Pep Talk With Grace

It's officially our last Pep Talk of the year! We're rounding out the season with a quick Pep Talk all about... Money honey. This chat covers a few tips and tricks from Grace, all about planning, goal setting, and house-buying. Plus we've included some stellar thoughts from Christine, who runs the @itsnosecretnz podcast and works at index fund manager Kernel Wealth. Soak up Christine's notes on growing your wealth and reaching financial freedom (and what that even means!). Thanks for being...

It's the second to last Pep Talk of the season (and the year!), so dig in folks! This time we're hitting up a quick Pep Talk all about career. Given the average adult spends 90,000 hours working in their lifetime, she's a pretty big topic guys! That's a third of your life, so you may as well be doing something you enjoy. I've hooked ya up with some expert advice from the wonderful Samantha Gadd, founder of HR agency Humankind, and yes of course there'll be the usual little bit of advice...

It's Pep Talk time! This time we're getting a Pep Talk on a pretty major topic in life – health and wellness. This quick Pep Talk is perfect to give you the boost you need on looking after your health and wellbeing, from physical health, nutrition and exercise to mental health, stress and sleep. But best of all, it's all about balance - listening to your body and your self and finding the best version of wellness for you personally. As well as a few tips from me, this episode features a...

For this brand new Pep Talk, I've joined forces with Xero to take a deep dive into a topic that's a bit of a reoccurring theme on Pep Talk – finding and knowing your “why”. This applies in all areas of life, but especially in business. As we know, business can be satisfying, rewarding and fun, but it can also be hard! When we get bogged down in the day-to-day grind and admin and long hours, it can be hard to remember why we started in the first place. Today's new episode digs into what...

This time on Pep Talk we're talking all things hobbies and finding time for a little joy. Science tells us that having activities in your life that you enjoy doing for fun is a really important element of mental health and good emotional well-being. But in reality, it's really hard to actually do these things. Just surviving as an adult (especially right now!) is really hard! It's hard to imagine also living a fulfilled and happy life around that sometimes. So even though we know this is...

Welcome to Season 2 of Pep Talk! We're branching out a little bit, going back to the dictionary definition of Pep Talk – "a short speech intended to encourage someone to feel more courageous, enthusiastic and positive". Each time, we dive into a new area of life, business or career – something that we could all do with a little Pep Talk on. It's be informative, practical, and most of all a little bit inspiring. For episode 2, we're exploring the weird old world of Body Image. It's a...

Welcome to Season 2 of Pep Talk! But brace yourself, we're branching out a little bit, going a little bigger, back to the dictionary definition of Pep Talk – a short speech intended to encourage someone to feel more courageous, enthusiastic and positive. Each time we dive into a new area of life, business or career – something that we could all do with a little Pep Talk on. It's be informative, practical, and most of all a little bit inspiring. For episode 1, we're diving into Imposter...

Welcome to a very special bonus episode of Pep Talk. Since we're back in lockdown - back where Pep Talk all began, it seemed like serendipitous timing to bring you a special bonus episode, which covers something that's on everyone's minds right now – Lockdown Wellness. Since I'm not sure watching copious amounts of Bachelor in Paradise *necessarily* qualifies me to talk about this, I've bought in the experts on this one... Today we're chatting with Greta File. Not only is Greta one of my...

Take a listen to this quick 10min episode for a bit of an update from Grace on what's next for Pep Talk... @peptalknz

I swear I'm not biased (OK maybe a little bit!), but today we have another wonderful Wairarapa based business to share the story of, which happens to be where I live.... Get ready for the very fun story of Thunderpants, direct from co-founder and co-owner Josie. The Thunderpants gang make kick ass undies - they are made from organic Fair Trade Cotton, New Zealand made (by hand!), and best of all - designed so they won't go up ya bum! Quite often we hear from new businesses on Pep Talk, so...

Well you guys know how excited to get when we hear about businesses around chocolate, but today we're hearing about another topic that's close to my heart... wine! Today's guest Cath founded JOIY wine, along with her winemaker husband Chris, from Martinborough, just 10 mins down the road from where I live, with world domination in mind from the get go. Their unique 'wine in a can' creation successfully disrupted the wine industry, and introduced the joy of wine to a new generation. They...

This week we're hearing all about One Percent Collective, which is a really cool New Zealand founded platform that makes it super easy to give (you guessed it!) 1% of your income to charity. Pat, who we're talking to today, found his way to One Percent Collective (like a lot of us do!) the roundabout way, via work in photography, design, music and magazines. He was living in Burma, managing a charity at the time, and saw first hand the difference that small amounts of money can completely...

This week we're diving back into one of my favourite topics – CHOCOLATE! Today you'll be hearing the story of The Chocolate Bar, from founder Luke. Just shy of six years ago, Luke was working in hospo, having arrived in Wellington from the UK, and – in a tale that will sound familiar to a lot of us – found himself searching for his “thing”. After tasting fellow Pep Talk alumni Wellington Chocolate Factory's then new product, Luke followed his instinct and new passion for craft chocolate,...

I am incredibly excited and honoured to welcome today's guest onto Pep Talk. Of course I love all our guests and would never pick favourites, but today's story is one I feel a special connection to – today we're chatting with Fleur Wickes, an artist who's work I have in pride of place in my kitchen. As you'll hear during the episode, I (not so eloquently!) try to pin down exactly what I find so special about Fleur's work, but I think it's just her belief that the magic of life is in the...

Welcome to the first Pep Talk of 2021! After a solid break and a few dreamy holidays, I'm very ready to get stuck back into chatting and hearing the amazing stories behind some of our favourite local businesses. I have some exciting plans in the works for Pep Talk this year and I'm so glad you're along for the ride. Today we're straight into it for 2021 with Anna Ross, founder of vegan and cruelty free cosmetics brand, Kester Black. Probably best known for their rainbow of nail polishes in...

Here we are – our final episode of 2020! Today we have the MOST perfect way to round out the year – chatting with Matt co-founder of Made of Tomorrow. You'll most likely know these guys from their iconic diaries, which not only look beautiful, but are made from recycled coffee cups (and entirely made right here in New Zealand). Made of Tomorrow also have an amazing range of homewares – all minimal and functional objects, carefully designed and manufactured from high quality materials in New...

If you talk to lot of self employed people, or people thinking about starting a business, more often than not the one key area they are feeling unsure of are the finances – tracking income and expenses, paying tax, when do you have to pay GST, and those surprise ACC invoices that always show up out of the blue. ​ So of course for one of our Topic Chats I had to get a bit finance-y. If I'm honest, it's probably my least favourite area of business and - as today's guest himself says - it's...

This week we're mixing things up a bit! I've joined forces with Sarah from The OneUp Project Podcast. OneUp is all about Financial Literacy & Self Development - each week Sarah covers topics and welcomes guests to chat about all those things we weren't taught but should've been! Think KiwiSaver, saving, shares, home ownership, insurance, mindset, investing, and all that jazz. Money stuff could be a bit yawn, but Sarah brings the fun and makes sure all this heavy info is presented in a...

Today's Pep Talk guest Olivia had always been mad about gifting, loving to shower her friends and family with specially curated gifts from a super young age. It's totally her love language! Three or so years ago, she was lucky to score an internship at Spotify in Sydney at the end of her business degree, and she obviously blew them away as an intern, because they offered her a full time role in the team... Which she turned down! That's right, she returned home to New Zealand, driven by a...

Seven years ago, while living in Auckland, Felicity was on the hunt for pots to keep her house plants in and couldn't quite find what she was after, so signed up for a 10 week pottery course to learn how to make her own. ​ Fast forward to today and what started as a hobby has turned into a full time gig, and Felicity (with her brand 'Wundaire') has become one of the best known and sought after ceramists and creative folk in the country. I'm lucky to call Felicity a friend (we both live in...