Intro from LUX:
Max is one of those people that you meet and you get sucked into his vortex of passion for his vision and business. From starting at only the age of 17 it's mind-blowing that he is now only 19 and seems he's lived a long business life with what he has already experienced.
In January 2022, Max became one of New Zealand’s youngest entrepreneurs to attend EXPO2020 in Dubai, where he promoted GreenKiwi Supplements at the New Zealand pavilion in the sustainability district. You can read more about this below in the NZ Story Link.
With big things on the horizon for Max and his company I can't wait to watch his journey. Let's get into it...
Introduce yourself... what is it that occupies your time at the moment - work/pleasure?
Seventeen, pretty much broke, not really that good at school, and unsure of what I was actually going to do when I left school, the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise scheme (YES) came along in 2020 when I was year 12 at Keri High and I was taken under the wing of regional YES co ordinator Gary Larken, a South African guy that wasn’t like any other teacher that Id had in school, super passionate, and he took absolutely no shit, but he pushed us to really think outside of the box, and gave us as business students every opportunity that came up in the Young Enterprise Scheme program.
It was through this program that I learnt what I wanted to do when I left school, and inherently led me to meeting Keri for the first time and developing GreenKiwi into the business it is today.
My name is Max Donaldson, founder and developer behind GreenKiwi Supplements New Zealand Ltd. We grow, harvest and develop natural health products exclusively from New Zealand grown Olive Leaf for the natural health products sector.
A waste product by nature, Olive Leaf is sourced from the New Zealand Olive Oil industry as a by product, being the first company in New Zealand to attempt anything of the kind means its this puppy that keeps me up at night, and sucks the majority of my time up! We’re lucky enough to work with other businesses supplying raw material as a branded ingredient, to develop new and unique natural health products, while attempting to successfully bring to market our end consumer targeted, Immune and Cardiovascular health supplement OliveXtract …. (Even after 3 years this is still a work in progress… and I’m not actually sure how much fuel I have left in the tank to make it work!)
Do you have a store / website / social pages that people can get to know you more?
You can hear about the work we’re been doing through a new podcast series called 'Flying the Fern by NZ story’ - search it up on any leading podcast streaming site.
You can read about GreenKiwi Supplements New Zealand here:
https://www.nzstory.govt.nz/about-us/news/greenkiwi-supplements/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sponsored-stories/kiwi-student-eyes-
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/business-to-
And for those of you who often get sick and run down and are after a New Zealand grown and made solution you can buy our consumer health product OliveXtract throughout Hardy’s Health Stores Nationwide and online through HealthPost here:
https://www.healthpost.co.nz/greenkiwi-supplements-olivextract-gkoe-p
What is it that makes you content? Do you consciously try to be content or is it something that just happens naturally?
I’m usually my most content once I’ve learnt something new, so I’m constantly trying to learn new skills and techniques of doing things. In all honesty I’m probably my most happy though when I’m on the family farm, Brema Stock, moving our 500 odd cattle up north with Mum.
What books / podcasts / playlists do you recommend at the moment and why?
I’d have to recommend Janine Allis’s Book the Accidental Entrepreneur, such an awesome book for people with an entrepreneurial mindset, and second would probably be Pipe Dreams by Kelly Slater, and third would be a book by one of my most favourite kiwi entrepreneurs Alan Gibbs, called ‘Serious Fun’
Can you share any tools in your tool belt that you use at the moment that bring you back to your centre?
I quite often say to people, just get it done! I often find myself and people around me half finishing things and taking ages to complete stuff. I think job completion is an important skill to have even more so than the ability to start a new project or an ideation process, what I’ve always found is that without completion you’ll find yourself spending more time stressed about a long list of half completed jobs, and generally more stressed than when you didn’t have the half completed job in the first place… So, commit to one job at a time, and get it done one job at a time, get rid of the long to do list full of half completed jobs!
What are you excited about at the moment? Anything up and coming you want to share?
Currently I’m working on a project with a fantastic Iwi owned company from New Zealand to internationalise our brand…. This is something I’m most excited about at the moment! Also probably the thing that keeps me up most nights!!
Have you used LUX Products? If yes, which ones and what do you have to say about them?
I actually haven't yet used any LUXWORKS products…. All I can say though, is that Keri is onto a good thing, I think her care and showcasing of other New Zealand producers and products through the products she makes, is awesome, and something that’s really lacking in other products in the skin and aromatherapy market.