Community & Impact

Financial Capability Can Change Lives

At EMPIXO, we believe financial wellbeing is about much more than money. It can affect where you live, whether you stay in education, how you cope when life changes, whether you can provide for your family, whether home ownership feels possible, and ultimately, the opportunities available to you in the future.

EMPIXO may be a new brand, but our commitment to financial capability and community isn’t new. Our founder, Brett Cole, has spent years working directly with individuals, families, students, small-business owners and communities across New Zealand, often supporting people at some of the most challenging or important financial moments of their lives. From prisons and food banks to schools, tertiary education, housing programmes, financial mentoring and first-home ownership pathways, that experience has helped shape what EMPIXO stands for today.

From the food bank to the first home.

Educate First. Empower Always.

Start Where People Are

One of the biggest lessons community work has taught us is that not everybody starts from the same place. For one person, financial progress might mean making their first investment. For another, it might mean getting through this week’s bills. For someone else, it could mean staying in education, finding stable housing, dealing with overwhelming debt, or believing for the first time that owning a home might actually be possible.

You can’t start with where you think somebody should be. You start with where they are. Then you help them move forward. That’s a philosophy we’ve carried directly into EMPIXO.

Financial Mentoring

Helping People Find a Way Forward

For more than five years, Brett has worked as a Financial Mentor, supporting hundreds of individuals, families and small-business owners through:

Sometimes the first conversation is about numbers. Often it’s really about fear, uncertainty and feeling overwhelmed. The role of a good Financial Mentor isn’t to judge how somebody arrived there. It’s to listen, understand what’s happening, help them see their options and start building a pathway forward.

Sometimes progress starts with one very simple thought: “I’ve got this. I know what to do next.”

Where This Work Has Taken Us

Across Our Communities

The Housing Journey

A First Home Can Be Far More Than a Mortgage

It’s somewhere secure to live. It’s stability for a family. It’s an asset, the opportunity to build equity, and for some families, the first significant step toward building intergenerational wealth. Brett’s experience spans much of that journey:

The Biggest Lesson From All This Work

From Crisis to Capability to Wealth

We don’t see financial hardship and wealth creation as two separate conversations: they can be different stages of the same journey.

Wherever you start, there can be a next step.

What All of This Taught Us

Money Touches Almost Everything

When you’ve worked across this many different parts of a community, you realise: housing, education, employment, relationships, business, health and wellbeing, opportunity, retirement, family, and the future we’re able to create, are all touched by money.

It’s one of the reasons EMPIXO isn’t being built simply around financial products. Products are tools. The person and their outcome come first. We want to help people understand money, develop confidence, build a plan and take action.

Experience Across Our Communities

Brett’s professional and community experience has included work delivered through, connected with or alongside:

Different environments. Different organisations. Different people. One common purpose: helping people move forward.

References to organisations reflect Brett’s professional, contracting, programme delivery, training or community experience as applicable and are not intended to imply endorsement of EMPIXO.

Looking Ahead

Our Community Vision

EMPIXO is at the beginning of its own journey, and we’re ambitious about the contribution we want to make as the company grows. Over time, we’d like to explore opportunities across:

We don’t need to reinvent good work that’s already happening. We’d rather ask: how can we help? Sometimes that might mean education, mentoring, resources, technology, professional expertise, funding, or simply bringing the right people together.

Business With Purpose

Commercial Success Can Fuel Community Impact

EMPIXO is being built as a commercial business, and we’re proud of that. We want to build a successful and sustainable company, one that can employ great people, invest in technology, develop new financial tools, create education, build new services, support community initiatives, and reach more people.

The bigger EMPIXO becomes, the bigger the positive impact it should be capable of making. Commercial success and community impact don’t have to compete. Done well, one can help fuel the other.

Get Involved

Let’s Make a Difference Together

We’re interested in connecting with people and organisations working across:

If you’re already doing great work and think EMPIXO could contribute something useful, we’d love to hear from you. Good things happen when good people work together.

Educate First. Empower Always.

From the food bank to the first home.
From the classroom to the workplace.
From financial hardship to financial capability.
From rebuilding to investing.
From getting through today to building something for the next generation.

Wherever someone starts, we want to help more people believe there’s a next step.

Learn. Plan. Act. Live the Outcome.

Think Bigger. Take Action. Live the Outcome.