Latest / Best of Business / Bosses Unfiltered Episode 1: Dame Wendy Pye

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Bosses Unfiltered Episode 1: Dame Wendy Pye · Best of Business

0:01
Speaker 1: The big winds and the big losses, the hurdles, the
0:05
Speaker 1: pivots and the emotions, raw and honest New Zealand's great
0:10
Speaker 1: business minds like you've never heard them before. This is
0:14
Speaker 1: Bosses Unfiltered with Kerry Woodham used talks' be.
0:18
Speaker 2: Dame Wendy Pie is one of the most successful business
0:22
Speaker 2: people in New Zealand. Her publishing company, Sunshine Books, has
0:26
Speaker 2: sold more than three hundred million books worldwide and it's
0:29
Speaker 2: made of a rich lister. She's taught countless more children
0:33
Speaker 2: how to read and was the very first living woman
0:36
Speaker 2: to be inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.
0:39
Speaker 2: But it hasn't all been easy. A life changing redundancy,
0:43
Speaker 2: legal battles, many many deals that weren't closed. I'm Kerry Woodham.
0:48
Speaker 2: This is Bosses Unfiltered and interview series about the hearts,
0:52
Speaker 2: souls and minds of New Zealand's most successful businesses. Dame Wendy,
0:57
Speaker 2: how do you get rich running an ethical business?
1:00
Speaker 3: Well, I always believe that you must do the right
1:02
Speaker 3: thing by people. And if you believe in the product
1:05
Speaker 3: and you can sell product, I mean you do have
1:07
Speaker 3: to make money because without money you can't employ people,
1:10
Speaker 3: and you can't do projects and make them work. Actually,
1:13
Speaker 3: so I don't see any problem in making a profit
1:17
Speaker 3: with a company or developing a strategy that makes money.
1:21
Speaker 3: And I think that that as long as you keep
1:23
Speaker 3: it and long as you do it in an ethical way,
1:25
Speaker 3: I believe.
1:26
Speaker 2: And is that how you began. You wanted to do
1:30
Speaker 2: good by teaching kids to read, but you wanted to
1:32
Speaker 2: make money doing it.
1:34
Speaker 3: Well, I really didn't look at the money side too much,
1:37
Speaker 3: but of course, but I you know, I do enjoy money.
1:39
Speaker 3: I do enjoy, you know, a few little baubles in life,
1:42
Speaker 3: like a few emeralds and a few things, so, you know,
1:45
Speaker 3: and drinking champagne and racing lots of horses.
1:48
Speaker 4: That's expense, which was expensive.
1:51
Speaker 3: But I really believe that, you know, when I first began,
1:55
Speaker 3: it was really when I met some children. I never
1:57
Speaker 3: actually met anybody who couldn't read. We grew up in
2:00
Speaker 3: a family where my mother was always We had a
2:04
Speaker 3: very basic background, but my mother read to us, and
2:07
Speaker 3: we read lots of books, and she read from the library.
2:10
Speaker 4: She went to the library and got.
2:11
Speaker 3: Books, and so it was really a rich literacy background
2:15
Speaker 3: that I grew up on, even though it was in
2:17
Speaker 3: a quite a primpt way and a farm, and I
2:20
Speaker 3: just didn't understand how anybody couldn't read. And when I
2:23
Speaker 3: read met these people who couldn't read, I thought, how
2:26
Speaker 3: did they get on in life? You know? And someone
2:28
Speaker 3: told me they go to the supermarket and I look at
2:30
Speaker 3: the cans of baked beans, and they know that's baked beans.
2:32
Speaker 4: You know.
2:33
Speaker 3: I thought, you know, he's looked at the picture. You
2:35
Speaker 3: know how you need to read? And I had never
2:37
Speaker 3: met anyone. And then I thought, why don't we do
2:40
Speaker 3: something about this? And that's when I linked up with
2:42
Speaker 3: Joey Cowley and other authors in this country.
2:46
Speaker 2: And you basically built an internationally successful publishing company twice
2:50
Speaker 2: because when you first linked up with those authors, the
2:52
Speaker 2: first time it was for other people New Zealand News.
2:56
Speaker 2: The second time it was for yourself.
2:58
Speaker 4: Yes, it was in the corporate world. Really.
3:00
Speaker 3: I rose in the corporate world from you know, like
3:02
Speaker 3: sort of typing letters and doing things because I'd been
3:05
Speaker 3: in an agency world in Australia. I immigrated from Australia.
3:08
Speaker 3: We called it an immigration. Probably emigrated from Australia when
3:11
Speaker 3: I met my husband. I married in a New Zealander.
3:13
Speaker 3: My mother never forgave me for five years because Australians
3:16
Speaker 3: don't marry in New Zealanders. But you know, anyway, with
3:19
Speaker 3: settleday in New Zealand, and you know, I rose through
3:21
Speaker 3: the through the company in a traditional way, and then
3:24
Speaker 3: and then I worked, and then I became a senior
3:27
Speaker 3: executive within the group. And then when Ron Briley and
3:30
Speaker 3: his team took over the New Zelland News Group, they obviously,
3:35
Speaker 3: you know, they really believed that they knew all about
3:38
Speaker 3: newspapers and magazines and things. Of course, lots of people
3:41
Speaker 3: believe they know about magazines and newspapers, but of course
3:44
Speaker 3: they're not media people, are they.
3:45
Speaker 2: So so tell me about that redundancy because reading reading
3:50
Speaker 2: about it in your book, it wasn't just getting rid
3:54
Speaker 2: of a change merchant, somebody who had been bought in
3:56
Speaker 2: to make change and then off you go, because it's
3:59
Speaker 2: going to be settling having you there under the new regime.
4:03
Speaker 2: It sounded really personal.
4:05
Speaker 4: Well it was personal. Really.
4:07
Speaker 3: It was a difficulty I'd been I had to look
4:10
Speaker 3: after eight companies. I rose to the highest level in
4:13
Speaker 3: the corporate world apart from Jemichard, who was editor for
4:16
Speaker 3: the Woman's Weekly. At the time, she was a director
4:18
Speaker 3: of the company, and there was a takeover and basically,
4:22
Speaker 3: you know, I was put in charge to look at
4:25
Speaker 3: a whole lot of projects and things like that, and
4:28
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, I still don't know, but
4:30
Speaker 3: we had to change the weekly, and we left it
4:32
Speaker 3: too long and the weekly was being eaten alive really
4:36
Speaker 3: by glossy magazines. Generations were changing like they are now
4:40
Speaker 3: looking at social media. Generations were changing. Women demanded, you know,
4:44
Speaker 3: seeing something that wasn't three dimensional. You understand what I mean,
4:47
Speaker 3: because it was printed on newsprint before and the weekly
4:50
Speaker 3: was sort of like the mainstay of the country. And
4:53
Speaker 3: I was put in charge to reconstruct the weekly. It
4:55
Speaker 3: had been too late.
4:56
Speaker 4: Really, it was too late.
4:57
Speaker 3: But of course I probably was a sacrificial now to
5:00
Speaker 3: a degree, you know, because it wasn't working fast enough
5:03
Speaker 3: for them. When they fired me, it was almost incredible. Really,
5:07
Speaker 3: think why they find me, you know, to be escorted
5:10
Speaker 3: off the place like a criminal was quite incredible.
5:12
Speaker 2: You can't have had much experience with setbacks, because it
5:15
Speaker 2: was you went from job to job and each one
5:17
Speaker 2: was more interesting and better, and then all of a
5:21
Speaker 2: sudden you rocked back on your expensive leather hills.
5:23
Speaker 3: Well, I think redundancy is I think the other thing
5:27
Speaker 3: that I found quite interesting was the people who reached
5:29
Speaker 3: out to me, Not only the clients I'm talking about class,
5:32
Speaker 3: came from all around the world and said what have
5:34
Speaker 3: they done? Even Bruce Hancocks and the Braley group said
5:38
Speaker 3: what have they done? You must have flattened the managing
5:41
Speaker 3: director or something and punched him in the nose or something.
5:44
Speaker 3: Said no nose, but you're one of our champions.
5:46
Speaker 4: What have you done?
5:47
Speaker 3: And so it was really interesting time for the time,
5:50
Speaker 3: and you can reflect. I think redundancy is quite interesting
5:53
Speaker 3: because you learn to reflect on your life and you
5:55
Speaker 3: reflect on where you were going and what you really
5:59
Speaker 3: want to achieve and what's the next step in your life.
6:01
Speaker 3: It's an important time. You know, you don't need to
6:04
Speaker 3: rush out. But I had huge overwhelming response from everybody,
6:08
Speaker 3: and that was sort of like people just rang me
6:11
Speaker 3: and said what do you need? You know? Some great
6:13
Speaker 3: publishers came to me and said what else do you need?
6:16
Speaker 3: You know? And other people said, like Heineman Publishing a
6:19
Speaker 3: u K. Said well, buy all your product. What are
6:22
Speaker 3: you going to produce? For us, come up with a chart,
6:24
Speaker 3: get on the plane and come to London. You know.
6:26
Speaker 3: I mean, when you have that sort of support, it's
6:29
Speaker 3: really welcoming. And my staff, of course, who are still
6:32
Speaker 3: with me now, they all joined me from the core pressing.
6:35
Speaker 3: We didn't have much money, you know what I mean,
6:36
Speaker 3: but we made it work, and I actually i'd work
6:39
Speaker 3: for I had to get a job, I think with
6:41
Speaker 3: Lotto or something. I got a job with the Rubert
6:43
Speaker 3: Murdock group because of the Rubert Murdoch group was around.
6:46
Speaker 3: So I got a job with them too, you know,
6:48
Speaker 3: just to pay some bills. They made me something to
6:51
Speaker 3: do a report anyone, you know, write these results for people,
6:54
Speaker 3: you know, consultancy. I hate consultancy because you give people
6:56
Speaker 3: your ideas eventually and then they become rich and you
6:59
Speaker 3: don't become But you know, it was an interesting time.
7:02
Speaker 2: But when it comes to setting up a company, was
7:04
Speaker 2: it easier to set up Sunshine because you'd set up
7:08
Speaker 2: a company once before, you had the contacts?
7:11
Speaker 3: I mean obviously there was I don't think I don't
7:12
Speaker 3: think it was easier because I was being sued, of course,
7:14
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, people come after me, lots.
7:16
Speaker 2: Of people that's what I mean about it being personal.
7:18
Speaker 3: Well, they really make it personal. You know, how DAEs
7:21
Speaker 3: she go? How dares she go out to the world
7:23
Speaker 3: and do that? And you know, almost on Christmas Eve
7:26
Speaker 3: they serve notice on me. But I had very very
7:28
Speaker 3: good legal people, and I always advise in my book
7:31
Speaker 3: that you never ever think that you don't need good
7:33
Speaker 3: legal people, because when the chips are down, it's a
7:35
Speaker 3: lonely business. Running your own business is quite lonely. It's
7:39
Speaker 3: not a in the corporate world. It's really wonderful sometimes
7:44
Speaker 3: because you can have a coffee with a colleague, or
7:46
Speaker 3: you can share with somebody that you're fed up with
7:48
Speaker 3: that person the way they treat you, or you can
7:50
Speaker 3: do all sorts of things like that. But when you're
7:53
Speaker 3: on your own, when you're the lone star in other words,
7:55
Speaker 3: it's very difficult, very lonely, and it's not an easy
8:00
Speaker 3: thing to do. And so you have to have a
8:02
Speaker 3: good lawyer who can become part of your family in
8:04
Speaker 3: other words. And you know, and we had some wonderful
8:07
Speaker 3: stories about that.
8:09
Speaker 2: They tried to sue you about the show.
8:13
Speaker 3: They basically wanted me to not publish and they said
8:16
Speaker 3: that I had copied, well, I built the corporation. I
8:18
Speaker 3: built that company for them. I'd gone out to the
8:20
Speaker 3: world and sold it. But never mind. The thing is
8:23
Speaker 3: that you can't be better. You know, I'm not better
8:26
Speaker 3: with anybody. I just wish them luck. I don't think
8:29
Speaker 3: they're around it anymore anyway, but I wish them luck.
8:31
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe we can look up at the sky and
8:33
Speaker 3: wish them luck. So how's they kiss?
8:35
Speaker 2: Bless and release? I think as one of the phrases
8:38
Speaker 2: to I mean, I found I found that really quite
8:41
Speaker 2: painful reading that section of the book. There was a
8:44
Speaker 2: lot you didn't say, you do.
8:46
Speaker 3: You do feel destroyed and really, basically they try to
8:50
Speaker 3: destroy me completely. It's a huge to destroy me credibility.
8:54
Speaker 3: And it was a tough time because we were heading
8:56
Speaker 3: into the stock market crash. When we think of New Zealand,
8:59
Speaker 3: we will think twenty percent interest was the average interest rate.
9:02
Speaker 3: Twenty percent interest was the average interest rate. When you
9:05
Speaker 3: have to run your own company, you have to actually
9:07
Speaker 3: look at money. You have to get money to pay staff.
9:09
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I mean I worked as a consultant.
9:11
Speaker 3: I can always earn some money as a consultant, and
9:14
Speaker 3: you know, to pay the staff wages and you take
9:16
Speaker 3: no wages yourself. But it was really, you know, ridiculous,
9:20
Speaker 3: really because you had to. And that's why I went
9:22
Speaker 3: offshore to borrow the money. I went the only time
9:26
Speaker 3: I've ever borrowed in I never used the money, No,
9:28
Speaker 3: you never did. I never used the money.
9:30
Speaker 2: I love that story of you meeting the man on
9:32
Speaker 2: the plane marching into the bank in Hong Kong.
9:34
Speaker 4: It's a story of my life.
9:35
Speaker 2: It's a fabulous story.
9:37
Speaker 4: It's a story of my life.
9:38
Speaker 3: I meet lots of wonderful people, but you see, when
9:41
Speaker 3: you do I really believe in the philosophy is that
9:45
Speaker 3: if you do good and if you put something back
9:48
Speaker 3: into the world, you get rewarded, and you get rewarded
9:52
Speaker 3: so much that it's unbelievable. That's not money reward I'm
9:55
Speaker 3: talking about. It's a personal reward you get if you don't.
9:58
Speaker 3: You know, if you spend your life cheating people and
10:01
Speaker 3: trying to maneuver people and do all sorts of things
10:04
Speaker 3: to people, what sort of a life is that? I
10:06
Speaker 3: think it's just the lonely life really.
10:08
Speaker 4: You know.
10:08
Speaker 3: I know, for example, if my car breaks down and
10:11
Speaker 3: I'm in Wanganui, I know, there's a parent will have
10:14
Speaker 3: me for lunch?
10:14
Speaker 4: How's that? Or something?
10:16
Speaker 3: You know, because all of these wonderful people around the
10:19
Speaker 3: world around New Zealand have grown up on Sunshine books
10:22
Speaker 3: and they're three generations now.
10:25
Speaker 2: I do wonder sometimes, like a lot of the times
10:28
Speaker 2: when you walk into a meeting, things happen like as
10:31
Speaker 2: you say, you know, wonderful things happened when you were
10:34
Speaker 2: there in person. Do you think you've got an indefinable
10:40
Speaker 2: X factor that other winners pick up an I'm.
10:42
Speaker 4: Not really, I think really, I don't know.
10:44
Speaker 3: It's just been good, Like there has been a whole
10:47
Speaker 3: lot of bad days too, you know, not always good.
10:49
Speaker 3: I mean most of the time it's bad anyway. But
10:52
Speaker 3: the thing is that I think you have to just
10:55
Speaker 3: look at it. You have to try to develop something.
10:58
Speaker 3: If you're selling something, for example, you really have to
11:01
Speaker 3: package it in a way that they will understand the
11:04
Speaker 3: person you're selling it and also they will believe what
11:09
Speaker 3: you're saying. I think the hardest thing for me is
11:11
Speaker 3: most people in New Zealand don't believe that it's very
11:14
Speaker 3: unusual because people don't understand, you know, the sun never
11:17
Speaker 3: sets right now, right someone in the world is learning
11:20
Speaker 3: to read on product we've developed, on the talent of
11:23
Speaker 3: New Zealanders. How we've developed that. You know, I'm so
11:26
Speaker 3: proud of that. Aren't you proud of that? Isn't that fantastic?
11:29
Speaker 3: You know, we need to go into the world and
11:30
Speaker 3: scream about it and say it's fantastic.
11:32
Speaker 4: You know, it's not all doom and gloom and doom
11:35
Speaker 4: and gloom all the time.
11:36
Speaker 3: And you know, I like to think that, and I
11:38
Speaker 3: like to look at my watch and think, who in
11:40
Speaker 3: the world. I mean, they're coming on stream now in
11:42
Speaker 3: West Australia as we talk now, they'll be coming on
11:44
Speaker 3: stream soon after that. They'll be coming on in Turkey
11:47
Speaker 3: across Turkey, and then they'll be moving on to England
11:50
Speaker 3: as well, and they're all learning to read on product
11:53
Speaker 3: we developed.
11:54
Speaker 4: I think that's so wonderful.
11:56
Speaker 3: It is wonderful. It is absolutely special. It's special, you
12:00
Speaker 3: know what I mean, it's really special. I know we
12:02
Speaker 3: do everything, and you know it's all great and the
12:04
Speaker 3: you know, we do things in milk and butter and
12:07
Speaker 3: whatever we do or something, but this is so special
12:10
Speaker 3: because it touches the hearts of people and makes people
12:13
Speaker 3: really helps them becomes good citizens.
12:18
Speaker 2: I am so with you on the literacy because I
12:20
Speaker 2: think that our prisons are full of people who can't
12:23
Speaker 2: read and write. If you can't express yourself, if you
12:26
Speaker 2: can't if you can't see the richness the world has
12:30
Speaker 2: to offer you through reading. You might come from a
12:32
Speaker 2: background that's impoverished, but your mind doesn't have to be
12:36
Speaker 2: you know, it's limitless. That's when books are given to
12:40
Speaker 2: you as a child. You can escape the misery of
12:42
Speaker 2: your childhood with books. And I don't know what's happened.
12:46
Speaker 2: We used to be at the front of education, at
12:49
Speaker 2: the forefront of education, and now we're just well.
12:53
Speaker 3: I suppose you know, in probably my major disappointment, my
12:58
Speaker 3: major disappointment, if I had disappointments in the sense of
13:01
Speaker 3: why can't we embrace that, Why can't we look at
13:05
Speaker 3: private enterprise and government working together. Private enterprise and government
13:09
Speaker 3: work together. For example, you know, building going to be
13:12
Speaker 3: investing in buildings, right or something? Private enterprise and government
13:16
Speaker 3: work together. In the fishery industry and other industries. I
13:19
Speaker 3: work with hundreds and hundreds of schools across this country.
13:22
Speaker 3: In fact, one thousand schools across this country. Why can't
13:25
Speaker 3: we celebrate that? Why can't we say, you know, are
13:27
Speaker 3: they afraid that I'm going to earn a little bit
13:29
Speaker 3: more money. That's ridiculous because I donate a whole lot
13:32
Speaker 3: of things through my Foundation for Digital for Mari Pacific
13:35
Speaker 3: old and Children. I'm really committed to helping children earn
13:38
Speaker 3: to read. We're a small country. We have to we
13:42
Speaker 3: have to solve the literacy problem of this country. We
13:45
Speaker 3: are a very small country. We've got limited resources that
13:49
Speaker 3: we have assault so goodness say, you know, let's get
13:51
Speaker 3: off our pedestal and make it happen.
13:54
Speaker 4: And am I know the million, the.
13:56
Speaker 3: Thousands of parents have been listening to this, have grown
13:59
Speaker 3: up on Sunshine books anyway. But you know.
14:01
Speaker 4: There's a reluctance. I don't know why. What is this problem?
14:07
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's fascinating because do you believe that you
14:11
Speaker 2: can solve the literacy problems we have in New Zealand.
14:14
Speaker 3: I think the first problem is we've got to get
14:15
Speaker 3: all the children to school. I think there should be
14:17
Speaker 3: a major, major you know, I've worked in Northland. I
14:21
Speaker 3: was just going to say under projects I've done in
14:23
Speaker 3: Northland under my foundation, I've given a lot of money
14:26
Speaker 3: to schools and my foundation of my foundation, and I think,
14:30
Speaker 3: you know.
14:30
Speaker 4: The problem is we're going to get because of school.
14:32
Speaker 3: Once you get them in the school gate, we can
14:34
Speaker 3: do lots of things with them, right, but there are
14:36
Speaker 3: thousands of children who are not going to school, so
14:39
Speaker 3: we need to get them to school. There's also we
14:42
Speaker 3: have lost three years in education with many children not
14:45
Speaker 3: attending school. We have a crisis on our hands. This
14:48
Speaker 3: is a crisis. Basically, we need to make sure that
14:52
Speaker 3: everybody puts their shoulders to the wheel.
14:55
Speaker 4: That's not only me, but.
14:56
Speaker 3: Other publishing houses, the government, everyone worked together, listen to
15:00
Speaker 3: what we can do. But we've got to get the
15:02
Speaker 3: children to school. And my solution to that is, for example,
15:05
Speaker 3: in the Northern Project, my simple solution is that I've
15:09
Speaker 3: worked with senior Mari women many, many times across the country.
15:12
Speaker 3: I find fabulous. There's some Mari people that are fabulous, right.
15:15
Speaker 3: I know, people think, oh, they may be protesting or
15:17
Speaker 3: whatever I'm talking about. There's some really really fabulous people
15:22
Speaker 3: Mari people. Right. I would go to those people and say,
15:25
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you four families, four families in
15:28
Speaker 3: the next two terms. I want those children at school,
15:31
Speaker 3: go and find out what the issues are. I pay
15:33
Speaker 3: them some mileage or whatever. It's only peanuts stuff to
15:35
Speaker 3: get the kids to school, right, Get them to school,
15:38
Speaker 3: whether it's a minibus or whatever it is, get them
15:41
Speaker 3: to school, and then we can make a difference in
15:43
Speaker 3: looking at what we can do. But if you can't
15:46
Speaker 3: get them to school, you're not going to make a difference.
15:48
Speaker 2: Then what about the dyslexia? Does each child need a
15:51
Speaker 2: teacher aide with them?
15:52
Speaker 3: While well, we need some infrastructure in that. And you know,
15:56
Speaker 3: education is a big budget area and we do need infrastructure,
16:00
Speaker 3: and we don't need to look at you know, you
16:01
Speaker 3: can change policy, you can change all sorts of things,
16:05
Speaker 3: but you know what you need is you need a commitment.
16:08
Speaker 3: I work with hundreds and hundreds of teachers across this
16:11
Speaker 3: country and they really stress.
16:13
Speaker 4: At the moment. You know, we can't just push any
16:15
Speaker 4: more on them. They're stressed.
16:17
Speaker 3: We've got children who need help. They need help in
16:19
Speaker 3: the school. They need they don't need necessarily trained teachers
16:23
Speaker 3: to work with those individual and they just listen to
16:25
Speaker 3: listen to their reading. We're doing a project with a
16:28
Speaker 3: team at Otoho College. At the moment you're on a project,
16:30
Speaker 3: and there's an example where business people have extended out
16:35
Speaker 3: and working one to one with the boys there. These
16:38
Speaker 3: are twelve and thirteen year olds. Don't read this is
16:41
Speaker 3: a disaster. I mean, what are these you're going to do?
16:43
Speaker 4: Right?
16:44
Speaker 3: You know, we are creating a social welfare system which
16:48
Speaker 3: will grow right, and we can't afford that as a country.
16:51
Speaker 3: So we really need to work together. We need people
16:54
Speaker 3: to come up with ideas, come up with innovative ideas, right,
16:57
Speaker 3: and how is this going to happen?
17:00
Speaker 2: So that's what you're doing. You've got two really exciting
17:02
Speaker 2: projects on the go. Tell me about those.
17:05
Speaker 3: What has really fascinated me is the gaming industry. I
17:09
Speaker 3: think the gaming industry is the most amazing industry because
17:13
Speaker 3: it actually most.
17:15
Speaker 4: Of it was rubbish.
17:16
Speaker 3: I don't believe in a lot of the games, but anyway,
17:19
Speaker 3: but it has captured the minds of many people and
17:21
Speaker 3: the gaming has become so successful. So what I thought was,
17:25
Speaker 3: can I imagine if we put an educational publisher, pure
17:28
Speaker 3: educational publisher like me, and we can put it with
17:31
Speaker 3: the second second largest gaming company in the world, a
17:34
Speaker 3: billion dollar company, and we put those two together, and
17:38
Speaker 3: I learned from the gaming, and they learned from me
17:40
Speaker 3: right and the education, and we created a game and
17:44
Speaker 3: then we put the right colors in it. We made
17:46
Speaker 3: it colorful of what we know that helped dyslexic children.
17:51
Speaker 3: So I invited is a company called actually it's a
17:55
Speaker 3: spin off of a company called gl which is on
17:57
Speaker 3: the nastic actually in America. Did my Chinese friends and
18:01
Speaker 3: we sat down the route right and we said, okay,
18:03
Speaker 3: so I'm going to do this. So we did the prototype.
18:05
Speaker 3: We brought it back to New Zealand, we bought it,
18:08
Speaker 3: were working on it. Our team and the other team
18:10
Speaker 3: were working on it. We brought it back and we
18:12
Speaker 3: tried it with some four year olds. Couldn't put it down.
18:16
Speaker 3: Isn't that amazing? Every day they learned to read. So
18:18
Speaker 3: that's one of my projects I'm working on. And then
18:20
Speaker 3: the second project I'm working on is that I'm to
18:24
Speaker 3: me the greatest probably invention since the Internet. And I
18:27
Speaker 3: grew up with the Internet, remember the Internet when I
18:29
Speaker 3: first started my publishing. How the Internet didn't exist, but
18:32
Speaker 3: I know didn't exist, and we didn't have you know,
18:34
Speaker 3: we had the first fax machine and was wonderful little computer,
18:38
Speaker 3: those Apple computers with the screen that was so tiny
18:40
Speaker 3: and well stood around and wondered what was going to
18:43
Speaker 3: happen near you buy.
18:43
Speaker 2: Shears and Apple. You were one of the first people to.
18:45
Speaker 4: Work ten Yeah.
18:46
Speaker 3: I bought them for five dollars. Actually I yeah, good lord.
18:51
Speaker 3: Someone said to me there was a sheerbroker who said.
18:54
Speaker 4: That company will never do anything.
18:56
Speaker 3: Hello, that's the advice you get from financial advisors, critical
19:00
Speaker 3: fin what I'm thinking. But the situation is that the
19:04
Speaker 3: thing is that, you know, I believe that you AI
19:09
Speaker 3: is probably the greatest and one of the greatest inventions
19:12
Speaker 3: since the Internet, you know, because previously, of course, you know,
19:16
Speaker 3: the Internet was invelched, and I thought we could teach
19:19
Speaker 3: kids to read. Right, I cashed up and I'd made
19:21
Speaker 3: a lot of money in America, and I came back
19:23
Speaker 3: to New Zealand and I built a building in Mount Wellington,
19:25
Speaker 3: and I've got a whole lot of team of people,
19:27
Speaker 3: and said, why don't we create something like we've done.
19:29
Speaker 3: You don't put a piece of paper on the wall
19:31
Speaker 3: and create a reading program on the internet. People said,
19:34
Speaker 3: you're mad. No one's going to use the Internet for that.
19:37
Speaker 3: And then I produced the prototype. Then I went out
19:39
Speaker 3: to the world, and everyone just laughed at me and said,
19:43
Speaker 3: it's ridiculous.
19:44
Speaker 2: I think you're a bit ahead of your time sometimes
19:46
Speaker 2: reading in the book, some of you know, when you
19:47
Speaker 2: did have another idea and another idea, you were just
19:52
Speaker 2: ahead of the curve, weren't you.
19:53
Speaker 3: Well, we were really ahead of the curve in this time.
19:56
Speaker 3: I mean the British telecom people. I remember sitting in
19:58
Speaker 3: this very boring office and people very you know, very
20:01
Speaker 3: voices saying to me, you know, Queen's vannersh brother was saying,
20:06
Speaker 3: the Internet will only have messages on it.
20:08
Speaker 4: I said, really, you know, that's interesting.
20:10
Speaker 3: I wish I'd taken their business card because I could
20:12
Speaker 3: go back and haunt them.
20:12
Speaker 4: Now, probably the Internet was great, and then about.
20:17
Speaker 3: Probably April last year, I just really couldn't believe what
20:24
Speaker 3: AI could do.
20:25
Speaker 4: I couldn't believe that this is.
20:27
Speaker 3: People who are big, successful people in the mass market
20:33
Speaker 3: in America have said at this moment, AI is like
20:36
Speaker 3: the dial up of the Internet. Remember we had the
20:38
Speaker 3: dial up, which you know, most people listening they not
20:42
Speaker 3: remember that, but you know, used to cut off and
20:44
Speaker 3: we used to do drag and drop and we used
20:46
Speaker 3: to take sit there for about two minutes, three minutes,
20:49
Speaker 3: Wait it comes on the screen because it was so slow, right,
20:52
Speaker 3: I mean, you know it was very slow.
20:55
Speaker 4: And they said to me, Wendy, it is like the
20:57
Speaker 4: dial up. We are at what we call the stage
21:00
Speaker 4: of revolution. How exciting, how exciting to.
21:05
Speaker 3: Live through hot metal to begin with in my life,
21:10
Speaker 3: to then see the computer, to then walk into us,
21:13
Speaker 3: to walking the studio today, for example, walking past all
21:17
Speaker 3: those screens, to be in the newspaper industry when a
21:21
Speaker 3: screen didn't even exist in a linertop operator and we
21:24
Speaker 3: then they would lock up the stone and you would
21:27
Speaker 3: have to do the proofing and the magazines.
21:30
Speaker 4: How fantastic.
21:31
Speaker 3: And then move to computers and then move to the
21:34
Speaker 3: world of what we know now just as a global
21:37
Speaker 3: village and the world never stops.
21:38
Speaker 4: And then move to social media and what we're doing.
21:42
Speaker 1: The honor story of being in business talking the wins
21:46
Speaker 1: and the losses bosses unfeltered with Kerry Woodham on iHeartRadio.
21:50
Speaker 1: How would my news talks be wins, losses and the
21:56
Speaker 1: real stories behind our great companies? Bosses unf filed with
22:00
Speaker 1: Kerry wood Have on iHeartRadio powered by newstalksb.
22:04
Speaker 2: What's AI going to do for literacy?
22:06
Speaker 3: Well, AI can At the moment. What we're working on
22:09
Speaker 3: is we're working really on taking the printed We've come
22:13
Speaker 3: out with the next range of printed books for the
22:15
Speaker 3: intermediate school and junior high school children who have missed
22:20
Speaker 3: many formative years during the COVID years. So we've come
22:24
Speaker 3: up with a wonderful series of New Zealand authors as
22:27
Speaker 3: well a series very structured, very structured phonics books, fiction
22:32
Speaker 3: non fiction. I've sold those around the world already and
22:36
Speaker 3: now what we're going to do. What we're doing is
22:38
Speaker 3: we're assessing. So basically, you read the book and then
22:42
Speaker 3: the AI does assessment. We can do individualized assessment in
22:46
Speaker 3: this previous world or the world that exists at the moment.
22:49
Speaker 3: It's very teacher driven. What happens is a teacher has
22:52
Speaker 3: to assess you individually, right, so it takes a lot
22:55
Speaker 3: of time. You know, the teacher sits down and you
22:57
Speaker 3: read to me, which is quite embarrassing. If I can
23:00
Speaker 3: read very well, you read to me and then I
23:02
Speaker 3: mark you. You know, okay, it's gone. Now. What we
23:06
Speaker 3: do now is we take that you read the text
23:10
Speaker 3: and then I can just worry about that child's reading ability.
23:14
Speaker 3: So basically I can do an assessment, a quick assessment.
23:17
Speaker 3: Just put the headset on, put the computer over the corner.
23:20
Speaker 3: AI does it and then records the entire thing. You
23:24
Speaker 3: can imagine we will save teachers hundreds and hundreds of
23:27
Speaker 3: hours of time because a teacher at the moment is
23:31
Speaker 3: we need the teacher to concentrate on helping children. We
23:35
Speaker 3: need the teacher not filling out forms or you know,
23:38
Speaker 3: doing a whole lot of other things. We need the
23:40
Speaker 3: teacher to the magic of teachers is to give the
23:44
Speaker 3: skill to work with a child is to achieve success.
23:48
Speaker 3: But I need to know at any time whether that
23:51
Speaker 3: child is really being successful. So this is incredible. AI
23:55
Speaker 3: records it all with the words, test the child and
24:00
Speaker 3: comes out with all the results, and the principal can
24:02
Speaker 3: see it as well. And so we could assess the
24:04
Speaker 3: entire country in New Zealand. I could assess the entire
24:07
Speaker 3: country of New Zealand of every eleven and twelve year
24:10
Speaker 3: old in this country. But they have to obviously use
24:12
Speaker 3: my books as well. But you know, the situation is,
24:15
Speaker 3: I suppose I've come up with this bloody hell what fun.
24:20
Speaker 3: Oh by the way, when we tested this product before Christmas.
24:24
Speaker 3: We tested it with some children. Do you know, it
24:27
Speaker 3: was wonderful. It was mainly boys who were twelve, eleven
24:31
Speaker 3: and twelve who really had trouble reading. And so you
24:35
Speaker 3: know what they found was if I said to you,
24:38
Speaker 3: I'm going to test you today, you know you're very
24:41
Speaker 3: you get quite nervous about it, right and read this
24:44
Speaker 3: passage to me and you know, and you're sitting there
24:47
Speaker 3: and I'm listening to the child read that. But what
24:50
Speaker 3: we found is when they worked directly on the computer,
24:53
Speaker 3: they talked into the computer.
24:54
Speaker 4: It was like a game.
24:55
Speaker 3: In other words, they we're playing a game, because these
24:56
Speaker 3: are great gamers, by the way, many of these children
24:59
Speaker 3: are excellent at gaming, excellent gaming. And so you know,
25:03
Speaker 3: they didn't feel embarrassed. You know, they were doing something
25:06
Speaker 3: themselves and it wasn't like somebody watching you. Because if
25:09
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know about you, but you know
25:11
Speaker 3: I've said, if I'm going to do something and somebody
25:13
Speaker 3: stands over me, you know, I'm quite nervous. It's a
25:16
Speaker 3: nervous time. But this, of course is magic, and can
25:20
Speaker 3: we do it? Can I save? All I'm trying to
25:22
Speaker 3: do is I'm trying to hug the teachers of this country.
25:25
Speaker 3: I think we need to celebrate the teachers every day
25:28
Speaker 3: they go to work. They've got lots of children with issues.
25:30
Speaker 3: I've got lots of problems. I think we need to
25:33
Speaker 3: hug them. You know, I need to give them a
25:34
Speaker 3: big hug and say we can do it together. We
25:37
Speaker 3: can make a difference. You understand what I mean. Are
25:39
Speaker 3: totally a virtually because they are the special people in
25:42
Speaker 3: this country, you know, I know that. But their challenge
25:46
Speaker 3: at the moment is very complicated. It's very difficult because
25:49
Speaker 3: of the children.
25:51
Speaker 2: How do you sleep?
25:52
Speaker 3: Aren't you scared that one of your ideas having burying
25:56
Speaker 3: it is sixty years? Which is quite a miracle, isn't it?
26:00
Speaker 3: How are you're still given given up with me?
26:05
Speaker 4: Well? I do. I find it so exciting.
26:07
Speaker 2: But is how do you close your eyes when all
26:10
Speaker 2: those ideas?
26:10
Speaker 3: No, I do close my eyes. But sometimes I'm working
26:15
Speaker 3: on a project. I have a farm at Whitford and
26:17
Speaker 3: basically I have a studio at the back which I
26:20
Speaker 3: can go out there and not annoyed people and think
26:22
Speaker 3: of it when the sun coming up over the harbor
26:24
Speaker 3: and things. This morning it was beautiful the sun was
26:26
Speaker 3: coming up, and you know, I don't know. I'm just
26:29
Speaker 3: an energetic person, but maybe sometimes I get weary and
26:33
Speaker 3: sometimes I haven't got an idea. But you know, when
26:36
Speaker 3: you come up with a new product and you can
26:39
Speaker 3: see the vision. And what I did last year, I
26:42
Speaker 3: sent my team. I've got a great team young people,
26:45
Speaker 3: people coming through, oh fabulous, sent them off to the
26:49
Speaker 3: biggest tech show and said, blow your mind. You know
26:52
Speaker 3: what you got to do is you got to take
26:55
Speaker 3: people along with you. You can't just you can't just
26:58
Speaker 3: be the super boss and you're coming to any mem
27:00
Speaker 3: you know, Dai da. What you've got to do is
27:02
Speaker 3: listen to what the people are doing as well and
27:04
Speaker 3: just blow their mind.
27:05
Speaker 4: You know.
27:05
Speaker 3: They went there and they said, oh my god. You
27:07
Speaker 3: know Google was doing this and Google was doing that,
27:09
Speaker 3: and they came back with huge ideas and things.
27:11
Speaker 2: I actually wanted to ask you about your husband, because
27:14
Speaker 2: he's vitally important to you and your success. But he's
27:18
Speaker 2: very very quiet. He reminds me, and I know you're
27:20
Speaker 2: a country Western fan, but he reminds me a bit
27:23
Speaker 2: of Carl Dean to your Dolly Parton, you know, like
27:26
Speaker 2: he's absolutely integral to what you're doing. Now.
27:28
Speaker 3: He's definite in his ideas. I'm probably you know, I'm
27:30
Speaker 3: a Gemini, so I can be two things. You know,
27:33
Speaker 3: I'm a housewife as well. I do cooking and preserving,
27:36
Speaker 3: and my preserves a fabulous I've got a whole cupboard
27:38
Speaker 3: full of preserves now. I make jam and chutney and
27:40
Speaker 3: all those sort of things. No, I tend to live
27:44
Speaker 3: I have, you know, it's this is the business world
27:46
Speaker 3: I try to work in, and he puts up with it,
27:49
Speaker 3: and then I work and you know, my private life
27:52
Speaker 3: is really quite devoted to him and doing things.
27:55
Speaker 4: I think he just sits there waiting for another meal.
27:57
Speaker 4: He's but it is.
28:00
Speaker 2: I mean I remember him seeing a business women's meeting
28:03
Speaker 2: and one of the women racked up the audience a
28:06
Speaker 2: bit when she said, one of the most important things
28:10
Speaker 2: that you can attribute your success to is marrying the
28:12
Speaker 2: right man or having the right partner.
28:14
Speaker 3: I think it's very challenging for women. You know often think,
28:17
Speaker 3: you know, like I often think about you know, when
28:22
Speaker 3: I go away. For example, he's coming with me to
28:24
Speaker 3: London next week, but normally he would never come with
28:26
Speaker 3: He doesn't come with me. I go on my own
28:28
Speaker 3: I go off to New York or something for a week,
28:31
Speaker 3: and you know, things like that, and I think of
28:34
Speaker 3: all the things I have to do, make sure the
28:35
Speaker 3: cat food's there, and this happens, and you know how
28:38
Speaker 3: many frozen meals were gotten and whatever, you know, that
28:41
Speaker 3: sort of thing. And then I think of our current
28:43
Speaker 3: prime minister, for example, he jumps on the plane. Does
28:45
Speaker 3: he have to think about the cat food and things
28:47
Speaker 3: like that? You know, there's quite different. Women are different, really,
28:51
Speaker 3: and it's very challenging if you have a partner, I think,
28:55
Speaker 3: I say it's challenging because you have to consider the partner.
28:58
Speaker 3: You have to think about their birthdays, be moulum away
29:00
Speaker 3: are you know, if there's all this other things that
29:02
Speaker 3: you have to think about. Where men have a large
29:07
Speaker 3: you know men, I'm sure they have all the suits
29:10
Speaker 3: laid out on, the underwear already packed in the case,
29:13
Speaker 3: and then they go away, right, so they don't have
29:15
Speaker 3: to think. And on the committees that I've been on,
29:18
Speaker 3: many predominantly men male committees, and so they don't have
29:22
Speaker 3: to think like that, which is quite different, isn't it.
29:24
Speaker 2: It really is. But it's a tricky dynamic so that
29:27
Speaker 2: they understand that they are absolutely vital, but you're the
29:31
Speaker 2: one getting all the attention.
29:34
Speaker 4: Well, they have to be quite.
29:37
Speaker 3: They have to be quite sort of broad minded about
29:40
Speaker 3: it into a degree because a lot of people, you know,
29:43
Speaker 3: New Zealand is still a male basically a male dominated country.
29:47
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily not. You know, most women are in
29:52
Speaker 3: public companies, they have their own private companies.
29:56
Speaker 4: It's quite difficult for them. I don't think it's easy.
29:59
Speaker 3: I think that younger women coming on have it a
30:02
Speaker 3: bit easier, you know, they're sort of in corporations and
30:05
Speaker 3: things that.
30:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's still tough. I think it's still tough.
30:09
Speaker 3: I think mentally we still are, even though we do
30:13
Speaker 3: have some strong women in the current parliament, we mentally
30:17
Speaker 3: are still very much male orientated. I believe that's not anyway,
30:23
Speaker 3: and we're very agioist.
30:24
Speaker 4: You know. They have this thing about age.
30:26
Speaker 3: You know, sixty five today, I'm retiring today.
30:30
Speaker 4: What's that all about. I don't actually understand that.
30:32
Speaker 3: I mean, hello, unless they're working in a behavior construction,
30:35
Speaker 3: So why are they're retiring. I mean, they can do
30:37
Speaker 3: a huge amount in the community. You know, even if
30:39
Speaker 3: they are retiring, they should be getting, you know, helping
30:41
Speaker 3: out in the community and various other things.
30:43
Speaker 4: There's many things to do.
30:44
Speaker 3: Right, people sit around and what should you do today?
30:47
Speaker 3: I walked my dog and I say I did a
30:50
Speaker 3: contract with Hong Kong and a few other things, and
30:53
Speaker 3: then they won't talk to me anymore.
30:56
Speaker 2: But yes, I mean, I think you are quite unique though,
31:00
Speaker 2: in terms of your energy, your open mindedness, That's what
31:04
Speaker 2: I mean. There's that indefinable something that you have that
31:08
Speaker 2: that makes you stand up.
31:10
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for that.
31:11
Speaker 3: I would hope that we can contribute to the country.
31:15
Speaker 3: We be a good citizen. And I mean in means
31:17
Speaker 3: of good citizen, I hope that every child has learn
31:20
Speaker 3: to read and becomes productive in the country. You know,
31:24
Speaker 3: I always say to people, it doesn't matter what a
31:26
Speaker 3: person does. You know, people go on going on to it.
31:28
Speaker 3: And I said, they don't have to necessarily be, you know,
31:31
Speaker 3: geniuses or whatever they have, but if they can read,
31:35
Speaker 3: they can do something. They feel good about themselves. I've
31:38
Speaker 3: seen that transition. I've seen it so many times. I've
31:41
Speaker 3: seen the most wonderful things happen to children in a classroom.
31:44
Speaker 3: I've been in classrooms all across the world, I've had
31:47
Speaker 3: the fortunate life. In fact, I've had such a neat life. Really,
31:50
Speaker 3: you know, I hope I'll get this. AI think game.
31:53
Speaker 3: But anyway, so people haven't stopped me yet. But I think, yeah,
31:58
Speaker 3: I think if you have something in a purpose, it's
32:01
Speaker 3: a challenge. I love the challenge of the hunt, you know.
32:03
Speaker 3: I love to think. Here we are as a little company.
32:05
Speaker 3: You know, we're an eldeslie, this little company sitting here
32:08
Speaker 3: and we're taking on the world. You know, we're gonna
32:10
Speaker 3: We're gonna take on the world with all these people,
32:13
Speaker 3: and we can do it. You know, we can make
32:14
Speaker 3: it happen. But that really you can, exporters, you.
32:18
Speaker 2: Can, But have you got a succession plan? Have you
32:21
Speaker 2: got somebody will be sold?
32:22
Speaker 3: The company will be sold. There's no success plan because
32:24
Speaker 3: none of my relatives ever wanted anything to do with
32:27
Speaker 3: the company. And you know, obviously I work for charities.
32:31
Speaker 3: I have charities involved. I represent multiple Cross you know,
32:35
Speaker 3: I help Model Cross with those and I also you know,
32:39
Speaker 3: I have the hearing house. I'm very interested in cop
32:41
Speaker 3: the rear transplant and the work there. And I'm interested in,
32:45
Speaker 3: you know, and helping charities and Paralympics and things that people.
32:48
Speaker 2: So you know, you have given a lot, like in
32:52
Speaker 2: terms of the ability teaching kids to read, You've given
32:56
Speaker 2: a lot in terms of charity. Do you think it's
32:59
Speaker 2: been a fair arrangement? Have you got back from the
33:04
Speaker 2: people who matter.
33:06
Speaker 3: Well more than anything really? I mean, look, look, you
33:09
Speaker 3: know I became a Dame, which was a great honor.
33:12
Speaker 3: I've got the MBE before that, which is a great
33:15
Speaker 3: honor because you can have your funeral memorial service in
33:18
Speaker 3: Saint Paul's, you know that love a little chapel with
33:21
Speaker 3: some balls.
33:22
Speaker 4: That's good. That's a good thing. I'll dig that in
33:24
Speaker 4: a box, right, That's a good thing.
33:26
Speaker 3: And then and you know, I was made an honorary
33:30
Speaker 3: doctorate in literacy from MASSI, which was a great honor
33:33
Speaker 3: to be part of that. And I've been Entrepreneur of
33:37
Speaker 3: the Year, and I've had awards internationally. I've had awards
33:40
Speaker 3: one of the great exporters from Australia. I've had awards
33:43
Speaker 3: at the Opera House. You know, I think maybe I've
33:47
Speaker 3: had all those. I don't need any more awards. I
33:49
Speaker 3: want awards to go to younger people.
33:51
Speaker 4: I just hope that.
33:53
Speaker 3: You know, we can inspire younger people, young women coming
33:56
Speaker 3: on and men true that are coming on that really
33:59
Speaker 3: can make give it a go, you know, give it
34:01
Speaker 3: a go, you know, go out there and make it happen.
34:04
Speaker 3: That's what I hope to do.
34:06
Speaker 2: And what's the best part of not having to worry
34:08
Speaker 2: about paying the bills? What's the best part of having
34:10
Speaker 2: a good stonking chunk of disposable leftover?
34:15
Speaker 4: I'm still, you know, reasonably responsible. I suppose.
34:22
Speaker 3: You're not having to think too much, but I still
34:24
Speaker 3: use gravy beef for example. I wouldn't use I won't
34:27
Speaker 3: use villa a state in the casserole. I think we
34:31
Speaker 3: never changed, do we really? As our childhood, you know,
34:34
Speaker 3: we were taught to have be respectful and we were
34:36
Speaker 3: taught to live within our budget and things like that.
34:39
Speaker 3: I don't, you know, I'm not frugal, but I still
34:42
Speaker 3: think that I'm responsible and a good housekeeper. I would
34:46
Speaker 3: say I'm a very good housekeeper. Actually, I mean goodness me, yes,
34:49
Speaker 3: a very good house I just cooked a sponge yesterday
34:52
Speaker 3: and I bought it to the office this morning.
34:54
Speaker 4: Everyone said, that is a very good sponge.
34:57
Speaker 2: But the race horses must be fun because even having
34:59
Speaker 2: a tiny share of a race horse who don't care
35:01
Speaker 2: whether they win at pied or or if they've won
35:03
Speaker 2: the Wellington Cup. That warners the thing, isn't it?
35:07
Speaker 3: Well, yes, it's a sort of a racing Breeding race
35:11
Speaker 3: horses and racing them is a great passion that Don
35:16
Speaker 3: and I both have, right I can share it with
35:18
Speaker 3: my husband.
35:19
Speaker 4: I can forget about.
35:20
Speaker 3: And the interesting thing about racing horses, it's made up
35:23
Speaker 3: of everybody. It's made up of you know, probably people
35:26
Speaker 3: who are Marjoram who knows what they're up to with
35:28
Speaker 3: the crooks, and the other people who are wealthy, and
35:31
Speaker 3: other people who have a dream, and other people who
35:33
Speaker 3: have thing. And that's a good thing about it. But
35:35
Speaker 3: breeding them is the ultimate to me. Anybody can buy
35:37
Speaker 3: a race horse, you know, you can be rich and
35:39
Speaker 3: you gone by racists. But I like to breed them.
35:41
Speaker 3: I like to breed the champions. And to me, that
35:44
Speaker 3: is the answer is when you bread the horse. And
35:47
Speaker 3: so that's what I really like. You know, I like
35:49
Speaker 3: the thought that you and my husband is very talented
35:52
Speaker 3: and thinking about how you know, how you can look
35:56
Speaker 3: at that stallion with that mayor you know what the
35:59
Speaker 3: combination is and everything, and so we've had a bit
36:02
Speaker 3: of fun with it. It's long term, of course, and
36:05
Speaker 3: you know we do have and but it's good fun.
36:07
Speaker 2: I'm just going to ask you some quick buyo questions.
36:09
Speaker 2: Then what are you reading at the moment.
36:15
Speaker 3: I'm really struggling with el muss book. I don't blame you,
36:21
Speaker 3: really struggling. How do you switch off?
36:27
Speaker 4: How do I switch off?
36:28
Speaker 2: I don't think you ever do.
36:29
Speaker 3: I swim most mornings and sit in the spark pool. Oh,
36:34
Speaker 3: We've had lots of horses, but probably Cycladius was one
36:37
Speaker 3: of the best ones.
36:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
36:39
Speaker 2: Do you care about cars?
36:41
Speaker 3: Oh?
36:41
Speaker 4: Yes, I have to have a car.
36:43
Speaker 3: Overtake everyone in the lights and I often follow people
36:46
Speaker 3: who intersept me and basically say, you know, I'm going
36:49
Speaker 3: to follow you by the company and fire you.
36:53
Speaker 4: So I drive it.
36:54
Speaker 3: I used to drive a sub and the acceleration is
36:57
Speaker 3: very good. You know, I prefer I wouldn't. Actually, you
37:00
Speaker 3: know a Ferrari. I've got a Ferrari bushbike. Actually I
37:03
Speaker 3: bought in New York. Actually, would you believe? So I've
37:05
Speaker 3: got a Ferrari in the garage. It's a pushbike. People say,
37:09
Speaker 3: have you got a Ferrari say yes, yes, I've got
37:11
Speaker 3: a Ferrari Bushpike in the garage.
37:14
Speaker 2: Favorite place in the world.
37:19
Speaker 3: Hm. That's difficult, really, but I like New York. I've
37:26
Speaker 3: got a beautiful apartment in New York.
37:28
Speaker 4: I like New York.
37:29
Speaker 3: I'm right around the corner from Trump Tower in New
37:31
Speaker 3: York and Central Park.
37:33
Speaker 4: But it's difficult, you know.
37:35
Speaker 3: I think home is good to sitting at Witford looking
37:37
Speaker 3: out over the harbor, and I have a huge vegetable
37:40
Speaker 3: garden and I grow on my own vegetables and things.
37:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, difficult.
37:45
Speaker 2: One mistake you'll never make again.
37:51
Speaker 4: Not owning the product.
37:54
Speaker 2: Your weakness.
37:56
Speaker 4: Impulsive.
37:58
Speaker 3: I have learnt I should really not rush into something.
38:02
Speaker 3: Often I've fallen in love with something and I've rushed in.
38:06
Speaker 3: I should take a deep breath and sleep on it.
38:08
Speaker 3: But it is a it is a fault of mine.
38:11
Speaker 4: But I'm learning. I'm learning that.
38:15
Speaker 2: And what do you wish people knew about you? I
38:20
Speaker 2: wish they knew that.
38:23
Speaker 3: Really, I'm really committed to try to help people in
38:27
Speaker 3: the world or the thing. And it's not necessarily even
38:32
Speaker 3: though you're successful in with sales, it's not necessarily if
38:39
Speaker 3: you're delivering and you.
38:40
Speaker 4: Have a to me.
38:41
Speaker 3: You have to be accountable, and I want people to
38:44
Speaker 3: know that I'm actually accountable. If I do something, I'm
38:48
Speaker 3: accountable for what I've created, not just produce it for
38:52
Speaker 3: the sake of making money out of it. I mean,
38:54
Speaker 3: this is ridiculous because it is a world that we
38:57
Speaker 3: live in. You have to be accountable.
39:00
Speaker 2: Do you know what. I just get the feeling talking
39:01
Speaker 2: to you that you've only just begun.
39:07
Speaker 3: The career. I'm going to run out of time. I'm
39:10
Speaker 3: going to run out of time. I wish I was
39:11
Speaker 3: fifty with the development of AI now, I wish I
39:15
Speaker 3: was fifty years of age. I really don't, you know.
39:18
Speaker 3: It's so exciting and it's so development. What can we
39:20
Speaker 3: do with this?
39:21
Speaker 4: Can we do it?
39:22
Speaker 3: Not only in medical science and what we can do?
39:24
Speaker 3: It's very dangerous as well, and we need to harness it.
39:27
Speaker 3: But what can we do to support people, to make
39:29
Speaker 3: it easier for teachers on people and help them not
39:34
Speaker 3: do the tedious jobs, Help take away those tedious jobs
39:38
Speaker 3: for them, and allow them the time to nurture children
39:42
Speaker 3: and to be successful, you know themselves. Really, I think
39:45
Speaker 3: that's sort of to me as a goal you know.
39:48
Speaker 3: I know, but I am going to run out of
39:50
Speaker 3: time because I think that I think time is sticking
39:54
Speaker 3: away quickly.
39:55
Speaker 2: And that was Wendy Pine from Sunshine Books. Isn't you
39:58
Speaker 2: amazing love to get stuff done attitude. If you've enjoyed
40:03
Speaker 2: this episode and you want to hear more, please follow
40:06
Speaker 2: Bosses Unfiltered on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
40:11
Speaker 2: Next time, we're with Rod Duke from Brisco's, who tells
40:15
Speaker 2: us why he became obsessed with working in a shop
40:17
Speaker 2: as a teenager and the secret to a really good sale.
40:22
Speaker 2: See you soon.