Between Two Beers Podcast

Two weeks ago, Israel Dagg sat down for what's become one of the biggest episodes we've ever released, and it turned his fortnight upside down.So we brought him back to find out what all of that has actually been like: the messages from players he hadn't heard from in years, the days he had to switch his phone off, and why he'd still tell anyone in a dark place the same thing.This is the first of something new - we're reconnecting with past guests a few weeks on, and we want your questions. Keep an eye on our socials for who's next and send them through.Plus: The Foursquare conference saga that nearly took us both out, and the moment Steve had to physically hook Sir John Key off stage in front of 350 people. We recap Grant Baker's massive episode on why New Zealand needs a better attitude.

Grant Baker started with nothing - biking to sales meetings and hiding the bike around the corner so clients wouldn't know he couldn't afford a car.He'd go on to build and sell some of New Zealand's best-known companies: 42 Below vodka (sold to Bacardi for $138M), skincare giant Trilogy, and the automotive empire now known as Turners.In this episode he tells the full story of going all in - selling everything he owned to bet on one company, the years of "drinking from a fire hose," the midnight deals that nearly sent him broke, and facing a cancer diagnosis at the height of it all.He reflects on his mentor Eric Watson, his partnership with Geoff Ross building 42 Below, why he believes the real key to success is how much pain you can endure, and how he came to back Kiwi driver Liam Lawson's rise to Formula One.Now a Ferrari collector - 50 and counting - Grant shares hard-won lessons on ambition, resilience, giving back, and why you should never die wondering.Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

or the first time in seven years, we got the whole team in one room and did something uncomfortable: we audited our own podcast.Eight people, one question on the table - if we rebuilt this from scratch, what would it actually be? What came out of it changed how we think about nearly everything we make.We sit down with Di Foster to work through what's changing and why: why "platform-driven content" is reshaping how they approach every show; treating YouTube as a shop window and audio as a routine, and what that means for the work; the football-team analogy for figuring out who plays which role as the team grows; managing contractors and when to bring them in-house; refining five company values down to three; and why the smartest growth move right now is consolidation - slowing down to speed up, no shiny new things.An honest look at what it takes to keep building a podcast business well past the garage-and-a-microphone stage.Thank you to Odoo for supporting Accidental Business Owners.

Becki Ross was given two to three years to live. Diagnosed at 42 with stage four, incurable bowel cancer, she's a mum of two teenagers, a teacher, and one of those rare people who lights up a room the second she walks in.When we recorded this, Becki had just been told her treatment options had run out - that the cancer was, in her words, "declaring itself," and that her time is now very short.In one of the most powerful conversations we've ever had, Becki talks about planning her own funeral - the plywood coffin, the celebrant, the plan to climb in herself just to make everyone laugh - and about the parts that aren't funny at all: the fear, the reality of leaving her kids behind, and the perspective that's come with facing it head-on.It's a conversation full of light and shade. We talk about the Cancer Crushers, the village of friends carrying Becki and her kids, the health system she's had to fight through, her daughter Maddie's unforgettable words, and the humour that's got her through all of it.Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

Steven and Seamus go behind the scenes of the Izzy Dagg episode that's gone massive - the research calls, why Izzy almost didn't tell his story, and the reaction that's followed since.Plus: the new dream guest list - who's next after Graham Norton - a big week for the team, emceeing the Master Builders House of the Year awards, and commentating Auckland FC v Tottenham.A very special episode drops next Sunday too, and it’s very different to anything we’ve done before. Full tease in the episode!

Israel Dagg had everything he'd ever chased - a Rugby World Cup, a young family, the life a kid from a Hawke's Bay state house could only dream of. Then he retired, and the question underneath it all hit at once: “if I'm not an All Black, who am I?”In one of the most open conversations we've had on the show, Israel comes clean on the five years that followed - the addiction, the depression, and the spiral he kept hidden while the world saw a highlight reel.After his mum passed away he hit rock bottom: he left his family, moved to Auckland, and spent a Father's Day alone in an apartment wondering how it got so bad. He's honest about what it cost the people who loved him, and clear that no one could have pulled him out but himself.This is the story of how he did it - how ownership became the first step back, why nearly three years sober is the best decision he's ever made, and how he came to see that the happiness he'd been chasing had been in front of him the whole time.Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

We are back from the World Cup with a case of post-event blues and a bigger question: we built our dream - but, is it still the dream?In this consolidation episode, we share our lists about what we want the next two and a half years to look like - and discover how closely aligned we’ve become. Di digs into what "important" means now that the podcast is commercially sound, why neither of us is a natural galvaniser, and what it takes to bring the wider product team into the vision.Along the way: the "multiplier" that makes a business partnership work, why your best hire is the one that clears your own roadblock, dream guests (the Obama-tier bar), Steve's hips, and a time-audit report card that doesn't quite go to plan.A useful listen for anyone building something and trying to work out when to stop chasing and start consolidating.

Justine Smith has been a fixture of New Zealand comedy for more than 30 years - a Seven Days regular and one of the few women who lasted in a room that pushed most others out.She opens up on the comedy environment younger women were up against, the treatment she swallowed to keep going, and how she turned that guilt into becoming the person the next generation of female comics now comes to. She's also very funny about the rest of it - falling into comedy almost by accident, the terror of her first gig, and three decades of standing in front of a crowd talking about herself for a living.And she tells the remarkable story of her own beginning: adopted as a baby, and reunited with her sister through a single phone call that almost didn't happen.Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.