Episode 1 - Navigating a start-up, family and self-care
Transcript for My Rhythm, My Ride ‘Episode 1 - Navigating a start-up, family and self-care’ with guest Rachel Peterson, released 3 October 2023.
Kylee
Hello. And welcome. Today we are here with the My Life My Voice podcast where we talk with incredible people in our community about their journeys and how they have got where they got and how they do what they do and the learnings along the way. We have Rachel Peterson here today with us, and it is incredible to have you with us here today. Rachel, thank you.
Rachel
Thank you for having me.
Kylee
I wanted to talk with you. You've done some incredible things with Moments for Love. You've been a part of the disability community, the leadership, the mentoring other young people and working and fighting for creating new ways of doing things in new cultures. So I just wanted to, I guess, open the platform today for you to hear from you and have a conversation about what that has looked like both the good and the bad and the learnings along the way.
Rachel
Thank you. I think when you reached out to me about this, mahi, it's so important. I've always enjoyed being on the outskirts of new emerging things that are happening. And when I was a young person, I was really fortunate to have some incredible mentors around me. Many of them still work in the sector. And having them guide me and give me that support was the absolute difference. And being able to create a career and a life that worked for me, both knowing how to get resources as a disabled person and how to have a career in this industry. And so I do feel a pull to give back where possible to honour what's been done. And because some of the young people are coming through... When I have days that I'm jaded and I'm like, Oh, this is hard, Mahi. I see some of these young ones and they light up my soul. And I think during our new friendship that we've formed, I think that really unites us how much we're inspired by our mentors and then flowing on to these young people. And I feel like we're in a space that we're sort of in the middle of joining these worlds.
So I am sincerely really honored and excited to be here. Thank you.
Kylee
Thank you. Yeah, it's amazing. I think for me, there's always a hand up and a hand down or a hand to my left and a hand to my right. So what am I looking forward to? And what have I had to remember? And the people that I reach up to to learn from myself, but then also making sure that I'm handing that onto others as well. So a hand in the future and a hand in the past and a hand left and a hand right. Because I think, and it's been a bit of a thing for me, but alone we get so far, together we get so much further. And I think we're better together. So how do we come together and share that and learn that?
Rachel
Yeah, your Spooky Dookie, that's always been my thing as well, and mine was slightly different. It was don't be too proud and not have humility to ask for help when you need it. And when you've got enough room at your table, mentally, financially, physically, whatever it is, don't ever be not giving and gifted. I think you've got to have humility to allow people to help you, and you've got to be not selfish and giving of yourself and I base karma. For me, that works really cleverly. It goes around comfort. I get amazing opportunities, and then I try and give back where I can. It all seems to just... It's weird that you and I have got the same little visuals.
Kylee
So you've been running Moments for Love for the last few years. I wonder if you could tell me a bit about that.
Rachel
Yeah, I can. So pre-2020, I was working with Yes Disability at the most exciting time that iLead was being formed. And I really wanted to do a parenting project. I started it 22 years ago with another person, and then we were both solo moms in wheelchairs, and it just got crazy. We had no idea how hard it was going to be. So we walked away and it always felt like unfinished work. Then 10 years ago, I had my second child, so one's 22, one's 11, sorry. I was like, surely, heaps of this stuff will be fixed, the attitudinal barriers, et cetera, et cetera. Blowing me down with a feather. Nothing had changed, nothing had fixed. The only thing that had changed is I had more resource, horsepower, psychologically, and my husband at the time had resource financially. So we were able to go and get private doctors, and even that was really difficult. So on another time, we could talk more deeply about parenting, but I'd always thought it was a disability thing plus poverty, low income thing. It wasn't because even with heaps of money and heaps of smarts to throw at it, problems were almost just as bad.
So a few years later, I went to Sonia at Yes Disability, and it's like, I want to do this project. And she was like, Yeah, absolutely. I'll find a way to help you, and I need someone to help me, so let's work together. And over three years, we did that, which was so awesome that she opened that door for me. But what came out of it was during the lockdowns 2020, we were doing a lot of work, myself, yes, and the whole team. And my sector was about 46 parents throughout the country that I was doing wellbeing checks on a few times a week. Same problems keep coming up, carers, support staff, equipment, but money. So a lot of the parents had the same problems. Being a disabled person and being a parent, managing their health, time, and appointments, the best way to do that was to be self-employed. But then there were constant barriers with IRD, MSD, MOH, Taikura health, networking, how to get these products out, and then having the complexity of an impairment and a startup business. There was key things, and I wasn't even trying to study it at the time, but it turns out I was, because the key things were almost the same across the board, a blind mom versus a paraplegic dad.
I was like, Hold on, there's something in this. At the same time, my daughter was about to start a gift box business that wasn't just wine and cheese. It was experiences, something to do that you could send to another human, sending your love. Molly and I had a wine, and I was like, Molly, there's these people that I'm talking to daily that have got some awesome products, but they're having trouble getting to market and selling them, but they're awesome. And then you're about to do these gift boxes anyway. What if we put it together? And we weren't quite sure. But then the next day we woke up and we were like, Actually, there's something in this. So let's go, basically, what happened?
Kylee
How did it become Moments for Love?
Rachel
Well, her last name is Love, Molly Love. And it was about a moment. So you can just swipe a credit card and do anything if you have that power. But having a moment that you create a craft or an art or a treasured memory is a moment of love, and you're actually gifting someone a moment with love with someone else that they love. So that was... Yeah.
Kylee
Awesome.
You guys scaled up pretty quickly, and I know that you had a couple of stores. So how do you go from the idea and the thought to creating a website and opening a store and connecting with everyone? Because it doesn't just happen. So what was that process like?
Rachel
We had a couple of advantages, privileges, shall we say. We had about $7,000 of family money that was set aside for a 21st or emergencies, and we chose to use that as a family. And I had seen my ex-husband start a robotic exoskeleton business before, and I was in the early stages. So I knew a lot of this stuff. I do study whatever environment I'm in, I study a lot, so I'd seen how to register a company. I knew that maths was really not my strong point. One of the first things I did was get a really good accountant because I knew that I would stuff that up. Goodwill. Because Molly and I were choosing to work the first year free and we made a commitment to do that, we really just leveraged off goodwill. We found a landlord that would let us rent our first shop. We called in favors left, right and center, website companies that we're still paying off today that did that, sign writing companies that let us pay it off. I think because it was COVID anyway and it was such a cool kaupapa what we're trying to do.
We were honest that later on we might make money, but in the first year we were gifting our time and salaries. A lot of people felt supportive of that. Then I went around to a lot of the people I knew, the disabled parents and then Downlights cookie projects. A lot of relationships I already had another privilege. I was like, Give me some stock, I'll pay you when I sell it. To be honest, we just hustled like no one's business. Probably having two babies, the hardest things I ever did, starting that, third hardest. It was a lot harder than I would have expected, a lot harder than Molly would have expected. We're really proud of our achievements, but it was exhausting.
Kylee
What was that like? How do you maintain balance in setting up a business? And how do you do that? What does that look like on a practical, day-to-day level? And how do you navigate that with a disability?
Rachel
It's a really good question. And when you sent through the questions, I was thinking about this. Some of this is disability-based, and some of this is starting something that's never been done in the world before in a global pandemic. Looking back, it was probably a rubbish idea, but also it was for our own mental health, because we were spiraling. There's only so much bread you can make and toenails you can paint. And we were like, What are we going to do and how are we going to help? Because we felt powerless and locked in a house. I think Molly and I would rather have taken a risk. We thought what would happen was we'd go bankrupt or get rich. We are neither bankrupt nor rich. We are pretty neutral. But how do you navigate it? We had to pivot really quickly and learn really quickly. For a while, real estate boxes and property development companies were still building and still doing really well. When they made a sale, they'd come to us and buy a gift box for their customer. Then that all dried up really quickly. We were like, shivers, what are we going to do?
Okay, what's the deal? Everyone's sick, everyone's working from home. Okay, things that keep kids occupied, awesome, because parents are trying to work, get well soon boxes. You can't see your family, you're missing them. They've got COVID, send them a get well. So the amount of time that we pivoted and just came out with new ideas. Easter, we just about couldn't pay our rent many months, actually, but this one, we really couldn't. And we were like, Well, kids can't go on Easter egg hunts anymore, and a lot of parents still want to treat them. Molly did these incredible Easter hampers, sold out three times. We had to restock and try and get in products when we couldn't even go anywhere. It was insane amount of hard work. Probably both of us learned more than if she had gone off and done a three-year bachelor in business. She probably learned more doing this. But the cost was to our relationship, the stress of any two founders that were stressful and the cost to her mental health and stress and to my, I suppose, all of them, physical health, mental health and stress. My youngest hardly saw me for a couple of years because I was just working the whole time, and it was worth it.
We got around $40,000 back to the local disability community in that first two-year period. But I have learned more in the last couple of months and probably in the last couple of years about mental health and physical health, because the reason we started it was to create a space that we could work well whilst honoring our health needs and open that pathway for many people to follow. We even thought about franchising it out like Trade Aid did many years ago. But I was still being a bit of a hypocrite. I wasn't doing self-care. I wasn't taking care of myself well. I wasn't honoring my relationship. So it's all good to feed your ego and feel like you're, I don't know, almost like I felt like I needed to test myself or prove myself. And then once it started working and we had breakfast TV and the articles on stuff, my ego puffed up heaps. And that fueled me to do even more because it was hard to know it was ego because I was doing good mahi and getting money back to something I believed in. So I didn't feel like ego. But looking back, I think it sort of was because anytime you're sacrificing your health, mentally or physically or your relationships, I do think you need to check yourself.
So I've changed a little bit in the last couple of months.
Kylee
So where are you guys today?
Rachel
Hugely complex. We're on a small pause. There was flood, flood in Auckland. We got really badly flooded twice. No insurance, quite a problem for us. Then we cleaned up both times and we were like, Right, let's throw ourselves back into this one more time because neither of us are quitters and it was too important what we're trying to do, and we'd put in too much time and money. Then we were like, Valentine's Day will be our big comeback. Everything's fresh: chocolate, baking, flowers, etc, etc, and biggest day of the year for a gift box company. We had huge things planned. Then Cyclone rolled in and really kicked our bottom. Three days later, shop was flooded again. Everything fresh was gone, wasted. Huge stock losses, flowers. It was just a bit of a poop show, for lack of a better word. Molly and I sat down and we were like, okay, we had that going on at the same time as just found out I had a breast cancer scare. Turns out I don't have cancer, but I am going in for an operation on Monday. I was like, for Molly to be 22, trying to run retail online, care for her sister and me as her mom in such a complex situation.
I was like, something's going to break and it's going to be one of us or this business. So we paused everything. Our loyal corporate customers have stayed on board with us, and we've just given them stock for a few months. We've paused the website. And depending how long it takes me to get well and healthy, Molly and I will make a decision in a few months which way we'd like to go ahead. And I think there's a lot of different ways that we could still do what we're doing with less overheads and less cost to our bodies and stress now that we've learned. But I don't know what that looks like yet.
Kylee
That must have been a really difficult place to come to when it's your baby and you've put so much time and energy into it. I think there are additional complexes to navigate when you have disability and you're in business and you're working with family. And how do you prioritize how's? I guess one of the things I'm really keen to explore is how we learn from one another in these spaces and have these really open and actual, really honest conversations about the things no one talks about, how we get behind one another in that space, how others have helped you in that space, how you've learned and stuff discovered in that space as well. That must have been a really hard space to come to, to choose to put it on hold. I mean, easy in some ways, because you have to do it for your health. But there's so much grief that goes along with that I can only imagine.
Rachel
It was probably one of the most grueling decisions ever, because I do have a lot of support from the groups that you and I speak in. And then I've got an amazing business mentor, Andy Hamilton, and I've got Sonia Thursby on the community and disability and CEO, Jen of Downlights. I have some really good resources, but it was really still the hardest decision to scale back or die, I suppose. And some other local businesses, some of them that we stocked actually had just gone out of business in the last couple of months. So I was watching brands that I looked at up to, fold, and I was like, okay, this is too much stress on my 22-year-old. This is too much stress on me. Our relationship is suffering and both of our health is suffering. I actually have to put a line in the sand. But of course, there was grief because on Monday, I'm having a double mastectomy and reconstruction. Now it's a preventative. We've got a family gene, a whole other podcast. But able-bodied, non-disabled women are in hospital between two days to four to five days. I might be in hospital between a week to six weeks because not being able to move your arms for six weeks for able-bodied women, sucks.
They need help to wash their hair and brush their teeth and do things. But for a full-time wheelchair uses, and not being able to move my arms actually means bedridden, and we're not even sure about personal cares. So it does come into it because if I was having 2-3 weeks off, that would be completely different to 2-3 months off. Everything is harder because of impairment. And while I spent years teaching medical model and social model, and I totally understand the concept, might be opening myself to a bit of shade, but I'm not that bothered because I'm 46 and old. It's not completely true because I'm in a beautiful wheelchair accessible environment. I've got support staff if I need them. I've got an electric wheelchair, but I still experience disability. I still experience pain. I still experience side effects from medication. I still experience levels of having... Like pre-admission isn't even a thing. I haven't worked hardly in two weeks because I'm so busy organizing disabled people's life going into hospital. And so as much as I want to rock around and be like, Oh, the world's all equal, you just need support and funding. Not quite, because whether I'm in an inaccessible seat or a comfy wheelchair, my back's still sore, I still need the meds and I still actually do have MD.
So yeah, I don't know quite how I got on that rant. Pull me back.
Kylee
Yeah. Would you do it again? And I guess the other question I wanted to ask you is before Moments with Love, before that, you've been in the disability world as well, and you've worked for other disability providers and organisations. So if you were talking to yourself as a young person, or you had the opportunity to share your knowledge now and insights with others, what are some of those key? Are there any key pieces that you would love to share? If you had the opportunity to open your own learnings and experiences to a whole lot of our listeners that were here right now? What would you love to share with them?
Rachel
First question, would I do it again tomorrow? I haven't even finished doing it this time. So whether Molly and I choose to sell it to a young disabled person or lease the concept or partner with another large company and they have a Moments with Love, we're not sure what the options look like. Would I do it again in a heartbeat? Yes. Would I do it differently? Yes. I was way too overambitious, way too cocky, way way harder than, I didn't know how hard it would be. And self care, I put that in place. I would have made sure I had better formal support so that I wasn't trying to do everything at once. I would have a slower business plan. But in saying that, I don't really feel bad about any of it either because we're in the middle of COVID. We didn't even know if we're going to live or die for a minute there. It sounds so dramatic now, but then it was like, well, let's do something really, really cool and out of it because why not?
Kylee
You've shown that. You've shown what's possible. You've shown and built this incredible movement and organization and company that has captured and drawn in others and has been about giving back to wider community and drawing them together. I think you have done a lot in that space to highlight that.
Rachel
Thank you, Hun. I feel like that too, so I don't really feel a sense of regret. Yeah, I exhausted myself and stuff, but I wanted to test my own personal capacity as well. Because I've been 2IC on some really awesome projects, and I always wanted to know what it felt like if I was driving it. So my own ego got served as well in a good way. But also what I learned is even when I reached what I wanted to reach, being a successful CEO, it's not more important to me than my health. These articles would come out or breakfast TV, and it didn't mean to me what I thought it would mean to me. I was still more concerned with how Molly's mental health was before we went on live TV. I was still more concerned that the article that I set up till 3:00 in the morning working on with Olivia Chivas, I actually missed my kid's school play. This little online thing. It did teach me a lot about what's most important to me. So has this recent health scare. So it's been a combination. But in saying that it was proof of concept that old ways of doing things for people with disabilities don't necessarily work for us, we've still got barriers to remove.
In whichever way I stay in this space, this is such amazing collateral on real time here is, I think we got up to 18, I can't remember, I've got a social impact report somewhere, but we had 18 people with disabilities, and it worked for all of them. Money was going back to people with disabilities. That wasn't charitable money, it was for awesome products because I don't like the charity model. The community and the business community, the appetite was right on point, right on time. People wanted to spend their money for good quality product with good ethos behind it. You also never know who's watching. My daughters have both seen this, other young people have seen this. I am moving more into how do I partner with other organizations and people that can support this work. It might be at a bigger level than one small shop. I'm not sure how it's going to look, but no, I don't regret it. Yes, I will never forget about self-care mentally or physically again, because being back at the gym two hours a day in physio and eating good, clean food and stuff, I probably feel better than I have in 10 years.
The grief part was having to choose, do I want to be CEO or disabled person? There was many moments that I thought that that was the case. Possibly, that's always going to be difficult. It's always difficult for anyone to hold positions of responsibility. But if I can go ahead and use this as a case study of myself and 20 other people, and we can use that to change things with funders and crown agencies and everything, then I think that's what we're already doing hun.
Kylee
What would you like to share with others that are thinking about setting up a business or doing stuff like this? What would be your advice to them from what you have learned in your journey?
Rachel
Solid business plan, because sometimes we get so excited by an idea that we don't have a solid plan. And having a hobby that feeds your soul is very different to having a commercially viable business, and both of them are honourable. So if you have a cottage industry product that's beautiful upcycling and you want to do that for your soul, but you know that it won't make you money, absolutely fine. If you have a solid commercial idea that will make you money but doesn't feed your soul fine, it's very rare to get both of them. I think don't go in naive, have a solid business plan, put it through some mentors around you, and then get a team of support around you. You have to be realistic. The reason Moments with Love is on a pause is because I didn't listen to someone who said to me, Too much risk. You have two people running this company that are capable of running the company with the understanding of the products, 16 suppliers, disability industry, and how to make high-end gift boxes, and you guys are connected as a family. The risk of two directors going down at the same time is hugely high.
Rachel
I was like, meh, well, meh, I was wrong. That's exactly what happened. Because in a family, when one person has trauma or ill-health, like my daughter and I are intrinsically—you know the word I'm talking about linked. I should have planned around that better and I should have listened a little bit harder. But when you get excited, you're just like, yeah, let's go. It going to be awesome. Many of it was awesome and will be awesome, but listen to people who have set skills. The accountant knows accounting, that knows that. But then at the same time, if you've got a dream and a passion and it's what you want to do, also go ahead and do it, but just don't go in blind. Know what your risks are, know what your weaknesses are.
Kylee
Wow. That's actually really important, but really hard at the same time. How do you go about finding a mentor or someone that understands your industry or your circumstances? And how do you get the supports around you? How did you do that? What did that look like?
Rachel
Once again, babe, I leverage my privileges because I've had a long career and I formed these relationships. But maybe that's something that young people need to realize young as well. When you see someone that's really smart or really on game, if you've got any opportunity to be in the room with them, gosh, be it. Youknow, there was a lot of, I don't like disabled people being expected to work for free as a theory, but there were certain times that I worked for way less than I was worth. But what I learned out of that was phenomenal. So that's once again, a really hard dynamic. Sorry, what was the question?
Kylee
How did you get the supports around you? Your mentors and supports. A lot of people say get a mentor or get support or build a team around you. But how do you do that as a young person or as an older person wanting to start at any age? How do you, for myself, too, it's all been about getting connected in and getting connected with the right people and privilege, really, too, because it's about who you know and the opportunities that are open to you, the supports that you have around you, the situation and circumstances you're in. But if I am someone wanting to start out and I don't have a lot of connections, where do I start? How do I start that space? How did you start out in the beginning, even before Moments with Love in your career?
Rachel
Gosh, I'm 46, hun. That's a long time. I was studying international communications at Unitech. There was an ad in the paper for a fundraising manager for CCS, formerly Cripple Children. I was 18, rocked up to the interview, nada my CV, except for some telemarketing. I convinced the CEO to give me a shot because they were still doing charity stuff, rattling a can on the sidewalk. I was probably pretty arrogant looking back, but I proceeded to tell them that that was a played out theory and give me the job. If I couldn't raise as much in six months as they did on one day of can rattling, I would resign and go about my business. I don't think that he thought I could do it, but we entered a wearable arts awards, Waitakeri, Corbans, wearable arts wards, and we kicked button. We made $10,000 in an afternoon. He gave me a year contract and I bullshit in confidence, I think. So my story isn't always that comparable because my father is a sales trainer and my mom's a visionary in her world. But if we were handing this out to other young people, there is a skills vacuum.
So there's certain things I.Lead, I would 100 % recommend for young people to get involved with, Carabiner Mentoring also through I.Lead, Cam Kalkoen, and Sonia Thursby. I've never seen like, there's this whole alumni of people that have gone through that world. Sonia and I have been having conversations for years about how we do more of that. That's one place that young people could go today after listening, look up that. There's something else called Manaaki where my mentor started it, and it's for Māori and Pacific business, predominantly in young people. They are very open to stretching that to other sectors, shall we say. It's not had the time to be worked as a concept yet, but no young person would ever be turned away that wanted to join up with that community. It's free. It's just a really cool resource at Manaaki. The only other really interesting conversations is probably yours and mine offline in both of our other roles and things that we believe in. I think that we probably are the people that are going to be driving these conversations about how to get more support and mentoring down.
Kylee
What if you're not a young person? If you're not in that 16 to 30 or 28 age range.
Rachel
That's is where the biggest vacuum is? That is where the biggest vacuum is. I don't think most of Manaaki's platforms and free workshops and all that stuff isn't restricted by age, but anything to do with disability and youth, once you get past that, I can't remember, 25 or 28 cut off, but then people age out and then there is this massive, massive vacuum there. In all honesty, without sounding contrite, like we set this up, the business owners chat that you set up in other meetings that I'm in, I don't know anything right now outside of it, but if other people do, I would love them to contact you or me on all the ways that you can let them know, because the more we all pull together on these things with MSD and many other organisations and different funders that I can't name, but funders that already fund a lot of other projects in the charity, social enterprise space, early stage conversations, because a lot of them are doing really well through COVID, supporting Māori business, women's business, Pacific business. Every time I've made an application, I've said, why isn't there a tick box for disability enterprise? The last couple of years, I've gone around blarring about it.
To many people's credit, many conversations are being had. I think we're right on the precipice of this really being a thing. And not even just for the feel good reason, but I get quite interested in the business case. So why would it cost less to support people to do something that's really meaningful mahi, than it would to have them depressed, sick, and not doing well? And I think that's where my energy is going to be more focused. It's not in the feelings of, we should do this as a society. I'm actually really interested in proving the point that it's cheaper economically to support people to do some meaningful mahi than it is to pick up at the end of the ambulance cliff, you know what I mean?
Kylee
Yeah. It goes back to that thought of... And I guess the reason why you started Moments of Love as well, because it gave you purpose and identity and the drive, and it made you feel good about yourself, and it made you feel good about being able to help others. And I think inherently in every single one of us is the drive to be connected to something bigger than just ourselves and to know that my life counts and it makes a difference. I'm involved and I'm connected. And I truly believe that alone we get so far, but together we get so much further and better together. And I think we, as disabled people, are the experts in our own lives and have journeyed those. And so how do we learn together? How do we share that? And how do we start to create a path that takes me from where I am to where I want to be? Because we look at people down the road and we are like, how did Cam get to where Cam is now? How does Sonia get to where Sonia is? How do you get to where you are? How have I got to where I am?
And how do I do that? And I think I hear you right. A big part of what you're saying is to get connected in, is to get aligned in the room with others, is to reach out for help, is to try things and start, but to make sure that you're finding people that get you, that can wrap around you?
Rachel
Yeah, that's exactly everything you said. And I know it's not easy to find support, but keep searching because it's a really lonely place to be out there trying to start a business, disabled or non-disabled. It's a really lonely place to be trying to do something big, new and scary. We could jump in other people's Zooms about start-ups in this current economic climate and many of the things would be just the same. But when you add impairment onto the top of it, I don't even know how many days I literally would have quit if I didn't have someone that could have said, you know what? That is a hard to think about. Pressure area or not doing a Valentine's Day train. And it's full of emotion and it's full of grief. You are going to need people around you to support you. And how do people, all of us, get where we are? For me personally, from what I've watched and what I've witnessed, it is relationships and it is support. I think they're fundamental. And I think we won't speak to other people. I think for myself, I am trying to study other the minorities a lot more than I used to and go, some places don't even have pay parity yet for women and men.
Now we're bringing more incredible genders and rainbow things into the world, which is a true blessing. How are they going to work this out? We don't even have pay parity with two of the genders that already exist. My mind at three o'clock in the morning is a dangerous place. But I do think as a community, we could look to other communities that have put more time and energy into supporting each other, like Māori that will buy Māori products, that will choose to spend their money with Māori businesses. I don't think that we should go against able-bodied people because I love them. I mean, two of my kids are able-bodied, but you know what I mean? I think we should be really conscious that if we are out there shopping and buying from our own community, if we don't have any money, you can share things on social media. There are so many ways we need to champion each other.
Kylee
How do we get behind each other? How do we support one another? How do we drive one another forward? And I think that's what I love with My Life, My Voice as well, is they're really getting behind people and championing to do things differently. And I think the other thing you're suggesting is like our peer mentoring, peer support. And I know My Life My Voice has got that going and I've got some training going now to help people to learn how do I be a peer supporter? How do I journey that with someone? And how do we share that relationship? And so I think there's some really exciting spaces and the Disabled Business Owners and Enterprise, and then you've got the Disability Business Network as well, and they're doing the early new business start-ups. I think it's a really exciting time in our world to start to engage it and see doing things differently and to be in the room.
Rachel
Some of these young people that we know and that we're watching, in 10 years' time, this won't be a conversation. This work will be done. There'll be networks and funding. And when you're doing a funding application, Māori business, Pacific business, women's business or disability enterprise, it will be a thing, I can already say it. And the other thing that I'm going to keep harping on at every meeting that... Well, this is my last meeting for the year, so thank you. But self-care, because if you're mentally unwell or you're physically unwell, you cannot do anything, let alone start a tiny empire that feeds your soul and your mouth. So yeah, that's the biggest thing that I forgot for a while there. And I am committed to getting a tattoo, so I never forget that again. That self-care actually comes first. Because if we're not caring for ourselves, how are we going to continue this work that we want to do for ourselves, our community, our family? So, yeah, self-care. First thing, what does that look like? What do I need? How do I make that happen? Because going out and starting this incredible business, okay, all cool, until you're sick and there's no one to take over it.
So just building, getting your own self and your resources strong first, and then a solid business plan, then supports around you, then boom, let's go.
Kylee
Amazing.
Rachel
Thank you for having me.
Kylee
Thank you so much for being part of our podcast series today and being here, and especially as your last one before you head into your surgery. It's a real honor to be able to talk with you and hear your story. I wanted to thank you for your incredible bravery, honesty, and transparency, because that's really hard. A lot of the times, I think we want people to see the pretty story. Actually to talk about the hard in that story as well as really brave, but courageous. I think these courageous conversations are a huge part of where it starts to realize that actually we all struggle and it's okay to struggle, and it's what we do with that, and it's how we navigate through that and how we use that for others as well and ourselves.
Rachel
Sitting out here being all Polyanna and perfect and inauthentic, not really my vibe at the minute. And you have helped me a lot with that as well. You held space for me. Many nights were all got really rough. And so it's my honor to do this work with you. And you are one of the young ones I'm watching rise as well. So I'm as honored as you are.
Kylee
And we will continue to watch your story unfold also and wish you all the best for your up and coming surgery.
Rachel
Thank you so much. Thank you for your work. Bye.
Kylee
Thanks, team. Bye.