S7 E5: Bridget Bell - Understanding Local Government Māori wards from a Māori perspective

It’s not often you get to sit down with someone who has cut their teeth in Hollywood as a writer, or is a best-selling author, or instrumental in kickstarting the New Zealand film industry – so what’s the chance that you could have that conversation with one woman who has done all three? What a great person to interview for our 100th podcast!

A chance to sit down with Councillor Bridget Bell representing multiple hapū and marae across the Manawatū District. To understand her journey as a young wahine into the world of a District council in provincial Aotearoa. * Public polls can be triggered by just 5% of voters to overturn council decisions to establish Māori wards. * New Plymouth hīkoi for Māori wards in 2016 (not 2018).

Staying ahead of cashflow demands on a growing business is becoming more and more difficult. Growth can destroy a business. Multiple surprises can make bank managers edgy, and CEO’s lose sleep. Enter Cashbucket, born from such an experience by its co-founder Kevin Whitmore. I want all business owners with a growing business to know about Cashbucket – now.

I never thought about the unintended benefits of writing a book – of which there have been many. One of these has been introduced to Book reviewers across the globe by my wonderful editor Bob Seldon. Dr Paul Vanderbroeck is one such person who wrote a very generous review of ‘As It Turns Out – No One’s Got Their Shit Together’, which then sparked a conversation about his work as a leadership coach in Europe. Paul is based in Switzerland and so we needed to coordinate our timing for this podcast, where I was intrigued to learn about his own book ‘Lead Like Julius Caesar’ and the cross over he saw in my own writing. There was one massive new insight I gained in this conversation – and why it led to Caesars downfall. Enjoy!

Sitting down with Haylee Putaranui to record this podcast, was like stepping into the future of Aotearoa NZ’s commercial world where Māori are resourced and a force for good. A world where we can focus on co creating an inclusive world with Pakeha and Māori walking together.

Anita Derks sat down with Harv to discuss the process of bringing vaccines into the world. Anita is a microbiologist who has worked throughout the world, and it was a unique chance to get to understand the process of manufacturing vaccines.   After all the whoohaa of the past few years about bloody vaccines, Harv couldn’t wait to get under the bonnet of someone as close to the action as you could be.   Now – we would love you to pose questions to Anita in the chat, and she will answer them. We have done this to give you a chance to ask something Harv didn’t. Please feel free to ask anything! 

From guitarist, singer song writer, to practicing Buddhist, this was a wonderful rich conversation for Harv. Harv met Brian Baker while recording the book audio in his studio back in December and realised he had met a kindred soul on many levels. Plus Harv got a lesson on how a band works together on stage.  

From politician to food insecurity for the nation, this was a great chance to understand what advocacy looks and sounds like, talking with Iain Lees-Galloway.

What do you get when you create two AI bots – Claude 1 and Claude 2 and them conversing with each other 24 hours a day called Infinite Backrooms and launch them onto X (stupid name). Then create a 3rd Bot called Truth Terminal which takes the learnings of Claude 1 and 2, add some interest from a tech billionaire who gifts $50k of crypto to one of the claudes. Oh and let's start a religion called the Goatse Gospel and see what happens when some random floats the $Goat Crypto currency. You end up with the first AI millionaire – that's what. Enjoy a taste of things to come.

I’ve heard it said many times. A good editor is worth their weight in gold. I now know that to be true.  Without Bob Selden my book ‘As it turns out - No One's Got Their Shit Together’ would not be about to be printed.  He has not only edited the book, but kept me on track, and as it turns out, there’s more work to do after the book has been written than writing it in the first place. Phew – thank you Bob. This podcast was a chance to learn some more about Bob’s journey in his professional life, and about the 4 books he has written himself. Enjoy!