“He had been moaning about having a sore throat and a cough, and I was just thinking it was man flu and I ignored him for a while. Then I finally got sick of him moaning and said can you please go to the doctor?”
While Sinclair survived the cancer, a large tumour in his throat required major surgery and radiotherapy.
“So it was always this whirlwind. That happened in a couple of weeks, and we are running a business, and we’ve got children. It was pretty tough,” Blaylock recalls.
“We had a wonderful team, which meant that the business kept going. We were lucky enough to have insurance, which took some pressure off the finances.”
But for Sinclair, who was a facilitator delivering sales and leadership training, he was suddenly unable to communicate.
“That was quite a big shock.”
The couple made what they thought were big lifestyle changes, Blaylock says on the latest episode of Money Talks.
But over the next few years, further tumours were found, requiring more surgery.
“It’s funny, even just in that period of time, you think you’ve made changes, but actually you can easily slip back to the treadmill and lose perspective.”
“So we had another chance at that with a second one, and then a few years later, there was a third one. You know, for a while we did ... stop and make some changes, and then you kind of forget and you need to be reminded that actually, the things that you thought were important aren’t.”
The Icehouse has been a feature of the local business landscape for more than 20 years now, but has developed and evolved a lot in the past few years.
“We are an organisation that exists to help grow the New Zealand economy through helping the owners and leaders of small to medium-sized businesses get better at running those businesses,” Blaylock says.
There are two separate Icehouse-related organisations now.
Blaylock is the chief executive of The Icehouse and works in the leadership capability and coaching, and advisory space.
Then there is Icehouse Ventures, which is focused on venture capital and start-up investing.
Blaylock, who grew up in Nelson, originally trained to be a nurse.
“Which my kids find really hilarious because all the medicine I ever give them is a cup of harden up.”
But the voluntary work she did at school with Students Against Drunk Driving (Sadd) led to a paid job as national co-ordinator in Wellington.
“I guess it’s that kind of sense of purpose that I’ve always had,” she says.
“If you can combine a job with that, for me, that’s really satisfying. It links right back to what I do now.”
Blaylock worked there for a few years and was eventually awarded a medal for services to the community and a scholarship, which sent her to university, then she ended up doing a commerce degree.
Her corporate career started in sales for Mainfreight and then she moved to contract marketing.
But Blaylock’s career took a turn when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2009.
“I was married to a facilitator and I was a contract marketer. And those are the two things people stopped spending money on. Our household income, in one month, just absolutely got wiped out.
By then, the couple had a mortgage and children.
“We thought, ‘we’ve gotta take control of this’.
Initially the pair planned to start their own training business.
But they eventually bought the New Zealand operations of David Forman – a well-established Australian business training group.
It was losing money when they bought it, but they eventually turned the business and ran it for 12 years together.
Then Covid hit.
The business was doing well, but it was all face-to-face training, Blaylock says.
“The whole year’s worth of bookings were wiped out in a second.”
They’d had an offer to buy the business, so they decided to exit.
Blaylock stayed with the new owner for a period of time, then she joined The Icehouse in 2023 in a new role as chief growth officer.
“Then in July, I moved into the chief executive seat.”
Blaylock says she still feels a strong sense of purpose about the work she does, even though being back on salary is different to owning and running her own business.
“It’s not to say that there isn’t still responsibilities and targets and all the rest of it. But ... is quite a different feeling,” she says.
“Having walked in the shoes, I have a huge amount of respect and empathy for business owners, particularly when it has been so tough. I mean, 97% of businesses in New Zealand are small, so it’s super important.”
Listen to the full episode for more from Olivia Blaylock on her business journey.
Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and isn’t about economics – it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.
The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
