Episode 30: Bridget Snelling

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 30, our guest is New Zealand Country Manager for Xero, Bridget Snelling.

Bridget completed her law degree at Auckland University before settling into the traditional first job of graduate lawyer at one of the city’s prestige law firms. Then everything changed.

To everyone’s surprise she left the law after only a couple of years and hasn’t looked back.  A career that has included a stint at one of the country’s premier Public Relations firms led to seven years at TVNZ where she handled multiple roles before eventually moving to ANZ bank and becoming the head of Brand Marketing and Business Marketing. She moved to Xero as Marketing Manager four years later.

The Xero story is one of New Zealand’s great business start-up successes and there is no doubt that Bridget sees her role as something of a privilege. With over 3,000 New Zealand based staff, it’s a massive leadership challenge with people with varied needs and a fast-moving industry.

Bridget talks to Bruce Cotterill about the challenges of being a corporate leader and a mum of three children, the oldest of whom is about to embark on high school. She has plenty of lessons for busy parents including an acknowledgement that life is seldom perfect.

And we hear her views on productivity, talent, boundaries and what she calls “making accounting cool”.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is an iHeartRadio New Zealand podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to episode thirty of the
Leaders Getting Coffee podcast. It's Bruce Kotte for all back
with you again and thank you for joining us. We
have another very accomplished leader to speak to today, but
before we do, a couple of things to talk about. Firstly,
last week I had the pleasure of joining a couple
of hundred like minded golfers for the Canterbury Brain Tree

(00:48):
collective golf fundraiser. It's called the brain Tree Golfing with
the Stars event and held at Clearwater Golf Club in
christ Church every year. The brain Tree itself is a
dedicated care facility in christ Church that specializes in the
treatment of people suffering from neurological conditions such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,
dementia and multiple sphosis. And the golf day relies on

(01:12):
some of our sporting and other superstars from around the
country who donate their time to play around a golf
with lesser people like myself and to raise money for
a great cause. I was fortunate to be paired with
one of our all time sporting greats, British Open winner
Sir Bob Charles, who at the age of eighty eight
joined us for the day. He's an utter gentleman and

(01:33):
of course he still has a fantastic golf came at
his fingertips. But I'd like to shout out to all
of the stars, including Sue Bob who joined us, people
like Greg Turner, the former professional golfer Israel, Dad, Mark Richardson,
Tom Abercrombie, Stephen Fleming, Olympic gold medalist, Seric Murray and
Hamish Kerr. Broadcast of Peter Williams Exponents frontman Jordan Luck

(01:56):
turned up and even sang a couple of tunes, and
too many others to mention, But I just want to
say to all those stars who made the effort to
join us for a day, thank you very much. Over All,
the event raised over three hundred and ten thousand dollars,
which I think for a golfing fundraiser is probably one
of the best in the country, and that three hundred

(02:17):
plus thousand dollars will go to the operating costs of
the Brain Tree Center in christ Church. So to my
good friend Brendan Prendergast who organized the event, and to
everyone who turned out and donated their time to make
something good happen. A massive congratulations to all concerned and
thank you for having me along. It was a fantastic day.
Another matter I'd like to mention before we get to

(02:38):
our guest, we have something special coming up on leaders
getting Coffee. Most of you will be aware that we
run this podcast every second week, but next week we
have a one off special episode and I'm delighted to
share with you that our guest will be none other
than the Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Honorable Winston Peters.
So we'll have an hour speaking to the Minister about
his life and leadership. He might not be everybody's cup

(03:00):
of tea, but you can't deny that after forty six
years in politics, he has a hell of a story
to tell. So please make sure to join thank this
for what will be episode thirty one with the Right
Honorable Winston Peters, which will come out about a week
after this one. But back to today, of course, we're with
you courtesy of publisher and broadcaster endzed Me, the team
that news Talk zb will help us pull these podcasts together,

(03:23):
and the people at the New Zealand Herald who published
my articles, the latest of which ran over the weekend
under the headline Trump's triumph, How the working class reshaped
US politics. It's my take on the US election. A
lot of people didn't want Donald Trump to become the
next president of the United States, but seventy two million Americans,
more than half of those who voted, did want the

(03:44):
forty fifth president back for a second time. Having spent
a couple of weeks and about twenty two hundred kilometers
of driving time in the USA in July, I for one,
wasn't surprised by the result. Let's be clear, this is
a massive victory. For the first time since two thousand
and four, the Republicans won the popular vote, and they
look set to win the House of Representatives. They've won

(04:06):
the set it and the presidency. It's a colossal mandate,
and it was a punch on the nose for the Democrats,
who have to rethink their strategy, but also for the
celebrity endorsement business, and in particular the left leaning broadcast
media in the USA. In fact, I'd go so far
as to say the US media need to learn all
over again how to listen, how to understand, and how

(04:28):
to talk to behalf of the electorate, the electorate that
don't represent their own very partisan political views. It was,
as one commentator put it, the revenge of the working
class American. It's hard to disagree with that, so please
go and check out the full column it dated Saturday
the ninth of November. You can find it at dubdubdub
dot nz, Herald dot Co dot Nz or under published

(04:50):
articles at dubdubdub dot Brucecottle dot com, Forward Slash Blog
the headline again Trump's triumph How the working class reshaped
US politics. Thanks again for joining us on Leaders Getting Coffee.
We'll be back in a moment with this week's guest.

(05:13):
Welcome back to episode thirty of Leaders Getting Coffee. It's
a great pleasure to welcome this week's guest. I've lost
count of the number of people who have recommended that
we talk to her. Her name is Bridget Snelling and
she's the New Zealand country manager for a company that
many of you benefit from daily as you operate your
small or medium sized businesses around the country. That company
is Zero, which of course provides one of the world's

(05:35):
leading small business accounting platforms. Before joining Zero, Bridget Snelling
graduated with a law degree and she got the dream job,
supposedly one of the country's top law firms, Bell Gully,
where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions transactions. But after
a couple of years she left all that to become
an account manager at the well known New Zealand public relations,

(05:55):
strategy and communications firm Sweeney Vesti, and that led her
ultimately onto TV and ZED, where she spent seven years
as brand manager, channel's brand Manager, business marketing manager, marketing
manager for Disney for Digital channels and finally has branded
content and production funding Director. She left TVNZ after seven
years to join a Ryan Healthware. She was the global

(06:17):
director of Product Marketing and then moved on to ANZ
Bank where she oversaw the brand marketing team and the
business marketing team. During the COVID and forced break, she
had to go at her own startup, a small online
marketplace for Kiwi businesses called Pedal, and then she joined
Zero as a New Zealand marketing manager in the first instance,
before taking on the New Zealand Country Manager role a

(06:39):
couple of years ago. Bridget lives in Auckland with her husband,
three children aged thirteen to seventeen and most importantly the
family dog. Bridget Snelling. Welcome to Leaders getting coffee.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Hi, Bruce, thank you for having me on.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
You're most welcome. Hey, that's a really busy career, and
I know there's not a single woman out there who's
a working mum who a finds it easy or b
doesn't carry around a little bit of guilt. How do
you make it all work?

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, well it's a challenge. So my husband Ben and
I have three kids.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
We've got a Tommy who's thirteen, and then two younger
daughters who are eleven and seven, so we're kind of
still in the thick of it from a counting.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Point of view.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
And yeah, look, I mean it's no you know, I'm
not the only full time working mother out there, so
I know lots of women and men are in the
same boat.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
But it's pretty tough. I mean, it's a busy life.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Definitely, I love working, so I've always wanted to continue
my career, but my kids come first, so there's always
that balance and you know, trading things off and juggling
things to make sure that I can be where I
need to be.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
But I think that what's really.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Important is having a good support network. And I think
that's what it comes down to for me. I've got
obviously a great husband. We've got an after school nanny
who's been with us for eight years, so Linda. She's
part of the family and amazing. I've got wonderful parents.
My mum helps a lot, my sister which is in
you know, the whole family friends that takes a village,
Bruce takes a village.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
I could imagine. Well, you seem to be holding it
all together. So that's and you've got a couple of
hours for me on an afternoon, so it's not all bad.
Tell me it all started. Where did you go to school?

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, I went.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
I started primary school and it's some normal primary and
then I was moved to my parents' movie to Saint
Cuthberts when I was a Standard three which is now
year five. So I was very fortunate to go to
sicas it was a great school.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
For me right and then on to university in Auckland.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Was that yeah on So I actually I had a
little stint overseas between finishing school. I won a trip
to France, actually Allix says, which was amazing.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It was my first time overseas by myself.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
At eighteen, flew over to Paris for a month and
then decided to stay on, much to my parents' horror,
So I stayed on and deferred starting university for six months,
so I had probably until eight months over there then,
and then came back to Auckland UNI, but had promised
friends I'd go to Canterbury. So because I couldn't go
straight to Canterbury because I came back halfway through a

(09:14):
year and they still had full years at that time,
I then transferred down to the year at Canterbury, and
then realizing that because I was doing a law arts
conjoint degree, I would be at university for four years
longer than any of my friends, decided to transfer back
to Auckland.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
So I kind of moved around a little bit.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
But yeah, I finished my degree Auckland, did a law
honors in media law, and in my BA I did
history politics in French.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Wonderful. So, like a lot of people at that age,
it took you a while to work it all out.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Look, I mean I think when I was at school,
the careers advisor kind of sent to me, okay, you're smart,
you should do law or be a doctor.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
And my Dad's a GP and I did consider it.
And I remember Dad.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Took me to the med school for a tour, trying
to kind of convince me I was the last of
his three children that potentially could have become a doctor,
and I I just got put off doing a ter
of the med school and I said, no, don't want to.
So you know, my brother and sister had done law.
I was like, well, I may as well do law
as well and see where it takes me. I remember
a friend saying to me, look, just get a degree.

(10:16):
It's a prerequisite for the rest of your life. So
I decided to do law.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
It was good advice. I called it a library cab,
a university degree. It gives you a ticket to whatever's next. Dick,
what were your interests outside of school? Were you sporty?
Were you nerdy? Were you in the library at your time?

Speaker 1 (10:35):
No?

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I mean I like to say that I was a
cool nerd, which my kids find hard to believe.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
All nerd, Okay, So I was always.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Very social, but I also was always very driven, and
so I worked very hard. But I also partied pretty hard.
So I think I had a reasonably good balance. But
from it, I mean a sporting point of view. I
was a runner, and I say that because I don't
have the best hand eye coordination Bruce. And so I
remember saying to my dad when I was about twelve, oh,
you know, I'm not good at any sport, and he

(11:04):
said to me, well, you can become a runner. Anyone
can run. So I used to train with my dad,
and actually I you know, I actually competed. Never was
the best runner, but you know, I spent my teenage
years going to national champs and things road race and cross.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Country, which I loved.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
So I did running, but I was an a choir,
got involved in kind of all the cultural things as
well as working pretty hard academically.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
So yeah, I tried in my hand it quite a lot.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Cool. Did you always harbor leadership ambitions? Were you a
prefect or house or anything like that?

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, So, I mean I think absolutely. I'm the youngest
of three kids, as I've alluded to, so I think
when you are the youngest, you have to kind of
develop something.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
To get noticed. And at primary school I remember some of.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
The kids calling me bossy Bridget, which I thought was
really mean, but as we now know, that's just another
word for being assertive.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
As a kid and so not. Yes, definitely, I remember you.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
I used to get class captain and that kind of
thing and organized my friends, which if you give them
listening to this, I'll be laughing because I definitely was like.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
The camp mother of the group.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
So yeah, absolutely, And I was a prefect of my
last year at school and have always gravitated towards trying to.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
You know, corral the troops, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Good stuff. So you you graduate with your law degree,
you you peckle, get picked by one of the top
firms in the country, the so called dream job, and
a couple of a couple of years later, you walk
away from all that. What prompted that?

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yees?

Speaker 3 (12:41):
So I mean, I you know, I was really loved
my my my first little bit at my law firm.
I worked for a great partner and I really enjoyed him,
and some of the work I really enjoyed. But I
think the clunsure for me was that I just you know,
as everyone's heard and I think it's possibly changed a
little bit these days, but not fundamentally, which is we

(13:05):
would work really really long hours on the I think,
you know, my first deal I worked on I left
the office one night at midnight and kind of was
asked to be back in by four am. And this was,
you know, when we I think I was given a BlackBerry,
so it was my first while BlackBerry, and I remember
I was so petrified that I wouldn't wake up in
time that I just barely slept because I was waiting
for the text message to say come back into the office.

(13:27):
And I looked at the people who I worked with
and the people I worked before, and I thought, I
just I didn't want to be them when I grew up.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
And I also thought that around the office everyone seemed
to have kind of a gray pallor. And it just
struck me.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
That if I didn't feel passionate about it and I
didn't see my future, then I should make a change
sooner rather than later.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
And you know, I've talked about this before as well.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
There were some behaviors that didn't align with my values,
and I wanted to get out of that environment and
also find something a bit more creative because I felt,
you know, that that I would do better in an
animal creative environment.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, so I was really lucky at you. I went
to a party.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
And met someone who ran a pr company, and then
the next and I think I must have been talking
to him about what I did and that I was
quite keen for change, and the next day he rang
and offered me a job.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
So I saw it as the universe, you know, providing
me with an option.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
And I remember when I told the partners I worked
for that I was leaving to go onto communications. You know,
they questioned what that was, and one of them wrote
on my leaving card, good luck becoming a liar, which
I was curious coming from that partner, but yeah, so

(14:50):
you know, I think they all looked at me like,
why would you leave law?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
But yeah, really really pleased that I made the only
two years.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
And it's interesting what you talk about the workload. I've
had some of those late night meetings and law firms
and turned up at seven o'clock the next morning to
find some of those people still wearing this clothes they
were at midnight the night before. So I can only
imagine how tough it is for particularly the younger people, and.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Particularly as a woman.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
My sister was a partner in an law firm here,
and if you want to have a family and.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
That is your aspiration, it's hard to figure out. I
mean for anyone working, but particularly.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
When you're in a role where you have clients and
you have to be available basically twenty four seven. I
think it's really hard to imagine how you could be
a mother and do that kind of job without having
to make some massive sacrifices.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
And I wasn't prepared kind of to.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Do that fair enough to you talk about the collision
with the owner of a PR firm or the principle
of a PR firm. Of course, it wasn't just any
PR firm. It was Sweeney Vesti, which is one of
the biggest invest and probably most enduring and most international
in New Zealand. What was that like?

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Oh, look, you know, it was fantastic.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
I really enjoyed my time at Swing AVC. It was
obviously completely I remember my first day actually, I went
to get lunch and I was like freaking out. I
have no idea what I'm doing. But I worked with
some great people. I learned the fundamentals of PR in
that role. So I wasn't there for that long. It
was the beginning of the GFC, and I worked on
quite a few finance company.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Collapses, so so, you know, but it was a great entry.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I learned about, you know, writing a PR plan comm strategies.
So I learned a lot, worked with some great people,
and I was really grateful for the experience.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
But then a job came up at TVNZ.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
I saw advertised, and I was like, right, that's where
I want to work because I'd always loved film and
television and I'd done work experience at TVNZ when I
was a teenager, so I thought, yeah, I'll move into there.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
So I was going to ask, were you approached or
did you apply?

Speaker 1 (16:57):
I applied? Right, Okay, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So at the time, my brother in law was actually
the marketing director, and I didn't tell him that I
had put my hat in the ring for a junior
publicity and marketing role.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
And when I got hired, I.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Then told him, and he was kind of quite surprised
that no one has let me know that I had
wheezled my way into the company. But you know, I
went in as a junior and I worked on the
digital channel, so I was in a kind of a separate.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Area and I absolutely loved it.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Did some some awesome, really fun working on content. And
this was when analog television was being switched off and
so Freeview had launch and the goal was to launch
these government funded digital channels to get people switching over
to Freeview and watching digital television. And so I launched
SEVENS HAD seven, TVNZID Heartland. I mean we had I
launched about six digital channels and so really learned very

(17:53):
quickly the full gambit of marketing from events through to
you know aboff lining through the line campaigns.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Worked with government.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
So it was an amazing role because I got huge
exposure and experience and really are sort of short time frame,
so it was.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
It was great, fantastic because TV and Z is a
very different place now. They've got their challenges at the
moment as we speak, and they're going through another round
of tough decisions, which people with people. That is never
easy in any organization. As a former staffer, somebody sitting
on the outside looking in, what do you see.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Well, look, it actually makes me so sad because I
love that business.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
And I really believe one.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I believe in it's really important for us to have
a strong media, and I worry.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
About what's happening. Totally agree media in our country.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
But also you know, I know Jodie O'Donnell, Well we
work together. She's obviously been at TVZ for a long time.
I know a number of people I work with who
are still there, and I think they're having a really
hard time.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
The decisions that they're making are certainly difficult decisions and
not enviable, and nobody wants him in a position where
they're having to cut costs and make really tough choices.
So I feel already sad about what's going on at
TV and Z. I think it's an amazing company and
really important to have local stories and content. You know

(19:11):
that we still have television that reflects who we are
as a people. So obviously I'm not privit of what's
going on on the inside and all the detail, but
as an observer, I think it's really tough and I
feel for them.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
But I also think it's exciting.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
I think that the future could be really bright, so
I'm sure that they are figuring out their strategy long
term about what they're going to do to innovate and
compete with all the you know, the global players in
this fragmented marketplace.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
I totally agree with you and the importance the importance
of a strong media is difficult to deny at any level.
And you know you heard in my opening comments my
commentary around the US election and the media there. But
I just think all of our media are in a

(19:59):
pretty precarious position, probably with the exception of nz ME,
who admittedly I have some affiliation with, but they seem
to have some scale and some breadth that enables enables
them to be I guess, a less risky proposition than
some of the others. What do you think the future
of television looks like? Do you have a view on that?

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Oh, look, I don't. I mean, I don't know what
it looks like.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I hope that it looks like still strong content, locally
made content.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
You know. I think it's so important to have stories
about who we are as a people. And I think
people really enjoy watching local television.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
I mean, when I was at TVZ dot Country Calendar
with Still the number one show, people love local stories.
So I hope that we maintain a really strong local
media and broadcasters.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
I think it's really important. So, you know, I think
we will.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I think there's some exciting innovations, particularly with AI that
will come into that industry, but I will observe and
watch whether based breath to see what happens.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, that's fair enough to Incidentally, I think Country Calendar
is still in the top ten.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
After all, it's great love countries to wander.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
You then went to a bank, and there's plenty of
challenges in banks, but your job was head of brand
or something along those lines. I sorry, sorry, I got
you far ahead, No did. I started.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I went in as the head of business marketing, but
then I took on brand part way through my tenure
at A and Z, so it was great. I mean
we business marketing was great because that's all the B
to B stuff, and I did some really great work there,
kind of getting a business brand back to have a
brand presence. Actually we worked on a new customer value

(21:45):
proposition and did some more some work. But then we
had there was a bit of a reputational issue that
occurred at am Z at the time, and I kind
of took on brand and launched a new campaign around
brand and worked with some really smart people on fixing
up the am Z brand at that time, and it's

(22:06):
obviously gone from strength to strength ever since then.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Sure, what are the challenges for banks and getting people
to like them?

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Well, it's funny because David Tisco, who was the CEO
when I went into am Z, used to say to us,
remember that for most people, banking is like brushing their teeth.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
It's just something they have to do and they probably
don't think that much about it. And I think it's true,
and that you know, a bank.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
We all need banks, we need somewhere to put on money.
But for banks, you know, I think just they get
a bad rap because of things like you know, announcing
big profits and people don't like that. But then I
heard Antonio Watson speak recently and she talked about the
fact that they have a return to shareholders that they
have to make and they are at the end of the.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Day, and so, you know, I think for banks, I
think all the banks and.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Using on to trone really hard from a brand perspective,
and it's this tough competition obviously, and with the way
interest rates have been obviously, people have been looking really
hard at their banking and do they change. But switching
banks is also not that easy and it's seems like
a full pain, and so people don't really want to
do it unless they have to. So it has to
be pretty compelling to get someone to switch their bank.

(23:13):
But yeah, I do think that the bank's do a
great job from an advertising perspective, also because they had
very large budgets to.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Real absolutely well. At the risk of making another plug
about another future episode of Leaders getting Coffee, we've got
a bank CEO coming up before Christmas, so there's a teaser.
There's a teaser for you hate your startup during the
COVID lockdown? Was that just idle hands or was there
more to it than that?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Oh well, there were two things I did in lockdown.
The first thing I did was and I don't know
it was because I'm crazy, Bruce. This is why I
did this, because I just I like to not have
a spare minute in my day. My sister and I
started a charitable initiative called Friends in Need, and so
we started off by basically fixing people up, so people
who were vulnerable or didn't have any family to help them,

(24:03):
we would link them with someone in the area who
could go and do shopping for them. You leave it
at their door and that kind of thing. And we
were inupdated with requests, so it was really amazing. And then
we found raised a whole lot of money and actually
Teresa Getting who's been I guess of yours also contributed
a lot to that to that fund, and we bought
clothing and supplies for families in South Auckland and delivered them.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
So my sister I did that.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
And then when we came out of kind of the
who were coming out of the lockdown period, a friend
and I decided to launch a marketplace to help key
businesses sell online. And I mean that I look back
and I learned so much. I call it my mini MBA.
But it was super intense, and you know, I was

(24:45):
working my full day job and I had three little kids,
and then at night I'd be up to say two
am talking to developers in India and yeah, I mean
it was exhausting and crazy and I probably would never
do it like that again, but I did learn a lot.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Well, I like to say there are bad experiences, but
there's no such thing as bad experience.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Right, Well, that's exa clear and that's my husband said.
He said, you know it's a MINIMBA. And then I will.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
About what was it? A year after.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
I got my breast cancer diagnosis And at that point
I shut it down.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
I could. I was like something has to give here,
and it was gone. It had to be pedal, but
it was a great experience while I.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Lasted, good on you where with Bridget Snelling from Zero
will be back in a moment, back with Bridget Snelling,
Country manager for Zero in New Zealand. And we've we've

(25:46):
ambled through your career to the point that you're now
turning up at Zero. What are the challenges that are
unique in running a business like that? Because you just
have so you must have so many clients, so many conversations,
technology platforms to deal with client issues, to deal with
a big team to run. What's unique about running Zero?

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (26:07):
I think it's such a huge privilege to be the
country manager is Zero? I mean Zero is an iconic brand.
I spoke to someone recently and they were talking about,
you know, when people from overseas want to move to
New Zealand, the two brands that they refer to are
in New Zealand and Zero. So I think, you know,
and that just shows your Zero from Rodgery coming up
with this idea in his living room with his accountant.
Zero has now grown to be a really big global

(26:30):
company and we now have, you know, a global CEO
who's based in San Francisco and an executive team that
is predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere, and so it has
changed an awful lot, even in the last three and
a half years since I've been with Zero.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
So what are the challenges?

Speaker 3 (26:46):
I mean, there are obviously multiple challenges, multifaceted. But one
of the challenges is being a global company but trying
to maintain our kew DNA. This is where our roots
are and it's a challenge because we run fast to
deliver product to grow in the Northern Hemisphere. But at
the same time we really need to take care of
our customers in New Zealand in Australia who are our

(27:09):
foundational partners we call them our accountants.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
And bookkeepers, as well as the small businesses.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
That use and rely on Zero. So the challenges are multifactive,
but it's a huge honor and a privilege and I
rarely get a lot of satisfaction out of the fact
that we do work so hard to help small businesses
in our country.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Cool. How many people in the New Zealand business? How
big is it just locally?

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Well, we have around three thousand people in New Zealand,
are so substantial proportion of our is still here. Yeah,
and not all in Auckland Marion Base. We have an
office in Wellington, we have an office in Hawk's Bay
and we have a number of remote workers around the
country as well, but still a large workforce based here.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
It's bigger than I thought it was. Actually, what do
you think Zero does really well as a as a
company in New Zealand as a big employer, big you know,
as you say, what was once a tech startup, so
it's a big success, big brand. What do you think
they do really well?

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, I mean I think there's the few things we
do really well.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
But product in terms of how easy our product is
to use, you know what I'm talking to customers. That
is the thing that always comes through that they love
us because Zero is so easy to use. It makes
their life so much easier. And you think about it,
if you're a small business and you're really good at
your craft, all the admin is stuff that you just
you have to do, but you don't necessarily love doing it,

(28:36):
and so fighting a tool that makes it a lot
easier for small businesses, you know, with their cash flow
forecasting understanding, you know how they pay someone, how when
do they know using payroll? For example, sending an invoice
chasing payments. We make that really easy, and I think
that's what we do really really well. And I also
think that what we have done really well is we've
created a really special culture for our people, the people

(29:00):
who work at Zero who we call our zeros.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
But also we.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Made counting and bookkeeping kind of magical and cool. And
I say where it really came from Road when he
started it. But you know, for example, Zero Con, which
is someone described to me once as the Coachella for accountants.
You know that we have traditionally put on really amazing events,
and if I'm honest, I think we've.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Lost some of that.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
We're just growing so quickly and becoming a global company
and things changing rapidly. I think now is the time
to kind of look at how do we bring that
magic back again that we may have lost a little bit.
And that's absolutely our focus.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Are what are the challenges? What are the things that
a business like zero struggles with in a market like this?

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, I think, well, talent finding and keeping talent is
a challenge for everybody, but also for us, particularly in
the developer space. You know, there's a lot of competition
for those skills. I think also there's a challenge in
terms of as a global company delivering for our customers
because because we are global now and we have got

(30:05):
different product require in different parts.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Of the world, and because our growth is focused.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
On the Northern hemisphere, trying to make sure that we
are still delivering the product updates and innovation for our
customers in the Southern hemisphere is really important. And it's
a challenge because as everyone will understand, those finite.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Resources, so everything's a trade off, and.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
It's making sure that we get that balance right and
I think at times we haven't got the balance right,
and you know, so now that's obviously something we continue
to look at, is how do we make sure we're
still delivering value for our customers.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Fantastic and there's a lot of customers to look after.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah we do. We have a lot of customers to
look after, but.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
We you know, it's really important to us that we
use our brand and our platform to support small businesses.
And there's something I really enjoy in my roles. I
get to go to government and talk to government on
behalf of small businesses and talk about some of the
pain points for small business you know, because things have
been really, really tough and still are tough in our economy,
and small businesses make up ninety seven percent of our economy,

(31:02):
so if they are not doing well, then the economy
isn't doing well. So it's a privilege to be able
to highlight using data, what are the challenges small businesses
are facing on what do we need to do collectively
and also looking to government to what they can do.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
We're going to talk about that shortly, but before we do,
I think there's this impression that zero is a solution
for small small businesses. But I've seen some pretty substantial
medium sized businesses who are still using your platforms as well,
and they're using it without any issues. It obviously holds
up pretty well. So it's it's not just the little

(31:39):
guy with three or four staff that falls into a gambit,
is it.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
No, Look, I think I mean our sweet spot, I
think we would say is sort of employing businesses up
to twenty people.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
So when you're right, we have got.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
We've got some customers who are absolutely you know, we
call them whales, don't really big businesses using zero, And
then obviously you've we've got sol traders using zero as.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Well, So we do we do have obviously different.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Plans, so they catered to different business sizes depending on
what jobs they need to do and what features they need.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
But absolutely it's.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
A great software for businesses of a medium to even
large size as well as the small micro.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Businesses you just touched before. Bridget on the data giving
you a unique perspective about the state of the economy
through seeing the state of small business. What's your research
telling you at the moment about the state of things
out there? Because we know it's tough. How tough is it?

Speaker 1 (32:36):
It's pretty tough. I mean, I think for all of us, we.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Know we've been in and out of recession in our
country and ever since COVID, things have been difficult.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
For us when it comes.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
So we have the zero Small Business Insights, and this
is using data that goes through our platform. It's aggregated
and anonymous to give us some really interesting information. And
what it's told us is that sales for small businesses
have been declining. So over the past twelve months, there's
only been a couple of months where sales have gone
up here on here and for the most part they've
gone down. So sales are going down, which means that

(33:09):
small businesses are struggling to get money in the door,
and then if we think about things like well wage growth,
we've seen wage growth come back year on year, so
they're not able to continue to pay to compete with
bigger businesses, which is a concern. And I think what
we know is that small businesses, many of them have

(33:29):
shut their doors over the past couple of years. You know,
we've seen an increase in business deaths, and so that's
concerning because we need a really strong small business economy
in our country, and I think that part of that
is about helping small businesses to be more efficient and productive,
because we also know that we've got a productivity issue,

(33:52):
and we've put out a lot of data and there's
a whole lot of stuff in our website for any
listeners who are interested in more. But things like small
businesses not getting paid on time is something we've been
talking about quite a lot recently. So I think it's
eighty one percent eighty one percent increase in the cost
of late payments to key small businesses, and so that's

(34:13):
other small businesses or big businesses not paying invoices on
time or not paying at all, which means that these
small businesses have cash flow issues, you know, the cash
flow crunch that happens, so costs are going up. We know,
we've seen that with inflation, costs are going up, sales
are falling.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
So it's a pretty nasty story.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Having said that, forever the optimist, and so I hope
you with things like the ocr coming down, that we
might start to see some green shoots as we head into.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
The new year.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
You know, lots of businesses have been talking about surviving
till twenty five, but we want to reframe that as
thriving in twenty five and getting businesses to think about, well,
what can they do differently, what can they do better?

Speaker 1 (34:52):
What tools can they use.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
To help them with their cashlow forecasting to make sure
that they are more productive, adopting digital tools to reduce
some of that administrative burden on them so that they
can focus on doing what they do best and being profitable.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Staying in business.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Sure, I went out to dinner on the weekend and
walked past five restaurants, and three of them had people
in them. And I think those three that did have
people in them probably had six tables. And I noticed
in your research recently, the biggest decrease for the quarter

(35:28):
was hospitality in terms of workforce size. Are we seeing,
you know, summers coming, hopefully interest rates coming down? Are
we seeing or is it too early to see anything
starting to lift in the hospitality sector or are you
still seeing it as a bit of a grind.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Look.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
I mean that we put this data up quarterly, and
so the latest data, which is at the end of
the September quarter, is still pretty sobering.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Hospitality, construction, and.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Retail are the three sectors that have had it the toughest.
And I think retail, we're always optimistic that heading into
the Christmas.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Holiday period, people will.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
You be spending more buying presents and spending on holidays,
So I think that that set those sectors, but particularly retail,
will be hoping for a bit of a bump over
the next quarter. But last December was actually the worst
period for retailers in something like ten years, So you know,
I just think it's too soon to really know. But

(36:33):
I think the summer coming, we can hope that people
are feeling a little bit more like they want to
get out and about, so hopefully hostfo that that sector
starts to improve. But yeah, it's tough I think we
can't sugarcoat it. It is really hard, and we often
know use that that catch cry shop local, support local businesses,
but it really is really.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Important and pay your bills on time. I noticed in
one of your and you just touched on it briefly,
but one of your research papers talked about an eighty
one percent increase in the cost of late payments to
small business from between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three.
Big companies and government need to need to look after

(37:12):
the little guy by paying them on time, don't they.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
So it was just last week that the government has
mandated that like one hundred and.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Sixty three of their agencies I.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Think it, are going to have to pay within ten
businesses pay invoices. And obviously there's invoicing which is set
up to make that a lot easier so businesses can pay.
You know, it's an automated sort of payment of invoices,
a network system, and so all of these things really help.
So the government is role modeling what they would.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Like to see.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
We had advocated for the Business Payments Practices Bill to
come into force, which would have mandated more transparent payment practices.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
For big businesses.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
But regardless, anything that helps small businesses get paid faster
and get paid is really important. So it's great to
see the government taking a positive step in that direction.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
And absolutely like consumers.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Pay and vy is on time or early if you can,
and obviously businesses try and pay within ten working days.
That's what we do at Zero, that's what we advocate for,
just helps cashing in small businesses. I have people contacting
me all the time and a lot of the time
I'm hearing stories about how people have been waiting maybe
three months or longer to get paid because they can't

(38:27):
they can't manipulate the payment terms. You know, they don't
have any bargaining power is dealing with a big business.
So it's really really important and we will continue to
campaign for that.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Keep banging on the doors, bridget what's I know there'll
be things in the laboratories that you can't tell us about.
But what's the next big thing in terms of the
services that we provide to small business They've obviously got
the platforms that've been using. What's the next big thing?

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Well, from a ZERO perspective, something I'm really excited about
is the AI that were generative AI that we are
building into our products. We've had AI in our product
for years and years and years, but we've got some
really exciting enhancements coming. Something called just Ask Zero or
we call it jacks, which is going to provide awesome
functionality for small businesses and accounting and bookkeeping partners alike,

(39:22):
where for example, things like invoices will be able to
be sent using a voice message into WhatsApp. Really some
really cool developments to make admin much faster, much smoother.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
I'm really excited.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
About the possibility of AI in terms of making workflows
more efficient and just getting rid of some of those
boring manual tasks. So I think AI is where it's
at in terms of development businesses, not just Zero, but
across all digital tools. We've got a big ecosystem of
over a thousand apps, and there's some really interesting things

(39:57):
happening in different fields, different verticals. So it kind of
depends what the industry you're in, but it's definitely worthwhile
looking at recommended tech sex for a particul your industry
to see what's available.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, cool, fantastic, Well, we'll look forward to that. We're
with Bridget Snelling from Zero we'll be back in a moment,
back with the New Zealand country manager for Zero, Bridget Snelling. Bridget.

(40:31):
Young women today are probably under more pressure than ever
to have it all, marriage, motherhood, career, university degrees, et cetera.
What do you say to the young women in your
organization who are trying to meet the expectations that society
puts on them.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Oh, yeah, this is a tough one.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
I mean, I've got two daughters, obviously quite little still,
but it is.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
On my mind a lot. Look, you know, I went
to an all girls' school, and I grew up.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Thinking I could have it all and do anything, which
I think is awesome that I was taught that woman
can do anything.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
My son who sitting so he just had his Year
eight exams and I was helping him study, and part
of one of the topics is World War One, and
he was looking at the impacts on different people in society.
One group was woman and he was learning about the
Suffragette movement, which was a weirdly a positive thing.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
That came out of World War One.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Was a woman changing roles and taking on jobs that
traditionally they hadn't been able to. And my son said,
really well at some point that woman could they not,
I haven't.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Have a job they wanted.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
And I thought that was so amazing that he has
not known a world where, you know, woman kind of
in traditional roles. So he was fascinated by that, and
I was fascinated that he thought it was so interesting. Look,
I think it's it's hard, you know, I mean, we
say women can have it all, and I have my mum.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Actually she was a stat at home mother.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
I mean, she was a trained dietician, but it was
you know, when I was growing up, it was childcare
was really expensive, and so you know, it makes sense,
so she kind of she actually retrained when I was
twenty one, to her credit, pretty amazing. But I think
she always encouraged my sister and I to work. She
really wanted us to have our own careers. And you know,
this is partly because she had friends who went through

(42:18):
nasty divorces and she never wanted her daughters to be
in a situation where they weren't sort of financially independent.
So I think, and I think that's a really great
lesson in something I think is really important.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
And the other thing is that you know, my mum taught.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Us that not only do we need careers to be
financial independent, but it's really important to kind of think
about what we want to contribute to society and what
impact we want to have, and we are capable of
so much.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
So we must both grew up thinking, you know, we
could have it all.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
The reality is you can have it all, but nothing
is ever going to be perfect. And I think that
that's one of the hardest things. You know, I've got
three kids, I work full time. I do have no
help paid and unpaid. But I think you've got You've got.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
To make those kind of financial sacrifices.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
So in order to work, we have to pay an
any because we need that level of support. And that's
a decision that we've made. But I think it's I
think it's really important that women do lean into a
career if they want a career, because women have a
lot to a lot to give. And if we think about,
you know, fifty percent of our population being female, imagine

(43:33):
what we would miss out on if women weren't working
and weren't putting themselves forward for opportunities. So I've often
had you know, people Zarah, but also people have boved
with in the past reach out to me at a crossroads,
often when they have children, and they think, I better
not take that next step, I better not accept that
bigger job, because it's just going to be too hard.

(43:54):
And I think it's a real shame. And what I
think needs to happen is businesses companies need to make
sure that they are offering conditions and flexibility that make
it possible for women and men to continue to toe
their career goals while at the same time being able
to be there for their family and their other.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Commitments when it matters.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
So I think companies have a responsibility to do their
bit to promote women.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
It's just like when women go on matunity to.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Leave, making sure they get a pay rise while they're
on leave other ways behind.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
So yeah, I mean it's hard.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Look it's not without its trade offs, and I always
feel like I'm dropping balls. I think I am dropping balls.
I mean last week, my my youngest daughter's teacher texts
me saying, does.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Taluna have any lunch today? And I realized that i'd,
you know, completely, I'd.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Made her a mini pizza and I'd left it in
the air fryer and I had to put it in
her lunch box and I'd raced out the door and
I was like, I'm a poor Talula, no like, but
you know, she had snacks and they fixed her up.
And then my son rang me, oh, Mum, who's picking me.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Up from basketball?

Speaker 3 (44:55):
And I was like, oh, because you know, my husband
was away and I just had a million things on
my mind. So look, I dropped balls occasionally, and we
all do. And I think the important thing is not
to beat yourself up too much about it, because that's
going to happen.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Right. We are human and things are not going to
go perfectly.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
So you can have it all as long as you're
prepared to realize that there's a Sometimes you're better at home,
sometimes you're better at work, and the end it all
evens oure, and as long as you have the flexibility
to prioritize the things that really matter and to get
to the things for your family that are important, like
the athletics days or the choir concerts or whatever it

(45:33):
might be.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yeah, that's how I manage it. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
You've said a couple of things that are really important.
One is that employers have to make it easy, Yeah,
or as easy as they can make it and the
other the other one is, and there'll be a whole
lot of women out there who are absolutely delighted to
hear you say this. It's okay to drop the ball
every now and then.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Right, Oh look, I think, I mean, it's impossible for
it not to And I have I have days where
I think, oh, you know, like, god, am I you know?

Speaker 1 (46:00):
My poor children?

Speaker 3 (46:01):
I beat me and I did beat myself up about
the stupid pizza in the air fry, and I said
to my team, I'm the worst mother in the world.
And of course they said, no, you're not like and
of course I'm not. You know, I'm a really good
mom because I love my kids to bit and I
always put them first. But yeah, occasionally I'm going to
drop a ball, but they're.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Going to be okay. You know that they're going to
be okay, whether this lunch or having to walk home
from a from a sports practice.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
They and I think what I actually think is really
important is that my kids see that both their mom
and dad work really hard to provide them with opportunities.
I mean, they are the reason why we do this,
because we want to give them great education. We want
them to be able to go to the sports practices
and the you know, to open doors for them in
their life. So they say it, and so they you know,
my daughters are growing up not thinking that one person

(46:46):
works and one doesn't.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
That they at home and at work, you know.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
They see that it's it's got to be everyone putting
in the effort.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
So I think that's important.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Good stuff. Changing tech for a minute. We've we've got
a government in this country that's been in place for
a year or so now, and as you heard in
the introduction, my next guest the next episode is a
senior member of that government. What are your thoughts on
what they inherited and how they're doing.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Yeah, look, I think they inherited a shambles and I
think that they're doing pretty well.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I'm pretty impressed with Nichola Willis. I met her for the.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
First time when she was an opposition and my head
of government relations and I went and had a meeting
with her and we sat in her office, and I
remember thinking that she didn't come across that well on TV,
but when I met her in person, I was really
amazed at her presence. She had an amazing presence. And
I sat her office and I think the couch was
slightly lower than her chair, and I felt like a

(47:45):
little schoolgirl, kind of full the girls was actually quite
kind of an awe of her, Like, she has a
pretty strong presence about her, so I think she's actually
doing a really good job. I've been really impressed with her,
and I've heard her speak a few times and I
like what she's got to say, and I think that
we've got signals of things moving in.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
The right direction. It's obviously going to take time.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
The things that worry me the most, probably like most people,
are what education really worries me, But I think things
are I think the government's put into there a pretty
good plan from what I can tell, So we'll say,
I mean, i'd like to, you know, from a with
my zero hat on, I would like to see more

(48:26):
from the government in.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Terms of small business support and in terms of.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
Supervising digitalization and to grow productivity. We haven't seen any
signals of that yet, but I'm hopeful that we might
see something in next year's budget.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Yeah, well, let's hope. So I totally agree with you
about education. Gee, we we got we gobble up plenty
of cash. So my concern is is really on how
we spend it, and whether it's education or health or crime.
You look at the size of those budgets that are enormous,
and yet getting traction just seems so hard. So so

(49:01):
if if you if you sort of sit there as
a as a parent of an age, what a thirteen
year old who's about to go to high school? What
are the top three priorities when you look for school?

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Oh, jee, this has been a big debate in our household.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Well, look, my daughters are at private school, and that
is because I.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Was not happy with the education they were getting at
their local public school, which is a tragedy because I
firmly believe in public education, particularly at a primary school level.
But they were not getting the level of education that
I thought they needed, and they weren't thriving. And I've
moved them and they are doing really, really well. And
of course they are because we are paying a lot,

(49:45):
and we make a decision to prioritize that, so we
do without other things.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
And it's made a big.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Difference, you know, And it's just because you know, I
think about my youngest daughter. She had an amazing teacher
in her public primary school. But the teacher had so
many kids in her classmate whom English was the second language.
So these four kids, they couldn't really engage because they
didn't understand. The teacher could not manage that number of
I mean, she was amazing, but there's just no way
she could possibly give.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Them each the attention they needed.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
And so in order to get that level of one
on one assistance, we pay her, you know, we put
them into private school.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
My son is at private primary school.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
He's had an amazing private primary education and I'm really
pleased that we moved him because he's really thrived.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
But he's off to All Congrammar next year. He's chosen
All cong Grammar. I'm delighted because my dad.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Was head boy of Grammar in nineteen sixty three and
my brother went there, and so, you know, a kind
of I've got Grammar in my bloody and I've listened
to Tim O'Connor's podcast with you, Bruce, and I think
he's very impressive. So I'm really excited it for Tommy
heading off to Grammar. But look at education, it worries
me because I think that it's going to take so
long to get it to a state where we will

(50:55):
see actual provence her point before money so much money
gets pulled into something and you don't see any results
for such a long time. And I worry about the
levels of truancy in our country and worry about the
future generation of people who will be running our country.
If we don't have educated, smart people in charge, you
know what will happen. So for me, education and healthcare.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
I talked on one of our early podcasts, we talked
about education, and I think I said at that time,
this is a this is a generation to fix because
you've actually got to teach the new teachers before you're
going to get a substantial change. So poor Allerica Stanford's

(51:40):
got her hands full.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
I think I think she's the right person for the job.
You know, she's doing some good stuff.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Absolutely, we're with Bridget Snelling from zero and we're going
to be back in a moment and talk about her
leadership lessons. Back with Bridget Snelling, Bridget A and Z
Bank and Z zero. Now, what are the big most

(52:10):
important leadership lessons that you think you've had to take
on board along the way.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Yeah, well, I mean I think one of the first
things that I well, not maybe not the first thing
I've learned.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
But something that has been really.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Important to me over the past few years is figuring
out boundaries. And what I mean by that is I
used to want to fix everything for my team, and
I would take on board a lot of their stresses,
you know, So obviously, when you're leading people, it's not
about the work, it's about the whole person. Because you've

(52:44):
what got one at home, comes to work as it should,
you know, you need to show up and be yourself.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
And a lot of the time people show up in a.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Certain way because of their life, how they've been brought up,
the core beliefs they have, and it's not always really
constructive in a work context. And so I used to
spend a lot of time trying to help my team
members and kind of offering solutions for things.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
And then I learned.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Pretty quickly that it's not my job to fix things
for them, sort of like being a parent.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
It's my job to listen and to.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
Coach and to ask the right questions so that they
can then get you know, make decisions that they need
to make or make changes. So for me, it was boundaries,
and it was actually a coach who helped me figure
that out. Like I was just taking on way too
much of other people's energy. And so that's been a
big lesson to me. So I try now to kind
of have my boundaries and realize what my places and
my places is to coach and to guide. And then,

(53:44):
you know, another leadership lesson is I was relatively new
in this role. Actually I know, I'm a kind of
glass half full person. I believe I can get anything done.
And I took on, you know, something that we were
asked for globally every region, and I said, yep, I
can do that, and I signed up to it. And
then I found out that every other region had said no.

(54:06):
And I kind of beat myself up and thought, oh,
you know, I've set my team up to fail and
I didn't, you know, I should have. I felt kind
of unsuppored and freaked down. I called my brother in law, actually,
who's bort of a go to for me when I
have moments like this.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
And and he said, no.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
You know if that, you know, you backed yourself and
you were asked to do something, and you you went
in with the right attitude, and you will work really
hard to try and get there.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
And if you miss, well, unless you know you tried.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
And that was the same feedback actually that my my
global CEO gave me too, So it turned out to
work in my favor.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
But I think when you're you know, when you're a leader.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
And you feel responsible for your team and what you're
signing them up, it can be really hard.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
And so you know, for me, it's it's I trust.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
My gut, but I also make sure that I've got
my team on board, that we've all signed up to
something and that we're you know, we're all aligned well
or if there's if there's dissension, that we you know,
disagree and commit and move on.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
But you know there's a responsibility there as well.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
You know, we want to we want to deliver a
result at the same time as keeping our team happy
and engaged and keeping that you know, that MPs high
and making sure that the place they work is a
place they want to come to every day.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
So lots of challenges but also a real privilege.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
So what's what's been the biggest challenge in your career
to date? Has there been the biggest challenge biggest challenge?

Speaker 3 (55:25):
I mean, I think I think, well, probably the biggest
challenge for me was coming into the country manager role,
at zero because I took on the revenue for the country,
so that numbers. It's on my head and and so
that's a challenge. And also because I lead a sales organization,
and while I'd worked in sales, i'd never let a

(55:47):
sales organization prior toly with my background being law and marketing.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Sure, and so I and I was a seat learning curve.
But I was really lucky. I had really.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
Good people around me who helped me to get up
to speed, and and I went really deep to understand
the things that I didn't know, and I and I
relied heavily on those people who experts in those areas
to help me get up to speed. And actually was
amazing because I'm curious by nature and I love learning,
and I really feel like I have learned a lot

(56:17):
and grown a lot.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Over the past few years.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Cool. What do you adviire an other people?

Speaker 3 (56:25):
I admire people who set themselves a goal and just
go after it. You know, one of my team just
ran a marathon and having you know, she wasn't kind
of always a runner. Another one of my team who
never ran at all, it's just about to do a
half marathon. So I think you know, see yourself a
goal and go after it. I love that, And I

(56:45):
just I admire people who who are.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Authentic and kind and have good integrity.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
And I guess I I the values that I like
to hope that I also have. I look to other
people who reflect those those values and qualities and just
being good humans. People who are fund hang out with
a you know, yeah, but I look, I mean, I admire.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Lots of people.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
I think, depending on you know, what field someone's in,
if they're achieving or not.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
But I also admire people who make a.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Decision that you know, I've got friends who have decided
they don't want to work anymore because they want to
prioritize being with their kids.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
And I also really admire that.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
So I think people who are true to themselves that's
probably what I admire most good humans.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
I like that line. Good humans.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Yeah, like a good human. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
I'm a very much a vibe person, Bruce.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
And if I have good energy with someone and.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
I can read people reasonably well, I think kind of
from a from a first meeting and getting a good
sense of someone's energy and you know, you know, if
someone's kind of authentic or if they've got an agenda
don't like it.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
So in a company like zero, you've you've got people
coming into that organized organization all the time. It's you know,
and we've already talked about the challenges of the education system.
What do you say to young people who join in
the workforce on a full time basis for the first time.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Yeah, well, I say work hard, because I do, you know,
I do. I do think that there is just a
change in how people work. And it's not to say
it's right or wrong. As society evolves, and we know
where we live in a very different time now with
digital first, I mean our chemistrip on phones and it's
just a it's a totally different world. And I'm not

(58:32):
sure companies are evolving fast enough to a new generation
of workers. I think where we sit there and we
expect that they should work how we work, and actually
maybe we need to adapt to how they work. So
that's something I'm often thinking about. But I do think regardless,
you need to be able to work hard. You need
to have work ethic. I think in life, you know,

(58:52):
only so much is talent and the rest is hard work.
And if you're not prepared to work hard, then you're
probably not going to get too far.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
You know, life is tough. I tell my kids this
all the time. Life is tough.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
No matter who you are, where you are, you will
face challenges and you have so you have to be
able to pick yourself up when things don't go your way,
and you have to be able to put in the
mahi because you know, if you just want to sit
around and think something's going to be handed to you,
then you are in for a bit of a shock.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
So I think if you come in with the right
attitude wherever you're.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
Working, work hard, do the best in your current job,
and opportunities will come to you. My dad just to
always have that to me. Focus on what you're doing
now and just do it the best you can, and
then good things will happen.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
And I truly believe that.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Yep, totally agree. Well, well, Bridget, I've only got one
more question for you, and you can probably guess what
that one is, because it's the question I ask everybody
if you could be the new Zealand Prime Minister for
a day, what's the one thing you'd like to do?

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Look I, as I've mentioned, education is something I'm really
hot on. The other thing is primary healthcare, and I think,
probably because my dad's a retired GP healthcare has always
been close.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
To my heart.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
I would, I don't know, triple the pay for all
of our primary health care workers and all of our teachers.
I would do something really fundamentally different to attract people
into those professions, because I think that without getting the
fundamentals of society right, nothing else will go.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
You know, if we don't educate our people and we
don't take care of our health, and primary health care
being kind of first and foremost where we need to
look at that, then I think the rest of it's
kind of irrelevant. So a big payday for primary health
care and teachers on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
My watch, which is great. But as Nichola willis that
you've already mentioned, would probably say, where are you going
to get the money from?

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
I knew you were going to ask me.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Look, I don't know, but probably a fine toothcome through
where the spending is going and how much of it
is actually going into the right areas and making a
tangible difference.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
I'm sure you know.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
We can all find money when we look at our
own spending and we realize some of it's frivolous.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
So you know, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
I'm no expert, but I imagine it would be trying
to figure out where else money going and where can
we divert it to have a better and more important impact.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Perhaps we could take a leaf from the new president
of Argentina, who I read something about over the weekend
is halved spending, halved government spending since he took control.
Maybe that's the solution.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
Well, maybe maybe we'll be looking to Argentina, who knows
stranger things have happened.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Stranger things have happened. Well, Bridget's snelling. That's been a
very fast hour, hasn't it. But thank you for joining
us on Leaders getting Coffee. You are an absolute live
wire and I can see why you've been so successful
to date. And I'm also I can also see why
so many people recommended that we should talk on the podcast.

(01:01:50):
You have a wonderful outlook on life, your family, your children,
and your people at zero are very fortunate to have
you at the Helm. So thank you for joining us
on Leaders Getting Coffee.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Well thanks for having me, Bruce.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
This is me on an afternoon after a night at
Pearl jam too, so you know i'd probably be even
more energetic on any other day, but I think you're.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
I think you're energetic enough for me. So thanks Bridget,
Thanks for joining us. Finally, folks, my leadership tip of
the week and it relates to our people. And we've
been talking to Bridget about the importance of our people.
And it's one of the phrases that I put in
the book The Best Leaders Don't Shout when I wrote
it a few years back. Many of you will know

(01:02:31):
that I think a leader's key role is to ensure
that our people know what's important. And so there's this
little phrase that I came up with years ago. It
goes like this, most people go to work each day
with the intention of doing a good job as leaders.
It's up to us to enable them to do that.
Most people go to work each day with the intention
of doing a good job as leaders. It's up to
us to enable them to do that. So let's make

(01:02:54):
sure we give our people every chance of being successful
in their roles. That's it. Thanks again for joining us
on leaders Getting Coffee episode number thirty with our guest
Bridget Snelling, Country manager of zero. As always, if you
have any feedback, please get in touch at info at
leaders getting coffee dot com. Remember our favorite charity is
Bike for Bloods dot cot on enz and don't forget

(01:03:15):
next week the Leader's getting Coffee Special with the Deputy
Prime Minister, the Right Honorable Winston Peters. Until then, have
a great week and we'll catch you next time.