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Business is a funny old place to be. Everyone has their own idea of what success looks like. Maybe it's 90 shops, a million followers, six mansions or a team of 100 people. And that's cool. But it's never been our dream. For us, it's always been about building a business that lets us live a life we bloody love. Getting outside, doing cool sh\*t, having the freedom to spend time with the people we love, and hopefully doing a bit of good along the way. We've spent almost eight years building STOKEDNZ. We've kept our heads down, worked our absolute arses off, weathered some pretty epic storms (and a fair bit of bullshit 😂) and ridden the most ridiculous roller coaster. And through all of it, we've tried really hard to stay true to what matters to us. Which is why Saturday night meant SO bloody much. We WON at the Rotorua Business Awards!!! 🥹💛 And I don't think either of us has quite processed it. The thing about Rotorua is that it's not just where we live and run our business. It's our COMMUNITY. Looking around the room on Saturday, nearly every finalist was someone we'd crossed paths with over the years. Our old shop neighbour @fancifulcakesbymerenia. @peak_safety, who seem to be at every bloody MTB event. @philly_angus, one of my besties who's been part of STOKEDNZ photoshoots since pretty much day one. Megan, whose two kids have both worked for us over summer, sent us the most beautiful message afterwards. Gaz and I were literally sitting in bed crying reading it. 🥹 There were tourism businesses we take our out-of-town mates to, the fish and chip shop we stop at for burgers on our way to the dirt jumps, and @telfermarine, who stock our Towelies and were finalists in our category too! Anna Grayling, who'd literally just been elected to Regional Council, was one of the first people to give us a massive hug. Just GOOD HUMANS everywhere. And I think that's what made the whole night so special. We've never wanted to build the biggest business in the world. We've wanted to build one we're proud of. One that reflects who we are, how we treat people, and what we believe in. Walking up that red carpet holding Gaz's hand, both of us grinning like absolute idiots, was pretty bloody surreal. But the moment that really got me was afterwards. The judge from our category stopped us and said something I'll never forget. "You won because of your obvious passion. You do business with such integrity and the intelligence it takes to have founded and grown your business is impressive." FAR OUT. 😭 I think when you're in the thick of running a small business, you don't often stop and look at what you've actually built. You're too busy worrying about stock, freight, customers, cash flow, the next thing that's gone wrong, and the 47 million things on your to-do list. So to have someone recognise not just the business, but HOW we've built it? That meant the bloody world. We actually snuck out of the awards early 😂 It had been a massive day, we're heading into our busiest season, I've been flat out organising our breast cancer fundraiser, and Gaz had spent days at Truffle School learning about our next little business adventure 👀🍄 We were absolutely KNACKERED. But we got home, climbed into bed and just lay there talking about the night, reading messages and feeling so unbelievably grateful. Our cups were OVERFLOWING. I'm so bloody proud of what we've built. Not because of how much money we've made, how many products we've sold or how big STOKEDNZ has become. But because we've managed to build something that feels like US. Something that lets us do cool sh\*t, give back, support causes we care about, work with incredible humans and live in a place we absolutely adore. And the fact that our community recognised that on Saturday night? Bloody hell. 🥹 To everyone who's ever bought a Towelie, told a mate about us, supported one of our fundraisers, sent us a kind message or cheered us on from the sidelines — THANK YOU. You have absolutely no idea how much it means. To all the other finalists and winners, what a bloody awesome bunch of humans to be surrounded by. And a massive thank you to the Rotorua Business Chamber for putting on such an epic night celebrating local businesses. Eight years in, we're still here. Still learning, still making mistakes, still trying to do things a little differently, and still bloody STOKED to get out of bed and do what we do. Life is short. Do cool sh\*t. And maybe, just maybe, success is getting to do it with the people you love, in a place you love, while making a little bit of a difference along the way. 💛 All the love, Debs & Gaz xx #STOKEDNZ #Rotorua #RotoruaBusinessAwards #LifeIsShortDoCoolShit