 Welcome back to my YouTube channel guys. Today we are going to talk about something that might be a little bit hard to hear. You may be surprised to know that New Zealand is actually not perfect. Now I have spent a year and a half talking about all the amazing things about New Zealand and they are all true from my perspective. But in order to maintain my credibility, I think it's important to highlight some of the imperfections of New Zealand. So you're not gonna want to miss this episode. Make sure you stay tuned because you're gonna want to hear all five points. Here we go. This video is sponsored by Bittrex24. Okay, so if you don't know who I am, we are a family of six that have moved to New Zealand from the U.S. And I have been on TikTok and on YouTube and talking about our experiences here. So if you did not see the video for last week, I talked about some of the lies that America tells you. And so I thought it was only fair today to talk a little bit about some of the imperfections that New Zealand has from my perspective. Now, to give you a little bit of a disclaimer on all of this. Number one, I have only been here for six years. Okay, what I come up with if I live to your ten years later, probably totally different. Number two, I only have my perspective and my experiences. And I also come from the U.S. And so I only have, you know, that value system, that mindset that I am coming from. So you need to just kind of keep these things in mind when I'm talking about this. And I'm not gonna talk about some basic things. I'm gonna talk about some kind of under the the radar things that you kind of only know when you've been here a while, when you've lived here. You might not notice this if you're just traveling through. But these are some of the things that I've noticed living here for six years. So here we go. And number one, and I'm just going to go there with straight away with the first one. New Zealanders tend to be quite sensitive and a little bit insecure about, I don't know, their country. If you say anything negative, they don't take criticism very well. I'm just going to put it out there. If you've had a different experience, please comment below. But a blunt, straightforward criticism does not go over well. And I don't really know where this comes from. I don't know if it's because this is a small country and they don't really know how they fit in. But I just really notice that they are very uncomfortable with criticism or with any negativity. So I have been doing this channel for over about a year and a half. I've done a TikTok channel where I have 60,000 followers also talking about the differences between the US and New Zealand. And let me tell you, every single time I see even something remotely negative, I am it's like they want to murder me. It's because I don't know. It's like you can't take it. And so and I'm not even saying anything bad. Like I'm not actually saying anything bad. I'm saying, you know, your sausages are a little bland. And people are like, come back to America, eat out of here. You know, like I don't like Wadi's tomato sauce. It's like a horrible thing to say here. So OK, but when I say anything good about it and everybody loves it. And so I feel like there's some level of insecurity that New Zealand has. And I don't know really where that comes from, but you don't need to have. And I think I have earned enough credibility across all these social channels talking about how amazing New Zealand is from an outsider's perspective, which then gives me credibility in what I'm saying. Because if you're in New Zealand, you're saying this place is amazing. And people are going, of course, you're going to say that, right? But I, coming here, can tell you that this is a very special place, a very special place, and you don't need to be insecure about it. And you need to be OK with a little criticism because that's how you grow. That's how you improve. That's how you become even better. OK. So but that's the reality that I've noticed. Let me know what you think. Comment below. As a whole. OK. Number two, as a whole, New Zealanders tend to be passive aggressive. Passive. Not everybody. Nothing that I'm saying applies to everybody. OK, these are generalizations. OK, this is limited to my experience. I have experienced this personally at work and all different circles. There's definitely a level of passive aggressive. And when you say something that they don't like, you get this face. And I can't really describe it, but there's a face and you're like, OK, I've said too much. Yeah, they don't they don't like confrontation. If you just kind of come in like, I think here's a true story recently, even I've been at a meeting where I'm having a disagreement with a colleague. They are not a New Zealander and we are comfortable being straightforward with each other and talking about it and dealing with the issue so that we could finally resolve this. But everybody in the room who was a New Zealander was highly uncomfortable with this conversation and was like, OK, everybody calm down. And like, we need to talk about this and this is not, you know, and I'm like, it's all right. We're comfortable with this. This is an issue between us. We can talk about it like professional adults are not, you know, yelling and swearing or saying anything inappropriate to each other. We were just dealing with the issue and everybody's so uncomfortable with that. Everything just kind of has to be like this. And I'm sure that that's not true in every household and every community. But in general, I've noticed that there's a a passive aggressiveness that not need to confront. And so I think in my personal opinion, coming from a culture that's very confrontational, I think that a lot of issues don't get dealt with. I think a lot of things get pushed under the rug. I think that that causes a lot of some of your social problems that you're having. And, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's just that that sense of not dealing with it, a fear that you're going to hurt somebody's feelings, not feeling like you can say everything that you want to say. And I just think that we need to grow from there. I think that there's probably a better medium for you could like say a little bit more without hurting someone's feeling and just kind of having that. And then also at work, like I feel like I haven't been in full management positions here, but like, I think that I would struggle because I would be more straightforward and like, let's set a growth plan. And these are, you know, some of your weaknesses. These are strength and it's not really how it works. Like people are like, it's don't I think that that does nothing. But provide a disadvantage to the employee because they don't know how they can grow. They don't have a perception of themselves. I think it also falls back into raising kids and how you talk to kids, like right teachers and, you know, coaches and just like being okay with that you're not perfect and that there's always room to improve and that you can grow and that you have these strengths and you have these weaknesses, but so does everybody else. Like we don't need to be so sensitive about it and we can move on. So obviously there's nice ways to say things and there's not so nice ways to say things. But anyway, don't really like confrontation guys and you're a little bit passive aggressive. Let me know what you think. And number three, New Zealanders are extremely laid back. Now, I'm going to say that I have not lived in Australia. I have been there three or four times, give or take on, you know, a week or two holiday. I have found that Australia is even a little more laid back. I don't know if this is true. I haven't lived there, my very limited experience. Comment below. Let me know what you think about that. But New Zealanders compared to Americans are very laid back, extremely laid back. They have a no worries culture. If you're stressed about something, if you're stuck in traffic, if you're going to be late for work, if you're going to do this or that, no worries, mate, it's okay. And let me tell you, for somebody like me, who tends to be anxious by nature, that works really, really well. I thrive better in a society where people are a little bit more laid back because I get anxious and so do people have high expectations and I can't miss this deadline. And I think it's mainly comes from the fact that I have so many children and there's just so many balls up in the air at all times that people are very reasonable here about this. And I know I've talked about this on other videos. So I think that that's a great quality, but also can be very frustrating to me from like a business perspective or a work perspective where things just don't get done quickly. It's just not moving real fast. Things are taken forever. Like I recently for work and started working with an American company and you know, I just find myself apologizing all the time about I know just it's going to take some time. I know I've been talking to you about this for like a year now and now we're finally going to buy it kind of a situation. So, you know, we're not as efficient because we're not working all the time. We have a good like work like balance. So it's not really necessarily a bad thing. It's just depends on the person. Like I know certain personalities would really struggle with that. And I think that I am anxious enough to it. I think overall I prefer it, but but yeah, but certain personalities, inefficiencies are going to drive them crazy when you're coming from other, there's plenty of cultures that are very, very efficient, but also overworked. And you know, you kind of can't have everything, right? But yeah, so New Zealanders very laid back. And number four, your cost of living is so expensive. I mean, I think that this is a real disadvantage. This housing market that we're in in 2021 in New Zealand is a little bit ridiculous. Like I can't even buy, you know, a house in the suburb that I'm in for less than a million dollars. And you know, some are nice, some are not that great, you know, and Auckland's even worse. And you know, you go in the country and it's cheaper, but it's still outrageously expensive when you can look around and see plenty of land that could be built on. And I don't know why it's not. I know that there's different rules and different people groups own different bits of the land. And I totally understand that. I'm not saying just like build up all of the land, but I'm saying there is probably a solution. You're either going to have to expand where you get out or you're going to have to expand up, like we're going to have to do something because there's more people than there is housing. And it's outrageously expensive and unaffordable. Like I work full-time, my husband works full-time. We have rental properties that we still instill, you know, would struggle to buy a house. Like we just met with the bank, still struggle to buy a house. And you know, that's, you know, at our age, I can imagine like if you're 20 or 30, it's just housing so expensive. It's an actual problem here and needs to be worked out. So still in the rental market. But in addition to that, like food is very expensive. We export so much of our best stuff is very frustrating when we could be making things much more affordable here for the people here. And I don't maybe totally understand the whole reasoning of behind that. I mean, I understand it from a business perspective, but yeah, it's quite expensive and it's like cheaper to buy our products in the UK, in the US and they are here. And that just doesn't make sense because we have to import so much because we are basically an island, right? A big multiple islands. And so, you know, it's just, it's so expensive. And so also like petrol is expensive, all these kinds of things make sense. It just doesn't make sense if it's something that's grown here or that we produce here. And then why is it so expensive here? And so that's definitely a negative, I think in New Zealand. Like you need to figure some things out. Like things just don't need to be this expensive. And there just needs to be, I think, a different process in place. It's just not very good. So that's number four. Have you ever heard of Vitrix 24? Well, I had it until they started to solve all my problems. Yes, they are an online platform that has a collaboration tool, a project management tool and a CRM all in one place. Now, I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm currently running three or four companies. I can't even remember with multiple different owners. And so when I start the day, I have no idea where to start. I have so many things going on. I don't know what's priority. And so Vitrix 24 has let me put everything into one platform. So I have separate working groups for each one of my companies and I have different people in each one. And so it's so great because I can online chat with them, video chat with them, set up our plan for the week, for the year, for the month, whatever, assigned tasks. And it's all in one place. I can also put in all my emails in there. I can put, I can do social. I can do my marketing in there. 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Go check it out. And number five, I just wonder if things in New Zealand are maybe just too easy. Let me share a story with you. I was at a party a couple of years ago, random party that I was at, randomly talking to a guy out on the deck who was from, I believe, South America. Maybe Europe, it wasn't a Kiwi end. He had been here a lot longer than me. And he said to me, I go like, I think we were talking about the high suicide rates here, the high depression rates in New Zealand. And he mentioned, I think things are too easy. And I've really pondered that comment and that thought and I've thought about it because the concept of things being super easy, he basically explained it also as if things are not challenging, you have no motivation to move through things. And then if you also apply the concept of prosperity, can create a lot of anxiety, right? Because things are just kind of too easy and you don't really know what to do. And when food comes easy, when work comes easy, when you never get in trouble, everything's fair all the time. And these are all really good things. But why are we struggling in this country with some of these very big mental health issues? Doesn't always make sense. And I think that that's an interesting thing to bring up. Now I'm not saying that this is totally true, that that being too easy is the problem, but I've kind of seen it through different avenues. So we can talk about teenagers, right? And we can talk about how, what are the struggles? And I feel like they are struggled. I mean, there's a lot of bullying that happens in this country. So that there are struggles, but like, I don't know, like there's not a ton of consequences, I think for things that happen. And I think that maybe you get a little bit soft and then you're not motivated to strive towards something. And I may be way off base here, but I wanted to bring this up because I think that this is an interesting thing to think about. I've noticed it even like in the workplace when I have, you know, like they're very much against letting people go here. I don't think everywhere that's the case, but like in general, it's an accepted thing that you, you know, that, you know, you work with someone and you improve. I have, I have found situations and I don't wanna say specifically where I'm appalled at the behavior of an employee and I bring it up and I let them know because if I was the manager, if I was running something, I would wanna know this. Maybe I don't even know this. And so I asked, is anybody else ever said anything? They said, no, nobody's ever said something. They've worked here for 30 years and they're still there. And appalling behavior to be honest and not a good situation. And so like, I find that interesting and I think it kind of goes back to what I talked about earlier where there's not confrontation and they're, you know, a little passive aggressive but we're not willing to kind of deal with issues. And so I think that, you know, I don't know, maybe things are too easy. Maybe we're not talking about things enough where we're actually dealing with things and so then people internalize things and then it kind of builds up and then it affects our mental health and I don't know, it's a huge cycle. I don't know the answer. I'm not trying to solve all your problems and you don't really have that have any problems to be honest. So if you don't know, or if this is your first video that you've ever watched for me, please know that I have talked about a million wonderful things about New Zealand and you should watch those because that's true, but I just need to, I think it makes, I need to be more credible and share some honest insight as well. Well, I hope you're not too mad at me. I hope you enjoyed that video. Please comment below, let me know your thoughts. Am I totally way off base? I am just open to discuss this. This is just my perspective from my situation and does it apply to everyone? So please comment below. I'd really like to know your thoughts on some of the points that I made in this video and definitely check out last week's video where I talk about some of the issues that America has as well, link that above and definitely comment below. I appreciate Bittrex for sponsoring this video and I look forward to hearing all your comments. Have a great week. I'll see you next week.