Real Country founder Laura Koot is the kind of kick-arse, go-getting, whiskey drinking Southern girl I’d feel like I’d love to be friends with.
Laura’s story of how she ditched her corporate career to return home and follow her passion to showcase the ‘real’ New Zealand to people who want a hands on, interactive experience is well documented, but I wanted to find out what makes her tick, and how she stopped fantasising about her dream life and made it happen – for real.
Describe yourself in 3 words: Passionate, hard-working, different
What was your lightbulb moment? May 2016 I was sitting in my office in Christchurch in a skirt suit, wearing stilettos, in my job as project manager for a cyber analytics company. My 20s were punctuated by bad relationship decisions – I didn’t value myself and ended up with men who didn’t value me either. I was disappointed with myself and disappointed with the life I was living. I started drawing a picture, it’s framed in my office now. It was me standing on the deck of a home I owned with a glass of whiskey in hand, a dog at my feet, a ute and a jet boat parked up, a horse in the paddock and surrounded by mountains. I wrote ‘Laura’s life in 5 years’. I thought if this was what I truly wanted, what the hell was I doing? Now, I feel like I have absolutely everything in life I could possibly want. I’m so satisfied and that’s a very powerful feeling.
Favourite quote: Albert Einstein – ‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’
Best advice you’ve received? I have more created my own path and worked things out as I go along, but one piece of advice from an MBA professor was ‘under promise, over deliver’ and that’s stuck with me in my professional and personal life.
What advice would you give 20-year-old Laura? Be yourself. I was always the gumboot wearing, whiskey drinking, horse riding Southern girl, but I never allowed myself to grow into that girl until I was 29.
Define a Southern Girl? Practical, hospitable, very generous, incredibly hard-working, not afraid to get her hands dirty. We know who we are and how to have a good time while we’re doing it.
What’s one thing you can’t live without? My dogs. I should say my husband, but my dogs!
Top way to spend a day? One thing that surprises people about me is I’m actually not very social. I’m very comfortable in social situations, but if I had a choice on a day off I would spend it by myself, with my dogs, go hunting or for a horse ride.
What are you listening to? Podcasts and audio books – I listen while I work. A podcast I attribute my success to is Andy Frisella. He built an empire from nothing. There’s a lot of swearing and he’s very American, but basically his stop being a pussy and get on with it attitude is amazing. It took me one and a half years to listen to all his podcasts and my mind-set, thought processes and attitudes completely changed. I believe in being efficient with my time so I listen to things that will open my mind or teach me something.
What does success look like to you? I truly believe the definition of success has nothing to do with what I personally accomplish. Success, to me, is helping other people accomplish - I live by that and it’s more important than any number in a bank account.
Do all Southern Girls really drink Speights? It is a thing but, no, I drink whiskey. There’s nothing better at the end of a hard day’s slog in summer than having a Speights at the end, but I’m a cheap Irish blend whiskey girl.
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