September 4, 2024 • 36 mins
Businesswoman, TV star and informercial icon Suzanne Paul shares her best and worst money stories with Liam Dann.
Suzanne returns to Celebrity Treasure Island, airing on TVNZ2 from Monday September 9th.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, I'm Liam Dan, New Zealand Herald's Business editor at Large,
and welcome to this episode of Money Talks. This is
a podcast about money, but we're not going to tell
you how to get rich, and we're not going to
try and pick the next interest rate move. In this series,
I'll be talking to interesting New Zealanders about how money
has shaped their lives and what they've learned over the years.
(00:29):
For today's podcast, I'm joined by businesswoman, TV star and
infomercial icon Suzanne Paul Cura. Suzanne, welcome to Money Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, look, it's great to have you here. That intro
is it's almost difficult to put together intro for someone
who's had such a varied career as you've had. I
guess business woman is a big part of it, right.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I suppose so, yes, Well, right.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Now the focus is are TV Star. I guess of
those things you're back on ce Liberty Treasure Island for
the second time.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I understand, Yes, I did it twenty odd years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Can well is it that long?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, that's amazing. So how was it the second time around?
I'm sure there's all sorts of things you can't say,
but how did you find the experience this time around
compared to I.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Would say it was better because I was expecting the
worst because it was pretty bad the first time. So yes,
it wasn't improved.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, and you probably can talk about the first time.
Was that just really rough condition?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It was we were literally just dropped off and it
was women versus men back then, and they literally said
to us, there you are, and the men are over
there where we couldn't see them, and so build a camp. Yeah,
and you know, you just got off. You're on the
island and it was raining and it was getting dark.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Wow. So it's a little bit more like one of
those survival shows. It was, so this is this is
the stuff around. It's a bit more about the challenges
and the yea, all the games effectively if you play. Yeah, yeah,
well I hope but well, I know you can't say
anything more about that really, but people will be looking
forward to see that. I guess I want to go
right back because it's what we do in money talks
and talk about your first memories of money. You're certainly
(02:11):
a New Zealand national treasure, but you were born in Wolverhampton,
which I looked up because I thought it was further
north actually than it was. But it's sort of northern Birmingham,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, they call it the West Midlands. It's right in
the middle really, as you say, next to Birmingham Coventry.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Sure, yeah, yeah. And so what were your first memories
of having your own money do you recall, you know, as.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
A child, I remember more not having any money. That's
it's memory of not having it because it was a
very working class area and it was a particularly this
part of Wolverhampton that I grew up in was very
very low working class. So we didn't even have a bathroom.
(02:55):
We didn't have a shower, we didn't have a bath,
There was no inside toilet, no hot running water, so
it was very basic, just a cold tap and the
toilet was right down the bottom of the garden. So
you know, if you picture that, it's like Coronation Street,
but worse, worse.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I guess it is how most New Zealanders probably sort
of almost me, thinking that you were from further north,
we sort of relate to Coronation Streets.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, And I think I didn't realize probably till I
was about nine or ten, that we didn't have any money,
because if you're only mixing with people the same as you,
you don't know, you know, how other people live. So
you know, we didn't have cars, we didn't have telephones.
It was all very basic, you know. But I realized yeah, probably, yeah,
(03:48):
when I was about ten or eleven. Then I started
to realize that some people did have a lot of
money and it did make a big difference to them.
And I think it's because when you're eleven in England
you go to what they call your secondary school, and
that was right out of the area where I lived.
Suddenly I was mixing with different kids at eleven, and
(04:10):
they were being dropped off at school in their dad's car,
and you know, I was catching two buses and yeah,
and even that first year wasn't so bad. I could
sort of lie my way out of things, you know,
girls that'd say, can I have your phone number? And
I'd say, my dad doesn't like me using the phone,
you know, because it's for business. We never had a phone. Wow,
(04:31):
So I'd just lie. But it was really my second
year at that school that I realized on the first
day that I still had the same uniform on that
I'd worn the previous year, and they all started the
second year with a new uniform on. And I realized then,
in fact, I left school at fifteen with the same uniform.
(04:52):
I only ever had that one. Yes, and so I
realized I was different. But also things that I couldn't
participate in in school. I wasn't like the cooking. We
couldn't afford all the ingredients, so I used to have
to sit at the back of the class and watch
all the other girls cooking. The boys used to go
(05:13):
into woodwork in these days. Girls cooking and any sports
I wasn't allowed to take part in, they'd take.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I just didn't have the right outfit. Yes, you haven't
got no. Yeah, Have we got a tennis skirt? No,
you can't sit down? Have you got hockey the black
hockey skirt? Nick? No, I haven't got that. Sit over there.
I never took part in anything.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So what did your parents do?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Then? My father raised me and my brother, and he
worked in a factory, so he was a shift worker,
so we didn't even see that much of him. We
were known as latchkey kids, so we had our own
door key around our neck on a bit of string
and so we would come home from school, even this
was from about seven. We would come home from school,
(06:00):
make a jam sandwich for tegaue, go out and play
till it got dark, then come in and make a fire.
I'm talking about a real file like with Carl and Wood,
you know and all that.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Probably you know you're pretty resourceful, very young.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, so that's we were pretty much on our own
quite a lot. But yes, I suppose it makes you
very resilient.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Was there ever any pocket money or anything like that?
Money to spend on sweeting.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I used to earn. There was a pub, actually there
was three pubs on our street, one at either end
and one in the middle. But the one on the
one end of the street used to employ me on
a Sunday afternoon and I'd go in at two o'clock,
which was only used to shut then, and I'd empty
the ashtrays, clear away the glasses, and sweep the floor.
And I think I got fifty pence and i'd use
(06:47):
that money for a dance class that I went to.
And that was when I also noticed that I didn't
have the money the other girls had, because I did
the ballet class in my socks and i'd see the
girls in the lovely soft pink leather Bally shoes. And
then I did the tap glands dancing class just in
my school shoes. Wow, And I never had, you know,
a pair of tap shoes. So really from an early age,
(07:11):
I knew, from about the age of eleven that if
you had money, that meant you know, you'd have a
better life and you could do what you wanted and
buy what you wanted.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And at that age, did you think I'm going to
try and achieve this?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, I knew it straight away. I made up my mind,
made up my mind. There was so much I couldn't do,
and I felt like a second class citizen. I looked
an absolute state. I was scruffy all the time, and
it didn't help. From about the age of eight, I
had to wear glasses all the time. They were like
the bottoms of milk bottles and National Health glasses and
(07:49):
you're only allowed to have one pair every year or something. Well,
I'd break them straight away, so they were always held together.
There was a sticking plaster, but a sticky tate that
were lopsided, and for a fourteen year year old girl
to right it was hard. And when I'd see the
other girls in the nice clothes and talking about going
the disco and all this sort of thing, and I
(08:10):
made up my mind really at an early age, right,
I'm not having this. I'm not having this life. I
need to earn some money, but I wasn't. School wasn't
for me anyway because of my problems with maths and discalcolia.
So I got expelled at fifteen. But that all stemmed
from the problem I had with numbers, figures maths. I
(08:34):
don't know if you've heard of discalculia. Yes, it's like
dyslexia is with letters, so discalculia's with numbers. But they
didn't know anything about that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
The day nowadays everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
They just kept putting me in detention. I got the
ruler on the back of the hand several times homework
I couldn't do. I'd just come in and say I
hadn't done it, I didn't know how to do it.
And I was always told, you know, you're just not
trying hard enough, you're or you're stupid. And then they
put me in a remedial maths class with the young kids.
(09:11):
Didn't make no difference made I could make head a
tale of it. Didn't matter how long I looked at
the numbers, how hard I studied, didn't make any difference.
And one day in the maths class and the teacher
made me stand up and said, can you do you
know this? And it was just like oh, I was
just like no, stick it up your JACKSI sort of thing,
(09:32):
you know, just you know, and walked out the class
and I got expelled.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And that was it.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, was that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
It's amazing that they just don't see that. So I'm
not even sure I'm going to pronounce it right. Yeah,
have a disorder I've got.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But discal coolia. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Was it something that you've obviously discovered later in life
where you've had I.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Discovered that I had it about ten years ago. And
funny enough, I was working with the company that sell
maths course for people. I was selling them and I
was chatting to them, you know, and they were all
very clever people that'd invented this course to help kids
with maths. And I said, don't want if it be
any good for me, because I've never been any good
at it. So they showed me this. Yeah, no, I
(10:14):
have no clue. I'm not I have no idea. And
they said, you don't have a problem with mouth. You
have this calculia if you can't remember that, if you
can't work that out. And we talked about time. Time
is difficult for me to work out when I've got
to get somewhere. And when I was doing a lot
of flying, which was you know, when I was here
(10:35):
in my thirties or things that even that working out
when's the flight and when's the next flight and when
I get there? If it's three o'clock there, now, what
time will it be at seven o'clock? No, oh, I'm
not in a panic. I don't know. I don't know
what time I'm going to land. I don't know what time.
I can't work it out.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I suppose they've got all these ways they can teach
coping strategies and ways.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, so that's why I done for all my life,
is just put you know, mechanisms in place to cope
with it.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating and so okay, so you've walked
out of school. Was it easy to get a job?
Were you straight into the workforce?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It was in those days. I actually got an office job.
No idea why I talked my way into that, But
I realized after a couple of months, you know, I
wasn't suited to it. And then I started shop work
because there really wasn't any choice. I didn't want to
go into a factory and so it really was shop work.
And when you're in that working class background, you're not
(11:35):
encouraged to leave, you know. I remember saying to somebody once,
I think I might take a secretarial like course and
go and work in London. And really it was like London, Yeah,
you're going to go You can't go to London. Well
you're going to do in London? Well, I just go
there on the train to get a job. Who's going
(11:55):
to give you a job in London? Oh? I have
a word with yourself. I think you're better than us.
You've got a bob on us. And I was like,
have you got the stay in Wolverhampton the rest of
my life? Have I? You know? And being nothing, nobody
with it was you went encouraged. Nobody said why don't
you try and do this or that? So I started
selling things in various shops in Wolverhampton, and by the
(12:18):
age of eighteen I became a professional sales demonstrator.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, because obviously sales is something that you've got an edgyes.
Some people can do it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Some people I could just do it. I like talking
to people. I wasn't shy, you know. And if people
had say, you know, I worked in a men's way
at one term, and if a manager i'd have this
blue jacket, I'd say, why don't you have a green
one as well? You know, so you're coming back. It
was just natural to me. And then have a shirt
to go with it, you know what you need with shirt,
a tie, you know what. And so they'd go out,
(12:47):
you know, with hundreds of pounds worth of stuff. So
then I started working for a lot of large companies
demonstrating their products at like an ideal home show or
in a shopping mall. I'd might be in Harold's or
Debenham's or some sort of store and that was demonstrating
products and gadgets. But it was it wasn't an easy life,
(13:10):
especially for a woman. You know. There was a lot
of men on the circuit, not so many women because
you worked commission only. So for over twenty years in England,
I never had a basic wage. I never had any
holiday pay that didn't pay you any travel expenses, hotel expenses.
I would see a company and they'd say, there's the
(13:32):
Idelo exhibition on in Birmingham for three weeks. Do you
want to work at that it's on? Yeah, I'll go,
where's the product? Let me have a lot?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You had to sell.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I would just have to find my way there, find
a bed and breakfast place or a hostel, and then
sell to get some money. And sometimes it worked out
really well. Sometimes you know, you'd be in a great
show and there'd be loads of people and I'd earn
lots of commission. But other times I might be in
a department store and I report to the manager and
(14:01):
I'd have come to sell the Washo Matic Hindawiper. He'd say, yeah,
the stock's here. I've got you a position down in
the basement next to the mops and buckets. Have we
stood there all day? Going alone? Anybody's there? I wouldn't
even make the buses their home. So it was a
strange way of life because I could earn a lot
(14:21):
of money and then none, and then a bit and turn,
and so it was like this.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
But it must have been a pretty good training ground, for.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It was, and it makes you resilient. Because for all
those years I never took a lunch. How I never
took a tea break because you were scared to move,
because you think all the other girls would say, yeah,
you can for your lunch. No, because getting busy now,
I don't want to miss it. You know, I need
to sell some more of these. I won't pay God
pay the rent, you know, I pay the electricity and
(14:51):
all this. And also it was quite a lonely life
because I was by myself all the time and traveling.
So I might have three months in burm Ingham, in,
two weeks in Blackpool and a month in bournemouthon and
I was just here, there and everywhere by myself.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, how did you end up in New Zealand? What
was that? What prompted you to? Sort of because of
London's a stretch as a young girl. Then we're a
long way from.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Here, yes, but I didn't worry may I just went
everywhere and it was funnily enough. At one of the exhibitions,
I met an Australian lad and he was telling me
This was about nineteen eighty seven, and he was telling
me about the World Expo on in nineteen eighty eight
(15:41):
in Brisbane, right, and I thought maybe I could work
at that, you know, maybe they've got shops there, you know,
and I could work there. But it wasn't as easy
in those days. I was sending letters off to the government,
let us off to here, there and everywhere. But in
the end I did get a job in the British
pavilion at the World Expo, and I had about nine
(16:03):
months and then I traveled the rest of Australia selling things.
But then my money ran out, my visa ran out,
so I had to go back to Wolverhampton and I
saved up again, you know, and I thought, I'll go
back to Australia, you know, see if I can make
it there. And I had as part of the ticket,
I had a week stopover in Auckland and I thought, well,
(16:26):
this is nice. I don't think i'll go on to think,
I'll just stop here. And I never used the rest
of the ticket. But I didn't have much money. So
the first thing I did was I went I got
the newspaper. This time I was here and there was
the Easter show was on at the Green Lane, so
I got a bus there and I walked all around
(16:47):
every stand didn't matter what it was saying, do you
need any help? Do you want me to work for you?
I could sell that for you. No, okay, next time,
do you need me to sell this? I can sell that.
Until I came to a guy selling metal polish George's
was and I said, do you need me to sell
that for you? You could? You know? He said, well,
actually I could do with going to the bank and
get something to eat. Could you just man the stand
(17:09):
for an hour? Didn't he said? You know? I said,
I know, a demonstration for metal polish. It's fine. So
he just went and left me there, and when he
came back in an hour's time, I'd sold more in
that hour than he'd sold the whole day before. Well yeah,
so he said, why don't we turn this around? Why
don't you work all day and I'll relieve you for
(17:29):
you lunch break. So I worked the ten days and
got some money.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, that's amazing. And see, I think you told Kim
Knight when you were doing that that that I think
it's The Viva features something about arriving with pretty much
eighteen dollars in a phone number, is it you?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes? That was the second time I came here because
it didn't work out the first time, and I ended
up having to go back. I was always running out
of money or my visa would run out, one or
the other. So a year later I came back again,
and I arrived that time I only had eighteen dollars
and I stayed in a youth hostel. But again I
(18:05):
got the newspaper straight away. And this was like I think.
I arrived like on a six six o'clock Friday morning,
got the newspaper and it had come for an interview
and to sell vacuum cleaners, Kirby vacuum cleaners. I did
the interview, got the job. They trained me on the
Saturday and the Sunday, and by the Monday I was
(18:26):
going rounding the doors and selling Kirby vacuum cleaners for
one thousand dollars a pop.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I mean, it's quite quite brave to head off to
the other side of the world with so much money.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It is. I cried when the first time I arrived
in Australia and you see everybody being met by somebody
in the balloons and welcome signs, and that's just me.
I burst into tears. And the same one I got
to New Zealand both times because I was thinking to myself,
what on earth possessed me to come here? What was
I thinking? I've got no money, no job, I don't
know anybody here, no friends, no family, no nothing. Was
(18:58):
absolutely clean, staf absolutely nothing. So you just think. I'm
always like saying himself, calm down, Calm down. What's the
first thing you need to do? Find somewhere to stay cheap? Right,
what's the second thing you need to do? Think, can't
get a job? Okay, how can I do that? And
then they those days we didn't have mobile phones, there
was yeah, so it was either you know, so it
(19:19):
was I just got the newspaper. So I was always like,
have a word with yourself, love, calm down, what's the
next step you can take?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Do you think you're a risk taker?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Or I didn't think I was. I'm looking back I didn't. Yeah,
looking back, I do think I was brave, But people
only say to me, now, you were brave because I
was successful. I think if I'd have failed as I
had done many times, people who have said it was
a bit of a stupid thing to do, then, wasn't it.
As my father said that twice when I'd arrived home
(19:47):
from Australia and what were you thinking? You know, and
you didn't give up.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You had a dream.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Always I found that people in England they were always
saying things like, what if you can't get a job,
And I'd be like, yeah, but what if I can?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
What if you don't earn any money? But what if
I do? You know? It was always like what if
you can't find anywhere to live? But what if I
do find somewhere to live and it's great. So I
never let other people's opinions of anything, you know, change
my mind or I think.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And it went I mean, it obviously went.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Let's second time within a year you were on our
TV screen. It's almost like an overnight sensation with those Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It made me laugh because the newspapers sexual glows. They
said I was an overnight success, and I thought I
was on take thirty five years, you know, to be that.
But yes, I just happened to be this time at
the right place, at the right time. I found the
right man to work with and he was excellent with
numbers and figures, so he was totally in charge of
(20:45):
everything and the running of the company day to day.
I could just concentrate on finding products, writing adverts for them,
filming them, getting them edited, getting them on the telly.
But at the same time I also had a team
of in shopping malls right across New Zealand and Australia
by then working for us. So all those demonstrations that
(21:08):
I've done for you know, twenty odd five, I thought, yeah,
that's that's what we can do. Teach the girls how
to do it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You talked a bit about class earlier and working class
and stuff in the UK. Did you find it easier
in New Zealand that that occident wasn't sort of yes, gadget.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's why I loved it straight away. I loved it
because soon as I started talking, people obviously thought I
had a strange accent, you know. But me, I thought,
they don't know what it means. They don't know that
it means uncommon, working class with no education. They don't know.
As soon as I am my mouth in England they
would know exactly the sort of background I'd had and upbringing.
(21:46):
So as soon as I was here, I thought, I
can be anyone I want here. I can just reinvent myself.
People can say what do you and I say, oh,
I'm a television presenter.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So I became You recall, I mean, you know, coming
from a background with not much money, not much money
when you arrived. You recall a moment when you sort
of suddenly felt like you had a little bit of
money and you were able to go, gosh, I think
I'm actually financially.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So can It was never when I had the big money.
It was more when I started earning, you know, quite
a bit of money regularly, and that I didn't have
to worry about the bills. I'd always looked after myself
since you know, I was a child, and all of
a sudden I never had to worry about paying the rent,
or the electricity or the food. I used to get
a bit carried away in the supermarket because it was
(22:32):
something I was never able to do before, and there
was only mail of the moment I said, load up
the trolley with all sorts. I couldn't possibly eat it all.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
One of the questions we asked is about Christopher Luxan,
the Prome minister. He got asked about a supermarket shop
on the trail and he said, oh, sixty dollars he
spins or something. So are you still a big shopper.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Or yes, so I just got used to I just
really enjoyed it, just being now to buy anything. And yeah,
that's when I felt that I was rich. I thought
I've made it. I don't have to worry about any bills.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I mean, it was it was probably for that sort
of broadcast television. The nineties and the two thousands were
sort of a high point. Was it a lucrative supposed
to be in?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It was? It was a good time to be because
I had a lot of things going on. You know,
I was on the TV selling things. I had demonstrators
all over the country, so that was good income. But
also at the time TV three TV and said we
were making a lot of shows one after the other.
You would just go in and they say, have you
got any ideas, and I'd say, yeah, you know, we
(23:34):
could do this, and then they say, oh, yeah, let's
do that. Then it was bang, bang.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You have any favorites that stand out because there was
a lot and a short period.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Dinner people have always talked to me about guess who's
coming to dinner and why can't we have it on
TV now? And it was one of the first reality shows. Yes,
that's right, you know. But then I had lots of shows,
as I say, one after the other. I was always
on TV. There was always work if you wanted it. Always.
(24:03):
I was never out of work.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
And as the way of selling things changed, do you
think through the media, I mean, it was a high
point in the nineties, I guess for those infomercials, and
I just wonder, is it still the way it's done
or has it evolved.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's pretty much the same, pretty much the same. They
say people aren't watching TV anymore, but you'll still find
the infomercials on. They're still on in the middle of
the night, they're still on in the morning. Unfortunately, what
we've lost here is the good Morning show. TV and
said had a show I went on for over twenty years.
I was on every day for over twenty years selling something,
(24:42):
and that was a TV and zaid show. And then
TV three had a show called the Cafe and you
could go on that every day and sell things. So
those have gone now.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, and people actually enjoyed the process, and yes, joyd
watching it.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was good fun and you had to entertain people
with selling, you know, otherwise, yes, people would go off
and go to the liew or go and make a
cup of tea. So the adverts always had to be
entertaining and amusing, you know, as well as you know,
selling something.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, I mean you've had ups and downs. It's a
money show. So I was going to ask about you
did declear bankruptcy once with the tourist experience.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I didn't declare myself. Bank was just just the It
was some creditors.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Was it something you know? I guess it's a learning experience,
isn't it that you know.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It is, But it's also a discalculia thing which you
never learned. So because I didn't know what I was
doing with the money side of things, so I had
to trust other people with that side of things. I
never got involved in that. I knew it was a
good idea, but I should never have been involved in.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
A Yeah, I mean the idea was was really good
and it was the peak of that tourist.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
In New Zealand and so it was a great idea.
But then I knew I could make the money back,
but unfortunately the you know, the creditors. I went to
the creditors, you know, it was one big company and said,
if you could just hold on I've just signed a
deal with this company and I'm going to be selling
(26:16):
all this stuff on TV and training the girls. So
if you could just give me a couple of months,
I could give you that money. No, yeah, no, that
was it. So that was the end of that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I guess. You know, it is a learning experience. But
you know, is there any advice you'd have for other
people after going through that experience? For business people?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Well, after I went through that experience, I wrote a
book because I decided straight away, well I'll pick myself
up and start again. That was all I could do.
I'll just start again with nothing. And I had so
many people emailing me, how are you going to do this?
What are you going to do? How are you thinking
like that? Because we've lost everything? My husband's bankrupt or
(26:59):
this closed down or that, you know what I mean?
And so I started writing the book. And I wrote
a book which I launched in two thousand and nine,
which was a best selling number one best self for
Penguin called but Weight, There's More Right, And in there
I was advising people how they should think and what
they should do and how they should behave if they
want to get back on their feet. And I think
(27:20):
a lot of people are just scared of failure. And
I've never been scared of failure. I've failed more times,
you know, than I've succeeded. But I've always thought, you know,
success and failure aren't destinations. I always say to people,
they're just part of the journey. You can fail and
pick yourself up and have another go and then succeed.
(27:42):
So to me, it's never bothered me how many times
I've had to fail and picked myself back UPO.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
To business people in America, for example, it's far more
normal for business people to go bankrupt and.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Keep you know, you don't have.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
New Zealand's a bit more like the UK. We're a
bit more conservative and cautious.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yes, But a lot of people, well they do fail
and think, oh, well that's that I tried to make
something myself and I failed. But I'm like, well, you know,
you're not a failure. The business failed or something you
did failed. Is there something else you can do or
what did you learn from it? Maybe you did learn
from it, or maybe you learned that wasn't for you
after all, and do something else?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah you still, I mean, how's business now is? Then?
Lizzie still going Strong for example.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, so I don't own Thin Lizzie, but Thin Lizzie
was launched and they took me on board to help
with the selling of it, with the promotions, because I'd
already done it all before. My makeup was called Natural
Glow that I launched in the nineties and so it's
still around. No, so that's all gone, but Thin Lizzie
is still around. So I helped them with the marketing,
(28:47):
and again I got a team of girls here in Australia.
So I spent a lot of time, you know, twenty
I don't know, from about twenty ten right through about
twelve years going backwards and forwards to Australia, either selling
on TV over there or with my team of girls
(29:10):
in exhibitions. So even still here, I could if I
wanted to demonstrate and sell it exhibitions and in shopping malls.
But I don't want to know.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
That's right, you don't need to be doing I mean,
you can pick and choose a bit more what you
want to be doing.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So I took that right up until COVID, when not
only was I allowed to travel, they stopped all the
exhibitions and stopped all demonstrators in stores, so that was
the end of that.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But you didn't need age stop you jumping on slipperty trees.
R Island No.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Sort of relivered a Yeah, I'm always of the opinion
I've always say yes to everything and then worry about
how I'm going to do it later. Yeah, And I
always think, you know, these opportunities might not always come along,
and so people say John to go on that. I'm
usually like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea. I'll do that.
And I knew because I always I always make sure
(30:04):
I have fun whatever I'm doing. So I just thought
this is going to be great. I'll probably meet some
great people, It's going to be a lot of fun,
might raise some money for my charity SPCA. Plus it
gets me back on the telly, And then people might
see you and think, oh, yes, who's on Paul? I
remember she's good fun. Why don't we put her in
this or give her a job doing that?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So why not?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
We have a few quick fire questions we throw out,
give some money talks. The first one, I guess is
and you touched on your childhood, but what's the poorest
you've ever been? Belt, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, I think the poorest I felt. I was living
by myself once in Blackpool. I was probably about twenty three,
and my job would finish suddenly and I had no
money for the I didn't have fifty pence to put
into the electric meter.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And it was Christmas and I had no money, and
I was supposed to go to a friend's Christmas Day
for lunch. But when I opened the door, the snow
was right over my knees. So I was just sitting
in the cold, in the dark, and I had a
tint of process peace. Oh wow, Christmas, it's tough dinner.
It was poor.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Yeah, that's it's really poor, because some people think they're poor.
Flip side the other end of the equation, What would
be the most indulgent purchase you've ever made for yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I bought a boat once for one point two million.
That was pretty good. And I was always buying Mercedes
and I went on the cruise on the q E two,
so I went around the world on the Orient Express.
So I was always I liked doing those sorts of
things experiences.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, living living life. Is there something? Is there a
dream purchase you'd still like? To make one day that
you haven't haven't done or no, I don't think so yeah, No,
that's pretty good. That's a pretty good sign, really, isn't it that?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah? You do?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You still buy lotto tickets?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I do, only just recently, only because my husband keeps
nagging me too. I want so I do.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I often ask, because I sometimes ask people, you know,
when they imagine winning lotto, how much do you imagine winning?
You know, do the big number or just enough to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Know a lot? I've always thought big, you see. And
I think even if I had some money, even never
had a lot of money, now, I'd probably still buy
a lotto because you can never have too much money.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Can you fair enough? Sort of a question? You know,
it's come through and what you've said, But it is
making money? Is making money being important to you as
a driver of your success or is it more of
a byproduct product of success?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
No, it's been a driving force for me, and I
know earlier on a lot of people used to say
to me, don't let money, you know, be your driving force, Like, well,
you want to say that if you grew up in
you know, walk Pumpton with nothing? It is my drive
force and it always has been, and it's it's worked
me in good stead, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, And it's a powerful motivator. And then there are
the other things.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yes, yeah, I do it for the money.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting in New Zealand certainly, and
possibly England, a lot about heritage is British here. You know,
there's that cultural sort of shyness about talking about money
or even acknowledging that you have money.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I mean, have you sort of yes, I know, And
people always wanted me to say something else. I do
motivational speaking, and they'll always be like, yes, but what
motivates you? And I'm like, money, having money, paying the bills,
buying nice stuff that, yeah, but what really motivates you?
I'm like, oh, for goodness sake, It's like it was
a swear word. People didn't want me to be motivated
(33:44):
by money. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, finishing up just on it's a sort of a
bigger question. But when you look at the world and
you look at the poverty that's still out there and
the idea of helping people get ahead and all that
sort of stuff, addressing the inequality, is there something that
stands out to you as a policy or a thing
we should do. If we could make you Prime Minister
(34:06):
for the day and you put something in place, what
do you think would help, would really help people who
are stuck in a poverty trap to get out.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know it's going to be easy to say money,
isn't it. But I know when I was growing up,
goodness may we couldn have survived without school dinners, so
thank goodness for those. But it is the children. It
is for me, the children. I think now I see
the adverts on TV and that makes me cry. That
(34:39):
if I see that they're saying children have to go
to school, you know, and they haven't got the shoes,
and they haven't got hungry to eat, and they're going
hungry and they're cold at night. That to me, I
think that can't be right, do you know what I mean?
And I can't understand the people that do have money
and don't want to help out, because that's one of
the reasons I ended up without any money is because
(35:02):
I gave a lot of it away. It was just
what I thought was the right thing to do. I think,
you know, there are people worse off than me. I'll
give it to them. Give.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But it's one of the joys of having some money
is that you can be involved in these things.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh, yes, it was wonderful. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You mentioned the SPCA. It's still involved and securities like.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
That, Yes, and any of those. Again, I like doing
things for the animals because I'm all about this adopt,
don't shop. I've adopted a lot of you know, rescue
animals over the years, and that's brought me a lot
of joy.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Sure, look, that's great. Is then finally, just just I
know we're going to see you on Celebrity Trees Island,
but where else can people see more of you at
the moment? And what's happening with your products and what's next.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, I've just discovered TikTok, Yes, and I think that's hilarious.
So I'm all over it with tick.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Funny because you were almost you were a viral sensation
with that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
All the young people that seen me on TikTok or
Instagram or Facebook, they say to me, you're the og. Yeah, yeah,
so Zamboy, You're the og. So apparently I'm the original
influencer and now here I am again and I'm selling
things for people but now it's on social media.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Well there we go. They can look you up on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Great and yes, and just a reminder that people can
watch Celebrity Treasure Island TVNZ two from Monday. Thanks for
being here, Szabo, you thanks for listening to this episode
of Money Talks. If you want to get in touch,
drop me a line Liam dot Dan at inzme dot
co dot z and you can read more from me
(36:37):
at inzidherld dot co dot nz. Thanks to my producer
Ethan Sills and sound engineer Leanne McDonald. Follow Money Talks
on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, with new
episodes available every Thursday
Hi, I'm Liam Dan, New Zealand Herald's Business editor at Large,
and welcome to this episode of Money Talks. This is
a podcast about money, but we're not going to tell
you how to get rich, and we're not going to
try and pick the next interest rate move. In this series,
I'll be talking to interesting New Zealanders about how money
has shaped their lives and what they've learned over the years.
(00:29):
For today's podcast, I'm joined by businesswoman, TV star and
infomercial icon Suzanne Paul Cura. Suzanne, welcome to Money Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, look, it's great to have you here. That intro
is it's almost difficult to put together intro for someone
who's had such a varied career as you've had. I
guess business woman is a big part of it, right.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I suppose so, yes, Well, right.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Now the focus is are TV Star. I guess of
those things you're back on ce Liberty Treasure Island for
the second time.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I understand, Yes, I did it twenty odd years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Can well is it that long?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, that's amazing. So how was it the second time around?
I'm sure there's all sorts of things you can't say,
but how did you find the experience this time around
compared to I.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Would say it was better because I was expecting the
worst because it was pretty bad the first time. So yes,
it wasn't improved.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, and you probably can talk about the first time.
Was that just really rough condition?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It was we were literally just dropped off and it
was women versus men back then, and they literally said
to us, there you are, and the men are over
there where we couldn't see them, and so build a camp. Yeah,
and you know, you just got off. You're on the
island and it was raining and it was getting dark.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Wow. So it's a little bit more like one of
those survival shows. It was, so this is this is
the stuff around. It's a bit more about the challenges
and the yea, all the games effectively if you play. Yeah, yeah,
well I hope but well, I know you can't say
anything more about that really, but people will be looking
forward to see that. I guess I want to go
right back because it's what we do in money talks
and talk about your first memories of money. You're certainly
(02:11):
a New Zealand national treasure, but you were born in Wolverhampton,
which I looked up because I thought it was further
north actually than it was. But it's sort of northern Birmingham,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, they call it the West Midlands. It's right in
the middle really, as you say, next to Birmingham Coventry.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Sure, yeah, yeah. And so what were your first memories
of having your own money do you recall, you know, as.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
A child, I remember more not having any money. That's
it's memory of not having it because it was a
very working class area and it was a particularly this
part of Wolverhampton that I grew up in was very
very low working class. So we didn't even have a bathroom.
(02:55):
We didn't have a shower, we didn't have a bath,
There was no inside toilet, no hot running water, so
it was very basic, just a cold tap and the
toilet was right down the bottom of the garden. So
you know, if you picture that, it's like Coronation Street,
but worse, worse.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I guess it is how most New Zealanders probably sort
of almost me, thinking that you were from further north,
we sort of relate to Coronation Streets.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, And I think I didn't realize probably till I
was about nine or ten, that we didn't have any money,
because if you're only mixing with people the same as you,
you don't know, you know, how other people live. So
you know, we didn't have cars, we didn't have telephones.
It was all very basic, you know. But I realized yeah, probably, yeah,
(03:48):
when I was about ten or eleven. Then I started
to realize that some people did have a lot of
money and it did make a big difference to them.
And I think it's because when you're eleven in England
you go to what they call your secondary school, and
that was right out of the area where I lived.
Suddenly I was mixing with different kids at eleven, and
(04:10):
they were being dropped off at school in their dad's car,
and you know, I was catching two buses and yeah,
and even that first year wasn't so bad. I could
sort of lie my way out of things, you know,
girls that'd say, can I have your phone number? And
I'd say, my dad doesn't like me using the phone,
you know, because it's for business. We never had a phone. Wow,
(04:31):
So I'd just lie. But it was really my second
year at that school that I realized on the first
day that I still had the same uniform on that
I'd worn the previous year, and they all started the
second year with a new uniform on. And I realized then,
in fact, I left school at fifteen with the same uniform.
(04:52):
I only ever had that one. Yes, and so I
realized I was different. But also things that I couldn't
participate in in school. I wasn't like the cooking. We
couldn't afford all the ingredients, so I used to have
to sit at the back of the class and watch
all the other girls cooking. The boys used to go
(05:13):
into woodwork in these days. Girls cooking and any sports
I wasn't allowed to take part in, they'd take.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I just didn't have the right outfit. Yes, you haven't
got no. Yeah, Have we got a tennis skirt? No,
you can't sit down? Have you got hockey the black
hockey skirt? Nick? No, I haven't got that. Sit over there.
I never took part in anything.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So what did your parents do?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Then? My father raised me and my brother, and he
worked in a factory, so he was a shift worker,
so we didn't even see that much of him. We
were known as latchkey kids, so we had our own
door key around our neck on a bit of string
and so we would come home from school, even this
was from about seven. We would come home from school,
(06:00):
make a jam sandwich for tegaue, go out and play
till it got dark, then come in and make a fire.
I'm talking about a real file like with Carl and Wood,
you know and all that.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Probably you know you're pretty resourceful, very young.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, so that's we were pretty much on our own
quite a lot. But yes, I suppose it makes you
very resilient.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Was there ever any pocket money or anything like that?
Money to spend on sweeting.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I used to earn. There was a pub, actually there
was three pubs on our street, one at either end
and one in the middle. But the one on the
one end of the street used to employ me on
a Sunday afternoon and I'd go in at two o'clock,
which was only used to shut then, and I'd empty
the ashtrays, clear away the glasses, and sweep the floor.
And I think I got fifty pence and i'd use
(06:47):
that money for a dance class that I went to.
And that was when I also noticed that I didn't
have the money the other girls had, because I did
the ballet class in my socks and i'd see the
girls in the lovely soft pink leather Bally shoes. And
then I did the tap glands dancing class just in
my school shoes. Wow, And I never had, you know,
a pair of tap shoes. So really from an early age,
(07:11):
I knew, from about the age of eleven that if
you had money, that meant you know, you'd have a
better life and you could do what you wanted and
buy what you wanted.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And at that age, did you think I'm going to
try and achieve this?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, I knew it straight away. I made up my mind,
made up my mind. There was so much I couldn't do,
and I felt like a second class citizen. I looked
an absolute state. I was scruffy all the time, and
it didn't help. From about the age of eight, I
had to wear glasses all the time. They were like
the bottoms of milk bottles and National Health glasses and
(07:49):
you're only allowed to have one pair every year or something. Well,
I'd break them straight away, so they were always held together.
There was a sticking plaster, but a sticky tate that
were lopsided, and for a fourteen year year old girl
to right it was hard. And when I'd see the
other girls in the nice clothes and talking about going
the disco and all this sort of thing, and I
(08:10):
made up my mind really at an early age, right,
I'm not having this. I'm not having this life. I
need to earn some money, but I wasn't. School wasn't
for me anyway because of my problems with maths and discalcolia.
So I got expelled at fifteen. But that all stemmed
from the problem I had with numbers, figures maths. I
(08:34):
don't know if you've heard of discalculia. Yes, it's like
dyslexia is with letters, so discalculia's with numbers. But they
didn't know anything about that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
The day nowadays everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
They just kept putting me in detention. I got the
ruler on the back of the hand several times homework
I couldn't do. I'd just come in and say I
hadn't done it, I didn't know how to do it.
And I was always told, you know, you're just not
trying hard enough, you're or you're stupid. And then they
put me in a remedial maths class with the young kids.
(09:11):
Didn't make no difference made I could make head a
tale of it. Didn't matter how long I looked at
the numbers, how hard I studied, didn't make any difference.
And one day in the maths class and the teacher
made me stand up and said, can you do you
know this? And it was just like oh, I was
just like no, stick it up your JACKSI sort of thing,
(09:32):
you know, just you know, and walked out the class
and I got expelled.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And that was it.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, was that.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
It's amazing that they just don't see that. So I'm
not even sure I'm going to pronounce it right. Yeah,
have a disorder I've got.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But discal coolia. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Was it something that you've obviously discovered later in life
where you've had I.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Discovered that I had it about ten years ago. And
funny enough, I was working with the company that sell
maths course for people. I was selling them and I
was chatting to them, you know, and they were all
very clever people that'd invented this course to help kids
with maths. And I said, don't want if it be
any good for me, because I've never been any good
at it. So they showed me this. Yeah, no, I
(10:14):
have no clue. I'm not I have no idea. And
they said, you don't have a problem with mouth. You
have this calculia if you can't remember that, if you
can't work that out. And we talked about time. Time
is difficult for me to work out when I've got
to get somewhere. And when I was doing a lot
of flying, which was you know, when I was here
(10:35):
in my thirties or things that even that working out
when's the flight and when's the next flight and when
I get there? If it's three o'clock there, now, what
time will it be at seven o'clock? No, oh, I'm
not in a panic. I don't know. I don't know
what time I'm going to land. I don't know what time.
I can't work it out.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
I suppose they've got all these ways they can teach
coping strategies and ways.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yes, so that's why I done for all my life,
is just put you know, mechanisms in place to cope
with it.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating and so okay, so you've walked
out of school. Was it easy to get a job?
Were you straight into the workforce?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It was in those days. I actually got an office job.
No idea why I talked my way into that, But
I realized after a couple of months, you know, I
wasn't suited to it. And then I started shop work
because there really wasn't any choice. I didn't want to
go into a factory and so it really was shop work.
And when you're in that working class background, you're not
(11:35):
encouraged to leave, you know. I remember saying to somebody once,
I think I might take a secretarial like course and
go and work in London. And really it was like London, Yeah,
you're going to go You can't go to London. Well
you're going to do in London? Well, I just go
there on the train to get a job. Who's going
(11:55):
to give you a job in London? Oh? I have
a word with yourself. I think you're better than us.
You've got a bob on us. And I was like,
have you got the stay in Wolverhampton the rest of
my life? Have I? You know? And being nothing, nobody
with it was you went encouraged. Nobody said why don't
you try and do this or that? So I started
selling things in various shops in Wolverhampton, and by the
(12:18):
age of eighteen I became a professional sales demonstrator.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, because obviously sales is something that you've got an edgyes.
Some people can do it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Some people I could just do it. I like talking
to people. I wasn't shy, you know. And if people
had say, you know, I worked in a men's way
at one term, and if a manager i'd have this
blue jacket, I'd say, why don't you have a green
one as well? You know, so you're coming back. It
was just natural to me. And then have a shirt
to go with it, you know what you need with shirt,
a tie, you know what. And so they'd go out,
(12:47):
you know, with hundreds of pounds worth of stuff. So
then I started working for a lot of large companies
demonstrating their products at like an ideal home show or
in a shopping mall. I'd might be in Harold's or
Debenham's or some sort of store and that was demonstrating
products and gadgets. But it was it wasn't an easy life,
(13:10):
especially for a woman. You know. There was a lot
of men on the circuit, not so many women because
you worked commission only. So for over twenty years in England,
I never had a basic wage. I never had any
holiday pay that didn't pay you any travel expenses, hotel expenses.
I would see a company and they'd say, there's the
(13:32):
Idelo exhibition on in Birmingham for three weeks. Do you
want to work at that it's on? Yeah, I'll go,
where's the product? Let me have a lot?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You had to sell.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I would just have to find my way there, find
a bed and breakfast place or a hostel, and then
sell to get some money. And sometimes it worked out
really well. Sometimes you know, you'd be in a great
show and there'd be loads of people and I'd earn
lots of commission. But other times I might be in
a department store and I report to the manager and
(14:01):
I'd have come to sell the Washo Matic Hindawiper. He'd say, yeah,
the stock's here. I've got you a position down in
the basement next to the mops and buckets. Have we
stood there all day? Going alone? Anybody's there? I wouldn't
even make the buses their home. So it was a
strange way of life because I could earn a lot
(14:21):
of money and then none, and then a bit and turn,
and so it was like this.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
But it must have been a pretty good training ground, for.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It was, and it makes you resilient. Because for all
those years I never took a lunch. How I never
took a tea break because you were scared to move,
because you think all the other girls would say, yeah,
you can for your lunch. No, because getting busy now,
I don't want to miss it. You know, I need
to sell some more of these. I won't pay God
pay the rent, you know, I pay the electricity and
(14:51):
all this. And also it was quite a lonely life
because I was by myself all the time and traveling.
So I might have three months in burm Ingham, in,
two weeks in Blackpool and a month in bournemouthon and
I was just here, there and everywhere by myself.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, how did you end up in New Zealand? What
was that? What prompted you to? Sort of because of
London's a stretch as a young girl. Then we're a
long way from.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Here, yes, but I didn't worry may I just went
everywhere and it was funnily enough. At one of the exhibitions,
I met an Australian lad and he was telling me
This was about nineteen eighty seven, and he was telling
me about the World Expo on in nineteen eighty eight
(15:41):
in Brisbane, right, and I thought maybe I could work
at that, you know, maybe they've got shops there, you know,
and I could work there. But it wasn't as easy
in those days. I was sending letters off to the government,
let us off to here, there and everywhere. But in
the end I did get a job in the British
pavilion at the World Expo, and I had about nine
(16:03):
months and then I traveled the rest of Australia selling things.
But then my money ran out, my visa ran out,
so I had to go back to Wolverhampton and I
saved up again, you know, and I thought, I'll go
back to Australia, you know, see if I can make
it there. And I had as part of the ticket,
I had a week stopover in Auckland and I thought, well,
(16:26):
this is nice. I don't think i'll go on to think,
I'll just stop here. And I never used the rest
of the ticket. But I didn't have much money. So
the first thing I did was I went I got
the newspaper. This time I was here and there was
the Easter show was on at the Green Lane, so
I got a bus there and I walked all around
(16:47):
every stand didn't matter what it was saying, do you
need any help? Do you want me to work for you?
I could sell that for you. No, okay, next time,
do you need me to sell this? I can sell that.
Until I came to a guy selling metal polish George's
was and I said, do you need me to sell
that for you? You could? You know? He said, well,
actually I could do with going to the bank and
get something to eat. Could you just man the stand
(17:09):
for an hour? Didn't he said? You know? I said,
I know, a demonstration for metal polish. It's fine. So
he just went and left me there, and when he
came back in an hour's time, I'd sold more in
that hour than he'd sold the whole day before. Well yeah,
so he said, why don't we turn this around? Why
don't you work all day and I'll relieve you for
(17:29):
you lunch break. So I worked the ten days and
got some money.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, that's amazing. And see, I think you told Kim
Knight when you were doing that that that I think
it's The Viva features something about arriving with pretty much
eighteen dollars in a phone number, is it you?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes? That was the second time I came here because
it didn't work out the first time, and I ended
up having to go back. I was always running out
of money or my visa would run out, one or
the other. So a year later I came back again,
and I arrived that time I only had eighteen dollars
and I stayed in a youth hostel. But again I
(18:05):
got the newspaper straight away. And this was like I think.
I arrived like on a six six o'clock Friday morning,
got the newspaper and it had come for an interview
and to sell vacuum cleaners, Kirby vacuum cleaners. I did
the interview, got the job. They trained me on the
Saturday and the Sunday, and by the Monday I was
(18:26):
going rounding the doors and selling Kirby vacuum cleaners for
one thousand dollars a pop.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I mean, it's quite quite brave to head off to
the other side of the world with so much money.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It is. I cried when the first time I arrived
in Australia and you see everybody being met by somebody
in the balloons and welcome signs, and that's just me.
I burst into tears. And the same one I got
to New Zealand both times because I was thinking to myself,
what on earth possessed me to come here? What was
I thinking? I've got no money, no job, I don't
know anybody here, no friends, no family, no nothing. Was
(18:58):
absolutely clean, staf absolutely nothing. So you just think. I'm
always like saying himself, calm down, Calm down. What's the
first thing you need to do? Find somewhere to stay cheap? Right,
what's the second thing you need to do? Think, can't
get a job? Okay, how can I do that? And
then they those days we didn't have mobile phones, there
was yeah, so it was either you know, so it
(19:19):
was I just got the newspaper. So I was always like,
have a word with yourself, love, calm down, what's the
next step you can take?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Do you think you're a risk taker?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Or I didn't think I was. I'm looking back I didn't. Yeah,
looking back, I do think I was brave, But people
only say to me, now, you were brave because I
was successful. I think if I'd have failed as I
had done many times, people who have said it was
a bit of a stupid thing to do, then, wasn't it.
As my father said that twice when I'd arrived home
(19:47):
from Australia and what were you thinking? You know, and
you didn't give up.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You had a dream.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Always I found that people in England they were always
saying things like, what if you can't get a job,
And I'd be like, yeah, but what if I can?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
What if you don't earn any money? But what if
I do? You know? It was always like what if
you can't find anywhere to live? But what if I
do find somewhere to live and it's great. So I
never let other people's opinions of anything, you know, change
my mind or I think.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And it went I mean, it obviously went.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Well.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Let's second time within a year you were on our
TV screen. It's almost like an overnight sensation with those Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
It made me laugh because the newspapers sexual glows. They
said I was an overnight success, and I thought I
was on take thirty five years, you know, to be that.
But yes, I just happened to be this time at
the right place, at the right time. I found the
right man to work with and he was excellent with
numbers and figures, so he was totally in charge of
(20:45):
everything and the running of the company day to day.
I could just concentrate on finding products, writing adverts for them,
filming them, getting them edited, getting them on the telly.
But at the same time I also had a team
of in shopping malls right across New Zealand and Australia
by then working for us. So all those demonstrations that
(21:08):
I've done for you know, twenty odd five, I thought, yeah,
that's that's what we can do. Teach the girls how
to do it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
You talked a bit about class earlier and working class
and stuff in the UK. Did you find it easier
in New Zealand that that occident wasn't sort of yes, gadget.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's why I loved it straight away. I loved it
because soon as I started talking, people obviously thought I
had a strange accent, you know. But me, I thought,
they don't know what it means. They don't know that
it means uncommon, working class with no education. They don't know.
As soon as I am my mouth in England they
would know exactly the sort of background I'd had and upbringing.
(21:46):
So as soon as I was here, I thought, I
can be anyone I want here. I can just reinvent myself.
People can say what do you and I say, oh,
I'm a television presenter.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So I became You recall, I mean, you know, coming
from a background with not much money, not much money
when you arrived. You recall a moment when you sort
of suddenly felt like you had a little bit of
money and you were able to go, gosh, I think
I'm actually financially.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So can It was never when I had the big money.
It was more when I started earning, you know, quite
a bit of money regularly, and that I didn't have
to worry about the bills. I'd always looked after myself
since you know, I was a child, and all of
a sudden I never had to worry about paying the rent,
or the electricity or the food. I used to get
a bit carried away in the supermarket because it was
(22:32):
something I was never able to do before, and there
was only mail of the moment I said, load up
the trolley with all sorts. I couldn't possibly eat it all.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
One of the questions we asked is about Christopher Luxan,
the Prome minister. He got asked about a supermarket shop
on the trail and he said, oh, sixty dollars he
spins or something. So are you still a big shopper.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Or yes, so I just got used to I just
really enjoyed it, just being now to buy anything. And yeah,
that's when I felt that I was rich. I thought
I've made it. I don't have to worry about any bills.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I mean, it was it was probably for that sort
of broadcast television. The nineties and the two thousands were
sort of a high point. Was it a lucrative supposed
to be in?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It was? It was a good time to be because
I had a lot of things going on. You know,
I was on the TV selling things. I had demonstrators
all over the country, so that was good income. But
also at the time TV three TV and said we
were making a lot of shows one after the other.
You would just go in and they say, have you
got any ideas, and I'd say, yeah, you know, we
(23:34):
could do this, and then they say, oh, yeah, let's
do that. Then it was bang, bang.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
You have any favorites that stand out because there was
a lot and a short period.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Dinner people have always talked to me about guess who's
coming to dinner and why can't we have it on
TV now? And it was one of the first reality shows. Yes,
that's right, you know. But then I had lots of shows,
as I say, one after the other. I was always
on TV. There was always work if you wanted it. Always.
(24:03):
I was never out of work.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
And as the way of selling things changed, do you
think through the media, I mean, it was a high
point in the nineties, I guess for those infomercials, and
I just wonder, is it still the way it's done
or has it evolved.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's pretty much the same, pretty much the same. They
say people aren't watching TV anymore, but you'll still find
the infomercials on. They're still on in the middle of
the night, they're still on in the morning. Unfortunately, what
we've lost here is the good Morning show. TV and
said had a show I went on for over twenty years.
I was on every day for over twenty years selling something,
(24:42):
and that was a TV and zaid show. And then
TV three had a show called the Cafe and you
could go on that every day and sell things. So
those have gone now.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, and people actually enjoyed the process, and yes, joyd
watching it.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was good fun and you had to entertain people
with selling, you know, otherwise, yes, people would go off
and go to the liew or go and make a
cup of tea. So the adverts always had to be
entertaining and amusing, you know, as well as you know,
selling something.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, I mean you've had ups and downs. It's a
money show. So I was going to ask about you
did declear bankruptcy once with the tourist experience.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I didn't declare myself. Bank was just just the It
was some creditors.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Was it something you know? I guess it's a learning experience,
isn't it that you know.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It is, But it's also a discalculia thing which you
never learned. So because I didn't know what I was
doing with the money side of things, so I had
to trust other people with that side of things. I
never got involved in that. I knew it was a
good idea, but I should never have been involved in.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
A Yeah, I mean the idea was was really good
and it was the peak of that tourist.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
In New Zealand and so it was a great idea.
But then I knew I could make the money back,
but unfortunately the you know, the creditors. I went to
the creditors, you know, it was one big company and said,
if you could just hold on I've just signed a
deal with this company and I'm going to be selling
(26:16):
all this stuff on TV and training the girls. So
if you could just give me a couple of months,
I could give you that money. No, yeah, no, that
was it. So that was the end of that.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I guess. You know, it is a learning experience. But
you know, is there any advice you'd have for other
people after going through that experience? For business people?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Well, after I went through that experience, I wrote a
book because I decided straight away, well I'll pick myself
up and start again. That was all I could do.
I'll just start again with nothing. And I had so
many people emailing me, how are you going to do this?
What are you going to do? How are you thinking
like that? Because we've lost everything? My husband's bankrupt or
(26:59):
this closed down or that, you know what I mean?
And so I started writing the book. And I wrote
a book which I launched in two thousand and nine,
which was a best selling number one best self for
Penguin called but Weight, There's More Right, And in there
I was advising people how they should think and what
they should do and how they should behave if they
want to get back on their feet. And I think
(27:20):
a lot of people are just scared of failure. And
I've never been scared of failure. I've failed more times,
you know, than I've succeeded. But I've always thought, you know,
success and failure aren't destinations. I always say to people,
they're just part of the journey. You can fail and
pick yourself up and have another go and then succeed.
(27:42):
So to me, it's never bothered me how many times
I've had to fail and picked myself back UPO.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
To business people in America, for example, it's far more
normal for business people to go bankrupt and.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Keep you know, you don't have.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
New Zealand's a bit more like the UK. We're a
bit more conservative and cautious.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yes, But a lot of people, well they do fail
and think, oh, well that's that I tried to make
something myself and I failed. But I'm like, well, you know,
you're not a failure. The business failed or something you
did failed. Is there something else you can do or
what did you learn from it? Maybe you did learn
from it, or maybe you learned that wasn't for you
after all, and do something else?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah you still, I mean, how's business now is? Then?
Lizzie still going Strong for example.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, so I don't own Thin Lizzie, but Thin Lizzie
was launched and they took me on board to help
with the selling of it, with the promotions, because I'd
already done it all before. My makeup was called Natural
Glow that I launched in the nineties and so it's
still around. No, so that's all gone, but Thin Lizzie
is still around. So I helped them with the marketing,
(28:47):
and again I got a team of girls here in Australia.
So I spent a lot of time, you know, twenty
I don't know, from about twenty ten right through about
twelve years going backwards and forwards to Australia, either selling
on TV over there or with my team of girls
(29:10):
in exhibitions. So even still here, I could if I
wanted to demonstrate and sell it exhibitions and in shopping malls.
But I don't want to know.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
That's right, you don't need to be doing I mean,
you can pick and choose a bit more what you
want to be doing.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So I took that right up until COVID, when not
only was I allowed to travel, they stopped all the
exhibitions and stopped all demonstrators in stores, so that was
the end of that.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But you didn't need age stop you jumping on slipperty trees.
R Island No.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Sort of relivered a Yeah, I'm always of the opinion
I've always say yes to everything and then worry about
how I'm going to do it later. Yeah, And I
always think, you know, these opportunities might not always come along,
and so people say John to go on that. I'm
usually like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea. I'll do that.
And I knew because I always I always make sure
(30:04):
I have fun whatever I'm doing. So I just thought
this is going to be great. I'll probably meet some
great people, It's going to be a lot of fun,
might raise some money for my charity SPCA. Plus it
gets me back on the telly, And then people might
see you and think, oh, yes, who's on Paul? I
remember she's good fun. Why don't we put her in
this or give her a job doing that?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So why not?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
We have a few quick fire questions we throw out,
give some money talks. The first one, I guess is
and you touched on your childhood, but what's the poorest
you've ever been? Belt, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, I think the poorest I felt. I was living
by myself once in Blackpool. I was probably about twenty three,
and my job would finish suddenly and I had no
money for the I didn't have fifty pence to put
into the electric meter.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
And it was Christmas and I had no money, and
I was supposed to go to a friend's Christmas Day
for lunch. But when I opened the door, the snow
was right over my knees. So I was just sitting
in the cold, in the dark, and I had a
tint of process peace. Oh wow, Christmas, it's tough dinner.
It was poor.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Yeah, that's it's really poor, because some people think they're poor.
Flip side the other end of the equation, What would
be the most indulgent purchase you've ever made for yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I bought a boat once for one point two million.
That was pretty good. And I was always buying Mercedes
and I went on the cruise on the q E two,
so I went around the world on the Orient Express.
So I was always I liked doing those sorts of
things experiences.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, living living life. Is there something? Is there a
dream purchase you'd still like? To make one day that
you haven't haven't done or no, I don't think so yeah, No,
that's pretty good. That's a pretty good sign, really, isn't it that?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Yeah? You do?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You still buy lotto tickets?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I do, only just recently, only because my husband keeps
nagging me too. I want so I do.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I often ask, because I sometimes ask people, you know,
when they imagine winning lotto, how much do you imagine winning?
You know, do the big number or just enough to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Know a lot? I've always thought big, you see. And
I think even if I had some money, even never
had a lot of money, now, I'd probably still buy
a lotto because you can never have too much money.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Can you fair enough? Sort of a question? You know,
it's come through and what you've said, But it is
making money? Is making money being important to you as
a driver of your success or is it more of
a byproduct product of success?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
No, it's been a driving force for me, and I
know earlier on a lot of people used to say
to me, don't let money, you know, be your driving force, Like, well,
you want to say that if you grew up in
you know, walk Pumpton with nothing? It is my drive
force and it always has been, and it's it's worked
me in good stead, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, And it's a powerful motivator. And then there are
the other things.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Yes, yeah, I do it for the money.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I mean it's interesting in New Zealand certainly, and
possibly England, a lot about heritage is British here. You know,
there's that cultural sort of shyness about talking about money
or even acknowledging that you have money.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I mean, have you sort of yes, I know, And
people always wanted me to say something else. I do
motivational speaking, and they'll always be like, yes, but what
motivates you? And I'm like, money, having money, paying the bills,
buying nice stuff that, yeah, but what really motivates you?
I'm like, oh, for goodness sake, It's like it was
a swear word. People didn't want me to be motivated
(33:44):
by money. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, finishing up just on it's a sort of a
bigger question. But when you look at the world and
you look at the poverty that's still out there and
the idea of helping people get ahead and all that
sort of stuff, addressing the inequality, is there something that
stands out to you as a policy or a thing
we should do. If we could make you Prime Minister
(34:06):
for the day and you put something in place, what
do you think would help, would really help people who
are stuck in a poverty trap to get out.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know it's going to be easy to say money,
isn't it. But I know when I was growing up,
goodness may we couldn have survived without school dinners, so
thank goodness for those. But it is the children. It
is for me, the children. I think now I see
the adverts on TV and that makes me cry. That
(34:39):
if I see that they're saying children have to go
to school, you know, and they haven't got the shoes,
and they haven't got hungry to eat, and they're going
hungry and they're cold at night. That to me, I
think that can't be right, do you know what I mean?
And I can't understand the people that do have money
and don't want to help out, because that's one of
the reasons I ended up without any money is because
(35:02):
I gave a lot of it away. It was just
what I thought was the right thing to do. I think,
you know, there are people worse off than me. I'll
give it to them. Give.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But it's one of the joys of having some money
is that you can be involved in these things.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh, yes, it was wonderful. It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You mentioned the SPCA. It's still involved and securities like.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
That, Yes, and any of those. Again, I like doing
things for the animals because I'm all about this adopt,
don't shop. I've adopted a lot of you know, rescue
animals over the years, and that's brought me a lot
of joy.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Sure, look, that's great. Is then finally, just just I
know we're going to see you on Celebrity Trees Island,
but where else can people see more of you at
the moment? And what's happening with your products and what's next.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Well, I've just discovered TikTok, Yes, and I think that's hilarious.
So I'm all over it with tick.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Funny because you were almost you were a viral sensation
with that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
All the young people that seen me on TikTok or
Instagram or Facebook, they say to me, you're the og. Yeah, yeah,
so Zamboy, You're the og. So apparently I'm the original
influencer and now here I am again and I'm selling
things for people but now it's on social media.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Well there we go. They can look you up on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Great and yes, and just a reminder that people can
watch Celebrity Treasure Island TVNZ two from Monday. Thanks for
being here, Szabo, you thanks for listening to this episode
of Money Talks. If you want to get in touch,
drop me a line Liam dot Dan at inzme dot
co dot z and you can read more from me
(36:37):
at inzidherld dot co dot nz. Thanks to my producer
Ethan Sills and sound engineer Leanne McDonald. Follow Money Talks
on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, with new
episodes available every Thursday
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
Today’s Latest News In 4 Minutes. Updated Hourly.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.