NZSA Cooks Up a Storm with Frances Cook

NZSA Disclaimer

What a privilege it has been to travel around the country to be part of the delivery of Cooking the Books Live with Frances Cook and her panels of women members of NZSA.

We set out to facilitate a national conversation, run by women for women, that empowers women by showing what’s possible. The intention was to address misconceptions that women hold about their ability to invest in shares successfully. Be that as a Do-It-Yourselfer (via online platform), a Do-It-For-Me (via a broker), a KiwiSaver, or a combination.   

I can report that this goal that was well and truly delivered.  Over 510 women each paid $10 to attend.  Final numbers of women attendees at each event were 75 – Christchurch | 95 – Wellington | 65 – Hamilton | 106 – Tauranga | 86 – Auckland, a high level of attendance validated by other financial services organisations.

What’s more, there was a really diverse spread of different ages, cultures, life-stages and investor experience levels.  It was clear that there were lots of groups of family members (mothers + daughters and sister groups) as well as friends and work colleague groups. This diversity led to really lively questions from the floor.  It was very clear that our women attendees were highly engaged in the discussion and what our NZSA member panellist had to share.

We have since received lots of comments, texts and emails thanking the presenters for their generosity, open-ness and courage in sharing their individual experience and learnings. 

To give you a flavour of some of the questions that we asked:

• If I had a lump sum of say $100k to invest what should think about and how should I go about it? 
• I’m paying off a mortgage. Should I keep paying this off first, before I start investing?
• If a Certified Financial Planner or Broker recommends a plan for you, would they also use the same plan for themselves (if it’s so good) and won’t they just recommend the same plan for all their clients?
• How can I get my kids to be more considered and responsible regarding their spending and saving?  How can I start them thinking about investing and the value of money?
• (We even got this question) What’s NZSA?  What do they do?

Frances bought a real star-quality to the events.  She was very clearly a strong drawcard, with lots coming to see her in-person having already been following her podcasts.

She did a fantastic job of getting the audience engaged with the discussion and thinking about their attitude to money and how this can create unhelpful beliefs and perceptions about ones confidence to have more involvement in this area.

My hat goes off to each of our panellists. In each area, the panel of three consisted of one of NZSA’s women directors and two other women from our Branch membership.

Each of them provided a quick description of themselves and then gave a 5-10 minute talk about their investment journey.  This was then followed by panel discussion and then move to taking questions from the floor.

Our panellist were:

• Board members:            
  • Louise Nicolson (Corporate Communications Specialist | Do-It-For-Me Investor)
  • Ruth Tolise  (Resilient Pasefika Warrior | Risk & Finance Enthusiast | Lifelong Learner – Mother – Community Servant)
  • Joy Marslin (Investments Markets Professional | Hybrid Investor | Professional Director)
    
• Branch members:         
  • Jenny Lee (The Stock Broker’s Wife | Late Starter | DIY & Do-It-For-Me Investor)
  • Sue Smart (Townie turned Farmer | Equestrian | DIY Investor)
  • Susan Szeto-Robinson (Wife – Mother – Aunt | Employee – Community Volunteer | DIY & Angel Investor)
  • Gillian Boyes (Women in Super Board member | Marketing & Communications Specialist | Lazy ‘Set & Forget’ Investor)
  • Bronwyn Smits (Veterinarian & Animal Pathologist | Entrepreneur – Businesswoman – Professional Director | DIY Investor)
  • Janey Haringa (Scientist – Academic | Business Lawyer | Investor-in-Waiting)
  • Laraine Holdom (Travel Industry Professional | Single & Retired | Hybrid Investor)
  • Wendy Dykes (Saver & Traveller | IT Project Manager | DIY Investor).

In addition to having highly engaged conversations with over 430 women who attended on the nights, NZSA has really lifted it’s visibility and awareness through the promotional activity that supported these events. This included:

• Radio and digital promotion on the IHeart radio network and on the BusinessDesk and NZ Herald digital advertising platforms
• Simplicity supporting with promotion via their social channels. (They also giving away three free passes per location based on audience ‘comments’ to these posts)
• Sharesight promotion via their latest direct mail sent to their 20,000 NZ customer base, promotion via their social channels plus they provide a 12 month Investor Plan giveaway prize (worth $348) at each event!
• Sharesies promotion on their social channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram,  TikTok etc.  They also contributed funding to help cover catering costs as well as providing two staff members to attend each North Island event!
• NZX also promoted the event via their podcast and matched Sharesies contribution to fund catering costs
• NZSA’s own Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram channels and our website.  (All of the above activity will have help significantly grow audience following of NZSA’s social channels and website.)

On top of this Frances Cook has posted extensively on her social platforms and included it in her podcasts. These channels have a very strong New Zealand following. While we don’t expect a huge influx of new members immediately, we did provide a special offer off the first years membership for those attending who wish to join NZSA.

If you see new faces, especial new women’s faces, at Branch meetings please go out of your way to make them feel welcomed.

And this is a good time to again remind you that NZSA provides FREE FAMILY MEMBER MEMBERSHIP. This means your membership enables you to provide your immediate family members with a free  associate membership.

We do this because the NZSA wants to encourage family members to be jointly involved in their family’s investments.  It’s always great to see couples and wider family groups attending Branch meetings. We feel this adds strong additional value to your membership. It’s simple to set up a family member as an associate member on your website profile.

Adrian Parkyn

Adrian is the Chair of our Wellington Branch. He provided the motivation and impetus for NZSA to hold these events.