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Oh, good. You're here. Come on. This is the center of performance. Whenever there's a top performance in New
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Zealand, it all comes from here. That's Lisa Carrington. She's been doing that
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for days. That's the boys who got the hole in one in it again. Hey Finn, how's the
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performance going? >> Top tier. >> Nice. This is our generate room. In
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here, you'll find our top performers helping Kiwis maximize their Kiwi Saver
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[music] investments. Get in here, Finn. >> Maximize. Generate. putting performance
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first. >> Anna Streton, welcome to my podcast. >> Hi, Dom. Um, big big drive here, but
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great to be um here. Don't know if it's great to be back in Oakuckland always,
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but >> where did you come from? >> I came from Hamilton. >> How was the expressway this morning?
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>> It was diabolical. Um, started back at Drury. Um, it went down to a single
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lane, then we had the rain. Um, and then you just get the normal traffic and without the school holidays, I thought
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this would be an absolute breeze. >> You got a very nice car. There's no way
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you were sticking to 110 on the way up on the expressway. >> Well, you know, I thought Pilates, I'll
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finish at 7:30. I'll actually be up here [snorts] working, waiting for um our
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10:00 me time, but no, no, it wasn't. >> So, a lot of people will be familiar
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with um the name Anna S or Anna Streen, but um a lot of people >> I hope a lot of women will be. Yeah.
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>> Yeah. Well, I think um >> yeah, men men as well. You're just one
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of those names like Karen Walker, Triss Cooper, Annetton. You're in the same
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sort of um echelon. Everyone knows >> age demographic. Anyway, I guess [laughter]
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sitting squarely there at that. >> How old are How old are you now? 65. Fantastic. [ __ ] you're looking great.
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>> Thank you. >> Are you feeling great? >> Yeah, I feel great.
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>> Yeah, I guess wellness is such a huge priority for me. So, >> yeah. Where where does the where does
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the drive to strive come from? like still being 65, a lot of people are sort of um you know stepping stepping back or
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going into cruise mode at that point. >> Yeah. Um I guess I just love what I do.
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Um work is kind of addictive for me. Um I don't look at it as work and looking
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at new opportunities is just hugely exciting. I mean so I don't feel exhausted. Um just love love everything
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that kind of comes across my path. So happy to investigate, happy to look at it.
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>> Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? He when I was 30, I would have thought the measure
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of success would be to be retired by the age I am now, 52. Like retiring at 50, that was sort of a goal. And now I
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couldn't think of anything worse. >> Yeah. I think it's actually problematic
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in a lot of cases. Um and that my mom, who's 86, is still working for us every
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day. She does your accounts, right? >> Yeah, she does. And it's um I think it
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would be really difficult if I was to say to her, "Hey, mom. um I probably think it's time to kind of step back or
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cuz that whole cognitive thing um you know having a purpose coming somewhere every day and she still does a bloody
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good job so that's what's awesome as well but you know a huge privilege to be
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working there having her in the space um not only in respect of my daughter's
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there my partner's there but um now my young grandson is often coming in there
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as well so yeah >> so who is Anna Streton not the designer or the brand but the woman
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>> yeah I guess um those are always and given that I've listened to some
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podcast, I kind of know some of the questions that um I'm likely to get. Um but I I guess for me, I'm just someone
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that's incredibly passionate. Um very very direct. Um I extremely black and white. Uh is not afraid of conflict. Um
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loves to get involved in the tough conversations. Um I believe I'm fair, an excellent communicator. Uh there's lots
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of aspects to me. I mean, I'm a passionate photographer now. Um highly academic. you know, academia is one of
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my favorite spaces. I went back and um did my or a couple of M's degrees in my
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late 50s. Um so, I guess I'm a myriad of things. Um and still still learning a
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hell of a lot about myself. You know, the biggest um I guess one of the things I love to do is educate is learn stuff.
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>> From what you've said, um just applying that lens to say employees that you've
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had over the years, what would they say? Tough boss. >> Yeah. No, I think that at the early
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days, yeah, I think they would have said too tough, you know, too tough to Yeah.
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too too kind of I want it done, I want it done my way, and I want it done now. Um, I guess a lot more collaborative
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now. Um, a lot fairer, a lot more the communication's a lot more open. Um, building trusted relationships. I employ
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some incredible women. Um, and women that have been there for a long, long time. Sort of 15 years plus in retail,
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which is pretty unheard of, especially in retail. So, it's a very special space
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to be. But yes, no, I've evolved. I think the the work and we'll possibly
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talk about it. The work I do in the women's prisons, which I've been doing
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for the last 12 years under our RAW charity, has changed my leadership style a lot. You know, um it's made me very
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aware of just different lifestyles, different ways that people um communicate, connect, think um rather
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than expecting anyone to think like me. Well, already we've only been going 4
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minutes. So, the the impression I'm getting is um you someone if if you've
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got a staff member and they're bloody great um you'll be so loyal and you
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treat them like a like a god or a goddess. Um but you don't suffer fools. >> Yeah, I guess.
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>> Yeah, you're bang on. Really? Bang on. I struggle with um with people that are
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not there for the right reason um and not prepared to kind of be as passionate about um the company, the role they've
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chosen to do as perhaps I would have expect them to to be. But those that bring that real energy um and that
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absolute passion into the the roles that we have and they're they're quite
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diverse because they're across the social footprint as well. Um massive respect for Yeah. and look to empower um
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look to enrich in every which way that I can. >> Yeah, I'm excited to get into this
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because there's there's a there's a lot to the Anastton story and um I suppose
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lots of lessons about um leadership and resilience. Um I mean it's a it's a
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brutal industry you're in. >> Yes, it is. It's an incredibly brutal
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industry and I I mean 33 years is has not been easy. There's been lots of ups
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and downs. Um but and even moments where we said hey is it time to to shut the doors. Um but from you know and I've
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watched a lot of you know very good designers kind of hang up their boots um and move on for whatever reason you know
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whatever reason they're suggesting some because they are in struggle street others because they've just had enough
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you know um they're incredibly hard businesses to sell um especially if you've used your name so you pretty much
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ride it out. So wonderful space for me to be in with my daughter as a willing succession fan. [laughter]
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>> Well, that's kind of rare. That's kind of rare. >> I didn't I didn't think about the name
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thing. It wouldn't be impossible though. Right. Let's Alexander McQueen, for
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example, Kate Spade. >> Yeah, [snorts] but they are not New Zealand businesses. We've never seen
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I've not seen one successfully sell with a um that's that's running under
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someone's name that's sizable here in New Zealand. So, yeah. But it is it even
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more. Um, >> why why is it so tough? >> Well, it's diff. Why is it so tough to
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sell? Well, from my perspective, it's tough to sell because I'd have to sell
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my name. The brand is the name and I need my brand and I need my name. My name has been particularly useful in the
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corrections conversation that I've advanced. So, it's enabled me to actually advance connection um a lot
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faster than I would have because there's been a curiosity around what a fashion
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designer would want um in this space. So I've had and been able to get an audience, but to sell it and have
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someone else flying under the guise of Anna Streton would be hard, especially if it didn't go so well for them.
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>> Would you do you regret that now? If you had your time over again, would you call
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it? >> Absolutely. If I had it again, I'd you know, I'd call it whatever, but no, not
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not Anna Serena Street. No. No. [snorts] >> You could have gone with your initials
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like as color or something. >> Anything. Yeah. Anything but my name. But my name and that's one of the things
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where I get to mentor a lot of young fashion designers who not so much today. Um it's interesting um and that I I
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don't know how many people are actually considering the industry um as a sort of
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a viable choice for them anymore but um I used to spend a lot of time with younger designers that were aspiring to
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kind of set up their small fashion empire and that was probably one of the pieces of advice that I would always
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give you don't use your name. >> Okay, let's go all the way back to the
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beginning. So >> born 1960 in Wonganui. >> Uh 59. >> 59. >> 59. Yeah.
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>> 195. Would have been better with 60. Wouldn't it feel [laughter] kind of what
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what what are your earliest memories? Your foundational memories? >> Yeah. I guess um I don't remember
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anything around Fonganui. Um although I >> blocked it out. >> I don't know if [laughter]
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no cuz there was no trauma there. Um it was effectively more I guess it's we
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moved to Havlock North when I was five or 6 years of age and Havlock North Primary School is probably my first real
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memory. So around five um I know that people can go back earlier than that but I certainly can't um even though I pride
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myself on a strong memory but um certainly around five. Who >> where did the um where did the idea of
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fashion come from? >> Well that's a big question. Um I think for me as I traveled through I was
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always a creative so painting, art, drawing, sculpture and so at at high school I was taking school arts you know
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ueI art and then art history. So um but for me it was my father who felt that those sorts of subjects were not useful.
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I mean and they would not get me far. He was a lawyer. He had a double degree in
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law in accountancy and I was um after a bit of a stint at THC Yraki I was working there um as their matraee. Do
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you remember all these places or [laughter] >> you remember corporation? Yeah. Um after after a
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stint there I um it was back in the Hawks Bay um too much alcohol. We were probably drinking Liestrom from the cask
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then or whatever and got into a debate with my father who felt that I was wasting my life, you know, hospitality
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and kind of some of these soft choices. And um I guess the alcohol made me a lot
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bolder and I suggested to him really what what do you suggest I should do? you know you am I to be like you and
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with the he said I don't know he said but I just feel that you are better than
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what you're actually doing and I said you know pick a degree and I'll show you
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that I can do it um and he said well you should pick it because you're going to
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do it so I chose accountancy oh my gosh I couldn't have been further away from where my head was at the stuff
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that I loved the but I guess what it showed me it took me seven years to do that through the poly checks in New
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Zealand um I think I failed two papers along the way but I managed to pick them up in the second year And I for a while
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held um only because I I was doing the continuing education but I held a CA degree. Um but that has been the best
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thing that I ever did. Not only did it show me that I have extreme discipline and I do um but it also showed me that
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um I can get the left and right brain going. And when you do have the left and right brain going, business success is a
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lot easier, >> you know, because I've got a handle on the numbers. But I'm also highly
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creative. >> [ __ ] It would have been so much of an easier career just to be an accountant,
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right? Work for someone else. >> No, it would have been dreadful. [laughter] I did that for years. I mean,
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like that. >> But easier in terms of so much easier than being an entrepreneur and running
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your own business. >> No, because it's addictive. You know, it's an actual addiction because I don't
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know where the ideas keep coming from. You know, I'll head into work and I'll
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go, "Oh my god, I've had an idea." And they'll go, you know, can we listen to
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the idea tomorrow or in the afternoon or do we have to hear it now? or they I guess that true entrepreneurial mindset.
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No, I mean accountancy was a tough space for me to be in. Really tough, but hugely beneficial and showed me how
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disciplined I can be to actually achieve something like that that was not me. Um
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and so foreign to me. I mean all of that stuff I I'd never ever been exposed to
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it. >> Yeah. There there's there's one part of your work history that you left out
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there and I've got a um I've got a prop here and I want >> Oh, no. I want to know what what what
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comes to mind or what memories come up when you see when you see this can wies fruit salad.
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>> Oh my gosh. I mean I I don't even think I talk about that. That was um that was
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in Hastings. Um who doesn't work for Waties when you live in the Hawks Bay, so I I know that I was born in Fongu,
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but I I kind of see myself as a Hawks Bay girl. I see myself as coming from um the bay. And um yeah, I worked like so
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many I guess of my peer group um on the canning lines with the I don't even know
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where you dug that up, but anyway, I worked on the canning lines um putting the four cherries that go into the big
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cans of fruit salads. So you would just they only put four into those big cans with [laughter] the um and we use them a
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lot for catering um when I got into other jobs and hospitality. But the canned lines would often break down. So
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when they did, of course, the amusing part was to take a fistful of cherries, go right down into the fruit salad, and
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then drop them in and then put the four on the top. So [laughter] they were, but
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that's the childish sort of stuff that we all do. But yes, I have worked for
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Watties. Yeah. Proudly worked for Waties. >> Yeah. And is is so you started um your
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you started in fashion at about 30. >> Have I got that right? >> Yeah. Well, I started Oh, yeah. That see
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maths. Um started in ' 92. Um and yeah, I was around 2930 cuz I had um I had Sam
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in 88 and she was about she was about three. Yeah. So >> yeah. [gasps] >> So how how did that sort of begin? So
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from what I can gather you you worked for Glesson's? >> No. I um I did the accounting went into
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accounting firms um and then was pregnant um and sort of in 88 I was pregnant and I decided that even if I
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didn't pass my last accounting papers I didn't know whether I was going to go
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back and do them but I did fortunately so I was fully qualified but um I then left work the only ever the only time
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I've not worked except that my sister and I purchased a restaurant at that time so I was working in the restaurant
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as well with her so we had a restaurant in Morrenville but Um it take I took the
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8 months off from the accounting firm and then I went they rang me the accounting fir firm rang me after 8
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months and said hey surely you were going to get back into something or do something and I said yes I am but not
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accounting I don't like accounting like I know that and they said hey um we thought you might like um this job it's
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an accounting job but it's with a clothing factory in Morrenville and so I went in there on an accounting capacity
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but that evolved into their design space um and that was quite a generic design space we were servicing the um chain
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stores. So we were working with glassons, with easy buy with the and they were hard task masters but god they
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taught me a lot. I mean if something was late or I you know it you know was certainly um you know we we got it back
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and we had to deal with it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So Tim Gon from Gleason's and uh
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Gerald Gillespie from Easy by I'm from Palmer North. So very familiar with Jared and Peter. I mean you know like
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they they were just I mean I don't they weren't mentors in that space but they
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um I was able to work with them. I was able to Kmart was was one of my biggest biggest um clients but um you know
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farmers trading deca I was working across all the big generic guys. was a bit I guess the accounting side um had
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taught me about the business of fashion and I always went into fashion um with a
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business perspective. I was never kind of chasing the most fabulous person in Oakuckland to be wearing my frocks. That
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wasn't my goal. My goal was to actually um you know make money make money. And I
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knew that I could do that um through the chain stores because the orders were big. They were huge.
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>> And what did you learn from those guys? >> Everything. Yeah. Everything. You know,
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I mean how to wheel and deal. I mean Kevin Male at three beers, I mean he was just another person in the rag trade
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that was accoladated and he supported me by I mean that was my first order. He gave me 40 linen shirts. Um and of
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course I was used to pricing sitting in a very low framework. um and that the chain stores will screw you right down
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to get um you know the best price that they can and they have price points that they've got to be and in those days it
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was all 39 or 49 that that was as high as they would go on clothing but um no they taught me everything they taught me
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about how to produce on time you know how to produce quality garments how to do it in New Zealand I mean and they
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believed in me I mean Kmart was paying me 7 days on a 7-day turnaround and it was getting that account was in at at
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one stage I had it up to about 5 million I mean it was a massive account for So that was that was Anastasin or Anna.
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>> No, that was that was just whatever label I could put it under. >> Yeah. Just think of a name, think of a
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whatever and create a label. >> That sounds really lucrative. Big contract.
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>> So they had it was and that had nothing to do with an that was all about this is
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how I was going to do it. You know I and this is the company that I'd learned
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from that's what they were doing. you know, they were dealing with the but when I left them um and effectively the
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way that I left is it was going so well they got me an assistant from Oakland and she came down and she said, "Why are
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you doing this for these people? You should be doing this for yourself." And
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I said, "Have you seen the size of what these guys do?" You know, like when an
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order is canled. What do you do with 5,000 garments that were destined for easy buy, but they're late, you know?
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They're sitting at the bottom of the clothing feeding chain. You know, where
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do you take those garments? And um uh she said, "Look, I don't know." She
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said, "There's a hell of a lot of people that I don't place any value in doing
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this in Oakuckland and not doing it very well. You could do this. You do it well." So, I left. Um I handed them my
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notice. They told me to pack up my desk that day, understandably. And she said, "Actually, I'm coming with you. Have you
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got a job?" And so, we both left and we moved out onto the farm that I was married to a dairy farmer. Um, and we
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moved out onto the farm, shifted some prefab buildings on, and I continued to work in the same way, except the company
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I was working for were doing denim. They were very much about denim garments. So
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they had all the Levis's contracts. They were doing all the police work they were
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doing. So I decided to just work with knits like the t-shirt you've got on. So
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um because we weren't able to fill a lot of the knit orders um through this company I was working for. So by going
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to the knits felt there was a little bit of integrity around that kind of shift and I wasn't working in the same space
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they were and then I just continued to grow out into the woven into the fancies that they weren't doing so much with.
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>> So was that sort of the birth of Anna Streton? It was the birth of the clothing company. It was called Street
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and Clothing Company. And in that first year, um, I'd come off a salary of 44,000. I turned over a million dollars
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and was 50% profitable. [ __ ] I didn't know what to do with the bloody money. I
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just thought, "Oh my god, I'm I'm actually really good at this. [laughter]
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>> Oh my god. Oh my god. That's a that's a horrible entrepreneur story because it's
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not a reality." >> I know. But when my accountant rang and she said, "Oh my god, look what you've
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achieved." You know, I was it was an Sherry from the Westpack Bank. I remember her saying to me, "Anna
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Streitton, you're nothing but a bloody trader." And I said, "Yeah, I probably
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am. I love to trade. I love a deal. I love a deal." You know, I'm pretty good
00:18:52
at the markets. You know, when you go to markets, you get the opportunity to barter and sort of the, you know, the um
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I've just come [clears throat] back from Vietn Vietnam and Cambodia and um I I
00:19:01
noticed the nervousness around bartering, but doesn't worry me. Were you were you always tough or did did um
00:19:06
you working with um people with and dealing with people like Tim Gon and Jared Gillespie did that sort of like
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force you >> No, they were tough on me. Yeah, they were tough on me. They didn't realize
00:19:15
you had to sort of match them. >> Well, they just said, "If you want this
00:19:17
order, Anna, it's this price and in this fabric." And so then I had to actually
00:19:21
work out how much margin I needed. And I remember one of the first orders that I
00:19:26
got from Farmers Trading where she gave me 20,000 shift dresses as a first order
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and I had $4 in each shift dress, you know. So, it was I was okay with small margins when I was getting those huge
00:19:39
quantities because it was 80,000 bucks just to deliver that order. >> So, that year that you talked about
00:19:44
before, early on in the business where you made like half a million, >> that was the profit.
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>> There was tax there was tax on that. >> Yeah. Um, did it get better than that or
00:19:54
was that a >> Um, it's pretty much set. No, it got stronger. It got stronger. Yeah. You
00:19:59
know, like I just I just love business and I think that whole accounting thing and I owe that to my father. Um, not not
00:20:05
because he did it, but because he was um I guess he was he was fine with having those conversations, you know, around,
00:20:11
you know, what you're doing is is not you. It's not. >> And certainly had those with my children
00:20:16
and got them to actually do finance and um, you know, that more accounting geared knowing that they were creatives,
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you know, ones ended up in in building and Sam's also Well, Sam's in the
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fashion company. >> Yeah. Yeah. You must have thought you were invincible at that point.
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>> Well, it's hard not to, isn't it? When you're doing so damn well. And it was
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all in New Zealand, too, because there was no I wasn't offshore, you know. I
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was only working in New Zealand. Um, and I was just working um with those big guys. And there was a lot of them, you
00:20:44
know. Don't forget internet wasn't here, you know, none. There was nothing. It
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was just, you know, um, we were working with what we had. We were It was all relationship based. I remember Kmart New
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Zealand giving um me a Christmas present for being such an awesome supplier to work with and they'd never done that.
00:21:00
>> When did you launch your first store? >> Well, what happened is um I was driving
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I used to drive this Mubishi L Mitubishi L300 van. I came out to walk and I pick
00:21:09
up my fabrics and then I'd drive home, you know, back to Morrenville. Um and I
00:21:13
do that two or three times a week. And I was driving back one day and Kmart rang
00:21:17
me and they said, "Hey, have you got a ch chance to pop in?" I thought, "Oh,
00:21:20
this is good. I'll go and just check the orders and and I said, "Yeah, sure." So,
00:21:23
I went in and that was when they told me that the business was actually changing
00:21:28
the way that they brought they were heading to Australia. I was welcome to deal with that, but it effectively meant
00:21:33
there would be no more New Zealand business. So, I lost that account, which as I said over that time had been about
00:21:38
$5 million worth of business um overnight. So, I remember driving down the motorway in my little van thinking,
00:21:43
"Oh my god, what happens now?" you know, like you've lost your biggest account,
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you know, um with the but I guess for me that was when the pivot happened and I effectively said, okay, well, I will set
00:21:54
up a label um that means that I'm only um reliant on myself. You know, I don't
00:22:00
have these dependencies based around the way that other people are trading. [sighs and gasps]
00:22:05
And that's when an was born. But it wasn't an when I first started. So the
00:22:10
[laughter] well because I was traveling all the time for the generic guys and effectively we go to London and the UK
00:22:16
we'd pick up styling that we believed was hot um and we bring it back and we
00:22:20
go this dress in this fabric this is what I can do at this price and they yay or nay it so while I was the next trip
00:22:28
that I did I thought I actually need to think and of a label because if I'm going to start to set up something for
00:22:34
myself and I found a little shoe store in the states called Sam and Libby I thought this will do. Um because for
00:22:40
me, don't forget I was very business, you know, save the cost, get it done. Um
00:22:44
and so I took the Sam and Libby label and no internet, no connection with New Zealand and thought I'll just knock this
00:22:50
off and I will call my stores Sam and Libby. Um Sam's my daughter and Libby I'll name my [snorts] Volkswagen Libby.
00:22:57
I'll change the number plates. We had the personalized plates. So if anyone asked me where it came from, I'll say
00:23:01
that was the the combo [laughter] pre- internet. There's no way that anyone >> there's no one could find it. And like
00:23:06
and so here I was setting up these Sam and Libby stores because I figured that once I set up one in Havlock North um I
00:23:13
could scale them pretty quickly because I was used to big quantities and so I thought once I had one I could just keep
00:23:18
going >> duplicate it. >> Yeah. But of course Sam and Libby came to town. [gasps]
00:23:23
They um a we had a woman come into the store and she said, "Oh, is Anna in shoes?" And the manager said, "No, I
00:23:29
don't think so." And she said, "Oh, I bought these shoes from the warehouse. I
00:23:33
thought she must have been doing. Of course, the warehouse had dropped a whole lot of Sam and Libby shoes. Um,
00:23:37
and I got a cease and desist from Sam and Libby. [laughter] And I thought, "Oh my gosh, I can this
00:23:44
is just expensive cuz I'm having to change about four or five stores and labels and um cuz I had knocked off and
00:23:51
done and taken everything that they had cuz it was just easy." And that's the
00:23:55
way we did it in those days. We'd pick up a label in a chain store and we go,
00:23:58
"Okay, we'll just replicate it back here because no one's going to know." You
00:24:01
know, who comes to New Zealand? >> It sounds It sounds like terrible under
00:24:06
today's lens. It sounds like you're a thieving pirate, but back then back then
00:24:09
it was just >> That's [laughter] what we we'd be walking through a chainsaw and we'd see
00:24:13
a label and we go, "Oh, that's really pretty." You know, and we'd just take
00:24:17
it, you know? I mean, it's just Or you'd buy the garment so you had all the
00:24:20
labels, you know? It's And then you'd hand that to the local label maker and
00:24:24
you say, "This is what I want to do." Saved on all the graphic. It's what we
00:24:27
did. It's what we did. [laughter] >> It's what I did. >> Unbelievable. And I love how you're
00:24:32
you're telling the story without an ounce of shame. It's just unapologetic.
00:24:35
>> It's [laughter] I mean when I look back on the stupidity of that, but we didn't even see it as
00:24:41
stupid. And I was pretty lucky that I just got a cease and desist. It could have been pretty seismic. But um yeah,
00:24:47
and I changed the stores and I thought, right, I'll go to my own name because if
00:24:50
I go to my own name, I'm never going to have to deal with this again. So that's
00:24:53
when Anes was born. Yeah. and we started setting up the NR stores and I think at
00:24:58
um one stage we had about 42 stores so we got relatively big quite quickly and we didn't start changing them to Anna
00:25:06
Streton until we um fashion week came on the scene and um they refused to let Anna exhibit because they felt we were
00:25:13
too chain store right >> yeah so I thought okay I'll just flick that on its head and
00:25:17
>> Oh s like a victim of your own success in a way >> well no they just felt that they were
00:25:21
more designer yeah not they didn't want the gene Jones of this or the Anastitans
00:25:26
or the cuz we were kind of in that chains and we were we were in that we were turning out generic product you
00:25:31
know like we had a linen shirt LBO what was it LB75 I think we were just making thousands and thousands of these shirts
00:25:37
and I knew that if I if the shirt was priced at 99 bucks women would buy two and so I was really um attuned to sweet
00:25:44
spots in pricing the chain stores had taught me to do that they taught me if I could get the price at this but of
00:25:49
course those prices were exponential compared to what I was used to you know if I could get a shoot out at 99 instead
00:25:54
49. Great. >> So, see, would [clears throat] it be fair to say like your drive was money?
00:26:01
>> I was in business. Yeah, I was in business. But along the way, I was building a kind of a social impact
00:26:06
footprint purely in a in a way a lot of people do. I aligned with a lot of the large charities that had um that, you
00:26:13
know, that were actually useful for my client base or my customer base. So, breast cancer, SPCA, all the big guys I
00:26:20
aligned with. So I would design t-shirts, I would do fashion shows, I would speak for them, I would do all
00:26:25
sorts of different things. So that was kind of the contribution that I did. So there was kind of it wasn't all about
00:26:29
the money, but there was certainly a social impact footprint, but not as substantive as it is today. Yeah.
00:26:35
>> Yeah. Ending up with Did you say 42 stores? >> Yeah, we got 42. I know. I know. It was
00:26:40
massive. It was massive. So >> when did you How many have you got now? Today?
00:26:44
>> Eight. >> Eight. >> Eight. But 50% of our business is online. Yeah. Yeah. So we've moved it to
00:26:49
>> Yeah. I mean, this is what we're talking about before, like it's a notoriously
00:26:52
tough business and you've been so resilient over so many years. Like, um, yeah, when you when when you're at 42
00:26:57
stores, I'm supposing that's when retail was sort of at its peak. Now, retail is
00:27:01
not what it used to be. >> Well, I guess people were not shopping online. So, effectively, you were just
00:27:06
looking for areas that kind of replicated success stories for you. And initially, I started in the rural areas
00:27:11
because I felt if I went in there and was a really strong retailer, I'd actually attract, you know, a strong
00:27:17
customer base. And it worked. So Havlock North Cambridge um you I was in Okuni um
00:27:23
you know Wonganui Foganui I just went on the perimeters of the cities I didn't
00:27:26
come into the cities until fashion week um with the Aniston brand so I stayed away from the cities because I felt the
00:27:32
rents were high it was harder to make money um effectively I just had to make 50k out of each store so if I could make
00:27:39
50k um out of each store then I'd just leave it alone you know I'd let it just
00:27:44
transact you know so it was so that had to be that was kind of my bottom Fine. >> Yeah. Yeah. There's so many stores and
00:27:51
such a smart strategy with the regions and the provinces as well. >> Yeah. Well, it it was by default because
00:27:56
I remember when I first decided to set up my own stores, my dad was had a store in Havlock North and RM Williams were in
00:28:03
there and they had pulled out and I remember saying to my dad, you know, like I'd like to take that store and he
00:28:08
goes, "Well, you know, you're going to have to pay the rent." And I said,
00:28:10
"Yeah, I think I can pay the rent." And he said, "Well, there won't be any, you
00:28:13
know, like I won't be discounting it or I won't." I said, "I'm all good, Dad. I
00:28:16
can." He said, "Yes, well, you know, I don't know how good you are at this with
00:28:19
the" And I said, "No, I'll I'll be all good, Dad." You know, like with the He
00:28:21
said, "Yeah, okay. Well, you can have it, but I want you to sign a lease." And
00:28:24
but I remember so much about him is that as much as he favored who I was, he's
00:28:29
not here today, but um he um he was also my biggest critic. Like I'd do a um I
00:28:35
don't know, I'd do a breakfast um TV or whatever and um I'd get out of there and
00:28:40
I'd um I'd give dad a ring and I'd say, "Oh, did you watch? Did you?" And he'd
00:28:44
say, "Yes, yes." And I'd say, "What did you think?" and he'd go, "Do you think
00:28:47
you could smile more? [laughter] You you know, you look you look like a grimace."
00:28:52
And of course, it was everyone else was saying, "Oh, you did really well." But
00:28:55
dad would say, "You know, I just think you should smile more." And he was
00:28:58
right. And so then I taught myself this little trick that if you put your tongue
00:29:01
at the roof of your mouth, and you know, you look like you're always smiling with
00:29:04
the, you know, just so many memories of um just obscure stuff that came from his
00:29:10
ongoing positive sort of feedback that was critical. you miss him? >> Um, yes and no. Um, there was, you know,
00:29:20
he was he's not the best dad in the world. He really wasn't. [laughter] So,
00:29:24
um, I don't know if he would have got father of the year award, but there's
00:29:27
just lots of memories. Lots [snorts] of memories. >> You hear his messaging from his
00:29:32
messaging. Yeah. But more around the criticism he had, you know, um, which, you know, just Yeah. Some of the stuff.
00:29:38
Yeah. >> Well, I suppose it's parents job. They've got to be able to kick your ass,
00:29:41
but they've also got to be able to give you praise when it's deserved as well.
00:29:44
>> Yeah. I think parenting now was different to where it was my parents were quite um you know, they weren't as
00:29:52
involved in my life um as I would have liked them to be. But hey, it's just they had different things happening in
00:29:58
their lives as well. So yeah, it is what it is. >> And you still got your mom in the the
00:30:01
business and the accounting side as we alluded to earlier. That's awesome. I
00:30:04
know. So I I love that. I absolutely love it, you know, and also I get to obviously monitor her um in respect of
00:30:10
her wellness and where she's at and yeah, knows well. >> So, when those 42 stores, when did you
00:30:16
when did you start like shutting them down? >> Did did you did you stay in the retail
00:30:20
game too late and you started losing money or did could you see where the future was going?
00:30:25
>> Definitely. And I think before CO 19 um that was really interesting cuz we had
00:30:30
been shutting them down. So effectively they would naturally the lease would run
00:30:33
out or um in Aokuni the mountain blew up. So you know just different things would happen that or you just get to the
00:30:39
stage a manager would leave and you think look this store is not even viable. So it would give you the
00:30:44
opportunity to wrap it up um especially where they would get close to or at the end of their leases. I mean we had four
00:30:49
in Australia at one stage which was probably one of my biggest fails um and such a um you know poor decision from me
00:30:56
in respect of you know not checking that market as to you know how receptive they
00:31:02
would be to our clothing. Um but yeah I just they just slowly came to the end of
00:31:07
their leases. They weren't viable. They weren't meeting that formula. Um and so
00:31:11
and also the city stores were a bit of a drain um because the rents were so high,
00:31:16
you know, so it was harder. um to actually make money and often they would require two people so they were a lot
00:31:21
harder. Although in saying that Christ Church is our um you know is our flagship store and it's a supertore and
00:31:27
that it trades really really well. So it's still there. Yeah. And Wellington's
00:31:31
been an amazing store still very much there and in there and both of those girls have been there sort of 12 15
00:31:37
years plus. So yeah. >> What has been the toughest period in business? I know I know co ended up
00:31:42
being um quite lucrative for you with the >> face and I say that with acknowledgement
00:31:46
to those people that really struggled through that cuz um I have huge respect for people um that had to deal with so
00:31:53
much through that time but it was incredible for us. Yeah. Are we talking about that now? [laughter]
00:31:59
>> Well, first of all, yeah, sorry that was that was a double question. So yeah, the
00:32:02
global financial crisis, how was that for you? >> How ' 87? >> No.
00:32:07
>> When was that? >> No, when was that? That was like 20 208 209. I think that's when the the banks
00:32:12
had all these >> Yeah. with the >> the GFC. >> Yeah. I think what happened is we our
00:32:17
our population aged. We we started to lose relevance. You know, it was harder to um there was still a kind of a
00:32:23
crossover happening between internet, social media, um and there was still the big marketing companies that you could
00:32:30
engage in that would put strategies together at really strong prices to try and make things work. Fashion Week was a
00:32:36
bit of a an interesting time for us because we're always the misfit there. You know, the the priests just love to
00:32:41
um you know really stir up kind of negative stuff around us. Um which was >> why
00:32:47
>> uh that's um they just they didn't they never liked who we were which was
00:32:52
interesting. Um and they used to say things like um of course Anna Streton showed and her ladies from Mata Mata
00:32:59
they got that [snorts] wrong [laughter] all turned up in their droves. Um, I mean, we're not even from Mata Mata.
00:33:06
We're from Morrenville. >> Not that there's anything [laughter] wrong with MAT matter.
00:33:09
>> No, there's nothing wrong with MAT matter, but it was more the fact they
00:33:12
couldn't even get that right when they were criticizing. But I mean, I, you know, showing at fashion week was the
00:33:18
most um, for the first three years it was really tough because I went there with high expectations um, wanting to
00:33:26
fit in, wanting to be like them. Um, you know, wanting to and I wasn't, you know,
00:33:30
and I was never accepted. I was outside of Oakland. I was too generic. I wasn't
00:33:34
fashionable enough. I I didn't fit, you know. Um [snorts] and I remember um the
00:33:40
I think it was the third or the fourth show that I did was when I put the BS head on the catwalk. Um and the I
00:33:47
[snorts] remember driving up for fashion week and my partner Tony saying to me, you know, what are your expectations?
00:33:52
cuz I guess we were in a new relationship and he kind of knew how hard it was for me because I worked so
00:33:58
hard to put the show on and um I endeavored to kind of fit and and I couldn't and um and I had been um I had
00:34:08
been entering into WOW world of wearable arts and I put the ball's head in there.
00:34:12
So um the the entry was called Beauty and the Beast. So it was a bull's head
00:34:17
on a gorgeous dress and it had done really well. It had made the finals so I thought I'll give it another run. Um, so
00:34:22
I decided that I would open the fashion week show that I call Feral Beauty. I was really just having a lot of fun. Um,
00:34:28
because none of the garments ever made our retail stores. They were far too fancy for that. You know, we were much
00:34:33
more generic in the in the way that we needed to sell stuff. And um, [gasps] yeah. And I said, Tony said to me, he
00:34:41
said, "Hey, what what are the expectations?" And I and I flippantly said to him, "Well, front page of all
00:34:45
the main papers would be bloody awesome." [laughter] And we did it. We did it with a huge heading that said,
00:34:53
"How's that for fashion?" It was just a big shot of the bull's head and it was
00:34:56
on the Otago Daily Times. It was on the Dom Post. It was right throughout the country. Um, but still negatively, you
00:35:03
know, that I had to put a pig on the catwalk and that the model was screaming and crying. There was blood pouring out
00:35:08
of the pig's head and no [laughter] [ __ ] bike helmet in it. and the model was an actor and they actually had to
00:35:16
apply to to be on the to be on the the you know to to to get the job to wear the pig and um she was super excited you
00:35:24
know she asked if she could take it out into the main area and sort of where no it was nothing nothing that they said
00:35:30
and I guess that's where the media gets such a bad name because it you know just
00:35:33
was so inaccurate >> it's BS did did that did that criticism hurt did it bo
00:35:37
>> it did initially initially it did you know I really struggled with it I really
00:35:40
struggled with it um and it is um just before that. It was just before that show that I I think it was in um that
00:35:48
I'd sat on the beer rug and I had that article in the um was in the Herald. I
00:35:53
think it was in Canvas. It was in the sort of a Saturday morning slot and um the Ferrari that um happened around that
00:36:01
was it was just insane. It was just really really frightening. But um I had sat on a beer rug to do an interview
00:36:06
which effectively um I had I had the beer rug. was part of a um a commission killed by the Canad Canadian um
00:36:15
government and going going gone. You remember the the auction program that they had which was a reality program.
00:36:21
Would you well they had asked me if I would come I guess as a a profile phase and bid on some of the auction items. So
00:36:27
I bought this beer rug cuz I thought well I don't even want any of these items. So I bought the spear rug. So
00:36:32
when canvas asked me to do the autocloth I'll sit on the beer rug with my two
00:36:36
dogs. And of course as a the animal activist you can imagine what happened. Um and social media was around then. Um
00:36:43
and oh my god I was just and I was living in toll street in Ponmbbe. I was actually too scared to even go out for a
00:36:50
coffee. The stores were getting bombed that it was it was actually really frightening what happened there. Um and
00:36:55
it didn't matter how much I apologized and said it was you know a stupid thing
00:37:00
to do or um they didn't let up. They just didn't let up. And it was it became
00:37:04
more frightening for my children and for you know um >> How old were they at the time? [sighs]
00:37:10
>> They would have um was it 2008? So >> 17 years ago. Okay. So they're like
00:37:16
teenagers. >> Yeah, they were teenagers. But yeah. >> Um >> 2018. Oh my god. All the years.
00:37:23
>> Was it a stupid mistake or was it >> No, at the time. At the time I didn't
00:37:28
think because I was well known um I guess his world was as well for the taxi dermy and the you know and and I hadn't
00:37:35
>> interesting and Denise when you were talking about this before their house is
00:37:37
full of like giraffes and things >> you know I actually bought one off them.
00:37:40
I mean but god forbid anyone knows but yeah I I know I didn't think it would be
00:37:45
a thing. You know I didn't do it to provoke um but it was more the way that you know the attack that happened. Um,
00:37:52
and I guess too, I'd see different things going through the feed. Um, and then people were setting up Facebook
00:37:57
sites going Anastreon hypocrite and you know, like and they it was it was really
00:38:01
bad. And um, I remember seeing some of my friends on the feed and I said, you know, why wouldn't you stand up for me
00:38:08
or why wouldn't you say something or why would they said, hell no, we want and
00:38:11
get attacked by those guys. >> They said, what we were going through was we don't want that. you know, it
00:38:17
sort of even scares off people um that potentially know that. But yeah, it was just an interesting time around there.
00:38:24
But the dates are probably slightly skewed because but was certainly um and the years go way too fast. But it was
00:38:29
certainly tied up um around a fashion week cuz then I had to go to fashion week and I was incredibly nervous about
00:38:36
what that would look like and fashion week got very nervous too around, you know, what that would look like for them
00:38:41
around just different people that were being incredibly um vitriolic around the whole thing.
00:38:48
>> [ __ ] When you go through some adversity like that, you really find out who your
00:38:50
friends are. Oh, people that lean in or lean out. And it's amazing because just
00:38:54
how few people actually lean in. >> Oh, most of them didn't. Most of them.
00:38:58
They're too scared to, you know, when you asked, I said, "Why wouldn't you
00:39:00
just say something?" Cuz they'd meet me and they'd say, "Oh my god, that is just
00:39:03
so unfair." I said, "Why wouldn't you?" And they just they wouldn't do it. You
00:39:07
know, >> [ __ ] you off. >> Well, at times, but I kind of understand
00:39:10
it. You know, I was I was, you know, I I really empathize with Justinda. You know, whether I like the politics or
00:39:16
not, it's probably not relevant. But what I hated was the behavior and what happened there on the social feeds. And
00:39:20
that was just it should never have happened. And it's just disgusting that we actually behave in that way and it's
00:39:27
abhorrent and everything about it is and what she was subjected to. And when you
00:39:31
start to deep dive and listen to her talk around some of the death threats and some of the stuff she was sent and
00:39:37
um yeah, it's yeah, the the the keyboard warrior um fraternity or family um is
00:39:45
you know is it's abhorrent some of the stuff that happens there. Yeah. >> Is that the biggest adversity you've
00:39:52
gone through? >> Uh yeah, it is. It is in respect of just everyone having access, everyone having
00:39:56
an opinion, you know. Yeah. And also not there's no consequent from their end,
00:40:01
you know, and without internet, people would have to face you and say, "Hey,
00:40:05
I'm super uncomfortable with what you did." Um and hear you out as well. But
00:40:09
of course, they they they don't have to. >> Yeah. Pre-ocial media, they'd have to
00:40:14
write your letter. Uh sit on the bench for a couple of days. Oh, they'd run into you in in the supermarket or
00:40:19
somewhere and they'd say, you know, I have a super uncomfortability. You know,
00:40:21
I support animals and you know, it was even my son who said to me, you know, mom, with the taxiderermy, I know that
00:40:26
you like it and you but if you continue to buy it, you continue to create a demand for it and you know, and that
00:40:32
makes me uncomfortable and I heard that, you know, I heard that. So, but for you
00:40:36
know when I did that it wasn't it wasn't such a you know I I guess the opinions
00:40:41
weren't and didn't appear to be as or emotions and appear to run as high as I
00:40:45
would never have done it. >> Yeah. But it was a tough time. [sighs] >> Did have you ever come close to shutting
00:40:51
the doors? >> Yes, we have. um precoid precoid um we were there in a space where Sam and I
00:41:00
were talking about what the trajectory of the company looked like and for the last sort of four years I've been
00:41:04
propping it up financially each year. So we've been making losses and I've been
00:41:08
propping up the cash flow and the reason that I did that is the company I you know I owed the company a lot. The
00:41:14
company had given me a great life and um the company had opened a lot of doors for me and was still opening a lot of
00:41:20
doors and I was actively involved in the um work in the prisons as well. Um, and
00:41:25
I wasn't ready to give up. I just wasn't ready to give up. And um, I remember Sam
00:41:29
saying, "Well, whether you give up or not, um, I can't I can't prop it up like
00:41:33
you do. I don't have the finances. So, we have to work out what we're going to
00:41:37
do." And CO 19 hit. Um, and we didn't have to have that conversation anymore.
00:41:42
But yes, we were that we were pretty much saying, um, let's look at how we can reduce team, shut more stores, let's
00:41:50
get it back to maybe a smaller internet. let's look at diversifying and that's
00:41:54
where we got into Olive's Kitchen, the animal wellness business. It's been
00:41:57
phenomenal for us. Um so, you know, we were starting to think about other things that we could do together.
00:42:03
>> When you say propping it up, you talked before about the um the glorious early
00:42:06
years. >> Yeah. Well, that was years and years ago. 33 years that we're looking at
00:42:10
here, >> but I think this is the uh this is the swing of an entrepreneur, especially in
00:42:14
um like a white knuckle industry like fashion as well. You have these amazing years, but also these horror years. Um,
00:42:19
how much were how much were you was it costing you to prop it up? >> Oh, I was probably putting in about 2 to
00:42:24
300 for a year. Like I was having to find but you know the >> expensive hobby.
00:42:28
>> Yeah. But the company had been really good to me, you know. Um, and in 2005
00:42:32
I'd got into magazine um producing. I had I bought two magazines um >> and that was expensive too. So I was
00:42:39
kind of used to expensive hobbies and um but for me it was more just a readiness
00:42:44
um around not being ready to let that company go. you know, having done such a massive journey with it, um, and loving
00:42:51
every bit of it, but knowing that I didn't kind of have the skills or know how to turn it around. You know, the
00:42:56
whole thing was aging. We were becoming quite irrelevant. Our population was moving through. I guess some of them
00:43:01
were dying. I mean, it was it was hard to be relevant. >> Yeah. You've mentioned CO 19 a couple of
00:43:08
times, but um, how did how did you get into the masks? You [laughter] you made a ton of money on masks, right?
00:43:13
>> Yeah. Well, it wasn't it didn't start with money like we were having this
00:43:17
conversation around wo is me like it's you know it's it's um you know where we
00:43:21
at with the company and Sam was making it very clear that you know she couldn't
00:43:24
continue to do it or she wasn't doing any of it but she couldn't carry on the
00:43:27
way I was but um and I said we don't have to think about that now because we
00:43:32
were all going into lockdown with this. So those were the announcements that were being made and as soon as that
00:43:36
happened Maria English's um daughter um got hold of me. So, she um rang me and
00:43:42
she said, "Hey, Anna, um how would you feel about making 6,000 face masks for a
00:43:47
charity that I work with that works I I'm sure it was with older disabled people." And I said, "Hey, we'd be
00:43:52
really happy to do that." Um and that we're all going into to lockdown. It'll
00:43:56
give us something to do. I've got 30 years of fabric or, you know, 28 years of fabric or whatever it was. Um the
00:44:02
trims that you need, the elastics, it's all here. I can do that for you. And,
00:44:05
you know, I can pretty much do that at no cost for you. So, um, and that that that day, I mean, we came back the next
00:44:12
day and we kind of got busy with all of our, um, Morensville was getting very heightened around the fact that we felt
00:44:18
that we didn't have to lock down and we could just continue business as usual.
00:44:20
So, you can imagine what the community pages were saying around, you know, in a street and sort of um, just keeps going
00:44:26
with the um, and at the end of the day, we actually took a photo, five of us socially distanced in the car park with
00:44:33
the masks on um, that said, "Hey, keep safe. we're making masks. Um, we'll see
00:44:38
you on the other side of it. And we posted it, just an organic post, not paid, not Oh my god, it just went off.
00:44:44
People were just scared. Um, with a And I remember Sam ringing me late at night and she said, "Mom, have you seen that
00:44:49
post?" She said, "People are actually buying face masks cuz we as well as
00:44:53
making some for the charity. We'd put a a small pack up online that you could
00:44:56
buy." And she said, "This is insane." That we've just sold 50 packs of masks.
00:45:00
And and that was a lot for us cuz, you know, a big day online for us would have been 10 garments in the warehouse. So,
00:45:06
um, and so we all get to work the next day and the police arrive at lunchtime to shut us down. And they said, you
00:45:12
know, you can't. And I said, no, no, we're in essential, you know, business.
00:45:15
We're making face masks. And she said, well, there's actually a process you
00:45:18
need to go through to do that. But see, the wonderful thing about my connections
00:45:22
is that I actually knew the CE of the co ministry. He had come from the MSD ministry. So, I got hold of him. I had
00:45:29
his mobile number. Um, and then he said, "Yeah, fine. I can I can um okay you to
00:45:35
keep going. He said but you'll need to get to the police. But I knew one of the
00:45:39
um very senior people in the police in Wellington. So I got hold of her um and she talked to Morrenville police
00:45:44
station. So we got going. [laughter] >> Someone dobbed you in though. Did you
00:45:48
find any community dobbed us in like but I got us going um without having to wait
00:45:54
for all the paperwork and and that was just that relationship thing. you know, you develop these relationship and the
00:45:59
company had done that for me and so I was able to have those conversations, get us open, get us cleared by the
00:46:04
police and we kept going. So, but it just went from strength to strength and um I guess we got to a stage when when
00:46:12
Oakland was put into lockdown um was it the 12th 13th of August? And >> oh, I can't remember the date. I've
00:46:17
blocked it out. >> Was that the really long one? >> Yeah, that was the long one. And
00:46:21
Justinda said that not only did you need face masks, you needed two or three and
00:46:25
you actually should buy them for the whole family and buy them for the kids. And it just went insane. And I the next
00:46:32
morning um Sam came up to my office at 9:00 and she said, "Mom, we got to turn
00:46:35
the internet off." And I said, "Hun, we don't turn the internet off. This is the
00:46:39
stuff you dream about, you know, like breaking the internet on." Um, and she
00:46:43
said, "Mom, you're going to destroy your brand for a few face masks." She said,
00:46:47
"You won't be able to deliver these." And I said, "I just need a minute to
00:46:50
work out how I'm going to deliver these." Um, and she said, "Mom, we got
00:46:53
to turn it off. It's insane. It's insane. We will not be able to, and these people need their masks." So, she
00:46:58
convinced me to turn it off for 12 hours, I think, before we turned it back on. But by then, I'd already connected
00:47:03
with China, who we had really established relationships with. Got the masks moving and they were flying in.
00:47:09
So, I'd solved the problem. >> Oh, destroy your brand because you you're selling things that you don't
00:47:13
actually >> Oh, we couldn't deliver them. We're never going to be able to deliver them.
00:47:16
She said, "We're up to two weeks backlog now." She said, "You know, we we're
00:47:20
selling thousands and thousands of masks at the moment." Um, she said, "You know,
00:47:24
we can't do it." And she said, "You and already the difficulty, you know, people
00:47:27
were really struggling with the fact that we weren't delivering and we kept moving the delivery time out." And she
00:47:32
said, you know, we have to make a good decision here. >> How much you making on each mask?
00:47:36
>> Oh, I don't know what I And we I mean, that was we were doing it was in the
00:47:41
millions. Like, it was huge. Like, >> how much of that is good business and
00:47:44
how much of it is good luck? Well, I I think it was that was an opportunity that I chose to say yes to because when
00:47:50
I said yes to the 6,000, I didn't want any money for those. So, I just thought
00:47:54
that would keep us occupied. So, I think it was just luck in that I didn't um I
00:47:59
didn't I didn't preempt that. I didn't drive that. And that social post showed
00:48:03
me that there was a real demand and we were a trusted brand, you know, and and so we'd been around for a long time.
00:48:09
People knew how to access us. So, they were happy to buy their masks of us. H I I can see you sort of light up when you
00:48:15
talk about these things. You you you get a real rush from business. Eh >> yeah, I love business. I love business.
00:48:20
I mean, you know, the um I just Yeah, I love the connections that comes from a I
00:48:24
love the wheeling and dealing. I just love business. Yeah. >> How do you hope the business looks say
00:48:29
20 years from now? >> I think it'll be largely digital um with a couple of uh flagship stores that will
00:48:37
look very different to what they look you know as to how they look today. And I think the Morrenville head office kind
00:48:43
of gives you an indication of what that could potentially look like. So we have a cafe, we have a front store, and then
00:48:50
an interconnecting door to the next building, which effectively is a gallery. And in that gallery, the
00:48:55
fashion shows are staged. There's some huge um social impact photos of some of
00:49:00
the raw women that have come from my photographic um masters that was completed this year.
00:49:04
>> And then also there's the story the brand >> that sit there as well. So that time
00:49:10
frame we're talking about 20 21 years from now you'll be you'll be your your
00:49:13
mom's age. [laughter] You got longevity dead. >> What do you mean? >> Well I might be I mean like [laughter]
00:49:20
>> yeah I mean it's a privilege. Anyone that gets to their their 80s it's very
00:49:23
lucky. >> Pretty it's privilege enough to get to 65. I mean like hey there's a lot of
00:49:28
people that don't I mean so yeah. >> Yeah. But you you'll still be presumably
00:49:33
involved in the business if you're anything like your mom. Well, I think we had a very kind of we had thoughts
00:49:38
around succession, but now we have thoughts around building a legacy brand, you know. So, what could that
00:49:42
potentially look like? The social impact work is really important to us. Um, you
00:49:46
know, of re it's that's evolved and evolved and evolved around, you know,
00:49:51
our potential to think differently around how we detain women. You know, what happens when a woman's detained?
00:49:57
Um, doesn't need to be all about the penal kind of um gestures that and the courses that are there. It needs to be
00:50:03
more than that. So, we need to build opportunities that actually create opportunities on the outside. But that's
00:50:08
another big um part of what you know the work that we do. But yeah, and I I think
00:50:13
all of that work and plus the photography. I mean, I'm doing a lot of stuff there. There's just all sorts of
00:50:18
stuff that just piques my interest. So, >> you you'll never be able to fully let it
00:50:24
go, eh? Like you're you're going to be >> I think my daughter knows that. I think
00:50:28
she [laughter] knows that. >> Yeah. I think she knows that. So, she'll uh even though it's a
00:50:33
succession plan and she she might have directions that she wants to take the business in, you're never going to be
00:50:39
far from her ear, are you? >> No. Well, [laughter] I I I hope that she values that, too. I mean, because I
00:50:46
guess one of the things that I love are difficult conversations, you know, even driving up.
00:50:50
>> No one says that. >> No, I know. But even driving up here, I had to have a couple, you know. I mean,
00:50:55
oh, there were just a couple of people that I felt um, you know, better not to name and shame, but a couple of people
00:51:00
that potentially I felt should have um, responded to my email and you know, and as I said, is there a problem with
00:51:06
responding to my email, you know, like so [laughter] um, and I guess from my point of view
00:51:14
and and having them positively is really important so that you're communicating
00:51:18
well um, and that you both know exactly where you are. And so having those difficult conversations I think gets
00:51:24
really good outcomes. Most people run from them and they've been they've
00:51:28
empowered me. And I think if you don't have those conversations can be quite
00:51:32
divisive. You know friendships divide, relationships divide. Um you know employee employer relationships kind of
00:51:39
sour. You know there's difficulty because everybody feels that it's a bit
00:51:42
of genderized and they don't get the handle on both perspectives. So for me though being a bit of a master in
00:51:48
difficult conversations has has paid off in spades. I feel like um strong strong females are
00:51:56
you're more sort of respected and appreciated now. But I you know I feel like in the last century maybe not so
00:52:00
much. You must have been called all sorts of names like a ball breaker. [laughter]
00:52:05
You know the thing is you don't hear them because people don't say no tough tough females in the in the 80s
00:52:12
and 90s. Yeah. It was uh yeah it was there was some quite nasty names thrown around.
00:52:17
>> Yeah, there was. I, you know, I've never really experienced um, you know, real
00:52:22
difficulty around men and not being accepted because I never had to be accepted. You know, I was just kind of
00:52:27
charting my own course and doing my own thing and it was working for me. So, I never really encountered that kind of
00:52:33
stereotype around those that white male um that was, you know, too dominant. Um and interesting because I belong to a
00:52:41
group called the global woman, not global warming but global women which are a group of highly capable women in
00:52:47
this country. Um and and I guess some of their challenges is you know really closing that gap. Um but it's not a gap
00:52:54
I've ever experienced. You know I've always been able to um you know be at
00:52:58
the top of my game you know um and achieve what I want to achieve. I I totally believe that you know one of the
00:53:04
things I believe in the most is a no is never a no. you know, it's just a maybe
00:53:08
or it's just a no waiting to be turned into a yes. Yeah. It's never a no
00:53:11
forever. So, um, and failure is kind of the foundation stone of my success. So, when I'm, um, tripping and falling, I'm
00:53:19
actually achieving way more. So, and it's interesting at the moment I'm doing
00:53:22
a small diploma at Southern Institute of Technology in photography to kind of um,
00:53:26
amplify the technical skills that I have. loving it, but some of my marks are [ __ ] and [laughter]
00:53:33
and I kind of love that, you know, because they are really bad and, you know, and
00:53:40
the the tutor who's got like um because SIT is free. Um they got about 60 students that are all online and he's,
00:53:46
you know, they're sort of monoyic answers, you know, who will say, you know, this you couldn't get this right
00:53:51
or you couldn't get that right. But it's taught me so much, you know, and I'm
00:53:55
handing stuff on on time. I'm listening to what they're saying. I'm hearing it,
00:53:59
you know, it's making me better at my craft. And so, I guess that humility is
00:54:03
really important. You know, I never want to be too big for my boots ever, you know. I always want to have that level
00:54:09
of humility that I, you know, just can accept there's a lot of things I can't
00:54:12
do and I, you know, and there's some of those things I'd really like to do.
00:54:16
>> Oh. Um, one thing I forgot to mention, just going back, um, in 2009 you were
00:54:21
named a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Fashion and Business.
00:54:25
>> That's a long time ago. How? Yeah. Was that special? >> Yeah, it was. I think what was more
00:54:31
special was winning the Verve Cleico business woman of the year and I think that was 2008 or 2009 as well because I
00:54:37
got to um I was with um there was in a very esteemed group that I was up against and I I won that and I ended up
00:54:44
in Europe um and I went to um Verico's um headquarters and we were hosted by
00:54:51
them in Europe um for about four or five days and that was phenomenal. absolutely
00:54:56
phenomenal um in the space they hosted plus we we were we met with winners from right around the world from a whole lot
00:55:01
of different countries so there's a busload of us and they hosted not only ourselves and our partners so they flew
00:55:06
us all business um to Europe and hosted so there's been some and I I met some
00:55:11
incredible people um not that I've stayed in touch but I guess um that in those days I would have probably had
00:55:17
imposter syndrome and like you know am I good enough to be here you know these people are but and there was also um I
00:55:23
made the finalist for New Zealand er of the year I think 2018 and 2019. So there's been you know there's been some
00:55:30
wonderful kind of um accolades from you know my own country both in business and
00:55:34
both in lifestyle. >> These accolades um more special given the the sort of you know backlash you've
00:55:40
had or >> Yeah. You know what's special? What's special is the work that I do in the
00:55:45
prisons. What's special is actually seeing like we've got women that have
00:55:49
brought their own businesses that we've helped them. Um we've got women that are
00:55:52
about to embark on PhDs. We've got these are women that have spent you know considerable time inside like recidivist
00:55:58
and complex offenders and they've actually reframed my whole life. They've
00:56:01
reframed what success looks like for me. They've reframe what's important. No.
00:56:05
And that's what's special. Not not the you know the awards are not they're nice
00:56:10
but you know um the learnings you know the I love getting back into the academia you know cuz I wasn't very good
00:56:15
at it. You know I don't I don't write academically enough. I don't speak
00:56:19
academically enough but I had to to get corrections to listen to me. I really had to.
00:56:24
>> Yeah, I'm I'm probably projecting here. But like if if I was in your position
00:56:29
and I had you know people in the industry that frowned upon me for you have being you regional or provincial
00:56:34
based or being generic or whatever and then you get these accolades like the Verve Cleco award or the um order of
00:56:41
merit thing. I'd be like see [ __ ] you. I am good enough. [laughter] >> I am. I didn't after after three years
00:56:46
like it was it was difficult you know the first three years at fashion week and Oakland with those fashion designers
00:56:53
that um were you know the creme de la creme you know Karen Walker Kate Sylvester Trillis Cooper you know Zambzi
00:57:00
that and here's Annen you know really trying to fit in and I didn't and I
00:57:05
didn't and and for 3 years I tried so hard I tried so hard and um the industry
00:57:10
was mean you know it was mean and um I didn't I didn't fit Um, but you know, I
00:57:15
I remember one moment I was at an event and Kate Sylvester's husband came up to
00:57:20
me. That's that's the only time, the first time, the only time. And he he
00:57:23
said to me, "Hey, Anna." And he introduced himself and I said, "Yeah,
00:57:26
hi." And he said, "Hey, um, super impressed by what you're doing, you
00:57:30
know, um, it's awesome." And that was all based around some of the raw work,
00:57:34
you know, and the social impact work. And he said, you know, just just awesome. I take my hat off to you. And I
00:57:39
thought, what a nice acknowledgement. And that's the only person in the whole
00:57:42
industry that's [laughter] we don't as an industry we don't even connect. We don't socialize together. We
00:57:47
don't work together. We don't we don't praise each other. You know, we don't we
00:57:51
just don't. >> Is that a wonder if that's like a scarcity mindset? Like like a fan is
00:57:57
doing well, it means I can't do well. Or if you know what I mean rather than
00:58:00
being more more of a inclusive collective. >> I don't know. I don't know what it is.
00:58:04
So even when we're all showing at fashion week and we're all down, they were all together. There was different
00:58:08
events. there wasn't a connection between us all, you know. Um, for about three years, I actually brought um,
00:58:14
Adrien Howwood. So, I owned half his company. Um, and we worked together to sort of try and change the outcome for
00:58:21
him. But it was too hard. It was just too hard to do that. And as I said to him, I can't get you profitable, you
00:58:26
know, because the space that you work in, it's just so small. It's so hard.
00:58:30
And I said, I'm going to walk away, but I'm happy to hand back your company. And
00:58:34
um, I said, where are you going with it? He said, well, I just love it. And and I
00:58:37
respect that. He said, "I just love, you know, what I do." And he's good at what
00:58:41
he does, but it's hard to make money out of him. It's hard to make money. And we
00:58:44
still have good positive contact. I was talking to the the other day, but that was my first foray into um kind of that
00:58:50
top end of, you know, um you know, fashion and what it was. So, >> well, at the beginning of this chat, I I
00:58:56
I said I thought your name was a brand like in the same sort of um ecosystem as uh as you Kate, Karen, and Triss. Will
00:59:04
they be bothered by that? [laughter] >> No, I don't. you know, you'd have to ask
00:59:07
them. Um, but it doesn't matter anymore. I think, you know, as you go through
00:59:12
this journey, you sit so much more comfortably in your own skin. I'm super comfortable with who I am. I'm super
00:59:18
comfortable around the stuff that drives me, but more around the integrity that I
00:59:23
bring to every conversation, the truism, you know, um, just how, you know, I'm
00:59:27
completely honest, you know, around probably sometimes too much my own good bit.
00:59:31
>> Well, that's the thing, isn't it? You've you've you've got to be happy with the
00:59:34
person that you look at in the mirror. >> Yeah. And I am I am, you know, and
00:59:38
that's that's a nice space to get to cuz I don't know if a lot of us get there.
00:59:42
You know, there's still an uncomfortability, but I don't have to be them. I have to be me, you know. I have
00:59:47
to be me. >> Yeah. >> And fashion week's kind of long gone for me. I'm not showing there now.
00:59:51
>> Yeah. You've mentioned RAW a lot. Reclaim other women. And I've got a
00:59:55
whole section on that because I'm I'm intrigued about this. Um, first of all,
00:59:58
we've got some Instagram questions. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> I see on Instagram you're coming. So, we
01:00:02
got some questions here. Okay. >> Um, if Instagram existed back when you started, how different would your rise
01:00:09
have been? [snorts] >> I don't know because Instagram Instagram is not a strong platform for us, you
01:00:16
know. Um, Facebook is a lot stronger and that's because our market is older. So,
01:00:20
we're working with 50 plus and she's much more aligned with um with Facebook.
01:00:25
I think Instagram's much more my daughter's driver around covering all those platforms um and introducing the
01:00:31
brand to a diversity of age groups. So, I don't know if it would have been I
01:00:34
don't know if it would have been. >> If you had to launch a fashion brand
01:00:37
today with no no contacts and no money, what's the first thing you'd do?
01:00:43
>> Oh, I just I I would do it online. Like I have a small um I have a small sort of
01:00:48
um not for-p profofit company called Fish Digital um where I help small businesses actually start. um I was
01:00:54
mentoring a lot of them and just found it was easier to put it into that space. But um you know I would start with a um
01:01:00
you know it would be a digital platform where I would just work through the process around how I was going to start
01:01:05
to engage. And a lot of that I'd probably do across community pages you know to start to activate awareness and
01:01:10
imagery which um I guess they get a little exhausted by that. Hence the one post a week that everyone's allowed to
01:01:15
do [laughter] but it seems to be the best way to reach a diversity of people. But yeah it would be a digital footprint
01:01:20
that I would I wouldn't I wouldn't do it physically. Yeah, >> I would not do it physically.
01:01:24
>> How can a new New Zealand designer compete with online fast fashion? >> Well, I don't know. I I think that's one
01:01:31
of the hardest things to do, you know. Um, as far as the um Thank you for that. >> Yeah, it's it gets hot in here.
01:01:38
>> It does. >> If it gets too cold with the air blowing down, it's all good. Um, I think, you
01:01:44
know, I don't know. I don't know if you should set out to compete. I think you
01:01:47
should set out to actually know that there is a market for what you want to do. um and work out where you break
01:01:51
evens and what you want to achieve from that and just start to build your business from that rather than saying
01:01:56
well I you know because you've got so many markets now whether it be T-Mu whether it be shine whether it be
01:02:01
they're massive you know and then there's um and those are are working across these the sort of the the
01:02:06
affordable end but then you've got all the other brands that are working too so
01:02:11
um I think for the goal would be to actually see that you actually I think the bigger thing with people is they
01:02:15
don't actually ascertain they've got a market you know you might like it and
01:02:17
your mom might like it and your best friend might like your designy But, you know, is there enough to build a
01:02:22
business off that? >> You know, and fashion is such a crowded space, but a lot of spaces are crowded.
01:02:27
You've just got to work out how you're going to stand out. >> I suppose you've got more of that
01:02:32
business sensibility than a lot of people do. A lot of people think it's, you know, the fashion and the art, but
01:02:36
you've always had that sort of business um lens. >> Totally. And I bring it to everything,
01:02:42
you know. um it'll be I'll be kind of working on product or I'll be thinking
01:02:46
about something and the price point becomes part of the design focus. So if I know that I can't get that for a
01:02:52
particular price, I there are times where I just look I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. The you know
01:02:57
I know where the sweet spot is for our market around price. I know where I can sell a lot versus where I'll struggle.
01:03:05
>> Well, you've had you've been doing it for decades. [laughter] >> Literally.
01:03:08
>> You are the you literally are the brand. >> Yeah, I am the brand. And that's what's
01:03:12
kind of nice too. It's nice just having a conversation with you being a person,
01:03:16
you know, not being the brand. I am a person, you know. Um it's nice sometimes
01:03:20
to go into a store and just talk to people, but it's kind of a little bit daunting [snorts] for them, you know,
01:03:25
like um my daughter will say to me, "Mom, if when you jump on the the Zooms
01:03:29
for an interview or whatever, cuz I'll say to her, look, I'll help you with the
01:03:32
second interview." She said, "People just freeze, you know, you just see the
01:03:36
way that people react and they don't do that with me. So it actually makes it
01:03:40
but you know at the end of the day I'm a person and yes yes I am the brand as
01:03:44
well. >> Yeah. What's been the most humiliating moment in your career that you can laugh
01:03:48
about now? >> Is [laughter] there anything that springs to >> I think yeah I think the Sam and Libby
01:03:52
moment was probably the most humiliating because when I think about how stupid that is. I mean and as you say you would
01:03:59
never even consider it now. you might you take an idea and you think but yeah that um but I think when I look back on
01:04:06
that and yeah I just think oh my god you know what were you thinking as opposed to the beer rug I don't know if I could
01:04:12
have done that differently because I you know I was really in the space of think
01:04:16
you know that was I I didn't think for one moment that would blow up like it
01:04:20
did. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's tough that eh when you when you reflect on something like that and
01:04:25
you wonder yeah you what I could have done differently and all this >> and that's what's important that you
01:04:30
reflect on that and make the change um take the learnings but then just move forward you know move forward don't
01:04:36
don't kind of hang around in it because it's it doesn't serve you >> sometimes easier said than done though
01:04:42
how long did it take you to get over that >> a lot a lot because I used to pride
01:04:45
myself I used to initially in the early days I call it thinking like a man >> you know like a very black men they
01:04:51
appear to be very black and white around being able to disconnect from something.
01:04:54
And I think sometimes it's just called avoidance. It's better not to engage
01:04:58
because it might just go away. Um but for me, I used to say it's thinking like
01:05:02
a man. I kind of transgression that into a very black and white thinking. But now
01:05:06
I've kind of learned a skill. So if something's playing in my mind, um I'll
01:05:10
actually say, "Can you do anything about this? Or would you have changed the way
01:05:13
that you would have behaved or would you have done this differently?" And I
01:05:16
answer myself. And then based on that answer, I go, "Right, stop. Stop." And
01:05:21
then if it comes back into my mind, I'll go stop. >> You need to stop now. And I can I can
01:05:27
actually move myself away from it. >> How's it that discipline, you know, it's
01:05:32
>> Yeah, it's a it's a it's a learned thing. Um and I suppose it gets better
01:05:36
with practice >> very much. Um I did a um it was it's empower therapies, but it's now called
01:05:42
the switch or but it's about how you harness your mind and how you actually and through that I learned how to
01:05:48
actually move on from I was asthmatic. I'm not now. Um I learned how to flick a
01:05:53
switch. So I can do things like I can be in a space and I'll um I might have
01:05:58
hiccups and if I stop and I go like you can either choose to do these hiccups or
01:06:03
you can choose to shift them through. I can actually move them. So that's how
01:06:07
powerful the mind is. I can do things like that. But you have to be really focused on it. You have to be in the
01:06:13
space to be able to do it. And I can do it with a headache. I can say you can either do this headache or you can shift
01:06:18
it. No, [laughter] no, this is fake news. >> No, it's not. I can shift it. I can
01:06:24
shift it. The problem that I get is sometimes I just get too busy and can't be bothered to actually be in the moment
01:06:29
and focusing on the headache and shifting it and then I just reach for a neuropen or whatever and I pop it. But
01:06:35
um I can definitely do it with asthma. I can move it like real quick. >> That's amazing.
01:06:40
>> Yeah. But it's just it's the power of the mind. It's really strong. And that's
01:06:43
and that comes back to me thinking about something that's happened that's
01:06:47
particularly traumatic or difficult. You've got to be able to process it. It
01:06:50
starts to define you. >> How's how's your mental health been over the years?
01:06:55
>> Good. And my father was a committed patient for a lot of his life. Was he?
01:06:59
>> Yeah. So severe depression. >> No. Um bipolar. So he mostly high.
01:07:05
Mostly high. But um extremely intelligent man. um sort of sits on the cusp of um that circle where you have
01:07:12
the idiot and the genius right up the top that we see. But yeah, he um so I've
01:07:17
lived in a space where I've witnessed um you know there's been a huge mental
01:07:21
health journey attached to um I chose to live with dad from when I was 15. >> So it was a pretty lawless life,
01:07:30
>> you know. >> In what way? >> I was allowed to do anything I wanted to
01:07:33
do at 15, >> you know. So, I kind of had this freedom that was I could have gone either way
01:07:39
really. Um, that's beyond what a lot of um people should have at 15. >> Did Did you exploit it or were you a
01:07:45
good kid? >> No, I wasn't good, but I wasn't extremely bad. You know, I was, you
01:07:49
know, I was out late. I was um spent too much time focusing on boys, you know, all that stuff. But I've never ever um
01:07:57
you know, I've taken drugs, but I've never taken meth. I know everything
01:08:00
about meth and I've been exposed, [laughter] but I've you know, there's there's a lot
01:08:04
of things that I've done. um a lot of things that I've done but um yeah and
01:08:08
that was part of just um not having really strong parental guidelines from 15. >> Yeah. So that could have gone either way
01:08:14
for me. >> Yeah. From Instagram uh what traits separate a successful entrepreneur uh to
01:08:20
one that doesn't make it? [snorts] >> Oh I think self-belief um an absolute
01:08:25
discipline um an ability to come up with solutions um knowing that failure doesn't define you. Um there's so many
01:08:31
things. Um but realistically it was interesting with um u my daughter and I were cuz we've started a small podcast
01:08:38
series um with the just talking about sort of the more humorous and different aspects of the company and she was
01:08:45
saying you know the one thing about you is you're so robust when stuff happens
01:08:48
you know you keep going you know you keep believing or and it just for me means the idea may not be bad I've just
01:08:55
got to reframe it or I've got to rethink or I've got to try it again. Um, you
01:09:00
know, and generally some ideas take a bit longer to get off, but it is about backing yourself. You've got to really
01:09:05
back yourself, but you've also got to know when to let go when the idea is dodge.
01:09:09
>> Are you good at letting go or >> Yeah, I am. Because I set up a wellness
01:09:13
retreat in Tiata after several trips to Gongana on the Gold Coast. um and thought you and so I convinced my sister
01:09:19
to partner with me and buy a home in Tiataha where we were going to kind of um work with the rich and fabulous um
01:09:26
and provide the Guangana equivalent in Tiara the hot springs and the mountain and the
01:09:30
>> I mean god what a fail I mean it was a massive fail I mean because people
01:09:34
didn't really want to come so after um sort of many complimentary stays that we
01:09:39
issued we realized it was over and it was easy enough to kind of just close it up and walk from it it's now the home
01:09:45
that RAW owns Okay. >> So, we use we utilize that home for the women that exit and their first path of
01:09:51
entry is into that home. >> Oh, you mentioned just before you've started a podcast. I I listened to the
01:09:55
first episode as well, you and your daughter. Yeah. Get a plug in for it for anyone anyone that's listening to this.
01:10:01
>> Well, you inspired me to do it. I just thought, you know, it'd be good to kind
01:10:04
of talk about because I get asked a lot of the questions, especially around business, you know, um especially around
01:10:10
creative business. And I guess the thing is there's points of tension between Sam
01:10:13
and I. We were um p uh we were cut we were recording yesterday and um we got into a bit of a spat and I said you know
01:10:21
we just should stop we should stop and work out [laughter] because this is what you know this is where I believe it is
01:10:26
and this is where you believe it is so let's talk about it let's talk about it
01:10:29
and start again so we managed to work that out you know and just um because she's kind of wanting to keep it very
01:10:34
light very buoyant very um >> but for me I'm kind of um there's more
01:10:39
to that to me than just humor and silly stuff >> and fail else. Yeah. So there's there's
01:10:46
more messaging. >> Yeah. So what's the name of the podcast? >> Um it's straighten it's straight and
01:10:50
unfiltered. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So I found that super inspiring
01:10:53
cuz here you are as as we alluded to before retirement age. >> Um and lesson What is retirement age now? Is it
01:11:02
Yeah. >> Well, my legal definition, but is it an age or is it a mindset? >> Mindset completely. But yeah, here you
01:11:07
are. You're still looking for new ways to grow and expand the business. >> Absolutely. Um definitely. um and sort
01:11:14
of um seeding and playing with new business ideas as well. So there's all sorts of stuff around me. I mean,
01:11:19
Olive's Kitchen was only set up 5 years ago and that's had phenomenal growth and
01:11:22
that's a dog wellness business that we worked on and that was just me as a crazy person trying to solve a cancer
01:11:28
journey for a dog that I loved and that I wasn't prepared to take them down the
01:11:32
pharmaceutical route anymore. You know, I was really looking for holistic outcomes. Um and I managed to kind of
01:11:38
then um accidentally a friend asked if she could um have the recipe or the food that I was using. I was around at her
01:11:44
place one afternoon and said, "What is that bag of stuff?" And she said, "Well,
01:11:48
that's all the stuff you told me to use. I just put it in a bag." And so the
01:11:51
supplement was born, you know, and that supplement's just gone from strength to
01:11:55
strength. And that was just me trying to solve a problem based on an innate love
01:11:58
for this dog um and just not being prepared to do it um in that pharmaceutical way.
01:12:03
>> Wonderful. Um that probably closes the chapter on um Anna Streton the fashion site and the
01:12:11
the business woman. Um now I've got a section about war reclaim another woman.
01:12:15
Yeah. >> Uh which is a charitable in initiative supporting women out of prison for to to
01:12:20
reintegrate them into society. Um why >> why um >> yeah what's what's your why? Was there a
01:12:26
personal connection? >> That's a great question. Um I guess no there's not. Um, and I guess that sets
01:12:32
me apart because a lot of people do get involved in charitable initiatives based
01:12:35
on something that's happened to them and they're particularly passionate about it
01:12:37
and they want to do differently to um, change the experience that they've had
01:12:41
within that sector. For me, um, I set up a foundation in 2013 and that was really
01:12:47
around wanting to control my own outcomes. You know, working with the big guys and giving the money. Um, I had a
01:12:52
kind of a a a tricky moment where I had just given quite a sizable check to one of the breast cancer charities and a
01:12:59
woman approached me and said she was cycling around New Zealand to raise awareness for breast cancer and could I
01:13:04
give her $1,000 for to help her? And I said, "I've just given this massive
01:13:07
check to to this charity. Um, you know, I'll just get them to give you cuz it's
01:13:12
only $1,000 and it was and she said, "Yeah, that'd be great." And I
01:13:16
approached them. I said, "Oh, no, Anna, that's not what it doesn't work like
01:13:18
that. you know, you don't just get your money out and you don't just and I
01:13:21
thought, well, hey, I want to control my own money now. And so, it was kind of a
01:13:25
learning thing and often things happen for a reason. So, I set up my foundation.
01:13:29
>> Didn't know what I was going to do. Had this wonderful woman arrive at a table a
01:13:33
bit like this. Um, the CEO of Wakata Women's Refuge, Fakura Duho, Ronnie Albert, um, who's now become one of my
01:13:40
strongest friends. And the refuge was um in strife financially and she was they were looking for just different ways of
01:13:48
how they could continue. Um and in those days you sort of when you got into a difficult spot you'd actually go to the
01:13:53
papers and say look if we don't get funding we're going to close the doors
01:13:56
and this is the community that we're servicing each and every day. So it's
01:13:59
not an option for us to close. So I decided that I would work with them. Um but more around a curiosity to actually
01:14:06
work with Mai because I was so kind of I guess I use words like um uh you know I
01:14:13
was so biased around you know who Mai were and just you know how they were tracking in this country but had so and
01:14:20
had zero knowledge zero knowledge cuz my dad was that typical white western male
01:14:26
and so I got involved with refuge not only from the point of view as I still chair them today so I'm the chair of the
01:14:32
governance board that I set out for them. Um, we got them financially really strong. We started down a whole of
01:14:37
different pathways. So, we achieved what they wanted to achieve. But I also made
01:14:40
a connection to Midm. So, that was through the safe houses and there was a young girl in the safe house that wanted
01:14:44
a deeper connection with me. She was interested in fashion and so she was just kind of opportunistic. It was a
01:14:50
meeting or a coffee with her where I said, "Hey," and it was such a stupid
01:14:54
thing to say. I said, "Hey, I guess your life was a bit like Once Were Warriors."
01:14:57
Um, and I said, and she goes, and I go, "But you know, that movie wasn't real,
01:15:01
was But you know that sort of stuff doesn't happen in New Zealand. She said,
01:15:04
"Anna, if my life had been like that, it would have been a good life cuz he
01:15:07
didn't hit his kids." >> And I thought, "Wow." And that's where
01:15:11
RAW came from because I dropped her off and I was driving back to work and I just felt so raw, you know. I thought,
01:15:16
"How stupid can someone be, you know, just having and that's why I love
01:15:20
listening to Matt Brown, you know, when you had him on with them." >> That powerful episode, that one.
01:15:25
>> Yeah, it was brilliant. It was brilliant. I mean, it even had me stop and not drive up the drive, you know,
01:15:30
cuz I just wanted to hear the end, you know. So, I'm one of these weird people
01:15:33
that I was so engrossed in my thought. I even heard you saying at the end, and if
01:15:37
you're still listening to this, you are a diehard fan. And I thought I was a
01:15:40
diehard fan of that episode. >> But, um, yeah. So, I I felt so raw. And so, that's how Raw was born. I thought,
01:15:48
oh, I thought, how can I create something that was not about giving fish, it was about teaching people to
01:15:55
fish, you know? How can I teach Crystal, and she doesn't mind me using her name
01:15:58
cuz we still connect today. We were coffeeing on Friday together. Um, [sighs] how can I um teach, you know, a girl
01:16:07
like Crystal Fish? So, RAW was born. We built the model. We started in the refuge, you know, endeavoring to kind of
01:16:12
navigate um opportunities for women, but they weren't in a space to actually look
01:16:16
at opportunities cuz they were still trying to work out what the hell was happening because they were in a state
01:16:20
of crisis. So that's when I transferred the model to the women's prisons because
01:16:24
I realized that um women that have been to prison weren't scary because I'd met
01:16:28
a lot that were using the services of refuge and I also saw that as a space where women were stable you know they
01:16:34
were free from the drugs free from the distractions and they might be thinking about making changes or doing something
01:16:41
differently or you know in those days I saw myself as a bit of a savior you know
01:16:45
really which I don't today [laughter] but you know I could get them all to live lives like mine and that it would
01:16:50
be a you a great life for them. Now it's very much collaborative. I really understand the journey of trauma trauma.
01:16:56
I really understand the journey of intergenerational trauma, you know, and really respect um and accept that that
01:17:02
exists and um we've had over a 100 women now through the raw model and I work
01:17:07
actively with around 10 women that are um I guess superstars within that model. They've achieved some great things. But
01:17:13
these are women that have spent upwards of 10, you know, 20 years inside. So they spend a long time inside but those
01:17:19
women have now a lot of them have become friends you know um and I connect with them on a regular basis but I support
01:17:24
them too to do all sorts of different things but ROS's I guess RO's goal now
01:17:29
is to um get corrections to accept that lived experience has value in the prisons and if we get that accepted we
01:17:38
then start to look at um how we change the content of detainment you know what does it look like when a woman's
01:17:43
detained what you know there's so much time when a women's um you know in
01:17:48
prison. If we were to use that time differently, if we were to become the largest educator of men and women um in
01:17:55
this country um what would that outcome look like? Because education is the only
01:17:59
thing that will match criminal outcomes. You know, it's the only thing because
01:18:03
some of those criminal outcomes are seismic and I can totally understand why people prefer to go back and be there as
01:18:09
opposed to the minimum wage jobs that are on offer for them. So, that's kind of the the nutshell of
01:18:15
RAW. >> I can tell you're passionate about it. I think that's that's probably the longest
01:18:18
single answer you've given to to to anything. And it's um >> like from a branding perspective, like
01:18:25
it it's not a particularly sexy charity, is it? Like if it was going to be something that's going to help the Anna
01:18:29
Streton clothing brand, you'd probably go with breast cancer or something something a bit like this is quite it's
01:18:36
quite um controversial, so I can tell your heart's really in it. Can you remember the first time you went into a
01:18:40
a prison? Yeah, I can because um I guess everyone figures that it's kind of a
01:18:45
scary place. Um and it was it actually reminded me being up at Dio School. Um you know the this the school I was up
01:18:52
there doing some stuff up there not so long ago. It's probably not so long ago.
01:18:55
It was probably 5 years ago. But um you know the especially on the low side where the women are just there. They're
01:19:02
out. They're connected. A lot of the women know us. Um and that we've been
01:19:05
around for so long now. There's a lot of hey Anna, hi. and they'll come over and
01:19:09
um yeah, it's it's an easy space to be in. I've never felt uncomfortable. I've
01:19:13
never felt threatened. I've never, you know, um and we're now working. There's
01:19:18
a newly opened unit at Wedia uh Nika which the women that was a unit that was closed but given the must blowout at
01:19:25
Oakland women's they've moved around 40 women down now to Wikidia and corrections are talking to us now around
01:19:32
partnering in respect of actually setting up that unit in a way that talks to what we've been talking about you
01:19:38
know the the whole educational focus the lifestyle focus how can we do it differently so I guess 12 years and
01:19:44
we're now starting to advance a conversation that may get a different outcome. So, we're certainly getting the
01:19:49
chance to run a pilot. >> The the the women that you work with, do you ask them uh what they've done, what
01:19:54
they're in for, or is that a sort of irrelevant? >> No, it's we just know that. I mean, I
01:19:59
think, you know, it was something that Matt said when you interviewed him. He said, you know, and I loved it. It was
01:20:03
one of his final things and I quickly wrote it down and I um utilized it. But he said, you know, like if you're
01:20:09
privileged um and you don't choose to use that privilege to actually benefit
01:20:14
someone that's not as privileged as you that is is going through a difficult
01:20:18
time or then you're just a croc of [ __ ] >> And I thought that was such a And then
01:20:22
one of the other things he said um he said if you're courageous enough to actually own your journey to actually
01:20:28
talk to your journey, find a safe pair of hands to actually um do that with. And I guess RAW is that safe pair of
01:20:36
hands. So I've always said to the women because the journeys are extensive. You
01:20:39
know they'll be um a lot of our women are um very senior in the criminal space. So whether that's you know within
01:20:45
the meth space or um whatever that is a lot of it's meth meth based crime. Um
01:20:51
>> so for them there's an uncomfortability about owning it. The the you know they
01:20:55
the I guess the more um I guess the more they get into our world um they don't
01:21:01
want to own that story. But I believe it's actually the um it's the thing that
01:21:05
defines them. It's the thing that makes them better than us um because they've
01:21:09
had to um navigate that whole journey um prior to doing what they're doing today.
01:21:14
So I loved what Matt said. Um that was another thing that I took as well like you know own the journey, be okay about
01:21:20
owning the journey but know that you you need to be safe when you own it. >> They they don't want to own it because
01:21:25
of shame. >> Yeah. I mean like it's it's and and people not understanding people judging.
01:21:30
um there's so many barriers, you know, to with they don't ever get clean slate
01:21:35
with their, you know, with the type of conviction that they have. So, so many barriers. So, being able to own um that
01:21:42
journey is not so easily, you know, it doesn't happen easily. It really doesn't.
01:21:46
>> Yeah. I feel like New Zealand's a hard country to get redemption. >> Yeah, very much. Um and in some cases, I
01:21:51
can understand that too, you know. So, I'm not sitting here as judge and jury,
01:21:55
but I I know these women. Um I've and most of these women are a result of those lifestyles through birthright, you
01:22:03
know. So there but for the grace of God could have been you and I born into those lives. So they make those choices
01:22:08
because those choices become normalized and then they become preference. So it's
01:22:12
just easier to go back into those lives because the barriers are pretty much insurmountable, you know, and regardless
01:22:17
of how far you come, you still housing is not an option. No one's going to rent
01:22:22
to someone who spent 14 years cooking meth, you know, they're just not going
01:22:25
to do that. Doesn't matter how far. So it's hard and and travel, you know, a
01:22:29
lot of their families in Australia, you know, it's really hard for them to actually get in back into Australia or
01:22:34
get into Australia. So it's there are some countries they can go to. Um certainly um but you know, some of the
01:22:40
countries they want to go to cuz family are there, they're they're not able to.
01:22:43
So I understand that. But regardless of whether they own that journey um and you
01:22:48
think about people like Paul Woods um you know because he owns his journey um there until they own that journey it's
01:22:55
going to be hard because they it's someone else will own it someone else will come forward and say hey I heard
01:22:59
you're in prison you know um someone else will and then they'll sort of be on
01:23:02
the back foot. So that's what I loved about and I've had all the raw women
01:23:06
listen to that podcast. >> Oh amazing. >> Yeah. So I've linked it out to them. So
01:23:11
it's >> awesome. Yeah it's a powerful episode that one. It's um yeah, Matt's a really
01:23:14
good dude. >> Yeah. >> Such a good man. >> Great speaker. A great speaker.
01:23:18
>> What's What's the biggest myth about female prisoners that pisses you off?
01:23:21
>> Um I [clears throat] don't know. I think the um I I guess rather than a myth,
01:23:27
what I struggle with is that kind of that savior approach that we tend to take towards it around that tokenistic.
01:23:34
Um, so many people say to me, "Oh, you know, they must be so wrapped with, you
01:23:39
know, how you've had done what you've done or how you've helped or how you've
01:23:42
saved them." You know, I hate that word saved, you know, how you've saved them.
01:23:45
And I go, "I didn't save them. You know, I chose to walk a journey alongside them
01:23:51
um until they believed in themselves." So, I believed, but until they believed
01:23:54
in themselves and were able to self-determine. And then I'm there when things get a little tough and I help
01:24:00
that. But I think the biggest myth is that there our way is the right way that you know that we should all be doing the
01:24:07
kind of the western um you know approach to to life that you know the crimefree approach that um and there's there's
01:24:15
lots that I struggle with in the way that we live. >> Yeah. >> Um some people say once a criminal
01:24:20
always a criminal. How how do you respond to that? >> It's so not true. I mean you know
01:24:25
criminality comes through poverty. It comes through life circumstances. Comes through birthright. It comes through
01:24:30
need, you know, not um not, you know, I've never met anyone that's actually um
01:24:36
been like you or I and turned criminal for the criminal for the you know, live lives or assuming I don't know what your
01:24:42
life's been like, but my life and then turn criminal based on the material gains. I never have. You know, there's
01:24:47
circumstances that are there that are normalized, um, that are intergenerational, that are just a way
01:24:53
of life, you know, and I understand that way of life and I really, you know, it's
01:24:58
um, and there's some really tough elements about it. It's pretty it's
01:25:01
quite a courageous kind of space to survive in. >> Um, how with your raw hat on, how do you
01:25:08
how do you feel when you see um when you see failure, you know, like a woman slipping back into old patterns?
01:25:14
>> Uh, I see it all the time. Yeah. >> Um [laughter] I'm working with one at
01:25:18
the moment that is she's been with us 7 years and she's chosen to go back. Um
01:25:24
>> and you know it was interesting talking to her about what what she liked about
01:25:28
it. You know like she said it's just so addictive. You know I just I love the
01:25:31
highs. I love the adrenaline rush. I love you know everything about it. You know and and I think for me I don't know
01:25:39
if it's heartbreaking but but I know it's part of the journey. It's no
01:25:42
different to the fashion business. There were highs and there were lows and the learnings come from the lows and when
01:25:47
when we don't succeed with a woman we know that we eventually will. So in some
01:25:51
cases we might see a woman three or four times before we actually get change. And
01:25:55
I remember when we started my sister who works with me said to me um she's had 25
01:26:00
years of mental health. So, we kind of got the, you know, I'm the business side, she's the therapeutic side. But
01:26:05
she said to me, "Hey, sis, it might take a while for us to actually um create a
01:26:09
real opportunity that um they find purpose in that they value." And I said,
01:26:13
"Oh, no. We'll be all good, sis. We'll we'll wrap this up." And yeah,
01:26:16
[laughter] but you know, she was right. She was right. She was right. It It's a big
01:26:20
journey. And um as so many doors are closed in our world, so many. So, after a while, it gets in the [ __ ] bucket,
01:26:27
you know. They just go Yeah, it's just too bloody hard, you know? I mean, I guess if I suggested that you went and
01:26:34
did 6 months at the Mongol mobs headquarters and just kind of, you know, make yourself a bit inconspicuous and
01:26:39
kind of try and live that life. I don't know if it would hold appeal for you.
01:26:44
[snorts] >> Someone that's never been to prison or never been in any trouble, why why
01:26:49
should they care about RAW? >> Oh, in respect of of me. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. They shouldn't. And that's the
01:26:55
great thing about lived experience because the lived experience in now joining our governance board, the lived
01:27:00
experience in now working for the model, the lived experience of working with us
01:27:02
in Wedia. So we acknowledge that it was just a kind of a time lapse before we actually put in those people that they
01:27:09
do care about that they do aspire to be. And within that lived experience, we need to have the whole gamut. So success
01:27:15
can just be um getting your grandchildren back off the gang or getting them back off a a child that's
01:27:21
potentially actually gone or is patched and sort of so you take them back into your care and you get custody of them.
01:27:28
Um through to um extreme academic success or purchasing a business or doing you know buying a home or so
01:27:34
success is really varied. So it's um yeah that's very much in that space.
01:27:38
>> Is is a lot of these women quite charismatic and charming? I love who these women are. And you
01:27:45
know, they're really different. Really different. And they they really understand me now. They navigate and
01:27:50
trust me. Trust is, you know, one of the other things my sister says, you know, it's not fair to trust them, sis. It's
01:27:55
not fair because they can't give you the trust because their life is such that
01:27:59
they will and and she's so right. It was such a, you know, it always sits there
01:28:03
with me. But I feel I've got to a space now where I can trust probably around
01:28:08
half a dozen of them, you know, um, in the time that I've been working there. I
01:28:11
do trust them. I do trust. >> What's one lesson from these women that everyone that's listening or watching
01:28:16
this podcast could apply to their own lives today? [snorts] >> I guess for for me um the ability change
01:28:23
is hard. You know, making change at that level is pretty much impossible. And I look at um you know um the world when it
01:28:30
tries to diet. You know, we're all pretty hopeless at that achieve much. um for these women to actually travel
01:28:36
these journeys and make these changes and and do them in such a genuine way um I think there needs to be a a much
01:28:44
higher level of understanding not so much respect but understanding of how courageous those journeys are and so for
01:28:50
me really um getting our head around because I think we get so charged by the criminality of it you know when the
01:28:58
offenses are committed and when people do things but really understanding the journeys that sit behind and why people
01:29:03
do these And some of the crimes are horrible. They really are. But um if you start to understand um the birthight
01:29:11
that sits in behind there, you start to have a very different perspective. So it's that understanding um of those
01:29:17
lives that I think becomes particularly important. >> What would 25 30-year-old Anna think of
01:29:22
this version of Anna? I I feel like um she she for all I know about you is this chat we've had today, but I feel like
01:29:28
you would have been le cut and dry back then. >> Yeah. much more around compassionate.
01:29:34
Yeah, very much, you know, and very much in my own headsp space. Um, never got out of my own way. You know, it was
01:29:39
always my way or the highway. Um, you know, I never really thought that other people's opinions mattered. You know, I
01:29:45
was very much into my own um very much about myself, you know, very self-centered. Um, and if something kind
01:29:53
of difficult happened in a relationship space, you know, it would usually sever the relationships, you know. So, I never
01:29:57
really understood or never took the time. So, yeah. and and the raw women have taught me so much. They've taught
01:30:02
me how to lead well. They've taught me how to lead with compassion. They've
01:30:05
taught me how to lead with understanding. Um they've taught me how to just stop and take some time and not
01:30:10
react. You know, I was very reactionary. I don't react now. You know, I won't
01:30:14
make a decision of um any size or any substance um until the next day. So, if something happens and it goes down, I
01:30:21
just pause and breathe and stop um and do not react to that. But a 25year-old Anna is hugely reactionary right in the
01:30:29
moment. Man, the Yeah, >> I feel like I'm on the same journey at this stage of my life. It's like the
01:30:34
older the older the the older I get, the more I know, the realize the less I actually know
01:30:38
>> and the more there is to learn. Oh, it's I've just come back from Cambodia and
01:30:43
Vietnam and just learning about Polepot and the Camir Rouge and the you know I was um sitting school C in 1975 when
01:30:51
that country was um you know in the space of absolute genocide where they lost 2 million people and the educated
01:30:58
classes and just you know um being made aware um and just being immersed in that
01:31:05
space. I thought there's so much I don't know. There's just so much I don't know
01:31:09
and really hungry to know. Yeah. >> Yeah. When you look back on your life so
01:31:14
far, uh what do you think your younger self would be the most surprised that you've achieved? [snorts]
01:31:19
>> This the raw work, the social impact work. Yeah. I don't think I was ever in
01:31:23
a space as a younger person to be anything but successful in business. You know, that was kind of the goal was to
01:31:28
build a successful fashion company. Um you know, acquire money that enabled me to to never want for anything. Um, you
01:31:36
know, I remember at one stage I was driving two Mercedes cars, you know, one convertible, one sort of more four-wheel
01:31:41
drive, more um, work focused car. And I look back and I think, how stupid, you know, I I don't even need two cars. I
01:31:48
couldn't drive two cars. I didn't need a convertible. I barely drove it. Just
01:31:52
making stupid decisions that were just pointless. And so, yeah, I just I the the change has been so nice. It's I, you
01:32:00
know, I I can live with myself so much better now. M >> has your definition of success changed
01:32:06
over the years? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. Um [snorts] well, I think it was always financial. Success
01:32:10
was always about how much money you made and and you know how how you set yourself up to actually not want for
01:32:16
anything. But now it's totally in um people, you know, it's in how I make
01:32:20
people feel, you know, it's in um it's in the raw woman, you know, how I'm able
01:32:25
to actually navigate some of this journey for them, how I'm able to connect for them, how I'm able to just
01:32:30
have, you know, one of I was talking to one of the it was good that I had a lot of time in the trip up actually. I had a
01:32:35
lot of phone calls and one of the girls that I was talking to was looking at a job and she said, "What do you think?"
01:32:39
And I said, "Well, this is what I think." you know, and I was able to just
01:32:43
give her some really sage advice and I said, "It'd be great for you to apply
01:32:46
for this and see where the barriers are, but I don't think this is a job you, you
01:32:50
know, that will really fulfill you around." Um, so just being able to have those conversations and those that's
01:32:56
success. That's success. Yeah, >> it's easy to say when I've financially
01:33:01
set myself up in a way that you know that works. Um, but yeah, it's um >> Oh, that's understandable though. But
01:33:08
you want to feather your nest first and then you can start looking at more altruistic
01:33:11
>> and I think a lot of people do a lot of people do you know you look at Steven
01:33:14
Tindle and you look at some of those people that have have created hugely successful businesses and you know
01:33:21
they're incredibly gen generous in the philanthropic space. >> Yeah. Well ludicrous wealth I think can
01:33:26
turn you into complete dick or you can go the other way right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And
01:33:31
and you know and it's I just the material gains are so inconsequential to me. I just I don't measure myself. I
01:33:38
don't want them. I don't want them, you know. Um but I do want um you know the
01:33:43
the the raw work to really succeed. I do want um I do want us to think differently around what you know the
01:33:50
prison system and and interesting like we've got an opportunity to speak at a
01:33:54
educative prison conference in northern Macedonia in November. >> So I've convinced them cuz they offered
01:33:59
me a pleinary um and that's a keynote type thing. I don't even know what that
01:34:03
was until they So, there's another thing I didn't know, but they um I've
01:34:07
convinced them to let me do it digitally. Um I'm going to do it with one of the raw women and that's hugely
01:34:11
exciting for them because I haven't been able to get lived experience into the
01:34:15
conference based around travel restrictions and so I think you know they've accepted the digital platform
01:34:21
which is great but it'll be exciting to actually globally start to talk about
01:34:25
this work with one of the lift experience um you know in respect of what we're trying to achieve. M
01:34:31
>> do you do you have much time off? >> No. Um >> do you like do you but do do you have an
01:34:38
intentional day or two per week where you don't do anything or >> No. What is it? I [laughter] mean I find
01:34:43
that um it's hard for me to do not do anything. Do you hate holidays? >> I do. I mean like I as I said I've just
01:34:51
been away but I pretty much work sort of 3 to four or five hours a day. Um I just
01:34:55
get up early and [snorts] work. And my my husband's really good at kind of knowing who I am and what that looks
01:35:00
like. But I spend the day with him and then, you know, do a bit more. But the Yeah, for me I I'm wired in my work and
01:35:08
and I don't see work in the sense that other people see work. I I see it as my
01:35:12
passion, as my hobby, as the stuff I love to do. I'm wired in. I mean, >> me without something to do is is a is a
01:35:19
difficult person. >> Yeah. >> I was listening to a podcast last week.
01:35:23
There's this Australian guy called Peter Freriedman who actually owns a company
01:35:26
called Road, which makes these these microphones. Um, we've got the road microphones cuz we knew they were kind
01:35:31
of cool. So, >> he's he's in his um he's in his 60s now, maybe even 70s and he's worth he's worth
01:35:35
billions. But in this podcast, he was like, I hate holidays, hate vacations. Yeah. He goes, I go home and I just do
01:35:41
more work on research and development and then I go to bed and you I wake up in the next morning and I start again.
01:35:46
And it's just if you're in that space, like it's not I know it's not for
01:35:50
everyone. Um, but but if you're in that place and it's bringing you joy, then
01:35:54
it's a good space to be playing in. I think joy is a really good word, you know, and as soon as it stops bringing
01:35:58
me joy, um I would certainly look to to what did and I mean I've got four grandchildren now and they and I'm a
01:36:04
really active um they call me Nana because everyone used to call me Anna because of that Hame and so when they
01:36:11
arrived I thought well you know what I'm just whacking in on that and then everyone can actually mispronounce the
01:36:16
name. So but they bring me a lot of joy and that really proactive grandparenting
01:36:21
has been awesome and something I was not good at with my own kids. you know, they
01:36:24
just slotted into my life, whereas now I revolve my life around these kids, but so yeah, I guess that that could be a,
01:36:31
you know, but that's pretty active. I think that's harder than working. Yeah,
01:36:34
[laughter] they are so full on. I mean, they go from one to five and so that's, you
01:36:39
know, they're young. >> As as they get older, how do you hope they see you as a woman?
01:36:44
>> Um, yeah, I hope the social work, the social impact work is important to them.
01:36:48
It was interesting. Someone said to me the other day, will Sam and Ebid, who are my children, carry on the social
01:36:53
impact work? And I said, "No, they won't because they're not passionate about it.
01:36:56
You know, they're not aligned with it." Um, but who will carry it on is the raw
01:37:00
woman. The raw woman will pick it up and they will carry it on. And that was always the intention with RAW. But, um,
01:37:05
you know, for me, I just I just it's a value set I want to instill in the the
01:37:09
grandchildren. It's a value set that's really important. >> Um, Jess, you're tough. E, [laughter]
01:37:16
>> tough as in as in >> um I I can I can I can tell. Yeah. So just resilient or so resil resilient.
01:37:24
Okay. Maybe resil tough sounds like a mean word. I I don't mean it in a in a
01:37:28
tough way. >> Sounds like fashion week. Mean >> um no like like uncompromising and um
01:37:34
just unapologetically you. >> Were you born with resilience or is is that just like an ax that you've
01:37:41
sharpened over the years? >> No, it's it's it's I that's evolved over
01:37:44
the years is I've had to No, I wasn't born with resilience. you know, I was
01:37:48
like everyone, I guess, you know, difficult moments would just um knock this the wind out of my sales. And once
01:37:53
again, interesting listening to Justinda saying you can get 97 great comments on
01:37:56
the a social media feed and you get two shitty ones, and it's the shitty ones
01:38:00
you fixate on, not not the great ones. >> That's how the brain's wired.
01:38:03
>> Yeah. I mean, it [clears throat] is wired like that, but you've got to be
01:38:06
able to move it from that. You've got to be able to put the perspective in. But
01:38:08
no, excuse [clears throat] me. That resilience is built up. >> Absolutely built up. And um I've never,
01:38:15
you know, I didn't start that way. Um, it's just the way I've taught myself to
01:38:18
manage the difficult stuff, you know, and to to know what matters and what's
01:38:22
important versus what's not. And you've just got to wade through it. >> Do you have any regrets?
01:38:29
>> I don't really. I mean, as I said, even the stupid moments are not really
01:38:33
regrets. They're all part of the learning and the rich history of life. >> Maybe calling the brand Anniston, but
01:38:39
then um [laughter] it's worked out all right. But it has because you know the to get an audience
01:38:43
with the CEO of corrections in our first you know year or 6 months of working because we couldn't activate entry into
01:38:50
the prison. Yeah. We just kept getting sort of thwarted. And so I knocked on the door of Ray Smith
01:38:55
>> and said hey I you know I want to and you know um it was interesting that
01:38:59
first meeting where three of his deputies turned up. They were women. Um and their biggest dilemma was what to
01:39:04
wear that morning. Well, [ __ ] I was in jeans and a puffer and um you know, ready to go. But
01:39:08
>> oh, they wanted to be like [laughter] designer, you know, what do we wear with the Well, you know, I'm not
01:39:16
I kind of the fashion thing doesn't matter as much to me. I don't have to
01:39:19
have the right shoes or the right, you know, the I just it doesn't matter. It's
01:39:24
been a means to an end, but I love fashion. I love what I do. I love the the ladies that love the brand, you
01:39:30
know, there's no doubt about that. But it it's not an obsession. It's not an
01:39:34
obsession for me. And 30% of what we do now is homeware and kind of accessories and bits and pieces and I'm loving that
01:39:40
as well. So yeah, that's the creative thing. I love, you know, the photography, the art, you know, that
01:39:45
that's the stuff that's kind of flowing through my product. >> Yeah, you you've put a bunch of books
01:39:49
out and they're all beautiful, really attractive books. >> It's um Yeah, we have. I mean, just
01:39:54
trying to capture the story. I'm writing one at the moment. Um, that's the sort
01:39:57
of well not the final bit, but I realized that I hadn't written since 2010. So, I just kind of wanted to and
01:40:03
more so because I wanted my grandchildren to actually know my story from me. I didn't I could just see my
01:40:09
son sitting there and saying, "Oh, yeah, grandmother. She did a bit in the prison
01:40:12
and you know, she was kind of, you know, she had a few shops and, you know, I mean, that's who she was." And I just
01:40:17
thought it would be really nice to have something that if they choose to that, um, draws a line in the sand and says,
01:40:23
"This is who I am. This is how I think. Um, this is the stuff I care about.
01:40:28
>> What would you say your biggest flaws are? >> Um, I don't know. I think I think I fixate
01:40:35
too much on my weight. I still Yeah, I think I still as a woman struggle. Um, I still battle that. I still battle that.
01:40:43
I'd like >> a body image thing. >> Not a body image, but you know, I just
01:40:46
I'm always kind of wanting to be 2 or 3 kgs lighter. You know, that's that's a
01:40:50
kind of a fixation of mine. Um, that doesn't need to be there now cuz it doesn't matter. just buy the next size
01:40:55
up, you know, it just doesn't matter. Um >> the I mean physical appearance is kind
01:41:01
of important for this industry, but wellness is is super important. But yeah, um I don't know. I think a lot of
01:41:08
the flaws I've kind of navigated it, you know, um and that um I I I strongly back
01:41:14
myself, you know, I'm I know that if I call it wrong, I'm really happy to
01:41:18
apologize. I have no problem. Um I was talking to someone on the weekend where I had openly made a mistake, you know,
01:41:24
where I listened to their perspective. Um I could see that I've made them feel
01:41:27
uncomfortable and I said, "Look, I really apologize for that." You know,
01:41:30
and in a lot of cases that's what people need to hear, you know, they just want
01:41:32
that. Um >> so yeah, I think for me, yeah, I'm Yeah, I don't know. I'm I'm
01:41:40
maybe I could be less busy sometimes. I could be I could actually give my husband more attention. I think he kind
01:41:46
of suffers from that. No, >> it's a second husband. second husband about 27 years,
01:41:50
>> right? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I think I'll stay there for the >> is a similar age.
01:41:55
>> Uh he's 62. >> 62. Oh, yeah. Similar age. So, is he still working? Is he
01:42:00
>> Well, he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to, but he's helping. He does stuff
01:42:03
at work. He's a keen golfer. Um BMW mad, car mad. Um yeah, he he Yeah, there's a
01:42:10
lot of stuff that needs to happen at work, especially with the setup of the gallery and the But he's a reluctant
01:42:15
participant in the work environment at the moment. Yeah, I think he he you know he can kind of but I'm trying to
01:42:22
[clears throat] convince him to build a house as our last house instead of going
01:42:24
into kind of that residential space. Build something really freaking cool, you know, like with it cuz that's my
01:42:29
kind of dream. The last house I'll build and it'll be I don't know if you watch
01:42:32
Phil Spencer's um New Zealand homes on Sunday night. >> Oh my god, I love it.
01:42:36
>> The house from Hahi home in Hahi and I thought, "Oh my gosh, first I'm going to find out who's got
01:42:42
that home um and see if I can have a look at it." But I thought that was the
01:42:46
thing that kind of um >> See, was that the one that had the wine celler downstairs?
01:42:49
>> Did it? Yeah, it did. But it had that um that huge deck and that fireplace that
01:42:53
dropped down. Although he went to Queenstown and saw the same fireplace. So might have been doing a bit of a deal
01:42:57
on. But um yeah, it's to build and and I think he would love to kind of just
01:43:04
project manage that. That would, you know, cuz that'll take a couple of years. And yeah, he is a bit of a he's
01:43:09
not he well, he doesn't need to. I'm I'm the insane kind of workaholic for one of
01:43:14
a better title. But um as Annette Presley said, it doesn't matter if you're a workaholic as long as you love
01:43:18
what you do. >> 100%. Yeah. >> And future goals just more more of more
01:43:23
of the same. More of what you do. >> More travel. More travel. Um more intrepid travel. Um love to go to South
01:43:28
America. Um love to do more of the Asian countries like doing Cambodia. I'd love
01:43:32
to actually kind of extend that um and really learn um as I do that. So not I'm
01:43:37
so ve well versed in the states and Europe and you know so to kind of keep out of those areas and just be a bit
01:43:43
more intrepid. Probably not Russia or um Israel at the moment. >> Not too intrigued.
01:43:47
>> Yeah. With the um but yeah um very much um really build the photography. I
01:43:54
really love that. Um that creative element of that and what I'm doing there and also yeah some smaller business
01:44:00
ideas. So working on one at the moment a little digital one. Um but you know it's
01:44:05
still still smaller business ideas that I can do without my name that are salailable scalable you know um type
01:44:12
type operations >> when um it's eventually your funeral. Um how would you like um your
01:44:19
>> I've got that plan too. I didn't want to leave that open for everyone else to
01:44:23
decide what to do. [laughter] >> Is that right? Is it in the will? [clears throat]
01:44:27
>> Yeah. It's totally the song they play who does what? What the flowers look
01:44:32
like? I thought I do not want to leave that open to to a discussion that they have that Yeah.
01:44:38
>> Are you a control freak? >> Not [clears throat] a control freak, but
01:44:40
I want things done my way. So, yeah, I'm I'm immediate, you know. So, I was um I
01:44:46
was just kind of crafting it the other day of just write being writing up the memorandum because I wanted to put
01:44:51
within there some very specifics and I got to the end and I thought, right, I'm
01:44:54
now I'm going to plan the funeral for them. >> Um you we established before the podcast
01:44:59
started that you're not um an overly emotional person. Um, the last time you
01:45:03
cried was watching the movie Tina on a plane. Um, but yeah, what's your funeral
01:45:07
going to look like? Is do you want people to be crying? Is it um No. >> No, I don't want people to be crying. I
01:45:13
want people to really see what was important to me. I want people to celebrate a life that I celebrate each
01:45:18
and every day. You know, I love the fact that I've been able to make such a strong contribution even if it all
01:45:22
stopped tomorrow. Um, even if I wipe myself out going down the motorway this afternoon or this, you know, at
01:45:27
lunchtime today. Um, I want people to be able to celebrate in the same way that I
01:45:32
do. Um, you know, the achievements that I've been able to, um, you know, get
01:45:37
past the post, um, in respect of that correctional work. You know, it's been
01:45:40
really important. And the refuge work, you know, I I really And and you know what? I'd really love a Mai funeral.
01:45:46
>> I'd really love um, to be immersed in Mai when I go. >> Yeah. You've got a big ponamu.
01:45:55
>> The girls, the raw girls gave it to me. Yeah. Right. they put together inside
01:45:58
and outside. Um what little money they have and brought it. >> [ __ ] That's special, isn't it?
01:46:05
>> This is Yes. And a lot of people comment on this piece. But I I always wear it
01:46:09
when I fly. I you know I wear it um just wear it in special moments. >> Did you Did you cry when you were gifted
01:46:16
that? No, cuz [laughter] Well, I don't know. Well, I guess it's because my sister said to me,
01:46:23
>> I'm just I'm just getting emotional hearing about the girls. >> This is what they want to get you. Um I
01:46:30
think it might be my 60th, might have been May. And she says, "Just do you want to choose the design? Cuz I just
01:46:36
hate to pull this wrong." [laughter] So, and so I chose the design and they, you
01:46:44
know, they brought it. Um they blessed it and they gave it. Yeah. So um you know my sister knows me better than
01:46:50
anyone and she just said it would be good to have something you really love. >> Yeah. So um yeah.
01:46:57
>> Oh that's wonderful. Oh what's the song? What's the song that you got selected
01:47:00
for the funeral? >> Oh um Pentanics. Hallelujah. >> Oh that's designed to get people crying.
01:47:07
>> I love that song. There won't be a dry eye in the house. >> It's not even um a funeral song really
01:47:12
is it? It's just whenever that song comes on it just >> it just something about and you know
01:47:17
what's really spooky about it is it's my mother's favorite song and found it out
01:47:21
the other day but she likes the original singer mine's the pentanics which is
01:47:25
kind of the souped up version but um I'm sure the guy that sang it came to New
01:47:30
Zealand and she was um but yeah that was pretty spooky to find that she loves that song.
01:47:35
>> Yeah. [gasps] >> So at your funeral your your children no last one on this going somewhere. Um, so
01:47:43
your your children and your grandchildren, what three words would you like them to use to describe you?
01:47:50
>> Ah, I don't know. Are you Are you talking about isolated words or group of words
01:47:56
or, you know, I' I'd like them to feel um I'd like them to know that, you know,
01:48:04
how much I love them. I'd like them to feel I'd like them to to know how
01:48:08
significant and how important their lives were to me. You know that you know how much I'd wanted to enrich. Um I'd
01:48:15
like them to just as I have even though my father wasn't a great dad as I said
01:48:20
to you, but he was certainly there was moments that I hang on to. I'd like them
01:48:25
my moments that they remember me by, which will all be individual to to actually be, you know, um, significant
01:48:32
and able them to to guide them, to be able to guide them. But yeah, um, >> yeah, I think for me, just someone that
01:48:39
they loved, you know, that was really important to them, that really added value to their lives, you know, and I
01:48:44
don't say that in a, you know, in a way that's sort of self- serving. I I
01:48:48
believe that I do, you know, they're my absolute focus, my two children and my
01:48:52
four grandchildren. Absolute. And then the my husband will put him [laughter] he kind of knows where he's
01:48:59
>> Yeah. He knows his place in the peing order. He's good with that. [laughter]
01:49:02
>> Are you Are you proud of yourself? >> Yes, I am. I am proud of myself. I'm
01:49:06
really proud of who I've become today. And I really thank the raw women for that. You know, I would not have been
01:49:11
able to do this without them. They have they've taught me humility, which was
01:49:15
never part of my vocab or my languaging. >> Amazing. What a journey. M >> Anna Streton, thanks so much for coming
01:49:22
on the podcast. >> Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. >> Yeah. Is it enjoyable reflecting on this
01:49:27
stuff? >> It it is and especially with someone like yourself um and that it's you have
01:49:33
so little knowledge, you know, like in that you've gathered some bits and pieces which is great. Um but you know
01:49:38
when I'm it's it's just nice to be able to share um those moments and nice for
01:49:42
you to gear them in the way that you believe is kind of important. So yeah, your perspective. Well, I appreciate you
01:49:48
making the trip up and coming on the podcast. >> It's okay. It reminds me of why I don't
01:49:52
want to drive to [laughter] Yeah. >> Well, I really appreciate it and um best
01:49:57
of luck for whatever the future holds. >> Yeah. Thank you. I'm sure our paths will
01:50:00
cross again. >> I hope so. >> Thanks, Tom.