I really rough run down, basically my background's in business but my heart's in conservation
and the environment.
And I found out that this plant, manuka, you might have heard of manuka honey in the States,
it's quite big.
But the honey comes from the nectar in the flowers, which is produced.
Sorry, I'm talking quietly, we had just had the in-laws arrive and they're sleeping next
door.
We're fine.
But the essential oil which is distilled from the leaves, steam distillation kind of style,
has these powerful healing compounds called triketones.
And that's just for one type of this plant.
Triketones?
Triketones, yeah.
Triketones.
All right, you're back to the right guy.
I know what you're talking about.
Awesome.
But then as you analyze the manuka from different parts of the country, the same plant just
growing in different environments, it has all these different phytochemicals like sesquiterpenes
and various terpenoids and stuff.
And they have really, really high value uses.
Triketones, for example, are 30 times more antibacterial than tea tree oil, for example.
And so I thought, well, I could combine the business skill with the potential to help
the environment by building this business.
Because if we create a demand for native plant extracts, then we can give farmers another
reason to plant native forest on their land.
And then that brings back the birds, that brings back the seed pollinators, cleans the
waterways, prevents erosion, has all that lovely effect.
So I started doing that.
And I'll admit, it was my first business.
So I was definitely on a big learning curve.
And then fast forward a few years, and I had been doing my marketing, just writing blogs
for people building websites, essentially contracting and consulting.
And that was paying my way as I built this business.
And then lockdowns hit in 2020.
And my Manuka Essentials was considered non-essential.
So we had to close shop.
And it went to zero overnight.
It came back later after the world opened back up.
But during that time, I had a bunch of clients that wanted to do more work with me.
And they wanted me to build an agency.
And I didn't really want to market the agency.
But I decided, well, this is a really good opportunity.
We've got these big contracts that people want to give us.
And I've got team members that want to work for me, who I know are good workers.
So why not?
So I did that.
But with my heart in the business world, I said, look, 5% of our revenue is going to
go to a separate bank account.
And we're going to use that revenue to pay for our team to do free work for environmental
groups.
So we did that.
We did that for about two years.
And then we started another business for some reason in that time.
And then that eventually evolved into this coaching that I do now, which is the reason
for coaching is because I enjoyed training my team more than I actually enjoyed doing
the client work.
And I enjoyed giving my clients strategies more than anything else.
And so I figured, well, rather than doing that stuff for free, why don't I be paid for
it?
But during that time, in 2020, we started a charity called the Reforestation Fund, which
the idea was for us to give money to conservation in a way that's really high impact, that's
good return on your investment.
It's actually a lot harder than it seems.
So we'll do that for other clients.
But we just rebranded that this week to a charity is now called Conservation Amplified.
And so we decided that the barriers to helping nature are gaining more awareness, so people
knowing what is needed and caring about it, and funding.
And we've been focused on funding for four years when we realized that actually, most
people we spoke to weren't aware of, yes, the problems, but just how many awesome solutions
there are that are being done right now that with a little bit more attention and a little
bit more money could really scale up our environmental good.
And so yeah, we literally just rebranded yesterday after four years.
So that's a bit of a yarn, but that's how I got to here.
Right.
And I'd say obviously, you can see by our part of our banner there, this is the water
project.
And First Class Business has been trying to partner, well, has been working with the water
project to help bring water to Africa and to areas that are obviously suffering from
whatever issues they're having with lack of water.
And obviously, this is part of the same thing.
So we completely understand where you're coming from with that.
And obviously, we should Godspeed and hope that they were able to continue forward on
that as we continue.
Thank you.
Cheers.
And it's so cool that you support the water project.
I was looking at your website and prep for the call.
And I was quite impressed by that.
And especially how you said business is a vehicle to do what you want to bring the change
you want into the world.
That's so true.
Yep, absolutely.
So I appreciate that.
So obviously, this whole discussion basically is very, it's rather preliminary only because
it's more or less to kind of get a feel for how we can interact.
But obviously, you're gauging us, we're gauging you, kind of get to see where we fit.
And the intent obviously is for at least for First Class Business to be able to build this
community of people who are, they know what they want to do.
And they're looking to expand their horizons, if you will, not necessarily in this, sorry,
with knowledge.
But obviously, being able to network and be able to provide more of the connections because
you know very well that the most important thing is people.
I mean, people just move the world.
And you have these people that are just amazing talents and are able to do things that you
say, how was that even possible?
It's because of the intellect that people have and the drive to do something and the
ability to look for innovation and look for solutions where typically we don't see that.
And again, I really appreciate the fact that you're willing to join with us and definitely
wanted to give you a chance to kind of sound off.
So I was going to ask the question then, what is, what's your plan kind of looking forward
from for those that you do work with and what do you plan to do with, you know, in the near
future, obviously, however long you want to go?
Yeah, awesome.
So I, sorry, I just realized this recording, this is just like a pre-check, right?
Oh, yeah.
This is more for us to see if we like the vibe.
Yeah, it's really to help us to use it for training purposes as well as for our own podcast
and stuff like that.
But eventually we will have a more formal discussion that would probably be a little
longer than maybe, you know, 20 minutes.
Okay, cool.
Awesome.
Yeah, I know you said that.
I just, I saw the recording sign and I was like, oh no, I hope this isn't my home in
the background.
Oh, you don't have a grand piano in your back.
I don't know how to play piano.
Maybe one day.
Well, this is actually my office.
So just so you know, this is my office.
You can see all the stuff around the back.
Yep.
I had, I have an office next door, but then when parents moved in, so just for they're
here on holiday, so I thought I'll move into a bedroom and put the grand on.
But to answer your question, what is my next steps?
So I firstly, I really do align with the fact that podcasting is about building relationships
and sharing stories.
So I'm all about like, yes, I want to create some content with you guys.
But also, I want to see if this is a relationship that we can, we can extend and, you know,
make into something awesome.
I've been going on a few podcasts here and there.
And some of some of the people that host are just the most interesting people, honestly.
But but for my business, what do I want?
The charity is the main one.
We're launching a podcast next week, actually.
It's called People Helping Nature.
And we've got about eight interviews, including one with my partner and I.
So seven guests lined up.
So at the moment, we're quite focused on building that.
The idea being that there's all these awesome things happening in the environment, and they
aren't really being spoken about.
So that's obviously not income generating.
That's just to give back and just to help.
So we spend a lot of time on that.
And we're aiming to go on the road and travel and do podcasts, broadcasts as we go and make
it into a bit of a community around that.
For Paste and Publish, which is the business that pays for it all.
I'm intentionally keeping it quite small for now, quite boutique, but very high quality.
So working with B2B services that maybe they're at that point where they want to grow through
marketing, but they're not at that point where they've got a full internal team.
And they, you know, they may be the hiring agencies, but they don't know how to manage
the agencies and you need to show up as the right client to get the best results.
So I can help them to do that.
Or if they've got internal staff, I can train and upskill them mostly around content production
and content marketing and promotion.
So really, I'm just keeping it small and fun and really high quality at the moment.
I used to have an agency and we got up to about nine people and it was, it just wasn't
what I wanted to show up in the world.
So for the next few years, that's kind of the goal.
We might make that larger and something more substantial in the future, but it's quite
nice just making it comfortable for now.
Right.
Are you looking to keep it kind of centralized within New Zealand?
Or are you possibly looking to expand beyond there as well?
No, we've got customers in America and some other countries, mostly in New Zealand.
But as long as someone speaks English and because obviously I speak English, I can't
really speak, I can speak with a German, but that's about it.
But yeah, anywhere in the world, really.
The main thing is that they genuinely are wanting to serve their customers and do a
good job for them.
They are B2B and provide services and they want to grow and they value lasting solutions
over shiny objects and want to invest in that growth.
Most people that talk to me about marketing, I actually turn them away and say, hey, you
should just go and sell and serve your customers.
So I'm quite picky about who I deal with as far as taking them on because as you know,
once you bring on a client, you've actually got to serve them every day.
So you want to make sure that you get really suitable relationships.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I can understand where you're coming from because the way that the vision pros
work, or I should say first class business works is that we like to, we don't just bring
on everybody because you have to be very cautious because some people just don't have the right
mindset, if you will, for coming in and understanding because if you're not willing to change, if
you don't have that humility and then you know very well that that person says, they're
going to, no, and then, and you're at an impasse and you can't progress with that.
You need to have the ability to interact and sometimes you have to say some hard stuff.
And if you're going to be cross as a consultant, if they don't want to hear that, I mean, why
are you hiring type of thing?
I just say, no, you need to reevaluate yourself first and then you can start looking to making
some changes later on.
So I really agree with what you're saying.
And I'd add to that that if we aren't having fun in business, we're not doing our best
work and if we're not doing our best work, we're not saving our clients well.
And if our clients aren't showing up properly due to no fault of our own, we can't have
fun and do our best job for them.
So it's just as much for them as it's for us.
But I'd love to know, where are you looking to grow first class business?
Like what's on the cards for you guys?
So we are in the process, we're actually through this same thing, we're going through this
huge metamorphosis because we're going through and we're ramping up a lot of the contacts
we have to really expand what we have as what we call the power launch.
And the power launch is an entire process of evaluating clients and having the clients
themselves really making those hard questions, looking introspectively and saying, what is
it that I'm really trying to do here?
If you don't have a clear vision of what you want to do, then how can you ever expect to
reach your destination?
And so this is one of the things where we're looking at that and we're saying, okay, if
we're really looking at this thing as a long term relationship, then we definitely need
to be able to be on the same page and we have to be able to interact in a way that both
are able to gain that understanding necessary to say, this is what we want to do with you.
Are you along for the ride or are you really just saying it's not really worth it for me?
And that's really where we're coming from.
Awesome.
I like it.
So I'll close, I guess I'll close with the question, what was your worst leadership experience?
That's a tough one.
Me as the leader or me as the follower?
Well I'll let you interpret that.
How's that?
Okay.
Well, when I first got out of uni, I had this boss and he was an interesting character.
Let's put it that way.
He was a really weird situation.
It was my dad's business partner, but he was the one that always worked 80 hours a week
when you could do it in 40.
But he also brought in most of the revenue for the business because he was out selling
all the time and he took me under his wing.
But everything had to be exactly his way.
And I'm not one to follow rules.
We had a lot of clashes.
There was this road trip we went on and his brother was the one that's out there partying
all night and then he meets the decision maker and they have this great time and they become
best friends and they give him the business.
And this other brother's like, you know, the one that will then be at the boardroom at
7am knocking on the door with a hundred page proposal.
And so, you know, I was jumping between the two brothers who technically had the same
authority in the company.
But I'd go from one and he'd say, all right, let's just go out for a nice lunch and we'll
meet the customer and we'll get the business because we're nice people.
And then I'd talk to the next the other brother like this and he'd say, no, no, no, you can't
do that.
You need this hundred page form that needs to be signed and dotted on a 10 different
pages.
And I'm not this isn't coming out as well as it happened in the time.
But it was quite funny how many misunderstandings there were between going from two completely
opposite sets of expectations on a weekly basis.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
It's going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.