote and I'm one vote my
01:11:54
vote is no the kids vot is obviously yes so ell this is on you so it turns to him
01:11:59
you know cuz I didn't want to have to I just don't want to always have to give
01:12:02
them stuff right so it turns to allly and he's like you know what the case study was fantastic but there's there's
01:12:08
got to be some ground rules here so what chores you going to do around the house
01:12:11
tomorrow I I want breakfast but also I want you to bring me in lunch so the kids then had to you know agree to bring
01:12:17
us in lunch walk the dogs um and come and work in the office for the afternoon actually that that was just going to be
01:12:23
a shambles right like you can't get anything done when you got five kids running around the office playing
01:12:27
foosball and whatever so that was that was the negotiation at this point and then he's like and I want 700 press UPS
01:12:34
in the next half hour so then the kids proceeded to between them 700 press ups between them in a circle on the floor
01:12:44
and it started off with them doing 10 each and then it got slower and slower and then the little ones were doing
01:12:48
rounds of 20 while the big ones were still like stumbling through five it was actually quite impressive to watch but
01:12:54
they got this 700 press ups done they made us bacon eggs they turned up with their lunch at the office they walked
01:12:59
the dogs they had a day off school don't know what the excuse was to school about why the boys weren't there
01:13:06
but you know it's yeah I don't know how that segue into that but that's a great
01:13:10
that's a great story it was you know that's how that's how it's How
01:13:14
environment that's their household that they're getting raised in and it's you
01:13:16
know you don't just get a simple oh can I have the D school tomorrow cuz the
01:13:20
girls have got it off you know like sure that's an optionality but where's the
01:13:25
why behind it all what is the sacrifice you've got to make for us to actually
01:13:29
want to go down that path and enable that for you yeah so that's awesome do you do you have a crash I do yeah 100%
01:13:37
yeah I'm crash when when's this what does a and what does a crash look like
01:13:39
for you a crash looks like an entire day or two in bed where I'm just absolutely
01:13:45
tanked bottomed out um it's probably my worst habit is the fact that I go to a
01:13:51
crash yeah I'm not I'm not good at managing that so is it is it Ellie good
01:13:56
at sort of um you hand breaking you or pulling the rins in or how do you balance each other out hand
01:14:01
bre no that's the impression I get but so's he between the two of us I mean
01:14:07
it's it's hard to put a handbreak on him and me so we just we're just on that
01:14:11
what what would he say your best and worst traits are you reckon oh I don't know maybe you can find a friend and ask
01:14:17
him what about him what would you say his best in where um oh his his absolute best trait
01:14:24
is his positivity and his desire to just make things happen around him like he shows up 110% all the time his worst
01:14:35
trait is that he gets out of bed with that attitude in the morning and he wakes up with such high
01:14:41
energy when I'm a really slow morning person are you I find that difficult to
01:14:46
believe oh I I'm I'm a I'm a late nighter yeah y I love it I can I'll stay
01:14:50
up and I'll work until 1 or two o'clock in the morning you know you know I
01:14:54
started I had this weekend it was so lovely we just fully relaxed and I picked up a book on Saturday morning and
01:15:01
I finished it on Saturday night so I mean I finished on Sunday night at 1:00 a.m. last night and I was still quite
01:15:06
happy just getting through that book right like that's where that's my happy
01:15:09
plac is getting right late into the night so morning are a struggle so if you if you guys are watching like a TV
01:15:15
show or a movie which I'm guessing you don't do all that often are you are you
01:15:18
good at like just doing that one thing at a time or are you constantly on a device or doing a second thing at the
01:15:24
same time yeah I'm definitely a center for that but hey look so so's the so's the Next
01:15:30
Generation right yeah yeah yeah I mean I can you know you can you see children on
01:15:35
like three different devices at one time and I mean it's yeah it's quite scary
01:15:40
and so are all the kids going over to the wedding are they all going to be there yeah of course they're excited
01:15:46
it's so fun that you can have them as part of it it's actually really special
01:15:50
it's actually really really special and just being able to have them you know a
01:15:55
give the blessing for it but be be able to be part of those memories is it's
01:15:59
really it's really beautiful that's cool is um who's going is Dan or Richie going
01:16:05
or anyone you just are so nosy aren't you a little bit don't answer I'll wait until it's a new idea
01:16:13
or oh gosh let's hope not no yeah yeah are you con concerned about that that
01:16:17
aspect of it keeping it quiet or anything or I don't your around you've got to control what you can control and
01:16:24
the media is not something that I can necessarily control so yeah yeah and and does does that mind you tips and trips
01:16:32
for me what no I've been ter terrible as well you just can't get too wound up
01:16:35
about it i' I've been trying to tell my my partner that cuz it's um yeah she
01:16:40
she's she's sort of been experienced it for the first time just sort of recently
01:16:44
and it's it's tough and I tell her oh just don't read the comments and stuff
01:16:47
but if you're not used to that it's um easier said than done isn't it yeah I
01:16:51
think it's always easier said than done and you think about how hard it is for
01:16:54
us now you know and how difficult is as adults to be able to cope and deal with that
01:16:59
it's no wonder that children are having so many challenges with their digital
01:17:02
connectivity of the world that we live in as well isn't it but yeah I mean my
01:17:07
theory is just don't read it yeah because you yeah you you told me when we sat down I came up with a couple of fun
01:17:12
facts like like about your pet sheep and stuff and you're like how did you know
01:17:15
that I said WR it about you I still don't understand how you know that you you don't read um you you you try to
01:17:20
avoid reading anything about yourself yeah just it's not healthy or I just or
01:17:25
pisses you off I just I don't see any need you know I I just again it's sort
01:17:29
of looking retrospectively I just I don't spend any time in that space I really don't I'm always moving forward
01:17:36
and looking forward and it's just how I'm programmed it's how I'm built but I
01:17:40
also think that's one of the best attributes I have is the fact that I don't get way laid in the past um and
01:17:47
being able to single-mindedly just be forward focused is is really fantastic so um I just yeah I don't have a des
01:17:54
desire to read about myself I don't really like engaging in that space I don't think I'm anything special I don't
01:18:01
think I'm anything different and so that for me means that I find all of that
01:18:05
quite uncomfortable yeah but but you are you are you are different and special by the
01:18:11
fact of like what you've achieved in business and you're still very young
01:18:14
like you've done some incredible things hey yeah and you should spend time to
01:18:19
pause and reflect on on just the Brilliance of what you and your your brothers have done cuz it's it's
01:18:24
something special if nothing else it's been an incredible journey M and an incredible set of learnings and lessons
01:18:30
and I'm just I'm so grateful that now I get to keep on imparting those on other
01:18:35
people and if you want to use like a rugby analogy like you you're still in the first half oh yeah just getting
01:18:41
started the second half is still to come yeah that's exciting thing isn't it so
01:18:45
much more ahead any more any more kits for you guys or are you absolutely done with what you've got if you asked Ellie
01:18:51
that he would say absolutely he would love more shop is shut at this end of the deal AR
01:18:58
will adopt I definitely think we'll adopt it's uh really yeah I just you
01:19:03
know there's a lot of kids in need so how do we help again some some other kids what what sort of vehicle are you
01:19:10
guys rolling around in there what that's a really good question because we legitimately have a van we have a 12
01:19:17
seater and it is a 12 seater you have some friends and you have no idea how often the 12 seater is full like most
01:19:25
all weekend we drive the 12 seater um so it's got the dogs it's got the kids it's
01:19:29
got Ali and I it's got the neighbors it's got the kids friends we've got
01:19:31
friends we've got friends again there's at least 10 kids rolling out of it On
01:19:34
Any Given Saturday it's we like that vehicle it's probably our choice of our
01:19:40
choice mode of transportation oh my God that's a lot it's brilliant is it's like
01:19:44
it's like a team you guys are running should we pick you up what are you up to
01:19:47
this weekend or just swing on by jumping it's got flashing lights sound system I
01:19:52
mean it's sounds chaotic sounds CH I think I'll pass on this should I throw
01:19:56
the Lambs in there as well or should leave them at home where where are the Lambs the Lambs have gone back to the
01:20:02
farm right right yeah yeah we just have them for that you know again a lesson and life and accountability and raising
01:20:08
animals is a great way to learn to show up and on time and be there and be present and have someone else reliant on
01:20:13
you so so many lessons are they um I grew up in I grew up as a as a country kid right so I always got to raise lambs
01:20:21
have my egg day experience so in some ways I'm just figuring out I can impart
01:20:26
that on on the CES and we had we had a pet duckling as well that was that was the most recent pet so he's been let
01:20:31
free in Western Springs as as part of the lesson with the Lambs to teach the kids how to cope with um your death and
01:20:37
disappointment no the L the Lambs have gone back to the farm and then what no they get fashioned up and I do
01:20:48
not know what happens thereafter all I know is that they are very joile they're very happy Lambs yeah
01:20:54
that's great hey um it's been really enjoyable sitting down with actually our
01:20:58
first ever land that that we did get he's still alive he's now on a farm and
01:21:02
W hickey getting very well looked after and the kids even visit him still to this day so there has been no lesson on
01:21:09
the on the circle of life as of yet yeah because um one of my best mates Andy he
01:21:14
his um his dad still calls him Percy as a as a family nickname and it turns out um when Andy was real little um he had a
01:21:21
pet sheep called Percy and then um was a family Stitch that everyone knew about a
01:21:25
Pat from Andy but one day they were eating lamb and it was like then the whole family started laughing and Andy
01:21:30
was like six at the time and he was eating piy Nick and I in the 80s Nick Nick and
01:21:37
I when we were kids our pet Lambs were called chips and chops and uh Nick definitely went through that same
01:21:43
Journey um to the point where he stopped eating lamb all together he was just not
01:21:46
having a bar of it once he he learned about the circle of life thanks to Elder Brothers right yeah it's always the
01:21:51
Elder ones that have got the personal joke on you it's character building yeah
01:21:55
how's this been for you today has this been okay yeah it's been fun I mean I'm
01:21:59
a little bit disappointed that Kanye chose the couch rather than my LP I thought that I might have broken down
01:22:05
the barriers to his acceptance but not quite Kanye how old is he he's like 10
01:22:11
he's a low energy now we just need a camera swing around to the pooch don't
01:22:14
we yeah it's um it's as soon as I it's the first dog I've ever had I've never
01:22:18
never sort of been into dogs oh I love dogs um and as soon as I got them I started Googling straight away that
01:22:23
breed and how long they live for cuz I just knew I was going to be devastated when that time comes um yeah I'm going
01:22:28
to be I'm going to be a mess for weeks yeah that's such a part of the family
01:22:32
aren't they a mess a part of the family something very special about that though
01:22:36
so so you got the wedding coming up then um honeymoon uh we'll tap it onto the back
01:22:41
right yeah it'll just all get looped and no time no time to go somewhere else
01:22:44
yeah do you guys have like opas or Nannies who uh we've got the most like I've just got some incredible woman
01:22:51
around me um from Britney who's my EA to to you know our Nanny that helps out
01:22:57
with the kids we're very very fortunate having people that just it takes a it
01:23:02
takes a village to raise a family right it does and I remember so deeply how closely tied we were to our neighbors
01:23:08
when we were all growing up and how everyone just pulled together and allowed for that support and yeah we've
01:23:13
got the most incredible people around us that just take the hard route rather than the easy route when it comes to
01:23:20
raising the kids the hard route being actually following a set of family values that are really important to
01:23:25
reflect onto the children when it's not always easy right so it's you know
01:23:29
helping the kids cook dinner once a week or actually them doing the dishes rather
01:23:33
than doing them for them which is always far more messy with more broken plates and and more water on the floor than it
01:23:38
is if you did it yourself but it's it's those moments in time that are really
01:23:42
important or you pack your own bag and when you forgotten your lunch box we're
01:23:46
not showing up with it you know it's it's those hard it's the hard moments
01:23:49
that you have to live by but when you find the right people that are that are happy to support you on that Journey it
01:23:55
goes a really long way I think I love that there so many lessons and what about um what are you going to do with
01:23:59
your name your name I feel like it's so nosy is that nosy it's it's so it's so
01:24:05
good I mean this is this is what you get to do isn't it you have to wa and see I
01:24:10
okay you know CU I feel like your name's your name is s of a brand in a way and
01:24:14
and yeah so that'll be interesting I kept it first time round so what am I going to do Second Time Around yeah yeah
01:24:21
how do you um yeah youve been I've been married before as well I'm kind of gunshot to do it again
01:24:28
but yeah I said that as well but when it's easy and it's right yeah it's easy
01:24:33
and it's right and I think for us and the family it's really important to
01:24:36
solidify that family unit um the kids want it the kids desperately want it and that's such a neat part of our journey
01:24:44
in the sense that they're actually helping to push that forward yeah I yeah I always said the same thing as I've
01:24:49
done it once I don't need to do it again but I think when you find the right
01:24:53
person it just it's easy the decision makes itself he is the right person eh I can
01:24:58
see it in your eyes yeah he's he's he's amazing he's such a he's such a good man
01:25:03
yeah oh that's cool we had some Runnings when I was when I was on the radio I
01:25:07
yeah so we he he broke I can imagine you doing that he broke his he broke his jaw
01:25:13
once there was a jaw breaking thing and then um we got our producer to do like a
01:25:16
character so we see we had an interview are you are you about to tell me that you attacked him when he had his jaw his
01:25:22
jaw screwed shut this doesn't just reflects quite badly on your dog no I forget what happened exactly but I think
01:25:27
we saw in the media thing and he was like oh you guys took the puss out of me blah BL but I um I've always um admired
01:25:32
him like he he he had that sort of character that most rugby players don't have yeah he's got a big personality I
01:25:38
think he was s of misunderstood by a lot of lot of the media ah but then he's
01:25:42
very well understood by all of his friends and family so again doesn't matter what the media says and how they
01:25:48
want to portray any scenario is really it comes down to whether you want to read it or not and and just being as
01:25:55
long as you know who you are and having conviction in yourself you know that's
01:25:59
how you've got a power through any of that side of things the media is always
01:26:03
going to sensationalize whatever they can AR they absolutely take people how you find them yeah rather than just
01:26:08
believe what you read y yeah yep and and show up to be accepting of people and want to learn about them Anna Mo thank
01:26:14
you so much for your time today you're so welcome thanks for thanks for having
01:26:18
me yeah bloody great how's it been not tooo not too P this is you've done a lot
01:26:21
of business podcasts this is your first sort of podcast about you as an overall person
01:26:27
yeah it was fun yeah it was fun you know we down through a few different few different Alleyways um you tried to dig
01:26:35
some personal nitty bitty bits out of me but I feel like I got got to off a couple of times couple of times I felt
01:26:41
like I was the airen on TV guy in the courtroom I wouldn't want to I wouldn't
01:26:46
want to with you do we get to spin it around now and I get to interview you absolutely not get your own podcast yeah
01:26:52
no maybe next time if you can into your incredibly hectic I'll find time you
01:26:56
just let me know Anna Mo thank you so much thank you [Music]