Podcasts about my food bag

Nadia Lim is a chef with a finger in every pie. She's a MasterChef New Zealand champion, cookbook author, TV personality, dietitian, entrepreneur, and an inspiration for many in the kitchen. Her recipes and passion have shaped the way many approach food, the release of her cookbook Easy Weeknight Meals inspiring plenty of people to take up utensils. To mark the 10th anniversary of that very cookbook, a special edition is being released, complete with 16 bonus My Food Bag recipes. Easy Weeknight Meals 10th Anniversary Edition, published by Allen & Unwin NZ, RRP $39.99. She told Jack Tame that ten years has gone by fast – time moving faster the older you get. “I'm 40 this year and I started this journey out when I was like, 25, and gosh, the time's just flown by,” Lim said. “I've never been a great person at kind of, looking back in the past, but when anniversaries like this come around, it's a good time to kind of look back and stop, pause, and reflect.” LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Paula's guest is celebrity chef and businesswoman Nadia Lim. They discuss her successful career as a chef, author, farm owner and founder of My Food Bag, and how Nadia has capitalised on the opportunities in her life to get where she is today - and what she has learnt from the risks she took and the mistakes she made along the way. Easy Weeknight Meals - 10th Anniversary Edition is in bookstores this week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who needs a prenup when you've got trust, shared bank accounts, and four properties post-divorce? In this juicy, hilarious, and heartwarming chat, Soph sits down with radio legends turned podpreneurs, JJ Feeney and Dom Harvey to unpack what happens when the romance ends but the finances (and friendship) stay very much entangled. Expect honest talk about quitting high-paying jobs for happiness, podcasting as a business model (hello, Podlab!), and why JJ is definitely the spender of the duo. Plus, we touch on everything from dating younger partners, monthly charity donations, and whether money really buys happiness (spoiler: nah, but it helps if you want business class). If you've ever thought about leaving a relationship or a job, but you're not sure how to navigate it, this one's for you.

You know that feeling when you just know you're being underpaid but have no idea how to tackle the awkward money convo? Meggie Palmer is here to save the day. In this electric episode from the archives, Meggie (founder of PepTalkHer and actual negotiation ninja) shares how she discovered she was being paid a lot less than her male peers - and what she did about it. Expect practical tips on negotiating pay rises, asking better questions, and building that all-important "FU fund" for career confidence. You'll leave this episode feeling empowered, informed, and ready to advocate for your value with confidence.This week we're teaming up with Fresh Start by My Food Bag Nutritionist-approved, calorie-controlled dinners delivered to take the admin out of healthy eating - perfect for busy gals on the go. Fresh Start have an exclusive discount for The Curve community - Get up to $168 off 3 weeks with code CURVEWEEKLY. That's 50% off your first delivery, 10% off your second & 10% off your third - Sign up here.T&Cs: Offer expires 31 Dec 2025 for deliveries until 1 Feb 2026 delivery weekend at the latest. To use this offer customer must be new to My Food Bag or have not bought any My Food Bag product in the last 13 weeks. Promotion applies to the value of the customers chosen subscription meal kit and does not apply to any extras including Kitchen and gourmet meals. Promo code cannot be used on one off occasion products. My Food Bag reserves the right to withhold or deduct credits obtained using a promotion code in the event that My Food Bag determines or believes that the use or redemption of the promotion code was in error, fraudulent, illegal, or in violation of the applicable promotion code terms or these Terms.⁠⁠Leave us a message on The Curve Hotline

We cannot actually believe this happened – the woman who created Sex and the City, the real-life Carrie Bradshaw, Candace Freakin' Bushnell, joined us on the pod. If that name alone hasn't made you hit play already, here's what you're in for: the truth behind the Carrie and Mr. Big dynamic (spoiler: she wanted to be Mr. Big, not marry him), the power of female friendships, what it takes to make it in a big city as a woman, the deeply ingrained sexism she fought her whole life, and her unapologetic choice not to have kids. This convo is raw, real, iconic – and quite possibly the most starstruck we've ever been. Sex and the City fans, this one's for you.Sign up to our free workshop: What We're Investing In and Why. This week we're teaming up with Fresh Start by My Food Bag Nutritionist-approved, calorie-controlled dinners delivered to take the admin out of healthy eating - perfect for busy gals on the go. Fresh Start have an exclusive discount for The Curve community - Get up to $168 off 3 weeks with code CURVEWEEKLY. That's 50% off your first delivery, 10% off your second & 10% off your third -⁠Sign up here.⁠T&Cs: Offer expires 31 Dec 2025 for deliveries until 1 Feb 2026 delivery weekend at the latest. To use this offer customer must be new to My Food Bag or have not bought any My Food Bag product in the last 13 weeks. Promotion applies to the value of the customers chosen subscription meal kit and does not apply to any extras including Kitchen and gourmet meals. Promo code cannot be used on one off occasion products. My Food Bag reserves the right to withhold or deduct credits obtained using a promotion code in the event that My Food Bag determines or believes that the use or redemption of the promotion code was in error, fraudulent, illegal, or in violation of the applicable promotion code terms or these Terms.⁠⁠⁠Leave us a message on The Curve Hotline

This episode is a full-course meal of money chats, career pivots and laugh-out-loud moments with the glorious Polly Markus (aka Miss Polly's Kitchen). We talk real estate burnouts, spending blowouts (yes, including a Celine bag situation), and the chaos of being your own one-woman content empire. Polly spills on her investing flops (Rivian, we're still not over it), the emotional hangover of financial regrets, and the surprising clarity that comes with getting serious about your money goals. It's equal parts hilarious, heartfelt, and wildly relatable - plus, stick around to the end for a little announcement that had us both misty-eyed and squealing.

The Christmas season is probably the most stressful time of the year, and it can be more stressful when you know you have to get a gift for someone but just have no ideas.  Luckily for you, Toni's here to help. Over the next couple of weeks, she'll be sharing her gift recommendations for women, men, mums, dads, children, and everyone in between! Everyone has someone in their life that's impossible to buy for. That's why I've made this guide for that very person, there's bound to be something in here perfect for them. Portable Power Bank $53 from Evolved Chargers Antique Outdoor Lantern$169 from Blackwell & Sons Resort Lounger $139.95 from &Sunday Leopard Planner$79.90 from Village BookShop  OR Father Rabbit x Juliette Hogan Daily Diary $59 from Father Rabbit Ordo Electric Toothbrush$74 from JB Hi-Fi Borneo Bags$89 from Red Art Gallery Summer Outdoor Mat$74 from Happy Tribe Themed Puzzle$30-$50 from The Jigstore Thermomix Grazing Box$36.95 from Thermomix Raised Garden Bed$249 from VegePod Apple Air Tags $75 from Mighty Ape Flint Rechargeable Lighter$79.90 from Flo & Frankie Diptyque Holiday Candle Set$98 for a 3-pack from Mecca  Deep Freezer$349 from TradeTested Crochet Commission $30-115 from instagram.com/chuckcreatescrochet My Food Bag Shop Voucher From myfoodbag.co.nz Nadia's Royalburn Gift Box$99.99 from My Food Bag shop Festive Goodies Gift Box$79.99 from My Food Bag shop Prices as of 17/11/24See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Untidy, Hannah and Matty chat to one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most successful entrepreneurs, Cecilia Robinson. Cecilia shares her remarkable journey, from her beginnings in Sweden to founding AuPairLink, My Food Bag, and her latest venture, Tend—a digital-first healthcare provider. Named 2024 Innovator of the Year, Cecilia is also a mother of three and is leading the charge with her advocacy for a smartphone-free childhood. Alongside sharing her insights as an entrepreneur and leader, Cecilia talks about how she intertwines her life in business with her personal life and how her experiences as a mother of three shape her views on technology, parenting, relationships and business. Cecilia shares her challenges of balancing work and family life, highlighting the importance of integration over the elusive concept of balance. She also speaks passionately about the mental health crisis linked to social media and smartphones, advocating for legislative changes to protect younger generations and her commitment to a smartphone-free childhood. Cecilia is a powerhouse with a deep sense of purpose. She's come to accept that forging new paths and leading the charge doesn't necessarily go hand-in-hand with likability. With raw honesty, Cecilia shares both the personal and professional sides of being a modern-day leader passionate about delivering a healthier future for New Zealanders. Follow Cecilia on Instagram @ceciliarobinsontend and @robinsonduonz. Check out @tendnz for digital-first healthcare innovation. The group mentioned in the episode advocating for delaying smartphones and social media for kids' mental health is @unpluggedrebels_nz. If you enjoy this episode of Untidy, please support the show by subscribing in your podcast app and tapping the ‘+ follow' button. That way, you'll never miss an episode. Help us to keep building this supportive community – subscribe, share an episode with a mate, and chuck us a 5-star review. Thank you for listening and supporting our independent production! You're the best! Untidy is made for you – the people right at the heart of this steaming hot mess we call parenthood! Follow the show and DM us on Instagram @untidypodcast or email hello@untidypodcast.com. Your stories and ideas to help us shape the show! Find us online at Untidy podcast. Find Matilda at @matootles and get your copy of The Feel Good Guide. Find Hannah at @hannahedavison and her My Big Moments children's books at @mybigmoments. Enter code UNTIDY at checkout for 10% off your order.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode, we hear from the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after the Finance Minister says the Government will keep its promise to fund more cancer treatments, Police estimate the cost of alcohol harm to be close to $8b dollars a year - but they deploy less than one percent of their staff on reducing its harm, Theresa Gattung, the former chief executive of Telecom and current patron of My Food Bag, is one of the country's new Dame Companions, we hear from the organiser of a Cheese Roll Making Workshop to find out what makes the perfect cheese roll, we cross the Tasman to hear from Kerry-Anne Walsh, and Nathan Rarere covers the latest Spelling Bee.

Theresa Gattung, the former chief executive of Telecom and current patron of My Food Bag, is one of the country's new Dame Companions. Dame Theresa spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

In 1999, Theresa Gattung became the first female chief executive of a major New Zealand company at Telecom (now Spark).  She broke through a major glass ceiling – paving the way for a prolific corporate career - co-founding My Food Bag, sitting on the board of healthcare start-up Tend, as well as the dating website Compatico.    She's been named a Dame in this King's Birthday Honours alongside Joan Withers.    Dame Theresa Gattung told Tim Beveridge “I wasn't sure if it was a gag or not – 10 years ago when I got my previous honour, it came in the mail.”  Gattung said “Girls looking up have to believe that anything is possible – they could be a Prime Minster, CEO, chair, or philanthropist. That's what important.”  LISTEN ABOVE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rebecca looks at some strong results on the NZX, including Turners Automotive and My Food Bag. Utilities software company Gentrack has made a notable turnaround. And a look at tech company Rakon which is the subject of a mystery buyer. In the US, Disneyland Resort cast members have voted to unionise - part of a wider trend across the country of employees seeking better employment conditions. Rebecca Stevenson is a senior journalist at BusinessDesk.

The My Food Bag founder and former Telecom CEO explains why she's bemused by complaints from customers still waiting for their dream match and says the expanding enterprise - "an antidote to dating apps" - is off to a great start. Plus, the stigma around migraines and is coffee really on the way out? Why some people are giving up caffeine for good.

In this episode of Ag Culture, we approach the inspiring journey of Carlos Bagrie, an entrepreneur who navigated the transition from achieving a successful IPO to embarking on a fulfilling life in agriculture in New Zealand, amidst its stunning scenery. He shares his story from the founding of 'My Food Bag,' navigating the complexities of sustainable farming, to establishing a vital connection between producers and consumers. His experience highlights innovation, resilience, and agriculture's transformative impact. This episode offers invaluable insights and inspiration for anyone in the agriculture sector. Listen to Carlos's motivational story on all major podcast platforms. What you will learn: (00:00) Episode Introduction (01:28) Introduction to Carlos Bagrie's journey (03:02) Transition from corporate to farming (05:08) Challenges of starting a new venture (07:10) Building a direct-to-consumer food business (09:32) Insights on food production and marketing (13:47) The shift towards sustainable agriculture (20:35) Discussing the impact on community and environment (24:48) Future projects and concluding thoughts Meet the Guest: Carlos Bagrie, a pioneering entrepreneur, who transitioned from a successful corporate career to embracing agriculture in New Zealand, manifesting a direct-to-consumer model in the food industry. Alongside his wife, a celebrity chef, they embarked on ventures like My Food Bag, revolutionizing how families engage with cooking and dining. Their farm, operating with sustainable practices, now serves as a model for future agriculture, demonstrating the power of local food production and marketing. Look into Carlos's journey on Ag Culture available on all major platforms. Discover the world of agriculture with the "Ag Culture Podcast", hosted by Paul Windemuller. This podcast will be a gateway for those passionate about agriculture to explore its global perspectives and innovative practices. Join Paul as he shares his experiences in the agricultural industry, his travels and encounters with important figures around the world. Expect engaging stories of Paul's journey as a first-generation farmer and consultant, covering topics ranging from coffee to greenhouses to agricultural technology. "Ag Culture'' will aim to inspire agricultural entrepreneurs and innovators weekly. Available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe at ⁠⁠agculturepodcast.com⁠⁠ and keep an eye out for future episodes, bringing insights and stories from the vibrant world of agriculture.

This week on Leaders Getting Coffee, our guest is Theresa Gattung. Former CEO of Telecom NZ, co-founder of My Food Bag, and Chair of Global Women. Theresa's story is unique. A chance meeting led to her joining Telecom, where at the age of just 37, she became that company's youngest ever CEO and the first woman to lead a NZX listed company. She talks about the importance of a strong leadership team, what she looks for in building a team, and the decision to sell one of Telecom's biggest assets. It might seem difficult to follow a corporate career like that, but Theresa became an entrepreneur and alongside Nadia Lim and Cecilia Robinson, she was one of the drivers behind the launch and rapid success of My Food Bag. She talks openly about managing in that high paced environment and has plenty of great lessons for young people with big aspirations. Theresa speaks with refreshing honesty about the highs and lows of her career, and the things that drove her to become a passionate advocate for women and a lifelong supporter of women in the workplace. And as always, we wrap up the podcast by asking Theresa what she would do if she was Prime Minister for a day?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today is Valentines Day, but not everyone is coupled up.   Over 40's are calling time on dating apps, finding it harder and harder to find a partner.  They're fatigued by the endless swiping, cautious of scams and catfish, and looking for a safer and more bespoke way of finding love.  Theresa Gattung, former Telecom CEO and co-founder of My Food Bag, is the founder of Compatico, a premium matchmaking service designed to help people find their life partners.  Gattung told Kerre Woodham that their service is an entree to possibility.  She said that while it is a matchmaking service, what it also offers is the opportunity to be a part of a community.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meal kit delivery service My Food Bag's latest profits have more than halved as customers seek to cut costs. The company's half year profit shows a significant decline, and a planned dividend has been axed.  Devon Funds Head of Retail Greg Smith says customers have been forced to cut back amid increased interest rates and inflation. "Their average value has gone down- meanwhile, obviously costs have gone up for them, so that's pressurising their profitability." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meal kit delivery service My Food Bag's latest profits have more than halved as customers seek to cut costs. The company's half year profit shows a significant decline, and a planned dividend has been axed.  Devon Funds Head of Retail Greg Smith says customers have been forced to cut back amid increased interest rates and inflation. "Their average value has gone down- meanwhile, obviously costs have gone up for them, so that's pressurising their profitability." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US shares had another very strong week, with the S&P 500 rising 2.2%. The index is up 7.6% in November and on track for its best month in more than a year. The NZX 50 in New Zealand was more subdued, although it still added 0.3% for its third consecutive weekly gain. The local market has rallied 3.9% this month, on track for its best performance since January. Looking ahead, it will be a holiday-shortened week in the US, with markets closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday. There will also be an early close on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season. The highlight of the global economic calendar will be the flash PMIs for November. Investors will be watching to see if manufacturing rebound continues, and whether the services sector weakens further. There's a bit happening on the corporate front too, with Oceania Healthcare, Goodman Property Trust and My Food Bag all set to announce earnings in New Zealand, while in the US artificial intelligence will be in focus when NVIDIA releases its latest result on Tuesday.

Nadia Lim is a familiar face on our screens. We know her best as the winner of Masterchef NZ, the face of My Food Bag, and author of many award winning cook books. Her latest venture has seen her and her family take on the running 1200 acres of rugged Central Otago farmland at Royalburn Station. The first season of Nadia's farm premiered last year and is back on our screens. Nadia Lim joined James Daniels and Tyler Adams for this week's Six and a Song. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In our third edition of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is Cecilia Robinson. She is a serial entrepreneur, from Au Pair Link to My Food Bag, and now her latest venture Tend Health, she continues to challenge the status quo and how we deliver services to customers. A combination of enthusiasm and logic prevails in her conversation and her aspirations for the country. And she offers a very simple solution for our crisis ridden health system. Join Bruce Cotterill and his guest Cecilia Robinson in episode 3 of Leaders Getting Coffee.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm so looking forward to this kōrero with Theresa Gattung - a woman who smashed through the glass ceiling and became the first female CEO of an NZX-listed company - Telecom NZ at 37-years old. She has held multiple roles with huge success - including co-founding My Food Bag. But so much of Theresa's mahi is centred around helping girls and women find their seat at the table - wherever that table may be and whatever that table might look like. She's speaking at EQUALIZE - it's a free-entry equity discussion series in Aotearoa celebrating women in sport, business, culture, and society. To get tickets go to www.eyeson.nz/equalizeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We Need To Talk Balance  In this episode, Toni talks to entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson.  Cecilia has started several well-known companies, including My Food Bag and the online doctor service Tend.  She shares how prioritising certain aspects of your life can help juggle a very full calendar – especially when there are kids involved.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The meal kit delivery industry is a tough nut to crack, especially with rising food prices and challenging economic conditions at play. So what does My Food Bag have planned to nab a seat at the dinner table? Frances Cook talks to My Food Bag CEO Mark Winter about the company's growth strategy for the future and why its share price has been on a downward trend since publicly listing two years ago.   For more or to watch on youtube—check out http://linktr.ee/sharedlunch A conversation with experts, CEOs, and you. We talk to company leaders and industry experts every week. Listen or watch over lunch or whenever you want to snack on what's happening in the economy, the markets, and the companies you invest in. Brought to you by Sharesies, with BusinessDesk. Appearance on Shared Lunch is not an endorsement by Sharesies of the views of the presenters, guests, or the entities they represent. Their views are their own. Shared Lunch is not financial advice. We recommend talking to a licensed financial adviser. You should review relevant product disclosure documents before deciding to invest. Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with. Content is current at the time. Shared Lunch is for a New Zealand audience.

There are several important economic releases to monitor this week, including US retail sales and Chinese activity indicators for April. On the central bank front, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is speaking on Friday and the minutes from the most recent Reserve Bank of Australia meeting will be of interest across the Tasman. Here in New Zealand, the highlight of the week will be Budget 2023 on Thursday afternoon. For share investors there will be plenty to watch. Here in New Zealand Serko, Goodman Property, My Food Bag and Ryman Healthcare are all set to announce results this week, while international companies Home Depot, Walmart, Alibaba and Tencent will also release quarterly earnings.

Six months ago, few people in New Zealand had a clue who Simon Henry was. He was just an anonymous millionaire running his successful business. But then, all of a sudden, his comments referring to My Food Bag founder Nadia Lim catapulted him into the public consciousness for all the wrong reasons.   NZ Herald investigative journalist Carolyne Meng-yee has been trying to secure an interview with Henry ever since those comments were made. She finally got to sit down with the man for an extensive chat on Lim, business and life in Christchurch. Today, Carolyne Meng-yee joins guest host Chelsea Daniels to share a glimpse of the world according to Simon Henry and why we should pay attention to his comments.   Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network. Host: Chelsea DanielsProducer: Shaun D WilsonExecutive Producer: Ethan SillsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nadia Lim needs no introduction. She's an all round superwoman, who now lives in the beautiful Central Otago with her husband Carlos and two small sons.After the incredibly successful sale of My Food Bag, Nadia and Carlos purchased “Royalburn Station”, and are now sharing their farming journey with the rest of Aoteoroa. In this podcast, we discuss Nadia's food philosophies, the struggles of parenting, and how to prioritise giving back.Today's shoutout goes to Garden to Table, a charitable trust empowering kids to grow, harvest, prepare, and share great food.

My Food Bag made has posted a healthy result today. EBITDA was up 18% to $34.2m, and net profit after tax increased to $20m from $2.4m.  The company's been in the headlines recently thanks to DGL Group's Simon Henry who made racist and derogatory remarks about the My Food Bag's co-founder Nadia Lim. He also criticised My Food Bag's IPO last year, saying it hasn't delivered value for money for investors. My Food Bag's share price has halved since the company listed last year. CEO of My Food Bag, Kevin Bowler joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE 

Simon Henry has finally issued an apology to Nadia Lim over his 'Eurasian fluff' comments. Simon is claiming to have called Nadia several times last week trying to apologise, however, Nadia's phone records confirm she never received nor missed a call from him. So, instead, he sent a simple two-line apology via email. And as expected it's' gone down poorly. Deborah Pead runs public relations for My Food Bag. She joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE 

KiwiSaver provider Milford Asset Management will try to engage with DGL Group instead of excluding the company.Company CEO Simon Henry made offensive comments about My Food Bag's Nadia Lim.Other Kiwi Saver providers Kiwi Wealth and Simplicity have added the company to their exclusion list.Milford Asset Management's Frances Sweetman told Heather du Plessis-Allan their sustainability policy is to try and work with the company on the issue before restricting it.“Our first strategy is to get in contact with the company, share our views about this issue, what we want to see happen and go from there.”LISTEN ABOVE

KiwiSaver provider Milford Asset Management will try to engage with DGL Group instead of excluding the company.Company CEO Simon Henry made offensive comments about My Food Bag's Nadia Lim.Other Kiwi Saver providers Kiwi Wealth and Simplicity have added the company to their exclusion list.Milford Asset Management's Frances Sweetman told Heather du Plessis-Allan their sustainability policy is to try and work with the company on the issue before restricting it.“Our first strategy is to get in contact with the company, share our views about this issue, what we want to see happen and go from there.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you started the week not knowing the name Simon Henry, you probably know it now.He's the rich-lister who is the founder and chief executive of chemicals company DGL Group who is under fire - quite rightfully, might I add - for saying some appalling things about Nadia Lim, whose name I'm guessing you did know at the start of the week. Masterchef winner and judge, co-founder of My Food Bag, creator of the lockdown TV cooking show, organic farmer - she's done and is doing a whole lot of things.And she is somewhat reluctantly in the news today because of what Simon Henry said about her in a media interview - calling her “Eurasian fluff”.He was talking about My Food Bag not performing well since it listed on the sharemarket with a journalist from the National Business Review. Here's what he had to say about the company's sharemarket prospectus document."When you've got Nadia Lim, when you've got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that's what it takes to sell your script, then you know you're in trouble."And he suggested that Nadia Lim uses her "sensuality" to sell her products. He said she was "a TV celebrity showing off her sensuality".By the way, just for clarification, the only picture of Nadia Lim in the My Food Bag prospectus has her standing around a barbecue in a casual v-necked camisole top with jeans. The top has no buttons.So he's talking out of his backside, or his rear cleavage.I think I said this yesterday, I think (in my honest opinion) that Simon Henry has shown himself to be a complete turkey with these comments.And I don't appear to be alone. The response has been pretty swift.KiwiSaver provider Kiwi Wealth has added Henry's company, DGL Group, to its investment exclusions list. So Kiwi Wealth has blacklisted it.Nadia Lim herself has said overnight that she didn't want to get involved in this whole thing but that changed on Wednesday night when she found herself sitting opposite a young flight attendant on a trip from Christchurch to Queenstown.Here's what Nadia Lim said about that overnight on social media: "I smiled at her and she smiled back at me and I actually felt a little bit emotional. She was a young woman of Asian descent, like myself, and I thought 'How do you feel when you hear things like that? Or read things like that?'"And what she's commenting on there, in particular, is Simon Henry's description of her as “a bit of Eurasian fluff”.I don't think I've heard anyone refer to a woman as a “bit of fluff” since the 1990s. In fact, I'll tell you the year - it was 1997 and I was in London and this media company guy I was working for was going on about “bits of fluff”.So these comments from Simon Henry in 2022 feels very old-school to me and, in my opinion, he deserves everything that's coming to him.But I know there will be others too who think there's nothing wrong with what he said. They'll look at the fact that he's successful and rich and probably be quite willing to turn a blind eye, because….well, because he's successful and rich.Yes, he's successful (whatever that means). And yes, he is rich. He's also shown himself through these comments to be an arrogant turkey. There are a lot of arrogant turkeys around, I know. He's not alone. But most of them limit their sexism and misogyny to drinks with the boys on Friday night. That doesn't excuse it.But when someone tells a reporter to quote them, and then goes on to say what Simon Henry said about Nadia Lim - and not just Nadia Lim, about all women of Asian descent - then that takes it to next-level ignorance and arrogance.Now, even though I'm condemning Henry, it does raise the question whether these types of things get blown out of proportion these days due to the simple fact that, as a society, we are very quick to get outraged on behalf of other people.As Nadia Lim herself has said, she didn't want to get involved but then felt she had to when...

The backlash against racist and sexist criticism of  Nadia Lim continue...Chemicals company CEO Simon Henry described Lim as a piece of "Eurasian fluff" -  and suggested her appearance could explain why his company had outperformed My Food Bag on the NZX and ASX.Lim responded on social media last night - saying Henry's comments are 'so damaging'.Shareholders' Association Chief Executive Oliver Mander told Mike Hosking not only are his comments insulting to Lim, but to shareholders also.He says they make decisions on rational reasons - and a photo of Nadia Lim cooking over a BBQ isn't going to influence investors either way.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know by now I'm not one to join aboard the cancel culture train when someone says something deemed out of line, but I think that businessman Simon Henry would be wise to apologise for what he said about Nadia Lim.I'm saying this not because I've taken offence at it, but because he's wrong and because he risks wearing personal and business damage unless here he kills this off as a media story as soon as possible.Just in case you haven't heard this, what he said during an interview with NBR was this: “I can tell you, and you can quote me, when you've got Nadia Lim, when you've got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that's what it takes to sell your scrip, then you know you're in trouble.”If you read the context of the article, he was trying to compare his business' recent IPO with My Food Bag's recent IPO.His IPO did really well. Shares that were worth AUD $1 at float are now worth near AUD $3.80.My Food Bag's IPO did not do as well. Shares that were worth $1.85 at float fell immediately, never recovered, and are now worth less than half of that at 89 cents.Simon Henry accuses My Food Bag of attracting investors by selling on Nadia Lim's appeal.If he is trying to suggest that there are naïve mum and dad investors out there who invest in shares because they recognise the brand and they like the brand and they like the person associated with the brand rather than because they actually understand the fundamentals of the business, than he's right. That does happen.That happens a lot lately, especially in the Sharesies age.But he's wrong to suggest that it's got anything to do with Nadia's cleavage and ethnicity and sensuality. There's not even that any cleavage in the photo that he's talking about and there's certainly nothing in that top to unbutton.Now there's every chance that Simon Henry could weather this storm.He's obviously great at the core part of his job. One equity analyst told media that Henry's one of the best CEO's he's met. DGL's share value is pretty much largely unchanged since the story printed.But already a KiwiSaver fund has added his business to the list of businesses it will not invest in anymore.Commentators are universally outraged by what he said and My Food Bag co-founder Cecilia Robinson is pressuring his board to take action and pressuring investors to reconsider whether this lines up with their principles.Now he can decide whether he wants this to carry on or not.If I was him, I would just rip the bandage off, stem any possible damage by simply getting it over and done with and saying that he's sorry.

The backlash against racist and sexist criticism of  Nadia Lim continues.Chemicals company CEO Simon Henry described Lim as a piece of "Eurasian fluff" -  and suggested her appearance could explain why his company had outperformed My Food Bag on the NZX and ASX.Lim responded on social media last night - saying Henry's comments are 'so damaging'.Shareholders' Association Chief Executive Oliver Mander told Mike Hosking not only are his comments insulting to Lim, but to shareholders also.He says they make decisions on rational reasons - and a photo of Nadia Lim cooking over a BBQ isn't going to influence investors either way.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a bit of uproar over some comments by an NZ business leader... CEO of DGL group Simon Henry.  Henry was interviewed by the NBR and was disparaging about My Food Bag's IPO last year when he said this: "I can tell you, and you can quote me, when you've got Nadia Lim, when you've got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that's what it takes to sell your script, then you know you're in trouble." Cecilia Robinson, co-founder of My Food Bag, joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN ABOVE 

Founder and CEO of chemicals company DGL, Simon Henry, has criticised My Food Bag for putting an image of brand ambassador Nadia Lim in its prospectus, referring to Lim as 'Eurasian fluff'.National Business Review ran an article featuring an interview in which the comments were made.Kiwi Wealth in the process of adding DGL to its exclusions list in response to the derogatory comments he made.Kiwi Wealth CEO Rhiannon McKinnon joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVE

Founder and CEO of chemicals company DGL, Simon Henry, has criticised My Food Bag for putting an image of brand ambassador Nadia Lim in its prospectus, referring to Lim as 'Eurasian fluff'.National Business Review ran an article featuring an interview in which the comments were made.Kiwi Wealth in the process of adding DGL to its exclusions list in response to the derogatory comments.Kiwi Wealth CEO Rhiannon McKinnon joined Kerre Woodham.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cecilia Robinson is a serial entrepreneur and one of this country's most successful businesswomen.  She has founded three hugely successful businesses – Au Pair Link, healthcare start-up Tend, and perhaps what's she best known for – My Food Bag.  Among her accolades, she's won the Supreme Woman of Influence Award, the Business Enterprise Award, and was inducted into The New Zealand Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs.She was Simon Barnett and James Daniels' guest for this weeks Six and a Song. LISTEN ABOVE

We kick off The Country with a celebrity chef and My Food Bag founder who says most New Zealanders are almost totally detached from the realities of producing food at scale.

My Food Bag has met investor confidence in its public listing earlier this year with a higher full year profit than forecast.

The celebrity chef, social media influencer and founder of My Food Bag is also a Wakatipu Basin farmer. She's had enough of dire wool prices, so she's doing something about it and speaking out about one of nature's most sustainable, durable and biodegradable materials.

Business commentator Rod Oram joins Kathryn to talk about the disappointing stock market listing of My Food Bag, heaps praise on the independent directors of Tilt Renewables and looks at the worrying internal politics of A2 milk.

Business commentator Rod Oram joins Kathryn to talk about the disappointing stock market listing of My Food Bag, heaps praise on the independent directors of Tilt Renewables and looks at the worrying internal politics of A2 milk.

Every Tuesday we look at "How to Write" different topics. This week we speak to acclaimed food author and My Food Bag co-founder, Nadia Lim about how to write a recipe, especially for novice cooks!

Meal maker My Food Bag has had a weak debut on the stock exchange.The company's shares initially traded at $1.75 each, down 10 cents on the issue price, and have fallen as low as $1.69.The $342 million share float was the largest in the country for seven years, with the bulk of shares taken up by local investors, ranging from investment funds, staff, and customers.Last year the company made a profit of $8.2m from revenue of $153.3m after it received a boost from demand from consumers locked down because of Covid-19.Investment strategist Edward Glennie joins Heather du Plessis-Allan to talk about the company's sharemarket launch.LISTEN ABOVE

The My Food Bag IPO this week looks like a mouth watering offer - but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. 

My Food Bag has had to backtrack from statements its chief executive made about the company's financial prospects ahead of its initial public offer amid concerns they may have run counter to market regulations, the NZ Herald reports.At issue are comments reportedly made by Kevin Bowler in a BusinessDesk story headed "My Food Bag will outperform IPO forecasts, says chief executive".In response to questions about the company's growth prospects in light of the IPO Product Disclosure Statement forecasting a small decline in revenue and delivery volumes in the 2022 financial year, Bowler is reported to have said:"We've got a business plan that we think will outperform that but didn't want to put a PDS [Product Disclosure Statement] into the market that is indicating numbers that had risk in them."Late yesterday My Food Bag chairman Tony Carter issued a statement in a quest to clarify Bowler's comments."The board believes that the prospective financial information contained in My Food Bag's product disclosure statement dated February 11, 2021 (PDS) has been prepared with due care and attention, and considers the assumptions, when taken as a whole, to be reasonable at the time of preparing the PDS."My Food Bag is confident that it will achieve its prospective financial information, but any suggestion that the business will outperform those financial results should be disregarded," Carter said. 

Rebecca thinks My Food Bag is going to be the hottest ticket IPO on the NZX this year and could spell good things for the Kiwi exchange if it goes well.

Rebecca thinks My Food Bag is going to be the hottest ticket IPO on the NZX this year and could spell good things for the Kiwi exchange if it goes well.

My Food Bag plans to sell up to 185 million shares in an initial public offer that values the meal kit company at just under $450m.The company has filed its product disclosure statement and says it aims to list on the NZX and ASX on March 5.The shares will be priced at $1.85 each, implying a post initial public offering market capitalisation of $449 million.Up to $342m will be raised under the IPO. The offer includes 155.3m existing shares (64.1 per cent of the company) and 29.6m new shares.Money aised will be used to repay bank debt and pay transaction costs. Existing shareholders, including funds controlled by private equity firm Waterman Capital, will retain at least 23.7 per cent ownership of My Food Bag after the offer.Companies Office records show the Waterman Fund 3LP owns 70 per cent of the company having invested in October 2016.Co-founders Cecilia Robinson and her husband James own 10.8 per cent, as does Theresa Gattung. Interests associated with Nadia Lim own 5.4 per cent.My Food Bag says more than 10,000 customers and team members have registered to receive a priority allocation in the IPO. Australian investors were also targeted.Fund managers Milford Funds, Harbour Asset Management and Investment Services Group have committed to bid for holdings of at least 5 per cent of the company.My Food Bag chairman Tony Carter said new funds raised would provide the business with flexibility to pursue its growth strategy."Our growth will be underpinned by continued leadership in the meal kit market and expanding our food-based offerings to align to consumer trends," Carter said.In the past financial year, My Food Bag made a profit of $8.2m and revenue of $153.3m.In the 2021 financial year ending March 31, it expects to have turned over $189.5m and receive a net profit of $800,000. Its profit forecast for FY22 is $20.1m.The offer price implies an earnings ratio of 22.4 times its forecast 2022 financial year earnings and a gross dividend yield of 5 per cent.Henry Chung, director of investment banking and head of equity capital markets at Jarden - the arranger and joint lead manager of the offer, said: "My Food Bag, the first IPO of 2021, is already under way in the year's first quarter. It's our view this is a clear sign of general confidence, and what is set to be one of the busiest years on the market in some time."Board member Chris Marshall, founder of Waterman Capital, said the investment company was pleased to be involved in the next chapter of the company."When we invested in 2016, we saw a successful business that was well positioned to continue to grow its core offering and had the potential to leverage its platform to expand more broadly within the food and grocery sector."The business is extremely innovative and customer centric, which is an exciting combination. In addition, the online food delivery sector is the beneficiary of some very favourable long-term macro trends."In its product disclosure statement, My Food Bag cites German-based global meal kit delivery company HelloFresh and local player Woop as its biggest competition.It said it expected more competition to enter the market, and that it may have to discount its products or invest in new product development and marketing to retain or win market share.My Food Bag says it has delivered over 85 million meals to more than 300,000 households since it started in 2013.Key numbers and dates• Up to 185 million shares on offer to public• My Food Bag valued at $449 million post IPO• Up to $342m will be raised under IPO• Offer expected to open on February 19• My Food Bag plans to list on NZX and ASX on March 5

There are calls to close the border, after Northland's community case of covid was detected yesterday.The 56 year old woman has the more infectious South African strain of the virus, caught in managed isolation in Auckland's Pullman Hotel.My Food Bag founder Cecilia Robinson, told Heather Du Plessis-Allan New Zealand needs time to evaluate after the new case.She says we should close the border for 4 to 8 weeks."It would be sensible to close the border and give ourselves time to asses the situation we are now facing."LISTEN ABOVE 

Nadia Lim's 2020 has been yet another successful one.Her food delivery service My Food Bag enjoyed another boom year.And she became a comfort for us while in lockdown with her cooking show, Nadia's Comfort Kitchen.Plus to round off the year - she released her first children's book Marvellous Marvin.She joined Tim Dower to reflect on a busy 2020, the reaction to her lockdown cooking, raising chickens, and her 30-second Christmas recipe. LISTEN ABOVE

The food delivery service, My Food Bag, has resurrected plans for a possible share float. Emma Hatton has te pūrongo pakihi.

As part of Lately's Monday night tech focus , we learn about a new app Tend designed to help people make an appointment, either online or at a clinic, as well as prescriptions and referrals. The app is the brainchild of the founders of My Food Bag, Cecilia and James Robinson, and public health doctor Mataroria Lyndon, who joins Karyn to explain how Tend works.

Nadia Lim is celebrity chef, healthy eating advocate, TV personality, co-founder of My Food Bag- and now children's book author.This week, Lim releases her first children's picture book. It's called Marvellous Marvin, the true story of the newest member of Nadia's family, Marvin the chick.Lim joined Tim Beveridge to discuss her latest career shift in an already bursting resume.LISTEN ABOVE

Founders of a "ground-breaking" new app launching in Auckland today are promising to put New Zealand on the map for providing the best healthcare in the world.It comes after reports of a looming healthcare crisis with nearly half of the country's GPs expected to retire in the next eight years. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit New Zealand, there have also been multiple reports from health experts saying people are too scared to visit see a doctor.The new digitally-led medical service dubbed Tend, coined from the word 'attention' - to patients and families, hopes to combat that burden by offering virtual and in-clinic consults, immediate access to medical notes, e-perceptions and follow up messaging with qualified doctors.It's the brainchild of Cecilia and James Robinson, the founders of My Food Bag, alongside top public health doctor Mataroria Lyndon and Pushpay's Josh Robb.For the last 18 months the team have developing a service they believe could be the best in the world.Lyndon, Tend's clinical director, said it was more than just video calling, it's the beginning of a transformation in the way primary health care services are delivered in Aotearoa."For too long, primary health care has been designed to work around the health system and not always what works best for patients. This has prevented too many people and whanau from being able to access healthcare when they needed to," Lyndon said.He said this service, which they hope to eventually roll out nationally, would benefit all New Zealanders, especially Maori and Pacifika communities who overall face more barriers to see a GP. It will be available in Te Reo.From today patients can choose a GP or nurse that suits their needs and who they feel they would be most likely to connect with, Lyndon said.There is currently a team of 12 doctors and nurses to choose from but it's hoped that number will expand as the service grows.The company's co-CEO Cecilia Robinson said as a parent she had experienced the frustrating long waits at a GP clinic first hand, and it was part of the reason for developing the app."We want it to be like an uber experience, where you book and pay via the app."Enrolled patients would get their first appointment and repeat prescriptions for free.Community Service Card holders who are enrolled with the service would be seen for $13. For causal patients it would cost $49. Casual repeat prescriptions are charged at only $19.Following registration, users would be able to book a digital appointment with a GP of their choice between 7am – 9pm Monday - Friday, or 8.30am – 4.30pm on the weekend.While many medical needs would be available through virtual consult patients would still need to book in-clinic appointments at Tend's Kingsland clinic for some services.That's something they will be able to do with the touch of a button.Robinson said the app will help combat the looming healthcare crisis because it would allow patients from parts of the country without doctors to have access, and also attract retired medical professionals to re-enter the workforce because they can work from home.The app will also save patients time because they will be waiting at home, rather than in a clinic."As a country, we know we can do better. With advances in technology, we shouldn't be expecting people to have to take time off work, travel across town and sit in a waiting room worried about getting sick for a routine medical appointment," she said."We are going to continue working so hard to make New Zealanders the healthiest people in the world."Text by Emma Russell, NZ Herald

Business commentator Rod Oram joins Kathryn to talk about Fonterra selling up its Chinese farms for $600m - why did it invest so heavily in farms in China? The pioneer of home delivery food kits, My Food Bag, is growing briskly - leading it to consider whether to sell up or list on the stock exchange. And what's happening with New Zealand Treasury bond yields?

Business commentator Rod Oram joins Kathryn to talk about Fonterra selling up its Chinese farms for $600m - why did it invest so heavily in farms in China? The pioneer of home delivery food kits, My Food Bag, is growing briskly - leading it to consider whether to sell up or list on the stock exchange. And what's happening with New Zealand Treasury bond yields?

Penguin of the Year!  Top 6: My Food Bag  Canterbury Panther  Fletch's Cling Wrap  Exec Producer Anna went through a Phase  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern  What do you and your Partner fiercely disagree on?  Producer Jared's Christchurch Experience

If you got into your trakkies and binged on netflix and sourdough during lockdown, prepare to start feeling a bit guilty. While the rest of us were complaining about what a dud year 2020 has turned out to be, Nadia Lim's showed just what an over-achiever she is.  Having just moved to Central Otago, she quietly created a brand-new daily TV show just using her iphone - Nadia’s Comfort Kitchen. Then, she turned those lockdown recipes into a cookbook and raised $400k for charity. And while this was happening, her previous cookbook was runner up for ‘Best Vegetarian/Vegan Cookbook’  In the world at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. And now, as the co-founder of My Food Bag, she’s supporting the Garden To Table initiative. Nadia has been chatting to Jack Tame. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE 

Nadia Lim - the woman who graces us in our very own kitchens with her charm, her passion and epic knowledge of food. She's come a long way since winning Masterchef in 2011, but apparently she's still got big grand plans (and yes believe it or not bigger than My Food Bag). Hear how she nearly burnt down a rich man's house while cooking duck, and how she once dreamed of making a TV Show with Jamie Oliver called Food in the Nude.

Within the next few days, our level four lockdown could drop to level three, which will mean a welcome return to work for some of us.But the impact of our lockdown will be serious for many businesses.Cecilia and James Robinson, the entrepreneurs behind Au Pair Link and My Food Bag are offering businesses the chance to have a session with them as mentors.Cecilia Robinson says advice they give is unique to the business and its situation.She adds New Zealand has taken the right approach acting quickly and swiftly."We've seen a lot of countries go ahead of us and there's been a bit of a blueprint in what's happened overseas in countries like Sweden, Italy, the UK and the US."

As co-founder of two highly successful NZ start-ups – James Robinson has run the Marketing, IT and Finance teams of both businesses.With revenues exceeding 100 million, My Food Bag has changed the landscape of the online retail food sector.I know you will enjoy this interview, so be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your network.Stay awesomeEli SmitFounder & HostGround Breaking Podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Real Pod assembles to dissect Married at First Sight Australia and the Dancing With the Stars NZ cast, with special thanks to Nando's.We know we've said this before, but this episode is a proper chaos pod. Fuelled by lollies and the promise of Nando's, your friendly podmates plough through the final single dates on MAFSAU. Heidi and Mike hit choppy waters in more ways than one, Mark makes a ham and cheese croissant and Cam nearly proposes to Jules with a fake diamond bracelet.Beyond that, we are also limbering up for Dancing With the Stars NZ. Will Nadia's involvement have an impact on Alex's My Food Bag? Will Duncan ever find out who Walter from Sticky TV is? And you won't believe who has beef with Jude Dobson. It's The Real Pod, and it's only getting realer by the week. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dollar Shave Club, My Food Bag, Xero….. subscription businesses pop up in many areas of life, because they make for great business.If you work out your average revenue per customer, and your churn rate, the rate at which customers leave, and then work out what a customer costs you to acquire, and you can make those numbers right, you can project future income in the kind of way that has turned Xero and Push Pay into massively valuable companies before they even turned a profit. We’re used to them in software, but one place that they are pretty innovative is clothing. And that’s where today’s guests have brought their innovation. Asuwere is a clothing subscription for men that provides elevated wardrobe essentials for men, providing the kind of wardrobe anchors that are needed in the month they come, so tees and linen shirts and shorts in summer and jackets and cashmere cotton sweaters in colder months.  The idea has attracted big name supporters -with Dan Carter choosing to buy their wares, and it comes from brothers with the credentials. Sam and Noah Hickey hail from fashion and subscription business backgrounds. Sam was a stellar designer for Huffer straight out of uni, and Noah, an All White and business leader, who played a key role in the huge growth of Push Pay. To talk the insight, the journey and getting men to trust them, Noah and Sam join us now.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Cowan interviews Cecilia Robinson, entrepreneur and found of My Food Bag. 

At the age of 37 a young women, who made her way up through a pretty sexist world, got the biggest job in the country. No, it’s not Jacinda Ardern today, it’s Theresa Gattung, in 1999.For a brief little window there a few years later most of the top jobs in this country were held by women - Dame Sian Elias was Chief Justice, Dame Silvia Cartwright was Governor-General, Margaret Wilson was Attorney-General, Theresa Gattung was Telecom’s chief executive and Helen Clark was Prime Minister.But boy how we slipped. By the time Gattung retired in 2007 it was only Dame Elias left.How do we get back? Well, the new PM is a start, but gains got can be gains lost. One way is for women to empower women. And it’s in that capacity Theresa Gattung joins the podcast today. After Telecom she’s gone on to chair major boards, co-found ridiculous success My Food Bag, and get a Companion of the NZ order of Merit gong for services to business and philanthropy, with her work for the Wellington SPCA and organisations empowering women. Like the newly lunched SheEO. A fund that has women invest in women, part of a global 1 billion dollar idea that Theresa has just helped bring here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're looking at companies in the last few years that have made a real impact in the local entrepreneur and general scene, you can't go past My Food Bag. Pulling an idea in from overseas and making it work here in tiny, weird New Zealand was a passion for Cecilia and James Robinson. The idea was weekly delivered food parcels that contained everything a family needed to make meals for the week. They got Nadia Lim on board as a brand ambassador and next thing you know they're making $100 million in revenue.But it can't have been that easy. In this conversation Simon talks to Cecilia about making the move from their earlier company Au Pair Link, approaching Theresa Gattung to sit on the board, creating a well regarded customer service operation and living on Weetbix during the hard times. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nadia Lim is a household name; an aspiring chef who won MasterChef 2012, the face of My Food Bag, plus an established author. Hear an inspirational journey of nutrition, food, cooking, motherhood: of a girl following her dream to the true height of success.

Not that long ago, women held all of the top-ranking positions in NZ. In this episode of the Eyewitness  podcast series, we discover that this is far from the case now.

Green Meadows Beef is an unique family business providing grass feed beef direct to the consumer. This is the story how the Carey family have built their business of providing raw materials to the end user and the way they have used social media to take it to market     Today’s guest is Nick Carey, Director and General Manager of Green Meadows Beef based in Taranaki.  Green Meadows Beef is a unique family business who have built their business primarily using online and social media platforms.  The business has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years.  Craig and Nick talk about what started as an offbeat idea that has become big business for his family.   In 2012, his family decided they wanted to add value to their products.  This propelled them to launch a paddock to plate system.  This involved shipping products from their farm through their own processing and distribution channels.  Their direct-to-market through online sales has formed a big growth part of their business.   Nick’s father, suggested for them to try and market their beef product directly to the consumer.  They sat together as a family and formed a new way to get their products to the market, and soon, they recognized the opportunity of selling online. This propelled them to launch a paddock to plate system.  This involved shipping products from their farm through their own processing and distribution channels.  Their direct-to-market through online sales has formed a big growth part of their business.   Nick started his career as a commercial lawyer in Wellington and New Plymouth His role in this new family business was in the development, branding, and logistics.  Soon enough this was taking most of his time and he eventually decided he needed to quit his job as a lawyer.    That was a leap of faith for Nick, who has had to adjust to being an entrepreneur.  There were four key problems Green Meadows Beef was solving for the consumer.  These were (1) Time saving (2) Ease of purchase (3) Quality assurance, (4) Provenance.   Nick and Craig also talk about how wildly successful My Food Bag has become.  It is a website that allows it’s customers to order a food bag for a varied number of people.  It is also customized for them in terms of the number of people and their diet.  My Food Bag has revolutionized the industry.  Countdown eventually came up with a similar concept of online selling.  There was a big shift in the market of people being more open to purchasing food products online.  That assured Green Meadows Beef of its market.    In terms of marketing research, they were lucky that Green Meadows Beef was nimble enough to adapt their offering as well.  This included having to tweak their operations on the way.  They started out selling bulk-frozen packs and delivering them through chilled or frozen trucks.  However, it has now evolved to a point where they can customize their own products and deliver them the next day, chilled, through a courier.   Nick’s journey has not been without challenges.  One day, his company’s freight company informed him that they were no longer going to deliver Nick’s frozen meat packs.  As a result, he was forced to change his business model, which led to better results because they are now selling fresh produce instead of frozen produce.   Another challenge Nick has had to face was the price of raw materials.  Over the last three to four years, the price of raw materials has almost doubled.  At the same time. One of the things that has raised the price of the raw product is the price that it can otherwise be sold elsewhere.  Export of demand has been high.   They now run their farm as a separate business from their meat processing.  Each company has different governance, advisers, and processes.  Ensuring that the two businesses were independent of each other will help with succession planning and will force each one to be profitable on its own.  .  However, with the easing off of demand in the United States, the farm gate prices have been affected.    Nick learned to focus on the role of governance and the value of the right independent advice.  Another crucial area that Nick has focused on is being able to get accurate and timely business information, dealing with changes in technology and how scalable that is, and finally, achieving a profitable core business before evolving into other paths.   Another thing that Nick has focused on is learning how to work with his people.  Getting the right staff onboard has been a good learning experience for him.  He makes sure his employees have clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines so that he could focus on working on the business and growing it.  Nick has been able to retain his staff for 4 years now.  He hardly needed to do cold hires because he utilized the benefits of his networks.   As for online selling, Nick uses mostly social media such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with people and to build an audience.  They do mostly paid advertising now.  He initially did everything in-house but has started outsourcing it already using a marketing consultant who works remotely for them.   In terms of content, Nick suggests that you keep it personal, relevant, and fun to keep his customers engaged.  With competition sprouting up more, there is a need to ensure that you get heard.  Nick’s friend once said that content is king but engagement is queen and she rules the house.  You need to be able to engage your followers.    Currently, they are on Pinterest and Instagram but it has been a challenge to maintain everything.  They use third party tools to help with the marketing side.  They also use cloud based systems that help cut costs and get things done.   What Nick enjoys about being in business is building something from the ground up, seeing the evolution of that business, and having a chance to enjoy its success.    As a lawyer, Nick had a structured and disciplined career.  At the moment, he says he has very little structure in his life now.  Working with creative types, for example, causes him to work longer hours and deadlines extended.  He deals with it by communicating well with his people.  He says that if you spend a good portion of your day through communicating, it makes the day go so much better. This goes back to having structures in place so the rest of the team can function harmoniously while you’re communication with them.    Nick’s challenge working with his family is ensuring that there is regular communication in terms of what’s happening in the business as well as asking for feedback.  He suggests that there has to be a clear distinction of business and family time.  It is important that everyone gets their chance to have a say but at the end of it, they are able to sit down and have dinner together.   In terms of having external professionals and mentors for his business, Nick says that one of the critical things is finding the right independent advice.  His solution has been to persevere until you find exactly what you need at a particular time.  As your business continues to change, so does the levels of advise.  Nick has found that having an independent director has helped him fill the skills gap.  Engaging the services of experts can be beneficial to his business as well.    Nick does not dwell on the past.  His company has a year end review where they identify what worked and what didn’t so that in the future, they can learn from these experiences. Nick says that in hindsight, he would have focused on margin analysis in his business and having a better handle on his cash flow and budget.  This has become one of their strengths and has allowed them to diversify the business for a more consistent cash inflow.   Being content in terms of business and the industry that you’re in is a mistake that business owners make.  As an example, the evolution of online selling has had an effect on traditional purchasing.  Nick suggests that you need to stay on top of things and not rest on your laurels because you don’t know what’s around the corner.   Strengthen your core business and ensure that it is profitable and sustainable before you venture out into other business opportunities.  At the moment, there is a need to develop relationships with consumers because people want to know where there food comes from, how it’s produced, and what’s going on.    Visit www.GreenMeadowsBeef.co.nz for more information.   TRANSCRIPT NICK CAREY    Craig: Hi guys!  Craig here from The Project Guys. Today in our podcast, really happy to introduce Nick Carey.  Nick is a Director and General Manager of Green Meadows Beef based here in Taranaki.  Green Meadows Beef is a unique family business who built the business primarily using online and social media platforms.  They specialise in suppling New Zealand consumers’ grass fed premium beef, where you online, and delivered to your door in twenty four hours.  And their business has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years.  What started as an offbeat idea and working from home office is now having their own dedicated butchery and retail premises and offices.  So, welcome Nick.   Nick: Thanks Craig.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell a little bit about our story.    Craig: No drama at all! . Tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to go into business.   Nick: Well, my background was as a commercial lawyer for a few years both in Wellington and New Plymouth.  We as a family, I guess, back in 2012, decided that we wanted to add value to the products we were producing which was mainly meat or beef and as a way to, I guess, cement the family farm and those plans through a formal succession plan, we decided to launch an integrated pallet to plate business which is shipping products from our farm through our own channels and processing channels, as Craig mentioned, direct consumers New Zealand wide through the different channels we utilise it at supermarkets, restaurants, and caterers and of course, direct-to-market through online sales, which is our biggest growth part of the business.   Craig: So, you’ve mentioned that you were a lawyer and then from a lawyer to an entrepreneur, it’s not a traditional path, was it your idea to do businesses with family?  How did it all sort of evolve?   Nick: Yeah.  Evolve is probably the right thing to say.  It was my father’s idea to try and market the products.  Obviously, we soon recognised online was a much easier path than let’s say the traditional paths of standing at farmer’s markets or carport sales or whatever it may be where other people are maybe trying to sell similar products.  So it’s at that time, all of us, I’ve got two siblings.   We all became involved to help form a plan to get the products to market and I helped here on the side with development and branding and things and arranging all of that and then once we launched the business, it became pretty evident that I wouldn’t be able to continue in my day job and helping out with the business.  So it was about, I guess, 3 months in that I gave up…   Craig: Oh, that quick! Yeah.  Yeah.   Nick: Yeah.  Yeah.…full-time paid employment to jump into the business.   Craig: To be poor for a couple of years.    Nick: Yes!  Yes!    Craig: [laughs]   Nick: Forever.    Craig: Forever.  [laughs] Yes!  Yes!  So, when you started, obviously, it was just quite a bit different and there’s a new concept.  Get away from the farmer’s markets or selling to a wholesaler, direct….did you guys do any market research and that actually work out where you had a legitimate market and business…   Nick: Uhm…   Craig: And what are the problems you’re solving which are and I suppose were time saving and ease for the purchaser, wasn’t it?   Nick: That and also quality and provenance.  So those are I guess the 4 key messages or key problems we’re solving for the consumer.   Craig: Yeah.  Yeah.   Nick: In New Zealand, at that time, there was a limited range of producers doing what we were doing.  Certainly that landscape has changed now and more and more are coming on board to be…whether it’s in meat or other ___ farm products or whatever.  The launch of things like MyFoodBag and you know and the whole…   Craig: Which is wildly successful.   Nick: Exactly.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: And a great example of success in this market.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: So I guess in…when the business was in its infancy, there was only a couple of competitors in New Zealand.  I don’t even think Countdown had really launched their…   Craig: Right.   Nick: Online sales at that time so obviously, we’ve noticed a big shift in the market and people being far more open to purchasing food products online.  So, with our research, it was really based on looking at producers in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, seeing what they were doing, what offerings they had.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: And obviously, because we…we were selling online, just online only at the start, it did allow us some chance to scale as time went on so there was no pressure of having products ready to go with no markets.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: So I guess, we…we are currently on to building website number three.   Craig: Right.   Nick: So there has been multiple chances to refine the offering based on our own learnings…   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: Rather than…than doing too much…   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: market research at the beginning, I guess, which  potentially a pitfall…   Craig: Yeah.  But…   Nick: that were fallen into but we’ve been lucky that we’ve been nimble enough to be able to adapt that offering to…   Craig: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…   Nick: to see that…what does that mean?   Craig: Yeah.  Oh, it’s a case sometimes of getting that ___ to market and then work out having to… and having to tweak everything on the way, isn’t it…   Nick: Exactly.  We’ve started out in our industry selling bulk frozen packs and delivering it via the chilled or frozen trucks…   Craig: Yes.   Nick: all over the country where it could take anything from a week to two weeks.   Craig: Right.   Nick: To be delivered to the model that we have now and it’s evolving as you can customise and pick and choose your own products…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: …and it’s delivered the next day, chilled via courier, so…   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: You know, there’s different challenges that come at you and one of that for example was the freight company telling us, “No, we’re no longer gonna deliver your frozen meat packs.”  So…   Craig: Oh, is that right?   Nick: So your business if often forced to change…   Craig: Yes.   Nick: …which can obviously lead to better results…   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: …because the consumer appreciates…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: fresh produce versus…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: frozen produce.    Craig: So there.  So tell us a bit more about the challenges and the learnings you had in those early years and maybe also the challenges you’re facing now and how that evolved?   Nick: Definitely.  I guess the critical challenge for us been the price of our raw materials.   Craig: Alright.   Nick: Just to put them in a little bit of context and background, we run the farm as a totally separate business from the meat processing…   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: Different governance, different advisers, everything and we thought that was a critical distinction from a…   Craig: Uhm…   Nick: …a governance point of view particularly in the family situation so that we had two separate business which were hopefully, hopefully independent of each other, both supporting…   Craig: Uhm…   Nick: …themselves.  So…   Craig: Also that.  I guess it also helps with succession planning too.  Exit strategy is one [incomprehensible]…   Nick: Exactly.  And obviously that’s what we’re focusing…   Craig: Uhm…   Nick: The meat processing business now is taking on a life of its own with contract manufacturing…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: …and things like that so…obviously anytime, I mentioned it at the start that the farm is very much part of the succession plan but if there were something that caused the farm to go, well, we’ve got another business…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: And vice versa, we could always onsell the meat processing side of things.   Craig: Uhm…uhm…uhm…   Nick: …and keep the farm…   Craig: That’s right.   Nick: But so…part of it is that the farm must obviously make a profit…   Craig: Yes…   Nick: So we have to purchase the animals that we’re using through the Green Meadows Business from the farm at the prevailing market rate…   Craig: Yes…   Nick: Over the last three to four years, that price of raw materials has almost doubled…   Craig: Oh sh….   Nick: Without a corresponding rise in meat prices at the consumer end…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: There’s still a certain barrier at the consumer end as to what a sausage or whatever may cost so I guess that’s been the critical challenge that we’ve face and we’ve had to really adapt and change our product offering.  So…   Craig: So what’s driven the price of the raw product up?  Is it the price on the farm to produce that product?   Nick: No, it’s the price that it can otherwise be sold elsewhere...   Craig: Oh, okay.   Nick: So, export demand, primarily out of the U_S where ground beef, easier ground beef is exported…   Craig: Okay…   Nick: …to the U_S and it’s been in quite high demand in particularly out of China as well…   Craig: Right.   Nick: So, depending on what’s happening in those markets, I’m assuming we’re seeing an easing off in the United States at the moment on demand which, of course, is then having a…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: …a correlation back to farm gate prices here.   Craig: Cool…   Nick: So I guess with that challenge, we learned quite a lot and kind of like it’s focused a lot on what’s happened in the business so there are a couple of points off the top of my head…   Craig: Yes…Yeah…   Nick: I guess the role of governance and the value of the right independent advice has been a critical things that we’ve taken from it, I guess the information we’re pulling out of the business in terms or accurate and timely…   Craig: Yup…   Nick: …business information, technology and how scalable that is, what machines can really make our day better…   Craig: Right.   Nick: Versus culling out some of those manual processes, cause obviously, bearing in mind making food can sometimes be a relatively manual process…   Craig: Yup!  Yeah…   Nick: And then it all comes back to achieving a profitable core business before evolving into other paths.  So, we’ve really focused over the last year or two on what is our core business, how to make it profitable before launching into some other opportunities as well.    Craig: So how do you take yourself out of the business to work on the business around those things you just…   Nick: Yeah, well, as the businesses continue to grow, we’ve been able to put staff into roles that I was otherwise doing, so for example, we’ve just taken on an operations manager who is handling most of the day-to-day production and supply side of the business whereas I’m just handling the demand side and obviously everything else.  So the finances and working on the business so, I guess that’s been a good learning is getting the right staff on board, making sure that they have clearly defined roles and responsibilities and reporting lines so that that then frees you up to do as you say, “working on the business,” and growing it.  So we have that clearly…clear definition of okay, operations manager was gonna focus on the supply side and production, I was gonna handle the demand, so that’s where my focus is now…is on the demand side and when you’ve got the right people and the right positions, everything is fine and it works well.    Craig: So, you’ve gotta run on a fierce podcast business and about staffing.  How’d you go and find the right staffing?  How’d you know?  Do you know?  [laughs]   Nick: I guess, that’s a good question, “Do you know?”   Craig: Cause that’s critical, isn’t it?   Nick: It is and we are fortunate that in nearly 4 years, we’ve retained all our staff which I guess, obviously speaks of our environment also.  The direction that we’re pushing the company.  It…it’s…I guess it comes down to clear jobs…just clear job descriptions when you’re going so you know exactly who you’re looking for so when you find them, you know, they tick all the boxes and utilising the benefit of networks because all of our staff have been knowing to….   Craig: Someone…someone…   Nick: Yeah.    Craig: Someone who knows somebody…Yeah…   Nick: Exactly, so now I’m doing that thing with cold hires but I can see that the next thing we’re already looking for our next staff member, which is scary…   Craig: Yeah…   Nick: But I can see that that will be a cold…a cold hire so I guess that will come down to getting clear…clear pre-employment checks and questions and also making sure they’re the right fit for the…   Craig: thing…   Nick: Exactly.   Craig: Cool.  Awesome.  So, you have used a lot of online tools and platforms that you’ve touched on before to build the business to where it is.  Tell us about the strategy and has that changed over the years and if so, how or….yeah…   Nick: Yeah…It’s a different __part obviously with online selling.  You wanna connect with customers in real time and I guess social media in particular is great for that.  We’ve primarily used Facebook and Twitter for the connecting with people and building an audience at the beginning.  I guess how that’s changed is we’ve now moved from just connecting with customers and building that brand and that relationship through the more paid advertising now.  So we do a lot of online marketing in terms of ECO and pre marketing and also direct marketing through the likes of Facebook.  So, I guess it’s building a network and a platform, which would then turn into an opportunity to market, so…   Craig: Did you do all that in-house, or do you outsource it?   Nick: We did start all that in-house but now I’ve outsourced it.  We have a marketing consultant who works remotely for us, who handles all that ECO and ECM marketing.   Craig: And what about all your Facebook engagement?  Cause I know when you first start your business, you’re massive on engaging with your audience, you do a lot of that at the start.  Is that still done in-house?  Or…   Nick: It’s still done in-house and obviously that’s been one of the challenges I found is that I handle that role as the businesses grow, keep it…personal, and keep it relevant and keep it fun which is how we engage with our customers and perhaps that’s something I could be doing better.    Craig: [incomprehensible]   Nick: I think as we came and set the so high with using that as a focus, it’s kind of…you can easily fall by the way, so…   Craig: That’s so much of a big challenge, isn’t it because that’s how you built the brand and showing you some of the loyalty stats.   Nick: And I’m definitely seeing that with other influences that I follow that they came out with a good solid two years of social media engagement and then now it’s sort of dropped back…   Craig: Yes…   Nick: And I don’t know whether that’s just the maturing of the market and there are a lot of these platforms now and monetising, they’re successors, so it now makes it difficult to instigate…seen whereas in the beginning it was relatively easy but I think you raise a good point about engagement because a lot of the focus on social media a few years ago was all about content and posting the right sort of content but now, I know a person who writes and used to podcast a lot of Facebook.  She said that content is king but engagement is queen and she rules the house.   Craig: Yes…   Nick: And it’s sort of something that’s always always stuck with me because you can have great content but if you’re not getting anything back from the people you’re publishing it to, what’s the point?   Craig: Yeah, you could have 100,000 followers but if you’re not engaging them, what’s the point?   Nick: Yes.  So I think, you know, that’s a key thing to keep it at the back of your mind because it’s not a question of numbers because it’s like you said, it’s how they’re engaging.    Craig: You said when you sell your products you use Facebook and Twitter, yet have you tried the other platforms at all?   Nick: We do have a little bit on Pinterest, obviously we’re in a food business and Instagram, but it’s again, it’s the challenge of maintaining everything.  We do use a lot of third party tools to push the marketing side of things which we find works well and we obviously into the day to day side of things prefer to use online tools for managing the business, whether it be accounting software, our website is all run on a third party CMS which is obviously cloud based and what else do we use in the cloud?  Design tools and everything like that that’s all accessible now which really help (a) cut costs and (b) get things done.   Craig: So what do you enjoy most about being in business?  What strokes your ties?   Nick: Tough question, but I guess it’s with building something from the ground up and seeing the evolution it’s having the chancing to leap at success.  There are days obviously that I don’t enjoy leading.    Craig: You wish you were a follower there mate? [laughs]   Nick: Yeah.  Exactly.  When you bring in HR and customer issues and things like that.  Obviously, you want to do a good job, whether it be your staff or your customers but I guess that’s the critical thing is having that chance and opportunity which I do feel fortunate for that you know, we’re in a position that I was able to leave my fulltime employment to follow something which I could see working and it…with just a few challenges and refinements.  We’re now well on a path to making a success.    Craig: Yeah.   Nick: So that’s pretty special and something that I hold dear and try not to abuse really but it is a bit of a privilege to do this so if I can keep looking at it like that, then it’ll keep me focused and also keep me grounded.   Craig: Grounded, which is what New Zealand ___ is all about.  Cool, you hear that?   Nick: Yeah, I guess we at the start to kinda pushed the business and I do believe in it is we did a lot of PR work which is obviously the opposite to the grounded because you’re having to put yourself out there and tell your story and that can be difficult at times especially when you get…things like TV involved, so yeah, I think that’s a good balance to have.    Craig: So, ____ what have you learned from you know, five or six years ago, when you left the safe little confines of a lawyer’s office…   Nick: To me, just by one and a half years…whatever it was…   Craig: You were very structured and disciplined to doing this.  What have you learned as a leader?  Here, professionally and personally?   Nick: Yeah, I guess a couple of things, you do mean structure, I have very little structure in my life now.    Craig: [laughs]   Nick: Just by trying to plan things, you know, obviously things never really go to plan.  So that’s been difficult in terms of deadlines and things like that as I’m understanding how things work in the real world versus a lawyer’s world where 5 o’clock Friday was your excellent deadline and you wouldn’t dare go past 5 o’clock Friday whereas when you start involving perhaps creative types into the mix and deadlines can often extend.    Craig: Yes.   Nick: So that’s been one challenge for me personally and also from a managing or leadership type of thing.  Communication and understanding the importance of communication internally and externally and you can never really over communicate particularly with staff and things of concerns.    Craig: Yeah.   Nick: I guess that’s another that I’ve really learned is you spend a good portion of your day through communicating and it makes the day go so much better.   Craig: Yes.   Nick: But then it comes back to what I mentioned earlier about having the structures in place so that the rest of the team can function harmoniously while you’re communicating with them…the team…   Craig: Yeah.  And what about the family dynamic, isn’t that communications is key?  Sometimes, the family businesses, they can either go really well which is good or goes real bad because one of the first rules of business is don’t ever do business with family members, isn’t it?   Nick: It is.    Craig: Yes, back to the question.  Sorry about the rain everybody!  So I asked Nick about the dynamic of working with some family members.  One of the first rules of business is don’t go into business with family.  So I guess it has worked here.  From a leadership point of view, the communications point of view, have you managed that?   Nick: Yeah, it has been both a benefit and a challenge to go into business with family.  On a daily basis, I work with both of my peer, so on a day to day to basis, I mean, both of my brothers work externally from the business so two problems obviously, or challenges working with family day in day out but also having family interested in the business but not having the experience or benefit of seeing what’s happening day to day so we have pretty regular communications between in terms of what’s happening in the business, asking for feedback that they’re both very helpful and useful, these are my brothers who don’t work in the business.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: But balancing that you also have a clear distinction of what’s business time and what’s family time because there’s always that tendency to make family time always business time and I think that’s critical particularly in terms of my own domestic situation as well, I’ve got a partner who doesn’t work and the person that’s end to end in terms of say my parents with their grandchildren and things like that.  It’s still got to operate in a normal situation and we are very open with each other so there’s never any issues in terms of overstepping lines or boundaries.   Craig: Yeah.   Nick: And I think it’s really important that everyone gets their chance to have a say but at the end of it, we still sit down for dinner.   Craig: Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Cool.  Cool.  So you’ve always had external professionals and mentors for your business and I believe now you’ve got a Board of Directors and an independent director tell us about what made you decide that you needed this and the benefits of using these strategies and advise that is out there around using mentors or Board of Directors, etc.    Nick: I guess one of the critical thing is finding the right advice, independent advice and it can be a struggle at times, so I guess what I sort of found is keep persevering until you find exactly what you need at that particular time and your levels of advice and who can advise you changes as the business continues to change…and…   Craig: Evolves.  As the business evolves…   Nick: Exactly, so I think the best thing you can do is get out there and take advice as step one but then if you’re not getting the right sort of advice is going out and looking for some different advice.   Craig: Yeah.  Yeah.   Nick: So, we’ve had, as you mentioned, a range from formal strategic planning with our accountants through the business mentors through to now an independent director who I work with closely on a daily basis and they’ve all had their uses and purpose but having an independent voice daily looks like some of the skill gaps that we have or that I have as well is really important and I guess that’s what I see the benefit…the main benefit of the independent board is to plug the skill gaps and I mean we are looking now at maybe bringing another independent onto the board who has some different skill set that none of us have secure around dealing with marketing to the end consumer…   Craig: Right.   Nick: And events cg and things like that so it’s…   Craig: So it’s skill gaps or experience gaps?   Nick: I guess both are incredibly relevant because you get the skills from experience so I think yeah.  I think both are intertwined.   Craig: And you said before that when you first started out your sort of a range of advisers, I mean, it’s the right advice.  When you start out were you ever nervous and scared about what’s going on.  So how do you know if you get some right advice?  If you’re speaking to for example an accountant and they say you should be doing this strategy, how do you know, is that the gut instinct or it is…how do you know if it’s the right one or the wrong one?   Nick: Yeah, it’s a good question because I guess when you go into business you’re always confident and pigheaded and you don’t really wanna take advice.   Craig: No.   Nick: And then to sit over the table with someone and, no offence when you’re listening to maybe to sit over the table with someone, no offence to any listeners who may be in the accounting profession or something.   Craig: Someone’s profession…   Nick: Who’s telling you you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong.  You know, it can be difficult so I think it’s not a case of knowing or choosing what that right advice is at the start but getting a lot of advice and really going out there and getting as much in as you can and taking bits and pieces from different sources to kind of form that plan because you and only you, I guess will know exactly how the business is going internally or what your dreams and goals and things are but it does help to get as much advice from them.   Craig: So that could be what we’ve talked about accountant, but there could be other business owners that could be lawyers, other professionals, and that’s where networking comes in, isn’t it?  You realize that when you network, you understand that same…your peers to having the same issues you have even if they might be in a different industry.   Nick: Exactly and as many people you can speak to as possible.  You know, whether it’s just a friendly ear or someone that you admire, in your industry or a different industry.  It can be really beneficial to have that engagement.    Craig: Awesome, so the benefit of hindsight, we all do this.  What would you do differently?   Nick: Hindsight, oh yeah, it’s a great thing.   Craig: No, it’s not.  It’s a terrible thing!   Nick: I guess that’s one thing our plan is not to dwell too much on the past.  We do a year review the end of each year and pick out the points of what went good and bad and then put it together and then don’t really dwell on it too much because again, it’s what you’re looking into the future that really controls things.  So I guess with hindsight, what I would do it has been more of a focus on margin analysis in our business, so which products work well, where we can extract the most value and also a better handle on cash flow and budget so that financial side of the business from the get-go.  I spend a lot of focus now on cash flow and planning cash flow a couple of months in advance and…   Craig: So you turned into an accountant?   Nick: Yeah, well, I…   Craig: [laughs]   Nick: I think maybe I’m turning into an accountant but that was a chance to really tighten the skill gaps that I had.   Craig: Right.   Nick: In the financial management side of things and now that’s one of our strengths where a lot of similar sized businesses I see don’t have a handle on cash flow, which in my business, can actually be quite difficult with online selling because we don’t know when people are gonna bulk buy meat packs and what’s gonna happen which is why we’ve diversified the business from just straight online sales to other traditional sales so that we’ve got consistent cash flow coming in.   Craig: A little bit of advice to people.  Look after your cash flow and mind your  budget, sounds like you’re good at. A couple of hours a week takes to analyse what else has happened that week which is critical.    Nick: I guess that’s one thing that having an independent director allows me to do because we have a phone call every Friday afternoon, which…   Craig: Hi guys, so from your experiences, what are some of the mistakes that you see business owners are making.  So, we talked a little bit about cash flow.  Anything else that…   Nick: Yeah.  I guess, something a little different and that I can see out there I see is that they are content both in terms of their businesses and their industries and not pushing their boundaries and or doing the… trying alternative ways to do things and obviously in the retail side of things.  I guess something else I am saying is people being content in terms of their…inside their businesses and in terms of marketing their businesses as well so obviously, the example is that the evolution of online selling and the effect it has on traditional purchasing, and brick and mortar stores and it kinda seems like…to some of them that it’s come out of nowhere whereas the evolution of online selling has been happening in time over the last ten years or so.  So I think, I see that both as established businesses and the traditional business being content can often come back to hurt them later on.  So, i mean, that’s something else we noticed and why we’re doing things differently as well.   Craig: So, the moral of the story is don’t be scared of pushing the boundaries and thinking outside the square box, just give it a go.   Nick: And also staying on top of things and not just resting on your laurels because you don’t really know what’s around the corner.   Craig: Don’t be scared of what’s around the corner.    Nick: Yeah.  That’s just saying a little bit no matter how established you are.   Craig: So is that the sort of advice you’d give to…if you were to mentor for a better general word, either both established or a startup…what other things would you…   Nick: Yeah, it’s different keeping on top of thinss, looking overseas, seeing what’s happening whether you’re selling shoes or cats, or whatever.  It’s…there’s a lot to…we’re fortunate in this part of the world that we’re a little behind as well.   Craig: Yes, yes…I was gonna ask that.   Nick: So, it’s kind of a good thing I think for us because we can have a look and see what’s happening overseas.   Craig: You think sometimes, people fall into the trap of going overseas either to Europe or America, seeing something, trying to do it New Zealand but they’re too soon   Nick: And obviously given our market size as well as the other key issue here, and also how spread out the market is.  It’s a long way from the top of the North Island to Steward Island.  Yes, I know, I definitely think that’s true and that’s where the difficulty, I guess comes in with what I just see is…do you become an adopter or do you follow…   Craig: Become second tier.   Nick: Yeah and there’s lot of risk, in obviously going out and being an early adopter and it falling in your face which…   Craig: But then fortune favours the brave and…   Nick: But again coming back to what I mentioned earlier on in the podcast is that’s where you’ve got a profitable and sustainable core being you’ve got those opportunities to go out and expand and you’ve still got that core business to I say loosely, to fall back on but you know…   Craig: Yeah.  To pay the bills…   Nick: Yeah.  Yeah.   Craig: Yeah.  Cool.  Awesome.  And so where do you see your industry going in the next five to ten years?   Nick: Yeah, well in the markets, the direct food market, there’s differently more choice for quality and more relationships with…between consumers and producers so I definitely see that as an important step in what we’re trying to stay ahead of because people increasingly do want to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced and what’s going on so I think it’s only gonna get more and we’re gonna see return as one kind of crystal ball return to a lot traditional ways of doing things because the end user or consumer’s putting a price on all those so in our case, it’s manufactured products and more real products and people are prepared to pay more even though it costs more to produce but that’s where I see it headed.   Craig: Alright.  Cool.  Awesome!   Nick: And you’ll be more disrupters, I’ve already talked about MyFoodBank and seeing markets online so we find those disrupters coming into the market so I guess, listening to my own advice that’s where I need to stay ahead of and say exactly what’s happening in the market and what trends are coming up.   Craig: Awesome.  Awesome.  Hey Nick, we’ll wrap it up.  Thanks very much for your time.  .  How do we find you?   Nick: Yeah so we are an online business.  Our website, so you can check out our products at greenmeadowsbeef.co.nz and find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with our page will get you there.   Craig: Awesome!  Right.  Thank Nick!  Good stuff!   Nick: Sure!    

We need to talk about Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the whole messy deal. Also this week, there's been a victory for the Facebook police. The theory that everyone, including you, will marry the wrong person. Are women being sold false hope by the IVF industry? Should mum's have to make their kids first birthday cake as a rite of passage? And in a world of scented candles, what has happened to pot pourrie? This show is hosted by Monique Bowley with Mia Freedman and Kate De Brito  Monique recommends Housemates on iview Mia recommends The Baby Business by Sarah Dingle on Four Corners Kate De Brito recommends Shrill by Lindy West Thanks to our sponsor My Food Bag: fresh ingredients and healthy recipes delivered to your door.

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