“I had four operations under general anaesthetic in about eight months while I was [in Britain] and they kept getting more intensive because essentially my body wasn’t healing itself.

“I have epilepsy that’s controlled with medication normally, and I started having seizures again – at a higher scale than I would normally have, breaking through the medication.”

When told she needed to have a fifth procedure, Brown knew it was time to make a drastic change. She packed her bags and moved home to Aotearoa for the operation.

“I told my boss … then I was on a one-way flight with three bags 48 hours later.”

That was “eight or nine years ago”, she estimates. A month staying with her sister in Queenstown gave her body the reset it needed.

“By the time I got to the final operation, they said that my body had been healing itself – I had to have just a minor [procedure]. I didn’t even have to stay the night.

“If I hadn’t got that sick and had to come home, I probably would have just kept going, and I wouldn’t have recognised that it was so tied in with the stress.”

When she went back to work, Brown took a brief contract on the events team at Auckland’s Spark Arena, which turned into four years with the company. There, she fell into a similar pattern of working too long, too hard.

“I had something like 35 events in 30 days across the country.

“I had RSI [repetitive strain injury], my arm was in a cast, I had massive black eyes, I was taking sleeping pills to sleep. If I just took half a sleeping pill, I would wake up with adrenaline in the middle of the night.”

Her RSI got so bad, she says, she couldn’t hold up a piece of paper or push open a door.

“I was having to voice note emails because I couldn’t type. If I typed it would be with an ice pack on my hand, or taking Nurofen, or I’d cry sometimes with pain [while] typing.

“Looking back now, that’s crazy. But I was so set on this amazing opportunity.”

It took her too long, she says, to realise she’s better at her job when she’s not pushing herself to such extremes.

“Moving from there into charity just seemed like it was even more rewarding.”

Brown had completed her MBA focused on youth charity and spent time working at the Graeme Dingle Foundation before she was approached to join Play It Strange. She took over as chief executive from founder Mike Chunn of Split Enz fame in 2023.

The charity, established in 2003, supports secondary school-aged students in writing, recording and performing their own music through programmes and competitions.

“Everything is youth-centred and about what we can do to make the best possible opportunity for them,” Brown says.

“Everyone goes above and beyond, because they just want to give as many opportunities as possible to those young people, as well as their time and advice and mentoring.”

This year, the charity had the highest number of entries ever into its songwriting competitions.

It has also released the second season of On the Record, a podcast hosted by Play It Strange alumnus Chaii.

It’s designed as a “toolkit for emerging musicians”, Brown says. In 2025, it’s not as simple as making music; artists have to think about social media, creating a brand and the business of becoming a musician.

Those have been invaluable lessons for countless young Kiwi artists, she says – from Frankie Venter to Rebel Reid to 16-year-old competition winner Salem Māhia, who took the top prize out of 480 entries.

“I’m very excited to watch his career trajectory.”

Brown has found younger generations have a different approach to work.

“[They’re] better at not making work their sole focus.

“When you derive a lot of your personal confidence from being good at your job and attach that too much to your personality, you don’t have an off switch because you want to just keep achieving.

“The young generation are better at having that balance, whereas we would just work till 9pm because you had to, and you would come in on Sunday and do your emails because you had to, and it was expected.”

Swapping the high-stress environment of her former corporate roles for this job has made a huge difference to her health, she says.

“My triggers for my epilepsy are stress, illness and lack of sleep, but I’ve been medicated since I was 7, so I’m usually fine. But the stress and all the health issues caused seizures as well,” she says, thinking back to her old life.

“The seizures stopped once I was all healthy again, and I haven’t had any since.”

For Brown, it’s important to put time and effort into staying well outside of work. Exercise, fresh air, time outside, and time spent with friends are her non-negotiables.

“It’s really important for my team as well that I know that they’re really passionate and I know that they work really hard, but I also remind them that we are not surgeons, we are not saving lives. We are doing amazing work, but it can wait until the next day.”

Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis’ real-life stories.