Removing Wealth Barriers with Brooke Roberts

Brooke, a massive welcome to the Lead on Purpose podcast Kia Ora.

Thanks so much for having me today.

Oh, it's so great to connect. It's interesting. Just before we hit record, I was telling you about my own experience with your amazing brand sharesies and it was on a bus with a team many years ago and someone says, hey, you've got to check this thing out. So I just couldn't get my head around it. Then all of a sudden I've seen it everywhere and I was like, wow, everybody needs to be on board. And now you've got hundreds of thousands of people that invest with sharesy. So I'm super excited to get this opportunity to actually talk about where it all started, why it all started and where we're going.

Yeah, I'm so glad you had that bus trip. And yeah, it's been an amazing journey over the last five, six years and heaps more to come.

That's so exciting. Well, let's talk about the start. Like, where did it all begin?

So Sharesys started in 2016 and at that time there were rising houses, house prices and lowering interest rates and this real sense that you couldn't get ahead with money and that it was really hard to develop wealth. And it felt like a lot of the structures out there just were putting massive barriers in the way of people being able to really develop wealth. And my husband and I were looking at starting a business. We have social entrepreneurship kind of backgrounds or we'd run young enterprise companies and we were always ting with business ideas on the side and we have background in finance and, and banking and marketing and all that sort of jazz. And then Layden got connected with Sonia, who he was working with at the time, who had the initial idea behind Shiz, who was like, hey, I wish I could invest 50 bucks in a.

And and, and just grow over time and, and really create a lovable experience when it comes to investing and make it way more accessible. And Layden was like, well, actually When I was 17 years old, I started an investment club with 13 of my friends putting 50 bucks away each week, which was a lot of money for a 17 year old and a lot of money during those uni days. But they really committed to it, to each of them, and they still do that to this day. And it went from their first investment being a cow to a herd of cows because I'm based in Howard, to commercial property and all of these random things just from starting with 50 bucks each a week and we're just like, well, it'd be Great if more people could have access to that. You didn't have to be Layden's mate to be able to know about those kind of opportunities. How could and how could we really democratize investing? And we spent six months doing pure customer research listening to people. There were six of us that really rallied around she at this time. Six founders. We listened and heard so many stories about what money meant to people and how taboo it felt to talk about money and the fear people had of I don't do it right. You know, all the self negative talk when it came to money to whether they are an investor or not and what kiwisaver meant to them. If they had kiwisaver or superannuation, what did that mean and did they feel like an investor through that and from all of this insight we learned that people really felt priced out. Like to be an investor you'd have to have heaps of money. They felt jargon doubt, like you needed to have a degree in finance or be watching the markets all the time to be an investor and then ultimately left out. The investing was really just for the wealthy few that you it. The majority of investors were over 60, lived in Auckland or you know, or in the capital cities and were more likely to be male too. So a lot of that information and that access to the knowledge when it came to investing and the structures in place were really big barriers. So we set out to demolish all of them just under six years ago now. And yeah, we really have, we have no minimum investment which means like we've tackled that pricing barrier. There's no minimum investment for the over 8,000 investment options on our platform. The jargon, we do so much to remove that jargon and we, it's kind of needed. We make sure that we've, you know, really defined it and made it as simple and easy in terms of everyday language being used because it doesn't need to have these kind of whiz bang terms out there when we can just use everyday language to explain finance and investing. And we've got education through it, from blogs and podcasts and webinars to community events, whatever we can to really help people build that confidence and motivation when it comes to investing. And on the left out barrier where there's so much work to be done there, we do have great gender representation from the investors on our platform. But there's so much to do to make sure more and more communities have access to this knowledge and to access to the ability to develop wealth and, and that's a bit of our focus too.

It's incredible. It's, it's just seriously amazing. And I do remember as a late teenager thinking about investment and going, I don't know where to start. And if I go and chat to someone, they're like, hey, come back when you've got a quarter of a million dollars. And at like 19:20, I didn't have a quarter of a million dollars to chat like that. I was never going to have that in my mind. So to have something like sharesies gives everyone an opportunity to actually get started and start the compounding.

Exactly. And that's with investing. When I was studying finance, which I picked up very late at university, it was in my third year, I was in this marketing lecture and they said, put your hand up if you like numbers. Then out of 300 people in the room, only three of us put our hand up. And I was like, okay, I've got to do something with this. So I picked up finance and I'm really glad I did. And in one of my first finance lectures I learned about the time value of money, which essentially the most valuable aspect of money is time. And that is a key part of why we develop sharesies too is to help people make most of their time and being able to invest amounts they can afford and build wealth over time. And the reason why time is so valuable in that when it comes to investing is because of compounding returns where you, if you're investing and then your money makes money and you know, money grows money essentially. And that is something I wish we learned way earlier in life at school and I wish that it was something in society that was really well known so we could really make the most of that knowledge.

Yeah, yeah, I totally hear you. And in terms of that time, so that let's say someone's 25, maybe even 30 years old and they're like, oh my goodness, I've missed the boat. Like people started when they were in their teens, I've missed the boat. What could a 30 year old do right now, today to get the ball rolling?

So there's, first off, it goes back to what I was saying earlier around that shame we have with money. We never feel like we've done the right thing and we need to remove that. So no matter your age, investing is for you, there is options that are great no matter your age and stage in life. And I think that's an important thing to be aware of because these platforms like ours only started recently. So it hasn't been something that has been very accessible to Us. So we've been really locked out of these opportunities. So take that away. And then thinking about using that time. I mean, if you're 30, there's still a long time ahead of you. Even if you're 65, there's still reasons to goals you might have in life and things you might want to be able to do that will require money to create those opportunities. And thinking about, well, how can I be building wealth either for myself or the community or my whnau or family, you know, what could I be doing to reach these goals in life? And how can investing play a part in that?

You know, I really love that because, yeah, I think there are times in our lives we think we have left things too late and different things, whether it's education, whether it's having children, and actually we kind of create these beliefs. So I love that sharesys is helping to reshape the bs, the belief systems that people have around money and investing. So what are you guys most proud of over the last, you say six years?

Yeah, five and a half.

Really amazing. What are you most proud of? What are some of the things that have come up that you're really proud that you guys have been able to create?

One obvious one is.

The, the fact that cheesy has grown so well. And what, and what that means is that we have created something that really resonates with people and is really helping them drive great habits and behaviors when it comes to money and ultimately develop more wealth over time. So that's something that's called our purpose around creating financial empowerment for everyone and giving someone with $5 and 5 million the same money opportunities. We've really relentlessly stuck to achieving that. And there's so much more to do in there. But I'm really proud of our. To break down a lot of those barriers we talked about that were there before we started. I'm really proud of our team. We've got around 200 people that help create shares every day. And I love the energy they have and the passion they've got for making financial knowledge more accessible and creating financial empowerment for everyone. I just, I buzz coming in and connecting with the team. And I think the structural change we started to see in terms of how people are talking about money and removing those conversations, removing those barriers. You know, I love it when I hear about families sitting around the table talking about how their shares, these portfolios going and what's been happening in the news and this information. Just entering households, we're entering friendships and really helping more and more People help get this knowledge that has been very opaque and stuck behind a few very wealthy doors. So it's, it is really exciting. And then, yeah, there's so much more. I'm really. One thing I am really proud of too is all of the founders are still going in the business. And we heard so much when we started with six founders. We got so much crap about that like, oh, that's not going to work. You know, founders are two guys in a garage kind of thing. And we've really changed that mold. And because we've had such a strong founding team, we've been able to share the load and go home with light shoulders and, and have that care for each other and the wider team. And I think that set us up really well.

And being a B corp, you know, making sure that our decision making is empowering the world in ways that we can. And as much as we're possible, we're having a positive impact on the environment, our customers, the community, our team, and having good governance in places, all part of that. So heaps to be proud of and heaps of great challenges and things to head to.

I love that. And it's interesting because the B Corp side of things, that's very few companies can say that they've got. That's quite an incredible achievement. So what was the process you guys went through to achieve the B Corp?

We knew we wanted to create a company that was solely driven around its social purpose. And that for us is creating financial empowerment for everyone. And with that we wanted to make sure also we were creating a company. We knew we're creating more. We're creating a company, not just a product. So we knew that we, the product that our customers see and that we interact with every day is only one aspect. There's, you know, all the people and the governance and the suppliers and all this jazz that, you know, gets a business in the operations like humming and having that real holistic view of what we were creating was really important. And looking at that, we really want to create something that.

Was in all the decision making was leading us towards our purpose and making sure that we had a business that was for purpose and for profit. So being a B corp was really natural to us. We tried to apply as soon as we can and then found out you need to have a year's worth of revenue. So we put our assessment application on the side until we got to our years with the revenue and then we, and then we applied and it was a really rigorous process to become a B Corp. You fill out this be impact assessment and then you go through audits and you need to provide documentation. And it's a very lengthy process, can take between six months to a year, I believe now. And it was just really great to see that rigor and really test out how we'd set up this company and also find ways that we could improve it over time. And that's what I love about being part of the B Corp community is that rising tide floats all boats. And as more and more people join the B Corp community and as more and more of us look at our businesses and look at our practices and see how we can improve them, the standard rises. And I'm really excited to be part of that community and for the future. And it's great to see the growth and how many more B Corps have come. We're the first financial services company to become one and it's great to see a few more have joined now. And it's more than doubled since we. The community's more than doubled in Aotearoa and probably Australia too since we started.

That's fantastic. And to think about it, you went in six, just under six years, from six founders to 200 team members, like that's huge.

Yeah, we've experienced significant growth and you know, from zero investors back then to over 600,000 and over 2 billion invested through our platform. It takes a lot to be able to scale like that. And we scaled really fast, especially when we're all on lockdown and dealing with those challenges of trying to scale from home and not having those natural interactions that we were so used to. So it's been a real challenge. But something that we've always been really deliberate about is about creating a sustainable fintech business and making sure that we're trying to scale our practices and scale our processes ahead of time and really thinking about the growth curve that she's was going to go on so we could continue to support our investors and our team as much as possible.

Incredible. And the psychology of a human investing. So I'm thinking like pandemic here. I'm thinking of external things like there's a depression coming, there's a recession here, all this media stuff, all this external stuff that happens. Are you able to see from your end the data of how that impacts people's psychology around investing?

Definitely. And that was why that jargon or the education side of what we were creating was really important.

Removing that jargon and really educating about what great investing habits are and building those practices into our product. And so I've been really proud of the, the way that investors have dealt with the market corrections and market changes and, and you know, seeing their portfolio maybe dip into negative and then come back up again. There's a lot of behavioral economics that comes into place and that's a big term for going.

You know, there's loss aversion. So once you might be up in profit and then you, you know, and, and then it might tank a bit. You can feel a loss from that even though it was never realized. And so they're teaching people about how the markets go up and down and making sure they're really understanding of that. We haven't seen people knee jerk react too much when the markets change which is fantastic to building our products so that people can dollar cost average which means just putting money every payday into investments that align with what you really want to be investing in and where you want your money to be going in the world and how you want to seek those returns. And we've just seen incredible behavior and habits being formed which is a really important part of investing. And so that's something that I think investors should be really proud of.

Yes, it's really interesting. Think of say indexing. So for me, I don't know whether I'm doing the right thing or the wrong thing, but if I was to check in once a year on my index investment that would be going good. Often it's every couple of years I'm like oh, how's that thing going? So during COVID I just really didn't care because I knew it was going to go down and I'm like, I'm in my 30s, it's, I mean I don't need to touch that bad boy for another 30 odd years. So I'm just gonna like not worry. So is, you know, from your experience, should we be engaging more often and keeping an eye on things and moving things around or with an index approach is it like if you're a specific age set and forget.

Yeah, and this is where it really depends on your investment strategy. So.

It does really depend on what matters. But there's research out there that if you're investing in indices which in an index fund is essentially you're investing in a bunch of, a bunch of companies rather than just one. So say there's the.

Australian Stock Exchange 200 which is the top 200 companies in Australia or the NZX 50 which is the top 50 companies in New Zealand, you can invest in those indices and you're getting kind of exposure to all of those Companies and in those, in those indices and that, that way you've kind of got that diversification of not just all being in one company. You don't, you might not have the diversification of different countries, but there's heaps of different options out there. So you can, you know, and with no minimum can invest how you want. But I think it's important to.

To really.

Understand that what, what, what is right for you in that time. And when you're investing in indices, like I saying that research shows that they typically can outperform those real active investors.

And that buy and hold approach of going, hey, I'm going to invest in this, I'm going to invest in it regularly and hold has been a bit more of a proven strategy than the buy, sell, sell, buy kind of investment strategy.

And I just, I love that there are those options there and I love that it's literally at our fingertips. It's instant, it's just incredible. So I guess one of the things, there might be a listener listening right now going, okay, if I'm doing that and it's easily accessible for me, how safe is it? So what are the safeguards and the firewalls and all that kind of stuff to protect people's data and people's investments that you guys put in place?

Yes, so we are highly regulated in this industry we're in. So we're regulated by the Financial Markets Authority in Aotearoa and ASIC in Australia, so and a bunch of others. We're highly regulated. And I think that's, I think regulation is such an important part of a healthy finance industry too. So that's a, that's one key part. And then in terms of people's investments, we are essentially a broker. So we, we go and place that investment and you know, whether we're helping create that trade or make sure that you can get that investment that you want and get that into portfolio and that the money exchanges hands as well as possible. We also have a custodial system which means that any money that you have invested in the sharesies platform is completely ring fenced and separate to the sharesies platform in itself. So your money is held in beer trust for you and all your funds or money in your platform is there under your name in this, in this custody. And that's quite a typical setup in the United States. And it's a really great way that we can make sure that we can remove any of those barriers when it comes to investing too.

That's great. Yes, absolutely. Gives people peace of Mind when they're investing. I love that. And in terms of leadership, so you've went from 6 to 200. So when you think of leadership, what's your definition of leadership?

It's evolved so much over time. I remember in my early 20s, I did this leadership development program and at the end of it, we had to come up with a sentence on our leadership style. And I said, I have. Having fun. Delivering results was my one, which is I love. I think, I think working should be fun. I think it should if you're really passionate and purposeful and you really care about what you're doing. Like there's this energy and this fun that comes from that and collaborating with others and bouncing ideas off each other and testing and seeing how things go and ultimately getting those results that drive the outcome towards the purpose is crucial. So I still resonate a lot with that as a bit of my leadership style, but I think it has evolved a bit over time. In particular now with the company we've got, I find that so much of my leadership is about being there for people, asking the right questions, removing barriers where possible, and really making sure that all decisions are thinking about, you know, for purpose and for profit and getting that humming. So I have gone on a massive leadership journey and I still will in the future, but I think a lot of it is about making sure that the team are feeling really connected and empowered to achieve the purpose at the end of the day. And our role as leaders is to, to make sure that we're supporting that. And I'm a big fan of servant leadership. I'm a big fan of like thoughtful leadership. And ultimately I find the best way is to get out of people's way and when there's things in their way, help them get it out.

That's great.

So I didn't have a really articulate, here's a sentence, but maybe one day I will.

No, the way you explain it is like, it's real. It's from the, the actual in motion experience as a leader. It's fantastic. So in terms of when I think of leadership and I think of a company, you've got the leader or the leaders and their collective leadership capability is a lid. And what happens is the company's growth and the people that you attract and the people that you retain, your talent, it never kind of reaches anywhere above the leadership capability. So to attract better talent or to keep the talent and to grow the company, it's all about, hey, how do we grow our leadership in terms of our mindset and where we're headed. So what do you and the leadership team do actively to grow your own leadership capabilities?

Yeah, this is crucial. We even knew, you know, as founders, we hadn't been CEOs before or, you know, been part of those leadership teams really, aside from in our own companies. So that was something we knew we needed to scale ourselves ahead of sharesies. And we've been really active on that and very deliberate. So from. From things such as leadership training, and every month or so, all of our exec team get together and we train on something. It's some sort of leadership focus we'll really go dive in on and also strategically step back. Look, going, hey, are we. Are we supporting our people in the right way? Are we focused on the right things? Are we humming as well as we can be? You know, and sure, we take those times to be really deliberate is really crucial. For myself, I have a coach and some of the other leaders do too. And that's a great way of just making sure we're taking that time to reflect, you know, be really aware, make sure we're really conscious about our choices and leveling ourselves up too. And as you get tested as a leader in different times and making sure that we coming from a place of Araha for ourselves and for the people around us is really crucial.

And then just having great support around has been something I have found. So has really helped with my personal growth, such as with my family.

Even having, you know, two children through creating sharesies has been hectic. And just having my family support and. And growing from. From watching my children grow has been awesome. To other entrepreneurs out there getting together and supporting each other, because so often we think that we're faced with these unique situations. You go talk to somebody else. Oh, same. I was like, cool, let's figure it out together. Oh, they've already figured it out. And you can learn from them. You're like, that's great. So that support network based on those connections that we've got from growing shares and. Or other leaders in the. In the business community are really keen to give us their time and support us has been great. So. And just in the wider community too, actually, there's just so much you can learn and be inspired from, from others that help you grow. And then there's books and podcasts and all that sort of jazz. And I even flow in terms of going through those sometimes. I know actually all I need to do is listen to music like I'm on the right track or whatever. I. I just need to listen to music right now because that really fills my energy cup when. And then other times I'm like, I'm really eager to learn about this specific topic or hey, I'm just eager to learn something generally. And then diving into podcasts and letting my mind kind of really explore those topics. I, yeah, I, I've got, I, I. You're continuously learning and having that growth mindset and that learning mindset, I think is, yeah, really important part of leadership development.

Absolutely. And I'd love to just ask what has been your greatest challenge of being a new mum and running a business?

Yeah, that has had its challenge. My kids, they're four and two now and it was, yeah, pretty challenging when, but incredibly rewarding to a few months after starting shares is going full time and earning no income. I was happy when pregnant with Val, so that was, that was a whole journey to navigate. And then, and then just before lockdown, I had my son just before, like, you know, before COVID started to really take over and then managing being on maternity leave but knowing that she's really needs some more support and making sure I was really there for my family. And that was always a bit of fun. But and for our team, you know, it's a really stressful time when, you know, you're really worried about your health and your community's health. So there's been heaps of challenge in terms of my personal growth there too. Like, I think as a after having children, my anxiety's increased a lot. You know, I was worried about them, I was worried about this. There's massive to do lists that I hadn't had to figure out before. You know, did I put this in the nappy bag and did I bring my pump into work? You know, like there was just this whole list that was so, and it was, you know, quite anxiety increasing when you've got these dependencies on you. But I feel like I'm in a better rhythm now. I think that's also a symptom of the age, like being able to sleep a bit better now.

And being able to communicate with my children maybe makes things a little bit, you know, or maybe just that muscle memory I've got now of having a few years into it. But I know that I'll go through massive challenges in the future. You know, that's just part of life now. But yeah, I, I, it's a real rewarding challenge that I've been able to have there.

You're such a great example. You know, I feel the pain sometimes as a parent. My boy's 6 now, and he's amazing. And greatest gift. Those first kind of nine to 18 months were challenging with sleep and with learning how to be a parent and learning what was scary and what was not. Should we be worried about this? No, let's not. That's such a juggle. Plus running a business. I totally get it and I admire that. You're like, you know what? We did it anyway and we moved forward and we didn't quit on the business and we didn't quit on life. That's incredible. So when you are going deep to get that tenacity, that drive and that relentless determination, where does that tenacity come from? Because when I talk to you and the more I learn about you, I think you're very tenacious.

I've always had excess energy. I think I am.

I'm best when I'm moving. I feel and as a kid that I didn't know how to channel my excess energy. I'd be on Daily Report, which meant, you know, I was going home with being graded each day on my behavior. And it's only because I think I just found it very hard to sit still and concentrate in. I just really wanted to go and explore. And I think nowadays education is so much better in that regard. You can learn maths while doing pe. Cool. They're great for me. And so. But later on when I in high school, when I found my being able to hone that energy into passions like fashion, sewing and accounting and economics and business studies and starting businesses, that really started to show. Actually, I just needed to find some passion to put this energy into. So I think that energy is probably driving a bit of that tenaciousness and curiosity I've got for the world around me. And wanting to just.

Spend my time in a really meaningful way here on earth is kind of making sure that, yeah, I'm just doing the best I can at any time is kind of crucial. And then I think after having and actually around the news resolutions, I started to think about the expectations I had, like on myself and on my husband and on the people around me and was like, what if I just lowered these a bit? What would happen? What would happen if I load my expectations? Not my like, not the, the purpose or passion or anything like that, but what if I just lower those a bit? And I have found I'm probably like a way more relaxed person and also achieving more, I think, from just lowering a few of those expectations that I was building up on myself. And so I think that has been quite helpful.

For me this year, that's fantastic. And did you find any pushback or inner tension when you were like, thinking, I have to lower these expectations or was it natural?

No, it's quite. Yeah, it's just evolved and it's not, it's not in an intense way, but it's like, you know, I would judge myself each day, like, oh, have I been there, really present with my kids, have I been epic at work, have I exercise, have I spent time with my friends? And I kind of look at this on a daily kind of basis and I was like, you know, I was always going to fail at that. But what if I looked at a month and I was like, hey, if I've had a really great time with my friends in this last month, have I had some. Have I really spent amazing time with my children and, and have I invested in them in the way I wanted to and have I invested my time and shares is the way I wanted to. And ultimately I'm like, yeah, this look, that is how I wanted to spend my time and, and starting to get bit more into the exercise habits and things like that. So I think just like, even for a week or a month, just like just going, what if I just expanded that a little bit and, and then come from a place more of love, I guess, in that regard, than kind of fear or feeling like I'm behind. And I had the same thing with emails. Like, oh, cool, emails are just like the bane of my life. But then I found fun ways to do that. I was like, what if in the morning I love a cup of tea, I go, you know, go to cafe, have a cup of tea and smash those out and, and, and, and then focus myself for the day. And I've been doing that and it's just so much better because the mornings are a bit of a rush, panic in the household, but this has just created some, a bit more space and then I'm finding I don't have that perception of, oh, emails anymore. I'm like, okay, cool, done that. Because that was. I didn't even notice. I did it because I'm in this ambience that kind of works for me. So.

It'S little things like that.

And yeah, such great advice. It really is. And I think that, you know, what I hear from that is self evaluation is the seed of self mastery. And just like on a monthly basis, like, hey, how have I shown up as a mum? How have I shown up as a business owner? Have I shown up as a friend rather than every day and I think high performers and the more that I talk to high performers tend to be very hard on themselves, set very high self expectations and want to measure them every five minutes.

Yeah.

And you rewind 20 years where health finished, high performance began but nowadays it's like no, that's, that's not acceptable. So when I think of high performance it's like performing above the standard norms over the long term and that's where most people stop, I add in whilst maintaining positive relationships and well being. And so if you do that first bit, performing above the standard norms whilst maintaining the important things, then it's going to be sustainable. Right. And it sounds like you've literally just said, hey, I do evaluate but I don't like fantasize over it every day.

Yeah.

That'S huge. So keep up that I love it. And if there's people on your staff, spread that with them as well and encourage them to take on some of those leadership self leadership traits that you've really embodied.

Yeah. And I know I've got a lot to learn too but it's working for me at the moment, which I'm enjoying.

That's so cool. And this next year, so if we were to sit in 12 months time, you said, james, this has been the most epic year, what would have happened in the last year for you to say that.

I'm more flown and thrill. That's something I'm really deliberately focusing on the moment and.

I'm in the learning pit of it at the moment where I just realizing.

When you start something and you're oh, I think I've got this and then you realize, oh, I don't know anything, you know, there's so much more to learn and so I'm really enjoying that. I'm really enjoying learning more about Te Ao Mori and supporting the movement to really support Te Reo. And I love that in my Tamariki, my children, they are learning more and more and sharing, you know, in kindergarten and bringing that home and really helping keep really strong practice there. I think that's for me personally and in the house I. I hope that.

I shares these is is really thriving as it has been, you know, where I we're in Australia and Aotearoa. I'd love to see as we've been able to achieve mostly here in Aotearoa, that household brand and that real love and support for what we're doing and seeing people develop wealth. We're relatively new in Australia and I'd love to see that just really blossom and our team really blossom and really create something that is supporting more and more Australians in terms of developing wealth over the long term.

And.

Having, yeah, having great time for my friends and family too. I, I feel now that there's great ways they can all be intermingled. And we took our first break this year just last week, and I was like, okay, maybe next year I'll plan a few micro break breaks in there a bit. Because I think when you have a break, it's actually really good for work. It's really, you know, that even that headspace and not even thinking about it just brings us perspective and this refreshed energy that you need sometimes. And so I think that's something I'd like to look back on and go, hey, have I made some little micro times with friends and family more so throughout the year? So I've always, I'm always bringing that fresh perspective and that, that, those really clear insights.

I love it. Rest is not a luxury, it's a necessity. It's so good. I love it. Now there's going to be a listener right now that's listening and they're a leader and they've got some degree of privilege and they possibly already have their investment strategy and they're on a journey now. Equity and inclusion is a big part, I feel, of what shares is about in terms of what I've experienced, what I've chatted to you about, what I've seen on a lot of your branding. So that person that's listening right now who does have some degree of privilege and influence, what could they do right now to help get shares into the hands of people who might not know about it, might not know where to start? What's one simple thing somebody could do to just spread the word of shares to somebody that otherwise would not have any clue about it?

I kind of want to answer that question in two ways, like as a leader, how do. And as a leader from a place of privilege, how can I create more opportunities for others in, in the, in the way that we're working in the workplace, and then in terms of shares is. And letting people know, I feel like I might answer that separately, if that's okay. So in the workplace.

When you're a leader and you have, you do have certain privileges that others haven't being really aware of, of the difference between equity and equality. So I've seen leaders go, oh, you know, but I had to still work hard to get here. And it's like. But not from an equity perspective. So thinking about who am I surrounding Myself with who am I mentoring, who am I supporting and who am I learning from and really trying to get that from more as diverse communities as possible and giving your energy to more diverse communities that haven't that are, you know, not represented in leadership in your organization or in those leadership roles around you. I think it's really crucial to broaden your perspective. And it's not about you going in and educating them. It's actually a lot of the time others educating you, but making sure that you're doing a lot of that self work yourself too. And that could be through learning a different language or through reading things that don't naturally aren't from the same culture as you and doing some desktop research or just really starting to build up some of your knowledge. I think that's a great way to start building empathy and understanding for the difference and for and for the strength and bringing more diverse leaders to life. And then also another way is if you're a leader and you get asked to speak at things or you get asked to be in certain rooms, think about who can I bring here? Who can I bring into this room that hasn't been represented or isn't being represented? If I'm being asked to speak on a panel, look at the other panelists and go, am I actually the person to be here or does another voice need to come in to really create more representation? And I think being, being able to really tutuku and support others to rise up is a crucial part when you come from a place of privilege.

Then on the Shizi side, yeah, that is a lot about how.

People have been locked out of developing wealth either from historical wrongs or structural systems and how the financial industry is set up. So thinking about how do I talk really openly about money and investing? And this doesn't mean you have to talk about amounts. This is just talking about, hey, what I do like, oh, I'm using cheesies and I'm investing these ways and this is what I've learned or I, I've got this kiwi saver or whatever it is and just opening up these conversations and it could just simply be around your dinner table to at your family reunions or get togethers to with your friends and, and just starting to open up these conversations because so many people feel really, they feel quite embarrassed and shy about speaking about money because this comes from this place of going, I'm not good at it, I don't have enough, I don't know what to do. I don't want to be seen as being bad with money or I don't want to, I don't know how to be good with money. I don't even know what that means. But often a lot of times I dive into that. And people have great habits in place and it'll be cool if they shared them and if they don't, it'll be like, I would like to do better. And it's great when you share that. Those, when you open up and share in a space where you're comfortable and feel safe, then you can learn so much from each other. And so I think just in all those, in as many spaces as possible, just removing those barriers when it comes to talking about money investing and developing wealth and helping shape and others that ability to think long term and know they don't have to have much to get started. And it's about building a habit I think will ultimately help create more wealth equity in the future.

Amazing advice, Brooke. Thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate it. And just one last question before we wrap up. I always ask this at the end, and I want you to fast forward way later in life. It's your last day on earth. In fact, it's your last five minutes, and someone very young and very dear to you and your family might be a grandchild, comes up and asks you one question and you've got to give them some advice. So the question is this, what must I do to lead a life on purpose? What would your advice be to that?

Two things come to mind. One is when I heard when someone was getting their, like, last cancer treatment and they said, whatever you're putting off, do it now. And that really resonated with me because whatever you're putting off, do it now in a holistic sense probably goes right to your purpose. Like, what is that thing that's niggling at your brain that you feel you want to be doing differently? You know, you know, you've got this inner passion for, and you're just not giving yourself the permission or time to do what is that thing and just do it. Like, what's the harm? And just giving that a shot and seeing what could come from that. And I think purpose is, is it does seem to be ingrained in us in some ways. And it's either from the experiences we've had and the insights we've got from, from our experiences, or just something that's naturally driving us, whether it's more, you know, social justice in the world or just something that's like really sitting here and it's like what if. What if you just did it, you know, what have you putting off to it now? And I think.

That helps people lead from purpose when they really dig deep into those things that have been niggling on their mind. Whether it be writing a book or whatever it might be. You just never know what opportunities start to be opened up and created from just giving something a shot.

Thank you so much for sharing that and I really appreciate all that you and the company do. I'm going to make sure to put a link in the show notes. If anybody hasn't checked out sharesies, click the link, go through and check it out. It's an incredible platform. I wish you nothing but the best for the year ahead and I hope our paths cross here in Aotearoa.

Yeah. Kia ora. Thank you so much having me today.

Thank you so much. We'll talk again soon. Hey guys, if you enjoyed the content today, please smash that subscribe button below. And if you want to become part of my community, I've got an amazing free Facebook group. Please come and join us. The link is in the description below. And also if you've got any questions about today's session, I'd love to know. Just comment below and I'll be sure to get back to you guys. Have the most amazing day.