FEATURE INTERVIEW
Publisher comes back from breakdown and finds major success –
Ocean Reeve
INTERVIEW and ARTICLE MICHELLE R PRICE
Ocean Reeve almost can’t believe where he is today. Starting from humble beginnings, Ocean began life in a small provincial town in New Zealand, he has risen to find major success in the highlycompetitive publishing industry.
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fter learning that he had been adopted when he was in his 20s, Ocean spent several years being involved with a gang, participating in criminal activity and battling addiction. He admits he rebelled in a big way after also being bullied during his schooling years. Ocean said, “I just lost interest in caring about anything that I thought I wanted.” In 1999 Ocean experienced a significant spiritual shift. “I had an epiphany, it kind of made me feel that I was going crazy to be honest.” He said he knew of a woman who was into spiritual stuff in Wellington at the time, so he visited her to get advice about how to deal with what he has labelled a ‘crisis of the soul’. 12
\\ AUGUST 2021 \\ Rebirth Vade Mecum Magazine
Ocean returned home and followed her advice, which centred around the Wiccan faith, and everything fell back into place for him. He admits he still had a lot of internal work to do, saying he was faking a lot in his life. Eventually Ocean married Vicki Jane. He had two children to a previous marriage and then became an active step-father to Vicki Jane’s two children. With a background in the film and TV industry, Ocean broke into publishing, saying it provided him with the security he felt he needed at the time. He’s had experience in the education and sales arms and admits he has seen some disturbing practices over the years, with lowquality publishing being sent to market. That is what convinced him to go it alone. Speaking to his wife, Ocean said together they came up with a sound philosophy; ‘don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal’. He allowed himself to be guided by integrity and honesty when starting his own business. “If you told the truth, you said it straight, you didn’t cheat anyone, you didn’t steal anything… not everyone is going to like your direct approach. You’re not going to have to remember the bullshit you told in the past because you’re never having to back up a lie and the people that don’t like that direct approach aren’t the people you want in your life anyway,” Ocean said. “So in a very short period of time I removed all the toxic people from my life. I’m proud to say that in 2021, I don’t have one person in my life, business or personal that I don’t want to be in my life and that includes the hundreds of authors that we’ve got in our stable at the moment.” Ocean also now has 20 colleagues who have come on board since he started out on his own and Ocean Reeve Publishing recently won the Business Enterprise Award, presented by APAC. On a daily basis Ocean chooses to wake up happy saying, “I believe you wake up conscious, you have a decision, am I going to be happy or shitty or whatever I want to be today?… when you’re maintaining elation, that’s what takes work.” Ocean admits that he did suffer from a severe www.spiritualeventsdirectory.com
