May 31, 2026 • 29 mins
WARNING: This episode contains brief mentions of domestic violence, drug addiction, and mental health issues. A list of resources is available at the bottom of the description if you or someone you know needs help.
How do you turn your life around from being a school dropout, struggling with chronic pain, depression and drug addiction? Te Kahukura Boynton, also known as the Māori Millionaire, knows exactly how.
Te Kahukura is on a mission to build wealth and a better life for herself and her community, and is documenting it all online for everyone to see.
In the episode, Toni and Te Kahukura chat about how Te Kahukura's difficult upbringing influenced her mindset towards money, why she started Māori Millionaire, and why financial wellbeing means much more than just building wealth.
Want more We Need To Talk? Find us here.
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• Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234
• What’s Up: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or webchat (11am to 10.30pm)
• Depression helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)
• Helpline: Need to talk? Call or text 1737
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We Need to Talk, Tony Street's lifestyle and wellness podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, welcome to that We Need to Talk podcast. It's
great to have you with us today. How do you
turn your life around from being a school dropout who's
addicted to drugs, in chronic pain and depressed to Cahucuda
Boynton knows exactly how because she has done it. She
got herself on a mission to become a Marty millionaire
and that is her handle on social media if you
want to follow her after this, which I'm sure you will.
(00:29):
She wanted to build wealth and a better life for
herself and for her people. In just five years, she's
managed to grow one hundred thousand dollars in assets as
a published author, She's getting some big endorsement deals on
the public speaking circuit, has her own podcast, and has
recently been named as a finalist in the Girls and
Business Awards. Wow to Kahukuda, there is a lot of
achievements in a pretty short space of time. Congratulations first
(00:52):
of all on all of that. Thank you sitting here now.
Can you believe that that resume is yours.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well to a certain degree, because I think at first
like exists in your mind before it actually exists in
your hands. And so even before I started all of this,
I didn't have like the clarity of what I was
actually going to do, but I knew that something I
was destined for, something bigger than the life that I
was living before this. So I didn't like really see
everything that I've done, but I could see that things
(01:18):
were going to get better for me. So I'm just
really happy that, you know, that belief that things get
better actually does happen.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
How did you know you were destined for a better life?
Where did that belief come from?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, you know, I experienced a lot of mental health
challenges as a young person, and throughout all of those challenges,
there was always this little glimmer in my in my
pookut in my gut that told me that like one
day I would be able to do something big. One
day I'd be able to feel better and you know,
be happy and things like that. And so there was
a lot of like times where I had lost hope
(01:47):
and I felt like nothing would ever get better. And
I remember, particularly when I was experiencing a drug addiction,
I just felt like I would never ever be able
to like actually be sober and do things and you know,
not need drugs to be to.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Cope with life.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And throughout those moments, I just kept on telling myself
that it would get better, things would get better. And
there was this one line I tell myself, like my
story will one day help people, And I just tell
myself that over and over again. One day the story
is going to help people. And it's really cool that
you know now it is able to help people.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So it's come full circle already. So you're twenty two
setting here. Can I want to talk first of all
about the childhood you had and the troubles you experienced
to be addicted to drugs, to be in a dipri state.
What happened? I grew up in Aho did it? My
mom was the best mum.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
She was solo mama, always doing her best to be
there for for me and my brother, and I had
so many good moments in life, but I also experienced
a lot of traumatic experiences and those were some of
the things that I mean, I didn't really know how
to cope with my emotions. So from a very young age,
I was like binge eating or self harming, doing various
(02:58):
things to just cope with my emotions. And I think
I was eight when I got my first like counselor
of therapist, and even though I had tried so many
times to get me into health support, I just had
no idea how to actually cope with life and how
to cope with the tough moments, how to cope with
things that weren't going my way. And so as I
grew up, it just kind of compounded and got worse
(03:18):
and worse and worse as time went on. So I think, yeah,
throughout all of that, I just learned the value of
having a good mindset and being able to look at
even the challenges as opportunities. But that was only you know,
after experiencing so many different things and being able to
persevere and be resilient throughout those challenges.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you had this great mum, and you still had
trauma in your life. Can you expand on that at all?
I don't want to pry, but just so we can
get a picture of you know, why you were so
upset and depressed.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, there were various things happening in my life, you know,
domestic violence, bullying at school, and just overall not understanding
how I feel. Like a lot of people callt me
very mature for my age, very mature. But I think
when you're young and you experience things that children shouldn't
have to experience, you're kind of forced to grow up
at a young age.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So I've never really.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Considered myself as like mature for my age. I just
feel like when you go through tough things at a
young age, you learn to grow up quite quickly.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And it's I find it hard to believe because I'm
meeting you now as a twenty two year old. It's
hard to believe that you weren't unmotivated, depressed teenager like that.
That's hard for me to grasp. So what was the
moment that turned it around for you? So you're addicted
to drags, you're depressed, you're getting bullied. What was their
click moment?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The thing for me is that I've always had like
high functioning mental health challenges. So, you know, of late,
it's been a lot better, but I've always still been
able to, like do well at school. I've always still
been able to you know, I went to law school,
Like I dropped out of school, but I got discretionary
entrants to go to law school, went to law school,
good grades, things like that. I've always outwardly been seen
as like, oh, you know, winning a war at school,
(05:00):
things like that, But behind the scenes, I was struggling
so much, and those bad habits just continued to compound.
So it was January the first in twenty twenty two.
That was the day I started multi millionaire, and I
went up to a lookout and I remember it. We
did these little photos and I didn't really know what
I was kind of doing at this time, but I
(05:22):
realized that I was taking the first step at changing
my life because I had essentially hit rock bottom and
that hope that nothing would ever get better was just
so strong. But there was also this tiny piece that
just made me feel like it might get better. There
was this trend I found on TikTok and it said
give it six months, like give it six months.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Give it your last crack.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And with that I read Atomic Habits, which taught me
the power of just doing one small thing every single day.
So previous to this, I would do like crash diets.
I would try and give up everything in one go,
and it never worked, obviously, because you're just putting too
much pressure on yourself. So I learned some strategies that
actually worked. So that I could actually feel confident that
I could achieve the things that I was doing because
(06:04):
the goals weren't too high and so literally at the beginning,
it was just walking five minutes a day, it was
putting five dollars into my savings. It was just these
tiny little habits, making one post on social media, just
doing small things. And they weren't all at one at
one time. They were you know, started at different points,
but it was doing one tiny thing a day, and
the momentum just grew from that. Because when you consistently
(06:27):
do things and that you've seed you were going to do,
you start to build self trust that, oh, I'm someone
who can do what I said I can do, instead
of say, making the bar so high not being able
to achieve it, and then your belief is, well, I
never do what I said I was going to do,
so lowering the bar, staying consistent at it, and building
so momentum from there that just has this really powerful
(06:47):
compounding effect over like the long period of time. But
it's having hope that even though it can feel slow,
even though you might not experience progress for a very
long time, eventually.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You do something will happen it's those compounding roots. Now
you're obviously smart, right, So you dropped out of school,
but you were able to still go to law school.
But your focus is now on financials, on money. So
why Marti millionaire? And what is it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So when I was at law school, I had because
I had dropped out. I could have got scholarships and
everything like that, but I literally just one day, I
was a bitty hit girl, and I one day literally
drafted this letter to the UNI to ask for discriptionaty interrants.
I asked my principal to sign it. He signed it,
and I left, And so I had literally no plan
for how I was going to pay my bills, how
I was going to do anything. I had no money,
(07:32):
no car, and I went to UNI and I was
completely worried about finances throughout that whole first semester, thinking
how am I going to pay my rent? Like I've
just done this crazy thing. You know, I could have
gone in scholarships, I could have been ducks of my school,
but I decided to walk out and leave, and so
I didn't want to fail, like I didn't want to
(07:52):
everyone to go. Well, that was your fault, because you
dropped out of school. Why did you leave? Why didn't
you just stay and finish school. I was just struggling
so much, you know, with my mental health, and it
felt like I just couldn't keep going. It was like
I needed to leave or I needed to like I
was suicidal at that time. So it was like, you
have to do something to change, and for me, it
was just leaving and going to doing something else. Yeah,
(08:14):
And so I went without much of a plan, and
that really worried me. And I realized how much of
a connection there is between your finances and every other
area of your life, your relationships, your health. I remember
like walking around in the nights, like around Hamilton because
I was so stressed about money, just like walking in
the middle of the night, Like.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Who does that? Just randomly, just a girl.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Walking around in the middle of the night, because I'm thinking,
how am I going to pay my bills? And you know,
I started there. I started applying for jobs. I applied
for like all the jobs I qualified for on Seek
and I got a job. And then I started working, working, working, working,
and I just became burned out and I was like,
there's got to be something different, There's got to be
(08:55):
another way to do this, and so I searched up
on TikTok like Maldi and money, and I couldn't find
anyone who I related to. A lot of people in
the finance industry. I love what they do, but for me,
it just didn't resonate. They had already kind of cracked it.
There were no malt Like. I didn't see any Maldi
at that point in time talking about money, and many
of them it felt like they weren't. They weren't talking
(09:16):
about things like traumone addictions and those types of things,
and so I was like, I just can't relate. You know,
they're saying like spin less, invest more, and you know,
earn more, and it's like kind of as simple as that.
And I was like, but my brain's telling me to
smoke we twenty four to seven and to go to
McDonald's every time something like troubling happens in my life.
And so I just really couldn't relate. And so I thought, well,
(09:36):
there's a problem here obviously, what are you gonna do
about it? And so I decided to open up this
page called Malti Millionaire with the goal of becoming a
millionaire one day and bringing my community along with me,
because I thought, how much cooler would it be to
watch someone right from the beginning, you like, become a
millionaire as opposed to someone becoming a millionaire and then
they start talking about it. I was like, how cool
(09:58):
would it be to actually walk along side people? And
if even at the beginning, people start coming with me
on this journey, then I can actually like achieve my
goals of wealth and freedom, but I can also bring
my whole community along with me on this journey. And
so at the start, I thought I would tell myself
things like, oh, you have to be skinny to start
posting on social media, or you have to have a
(10:20):
nice house to post on social media, or you need
to be older, you need to be more qualified, you
need to be richer, all of those things. And I decided, actually,
I'm just gonna start, and I'm gonna be authentic, and
I'm gonna share my journey right from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
People want real That's one thing I know, Yeah they do.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And like a lot of people really resonated with my
corded or on the things that I was saying, like
quite early on, and like I got to deal with
Penguin to write my first book, like in that first
year and things just started to like really fall into place,
and I was just really shocked because you know, I
didn't really think it would be, you know, that big,
but I was like, it's going to work out. But
(10:55):
I didn't anticipate so many people to really resonate with
what I was talking about because of all those limiting
beliefs of like I'm not I haven't cracked it yet,
I'm not rich yet, I haven't done this yet.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Back to we need to talk with Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And you've got this following now people that are watching
your journey. So how do you make money.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
There's a few different revenue streams for the business, so
brand partnerships, I've got my book, I do digital products,
so I run like webinars or programs.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I what else do I do? Public speaking, keynotes, things
like that. That's quite a few revenue stream different and
it's going so well for you that you've managed to
buy your own house.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, that is a really like cool accomplishment because I
started at such a young age. When I was fourteen,
I got my first job and my mum told me
back then, if you put it on your max, the
max contributions into your keywisaver. When you start getting like
when you become an adult and you get your own job,
you're not really going to know the difference between like
a full pay and.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Eight percent list of that.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And so at my first job, I put it on
eight percent contributions, and I just maintained that. When I
became self employed, I did decrease it a bit, but
that habit of just dolocost averaging into my kiwisaver, being consistent,
you know, when other teenagers are like, you know, buying
cool things and buying branded clothes and stuff, I was
still doing you know, things like that, but at the
(12:16):
same time, I was still you know, being consistent with
my goals, even through those highs and those lows. So
it was such a journey, but I'm just, yeah, really
happy that we were able to do that. I bought
it with my mum, So it feels like we are
We're doing all the things that are really important to us,
building generational wealth, being able to make long term decisions,
(12:38):
not short term decisions out of survival mode, and that
just feels really fulfilling. And everything that I do I
think about.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm not a mum yet.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But when I become a mum, I'm building the life
for my future Tamaitiki And yeah, that's just really motivating
for me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Gosh, I'm going to be getting my daughter who's thirteen
to listen to this podcast because if she's at fourteen,
like you, starts thinking this way, I'll be so impressed
because so many young people don't. You'll be able to retire.
Oh that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
There's motivation.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
So what has the feedback been like from people following
your page? From the dms you get? What do people
message you?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So many different things. There was this one here who
sent me a message. Actually, lots of different people, but
one I'm thinking about in particular, who paid off her
after pay paid off her lay by debts and she's
got a money plan. And actually she messaged me. She
says she got like her water bill and every time
she used to get a water bill, should ask other
people to pay for it for her because she didn't
have the money. And she said, for the first time ever,
(13:38):
she got her water bill and she could pay it
in full because she had been following what I teach is,
you know, if you have a monthly bill or if
you have an annual bill if you just pay it
whatever your pay cycle is, if you get paid weekly,
put a small amount into that savings account. And so
she was actually doing those things and she was able
to get a bill and not feel disregulated because she
had the money there. But people have, you know, gotten
(13:59):
out of they've there's even been people who read my
book and they've given up alcohol and things like that,
because my book isn't just like about personal finance, it's
about the whole person and how can we interconnect all
of these different parts. So it's been really positive for
the most part, the feedback that I've received about the
mahe that I'm doing in the community. It's funny you
(14:21):
say the connected side of finances, because they really are.
And yet you're right most books you readers, this is how.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You get rich or well, this is what you're supposed
to do, and it's just a personality when actually our
life vents right, our stress, the way we were raised,
whether you have ADHD, whatever, it all that bleeds into
your finances, right, and that is why you are now
going to try and run this course on trauma and
form financial literacy. So tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, so you know, along my journey, I was obviously
consuming a lot of content about financial literacy from all
the various people who are doing this, And what I
realized was that a lot of the narrative was like,
it was about willpower. We just needed to behave better,
We just needed to spend less, invest more, and it
was quite a simple thing. And what I realized was that, well,
that's actually not the case for me, because if you
grew up with like limiting beliefs about money, for example,
(15:11):
rich people are greedy. That was something that I heard
a lot, and it's very common thing that a lot
of people will hear. And so what that does is
subconsciously you have this block to actually earning more money.
But you might consciously go, I want to earn more money,
but subconsciously you're like, well, I actually don't want to
be seen as greedy. I don't want to be a
bad person. So I'm not going to ask for a
(15:32):
pay rise. I'm not gonna save my money. I'm gonna
self sabotage, I'm going to spend it all. I'm going
to you know.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Give it away.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
A lot of people will do that, especially in munion
Pacific communities, they'll have like a really awesome win and
then it all goes out. And I'm not against you know,
sharing and collective wealth. That's an amazing thing. But I
also believe that you can't pull from an empty cup.
So our upbringings directly influence our relationship with money. That's
one part. But also if you've experienced trauma, that will
(16:01):
also impact your relationships. So, for example, there was one
situation in my life where I would get a lot
of gifts, but I would also experience a lot of abuse,
and so my connection with receiving things was bad.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Things would always happen.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So someone would literally buy me a coffee and I
would transfer the money back to them because I couldn't
even receive literally just a coffee like a back when
they were five dollars and five dollar coffee. Someone would
open a door. I couldn't even let someone just open
a door for me, And I call that in my
book being a blessing blocker. But these are all trauma responses.
So actually understanding the root cause of why we behave
(16:36):
the way we do with our finances, that's a far
more empowering message. Then you just need to behave better,
and that narrative actually increases shame and it causes people
to just disconnect from their finances altogether. So a lot
of people they'll read these books and they'll be like, well,
I'm just you know, a failure. Then i just don't
know how to do it, or I'm not good at maths,
(16:56):
and so I just can't do it, and so they
will avoid it altogether. Yeah, although have an anxious attachment
with their finances, so they'll refresh their bank account a
lot to worry about money. So it's so holistic, it's
so interconnected, and particularly for indigenous communities when it comes
to things like colonization that literally caused scarcity within our communities,
(17:20):
and so intergenerationally we've inherited those beliefs of there isn't
enough because everything we owned was stolen, and so those
things impact how we relate to finances. And that's the
discussion I wish more people were having when it comes
to money, not just behave better.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I sit here and I think, you know, you're twenty two,
and somehow you found the time to start all of this,
write a book. What does a typical day look like
for you? Are you really structured on you on what
you do every day as every day different.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, every day is completely different. So for the first
few years of running my business, my mum and I
were caregivers for my great grandmother and my grandmother, so
that was a lot of juggling being in business. I
was previously on law as well, so being a business,
being a keygiver, being in law, it was all just
so much and I eventually had to decide, like you
can pick, you know, a couple of things, not everything.
(18:12):
I decided to leave law and do multi Millini in
full time, and looking after my nannies was something that
I wasn't going to stop doing, and so those are
my priorities, including and also my home order. So now
it's about now that my nannies have passed on, I've
got a lot of a lot more capacity to focus
on business. So this year has been really busy and
just been really appreciating the opportunity that I have now
(18:37):
to focus on growing my business. We're previously it was
a felt a lot harder to do that whilst also
juggling being a keygiver. So yeah, I've been consistent over
the past, you know, for four and a half years,
but this year I think everything's kind of ramping up
because I have a lot more time to dedicate to
my business.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Do you have more plans for your business on how
it could expand and have other revenue streams? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
So I believe that Maldi Millionnaire and the strategies that
I talk about of trauma and form financial literacy, it
has the power to change the whole entire world, not
just you know Maldi and Altada, but people all over
the world. People who have experienced trauma really resonate with
my cordad or. And it's not just Maori, Pacifica or
Indigenous communities. There's a lot of non Maldi who really
(19:22):
resonate with this, and I think that really opening the
door to growing this platform into a global business that
helps people to understand why they make the finance decisions
they make and how they can improve them. So I'm
going to Canada later this year to beg you speaker
at an event, and I'm really excited. I actually really
(19:42):
wanted to go to this event to learn from everyone
else who's there, to learn about indigenous approaches to finances
that people are doing on the global stage. So I'm
just really excited to be able to go to learn
and to share some of the things that I've been
up to and to bring all of that martodnger that
knowledge back to altail or to help my community.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Nake.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
We need to talk podcast a preset on your iHeart
app just tap and never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How do you end up doing a keynote in? How
did that come about? She's not what's so funny?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So I'm very big on like vision boards, manifesting everything
like that, and so my on my vision board for
the past year and a half has been to travel internationally.
So I find this this event that I really wanted
to go to. And actually at the end of last year,
I applied for these in New Zealand dream seats things
and I got the tickets and they were actually to
(20:38):
another country, but I was like, no, but I want
to go to Canada now, and so I emailed. I
followed up every single week and I was like, hey,
I was just wondering, would you guys consider changing it
to Canada instead of this place. I followed up seven
times and they eventually they were like, yeah, that's fine,
Like we can change it to Canada. And I was like,
oh my gosh, Like it's all working now, so going
to Canada to speak at the event, and actually at
(20:59):
the event, I actually asked them. I was like, hey,
like I would love to come to this event and
I'd love to offer my speaking services. So part of
like manifesting and everything like that. A lot of people
think it's just like, oh, you just put it on
your vision board and then it just kind of magically happens.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's not it at all.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
My approach is like, you can be very intentional about
this is my goal, and then you reverse enginet.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Okay, what do I need to do to get there?
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So my goal is to grow THO into a global company,
and I recognize that if I do one event internationally,
that's going to open doors to other international opportunities. So
for the first one, you know, and that's when I
think back to when I first started speaking in New Zealand.
You know, I was doing things like that where I
was like just you know, getting out there and doing
things and you know, doing things without getting paid or
(21:41):
things like that, just to build your profile. And so
that's what I'm thinking about growing my international presence. Is Okay, well,
when you're getting started, you need to you know, actually
put some work and put some effort and like, actually
message people, actually reach out to people, do the work
so that you can get the traits people think you like,
you don't have to do money anymore. You can just
get the traits. And I'm like, and no one just
(22:01):
comes and says here like this. You have to opportunities,
breed opportunities, Right, you do one thing and you're right.
Often you don't know we're saying yes to something. And
that's what I push a lot in my confident Communication
course is just go and speak at that thing.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You got asked to at work. You don't know who's watching,
and who might say, actually, can you come and speak
at this, or I'm going to introduce you to this person,
and that breeds the next opportunity. It's not luck. And
I think sometimes people and you will probably get this
as you go through. Oh you're so lucky. No no, no, no,
it's not luck. No it's not.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And the other thing too is people say, oh, you're
so successful for being so young, and I'm like, that's
only because you've only seen me publicly since I was
eighteen building this, But I've actually been starting businesses since
I was a young person. I was like asking my
mum's friends. Hey, can I come do your gardens? Can
I owe your lawns? Can I babysit your kids? I've
been doing this stuff for years, so people think, oh,
(22:54):
it's just a few years of doing this work. I'm like, no,
this is actually like over how do I twins? Over
ten years of actually working and growing this and starting
businesses and failing businesses and being laughed at and people
judging me. And it's like it's only now happening. People think, oh,
you know, you've just kind of corrarecked it out. It's like, no,
this has actually been a so slog for like many years.
(23:16):
It's not been like an overnight thing.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I love your drive, and I think drive is something
that's hard to teach, and it's something that's inherently in us.
And I suspect you've had that drive even in your
heart at times. I suspect you've always had that. It
sounds like you have from a young age. What does
your mom say about you as a young kid? Were
you always motivated? Were you always wanting to achieve things?
I mean your deputy head girl. Yeah, I've always been
(23:40):
like this.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I remember, like back when I was at school, I'd
like be doing like a five am morning routine and
I'd wake up and drink this tumoric shop because somehow
YouTube told me it.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Was going to help me in life.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And I used to like play the piano and I'd
wake up and do things like that. My mum's always been,
you know, as a solo mum, you have to actually
your mindset has to be really on point if you
want to be able to achieve the things. So her
mindset that she taught me was, you know, you're never
going to like just get handed things. You've got to
actually make things work. And if you really want something,
(24:12):
prove that you want it by putting in the work.
And so like, for example, I really wanted to learn
French when I was a kid for some reason, and
you know, she was like, well figure it out then,
And so she had this French lady at work, and
I was like, oh my gosh, I could offer to
teach her Todel Maldi and she can teach me French.
So it was just finding opportunities even if say money
(24:33):
wasn't there or whatever it was. It was looking at
life it's like, okay, you know, what can we do differently?
What can we change And that's something that's been like
my mum instilled that in me, and being able to
be being able to persevere, being able to you know,
get lemons and literally make a lemon it actually make
like a whole lemonade company. Like you know, it's not
(24:54):
about what cards your doubt, it's about.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
What you do to respond to those What would you
say to people that are listening to this and they
might have the drive, but they don't have the confidence
because it does take it does require a certain level
of putting yourself out there and being judged right to
do what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, you don't get born with confidence. You have to
build confidence by doing things you're not confident doing. You know,
when I first started multi Millionaire, because I had experienced,
you know, being bullied at school, I didn't I thought
of nothing could be worse then being an adult and
still being bullied like on the internet. But you know,
I realized that actually anyone listening to this, no matter
(25:32):
what side of politics you're on, your favorite politician has
mega haters. And that's because like you see all the
things that you like about them, and there's a lot
of people who really hate them. So if you're really
going to create big change in the world, you have
to get used to people not liking you, people not
agreeing with you, people disagreeing with what you're saying, and
people trying to tear you down. And that's just what
(25:53):
happens when you do things. But people think, oh, when
I get confident, that's when I'll start posting on social media.
When I get confident, that's when I'll speak. You know,
I've spoken at events and been like hyper ventilating, freaking
out because there's all these people.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Here, but I still went. I still showed up at
the next one.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
You know. I spoken an event, yes it and I thought, oh,
I could have done this better. I could have done
that better. And some people would be like, well, I'm
never doing it again then, and it's like, no, I'm
a human, I'm not a robot. I made mistakes, but
I can get back up, you know, put my socks
up and just keep going.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And I also feel like, particularly in that public speaking realm,
there's actually no such thing as a perfect speech. No,
we're humans, you know, we make mistakes. Things could have
been better, some things might have been worse what you
did them. So it's different every time, and you're so right.
But you've got that mindset already, And I feel like
that's very rare for a twenty two year old. When
(26:45):
you get a negative comment, and I know you have
because you've addressed some of them on your page, did
they sting a little bit? Well?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I always think that if a comment, if a negative
comment stings, it's because there's a lesson to be learned.
So when I first started, people would comment things like
you're going to do at a young age because you
eat too much food, or when I was at law school,
oh now you can sue the fridge, or you're never
going to become a millionaire with you know this, or
whatever it was. And I realized that the only comments
(27:12):
that actually hurt you, they hurt you because they've triggered
you because there's something there that needs to be worked on.
So some people would say, oh, you focus too much
or money. You need to focus on your health because
you can't become rich without focusing on your health. And
do you know what's so funny, I actually thought that
they were lying. I thought that money was literally just
a numbers game. You just needed to you know. I
believed all the stuff that was being conceived. You just
(27:33):
need to earn more, invest more, and it's as simple
as that. And so they would trigger me. I would
cry and I'd be like, I need to shut my
whole page down. I can't keep going like this because
low KEI I knew they were right, and it hurt
me because the gain of me not accepting that they
were telling the truth was that I got to say
my comfort zone. I got to continue binge eating twenty
four seven, I got to continue not exercising. I got
(27:56):
to continue staying in the cycle that felt so comfortable.
You know, lots of people go, oh, I just want
to get up, but actually a lot of us who
are in those negative cycles, that's how comfort zone. It
actually feels safe to not do these new things to
get out of our you know, to push ourselves to
move every day, to eat bit of food. And so
you know, I every single time a negative comment comes
(28:18):
up and it's something that upsets me, I'm like, thank you,
universe for seeing me an opportunity to learn something about myself,
to grow and to expand. So someone sent me one
the other day and said, you need to go to
the gym and stop focusing on money.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
And it literally I was so regulated. It didn't bother
me at all because I know for a fact that
I do go to the gym, shows you how high
you yeah yeah, and it doesn't trigger me anymore because
I know it's not true.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
It's like if someone said, oh, I really don't like
your purple here, Tony, it's so they wouldn't bother you
because you know you don't have purple purple here. I
look at negative comments as an opportunity for me to grow,
for me to learn about myself, and stopped looking at
myself as a victim of what other people said. And
I was like, if every negative comment helps me to
grow my brand, helps me to get more engagement, helps
(29:02):
me to learn something about myself, then like a win.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Is a win. I think that's a wonderful place to
finish to Kahukuta, thank you so much. I find you
very inspiring and definitely wise beyond your years. I think
whoever's been telling you that throughout the old years is
absolutely correct. And watch this space. I can't wait to
see what you doing next. And you have to let
us know how Canada goes. Thank you so much for
having me, Thanks for listening to we need to talk.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Contact us on Instagram and we need to talk with
Tony Street or email. We need to talk at cost online,
dot co, dot in z,
We Need to Talk, Tony Street's lifestyle and wellness podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hello, welcome to that We Need to Talk podcast. It's
great to have you with us today. How do you
turn your life around from being a school dropout who's
addicted to drugs, in chronic pain and depressed to Cahucuda
Boynton knows exactly how because she has done it. She
got herself on a mission to become a Marty millionaire
and that is her handle on social media if you
want to follow her after this, which I'm sure you will.
(00:29):
She wanted to build wealth and a better life for
herself and for her people. In just five years, she's
managed to grow one hundred thousand dollars in assets as
a published author, She's getting some big endorsement deals on
the public speaking circuit, has her own podcast, and has
recently been named as a finalist in the Girls and
Business Awards. Wow to Kahukuda, there is a lot of
achievements in a pretty short space of time. Congratulations first
(00:52):
of all on all of that. Thank you sitting here now.
Can you believe that that resume is yours.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well to a certain degree, because I think at first
like exists in your mind before it actually exists in
your hands. And so even before I started all of this,
I didn't have like the clarity of what I was
actually going to do, but I knew that something I
was destined for, something bigger than the life that I
was living before this. So I didn't like really see
everything that I've done, but I could see that things
(01:18):
were going to get better for me. So I'm just
really happy that, you know, that belief that things get
better actually does happen.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
How did you know you were destined for a better life?
Where did that belief come from?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, you know, I experienced a lot of mental health
challenges as a young person, and throughout all of those challenges,
there was always this little glimmer in my in my
pookut in my gut that told me that like one
day I would be able to do something big. One
day I'd be able to feel better and you know,
be happy and things like that. And so there was
a lot of like times where I had lost hope
(01:47):
and I felt like nothing would ever get better. And
I remember, particularly when I was experiencing a drug addiction,
I just felt like I would never ever be able
to like actually be sober and do things and you know,
not need drugs to be to.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Cope with life.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And throughout those moments, I just kept on telling myself
that it would get better, things would get better. And
there was this one line I tell myself, like my
story will one day help people, And I just tell
myself that over and over again. One day the story
is going to help people. And it's really cool that
you know now it is able to help people.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So it's come full circle already. So you're twenty two
setting here. Can I want to talk first of all
about the childhood you had and the troubles you experienced
to be addicted to drugs, to be in a dipri state.
What happened? I grew up in Aho did it? My
mom was the best mum.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
She was solo mama, always doing her best to be
there for for me and my brother, and I had
so many good moments in life, but I also experienced
a lot of traumatic experiences and those were some of
the things that I mean, I didn't really know how
to cope with my emotions. So from a very young age,
I was like binge eating or self harming, doing various
(02:58):
things to just cope with my emotions. And I think
I was eight when I got my first like counselor
of therapist, and even though I had tried so many
times to get me into health support, I just had
no idea how to actually cope with life and how
to cope with the tough moments, how to cope with
things that weren't going my way. And so as I
grew up, it just kind of compounded and got worse
(03:18):
and worse and worse as time went on. So I think, yeah,
throughout all of that, I just learned the value of
having a good mindset and being able to look at
even the challenges as opportunities. But that was only you know,
after experiencing so many different things and being able to
persevere and be resilient throughout those challenges.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you had this great mum, and you still had
trauma in your life. Can you expand on that at all?
I don't want to pry, but just so we can
get a picture of you know, why you were so
upset and depressed.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, there were various things happening in my life, you know,
domestic violence, bullying at school, and just overall not understanding
how I feel. Like a lot of people callt me
very mature for my age, very mature. But I think
when you're young and you experience things that children shouldn't
have to experience, you're kind of forced to grow up
at a young age.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So I've never really.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Considered myself as like mature for my age. I just
feel like when you go through tough things at a
young age, you learn to grow up quite quickly.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And it's I find it hard to believe because I'm
meeting you now as a twenty two year old. It's
hard to believe that you weren't unmotivated, depressed teenager like that.
That's hard for me to grasp. So what was the
moment that turned it around for you? So you're addicted
to drags, you're depressed, you're getting bullied. What was their
click moment?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The thing for me is that I've always had like
high functioning mental health challenges. So, you know, of late,
it's been a lot better, but I've always still been
able to, like do well at school. I've always still
been able to you know, I went to law school,
Like I dropped out of school, but I got discretionary
entrants to go to law school, went to law school,
good grades, things like that. I've always outwardly been seen
as like, oh, you know, winning a war at school,
(05:00):
things like that, But behind the scenes, I was struggling
so much, and those bad habits just continued to compound.
So it was January the first in twenty twenty two.
That was the day I started multi millionaire, and I
went up to a lookout and I remember it. We
did these little photos and I didn't really know what
I was kind of doing at this time, but I
(05:22):
realized that I was taking the first step at changing
my life because I had essentially hit rock bottom and
that hope that nothing would ever get better was just
so strong. But there was also this tiny piece that
just made me feel like it might get better. There
was this trend I found on TikTok and it said
give it six months, like give it six months.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Give it your last crack.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
And with that I read Atomic Habits, which taught me
the power of just doing one small thing every single day.
So previous to this, I would do like crash diets.
I would try and give up everything in one go,
and it never worked, obviously, because you're just putting too
much pressure on yourself. So I learned some strategies that
actually worked. So that I could actually feel confident that
I could achieve the things that I was doing because
(06:04):
the goals weren't too high and so literally at the beginning,
it was just walking five minutes a day, it was
putting five dollars into my savings. It was just these
tiny little habits, making one post on social media, just
doing small things. And they weren't all at one at
one time. They were you know, started at different points,
but it was doing one tiny thing a day, and
the momentum just grew from that. Because when you consistently
(06:27):
do things and that you've seed you were going to do,
you start to build self trust that, oh, I'm someone
who can do what I said I can do, instead
of say, making the bar so high not being able
to achieve it, and then your belief is, well, I
never do what I said I was going to do,
so lowering the bar, staying consistent at it, and building
so momentum from there that just has this really powerful
(06:47):
compounding effect over like the long period of time. But
it's having hope that even though it can feel slow,
even though you might not experience progress for a very
long time, eventually.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You do something will happen it's those compounding roots. Now
you're obviously smart, right, So you dropped out of school,
but you were able to still go to law school.
But your focus is now on financials, on money. So
why Marti millionaire? And what is it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So when I was at law school, I had because
I had dropped out. I could have got scholarships and
everything like that, but I literally just one day, I
was a bitty hit girl, and I one day literally
drafted this letter to the UNI to ask for discriptionaty interrants.
I asked my principal to sign it. He signed it,
and I left, And so I had literally no plan
for how I was going to pay my bills, how
I was going to do anything. I had no money,
(07:32):
no car, and I went to UNI and I was
completely worried about finances throughout that whole first semester, thinking
how am I going to pay my rent? Like I've
just done this crazy thing. You know, I could have
gone in scholarships, I could have been ducks of my school,
but I decided to walk out and leave, and so
I didn't want to fail, like I didn't want to
(07:52):
everyone to go. Well, that was your fault, because you
dropped out of school. Why did you leave? Why didn't
you just stay and finish school. I was just struggling
so much, you know, with my mental health, and it
felt like I just couldn't keep going. It was like
I needed to leave or I needed to like I
was suicidal at that time. So it was like, you
have to do something to change, and for me, it
was just leaving and going to doing something else. Yeah,
(08:14):
And so I went without much of a plan, and
that really worried me. And I realized how much of
a connection there is between your finances and every other
area of your life, your relationships, your health. I remember
like walking around in the nights, like around Hamilton because
I was so stressed about money, just like walking in
the middle of the night, Like.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Who does that? Just randomly, just a girl.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Walking around in the middle of the night, because I'm thinking,
how am I going to pay my bills? And you know,
I started there. I started applying for jobs. I applied
for like all the jobs I qualified for on Seek
and I got a job. And then I started working, working, working, working,
and I just became burned out and I was like,
there's got to be something different, There's got to be
(08:55):
another way to do this, and so I searched up
on TikTok like Maldi and money, and I couldn't find
anyone who I related to. A lot of people in
the finance industry. I love what they do, but for me,
it just didn't resonate. They had already kind of cracked it.
There were no malt Like. I didn't see any Maldi
at that point in time talking about money, and many
of them it felt like they weren't. They weren't talking
(09:16):
about things like traumone addictions and those types of things,
and so I was like, I just can't relate. You know,
they're saying like spin less, invest more, and you know,
earn more, and it's like kind of as simple as that.
And I was like, but my brain's telling me to
smoke we twenty four to seven and to go to
McDonald's every time something like troubling happens in my life.
And so I just really couldn't relate. And so I thought, well,
(09:36):
there's a problem here obviously, what are you gonna do
about it? And so I decided to open up this
page called Malti Millionaire with the goal of becoming a
millionaire one day and bringing my community along with me,
because I thought, how much cooler would it be to
watch someone right from the beginning, you like, become a
millionaire as opposed to someone becoming a millionaire and then
they start talking about it. I was like, how cool
(09:58):
would it be to actually walk along side people? And
if even at the beginning, people start coming with me
on this journey, then I can actually like achieve my
goals of wealth and freedom, but I can also bring
my whole community along with me on this journey. And
so at the start, I thought I would tell myself
things like, oh, you have to be skinny to start
posting on social media, or you have to have a
(10:20):
nice house to post on social media, or you need
to be older, you need to be more qualified, you
need to be richer, all of those things. And I decided, actually,
I'm just gonna start, and I'm gonna be authentic, and
I'm gonna share my journey right from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
People want real That's one thing I know, Yeah they do.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And like a lot of people really resonated with my
corded or on the things that I was saying, like
quite early on, and like I got to deal with
Penguin to write my first book, like in that first
year and things just started to like really fall into place,
and I was just really shocked because you know, I
didn't really think it would be, you know, that big,
but I was like, it's going to work out. But
(10:55):
I didn't anticipate so many people to really resonate with
what I was talking about because of all those limiting
beliefs of like I'm not I haven't cracked it yet,
I'm not rich yet, I haven't done this yet.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Back to we need to talk with Tony Street.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And you've got this following now people that are watching
your journey. So how do you make money.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
There's a few different revenue streams for the business, so
brand partnerships, I've got my book, I do digital products,
so I run like webinars or programs.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I what else do I do? Public speaking, keynotes, things
like that. That's quite a few revenue stream different and
it's going so well for you that you've managed to
buy your own house.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, that is a really like cool accomplishment because I
started at such a young age. When I was fourteen,
I got my first job and my mum told me
back then, if you put it on your max, the
max contributions into your keywisaver. When you start getting like
when you become an adult and you get your own job,
you're not really going to know the difference between like
a full pay and.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Eight percent list of that.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And so at my first job, I put it on
eight percent contributions, and I just maintained that. When I
became self employed, I did decrease it a bit, but
that habit of just dolocost averaging into my kiwisaver, being consistent,
you know, when other teenagers are like, you know, buying
cool things and buying branded clothes and stuff, I was
still doing you know, things like that, but at the
(12:16):
same time, I was still you know, being consistent with
my goals, even through those highs and those lows. So
it was such a journey, but I'm just, yeah, really
happy that we were able to do that. I bought
it with my mum, So it feels like we are
We're doing all the things that are really important to us,
building generational wealth, being able to make long term decisions,
(12:38):
not short term decisions out of survival mode, and that
just feels really fulfilling. And everything that I do I
think about.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I'm not a mum yet.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But when I become a mum, I'm building the life
for my future Tamaitiki And yeah, that's just really motivating
for me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Gosh, I'm going to be getting my daughter who's thirteen
to listen to this podcast because if she's at fourteen,
like you, starts thinking this way, I'll be so impressed
because so many young people don't. You'll be able to retire.
Oh that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
There's motivation.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
So what has the feedback been like from people following
your page? From the dms you get? What do people
message you?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So many different things. There was this one here who
sent me a message. Actually, lots of different people, but
one I'm thinking about in particular, who paid off her
after pay paid off her lay by debts and she's
got a money plan. And actually she messaged me. She
says she got like her water bill and every time
she used to get a water bill, should ask other
people to pay for it for her because she didn't
have the money. And she said, for the first time ever,
(13:38):
she got her water bill and she could pay it
in full because she had been following what I teach is,
you know, if you have a monthly bill or if
you have an annual bill if you just pay it
whatever your pay cycle is, if you get paid weekly,
put a small amount into that savings account. And so
she was actually doing those things and she was able
to get a bill and not feel disregulated because she
had the money there. But people have, you know, gotten
(13:59):
out of they've there's even been people who read my
book and they've given up alcohol and things like that,
because my book isn't just like about personal finance, it's
about the whole person and how can we interconnect all
of these different parts. So it's been really positive for
the most part, the feedback that I've received about the
mahe that I'm doing in the community. It's funny you
(14:21):
say the connected side of finances, because they really are.
And yet you're right most books you readers, this is how.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You get rich or well, this is what you're supposed
to do, and it's just a personality when actually our
life vents right, our stress, the way we were raised,
whether you have ADHD, whatever, it all that bleeds into
your finances, right, and that is why you are now
going to try and run this course on trauma and
form financial literacy. So tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah, so you know, along my journey, I was obviously
consuming a lot of content about financial literacy from all
the various people who are doing this, And what I
realized was that a lot of the narrative was like,
it was about willpower. We just needed to behave better,
We just needed to spend less, invest more, and it
was quite a simple thing. And what I realized was that, well,
that's actually not the case for me, because if you
grew up with like limiting beliefs about money, for example,
(15:11):
rich people are greedy. That was something that I heard
a lot, and it's very common thing that a lot
of people will hear. And so what that does is
subconsciously you have this block to actually earning more money.
But you might consciously go, I want to earn more money,
but subconsciously you're like, well, I actually don't want to
be seen as greedy. I don't want to be a
bad person. So I'm not going to ask for a
(15:32):
pay rise. I'm not gonna save my money. I'm gonna
self sabotage, I'm going to spend it all. I'm going
to you know.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Give it away.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
A lot of people will do that, especially in munion
Pacific communities, they'll have like a really awesome win and
then it all goes out. And I'm not against you know,
sharing and collective wealth. That's an amazing thing. But I
also believe that you can't pull from an empty cup.
So our upbringings directly influence our relationship with money. That's
one part. But also if you've experienced trauma, that will
(16:01):
also impact your relationships. So, for example, there was one
situation in my life where I would get a lot
of gifts, but I would also experience a lot of abuse,
and so my connection with receiving things was bad.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Things would always happen.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So someone would literally buy me a coffee and I
would transfer the money back to them because I couldn't
even receive literally just a coffee like a back when
they were five dollars and five dollar coffee. Someone would
open a door. I couldn't even let someone just open
a door for me, And I call that in my
book being a blessing blocker. But these are all trauma responses.
So actually understanding the root cause of why we behave
(16:36):
the way we do with our finances, that's a far
more empowering message. Then you just need to behave better,
and that narrative actually increases shame and it causes people
to just disconnect from their finances altogether. So a lot
of people they'll read these books and they'll be like, well,
I'm just you know, a failure. Then i just don't
know how to do it, or I'm not good at maths,
(16:56):
and so I just can't do it, and so they
will avoid it altogether. Yeah, although have an anxious attachment
with their finances, so they'll refresh their bank account a
lot to worry about money. So it's so holistic, it's
so interconnected, and particularly for indigenous communities when it comes
to things like colonization that literally caused scarcity within our communities,
(17:20):
and so intergenerationally we've inherited those beliefs of there isn't
enough because everything we owned was stolen, and so those
things impact how we relate to finances. And that's the
discussion I wish more people were having when it comes
to money, not just behave better.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
I sit here and I think, you know, you're twenty two,
and somehow you found the time to start all of this,
write a book. What does a typical day look like
for you? Are you really structured on you on what
you do every day as every day different.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, every day is completely different. So for the first
few years of running my business, my mum and I
were caregivers for my great grandmother and my grandmother, so
that was a lot of juggling being in business. I
was previously on law as well, so being a business,
being a keygiver, being in law, it was all just
so much and I eventually had to decide, like you
can pick, you know, a couple of things, not everything.
(18:12):
I decided to leave law and do multi Millini in
full time, and looking after my nannies was something that
I wasn't going to stop doing, and so those are
my priorities, including and also my home order. So now
it's about now that my nannies have passed on, I've
got a lot of a lot more capacity to focus
on business. So this year has been really busy and
just been really appreciating the opportunity that I have now
(18:37):
to focus on growing my business. We're previously it was
a felt a lot harder to do that whilst also
juggling being a keygiver. So yeah, I've been consistent over
the past, you know, for four and a half years,
but this year I think everything's kind of ramping up
because I have a lot more time to dedicate to
my business.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Do you have more plans for your business on how
it could expand and have other revenue streams? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
So I believe that Maldi Millionnaire and the strategies that
I talk about of trauma and form financial literacy, it
has the power to change the whole entire world, not
just you know Maldi and Altada, but people all over
the world. People who have experienced trauma really resonate with
my cordad or. And it's not just Maori, Pacifica or
Indigenous communities. There's a lot of non Maldi who really
(19:22):
resonate with this, and I think that really opening the
door to growing this platform into a global business that
helps people to understand why they make the finance decisions
they make and how they can improve them. So I'm
going to Canada later this year to beg you speaker
at an event, and I'm really excited. I actually really
(19:42):
wanted to go to this event to learn from everyone
else who's there, to learn about indigenous approaches to finances
that people are doing on the global stage. So I'm
just really excited to be able to go to learn
and to share some of the things that I've been
up to and to bring all of that martodnger that
knowledge back to altail or to help my community.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Nake.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
We need to talk podcast a preset on your iHeart
app just tap and never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How do you end up doing a keynote in? How
did that come about? She's not what's so funny?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So I'm very big on like vision boards, manifesting everything
like that, and so my on my vision board for
the past year and a half has been to travel internationally.
So I find this this event that I really wanted
to go to. And actually at the end of last year,
I applied for these in New Zealand dream seats things
and I got the tickets and they were actually to
(20:38):
another country, but I was like, no, but I want
to go to Canada now, and so I emailed. I
followed up every single week and I was like, hey,
I was just wondering, would you guys consider changing it
to Canada instead of this place. I followed up seven
times and they eventually they were like, yeah, that's fine,
Like we can change it to Canada. And I was like,
oh my gosh, Like it's all working now, so going
to Canada to speak at the event, and actually at
(20:59):
the event, I actually asked them. I was like, hey,
like I would love to come to this event and
I'd love to offer my speaking services. So part of
like manifesting and everything like that. A lot of people
think it's just like, oh, you just put it on
your vision board and then it just kind of magically happens.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
That's not it at all.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
My approach is like, you can be very intentional about
this is my goal, and then you reverse enginet.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Okay, what do I need to do to get there?
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So my goal is to grow THO into a global company,
and I recognize that if I do one event internationally,
that's going to open doors to other international opportunities. So
for the first one, you know, and that's when I
think back to when I first started speaking in New Zealand.
You know, I was doing things like that where I
was like just you know, getting out there and doing
things and you know, doing things without getting paid or
(21:41):
things like that, just to build your profile. And so
that's what I'm thinking about growing my international presence. Is Okay, well,
when you're getting started, you need to you know, actually
put some work and put some effort and like, actually
message people, actually reach out to people, do the work
so that you can get the traits people think you like,
you don't have to do money anymore. You can just
get the traits. And I'm like, and no one just
(22:01):
comes and says here like this. You have to opportunities,
breed opportunities, Right, you do one thing and you're right.
Often you don't know we're saying yes to something. And
that's what I push a lot in my confident Communication
course is just go and speak at that thing.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You got asked to at work. You don't know who's watching,
and who might say, actually, can you come and speak
at this, or I'm going to introduce you to this person,
and that breeds the next opportunity. It's not luck. And
I think sometimes people and you will probably get this
as you go through. Oh you're so lucky. No no, no, no,
it's not luck. No it's not.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And the other thing too is people say, oh, you're
so successful for being so young, and I'm like, that's
only because you've only seen me publicly since I was
eighteen building this, But I've actually been starting businesses since
I was a young person. I was like asking my
mum's friends. Hey, can I come do your gardens? Can
I owe your lawns? Can I babysit your kids? I've
been doing this stuff for years, so people think, oh,
(22:54):
it's just a few years of doing this work. I'm like, no,
this is actually like over how do I twins? Over
ten years of actually working and growing this and starting
businesses and failing businesses and being laughed at and people
judging me. And it's like it's only now happening. People think, oh,
you know, you've just kind of corrarecked it out. It's like, no,
this has actually been a so slog for like many years.
(23:16):
It's not been like an overnight thing.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I love your drive, and I think drive is something
that's hard to teach, and it's something that's inherently in us.
And I suspect you've had that drive even in your
heart at times. I suspect you've always had that. It
sounds like you have from a young age. What does
your mom say about you as a young kid? Were
you always motivated? Were you always wanting to achieve things?
I mean your deputy head girl. Yeah, I've always been
(23:40):
like this.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I remember, like back when I was at school, I'd
like be doing like a five am morning routine and
I'd wake up and drink this tumoric shop because somehow
YouTube told me it.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Was going to help me in life.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And I used to like play the piano and I'd
wake up and do things like that. My mum's always been,
you know, as a solo mum, you have to actually
your mindset has to be really on point if you
want to be able to achieve the things. So her
mindset that she taught me was, you know, you're never
going to like just get handed things. You've got to
actually make things work. And if you really want something,
(24:12):
prove that you want it by putting in the work.
And so like, for example, I really wanted to learn
French when I was a kid for some reason, and
you know, she was like, well figure it out then,
And so she had this French lady at work, and
I was like, oh my gosh, I could offer to
teach her Todel Maldi and she can teach me French.
So it was just finding opportunities even if say money
(24:33):
wasn't there or whatever it was. It was looking at
life it's like, okay, you know, what can we do differently?
What can we change And that's something that's been like
my mum instilled that in me, and being able to
be being able to persevere, being able to you know,
get lemons and literally make a lemon it actually make
like a whole lemonade company. Like you know, it's not
(24:54):
about what cards your doubt, it's about.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
What you do to respond to those What would you
say to people that are listening to this and they
might have the drive, but they don't have the confidence
because it does take it does require a certain level
of putting yourself out there and being judged right to
do what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, you don't get born with confidence. You have to
build confidence by doing things you're not confident doing. You know,
when I first started multi Millionaire, because I had experienced,
you know, being bullied at school, I didn't I thought
of nothing could be worse then being an adult and
still being bullied like on the internet. But you know,
I realized that actually anyone listening to this, no matter
(25:32):
what side of politics you're on, your favorite politician has
mega haters. And that's because like you see all the
things that you like about them, and there's a lot
of people who really hate them. So if you're really
going to create big change in the world, you have
to get used to people not liking you, people not
agreeing with you, people disagreeing with what you're saying, and
people trying to tear you down. And that's just what
(25:53):
happens when you do things. But people think, oh, when
I get confident, that's when I'll start posting on social media.
When I get confident, that's when I'll speak. You know,
I've spoken at events and been like hyper ventilating, freaking
out because there's all these people.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Here, but I still went. I still showed up at
the next one.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
You know. I spoken an event, yes it and I thought, oh,
I could have done this better. I could have done
that better. And some people would be like, well, I'm
never doing it again then, and it's like, no, I'm
a human, I'm not a robot. I made mistakes, but
I can get back up, you know, put my socks
up and just keep going.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And I also feel like, particularly in that public speaking realm,
there's actually no such thing as a perfect speech. No,
we're humans, you know, we make mistakes. Things could have
been better, some things might have been worse what you
did them. So it's different every time, and you're so right.
But you've got that mindset already, And I feel like
that's very rare for a twenty two year old. When
(26:45):
you get a negative comment, and I know you have
because you've addressed some of them on your page, did
they sting a little bit? Well?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
I always think that if a comment, if a negative
comment stings, it's because there's a lesson to be learned.
So when I first started, people would comment things like
you're going to do at a young age because you
eat too much food, or when I was at law school,
oh now you can sue the fridge, or you're never
going to become a millionaire with you know this, or
whatever it was. And I realized that the only comments
(27:12):
that actually hurt you, they hurt you because they've triggered
you because there's something there that needs to be worked on.
So some people would say, oh, you focus too much
or money. You need to focus on your health because
you can't become rich without focusing on your health. And
do you know what's so funny, I actually thought that
they were lying. I thought that money was literally just
a numbers game. You just needed to you know. I
believed all the stuff that was being conceived. You just
(27:33):
need to earn more, invest more, and it's as simple
as that. And so they would trigger me. I would
cry and I'd be like, I need to shut my
whole page down. I can't keep going like this because
low KEI I knew they were right, and it hurt
me because the gain of me not accepting that they
were telling the truth was that I got to say
my comfort zone. I got to continue binge eating twenty
four seven, I got to continue not exercising. I got
(27:56):
to continue staying in the cycle that felt so comfortable.
You know, lots of people go, oh, I just want
to get up, but actually a lot of us who
are in those negative cycles, that's how comfort zone. It
actually feels safe to not do these new things to
get out of our you know, to push ourselves to
move every day, to eat bit of food. And so
you know, I every single time a negative comment comes
(28:18):
up and it's something that upsets me, I'm like, thank you,
universe for seeing me an opportunity to learn something about myself,
to grow and to expand. So someone sent me one
the other day and said, you need to go to
the gym and stop focusing on money.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
And it literally I was so regulated. It didn't bother
me at all because I know for a fact that
I do go to the gym, shows you how high
you yeah yeah, and it doesn't trigger me anymore because
I know it's not true.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
It's like if someone said, oh, I really don't like
your purple here, Tony, it's so they wouldn't bother you
because you know you don't have purple purple here. I
look at negative comments as an opportunity for me to grow,
for me to learn about myself, and stopped looking at
myself as a victim of what other people said. And
I was like, if every negative comment helps me to
grow my brand, helps me to get more engagement, helps
(29:02):
me to learn something about myself, then like a win.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Is a win. I think that's a wonderful place to
finish to Kahukuta, thank you so much. I find you
very inspiring and definitely wise beyond your years. I think
whoever's been telling you that throughout the old years is
absolutely correct. And watch this space. I can't wait to
see what you doing next. And you have to let
us know how Canada goes. Thank you so much for
having me, Thanks for listening to we need to talk.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Contact us on Instagram and we need to talk with
Tony Street or email. We need to talk at cost online,
dot co, dot in z,
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