What started out as a personal coping mechanism for Paige Wills has now become an online tool to help others plan for life’s ‘what ifs’.
If something went wrong and you could no longer do all the things you normally do, do you have a plan?
Waitaki Valley farmer and mother Paige Wills didn’t and after the birth of her first child, this created a swirl of ‘what if’ questions.
“I felt like I was handed this baby and someone flipped a switch in my brain. All of these what ifs came up. What if my husband got hurt and couldn’t farm? What if I get hurt or die. It just started spiralling for me,” Wills said.
Wills and husband Richard run a 280ha sheep and deer farm. At the time, they were living off-farm, leaving Richard to commute every day and leaving Wills with a lot of alone time to get lost in her thoughts. Realising it was becoming unhealthy, she decided to take some action. She sat down one day, wrote out every important piece of information in her life and wrote a letter to her daughter.
“It meant that if something happened to me, everyone had everything they needed to keep things moving along. In that sense, it was a huge relief,” she said.
That was 11 years ago. As the years went by, Wills added to her master document. What started as three pages billowed out to 105 pages and became very comprehensive and settled the what if questions in her head. The master document had everything in it, from where the spare house key was kept to how to access all the bank accounts and everything in-between.
“The more people I talked to, the more I realised how important a document like this is. Every time I told someone about it, they would say they wished they had something similar, where they could just fill in the blanks with their own information. It took multiple people telling me this before I realised, ‘why don’t I just do this?’” she said.
“Being from a rural background, I have a strong sense of wanting to help people. I’m also really aware of all the moving parts in a family, farm and business. There’s a lot of vital information that people just keep locked away in their heads.”
Six months ago, Wills officially started Peace of Mind (www.mypeaceofmind.co.nz), a digital fill-in-the-blank document that acts as a ‘how to guide’ for your life. Filled to the brim with all the information your family would need if you were out of action, unable to communicate or passed away.
“I had a really comprehensive document for myself, but I wanted to create one that would cater for everyone,” she said.
Wills found dozens of people to interview to make the document as detailed as possible to ensure she wasn’t leaving anything out. From medical professionals, funeral directors, to people who had medical issues and people who had a family member pass away, she soon gathered a lot of great information to help her put together her finished product.
“This isn’t a legal document. You still need a will and power of attorney. But a will only tells you what needs to happen. This document tells you the practical steps for how to make that happen. Everything from finding essential paperwork to turning off the pump to dealing with animals or planning a funeral. It has everything someone could need to step in and manage in your absence. Often all of those little questions add a lot of extra stress at an already stressful time. This is designed to take some of that stress and worry away,” she said.
Farmers can be notorious for keeping things in their heads and not talking about them. For Will’s family, Richard does most of the stock work and day to day running of the farm while she sees to the administration work, rearing lambs and some tractor work.
“He doesn’t know what I do, and vice versa. That applies to so many people. Prior to putting together our own document, if anything happened to either one of us, it was going to be a huge challenge to keep the wheels in motion,” she said.
Peace of Mind launched in September and has gathered a lot of interest, but like with many small businesses, letting people know about the product has been a challenge.
With a background as a florist, this business has been a whole new beast for her to wrap her head around. She’s really embraced it and, with the support of her friends and family, has become passionate about providing a resource like this for people.
“I really want to encourage people to start having those ‘what happens if’ conversations with their loved ones and get that important information out of their heads and onto paper,” she said.
Wills is working hard on spreading the word about Peace of Mind. She has already started creating a physical document people can fill out if the digital version isn’t suitable, but wants to focus on keeping the price point and product accessible to everyone.
“This is my thing that I get to pour my heart into and get that feel-good factor that I’ve created something worthwhile and important that will really help people,” she said.
