Josie Spillane still vividly recalls sitting on the bank on the opening day of Highlands — Experience the Exceptional at Cromwell in March, 2013.
She was a spectator, along with her husband Mitch and younger daughter Georgia, and all she could think was she could not believe she was not part of it.
At that time, she was looking to move on from child health research charity Cure Kids and she was "just blown away" by the motorsport park — not that she was a petrol-head by any means.
Her husband suggested she contact Highlands, which she did, and was told there were no jobs available. But it must have planted a seed for she later received a call to meet the founder, motorsport entrepreneur Tony Quinn.
By that stage, she was on day 11 of a new job selling photocopiers. Over lunch, the pair exchanged banter and stories and she left with a job offer to sell signage and membership at Highlands.
"And the journey with Highlands and TQ [as she refers to Tony Quinn] began. I can’t believe its almost 10 years; we turn 10 next year," she said.
In simplistic terms, she described the job of the team at Highlands as to bring people joy.
"People don’t come to the park to have a bad day. We create memories for people. For some, they last a very long time. I’ll never forget my time sitting on the bank. We try and do that as often as we can," she said.
Originally a small-town girl from Temuka, Ms Spillane attended secondary school in Timaru.
In her final year, doubting she would get university entrance, she applied for a diploma in travel and tourism at Otago Polytechnic.
She did get university entrance but, having already paid the course fee, she started at polytechnic.
Embracing the student lifestyle, she was somewhat frustrated by seeing university students only attending university for several hours a day, while she was at polytechnic all day.
By the time she had got to the fourth quarter, she had got herself "an A in socialising" but did not even bother to attend her exams.
The following year, she started university, where she completed a commerce degree, majoring in management.
Already armed with a large student loan, she needed a part-time job and was given an "amazing opportunity" at Skyline Leisure Lodge where she was hired as a waitress, deeply embedding in her the importance of customer service.
In her third year, she got a job at student haunt KCs — a place where she was a regular customer — as promotions manager, which she combined with study until she graduated.
From there, she moved to Queenstown, where the plan was to spend the summer of 2000 working as a restaurant supervisor before heading to Japan to teach English and then embarking on her OE with friends.
But she loved it and decided she wanted to pursue a career as a hotel manager.
When a job came up for a front-of-house duty manager and the fiercely competitive young woman did not get it, she joined Harcourts as a marketing co-ordinator.
About six months later, she was approached by an event management company looking for an event co-ordinator.
One of the gigs happened to be the 50k of Coronet Peak, which raised money for Cure Kids, and she fell in love with events and charity.
She later did some work for Cure Kids and then joined the charity, initially as event co-ordinator in 2004 and leaving as fundraising and business development manager in 2013, raising about $4million annually. From there came the short-term photocopier gig and subsequently Highlands.
Describing her story as a "wee bit of a pinch yourself", Ms Spillane said what she had been able to achieve was due to those people who believed in her and that was now something she endeavoured to do for the teams she led.
"It’s so incredible what you are capable of when you have people believing in you.".
Two of her biggest champions were her father and her husband, who had "always" been in her corner and probably pushed her to achieve more than she thought was possible.
What had been created at Highlands was due to Mr Quinn’s vision, "incredible support" and talent, along with the skills from the team at the park, which had created a "wonderful legacy" not only for Mr Quinn and Cromwell, but for all those who had played such an instrumental role in creating the business.
It was now openly acknowledged as a renowned "world-class" destination with amazing facilities and experiences to match.
Asked what it was like being a woman in the traditionally male-dominated field of motorsport, Ms Spillane said she was fortunate to have landed in the right generation.
There had never been a lot of focus about being a woman in business, or in motorsport. Rather, she liked to be the best person for the job, or best at what she was doing.
But it would be simplistic to say there had not been any moments during her motorsport career that had been a little bit challenging, she said.
Leadership was not about making the popular choice, it was about making the right decision for the business, and sometimes people did not like or agree with those decisions.
It was also about earning respect and proving your worth.
By creating such "amazing momentum", people wanted to be part of it.
"It’s far less about an industry and more about the journey and how we, as businesses, make people feel," she said.
In 2015, Mr Quinn bought Hampton Downs, a motorsport park and events centre in the Waikato.
Ms Spillane built the team and oversaw the business.
Indoor entertainment venue Game On in Queenstown joined the stable — and then Covid hit, something Ms Spillane described as a "really interesting journey".
Last year, Taupo Motorsport Park was bought, and settled just before Christmas — the deal done remotely as Mr Quinn is based in Australia.
Subsequently, he had gone into partnership with Dan Gaunt to open Game Over in Auckland and Christchurch.
In the early days, she would often see him every two or three weeks and he was very clear — "it’s something I admire about him and, certainly over the years, taken it more and more on board. You know where you stand. I know if I’ve done it right or wrong; we get on with it. Mistakes are there to be made, but identify them pretty quickly."
Covid had "really forced a bit of a cutting of apron strings". Mr Quinn was unable to travel to New Zealand and, while they were regularly in touch, she had the freedom to do what she thought was right.
During the early stages of the pandemic, she recalled being terrified as to what it was and what its impact would be.
She had "amazing relationships" with many of the Cure Kids families, and she was also concerned about the implications on her own family.
Walking out of the door of the Highlands museum for the last time, when it temporarily closed, was an emotional experience.
"It felt like an end."
As far as the business went, she had always been a fan of communication.
"If you can keep people informed, you can control the situation as much as possible. It was about getting out to our teams, letting them know what we knew and what we didn’t and what our plan was."
She kept that up for the duration of the pandemic; there was a Zoom call every day at 9.30am with senior team members of all the businesses — "partly to make sure everyone got out of bed, showered and had a purpose" — and then broader calls weekly.
It became something to look forward to and the staff learned much more about each other and their families.
Coming out of Covid, they were "ready to go right off the bat", having identified they needed to hit the ground running.
Mr Quinn empowered them to run the businesses by making decisions and getting on with it.
"If you want to annoy him, spend weeks talking about what you want to do," she said.
She believed the trust he put in her to "make the decisions and give it a go" was unusual, particularly when she talked to friends who had so many reporting layers and processes to go through to make decisions.
"Proudly, we are the size of Titanic but need to be as agile as a jet boat," she said.
Ms Spillane acknowledged she was a micromanager in her early days, but she was far more hands-off now.
"They [the team] are here because they are exceptional. We just need to let them shine."
Asked how she made it all work, Ms Spillane said with those amazing teams came a huge trust model — which might sound cliched, but it wasn’t.
She also had an incredibly supportive husband, who was involved in Highlands, and he "totally gets its all or nothing".
Elder daughter Sophie had worked a couple of summers at Highlands, while for 13-year-old Georgia, all she had known was her parents working there.
A "wonderful" group of friends were her outlet; she did not see them very often, but catch-ups were prioritised.
She did not have a "massive social life", preferring to meet friends for lunch than attend a party "with 200 people I barely know".
A key turning point came in 2019, when she had inadvertently put on weight. She was doing the Queenstown Marathon 10km event with Georgia, who wanted her to run over the finish line.
She was too self-conscious to do so; and later, when reflecting on it, realised something was very wrong that she would not.
She started walking and intermittent fasting, setting herself the goal of running 10km one day. By the time the pandemic hit, she was already doing exercise every morning, something which became a "massive priority" for her.
Losing 30kg in two years, that exercise had given her the strongest mental health she had ever had, she said.
Ms Spillane was particularly fond of a Richard Branson quote who said he did not see work as work, or play as play, it was "all just life".
"I couldn’t think of a better way to describe my approach to every day."
Cure Kids gave her empathy in her early 20s and perspective that she was able to carry throughout her life.
"I’ve got one shot at it. I want to make sure, whenever the time comes, that ... I need to look back and go, ‘you know what? I made the most of it’. I try and do that every day."
Winning the excellence in leadership category at The Grand Business South Awards in Dunedin last month was humbling and she was moved by the number of people who had contacted her in the aftermath.
But the greatest part of it all was she was just doing something that she loved.
"I love waking up and getting on with my day and seeing what it brings. I feel very fortunate I get to do that in Cromwell; I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the world I’d rather be."
A good leader was only as good as they people they led, she said.
There was "no way" she would have been recognised for the award if it were not for both her team and her mentors.
"I’m equally proud ... a lady from Cromwell who runs a motorsport and tourism facility that was never really supposed to work because of where it was, and look what we’ve been able to achieve. It’s such a privilege."
After the awards function, Ms Spillane returned to Queenstown at 2.30am the next morning and was up at 5.30am to complete the 10km run with Georgia.
They then jumped on a plane to Auckland for the Six60 concert, before flying back on Sunday in preparation for Georgia to go to camp on Monday for a week.
That is just how Josie Spillane rolls.
