Monique moved to London in the early 1980s only to be told by a prospective employer that she should be working in a pub! However, with a wealth of experience behind her in consumer insight and product management, she was quick to bounce back.

Monique describes growing up all over the North Island. She was born in Auckland, spent her childhood in Hamilton, went to school in the Hawkes Bay and started her studies at The University of Auckland. Her father was a journalist and he had a newspaper that ran in Fiji, so it wasn’t until her parents eventually moved back to Wellington, that she spent her last two years studying at Victoria University.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, Monique went into consumer insights. She acknowledges that very few people go to University with the view to becoming an insights specialist. Whilst doing research for Bonds Hosiery in Porirua, Monique was soon approached for a product management position, where she would oversee the launch of their women’s range.

A small group of us gathered once again on Zoom to discuss Seth Godin's new book The Practice.

Seth is well known for his marketing books and that audience love him. And it felt to us like this book was again aimed more at these sorts of people again. We as a group found the writing style quite hard to get into. Although we often pass comment on books that only tell stories, we felt like this book needed more stories to illustrate the points made within it! 

The book was made up of 219 ideas to help people be more creative and while this felt like a slightly overwhelming list, we did still find some takeaways within the pages. It opened with the words ‘The magic of the creative process is that there is no magic’ . This book's premise was helping people get better at practising being creative as it's something we can all do. 

When Kiwis move to the UK there is little in the way of cultural disparities that come as a shock. Throw a discussion around pie eating etiquette  into the mix, however, and you will ignite some very heated opinions that set our two nations apart. 

Katy Loudon and Steph Armstrong are the two female powerhouses behind the team at Friday pies – the company that has made it part of their mission to set this record straight. After a prolonged period of British lockdowns, it could come at no better time, when so many of us Kiwis are craving that little slice of home.

Both from Auckland and eager to pursue the bright lights and vast opportunities of London, Katy arrived in 2018, with Steph not long after, in 2019. The pair met whilst living together at their North London flat, which has been the home of Friday Pies’ test kitchens, pie storage facilities and pick-up operations for the past 5 months.