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I really rough run down, basically my background's in business but my heart's in conservation

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and the environment.

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And I found out that this plant, manuka, you might have heard of manuka honey in the States,

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it's quite big.

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But the honey comes from the nectar in the flowers, which is produced.

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Sorry, I'm talking quietly, we had just had the in-laws arrive and they're sleeping next

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door.

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We're fine.

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But the essential oil which is distilled from the leaves, steam distillation kind of style,

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has these powerful healing compounds called triketones.

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And that's just for one type of this plant.

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Triketones?

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Triketones, yeah.

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Triketones.

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All right, you're back to the right guy.

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I know what you're talking about.

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Awesome.

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But then as you analyze the manuka from different parts of the country, the same plant just

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growing in different environments, it has all these different phytochemicals like sesquiterpenes

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and various terpenoids and stuff.

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And they have really, really high value uses.

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Triketones, for example, are 30 times more antibacterial than tea tree oil, for example.

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And so I thought, well, I could combine the business skill with the potential to help

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the environment by building this business.

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Because if we create a demand for native plant extracts, then we can give farmers another

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reason to plant native forest on their land.

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And then that brings back the birds, that brings back the seed pollinators, cleans the

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waterways, prevents erosion, has all that lovely effect.

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So I started doing that.

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And I'll admit, it was my first business.

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So I was definitely on a big learning curve.

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And then fast forward a few years, and I had been doing my marketing, just writing blogs

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for people building websites, essentially contracting and consulting.

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And that was paying my way as I built this business.

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And then lockdowns hit in 2020.

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And my Manuka Essentials was considered non-essential.

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So we had to close shop.

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And it went to zero overnight.

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It came back later after the world opened back up.

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But during that time, I had a bunch of clients that wanted to do more work with me.

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And they wanted me to build an agency.

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And I didn't really want to market the agency.

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But I decided, well, this is a really good opportunity.

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We've got these big contracts that people want to give us.

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And I've got team members that want to work for me, who I know are good workers.

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So why not?

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So I did that.

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But with my heart in the business world, I said, look, 5% of our revenue is going to

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go to a separate bank account.

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And we're going to use that revenue to pay for our team to do free work for environmental

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groups.

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So we did that.

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We did that for about two years.

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And then we started another business for some reason in that time.

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And then that eventually evolved into this coaching that I do now, which is the reason

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for coaching is because I enjoyed training my team more than I actually enjoyed doing

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the client work.

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And I enjoyed giving my clients strategies more than anything else.

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And so I figured, well, rather than doing that stuff for free, why don't I be paid for

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it?

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But during that time, in 2020, we started a charity called the Reforestation Fund, which

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the idea was for us to give money to conservation in a way that's really high impact, that's

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good return on your investment.

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It's actually a lot harder than it seems.

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So we'll do that for other clients.

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But we just rebranded that this week to a charity is now called Conservation Amplified.

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And so we decided that the barriers to helping nature are gaining more awareness, so people

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knowing what is needed and caring about it, and funding.

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And we've been focused on funding for four years when we realized that actually, most

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people we spoke to weren't aware of, yes, the problems, but just how many awesome solutions

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there are that are being done right now that with a little bit more attention and a little

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bit more money could really scale up our environmental good.

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And so yeah, we literally just rebranded yesterday after four years.

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So that's a bit of a yarn, but that's how I got to here.

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Right.

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And I'd say obviously, you can see by our part of our banner there, this is the water

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project.

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And First Class Business has been trying to partner, well, has been working with the water

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project to help bring water to Africa and to areas that are obviously suffering from

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whatever issues they're having with lack of water.

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And obviously, this is part of the same thing.

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So we completely understand where you're coming from with that.

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And obviously, we should Godspeed and hope that they were able to continue forward on

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that as we continue.

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Thank you.

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Cheers.

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And it's so cool that you support the water project.

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I was looking at your website and prep for the call.

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And I was quite impressed by that.

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And especially how you said business is a vehicle to do what you want to bring the change

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you want into the world.

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That's so true.

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Yep, absolutely.

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So I appreciate that.

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So obviously, this whole discussion basically is very, it's rather preliminary only because

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it's more or less to kind of get a feel for how we can interact.

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But obviously, you're gauging us, we're gauging you, kind of get to see where we fit.

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And the intent obviously is for at least for First Class Business to be able to build this

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community of people who are, they know what they want to do.

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And they're looking to expand their horizons, if you will, not necessarily in this, sorry,

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with knowledge.

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But obviously, being able to network and be able to provide more of the connections because

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you know very well that the most important thing is people.

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I mean, people just move the world.

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And you have these people that are just amazing talents and are able to do things that you

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say, how was that even possible?

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It's because of the intellect that people have and the drive to do something and the

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ability to look for innovation and look for solutions where typically we don't see that.

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And again, I really appreciate the fact that you're willing to join with us and definitely

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wanted to give you a chance to kind of sound off.

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So I was going to ask the question then, what is, what's your plan kind of looking forward

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from for those that you do work with and what do you plan to do with, you know, in the near

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future, obviously, however long you want to go?

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Yeah, awesome.

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So I, sorry, I just realized this recording, this is just like a pre-check, right?

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Oh, yeah.

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This is more for us to see if we like the vibe.

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Yeah, it's really to help us to use it for training purposes as well as for our own podcast

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and stuff like that.

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But eventually we will have a more formal discussion that would probably be a little

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longer than maybe, you know, 20 minutes.

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Okay, cool.

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Awesome.

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Yeah, I know you said that.

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I just, I saw the recording sign and I was like, oh no, I hope this isn't my home in

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the background.

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Oh, you don't have a grand piano in your back.

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I don't know how to play piano.

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Maybe one day.

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Well, this is actually my office.

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So just so you know, this is my office.

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You can see all the stuff around the back.

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Yep.

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I had, I have an office next door, but then when parents moved in, so just for they're

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here on holiday, so I thought I'll move into a bedroom and put the grand on.

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But to answer your question, what is my next steps?

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So I firstly, I really do align with the fact that podcasting is about building relationships

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and sharing stories.

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So I'm all about like, yes, I want to create some content with you guys.

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But also, I want to see if this is a relationship that we can, we can extend and, you know,

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make into something awesome.

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I've been going on a few podcasts here and there.

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And some of some of the people that host are just the most interesting people, honestly.

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But but for my business, what do I want?

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The charity is the main one.

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We're launching a podcast next week, actually.

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It's called People Helping Nature.

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And we've got about eight interviews, including one with my partner and I.

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So seven guests lined up.

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So at the moment, we're quite focused on building that.

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The idea being that there's all these awesome things happening in the environment, and they

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aren't really being spoken about.

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So that's obviously not income generating.

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That's just to give back and just to help.

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So we spend a lot of time on that.

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And we're aiming to go on the road and travel and do podcasts, broadcasts as we go and make

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it into a bit of a community around that.

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For Paste and Publish, which is the business that pays for it all.

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I'm intentionally keeping it quite small for now, quite boutique, but very high quality.

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So working with B2B services that maybe they're at that point where they want to grow through

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marketing, but they're not at that point where they've got a full internal team.

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And they, you know, they may be the hiring agencies, but they don't know how to manage

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the agencies and you need to show up as the right client to get the best results.

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So I can help them to do that.

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Or if they've got internal staff, I can train and upskill them mostly around content production

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and content marketing and promotion.

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So really, I'm just keeping it small and fun and really high quality at the moment.

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I used to have an agency and we got up to about nine people and it was, it just wasn't

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what I wanted to show up in the world.

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So for the next few years, that's kind of the goal.

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We might make that larger and something more substantial in the future, but it's quite

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nice just making it comfortable for now.

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Right.

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Are you looking to keep it kind of centralized within New Zealand?

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Or are you possibly looking to expand beyond there as well?

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No, we've got customers in America and some other countries, mostly in New Zealand.

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But as long as someone speaks English and because obviously I speak English, I can't

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really speak, I can speak with a German, but that's about it.

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But yeah, anywhere in the world, really.

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The main thing is that they genuinely are wanting to serve their customers and do a

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good job for them.

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They are B2B and provide services and they want to grow and they value lasting solutions

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over shiny objects and want to invest in that growth.

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Most people that talk to me about marketing, I actually turn them away and say, hey, you

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should just go and sell and serve your customers.

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So I'm quite picky about who I deal with as far as taking them on because as you know,

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once you bring on a client, you've actually got to serve them every day.

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So you want to make sure that you get really suitable relationships.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah, I can understand where you're coming from because the way that the vision pros

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work, or I should say first class business works is that we like to, we don't just bring

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on everybody because you have to be very cautious because some people just don't have the right

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mindset, if you will, for coming in and understanding because if you're not willing to change, if

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you don't have that humility and then you know very well that that person says, they're

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going to, no, and then, and you're at an impasse and you can't progress with that.

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You need to have the ability to interact and sometimes you have to say some hard stuff.

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And if you're going to be cross as a consultant, if they don't want to hear that, I mean, why

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are you hiring type of thing?

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I just say, no, you need to reevaluate yourself first and then you can start looking to making

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some changes later on.

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So I really agree with what you're saying.

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And I'd add to that that if we aren't having fun in business, we're not doing our best

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work and if we're not doing our best work, we're not saving our clients well.

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And if our clients aren't showing up properly due to no fault of our own, we can't have

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fun and do our best job for them.

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So it's just as much for them as it's for us.

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But I'd love to know, where are you looking to grow first class business?

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Like what's on the cards for you guys?

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So we are in the process, we're actually through this same thing, we're going through this

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huge metamorphosis because we're going through and we're ramping up a lot of the contacts

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we have to really expand what we have as what we call the power launch.

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And the power launch is an entire process of evaluating clients and having the clients

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themselves really making those hard questions, looking introspectively and saying, what is

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it that I'm really trying to do here?

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If you don't have a clear vision of what you want to do, then how can you ever expect to

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reach your destination?

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And so this is one of the things where we're looking at that and we're saying, okay, if

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we're really looking at this thing as a long term relationship, then we definitely need

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to be able to be on the same page and we have to be able to interact in a way that both

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are able to gain that understanding necessary to say, this is what we want to do with you.

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Are you along for the ride or are you really just saying it's not really worth it for me?

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And that's really where we're coming from.

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Awesome.

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I like it.

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So I'll close, I guess I'll close with the question, what was your worst leadership experience?

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That's a tough one.

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Me as the leader or me as the follower?

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Well I'll let you interpret that.

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How's that?

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Okay.

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Well, when I first got out of uni, I had this boss and he was an interesting character.

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Let's put it that way.

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He was a really weird situation.

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It was my dad's business partner, but he was the one that always worked 80 hours a week

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when you could do it in 40.

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But he also brought in most of the revenue for the business because he was out selling

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all the time and he took me under his wing.

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But everything had to be exactly his way.

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And I'm not one to follow rules.

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We had a lot of clashes.

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There was this road trip we went on and his brother was the one that's out there partying

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all night and then he meets the decision maker and they have this great time and they become

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best friends and they give him the business.

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And this other brother's like, you know, the one that will then be at the boardroom at

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7am knocking on the door with a hundred page proposal.

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And so, you know, I was jumping between the two brothers who technically had the same

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authority in the company.

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But I'd go from one and he'd say, all right, let's just go out for a nice lunch and we'll

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meet the customer and we'll get the business because we're nice people.

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And then I'd talk to the next the other brother like this and he'd say, no, no, no, you can't

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do that.

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You need this hundred page form that needs to be signed and dotted on a 10 different

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pages.

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And I'm not this isn't coming out as well as it happened in the time.

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But it was quite funny how many misunderstandings there were between going from two completely

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opposite sets of expectations on a weekly basis.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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It's going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.