Debbie Robinson – Chief Executive Officer, OurCoop (#24)

Episode 24 of the Money Made Human podcast features Debbie Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of OurCoop.

A passionate advocate for the co-operative movement, Debbie has spent her career championing the values of cooperation, community, and member ownership. As CEO of OurCoop, she leads one of the UK's largest independent co-operative societies, serving communities across multiple sectors while remaining focused on delivering value for members and customers.

In this episode, host Gayle Lloyd speaks with Debbie about her career journey, the people who have shaped her values, and the influence of a family deeply connected to the co-operative movement. She reflects on the positive impact of her upbringing, particularly the role her mother played in shaping her outlook on life and leadership.

The conversation explores the power of cooperation to create meaningful change, both locally and globally, and why understanding members and customers remains at the heart of the co-operative model. Debbie also shares her thoughts on the future of the movement, the importance of creating opportunity, and why her personal philosophy is to "make every day count".

Key topics in this episode include:

• Debbie's career journey and leadership at OurCoop
• The influence of family and the co-operative movement throughout her life
• The opportunities created through cooperation at both a local and global level
• Prosperity, growth, and what success should look like for communities
• Debbie's hopes for the future of the co-operative movement
• The importance of family and the support of her "home team"

Join us for an inspiring conversation about leadership, cooperation, community, and the values that can help create a better future for everyone.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to the Money Made Human podcast. It celebrates at its heart the work of credit unions and their vital role in enriching our lives and communities. Brought to you by First Class Credit Union. Each episode features insightful discussions revealing the meaningful impact that can be made through economic collaboration. Mostly, it's a collection of compassionate conversations about navigating life and the individual journeys we take. Welcome! Debbie, I'm so excited to speak to you today. There's so much to talk to you about because you're a huge uh fan of the cooperative movement at large, not just the cooperative movement within credit unions, but just the cooperative movement, um, as I said at large. So we can't wait to talk to you about that. Um, but we were also really, really privileged to hear you speak at the most recent cooperative conference in Glasgow, and thought you were just inspirational at that, and I'll explain a bit more about that later. So really keen to talk to you about that. But I wondered if we could kind of go back to the beginning, because something that really struck me about you was when you were talking at the the conference, you really spoke as though you were a person of good value and someone that was ethical, but it sounded like to me like a good, genuine person, and I wonder who had informed those values in you.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Wow. Well, firstly, I've got to say thank you for the opportunity to to chat with you, and I was so impressed with everything that you're doing at Money Made Human. I mean, it does what it says on the tin, and it's such an important subject, it f it affects everybody's life, and we know so little about our money management, we're probably more adept at other things, yet it's crucially important to our personal success, the success of our families, and and just the contribution we can make uh in society. So it is a real privilege and a pleasure, and I really uh thank you for the for the opportunity. Um, well, I've got a long story because I'm I'm 61 years old, so I've been round the block a few times, and there's uh uh quite a lot to share.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

And looking amazing. We were just seeing off camera there how great your skincare is, but not for recording. Um but no tell us Debbie, tell me your story. What who who and what has informed your values?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Well, we we all have a story, and we're certainly all um influenced and informed, but I was really, really lucky. Um I was uh brought up in a small town in Lancashire called uh Burnley. I was adopted um into a family. I know nothing about my background until I was I was adopted. And I just, as I say, I was privileged to be brought up in a loving family. I have two wonderful sisters and and a brother. We've still got mum and I go to visit her um every weekend, um, and we just enjoy special time that we have together, and mum was incredibly active. I suppose because our family was uh kind of blended family, and one of my sisters, uh Catherine, was also adopted, but from a different family um to mine, we're all really different, and um, I was always active, so I ran everywhere, I climbed trees, I just loved being outside. And mum channelled me into I would run errands for all the neighbours because they knew it would just be a joy for me to run down to the shops, bring some bring some shopping um back. But my other uh siblings, I have to say, are far more academic than I am, and were really um uh into reading and performed really well at school. And my favourite subjects were art and PE. And uh they remain passions of mine, and uh my nana in in particular had an enormously positive influence on me around all things creative, so you know I can make my own clothes, I can crochet and and knit, and I love painting and upcycling furniture, but I love the quality of fabrics and understanding where it's from and the work, the labour that's gone into it, and and appreciate um all of those uh those things. But growing up in the sort of 60s and and 70s, they were pretty tough times economically, as anyone uh that was around at that time will will remember. And for many places, including small towns uh like Burnley, industrial towns, uh all of the factories were closing, uh, the mine was closed. So there was an awful lot of unemployment and of hideous words like deprivation that are used um now. But actually, I always found the town to be loving, caring, and full of decent people who just wanted a good life for themselves and for their for their family. So um I worked from being 11 years old, like most people did. You start off with a paper round, and so I used to do the paper round before school. I used to love doing the Sunday paper round because you got extra money, although you have to deliver all the big heavy supplements that came with the Sunday newspapers, and that was absolutely fantastic. When I was 13, I started to work on Burnley Market on Thornborough's fruit stall, and the the family and the farm that owned that business were brilliant. They knew I loved my sport, so I would set up the stall in the morning, go and play netball, do a cross country, come back, work an afternoon shift and take the the stall down. So I learned about again the value of fruits and vegetables, where they came from, how delicious they were, how precious they were, and just how um what a big and important role that was in serving people with the best possible food and that that you that you could. Um from then I worked for uh Marks and Spencer as a summer job uh as a uh as a student, and I um I worked for WH Smith Do It All. So some people might be able to remember that, but it was the start of the DIY chain, and it was when WH Smith was a family business. They sold that to uh to boot. So I had loads of opportunity and interesting jobs to do. I used to be part of the team that opened new do-it-all stores, and you would literally work round the clock for 36 hours to get the store open, ready for Monday morning, and help train the staff on the merchandising and how the tills worked and and and things. Um, but a thread throughout my family has been the cooperative uh movement. Um, and my on the end of my Nana Street was uh was a co-op. So it was the first shop I ever went to when I had my own money, and at the time we used to get a sixpence, but Nana would give us a threat me bit on occasion, and that was like wow, what you could get with that was incredible. And of course, they knew you in the store, and that therefore you were safe. And I know Nana was looking down the street as we sort of went in and and and we came out, but I just and it is the same today that the co-op is really personal, it's actually about understanding um each and every colleague that we have in our society, and most importantly, our members and and our customers. And I know that if a regular customer didn't appear in one of our stores for a day or two, and that was unusual, that our colleagues, our team would actually go out there and just check check in on them and make sure that they were they were okay. But what I really love about the cooperative uh movement is it's pioneering, and I think what you do at Money Made Human is absolutely pioneering, is you're talented and you're inspirational and you want to do the best job, and that's what true cooperation is is is all about. So I hope all that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

Oh my goodness. I have so many questions now, Debbie. Thank you for sharing your adoption story with us. I I thought that was really moving to hear that. But do you know what struck me about you and everything you said there? You're someone with a passion for life. Yes, absolutely. Is that right? Absolutely. I love it. Even from your description of the fruit and vegetables to the textiles to talking about your family. What an inspiration you are. Can I can I go back? You you mentioned something about your mum. You said she's she's an amazing woman.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

And I what made you say that?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

So, firstly, she got me if if that makes sense. Even though I wasn't necessarily like her um or like my siblings, she understood me for what I was, yeah, and so she channelled my energy by giving me jobs to do. Little did she know that that would be the making of my work ethic of understanding the relationship between effort and reward. And I'm obviously in an incredibly privileged position now to be in a CEO or co-op, which is just amazing. And we have a brilliant board, and again, I'm blessed with um an amazing uh president of the board, Elaine Dean. She's the same, we um we have similar values, but we're very different people, and I think what I learned from my mum and from all of that is it takes all sorts to make things happen. And I therefore really embrace uh where there is um an inclusive environment where everybody feels valued, appreciated, and respected. So I love different, I love people who are a bit different, have got a different idea, and sometimes we try to make people the same or make them like us. My gosh, that would be an absolutely dreadful, uh dreadful place. So I always like to find people that are are special and that they have a superpower, and that can come in all in all different forms, but when it comes together, it's really quite magical because they want to take off you the thing that they can see you're struggling with and they know they can thrive with, thrive with it, which is just um is just just just brilliant.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

In terms of your role with our co-op tell me about that and and what informs your approach to your work, because you've got I think you've got what over 30 years experience in retail, but what what informs how you go about your job now? Is it that that kind of rich heritage that you've you've enjoyed having? Is it what what what do you bring to your your daily work?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

So we're blessed in the cooperative movement, and we have to thank the Rochdale pioneers for the founding values and principles. And my favourites are self-help and self-responsibility. I love equity, democracy, all of the others, but those two to me are so important because self-help is what you can do, what you can do for yourself, and your self-responsibility is the responsibility that you have to others, and that is crucially important. So they are really guiding principles. Without any doubt at all, our frontline colleagues are my motivation for going to work each and every day because I enjoy an enormous um opportunity and job in the role that I do, thanks to all of all of them. So there's a really big shout out for every frontline colleague, whether that is in a food store, whether it's in a funeral home, whether it's in a travel branch, whether it's working in our childcare setting, so are absolutely amazing where they're growing little pioneers. And again, the clue's in the name there, just like it is in Money Made Human. Those things are so important. And then we have energy, broadband, and phone. And whilst they're digital um businesses, there is there's still a real human behind them, and they're really differentiated in the fact that they are carbon neutral um businesses. So in each and everything we do, I ask our colleagues, what is the cooperative difference? Where is the member benefit? And I think that's how we succeed in the short, the medium, and the long term. And I think I said uh earlier just about the the pioneers were truly pioneering, they were groundbreaking in their thinking and in their ideas, and that gives me motivation um too. Is how can we have a modern, relevant cooperative uh businesses?

SPEAKER_04 14:00

What's the scale of EroCoop?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

So we're a £2 billion uh organisation with 13,000 colleagues and a million members, and that lovely family of businesses. And our job at the moment is to really to make all of those goods and services available to as many of our members as possible. And at the moment, not enough of them actually trade right across the piece. Now, obviously, you're going to use the um little pioneers early years education if you've got a child that needs that sort of uh care, or if in my instance you've got um grandchildren that will will use those those services, but many of the others they are real essentials. We've really got it covered from being a little pioneer to shopping in a food store to buying a funeral plan, booking your holiday, getting your first mobile phone, making sure that your um gas and electric supplies are ethical and are sustainable through our green energy self-sufficiency initiatives. So it's finding a difference, finding a purpose. And so many of our colleagues find that really inspiring. And and I remember saying, we're going to become green energy self-sufficient, and then the team said, Um, oh, okay, what's the plan? And I went, I don't know yet, but if we say it, we'll we'll that's the direction we're going in. And the team have been magnificent in coming up with ideas I could never ever have thought about. And that's you know, Paul Lockwood in in our in our procurement um team, it's just amazing. And we've been able to do that not just for our co-op, but for um our cooperative friends in the independent co-op sector, where we're procuring goods and services um for them, and we've made savings to date of over 30 million pounds. And it's some I'd love to do that. I'd love to anything you're buying that we're buying, we can join together and benefit from that.

SPEAKER_04 16:03

Well, you told a great story at the conference about the purchase of tomatoes.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

What what's the story about buying tomatoes?

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Okay, so um I love tomatoes. Um I especially love the the um the ones on the vine, the small ones, as well. I just eat those instead of sweets, except I eat them and then I eat the sweets, which is probably not the best, the best thing to do, but they are absolutely delicious. It's the fact that when it comes to uh pesata and canned tomatoes, most of those come from Italy. And Coopitelia are the biggest producers of pesata, of quality pisata and canned tomatoes. So we're co-buying, not just across the UK, but with all of our European uh partners, and we're also looking at bananas and citrus fruits too. So that's where the specification doesn't vary enormously between different countries, and I think this is how this is the virtuous circle of cooperation. And there's another, um, if I may, just another project, which is um our Malawi project, and that is it takes fair trade onto the next level. So fair trade gives the producers a few extra um pence that makes the world of difference in developing countries. But Malawi is the fourth poorest country in the world, yet they are producers of rich proteins, uh, peanuts, macadamia, tea, coffee, um cacao that we can be converted into chocolate. So loads of amazing products there. Honey's fantastic too. But I try to focus when we're importing on goods that we couldn't produce at home. So the UK is it's got a really good source of honey. So we focused on macadamia at nuts, on rice, on the teas and and and coffee. And what we do with the surpluses is it goes back into specific projects, which includes clean water, but it is also about forming cooperatives. So they plant macadamia trees with the surpluses that we have. In fact, each time we do a funeral, we plant the macadamia tree in Malawi. And we plant that, um, it's a very rural economy, as um, I'm sure people can imagine. And then they start to produce, and the tree, the tree literally gets bigger and bigger and produces more and more each year. Um, and then they be all of the people with macadamia tea form themselves into a co-op. So that means they can bring their macadamia collectively to market to attract bigger customers. And we work with the farmers and the wonderful Dr. Sarah Aldred, and she's actually out in Malawi at the moment working on an organic fertilisation um product that will actually enhance the yield from the um the trees that we're planting and therefore help the growers to produce more. But those that again is being formed into um um a cooperative of fertilised manufacturers.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I love that. You know, we a few weeks ago we held an awards event called Money Made Human, but underneath it we we wrote how credit unions can save the world. Now we we realise that's a big that's a big ask, but actually what you've just talked about, and whilst you're not a credit union, it's that opportunity and cooperation that can help, that can help to make a difference, not just locally but globally as well, which I think you've really demonstrated with the story from Malawi. And and I just wondered what in terms I I heard you say something really powerful, and it it it goes back to the start when I said it's one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you, but you said this really open and honest thing at the conference in terms of we talk about the movement all the time, the cooperative movement, but sometimes the movement doesn't move. And we kind of we felt inspired by that because we were trying to push through from the credit union side. And I wondered if you feel like that because you seem like a very agile, passionate, dynamic human. Do you do you get frustrated that the movement's not doing enough?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

I do. Um, and there's a principle six cooperation amongst cooperatives, and we don't do that enough either. So I think we should all have in our procurement policies, it should be is there a cooperative solution here? And if there is, then we should always take it into consideration. It may not always win when it comes to a procurement process, but we're actually we should be open with other corps and saying this is what we require of you to be successful. So um absolutely, I think we're at a real pivotal moment because I think cooperation and the cooperative model, which obviously includes credit unions, is so important to all of us now, not just here in the UK, but on a global scale. Um it is about self-help, self-responsibility, and organising yourselves to create the world in which we want to operate and how we want to operate. But that does require energy, it does require dedication and commitment. And really unfortunately, I have come across a few people in co-ops, a few people, and I really do mean it's a minority, who think that it's a bit of a soft touch, that you it's easy to work there because they won't be as hard on you. And it's not about being hard on people, but it is about ambition and passion and commitment and wanting your working life to. Make a difference to the society so that the roles that we play and work for me can make a major contribution to society as a whole, and in co-ops, that is what you're encouraged to do. But I definitely come across resistance, and I definitely come across people who just want to kind of ride with it rather than really grow. But boy, when I met you guys, you just had that energy, and you know, I was just I was blown away and you do an extraordinary job.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

We can I ask you something. We um we kind of believe at the moment around cooperation, credit unions, cooperative food, whatever whatever category it might be, that if we can help to build prosperity, that can also help to lead to peace as well. You know, that that old analogy of prosperity to peace, and the the world really needs that just now. Would would you would you say there's something in that too?

SPEAKER_00 23:06

I think it's beautiful, and I'm so glad that you said prosperity rather than just growth, because we talk a lot about growth, and I think there's been an insatiable appetite for growth, and everything is measured on what you did the previous year. And I I think sustainable prosperity is actually really, really important because if you look um at the dynamics, we know that food consumption is actually down in the UK, so there's no point trying to say, oh, sell more, sell more, you know. But how can we return to um back to that quality um that we talked about earlier, which for me is enjoying the fruits of the season, working with local producers, so that the shop is actually serving the community, but this the community serving the shop at the same time. So you've got this virtuous circle of cooperation, um, and I I think it's so true. It's how we can raise people up and how we can level the playing field, and I think that that is absolutely crucially important.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

For our for our members, we'll have members across the UK and Northern Ireland that will be that will listen to this, and for a lot of them, food poverty will be an important topic, or or food shortage, and and we all know that budgets are being stretched. They can they can pick up a membership for the cooperative group and they'll get member benefits as as a result of that.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

But that might help them, that might save some money.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Definitely, and as a member-owned organisation, you know, our co-op pays a dividend on all of the purchases, that was a founding um principle of being a co-op, you know, back 181 years ago, um, it's it's crucially um important so that the virtual economy means the people that shop with you are benefiting. But if your producers can be co-ops, if your store can be a co-op, and if your or your customers are members of that co-op, they have a say in in how things are run. And coming up just next week on the 20th of May, we're having our annual members' meeting, and it's a meeting that closes off the financial year of what was Central Co-op, but it opens up the coming together of three cooperative societies: Chelmsford Star Co-op, Mid-Counties Co-op, and Central Co-op. And that's what's formed our co-op. So we took the government's pledge to double the size of the cooperative economy, literally. Amazing. And we've we we have achieved that. Now it is by coming together, but it's by coming together, I think we can grow and offer a differentiated proposition that people will choose to shop in a co-op because the surpluses are reinvested back into our members and into community activities.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

And I love also how the trickle down from that is a global thing. You know, you've talked about Italy, you talked about Malawi, I'm sure there's other countries involved in terms of supply chain. But you can, we might not be able to change the world in its entirety, but we can do the best that we can in the jobs that we can influence.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Well, these stats are honestly unbelievable. But the cooperative economy globally is 2.79 trillion. That is four times bigger than Amazon. And if it was an economy, it would be the eighth biggest economy in the world, just after France. Amazing. What are we waiting for? I I this this really I feel so compelled to pull this together. Um, and if we were to have an ethical platform for co-op to co-op trade where we all shared in that cooperative economy, honestly, it could double in in no time.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

And we need to tell more people, we need to tell more, inform more people about the scale of it and the impact they can have by being a member of a credit union or a cooperative. We, you know, we're we're on a mission, we're with you, we stand with you on that. I just want to look at that. I I just wanted to ask Debbie, what's your hopes for the the kind of medium term? What are you hoping to do individually but for your organization? What's the aspirations?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Right. Well, I always have a saying, and it is to make everyday count. And if your heart hasn't rattled on your cage, that that didn't count because you didn't push it hard enough. And I I think it's so important to feel alive and to feel that you're making a contribution, and sometimes that can be really uncomfortable, but we do have to make decisions for the long term, and that's the beauty of co-ops because we don't have to answer to short-term shareholder value, we can make decisions for the long term. So by bringing those three wonderful cooperative societies together to create our co-op, we're really hoping that we can lead by example on how you can actually grow. And we all we use the International Cooperative Alliance logo, which is recognised all over the world. So that is the fascia that we will be going uh forward with, but we're also going back to the history of each and every branch, so that might have been part of Oxford Society, and all of the stores in Essex are part of the Chelsford Star Cooperative Society because that's one of the few remaining independent societies that had not grown through acquisition of others. Whereas mid-counties and central had grown by bringing together other co-ops. But in doing that, we'd lost that local identity. So if that shop in Derby was part of Derby society, we're gonna recognise that and we're gonna call that out at local level. I think that is so important. We're gonna absolutely make sure, and we need to strengthen some of these, and we need to continue to strengthen them, that each and every business we operate in has a clear cooperative difference that is not replicated anywhere else. So, how do we pioneer and how do we lead in all of those um areas? So, a couple of examples in our funeral business, we do not pay for a funeral of anyone, God bless them, that passes away before they're 18 years old. So all of children's funerals are fully funded by our co-op.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

And again, we don't want to you don't want to boast about these things, it's just absolutely the right thing to do, but that is with the support of our members who feel that that is that is a really, really great thing to do. And in Little Pioneers, where 97% of the families that send their children to one of our co-ops, Little Pioneers Nurseries, are members because they have a say in the curriculum, they have a say in the menu choices that are available for the children and for the activities. So they actually entrust us with their most precious, their little ones, but they have a say in how in how that is, how those children are cared for. So again, this virtuous circle of of cooperation um is is is absolutely brilliant. And Debbie remind me and our members geographically, where where does your business cover so um on terms of bricks and mortar as as as they say, then our most northern, and it happens to be a childcare setting, is actually in the northeast, and the most southernly is also a childcare setting, which is on the south coast. But we're we're around the the Midlands and the home counties uh predominantly when it comes to food, travel, and funeral. But of course, our energy, our phone, and our broadband are national businesses because they can be um contacted from from from anywhere during our website and uh and online.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

I love that. Thank you. Debbie, it's been so interesting to speak to you and and inspirational to hear from you about the the cooperative movement. We're not letting you go quite yet. Our team are going to join us and ask a few more quick questions so we can get to know you a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Well, thank you so much. You're welcome. Can I just ask? There's there's just a few bits. I would um I'm I'm I I did my early bit, but I'd love to talk about the long-suffering and Andy and my two wonderful children and granddaughters. Is that okay? We're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

We're gonna cover that. We're gonna cover that. So we'll come we'll come back to that last, but I think we've got some quick questions, haven't we? It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

We do. We have four questions from the team, um, Debbie. So the first question we have from the team is was there a defining moment in your career that has helped shape your shape your leadership style?

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Oh my gosh, um there have been many, many defining um moments, but it's it's actually when I was working um with with a lady called Sarah Dickens in the people um space, and what she said is really simple, um, but it really, really resonated with me, and it's everybody has the right to know what is expected of them. And sometimes we get frustrated that people aren't doing what we want them to do because we've not been clear enough. Um, but I also know that I thrive under leaders that give me space to grow.

unknown 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

And I've been blessed with many of many, many great leaders um throughout my career. Ruth Varnhill, Malcolm Heckworth, John Bose, just extraordinary um uh people. And currently I work with um an amazing um team. I'm working with Phil Ponsonby, with Selena Butterfield Mefushi, who is seriously one to watch because she can do absolutely anything. Um and uh and and Michelle Kem. So at the moment we're we're quite a small but perfectly formed um executive team.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

I wouldn't normally interrupt the the questions, but I I love how you're so giving to others and raising others up, which is really a bit of the story of Money Made Human, so no, we admire that. Bless you. Go go for it, guys.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

No, that was that was great. Thanks. Um what are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Oh, well, that is dead easy because I'm watching Younger, and if you haven't seen it, it's absolutely brilliant. But we we did the box, the whole um run of Mad Men, which is absolutely amazing, and we're watching Younger, and it's perfect when you come home from work. And for me, that's usually on a Friday night, and I just want to watch something that makes me laugh and fills my heart, and Younger does that.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

I love that. The other question we have um F your life was a song, what song would it be?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Oh my gosh. Um well, but it would probably this is this sounds really cheesy. There's there's loads of them. We love we love cheesy. Oh, do you know? Then it would be Ebony and Ivory. Oh my current news.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Yes, yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Um last question. Um if you could speak to your younger self, what would you say knowing what you know now?

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Um, I'd say just go for it. And too often I hear people say, you've just got to learn to say no, and I'm going, Why would you want to say no? You know, I just um it's just see every opportunity for what it is, take it with grasp it with both hands and make the most of it.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

We love that. Now back back to what you were saying, Debbie, you want an opportunity to talk about your home team, your family. So they they play a big part in your life, and as we all do with the juggle and work and you know, trying to look after ourselves, what do they mean to you? What does your family mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Um, so my family means absolutely everything to me, but from this moment on, they'll be call my home team. I love that, I think it's absolutely great because that's just what they are. There's the long-suffering Andy who doesn't know which day or what time I'm actually going to get in every day, and actually puts up with that.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Well done, Andy.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

He makes me a drink every morning that I'm actually here. Um, we've been blessed with two extraordinary uh children, uh Charles and Sophia. I felt we grew up together, we were pretty young when we had them, and we learned by our mistakes.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

Where did you meet Andy, Debbie? I met him at university when I was 18.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

So they are just um extra and we have fun, you know, we we we can really have humour with each other, so um, and we just prepare each other for what someone else might say. So, what that means, if you're wearing the wrong thing, they will tell you, and they keep me on the straight and narrow with what's politically correct and actually what you can and can't say, and I value and I cherish that, but they have um encouraged me and promoted me, which is like this reverse mentoring, so they are just incredible human beings, and we're also blessed with two little granddaughters, Etta and Ottilie, that are a source of joy and are helping um us run off our energy for sure. Are they are they your little pioneers? Oh, they are our little pioneers. You're gifted at this. Not at all, not at all. Not at all.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

You're gonna be up for lots of awards, not at all. On behalf, on behalf of the whole team here, what a privilege to speak to you. Totally inspiring and joy-filled. And Debbie, we we wish you well, we wish our co-op well and the cooperative movement well. We're trying to do our little bit as a credit union, and uh no, we thank you for joining us today. You're amazing. Debbie Robinson, everyone!

unknown 38:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

My thanks to all of you. Thanks for listening to the Money Made Human podcast. We're grateful to spend time with you and hope you enjoyed it. If you want to join a credit union, choose us with love. Until the next time, first class credit union.