Taurus Taurima stepped under the Atrium lights in Hastings and paused, just long enough for the weight of his words to land.
“I had to put my children and my family first and leave the old life behind so people could trust me.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
He was not just talking about starting a business. He was talking about walking away from the world he had known, one on the wrong side of the law. The turning point—the moment that forced everything into sharp focus—was the tragic death of his brother.
“That was when I knew something had to change,” he told the crowd. “I couldn’t keep going the way I was. I had to walk away from that life, even if it meant starting from scratch.”
That moment of reckoning set the tone for a night that went well beyond sharing business tips.
The Profit Unleashed brought together three very different speakers: civil contractor Taurus, chicken farmer- turned-brand-builder Ben Bostock, and corporate high achiever Kirsty Godfrey- Billy. Each offered insights that forged their success, and each called Hawke’s Bay home.
It was the third straight sell-out, packing the stunning Atrium at The Tribune with about 200 business owners, entrepreneurs, investors and curious locals keen for leadership without the sugar-coat.
Laying foundations that last Before he was laying driveways and fibre trenches, Taurus was fighting a battle of a different kind. Leaving gang life did not come with a blueprint. Launching Topline Contracting meant pushing through red tape and deep scepticism.
He needed a Transport Service Licence to run trucks, but the NZTA said no because of his criminal record. Taurus took the agency to court—and won.
Today, Topline Civil hums across Hawke’s Bay, but the Topline Training Academy shows the real heart of what Taurus is building. The academy pulls young people off the streets—many from tough homes and tougher choices—and gives them a path to a job, even to their own business.
“If you can walk and talk, you can work,” he said, nodding toward his crew in hi- vis. “I don’t care if you’ve got no CV or you’ve got a record. What matters is that you show up.”
The commitment does not stop at the workshop. Taurus and his team turn up at gang houses, pick up trainees without transport, even stand beside them in court.
“We don’t judge. We show up. That’s how you break cycles.”
How does he stay grounded while carrying so much?
“Physical training—lots of it,” he grinned. “And I read. That is how I built my mental resilience, because I had to.”
The chicken farmer who bet on values
On paper, Ben Bostock lives in another universe, yet his story shares the same courage to back a wild idea. In 2014 he quit a meat-trading job he loved to farm organic chickens in Hawke’s Bay orchard rows.
“My dad told me it was the craziest idea he’d ever heard,” he laughed.
With no farming pedigree and a mountain of logistics to climb, Ben and his brother George threw everything into a values- first business. Their birds lived in chalets among apple trees, ate organic feed and were processed in small batches. Chefs loved the quality; customers loved the story; then Country Calendar aired, and the brand rocketed nationwide.
A decade later, Bostock Brothers Organic Free-Range Chicken had become one of New Zealand’s most recognisable food brands. In 2024, the brothers sold to poultry giant Inghams.
“Leaving the team was the hardest part,” Ben said. “Some staff had been with us from day one. Watching them grow their careers—that’s what I’m proudest of.”
He is still hands-on, supplying organic maize to Inghams and staying connected to the land. Early on, when a competitor launched a suspiciously similar brand, Ben did not blink.
“We didn’t want a fight, but we had to protect what we’d built.”
Ben connected deeply with Taurus’s message. “There’s a myth that you have to be polished to succeed. Realness and struggle are what people actually trust.”
A Xero hero: Kirsty Godfrey-Billy
Kirsty Godfrey-Billy offered a view from the corporate summit. As CFO of Xero, she helped revenue climb from 15 million to more than 2 billion dollars and guided expansion into 180 countries.
Her success hinged on a simple rule: say yes to the uncomfortable. “Every opportunity, even if it terrified me, if someone asked, I said yes.”
That reflex took her from the BBC
to Contact Energy and then to Xero, where founder Rod Drury gave her one instruction: show him only one spreadsheet a year.
“He trusted us. When someone trusts you like that, you lift.”
You have to know what to say no to. When the product team asked whether to build for Australia or Singapore, the strategy made it obvious—Australia.
Spread yourself too thin and you get nothing.” Her candour stretched beyond numbers. “Early in my career, I wore so many masks that I forgot who I was. At Xero I decided to bring the real me. If it didn’t work, that was OK, but I wasn’t hiding anymore.”
Now she’s keen to support other founders to do the same.
