Wyndi Tagi
KEYNOTE SPEAKER & CONFERENCE MC
Keynote Speaker & MC
No degree. One non-paying client. Fourteen years later, we sold it.
I'm Wyndi Tagi. I built a chartered accounting firm from my kitchen table without a qualification to my name, took it across the Pacific, survived cancer in the middle of it, and sold it in 2025. I speak about living fully - and about building something with mana that outlives you.
◆ Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi ◆ Founder & exited owner
◆ NZ, Australia, Pacific & international
As featured in & stages I've shared
NBR
The Spinoff
Stuff
BusinessDesk
Acuity (CAANZ)
BookkeepCon
Speakers Tribe TenX
Xerocon
AUT Business School
FOMA
Signature Keynotes
Four talks. All of them lived
Nothing here came out of a book I read. Each can run as a 20-minute keynote, a 45-minute session, or a half-day workshop, and every one is reshaped for your room.
Purpose · Mortality · Living without regret
Live Fully, Die Empty
Don't take your hopes and dreams to the grave. At 21 I dropped out of teachers' college, pregnant. I raised kids on my own. I built a business. Then breast cancer sat me down and made me look at my own mortality - and everything I'd been putting off until later. This talk is about what changes when you accept that later isn't guaranteed.
Why "someday" is the most expensive word in your vocabulary
What a terminal diagnosis scare teaches you about priorities in about four seconds
How to make decisions from the end of your life, looking back
The difference between a full life and a busy one
Best for: Conference opening or closing keynote, leadership summits, women's events, health and wellbeing forums, team and organisation-wide events. This is the talk that makes a room go quiet.
Culture · Values · Commercial strategy
Business the Mana Way
We were advised early on not to advertise that we were Māori and Samoan. "You don't want to look too brown." We did the opposite - we wove our culture through everything, from how we hired to how we priced to building an AI assistant that spoke te reo Māori and Samoan. It wasn't a values poster. It was the strategy, and it's why the business grew. This is the keynote behind my forthcoming book.
Culture as a commercial engine, not a compliance exercise or a nice-to-have
Manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga translated into actual business decisions
What happens to retention and loyalty when people don't have to leave themselves at the door
How to build values into hiring, pricing, service and governance so they survive without you
Best for: corporate leadership teams, iwi and Māori business forums, Pacific business networks, industry conferences, professional services firms, international Indigenous business events.
Legacy · Succession · Building beyond yourself
Kitchen Table to Exit
We started with one client who didn't pay us - my dad. He did our office fit-out, we did his accounts. Fourteen years later we sold a seven figure firm with a team that felt like whānau and hundreds of business owners behind it. What I learned is that most owners aren't building an asset, they're building a job they can never leave. And the things I was proudest of weren't always the things a buyer valued.
Why the business that needs you most is worth the least
Building something designed to outlive you, from day one - not from year twelve
What actually happens to your identity when you sell the thing you built
Knowing when it's time to pass the baton, and how to do it without losing the kaupapa
Best for: business owner audiences, family business forums, franchise networks, accounting and professional services client events, chambers of commerce, industry associations.
Belonging · Leadership · Representation
Loudly, Proudly Brown
Every time I walked into a meeting, people assumed my husband ran the business. I had no degree, in an industry that runs on letters after your name. This is a straight talk about imposter syndrome, tall poppy, and what it takes to lead as the only brown woman in the room - and what organisations lose every time someone decides it's safer to shrink.
The real cost of asking people to make themselves smaller to fit in
Why belonging shows up in your retention numbers before your engagement survey
Leading without the credentials everyone assumes you need
What leaders can change on Monday - without launching a culture programme
Best for: diversity, equity and inclusion events, professional bodies and industry institutes, public sector leadership, women in business events, graduate and emerging leader programmes.
Book Coming 2027
Business the Mana Way.
For fourteen years we ran a business that wove Māori and Pacific culture through every part of it - the hiring, the pricing, the technology, the way we treated a client who couldn't pay. We were told it would cost us customers. It became the reason we grew.
This book is the how. Not the theory - the actual decisions, the mistakes, and what it looks like to build a company where nobody has to leave who they are at the door.
Join the waitlist and you'll get the first chapter before anyone else, plus occasional notes from the road.
What organisers say
Don't take my word for it.
"Then after hearing Wyndi share her own story, I knew I was sitting in the room with a true New Zealand leader."
Storyo
On hearing Wyndi speak at the WE Summit
"Wyndi Tagi is an absolute powerhouse speaker. Her keynote moved me to tears as she shared her incredible journey of resilience and perseverance. The challenges she has navigated in life only amplify the power of her message - to live fully and die empty. Her presence on stage is both commanding and deeply heartfelt, leaving the audience inspired and transformed. If you’re looking for a speaker who will not only captivate but truly impact your audience, I highly recommend Wyndi for your next event."
Anna-Lisa Mopio-Jane
Olympian and Breathwork Coach
"Wyndi is a powerful speaker and thought leader in LIVING FULLY. The way she blends her own experience along with her Māori heritage is inspiring and very moving. She speaks with beautiful gravitas and strength, it is easy to feel motivated to truly embrace this precious life. And she can do this for small groups and very large audiences. A gem! Happy to recommend Wyndi as an amazing keynote speaker.”
Jessica Kiely
Professional Facilitator