Level Up with Duayne Pearce
I take on the role of an authoritative voice that fearlessly communicates truths drawn directly from my lived experiences. With a genuine sense of ownership, my insights are free from any hidden agendas – they truly belong to the audience. My stories and journey add remarkable value, the key now lies in harnessing its power effectively to help others.
My purpose is to create a new residential building industry. My mission is to inspire unshakable self-confidence in my colleagues in the industry, empowering them to orchestrate prosperous, enduring, and lucrative businesses that bring exceptional projects to fruition for our clients.
My goal is to foster a deeper comprehension among clients about the identity and functions of builders, redefining their perceptions.
Level Up with Duayne Pearce
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What if you could raise a house three stories high without breaking a sweat? Join us on this captivating episode as we sit down with Shane Steele, a trailblazer in the house raising industry, who shares his innovative methods of lifting houses using specially developed trusses and gives an incite into his personal journey after his original podcast with Duayne 2 years ago.
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Live Life Build
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D Pearce Constructions
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QuoteEaze
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I reckon I call you once a month for a little father-son talk and a pat on the back. It's a crazy feeling I can't explain it Probably the most vulnerable you could ever be. It's like a game of chess but it hurts. I'm just setting the standard for what I accept. It has to be a relationship. It can't be one-sided.
Speaker 2:Seriously so proud of what you're achieving. It's frigging awesome. G'day. Welcome back to another episode of A Level Up. We are back in the shed this afternoon for another cracking episode. This one is going to be a cracker because we've got young Shane Steele back here.
Speaker 1:How are you mate? Not so young anymore.
Speaker 2:Come on, mate, you're still young, but we're going to be talking everything today about house raising, team building, gear getting knocked off and a bit of fighting and the rest. Yeah, what's been happening, mate, you've been on before and you're keen to come back, because you, I don't even know, shay, what's it been? It's probably a bit over a year, but Might even be Might even be eight months.
Speaker 1:It'd be two years nearly, I would say. I'd say it'd be two years nearly, I would say, I'd say it'd be two years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've had a lot of shit going on in that time. Yeah, we've been flat out. You've been doing a lot, mate. Yeah, you're a quiet achiever, so you wanted to come back because you've achieved a lot and you're always growing. You and I have a lot of conversations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I reckon I call you once a month for a little father-son talk and a pat on the back.
Speaker 2:I get a lot out of our chats as well. I've definitely learned some stuff off you, man. It doesn't go all one way. But, like I guess, to start with, I'd like to jump into you. Like you're a house raiser, so in parts of Australia and the world where people are listening to this podcast, like there's places where they don't do what- we do here.
Speaker 2:But you've just gone. You've taken it to the next level. For someone as young as you to think outside the box and do what you've done. So for people that are listening that maybe don't know about house raising, here in Brisbane, queensland, we lift a lot of houses and we move a lot of houses. We've got a lot of old timber structures and these guys come in, bring all their um stores and they're stealing their machines and stuff. We jack the house up, we dig it underneath it, put a new structural steel and then basically build one level underneath. But you've taken it to another level because now you're lifting houses three stories and you've developed these trusses that are holding them up in the air yeah, well, like during the pandemic, I suppose, as it started to ease off a bit and a lot more people started to move to Brisbane.
Speaker 1:obviously we've got a big influx of people moving here. I started noticing these basement dig jobs come across my desk and maybe five years ago when I first started, one would come across my desk a year Odd price it whether I won the job like maybe one or two basements would be getting done in Brisbane for these houses, you know. And obviously I guess, as people are selling their houses down in Bondi for X amount of money, buying a house in Hamilton up here for a quarter of the price. That's when we started. I don't know if that's the exact trend, but I would like to think that that's sort of how it started Well people are wanting bigger houses, aren't?
Speaker 1:they.
Speaker 2:That like to think that that's sort of how it started. Well, people are wanting bigger houses, aren't they? That's exactly right. They want bigger houses on the same size box of land, and the only way to get bigger houses is to add another level.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. And of the couple basements I've done, I've noticed a lot of them have been from Sydney or Melbourne actually like the people because you talk to them when you do the house and traditionally when you do like a basement dig or a massive dig out, you, you and I and I seen one on the news and I was like, oh, that's a bit precarious of a basement basement dig that another house raiser did and I won't talk on that too much, but I sort of I did one and you, as you dig down, you've got to. Obviously you got the sphere of influence when you, when you dig in beside your stacks, you don't want them all to cave into the. So as you dig down, you've got to back, prop the house, drop the stack, dig where the stack is, rebuild the stack with more blocks.
Speaker 2:It's very time.
Speaker 1:Consuming and then, because you're in underneath a house, um, digging around stacks and that sort of stuff, you can only use a small machine, so everything takes longer everything takes longer.
Speaker 1:I've got to come back fucking 40 times, yeah, and then, like I'll be, might be halfway through raising another house, but but you're paying 140 bucks an hour. So you want, you want your stacks reset now and it's. You can't really be in two places at once and and because of covid, we were so busy it was, it just was like undoable sometimes. You know what I mean and and and I I like to manage, manage expectations and not not let people down. So that was, that was one big thing. Saving money on the earthworks was another big thing, probably. The third thing was when you put an eight meter stump in the ground, it's obviously, obviously, with the basement it's all going in block work or or that afs stuff. Or if let's say, over a two meter level, it's three mil out of palm, which isn't hard to do by eye.
Speaker 1:You know, by the time you get it eight meters eight meter long stump by the time you get to the bottom, like to make it fit in the block work. So we have run around like blue ice fly, running string lines and stuff while we're pouring to try and make sure everything's straight yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's difficult when you're that high in the air and like even just trying trying to get an eight or nine meter length of steel.
Speaker 1:That's straight that's exactly right. And and then we're doing them on 405 blocks with 500 mil to the boundary each side. I don't want to climb up a six meter stack and try and move the house five mil. You know how do you write that into your swims or or whatever. And then nine times out of ten the the bottom level walls. It's a car park it doesn't line up.
Speaker 1:So then you have to cut the posts out of the basement and it just looks, looks shit, like people are spending big money getting all these off-form slabs done. So I actually, uh, I got jack of it and I sort of was. I jumped on instagram and I there's a there's a bloke over in new zealand called auckland house lifters that I, I was chatting to him for a bit and, uh, he, he gave me a bit of insight into how they do it, because they use a pretty similar system over there. And then probably the craziest thing was like looking at the Yanks man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, they move whole brick buildings.
Speaker 1:Like on there, like whinging about a fellow leaving a piano in their house, and they've got like fucking three-story houses up on four stacks and stuff, you know, just with massive steels. So I was always talking to a guy in America as well and I said, oh, like, do you mind sending me over some plans? Like it's not, like I'm going to come and pinch your work in New Jersey, you know. And so he sent me some plans, but they're all Imperial, so I'm fucking scratching my head. And then I ended up getting some designed. I fabricated them myself and paid for it to all get tested. And I've got some friends, m&e Cranes, that sort of, let me use their yard and all the counterweights off their cranes.
Speaker 1:And we loaded up the trusses and tested them to failure. So it was bittersweet because it was cool that I think without I think that we had 50 mil deflection with putting 10 ton in the dead center of the dead center of a 13 and a half meter span which, like I gutted queensland, I probably wouldn't weigh much more than 10 ton itself. But then obviously we you always want to go see what it can actually do. So, um, and we ended up putting 15 ton on it and it fucking blew it to pieces. So, uh, you know, I spent like a month building them just to just to destroy them, you know, and and it was sort of up in the air whether, whether they actually would hold that sort of stuff, you know. And then, so once, once we did that, I was pretty confident in it and uh, but you, an engineer, saw in the end signed off an engineer drew him up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I drew him up. An engineer changed my sizes and we had a bit of an argument, like a few back and forth on, on how I wanted them done. But uh and yeah, and in the end that he got him engineer, he engineered them and we tested them yeah, testing them to failure, and they sort of over overperformed overperformed, which which I was real happy about, and so I guess, to tie it all up, what shane's um talking to you.
Speaker 2:Like when we lift the house, it's a lot like it's a lot of backwards and forwards. You're temporary, temporarily propping everything and then when you go through stories you're quite often moving shit around multiple times, whereas now your new system they basically come in, put these big steel trusses from side to side, plus some lift them up three stories in the house with the stars on the outside of the house, and it's all freestanding it's all freestanding, you can uh, I actually had a 15 tonner under my last job doing an underhouse dig out, which like if I told you that five years ago you'd fucking call me crazy and then which?
Speaker 2:because the other thing with that is like the suburbs that this type of stuff's happening in is generally shit soil.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's quite rocky, correct. So in the old way and we've also done it where you've slid the house off and pissed it off to the back of the block, done all your work and then slid it forward again, and that's not always- achievable as well.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, and especially on these tight blocks, people, people want more square meters on it, honestly, like we're doing one in tenerife at the moment and it's like there's no room.
Speaker 2:and the other thing as well is but getting a bigger machine that you can get through the. If you hit the rock like tenerife there's a lot of that porphyry rock and stuff like you're flat out digging the shit out with a 80 tonne scv like yeah, that's exactly if you uh, the bigger machine you can get in, the quicker it's done, the more efficient it is. So, yeah, you're saving money.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. And then also, when it's so high, you can't make adjustments after the fact. The biggest thing I hate is callbacks. I suppose same with anyone. With our new system. It sets it outside the house. You pour your off-form concrete slab, flick out your walls, like you can never put a post in the wrong spot again because, yeah, or like everything, it's so easy. You know what I mean. Compared to, like, trying to set out a house six meters in the air, yeah, and then, you know, then cut posts out later that because obviously the house needs to hold up, but the frames aren't. You know what I mean. So it just makes things 10 times easier.
Speaker 2:I think it's brilliant, mate, but like I just not only is the system brilliant and it's more efficient and it's and it in. I think it's brilliant, mate, but like I just not only is the system brilliant and it's more efficient and in the long run it's saving people money and it's producing a far better product. Like I just take my hat off you for thinking outside the box, like you could have just kept doing it the way you're doing it. But to get like any business to do well and remain busy and constantly perform, be profitable all those things You've got to be constantly being initiative or not initiative, being innovative and coming up with new ways to improve the industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, to wind that back, like originally we had a structural steel company that we used to buy our steel off and they'd dick me around and dick me around and it pushed me to the point where I had to stump. So you got to be careful not to do that to builders, because obviously you want, like you want, the repeat work. So, yeah, I always try and make life easier, for because the other thing as well, if you're advertising to do work and you're advertising that you do house raises, essentially you're advertising for me. Like, when it comes down to it, you're you're doing half the groundwork for me. You know what I mean. Every, pretty well, every job of every job I have quoted for you I've done yeah, because we don't get anyone else to price it mate.
Speaker 2:But but what? I'm saying, yeah, but what?
Speaker 1:I'm well, that's doing a good job, so we get you back. But that's exactly right. But what I'm saying is like, essentially like you, you spend a lot of money on your brand, and same with a lot of other builders that I do work for. They spend big money on marketing and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2:But I want to point out I appreciate that as a subbie, you pick up on that, because a lot of subbies out there don't realize that if it wasn't for the builders just feed it Builders feed subbies work. If you're a subbie, you do good work. You look after the builder, you turn up on time, you keep your pricing sharp. You literally sharp, like you literally are guaranteed work. But if you fuck the builder around, you don't do a good job. Yeah, he's got to be following you up all the time. You you're always rooting around in your pricing, all that type of stuff. You're not going to build that relationship, you're not going to get repeat work like. So I think it's really important for subbies like I did the same as you when I was a subbie, like my number one goal was always making sure that the builder was happy yeah, and look as as businesses get bigger and stuff there's.
Speaker 1:There's been times when I haven't put my best foot forward on jobs and I've, but I always try my very best. You know what I mean. And and that's that's where it sort of come into it. I there was a house that was designed that for, for this job. There was a house, a specific house I wanted to do them for because it was just like there's no other way to do it. There's like it was just crazy, it was shit soil, like I just couldn't think of a way to do it. And then that's when I jumped online and sort of and and now we're doing it. It's the thing about innovation is like if I looked at those jobs when I first started my business, I'd just be like fucking lucky. I'd be so blown away. You know what I mean. But if you just take steps every day to try and get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, if you look back over five years, it's like holy fuck, like look what we're doing now. You know, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And oh, mate, you've come such a long way like I remember from when we, when we well, we had the conversation last time you're on the podcast, like when you rung me you'd only just started out and you told me you'd been doing it for ages yeah, and look, I had been doing it for ages, working for my parents, but but yeah, so I I was probably a year or two in when I, when I come and did my first job for you but it's important, like it doesn't matter at what level, it's all about the relationship in it.
Speaker 2:Like for me, it's about the relationship I build with my clients for and then it's just important for me to build relationships with my subbies and like the fact that you take that seriously really is another reason why you continue to do our work.
Speaker 1:Like and if you, if you pick up, say, 10 or 20 good builders that always pay the bill. Do you know what I mean? Like like I send you a bill, if I send you one wednesday night, it gets paid the following wednesday. If I send you one friday night, it gets paid on wednesday. It's like I'm an employee essentially. You know what I mean and that's got to stand for something, because I actually don't really like doing you know a lot of client jobs where they're like owner, builder or whatnot. It's not even worth the extra 20% that I would charge, like in theory, a builder's margin, because then I'm like chasing up the surveyor, oh, there's no site toilet. Oh, like it's because then I'm like chasing up the surveyor, oh, there's no site toilet. Oh, like, if I can just rock up to a job and you probably take it another step, and I have a few builders in that same category where they set the posts out before we get there.
Speaker 1:I can just rock up and just do my job and fuck off. Like it's so easy. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:You just punch the ticket and Well, I've just always been been, even when I was a contractor, mate. Everything has always been about you, gotta, and you have to think of the other trades and like. Something that happens a lot in our industry now is no one gives a fuck about anybody else. All they think about is what they're doing when they're there and, like I know you're the same because you're always when you do your earthworks and stuff, like you, I know you ring me, you check on heights and you're asking, oh, where do I need, where do I need to dig? Or we have a conversation on site Like everyone's working towards the best outcome for everybody, and we see it from our sites. Our sites run very efficiently and all of our trades all get on well together because everyone's always looking after each other. It's something that just should happen, but it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't speak for other people, but I just, yeah, and maybe there's a little bit of an ego thing. I like and same with the trusses and stuff, like we're the only people doing them. I like when people can't match your energy. Do you know what I mean? When I can sit there and say I'd like to think I'm the best house raiser getting around. But if you are that way inclined, you got to put your money where your mouth is and actually be the best house raiser getting around. You know what I mean. So I like doing a good job. I like I like thinking that we do a better job than other people and and not to say like we're better people or anything like that.
Speaker 1:But if we, I, if you genuinely striving for excellence if you strive for zero, you still fuck five percent of shit up, and if you don't care it, I don't even know what that big number would be astronomical.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean yeah, you, um, but so where's the drive? Like let's the um. The last podcast we spoke a bit about um. Like you wanted to impress your grandfather because he um, you always looked up to him and stuff. So like I feel like even since the last time you've been on the podcast because we do have our regular chats so you just keep growing like so many, like there'll be a lot of trades age. Like you only turned 28 a month or so ago that just aren't as committed, they're not putting in the effort, they're not striving for excellence, they're not trying to be the best. It's got to come from somewhere.
Speaker 1:I honestly I don't know where, but like if I didn't like I.
Speaker 2:Well, what makes you get out of bed every day and go fuck. I want to be better than I was yesterday.
Speaker 1:I've actually never asked myself that question, I guess.
Speaker 2:But you push hard. You ring me quite a lot and like want to run things by me and stuff, and we have conversations about things. So you're obviously constantly thinking about improving things.
Speaker 1:I just fucking hate inefficiency in anywhere in my life, like I hate things being hard and so if it's easy it's good. You know, I like, I've been like, obviously I and so learning makes it easy, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah? Yeah, it like that, that's probably well, actually I shouldn't say that it learning improves it, but the more you learn, the more you grow and you can implicate those things yeah, you can implement them and you can you like, as like, everything feels like it's become easier because you're growing as a person. So, stress, you feel like you're not as stressed, but it's just that you've learned to handle the stress. You feel like your team's better, but you've learned how to manage the team better.
Speaker 1:And then you can load up with more stress because you're doing more things. Yeah, I've always, I guess. I reckon I would have ADD, maybe undiagnosed or whatever because I just lay in bed at night and just think, oh, like, what, like you know what I mean. And the other thing I do, like I track every one of my jobs, even though I'm only a subbie, like I'll You're not only a subbie mate.
Speaker 2:You're running a business.
Speaker 1:But when you run like it would be a lot harder for you to track a job than it would be for me, because I know lock and line materials are pretty much the same fit they're, they're I don't think it matters.
Speaker 2:I don't think it matters like a builder. Builder has a wider range of things to track, but every, every subbie should be tracking things. So so what do you track? Like tell, because I want. The whole idea of this podcast is so people learn how other people run their businesses and improve on it on a job job.
Speaker 1:Obviously I track the boys' hours per job and then at the end of the month I look at on a job-to-job basis where because as a general rule of thumb the margin is the same, and then the ones where the margin doesn't stack up at the end of the job I'm going to ask the questions like what went wrong here?
Speaker 2:So do you track it? Do you break it down? Because the way I look at it, from my perspective, is you have like you if you're not, you should be breaking it into stages, because you have, like, a stage where you come in and you prepare yep, and then you have a stage where you come in and set the stacks, all the stars, and get all your temporary steels in. Then you have a stage where you install the new structural steel and then you have a stage where you mark out and drill your holes and then you have a stage where you install the new structural steel and then you have a stage where you mark out and drill your holes and then you have a stage where you fit the post and you can do the concreting I probably and that's probably something I could refine as well.
Speaker 1:I probably don't break it down to that, to that, but nine times out of ten I can look at one of those jobs and go, oh, we fucked this up, that's why, that's why that happened. Or the profile wasn't installed so we had to tools down for three hours while we waited for the surveyor to come. And and that's nine times out of ten the ones that don't stack up are for that reason is we've either done something incorrectly on site I've missed something in the when I've done the quotes or, especially as you get more, like I used to do I used to quote the job, type up the quote, send the quote off, then I'd order the material, then I would cut the material, so I know what stock lengths. So as you get bigger and you are farming these things out to people, I've had to make processes like when I do the quote. I used to just I do the quote in my diary, in a diary, and I just do every quote in a diary so I can look back at that in a year's time.
Speaker 1:get on the quote ease best quote software in the business man, I'll have to get onto the quote ease but I know what you're talking about because you're so yeah, I just did the same like.
Speaker 2:So, if you're doing the takeoff for your steel, so you might be ordering stock lengths of steel and you you've worked out what gets cut out of each length. So do you find yourself now that you're farming that out? You've now got to write what gets cut out of each stock length.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. And once you break it down and now that we do our own steel so at the back of my shed I just built a big steel rack so we can have the next five jobs racked ready to go, and Energex and that sort of stuff it's always like, always like oh, the gas hasn't been disconnected, we didn't get building approval because the, the town planner, didn't realize that we're encroaching, we, we like. So all the time it'll be like oh, we're not ready for you, for another or inclement weather, any anything along those lines. So that was the first thing was original. When I first started. We used to. We used to get the steel delivered in the front yard and remember how to win them and and grind it back and mag, drill and paint it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now yeah, the first couple of jobs. I said, yeah, like I think you still rocked up. I was like, fuck you, you're gonna paint this. You're like, oh no, we do it all inside and and what are you doing, mate?
Speaker 1:and and like you gotta start somewhere, obviously, but but now.
Speaker 1:I believed in you, mate yeah, there you go, and, and so now that goes to the shed gets primed, drilled, racked, so it's ready. So that, oh, this guy's not ready, there's no, no downtime, it's no, you just take those that day of, oh, like, I've already got the steel here, we'll just try and work through it and and maybe wait a day till this today comes, or so the key to success in making a business more profitable is coming up with solutions for areas that you're you're getting yeah, you're not efficient out on site, that are holding up payments, all those types of things, hey.
Speaker 2:so the way I see it, just from what you're talking about now, is you're just constantly thinking about what held us up on this job, what can we do better next time.
Speaker 2:But something I talked to my builders in our live life build business all the time about you can't take your foot off the gas. You have to have a pipeline of work and I think you're doing it really really well from a subbies point of view. You have enough jobs and I know you do it because you ring me all the time when we have jobs coming up and like how are you traveling? I've had this issue on this job, so we might be a week later on your job, whatever, like. So you obviously touch and base with all your builders and you you're sort of getting an image of where everybody's at so that you can keep your team working, and I think like builders need to do that with the jobs we take on, like you have to have a big pipeline of work because you never, ever know when a job's going to fall over. Whether you're a sub or a builder, like you, could have 10 jobs fall over tomorrow yeah, exactly, it's so, so sporadic.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? It's like crazy, my office lady lozzie, she's always up my ass. She's like how can we, how can we make this better? And I'm like we can't, like look, we can refine what we do, but that is just construction, like that is just the long and the short of it.
Speaker 2:There's so many things that are outside of our control. Yeah, like you can't, a client might lose their finance and not be able to get finance. Like you said, there's something might come up right at the last minute with building approval or town planning or something that holds things up. Like we got a job at the moment where the client like we all thought we'd be on site at April and we were under the pump and like if it had to come off we would have pushed it and made it work. But like, literally right at the last minute, unity Waters made a stuff up with some of the measurements on the approvals. We've got an easement down the side of the property for a sewer main and we've got to do a retaining wall there and no one picked up that the footings on the retaining wall are going to encroach in the easement for the sewer.
Speaker 2:So that was April. We're nowhere near starting that job, so you never know, there are so many things outside of your control as a contractor or as a builder, um, and so you've just got to keep your foot on the gas, don't you?
Speaker 1:and that's why the things that are in your control have to be mickey mouse to accommodate for how fucked it is when the things out of your control so how do you manage that?
Speaker 2:but if, like so, you got racked with five, six jobs sitting in it at the time. Yeah, how do you manage like because I think this is an important thing with cash flow? So you've obviously built your business model around knowing that you need to have a certain amount of stock and a certain amount of stuff sitting on site because someone could ring up and say, hey, we can't start our job, so you just go and pull another job out and go and move that around. So you've obviously got a lot of money outlaid.
Speaker 1:Took me a while to get to that stage, probably from day one. The business model I've used and sometimes it might not be the best for everyone is I didn't pull a wage for the first three years of my business. Like I owned the property that my business ran out of before, I took a wage from the business. And I think, especially as a young bloke, a lot of young fellows get to their fourth year, they start getting tradie wage. They go buy a Land Cruiser. That stuff inhibits you, like your overheads inhibit you from being able to grow because you've got to shell out X amount of money each week. So it was a long process to get to that point.
Speaker 1:But the other thing which kind of makes it worthwhile is especially when you're buying steel from a structural steel like from a manufacturer. 75 mil stump steel comes in an eight meter length. That's the shortest you can buy it. If you want to get it at bulk, buy from the mil, that's it. So if you were to go buy 3.6 meter posts, they charge you for the four meters and they keep that 400 mil. And then that's something they hang on to when, when I used to have to buy steel for when I went job to job to job.
Speaker 1:I had to use all that steel on that job or take it back to my mom's. Have her blowing up at me. Before I before I had a yard like, whereas now I can look three. It actually there's that initial cost of, yes, having to buy x amount of jobs more, but now when I look four jobs in front and I've actually taught my office lady laws to do this oh, we need to. And especially as beams get bigger, the short off cuts are shit because yeah if it's 300 pfc and a 900 opening.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean, if it needs to be that big chances are it's got. Yeah, you don't put a 300 PSC in a 900 opening. That's what I mean. If it needs to be, that big chances are it's got to span a decent distance. So it's like, oh, we need a six on this job, but the smallest beam you can buy is a nine. Oh, but we need a five and a half on this other job. It's like, oh, how about we buy a 12, cut six, two, 50, five, seven and just rack that. And then so you actually become more efficient. You just got to bite the bullet and have a big steel bill that month and it didn't start off. It wasn't like I went out and bought six jobs. It started off as, oh, yeah, we'll buy, we'll get the next two jobs in front. And then the other thing as well is, I'd project I don't want to say my insecurities, I'd project my incompetence on my employees sometimes in the fact that I would be like, oh, we need this fucking steel tomorrow, and then you're paying people to work till all hours of the night, which I worked to all hours of the night anyway.
Speaker 1:But but if I was everything? My, my coach tells me everything, shit that happens to you after 18 years old. You let happen to you Anything bad in your life is. You know it could be your partner playing up on you. You still to have her as a partner. You, you put yourself in that situation. So look inwards when bad things are happening, not outwards. Don't. Don't find someone else. Don't blame people because you let that happen to you in some way, shape or form, no matter how small or big it is. So like I'd blow up about blow up it. Blow up at people about oh fuck, I, I had to. Well, we didn't get this done. Or I forgot to order the paint, we didn't have enough paint to finish the job and I'm like, oh, I need it, I need it. Monday, it's friday, I can't get the. You know like I would have heated discussions with people rather than going if I wasn't a dickhead and I had that if, if I had well, you're not a dickhead, you just you've got to learn, but you've got.
Speaker 2:I think the what comes from that is you've. You've now to learn, but you've got. What comes from that is you've. You've now taken complete ownership and responsibility.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. You know and, and, and, then, and. But it even went even further than that. Then we had like jobs getting mixed up and that sort of stuff. So what I did was, rather than having a rack where we put all this steel, I color coded all the. I color coded all the racks. So there's red, green, blue, and then I got a cut list for the steel that has to go on that rack, spray painted the back of that clipboard and there's six clipboards on the wall, and then everyone signs. When they rack it, they sign a sheet to say that they've racked that much and then when they unrack it, they sign it to say that that's gone on the truck. So then it comes back to looking at jobs. Did I miss the beam on the quote? Did I miss the beam on the quote? Did my sister not order it properly? Did the boys cut it wrong on site, did it not? Is it still in the yard? There?
Speaker 1:you, once you get every you've created systems yeah once you, and once you know every, every, every point of the journey, you can pinpoint where things are going wrong and fix that and improve on it. And because sometimes, like literally, sometimes it's like oh fuck, I didn't use your quoting app and I forgot that theme, you know, and then that's.
Speaker 2:But it's all growth, isn't it?
Speaker 1:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:But the thing, like something I point out a lot now, is like you don't know what you don't know, yeah, so some people just keep putting up with the same shit all the time day. Putting up with the same shit all the time, day in, day out, instead of doing what you've done and sitting back having to think about it and taking ownership for it.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. And having how do I put it? You know, some people they'll never quit a job because it's just bearable enough that they can amble on through it, or they'll never break up with a crazy girlfriend because she's-.
Speaker 2:They whinge about it every single day, but they do nothing about it friend because she's they win.
Speaker 1:You bet it every single day but they don't. They don't enjoy their lives. But it's just bearable enough that they don't. Like, change your bearable to this big and go. Don't blow up about it and get angry about it, but go. That slightly inconvenienced me. Why is that slightly inconveniencing me? Change that bet. Like, make your level of bearable be so minute that you have to fix things or you'll go crazy, so to speak.
Speaker 2:You know it is unbelievable, isn't it what people just continue to put up with like because they they feel that the change will be more difficult than putting up with what they're putting up with that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:And then you go two years down the track and it's like, oh my fucking god, yeah, I'll just waste another two years.
Speaker 1:I should have bit the bullet two years ago probably one of the biggest things is uh, I poached my little brother. He used to work for my mom and her two brothers and he come over to help me out and and he's, um, he's been with you a while, hasn't he? Probably probably a year and a half, two years now, yep, but he, he's even. He's worse than I. Am like, oh, I don't even know how to explain it, but he's sort of I'm I guess I don't want to say rough and tumble, but I'm, I'm, he's very like, for instance, he, he, when we, when he was 17, he bought a vx commodore with the ls1 in it, re, fully rebuilt the ls1 in his lounge room, you know, and and we were going to queensland raceway doing the drifts and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1:He's I'm, I'll push and get stuff done and he's very meticulous and that sort of thing. So like he's, he's helped me so much with, with, like, probably with working on my car, but but also like he does that, he, he enjoys the tedious little shits. I have to actually try really hard to do the tedious things like fixing the trucks and that sort of stuff. It's, it's a, it's a stress on my brain, whereas I just love, I love not running into stuff, but I love going hammer and tong and jacking a house up and doing these sorts of stuff, whereas he'll love to sit back and look at a problem and come up with a complex.
Speaker 2:So what's he doing in the business?
Speaker 1:So he runs the stumping crew, I do the raises and he, he runs the stamping crew, I do the raises and he, he stumps their houses um and and and so you.
Speaker 2:So you've found your. Like, your focus on your strength. Yeah, like a lot of people don't do that either. Like you, you've got to figure out what your strengths are and what adds the most, where, where you and every member of your team add the most value to the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's's exactly right, and probably the the biggest highlight of it for me was we were. We were like, like I, he, he just talks like oh, it's smoker, you know what I mean. Like me and the boys will talk about fighting your girls and he'll be talking about like nuclear fission or I don't even know how to say it, you know, and I'm like like he'll talk to me about it to the point where I'm like man, like just fucking, let me have 20 minutes to myself to of of nothing. Like let me just do nothing for the next 15, like he's.
Speaker 1:So I hated school. I couldn't. I couldn't sit in the classroom, I can't look at stuff like I can fix problems I've got very good problem solving as things occur but I couldn't. I couldn't look up, look up how to do something crazy like that, and that would take 12 hours of study. Whereas when he was building those cars, he's like, oh, I've been on YouTube, you can use LS7 lifters for this and it's better. Whereas I'm like, oh sweet, let me know when you've got it done and we can do a burnout. Everybody's different.
Speaker 2:So he's Like everybody's different.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, and and, and we sort of compliment each other in that way, like he.
Speaker 2:So how did you feel at school when you like, did you get shit at school? Did teachers say like I got told fucking plenty of times at school that I'll never achieve anything?
Speaker 1:I'll never be nothing. So I uh, I definitely, I definitely struggled, struggled at school, I think, on a lot of my report cards and a lot of teachers I talked to after the fact and I sort of say that I was a I was a real good kid who just did stupid shit and and even, but even, like well, that's most, that's well, that's half kids, I reckon and I like in in grade eight and grade eight and nine, like I got put in like the class above I guess it was called like Horizons or something you know.
Speaker 1:And then I ended up getting an OP21 just because I'd checked out from year 10. And I sort of regret not doing an apprenticeship earlier because I'd be three years further down the line. But you can't whinge about anything. That's happened already. But yeah, definitely by grade 11 and 12, I sort of was just there to go out with me mates on the weekends and have a good time. I had some real good teachers in the. In the industrial side of things, nudgee was really good like that. Like we made. I made um, uh, like dartboard cabinets, like crazy stuff compared to what kids at public schools. So I'm real fortunate that my mum saved up and sent me there. But, um, yeah, as far as, as far as school goes, like I couldn't think of anything worse than going to uni or and and yeah, like always had I'd leave shit to the last minute and then do it all the night before and and and still do all right but it. But I couldn't, I can't.
Speaker 2:If I'm not interested in something, it's not yeah, and that's that's the biggest problem with school. Like you, most people aren't interested in it. Yeah, and now you, like, you've seen from your passion now and how well you're doing in business like you're, you're interested in it, you're passionate about it and it becomes so easy if it's something you want to do.
Speaker 1:That's that's one thing I say to kids if, if, if, if school isn't your thing, you just got to find your thing, like but, but don't dick around, find something that you like doing and then and even it could be like, like people think that you gotta even, uh, chippies, they think, oh, I've got to go do really high-end resi shit. To be a millionaire, like I have to, I have to build million dollar houses. You don't have to build million dollar houses. You can do shitty maintenance jobs that no one wants to do. Charge a little bit more and get there on time. Do a good job, yeah, and build that business. You could be a port-a-loo guy if you fucking make sure your toilets are the cleanest and they're delivered every day like it doesn't matter what you do, mate.
Speaker 2:Like that's something that really shits me. Like you get everybody. Like you get. Builders at wind I can't make money. You get architects at wind I can't make money. Like you get. You'll get school teachers like you. You'll get people across. Like cafe owners, you'll get everything across every industry, people whinging that they got poorly treated or they didn't make enough money, or they they get. There's there's no opportunity, all those types of things. But it's what you make it. Because the flip side of that is like there's architects worth millions of dollars. There's builders worth millions of dollars. There's cafe owners worth millions of dollars. There's builders worth millions of dollars, there's cafe owners worth millions of dollars. Like there's no excuse, like at the end of the day, it is completely, 100% up to you and the effort you put in, like you're doing with your business, like you improve the inefficiencies, you come up with new ideas, you be innovative, like and you get ahead. Like it's not rocket science, and I think it's hard.
Speaker 1:It's hard because how do you obviously with you got to choose your words carefully when you say, as we as a society we've got to become, we have become more aware of our mental health and these sorts of things. It's hard to not cross that line. And are we making excuses for oh?
Speaker 1:there's plenty of excuses when, like exactly what you were saying about like the world keeps turning, no matter how shit you've been treated like and why that's one thing I've found as a business owner with liquidated damages, all that sort of stuff you can be having a fucking shit day. No one else gives a fuck, do you like? Is you, were you gonna wake up tomorrow so? So in that moment you got to choose whether you're gonna delay the inevitable for another day or be accountable and go fucking righto like let's make it happen.
Speaker 1:Just own it, and there's been days like that when I haven't wanted to get out of bed or like, and the quicker you can go from being in that negative mindset to not necessarily even a positive mindset. But just like we're here now, where to from here? Do you know what I mean? I've found myself in this situation. I'm not going to fucking dwell on it, I just need to find the best way out yeah, oh, mate, I'm resonating with everything you're saying.
Speaker 2:I've been through it all in my younger days, um and again. That's why we do this podcast to tell people's stories and make people understand like they're not the only one going through shit or having a tough day or dealing with a certain situation, like we all deal with it. It literally is as easy as flicking a switch, like just do you focus on the problem or do you focus on the solution?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's something I did struggle with. You know, like it's a victim mentality, and up until from 18 to 25, even when I was on this podcast, that's something I did, poor me. Why is it? You know what I mean. And if you can change that, it becomes like shit works for me. Because, rather than shit doesn't work for me, because even when something bad happens, a job gets pushed back. Like when I first started, it was like, oh fuck, why does this happen to me? Why did it get pushed back? Now it's like a job gets pushed back. I'm like, oh, it's okay, that'll, that's a path that's been chosen for me, that that that was meant to get pushed back for a reason you know. And then some bloke will ring you and say, hey, my fucking house raisers just said he can't do my job. I'm supposed to be doing it this week. It always, it always works out, and if it doesn't, then it fucking does in another way.
Speaker 2:It wasn't meant to you know and everyone, it is completely around the way that you look at things, like people will be driving to work and get a couple of red lights and make a decision that that day is going to be a shit day because they've got three red lights in a row that's exactly right, and that goes back to watch my coach says oh, I got four red lights on late for work.
Speaker 1:No, you're the dickhead. That didn't factor in the fact that you might get four red lights on the way to work If you left 15 minutes earlier then.
Speaker 2:There's really no excuses for anything Like everything, but what I was getting at with that, it's all what you make of it. Yeah, so if you get a red light on the way to work, you can focus on, well, a couple of red lights. You can focus on those red lights and think that your whole day is going to be shit because you're stuck in traffic, whatever. Or you can look at the red lights oh, more time in the car, I can listen more podcasts, I can crank the tunes a bit longer, like it.
Speaker 2:Everything is about the decisions you make and the and the I don't know the, the outlook you have on it, I guess. So there'd be people that and I think about this all the time because I think back like we have stuff that happens in my building business now. That used to happen in the old days, but in the old days it'd just piss me off, I'd go off my handle and everything had turned to shit and then I'd take that out on someone else and then that had turned to shit. But there's always a solution. Every single freaking thing you deal with every single day always has a solution.
Speaker 1:You've just got to like look for it that's exactly right, and I think how you can only control how you react to the solution, firstly, you can control. Firstly you can control, is that is that a situation that I've put myself in in some way, shape or form? If it's, if it's an employee that's constantly making mistakes and and doesn't care, you employed him like and you're putting up with it you're putting up with it like that's okay for you. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Um you're only as good as what you accept yeah, and that's exactly right so let's move on to employees, because that's been some of our more recent conversations. Yep so you were struggling to, I was make a decision to get rid of some people.
Speaker 1:I, um, probably about four months ago now, and so it's big and it's one of those things I was fighting. So I was, um, you know, I trained probably 20 hours a week. Holy shit, you, you start accepting things that you wouldn't accept from before. And then I probably did a couple there was obviously a few jobs in that time that, like a beam checkout was wrong, or you know, people were maybe having a longer smoko because I wasn't there, you know, and it's so stupid because my brother was speaking to me about these things as they were occurring and I sort of was like putting them off, putting them back, putting them back, you know. And then same with employees.
Speaker 1:One thing I used to used to do again, it's my own problem I'd fucking blow up about something, but then I wouldn't take any action. A bloke was late, I'd fucking jump down his throat, but then he would be late next week and I'd jump down his throat again and it would just continue forevermore and I would accept that because I'd blown up, I'd said my piece and then I'd simmer down, whereas now I don't get angry anymore. I don't, there's no, I'm the nicest I've ever been, but probably the most ruthless I've ever been.
Speaker 2:In that same token, so where did that come from, matt? Because it obviously built up to a point, because you spoke half a dozen times in two weeks about this and then you made the call to sack most of them.
Speaker 1:Probably from. Obviously, I started the business when I was 21, I think, from 21 to 25, and even more so from from 18 to 25, even even younger than that. I had, you know, employees, that same deal you, you, someone else would put you in a, in a mood. They would do something like mine, you, and you'd blow up at them, and then you would lose that employee because you couldn't handle your emotion or you let that person push you to that point, you let someone take your energy to that point, and then you would lose friendships lose, relationships lose, and I sort of probably it was around the time I first came on the podcast, I was probably 24, 25, and it was like in my life there's probably been three or four women that could have been the one per se. You know, I'm I'm real happy I have found the one. Yeah, I'll, I'll make sure I say that. Um, and then, same deal with employees I had. I had blokes that had capabilities to be to, to get me off the tools. They, they like a, like a.
Speaker 1:Look back now and and, and, in particular, brent Fordyce. He worked for me for a couple of years. He would have done the first job out at Wynnum with me and I did the wrong thing by him by not nurturing him. We used to and other house raisers still do this. Just as an example climb up, like, raise the house to fucking five meters in the air and then drill the like the posts obviously get hung off coach bolts Climb up a ladder, a trestle and drill the holes out on the day for the like, oh, run the string line. After you've raised it, run the string line. And he he come from a commercial background, he was a chippy, he went to Europe, played up for a bit and then. And then just said oh man, like I'm just doing labor hire. And then just said oh man, like I'm just doing labor hire, like I wouldn't mind doing a day or two with you.
Speaker 1:And I used to to set out the houses. I'd come off one side of the house, like where the bathrooms is or it's irrelevant anyway, but I would say I would set up because the outside of the house will always be wobbly. So I go front and back. We're putting the front and back on those on that profile line. I'll do the whole set out off that front and back. So I'd run a three meter offset and then, rather than hooking onto the outside of the bear in the middle of the house and and measuring 3100 to a wall, I'll go 100 mil off the offset. And if the that way, if the outside of the house has a 30 mil bow in it, the post line is is straight. I didn't build the house I.
Speaker 2:I can't I, I can't. You're only going off the old house, I'm only going off the old house and then.
Speaker 1:So I used to do the three meter offset and then I'd be there three, four, five in string lines on the bottom of the house and he's like he rocked in and then I afterwards I would drill all the holes out with me and then hold the post up, mark, oh quick, quick, quick, drill the hole and then drop the post back down, then lift it back up to and he's like, and it was just like he'd never done house raising before. He just walked in and was like, man, why don't you just use a fucking line laser to like, set up the three minute offset, get a line laser and, um, and just get a like a mark out plate and and drill the holes out when it's at head height so you circumnavigate, or. But just because, like that's the way my parents did it, that's the way we've done it for 40 years, he really started getting me in that I learned so much off that dude and he was an employee you know what I mean and he's a bit of a lazy cunt, so he'd find the easiest way to do something. You know what I mean. But then obviously, like I had a blow up at him one day and he sort of said, oh, look like I'm going to go do something else and we're still good mates to this day, no issue.
Speaker 1:But I sort of got to 24, 25 to sum things up, and I looked back on previous relationships whether they'd be romantic, um, workers, friends, whatever and it was like why don't people want to stick around? Like why don't people want to be in it? I'm a pretty good looking dude, I do, I do, we do awesome work. We, we have heaps of work. Why do people not want to stay in my life? You know what I mean. And then, honestly, probably 30% of that was the same deal. Everyone thinks they had a hard time by growing up. Or I got picked on at school this that I had a fucking chip on my shoulder. You know what I mean. So I'd project that insecurity on other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's what most people do, man.
Speaker 1:And so if you want to overcome that, you got to fix it. Or people just tell you to fuck off like, because like we're, we're alive for such a little amount of time, it's not worth like and fortunate for me, I probably was. Probably was that not that bad, but that?
Speaker 1:mate, we're not even finished this podcast yet, but I know like you got a bit teary last time because you wanted your grandfather to be proud of you and I'm like I'm sitting here listening to you and I can tell you right now, if he's looking down, he'll be proud of you and then that's exactly yeah, and and so, like I was sort of reflected one year like oh, we've, we've had a high turnover of staff, or and then, and then I, and then obviously I've been working on myself putting processes in place because I don't, you don't need the processes yet, like if you were building a house yourself and you had all the amount of time in the world, you wouldn't need any processes because you've got it here, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Like oh, you do everything yourself. You know what?
Speaker 1:happens, and it was the same for me as the business started to grow. That's when you have those issues where it's like what the fuck, Surely you would have. Just how was that the best you up with?
Speaker 2:but then it's my fault for not getting that and and teaching them that and people's brains work different ways, but the business outgrows you.
Speaker 2:That's. I think that's what happens to all of us builders and tradies like we. The work just starts coming and before you know, you got heaps of work, but then the business overtakes you and all of a sudden you get to a point where, like you said, it's it's. You've got to get it out of your head, because when you're doing everything yourself, it's really easy. You just know what you've got to do. But then, as the business grows and you need, you have more employees and you have more multiple jobs on at the same time.
Speaker 2:Then all of a sudden, you feel like all you're doing is putting out fires because people aren't doing the things the way you did them or the way you want them done. And it's comes back to you can't like, you're not communicating. Well, you're not. You got no, you're not. You've got no systems and processes Like you. You've got to get it all out of your head. And I think it's an important thing to realize because, yeah, once a business outgrows you, if you want to go to the next level, you've got to work on yourself.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 1:And and when you start a business, you're always stuck in that old mentality of like, oh, I'm not going to pay people this much, because, because I like I can't afford it.
Speaker 1:When and and this is probably a conversation I had six months before I sacked all those dudes was with you, I was talking about putting a supervisor on and I'm like, what like? And and yeah, and obviously you, you told me the benefits that I had for you and and just like, and so the supervisor I put on, I put on a supervisor and he was like man, like, this is really toxic workplace, you know, and and sort of had let it. And my brother was telling me as well and I sort of had let it go because I, you know, during COVID especially, I had so much work. It was like, it was almost like exactly what you're saying. It was almost like you, I had to accept less than it cut me, like, it fucking hurt me to when you've got, you know, blokes working for you and and they don't have their company's best interests at heart. And and I didn't, didn't let anyone go because, because, I thought I needed it.
Speaker 1:And then it just like one day, one day we were, um, I was packing up, packing up the help. I raced over to help the boys pack up the tools and and everyone wants to be, everyone wants to be a big dog, get paid more money, but doesn't want to say I fucked up when, when something is wrong, do you know what I mean? And pushes the blame and that sort of stuff. So I had I had a couple guys in those sort of roles where they should have been being accountable, but but just nah, that's someone else's fault, that's someone else's fault.
Speaker 1:And it just got to the point where, exactly what I was saying before, where it was, it was so unbearable and I was trying to have have you know, like I'll try and have do things for the boys where, okay, we're all going to go to the pub for dinner tonight, or we're going to go to bowls, or we're going to go do this, and people would just like say, fuck this, I'm not going to that, I don't want to hang out Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And you've got to the point. And then one day I think I was packing up tools for the boys on another job site and I had these two young fellas and they don't know any better. And the other thing as well is I would get new employees that would be really good workers and then after a month or two, I'd work with them for a day and be like what the fuck happened to this guy. He was because, like it's so hard to change the culture where you have a massive group of people and they're used to doing one thing you can't. I was trying so hard to be like listen, I'm If you keep accepting it, that becomes the norm.
Speaker 1:And then it's hard to change that norm, it's hard to pull the reins back in. When people are used to having 45 minutes smokers, used to having an hour smokers, it becomes like all right, mate, it's been 35 minutes, we got a lot of work done, we're gonna get a lot of work done today. Um, and yeah, pretty much the supervisor, I had this, this one job in particular. We had had to get this job done, like, like it was going to piss down rain and we were drilling the holes and that sort of. We were hanging the post as we were drilling the holes to push the job along. And we sat down for lunch and I actually bought lunch that day. So, like no one went down for smoker or nothing like that, I was happy to blow $150 on pizzas or whatever it was, to just be like look, I understand, it's a, you know.
Speaker 2:Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Just to keep it rolling, you know, because it's if I get the job poured. It's easy, you know, and I got. So I got up after 30 minutes. I looked over and for about 10 minutes he sat down on his phone. I said oh he goes. Oh, like he goes, oh, like I've got. I had three minutes left in my smoker, you know, and I thought I just thought I'm just living to employ you right now. You know what I mean and I understand. Like, fair enough, he did have three minutes left of his smoker when he probably took 10 after that.
Speaker 1:But if I don't have someone in my business that would look at me in a time of distress and go fuck it, you know what, like, I've picked up three minutes here, there and everywhere. It has to be a relationship. It can't be one side. I can't be, I can't be ruined with an iron fist and and and and not doing anything right by the boys. But at the same time and it's the same for me, if I look at one of my, one of the boys that works for me now, and and they're having a bad day or whatever, if I don't offer to help them out, I'm a fucking asshole, like, do you know what I mean. Hey, mate, what's, what's going on? If I can fix it or if I can help, then you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So I just and then that just made my mind up that day and I uh, and I just sort of said to the boys, those couple boys, at the end of the week I said it was actually like my whole workforce, and then it was like I was so scared of going back to um, going back to, uh, just me, and you know what I mean Like I was so, so scared. And it was funny. Like I went to training and my coach is like you got to remember who the fuck you are. Like you started it. It's your name on the fence. Yeah, cut the cord.
Speaker 2:You keep mentioning this coach. Is this your boxing coach?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's my Muay Thai coach, Steve yeah.
Speaker 1:Sounds like he's a bit of a life coach as well he, uh, he is a bit of like well, as I said, we probably spend 20 hours a week together, like pretty well, one-on-one, like he. He, um, he's probably, like I would say, changed my life. Yeah, he's, he's a bit full-on, but he's really, he's real old school, um, but yeah, like yeah, and and so I actually let go of all those boys, um, I'll let go of, I think. I think I lost six blokes in one in one day, and it was hard because a couple of them were brothers. So I let go of one and then the other brother said oh yeah, we'll see you later as well, even the ones I wasn't going to let go of. But I sort of went into that conversation knowing that that was going to happen.
Speaker 2:And then now, so I think we had a conversation that morning and I think you rang me back and said I'm gonna do it, yeah, and then and then, yeah, okay, I think only a couple.
Speaker 1:it was only like two or three days later you rang me back and said fuck, I got the best team ever that's it, that's, and I'm like I put a c-cat up and and I just got, like it was like and I'm, I'm, I guess I'm mildly religious, I guess you, if you can be mildly really like, I think, if you think, if you're trying to do the right thing by people and you're trying to do better, like shit gets handed to you, do you know what I mean? And so, like the boys are pretty, like I put a sea cat up and then, like I just asked a few people and like, sure enough, rounded up a ragtag bunch of house raisers and actually it sucks because I haven't been able to fight for the last. I had to put my own personal aspirations on hold. I haven't had a fight. Like I haven't really been able to fight since that was in February. I had.
Speaker 1:That was the 1st of March. So like there was three months there where, like I haven't been able to, I haven't been able to fight or train or whatever. Because I've been, I had to get active. I did. It was one of those times where I put an hour bag on and I had to bust my ass and I had to do 10 hour days and I had to climb stacks.
Speaker 2:And you got the business back to where it needs to be.
Speaker 1:But I did it and now we have an awesome culture. I take the boys to the pub once a month or we like we got we're going to go to Slideways Go-Karting on Saturday night and I genuinely walk into the place and I and I like being around people. You know what I mean and I don't even get angry anymore. I just tell people. I just say to blokes like look mate, like that's unacceptable, I won't stand for that. I want you to fix that. If you can't fix that, then I don't have a position for you. Rather than blowing up and then accepting that later on and then blowing up and just rinse, repeat, I just say, look man, we're not about that here.
Speaker 2:If you gotta set standards, like. People need to know what your standards are and what you'll accept and what you won't accept, because if yeah, yelling it.
Speaker 1:I, yeah, I yelled at people for years, man, it just does nothing and then it's like it comes back to like you can't really say it, but like, like employing people is like having a dog. If you flog the fuck out of your dog every single day and yell at it and scream at it, it gets to the point where it's like it, just that that's nothing to it, because that's the you that it's used to. That's okay. You know what I mean. And whereas if you and that was a learning curve for me, I'm not saying I've always been the best boss, but I genuinely try and be a good person and someone people can confide in.
Speaker 1:And younger blokes when I started, did my apprenticeship, the builder or the tradies that I worked with like, if you didn't carry two sheets of, if you didn't carry two sheets of fucking yellow tongue, you're a weak. You know like if you it was very, very like that, you know. You know what I mean. If you, if you don't do that, you're a whereas I'm not the culture we have now. It's like let's have a good time and let's, let's get it done, you know. So, yeah, I have it's very hard to unlearn those things. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It is Especially if you've come from a background of learning from older tradies and builders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I did come from working for my uncles and stuff. That was hard but they were good. But when I did my carpentry apprenticeship I did have a couple bosses that were like, well, like if you don't do this or you don't like like create like a, uh, a click within it, and you, and you know you're fighting for their approval to try and be you know, you know what I mean whereas like if they, if they made you want to come to work, you would have been way more productive than if then, if you, then you try like, oh, I don't know if this guy fucking likes me or what, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:The way you show up rubs off and reflects on your entire team. If you're showing up every day and whinging and bitching about stuff and I think even back in the day I'd turn up and I'd be whinging and bitching about the clients that I hadn't paid the bills and at the end of the day it was all my fault, I'd done shit wrong skills or and at the end of the day it was all my fault, I'd done shit wrong, I hadn't followed paperwork and documents and all those types of things. But and then that rubbed off on the team like it gets the whole team down and you can see them dragging your feet and then it's. Energy is a powerful thing. You've got to turn up, you've got to be in a good mood. You've got to say good day to everyone, talk to them about the kids, how's their weekend like, get involved and, as you said, like when you show interest in your team, they're going to show up to work every day and put in a good work.
Speaker 1:And create some camaraderie. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's one thing, and since then I've probably let four or five blokes go, just if they don't want to buy in, if they want to give other people a hard time. I have no time for that. We're here to have a good time. We're here to get the work done in a safe manner. Yeah, and if you, if you don't want to do that, then then then that's all, good man this isn't a place for you to work.
Speaker 1:Look on that, that's okay. Look, if you want to live like that, that's. I'm nothing against you, yeah, but I can't. I can't have you in here ruining my shit, because it's too it's good, like to you and john that I'm seriously so proud of what you're achieving.
Speaker 2:It's freaking awesome, the uh and like. You're not just like doing house raising anymore. You bought a couple of trucks, you're doing a bit of earthworks and that sort of stuff and it's sort of and and um same deal.
Speaker 1:During covid I'd get a machine and I had a guy who had an awesome bunch of operators and during COVID obviously I'm the loyal old dog I'll get him every job anyway. So then it gets to a point where you might and maybe it wasn't even his fault because I didn't put my best foot forward sometimes during COVID because we were so flat out as well but it just got to a point where, especially when you drill, like so I marked the post out on the house up there, I used to have to have a young fellow there with a plumb bob and a stick to make sure the post get drilled in the right spot, you know, and and you'll get some 50 year old machine operator guy that wants to go home. He lives in rochedale, we're doing a job at red cliff, it's one o'clock on a friday. The young boy says oh these holes, oh these holes, they need to get chipped out a little bit, we've got to move them over. And he goes nah, mate, they'll be right.
Speaker 1:And then obviously you're not going to have me as a business owner, I'm not going to have my most expensive dude there, because all he has to do is make sure the holes are in the right spot. So that happened a couple of times. Then you go to hang them, then you could crow, but rather than just doing you and he's a subbie, he's never going to see you again, doesn't matter like, doesn't worry him, he's still got his 140 bucks an hour past. Go like, yeah, which, I got nothing against that guy, like there's, there's a place for him digging our garden beds or whatever they come back to what we're talking about before, like people don't give a fuck about the next person that's exactly right and I fucking let that happen.
Speaker 1:I let him not give a fuck about this. So, like, rather than trying to blow up and and try and get the same operator all the time, it just got to the point where I was like, oh, I'm just going to drill the holes, I'm just going to drill the holes and I'm going to do it five bucks an hour cheaper for the builder. So he's getting you, you're getting a good deal, and then I don't have to pay someone 30 bucks an hour to stand there. So actually I'm saving 30. I'm saving 25 an hour before by the time I clip your ticket. Yeah, everyone's winning. You know, and it's funny, like I'll get an operator and I'll say look, mate, like, because obviously by the time you have a 150 200 base plate in a 450 hole. Best case scenario you got 70 mil on the. On the very best day, red dirt goes down, mickey mouse. Best case scenario you've got 70 mil. You know, and also, like, if you go to plumb and it's happened to me before you go to plumb up a post it fucking hits the side of the hole and doesn't go plumb. So you're there trying to, trying to sledgehammer it over at the bottom and that sort of stuff. You don't have 50 mil cover on that post, bro, that's. That's your builder's license, that your chance in that. Do you know what I mean? When, what do you do? Do you? Do you rip the post out, which I have, if, if, if, if I can't get the post nice like I want it, pull the post out, trail it off, and then I'm going to cut the fucking post off and fabricate it and bolt it down because it's it's not up to spec, and so I I put on, put on.
Speaker 1:I bought one machine and, uh, started drilling my own holes. And and, um and uh, it's funny you put on an operator and you tell them, hey, I need the holes in the right spot. And they're like yeah, yeah, mate, I drilled a million holes, you know. And same deal I would blow up before when they didn't drill the holes in the right spot, whereas now I just go, oh, yeah, no, that's all good man. So what you're going to do is you're just going to get off the machine tomorrow, like that. Next day I'm going to say, oh, excavator, I'll get you to race over here, and they'll, they'll come over and I'll go oh, yeah, sweet, there's the crowbar. I'll get you to chip those 15 holes and clean the shit out of the bottom of them, because they got to be like dinner plates before we pour, and they'll never drill a hole in the wrong spot again. And it's, and I'm not getting angry, I'm not. I'm just setting the standard for what I accept, you know. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:and if you find telling the why but makes a big difference, like telling the like with those sorts of things, like I've definitely found, like you got to tell people the why if you're just telling machine operator, hey, I need that hole to be bang on there. To him bang on could be fucking 300 mil either way that's exactly right, unless you take the time to explain to him.
Speaker 2:Hey, mate, like we've got to put this post in plum, it's 75 mil post, it's got 200 mil base plate on it and that base plate has to be in the center of that hole. So it's really important that you you take the time and you get the hole where we need it to be and I and I do do that.
Speaker 1:But sometimes you still get those dudes that, oh yeah, young fella, I've done it a million times that like I've drilled heaps of holes, mate, I've done it millions under house digs or and I'm like, yeah, I understand that, but I won't accept that hole being in the wrong spot.
Speaker 2:If other house raisers do that fucking good on them, that's their, that's their caper yeah, we'll go the other way and say, look, that's all good, but if any of these are, uh, out, I'll be sending you my time for the time that we're gonna take to ship these, and and.
Speaker 1:But then it becomes a thing like when you you, let's say, you get a big herbie's mile being, or you get eagle or whatever, contesting the bill. Do you know what I mean? It's just more so. It just got to the point where I was like, oh, it's just literally easy for me to do it, the builder, because before, like, obviously, as you know, you never the Earthworks is never in the price, it's always just, however long it takes, because if I give you a PC some, then you're trying to put a PC, it just just it becomes a bit messy. So what I do now, you don't have to organize, you don't have to organize a machine.
Speaker 1:I've got that and also like that as a earth moving contractor. They don't work for me. I can't expect them to be there the next day like they've got their own lives because I'm only doing three jobs a week. Fair enough, I might think three jobs a week is a lot of work and I and then I should get preference over other people. But but maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. But whereas when it's my guy, he works for me. So I'm racing to get the house raised up, so I've got enough earthworks for him to keep going on with.
Speaker 2:And then he's obviously it makes sense, because then you're doing the site cuts and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:It's more responsibility, obviously, but if you're willing to take on the responsibility, it just makes the builder's life easier. One less cog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what happened with the? I want to talk about the gear getting knocked off, because I think it's a good story.
Speaker 1:So obviously we're in an industrial estate down in Sandgate. There the truck and the trailer doesn't fit in the yard. It's the only truck that doesn't go in my yard. Everything else gets parked up at night in the yard. So, um, I had the someone broke the window and uh and uh, hot wired the truck and uh and pinch pinched. Uh, it had a bobcat on the back, a plant trailer, a full load of gear and um, and obviously the truck. So an excavator too didn't have a trailer, a bobcat on the back, a plant trailer, a full load of gear and obviously the truck.
Speaker 2:An excavator too, didn't it on the trailer?
Speaker 1:Yeah, a Bobcat, a skid steer, skid steer on the trailer, yeah so, and this is probably just on the like, we've got a few machines and that sort of stuff now, but this would have been when it was just on the cusp of that. So it was the only means I had to keep the business going. So, like for the first three days it got knocked off. You know, like I was crying, I was paying the boys to mow my lawns and stuff because, like, as you said, like the boys, they work for someone on the premise that they have work every week. Do you know what I mean? Like in theory, I make the big bucks, so I have all the fucking dramas. They just rock up, do their job, get paid on Wednesday, they don't have to worry about none of that stuff. So, and especially with laborers, if you don't have work for them for two weeks, like and and during COVID they just go somewhere.
Speaker 2:Why?
Speaker 1:wouldn't they go somewhere else. They got it. They got it. They got a family to look after, you know. So like I had, like I reckon my yard would have been fucking swept like 30 to, was that any like I think you put a post out like 24 hours late or something, didn't you?
Speaker 1:and so it took three days to get my. I had air. I got air tags in the in the. I just put them in random parts of the truck and um trackers, trackers, yeah, and then I've got trackers in them. Now, now I've got trackers in the machine, like like gps ones as well as air tags, ran like you know what I mean, just a few different fail safes. So the people that pinched it must have had androids, because I couldn't couldn't find where it was, and so there was the. The bobcat has one where you turn the bobcat on as well and it it sends like ping straight to you. So it blew up and and it was actually on. You know, on the way out here on, on the way to brendale, there's like the big hill on the left hand side yeah, on linkfield road linkale.
Speaker 1:There's like the big hill on the left-hand side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, on Linkfield Road. Linkfield Road there's like old housing. Yeah, they bought that housing estate through and there was that one big house left on the end there near the power lines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's where it was. Like I get there and like my truck's not there, but the Bobcat's there, all the stickers are fucking peeled off, all shirts and all everything out of the trucks is in a in a bag there, um, some like and there's a fire there, like people are about to burn, about to um, like burn the shit. You know what I mean. Like it was just like weird, you know. And then, um, so I got that back and I was like, oh, like you know, and then it was at a time where it was a 12 month wait on machines. You know what I mean. So I I was like I was literally fucked. I was literally like hiring stuff and like you know what I mean. Just so much more time gets consumed in dropping machines off, picking them up, borrowing trucks, budget truck rentals. Oh, this dude's under 25. He can't drive the truck. I've got to fucking drive it. It was like. And then the tracker pinged at at a, at someone's house, at um yeah, you put a post up and we, camille, shared it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then one of the lady messages yeah, I think that truck's in my backyard.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. I don't want to stitch her up in case I hit, but but a certain in a roundabout way, someone told me where the truck was, you know, know, and yeah, it was from the post getting shared, yeah, and so, and I sort of, and then, because it was like the tracker pinged near there and then I got that call and Sheila was like I got some photos sent to me and like the dude's literally there cutting pieces off the truck, you know, and I rang the police and they sort of said, oh, without a warrant, mate, like there's nothing we can do unless, like I don't know, like they just blew me off. They called police, like I'm like mate, there's some bloke cutting up my fucking truck in his backyard.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I just can't. I was blown away and like this is probably for bigger companies and what these people would probably get away with it. But for me it was like I've got five blokes there that like can't feed their families if I can't pay them this week and I can't pay them this week, or like obviously, yeah, if I can't pay him this week and I can't pay him this week.
Speaker 2:Or like, obviously yeah, if I can't get the work done, if I can't get the work done.
Speaker 1:They keep the money coming in, like, yeah, fair enough, they can mow my lawn for a month, but like fuck, after that it's the same result. So I actually jumped the fence and I jumped the.
Speaker 2:I would love to see the footage of this.
Speaker 1:I think it'd be hilarious footage um, and I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but you're allowed to talk about anything on this podcast.
Speaker 1:I heard you were throwing them off, verandas and I jumped the fence and and um, and it's funny, the the lady that told me about where it was. She's like oh, watch out, there they're bikies and they're this and that and the other. And I I jumped the fence and opened the front door and I, shit you not, this blokeke is smoking a fucking crack pipe, like in the lounge room. And I was just like, obviously I was fuming, so like I didn't, I didn't, I didn't take that in, but looking back now, like that's like that's almost comedic. Do you know what I mean? Like and um.
Speaker 1:So we got into a bit of a tussle and, uh, and my brother come with me, and a few of the boys that work for me come with me, because they're like, oh fuck, we don't have a job, we'll come get your shit back. You know what I mean? And it's funny, like a dude walks around the corner with a ballpoint hammer and my brother's like, what are you doing, mate? And so we got into this big barney with him and it was like a week after I had my first Muay Thai fight. So I was like I'm ready.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Still buzzing, I'm still buzzing. And then they actually rang the police on us. So like flip the script and the police rocked up.
Speaker 2:I just find the whole story hilarious, mate. Like these guys are running this big, didn't they have number plate printers and all sorts of shit. It was like Like these guys are running this big, didn't?
Speaker 1:they have number plate printers and all sorts of shit. It was like it was a big setup. That's what I mean, Like it was. It was so funny. I was like I was dumbfounded when they called the police because, like, the police rock up, gives me a stern talking to for taking the law into my own hands. And I said, look man, like honestly I'm going so I don't really give a fuck about what you're going to charge me with. There's nothing that is worse than me not being able to provide for my family. Keep my business going. Like, throw the book at me. I'll admit. Yeah, fair enough, I did the wrong thing, but you, I was fucked without getting my truck back, you know.
Speaker 2:I rung you first.
Speaker 1:You didn't help me. And it's so funny, like I'm there, like my truck's got a number plate printed out on the front of it, um, and I checked the number plate and it was off like another high. No, so they're obviously scoping out shit that looks the same and printing out the number plates and then lemonading them and putting them behind number plate cases and that I looked like, it looked like legit, you know. And then, and then the police actually were half happy by the end because because they had like three builders trailers there, you know 20 grand worth of milwaukee tools, um, and like I look back now and I I piss myself laughing when it happened, because I'm sitting there, like we're sitting there, sat down getting charged or whatever for for, um, trespassing and and uh, public nuisance and shit, and and I'll make rings this fella up and he goes hey, mate, we've found your motorbike, we've found your kazaki ninja.
Speaker 1:And I look over and it's a fucking swing arm on the ground, man, and I'm like like they're ringing people about their, their stolen goods, but like this bloke's gonna go oh yeah, they found my motorbike, and he and they rolls in and it's just like a tire and a like just bits and pieces.
Speaker 1:And the sheila there said, oh, we've got him on camera flogging us up. We want him charged. So they said, oh yeah, sweet, so you'll have whoever brought all this stolen shit here on camera, wouldn't you? And she's like, oh, we don't have anything on camera. But there was like no shit. It was like a trade tools in the back shed there. Like they opened it up jet skis, motorbikes, cars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've just got heaps of people's shit back and done everyone a lot of people a big favour.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean. And then that's what I said to them. I said look like if you had got my truck back. But like my truck was fucked, like they pressure packed back the whole thing. So I was was fucked, like they pressure pack black the whole thing. So I was like super cheap auto rattle can fucking paint job, you know, like I was dropping gear to jobs like like half you know, dip the hat on the you know, because it just looks so fucked because it still ran, good, but it just looks so fucked for like the next week.
Speaker 2:But uh, but yeah, like they and that's like it's crazy that that shit goes on like theft is one thing that really boils my blood.
Speaker 1:And especially like when you steal someone's ability to make a living. I can't that's. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:It's just scumbags Like if you want something, go and work and earn it yourself. Don't knock it off from people that work hard to get it.
Speaker 1:And I say that to the poise as well. I make a point of not, I still buy secondhand stuff, but I make a point of not like fishing that sort of stuff out when you see it on Facebook marketplace or whatever. I definitely make a point of not buying other people's shit because you just you know, like I'd be a TAFE five, ten years ago and other apprentices would be like, oh, I've got a mate like I bought this cordless kit off him for 50 bucks or whatever. And you're like well, kind of you can't buy the fucking Milwaukee cordless kit for 50 bucks. If you buy into it and you buy those things, then you're enabling people. And it's funny I've got another mate and he sort of said he said to me, oh, it's probably like a month after that and he said I got this mate, that's got a, got a, um, got this, I'm gonna buy it off him right, like he got it from bunnings or whatever the story was, and I said oh man, like, if you want to, that's all well and good.
Speaker 1:But I said like, especially after having my shit knocked off, that further enforces the fact that I'm I can't buy other people's.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't I can't you said you can't enable people, I can't enable people, people to keep doing it.
Speaker 1:I can't enable people to keep doing it. And he goes oh yeah, righto, no worries. And then, like he rang me back two days later and he's like oh fuck, I fucking, I was on a job site, I just stuck down the road for 10 minutes and they pinched this, this and this and all I could fucking think was it's my fault, so you should like that.
Speaker 2:That is your fault, you know he goes, he goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I fully understand what you like. You know what I mean, and so that was a hard life lesson for him to learn, but but at the same time, yeah, like.
Speaker 2:So, man, what's? That was some good practice for you. You're into your fighting now you. You're bloody doing a few fights. You're looking fit as yeah, I've lost the um and, like you said, your coach has helped you out a lot in life and that's flowed through to your business. But I imagine the fighting has helped you, like fitness helps everybody. Yeah, it's become a bit of a release for you to take out the stress or work and that sort of stuff yeah, and that's sort of it.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, so uh, steve-o makes us run seven k's every other and then we, you know, do rounds on the pads for you know, so I'll get home and I'm just fucking destroyed, wake up the next day and do it again. It's something. It's a. I've always struggled to sit still to and then that was the other thing. Like I go on instagram and and fuck around and just waste hours of my day just trying to not numb myself, I guess, but but to wind down, so to speak. So it's sort of I've got a release now in the way that I go train every afternoon. It's obviously like I don't look into the body chemistry stuff of it, but apparently it releases endorphins and make like I genuinely when I'm. I would say I would have been depressed before, before I, before I started it. Yeah, like I would have been. You know, I was 100 and 100 and I think it was 118 kilos when I, when I first started, when I first walked into the gym and I was so what made you want to do it?
Speaker 2:Is it something you always wanted to do?
Speaker 1:I had a boxing fight when I was 18 and I was pretty fit at the time and I really enjoyed it. I've always sort of at school I used to get in blues all the time and that sort of stuff. It was sort of something of. It's always sort of crept into my life in one way or another. I guess at 40 I'd be a bit rough and tumble and I had probably my best mate from when we were like maybe 13 years old. He passed away and he was actually my first employee when I bought my house the first bloke I ever lived with, and when we were kids.
Speaker 1:Like I've got a lazy eye so we used to get especially not that Nudgee's bad school or anything like that.
Speaker 1:But, like I come from, my mum's got enough money to send me there, but not the sort of money that other people have there.
Speaker 1:So, like you know, she'd be dropping me off to school in the Falcon with a dickie seat in the back and I'd be getting her to drop me down the bottom.
Speaker 1:So no one's seeing me driving to school, um, and and I can't even remember, but he was just like not to say he was a weird kid, but he was just a bit different, you know, and where. So we got picked on a fair bit during school for, for whatever reason, and I got to a point where I was like I got a bit bigger, your puberty and, and I sort of fended for myself a bit and and and and as sad as it is now to this day, I sort of there was times in in group scenarios where I didn't stick up for him, you know, like I was just happy to not be getting shit hung on me that I didn't, you know. And then we got out of school and we got like you know, you start partying and that sort of stuff, and he sort of got more and more into that lifestyle and and when you're in that lifestyle and you put what partying and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and obviously all the things that go with it, like drugs and that sort of stuff. People gravitate towards you, but they're fake people, you know what I mean. So he passed away pretty much a year before I had my first fight and, as sad as it is, I think he died never truly being happy with who he was inside. Do you know what I mean? And that's a fuck thing to say that he lived his whole life and maybe wasn't comfortable with himself. You know what I mean. And then about the same time, me and my brother got into a barney and he said you think you're a big, tough cunt? Like go have a fight, go do it in the ring. You think you're you, you know? And I said, and I was like I was 120 kilos at the time and I sort of said I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:It started off as I'm just gonna do it for for me, mate, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go have a blue and and and obviously like, fuck it. Like yeah, I would have been real self-conscious at the time. Like you like to say, oh, I don't, I don't care about what other people, but even within myself it just didn't feel good to be especially because I'm only 5'10", like I was a big dude, you know. So I just it was one of those things.
Speaker 1:It was a bit of a turning point in my life and like obviously he had health implications for other reasons, but I was looking at myself in the mirror and going like man, like I'm going to be a big dude if I keep going down this road, you know. And just as much as doing positive things positively affects everything, doing negative thing, being negative and and being in that, that shit mentality like work all day, driving home at six o'clock at night because you didn't put any processes in place, then you're fucking too tired to cook dinner, so fuck it, I'll just get maccas, and then that turns into pizza the next night. And then it gets to the point where you're like, oh, you look back and back and like Just all laziness, isn't?
Speaker 1:it. It's all laziness and my missus reckons I'm still lazy. She cooks my meal plan, so I've got to give her a bit of a shout out. But yeah, so I sort of and, yeah, my mate Bo, I said I'm going to fucking, I'm going to do this, you know, like I'm want to do something for you. And I rolled down to the gym and I said, yeah, I want to have a fight. And Steve looked me up and down and said, yeah, you can have a fight, but you've got to run 7Ks. You run 7Ks every day for a month to get into fighters before training. And I ran the first day. I ran. I ran 3Ks in like 26 minutes or something, and then it took me about six months of it took me about six months of.
Speaker 2:It took me like six months to get into fighters, you know, and it was one of those things that like, so what was well that was driving you? Yeah, like you wanted to do it for your mates.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to, you know, and I wanted to. I just like anything I've never done in my life like I've been pretty half-right at a lot of things, I guess Anything I've never done, it was because I was in my own head. I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think I could. You know what I mean. And if I didn't have a coach like Steve, I would never have had a fight. You know, and especially being the boss, no one holds you accountable. Like people will whinge about you but no one says what are you doing? You dickhead. Like when you, it flips the script and you're getting flogged up by a 16 year old kid that weighs 50 kilos, like it, it humbles you so immensely, it's not funny. So you go from being the big dog at work to going there and you're the. You're the slowest fattest. You're the slowest fattest person at at that.
Speaker 2:You know, you're the, you're, you're the first one on this podcast to drop c-bombs, so, uh, you'll have to cut you'll have to cut them out. That's all right, mate.
Speaker 1:That's the house raiser coming at me but you're the slowest, fattest person there. It brings you back down to reality and you realize. But it also helps the business. Actually helps, because I've been in the Hurt Locker before. I've started something from nothing. Look, what's the difference between me and a world champion? 10,000 hours, all right, no worries. In 10,000 hours of training, I'll be there, like so.
Speaker 2:Like you've changed mate, like seriously, since we first met. Like I don't know how long it's been. What has it been Four or five years? Yeah, four or five years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you are on a mission Like it's even more so now that I start to think about having kids and that sort of stuff. I want to be. Just be a good person is above all else. You know what I mean. There's like and then so obviously, yeah, like I've got a bit of fire in the belly. I guess that's why I do. I do like fighting and, but then to to be angry at people and and I'm not that I have ever gone that way but to be violent towards people that don't don't want it's a sport, you know what I mean. Like it's a, it's an outlet, it's a it's. It's like a game of chess, but it hurts. Yeah, like that's that's. That's the simplest way to put it. Well, I'm not going to play chess, yeah, um, so it's, it's. Uh, I've learned so many things that have transpired and like so do you think the fighting is?
Speaker 2:I haven't done fighting. Uh, a couple of my mates were champion bloody kickboxers and shit growing up and I trained a little bit here and there with them but I could just never get into it. But do you think it's more the commitment? You obviously get a lot out of the fighting, but I imagine you get just as much or more out of the training and out of the commitment.
Speaker 1:It makes you so mentally tough.
Speaker 2:And the consistency.
Speaker 1:And the consistency. And if you consistently do shit that you don't want to do, it becomes easy to do things that you don't want to do and no one wants to work.
Speaker 2:And that flows through to your business.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:Everyone forgets about consistency and commitment, and they all just want the easy.
Speaker 1:And delayed gratification like nothing. There's nothing in this world that comes easy and is good. Yeah, you win the lotto tomorrow. You'll still feel empty because You'll be broke in a week.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say no, but I would go. Now that I know what I know, I'd go buy new tools and new trucks, because that's do you know what I'm saying? But yeah, like the, especially like the, I'm not a good runner by any means necessary. You know, and I think my best, I did a 7k, maybe a month and a half ago in in four minutes and 20 seconds, okay. Four minutes and 25 seconds okay, which is about 30 minutes, and that's like. That's like a good pace, for I don't know if you know much about running, but that's a good pace for anyone, let alone a bloke. That was 125 kilos.
Speaker 1:And when you're on the run and it's like, yeah, and people will always say, oh, there's better things you could do, like jump on the bike and get your exercise, get your heart rate up, that'll get you fitter, quicker. But nothing prepares you for when you're like 5Ks in and it's another 3Ks and it's so shit and you just got to keep going. Well, you've got to get back, haven't you? You've got to get back, haven't you? You've got to get back. It's easy to step off on a run. You've got to get back home. That's exactly right and it's sort of. And then, and then, furthermore, from there, you know you sort of think, you know everyone that watches boxing fights thinks, like you know, when someone gets hit, flush and knocked out, you think, yeah, I'd get up. You know what I mean. I I'd get up, like everyone thinks they would. And and you don't know if you would until you, until you're in that situation everyone's always sitting up in the stands and in the arena, mate and giving people shit and at a football game.
Speaker 2:You hear them on the stand singing out or watching the state of origin or something. Then everyone's like trying to tell them what to do.
Speaker 1:Like you fucking get down there on the field and do it then that's exactly right, and, and, and it's probably like you know, the boys that work for me come and watch me. Come and watch me fight. That's probably the most vulnerable you could ever be in, in, in front, in front of the people that look up to you as a boss, right? Or are you get knocked out in front of you know?
Speaker 2:so I uh, what's your goal? What's your goal with the fighting?
Speaker 1:with the fighting. I want to do it till I'm. I want to do it for another maybe four years It'd be. You know, obviously I'd be aiming to win like an Australian title or something in three, four years' time, as it comes to light. I just want to. And same again when I have kids, or even like even when I have employees and they're 18 and they're going and getting on the piss with their mates on the weekends.
Speaker 1:It's not that that's like where they're going to the valley, or like going camping with your mates Awesome. Having a couple of beers in your backyard with your mates Awesome. Going and spending your whole paycheck at the casino, or not awesome. You know, I, I just I'm a very headstrong person in the way that, like if someone, if someone, wants to give me advice, how, how credible are they? That's that's how I look at it. You know what I mean and I'm not saying I'm trying to give people advice or whatever, but I want to, at the end of the day, stand on my own two feet and say, look, I've done the hard yards. Like I've made the tough decisions.
Speaker 2:You were saying before we started recording today, you were talking to me about you want to start a family and stuff and you were saying that you don't want your kids to get to a point where they say to you what have you done? Yeah, like, and I I think that's like there'd be a lot of parents out there that like, if they thought about it like what, what have they completed? What have they done? Like you, you do. You want to set examples for people, don't you like?
Speaker 1:and then that's true, and the worst bosses I ever had were bosses that just told me to do shit. The best bosses I ever had were bosses that said come on, come with me, this is, this is how you do it, rather than just and and I've been. I've been both. Yeah, I've been. I've been a boss that tells people what to do. I've been a boss that grabs someone by the shirt and says, oi, come on I don't have?
Speaker 2:on the shovel this morning with their first year apprentice and shoveled three cube of crusher dusk, is it that's?
Speaker 1:what I mean, but I've worked for people that would sit in the aircon in their fucking car and pretend to make calls and be and be on their phone yeah, I agree, 100 mate.
Speaker 1:Like you've got to, you got to practice what you preach like and um and that's a that's uh, if you, the more you practice, that's what. That's what. That's probably the biggest thing I love about muay thai and kick. Bringing it back to that is I never want to go to train and after work I never want to. My toes are fucked from kicking people's shins. I never want like I enjoy it. But if I could sit at home on the couch and get the same results. But you don't get the same results from sitting on the couch at home. So I just love the mental tenacity that it builds in your brain. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And when you step into the ring and fight someone and they can't match your energy, that's a powerful feeling. Don't get me wrong. There's been times when I've been the nail, not the hammer. But even in those fights I had where I was losing, I'm not going to fucking give up. That's not me. I'm not capable. Capable of that. You know what I mean. And then, if you, if you like, I just love that. I love even the fights that I've lost. People go fuck that shane still fell as tough or like he fought a good fight.
Speaker 2:I know I've said you and I'm I am keen as to come and watch you fight this. Every time you've had a fight there's been other shit on, but I just want to come. I want to hear him call your name out. You have got a name for a fighter. Here comes Shane Steele.
Speaker 1:And I walk out to my walkout song is Dolly Parton 9 to 5. So it's like it's funny. I was re-watching one of my last fights and I walked out to Dolly Parton 9 to 5 and the commentator's like, oh, he'd want to be a tough bugger to you know, you'd want to have a bit of gusto about you too, because everyone that's the other thing. Like I'm not trying to be something, I'm not. You know, everyone walks out to like 50 Cent, eminem, like man, I'm a house-raised stumper from Beanley. What do me and 50 Cent have in common? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But I do work five to five. You know what I mean. So, like I just be myself, go out there, have a crack, have a good time and everyone I've had a fight like I'm lifelong friends with pretty well every bloke that I've had a fight in the ring with. Because it's a crazy feeling I can't explain it Like. I cannot explain a feeling like it when you, when you're walking out, like and I'm getting like butterflies and and the tingles on the back of my neck thinking about it because it's like yeah, yeah, it's like I can't even.
Speaker 1:It's like I've played footy. I've played half a right footy. I've done heaps of things, but nothing, nothing compares to that. You know what I mean. And uh, but yeah, and that that's what I love about it. If you, if you just get up every day and the the days that I don't want to do it, you end up having the best session because you, you, once you get over and you realize I'm here to stay, it, it becomes so much easier and that's, that's something, that's and and. When I first, when I first went and went down there and started training, I did have a weak mind, like I did.
Speaker 2:There was days that I fucking give up and and and I think you, I think your podcast today is going to inspire a lot of people like I take my hat off to you if you keep like we're gonna have to get you back another 18 months, mate, because I want to see you, I want to keep continuing to watch your journey and I guess, for anyone that's listening or watching this podcast, go back and listen to shane's first one and you'll you'll hear and see the difference from the last one to this one and probably the biggest thing I'll say to people is which I like about your podcast.
Speaker 1:I like about a few other podcasts that I that I watch is everyone on mine will tell you how great they're doing. They tell you how they're fucking killing it, how nothing's ever a drama, it's all smooth sailing. I'm the greatest. I'll tell you like then this is what I project is like I've been a terrible boss in my life. I suppose it would be.
Speaker 1:I've been in the way that, like the COVID thing I didn't get vaccinated but like if you can stand up in a room full of people and have an opinion different to everyone else and voice it firmly, that's a powerful thing.
Speaker 1:There's been times when I haven't been that person, and that's okay if you're not that person right now, but as long as every day you're trying, and sometimes and I'll bring it back to Steve-O he talks about rowing a boat.
Speaker 1:He's like you know, you jump in the boat, you need to get up the river, you fucking row and then you get washed down the river a bit or you get washed off to the side as long as you get back on the horse. And there's days where you're not going to be the best and there's days where you're going to look back and be like, oh, I didn't handle that the best or I wasn't the best person in that situation. If you're genuinely striving to be better every day, it'll get to a point where you still you'll never achieve it. You'll never achieve what you want to. You'll achieve what you want to be. When I talk about that, if you set a goal and you want to be this, even if you don't get to that, let's say it's an unrealistic goal you're still 10 times better than what you were when you started and you got to look back. But don't forget to keep going. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:And that's you have to set unrealistic goals, mate and like, even if you only get halfway there, like you say, you're still far better off than where you were.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right.
Speaker 2:But you've got to push, you've got to aim for something. But, yeah, I think you're an inspiring young bloke mate. I really, really love what you're doing. Really love what you're doing. I love our little chats we have, um, and I know you, you've definitely inspired people today. So, but before we wrap it up, is there anything else you'd want to touch on before you?
Speaker 1:not really. Yeah, I, um, yeah, like I, yeah, I just I definitely wanted to finish on that that, like even me now, like I'm not perfect, I'm trying, like I it's. I definitely don't want to be one of those people that acts like it's okay to think, like probably what you were talking about at the start of the show, where you said what makes you get up and I made you think about it, haven't I?
Speaker 1:What makes you get up Like obviously, I think I've got a twinkle in my eye that other people don't have. I don't think I'm better than them, or I think I'm willing to do what other people won't, but even I guess.
Speaker 2:Just we'll touch on that for a bit before we wrap up. Like it doesn't. Like when I asked you what gets you out of bed every day, like some people think that that has to be something really special.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But do you know what mine is?
Speaker 1:What's that?
Speaker 2:I just want to be better than I was yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go, like that's it, just want to be better than I was yesterday, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, there you go. Like that doesn't. It doesn't have to be huge like, and reality is if, if you aim to be better than you were the day before, putting more effort than you did the day before, just that extra one percent, just keep putting in that extra one percent all the time. Reality is you are going to reach incredible goals and have incredible things because you're continually growing. And when you're continually growing, that's when you get to a point where you think things are easier, but they're not easier. You've just grown.
Speaker 1:That's yeah, and that is when, if you want to take it to the next level, that's when you put a little bit more on your plate. You put a little bit more on your plate when things get easy, make them hard again and then-.
Speaker 2:That's definitely a key point too.
Speaker 1:And not hard in the way of like this is shit. It's not working Hard in the way of like how can I find a way to make this easier? And then, once you compartmentalize that, put it in your back pocket. Yeah, and as a business, you'll do that put it in your back pocket, turn around and fix something else, and then that'll be fucked again.
Speaker 2:So you'll have to go back and fix that and the most important thing is don't, when things do get a little bit hard again, don't go back to your old ways, like you've got to keep growing all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that's exactly right. And just trying, like some people, like sometimes stuff doesn't work. You know what I mean. Like, when I built those trusses, it was like a gamble. You know what I mean. Like it was an educated guess. Bet on yourself, like, bet on yourself, like, bet on yourself. That's I, and then I. I. I say this and this probably more so for younger blokes like you get some I had. I wasted so much time in my life, from 16 to 22, going out drinking, getting fomo. Oh, what are my mates doing? Just worry about what you're doing. Like, worry, like, worry about yourself. And there'd be 40olds like I'd probably come to that conclusion when I was 24. I needed to make a change. There's no way I was going to let it. But if you're a 40-year-old and you haven't come to that conclusion, or things aren't working.
Speaker 2:You're going to kill it, mate, because that was a huge realization for me. Like, because you, especially with Instagram, like people are so sucked into now to all the shit they see on instagram and reality is like I I I know I could be more real. Like, I try and be pretty real on my socials and that's why a lot of people are following this podcast and doing what they're doing. But, like I know I could do a lot more. But there's days when I'm like oh fuck, I haven't didn't get a good sleep last night. I look a bit shit, like um, and then and then like, oh yeah, no, I don't feel like doing a post today or whatever. But like, I try and keep it as real as possible and that's people like authenticity.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Like, like, like, I try and be as real as possible, like I like I don't. I like I am who I am and I can't change who I am. I that's, and it's so funny the more time you spend you'll. The other thing as well is like I found, when I was real self-conscious about other people and what other people were doing, I was always judging people. Do you know what I mean? Because that, that's the, that's, that's what's flowing through you. You're worried about what they're doing, so then you'll, you'll, you walk past someone on the street. You know, like, like, um, someone might be down and out on on the street or whatever, and then you you'll judge them without it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:These days, I'm like how you going, mate, no worries. Like who gives a fuck, it doesn't. Like we all just exist in trying to have a good time, so to speak. The more you get consumed by water, it holds you. You're giving people your energy. That's the biggest thing. That I'm so against is like, if I give someone five minutes of my day, or not necessarily one person if I give anyone 10 minutes of my day, every single day, whether that be on Instagram, like I literally don't even have and I've got a real addictive personality. Like with ADD is like I can't stop myself from going on Instagram. I can't stop myself from going on Facebook. So I've literally had to hack myself and get my office lady to change the passwords on my social media. And this is just me recognizing that I'm not capable of like some people are. I'm not, so I've got on the steel house raising phone in the office. I've got Instagram and Facebook. And it's so hard now, especially because you need social media. Social media is such a big part of business, like it's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's incredible for business, but it's so addictive.
Speaker 1:So addictive Because, like who, like man, it's hard to raise their house. Who doesn't want to watch videos of, like cars racing or whatever you may be interested in? You know what I mean. So like.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I'm not the only one mate hours racing people doing skids.
Speaker 1:They need fishing, oh that's what I mean, Like you know, and then it's sort of like kickboxing stuff, like all that sort of thing I get. So it's worse.
Speaker 2:Look, it's actually worse than drugs, isn't it it?
Speaker 1:literally is.
Speaker 2:There's people ruining their lives because they are stuck on it so much.
Speaker 1:And also like the people that organize Instagram and Facebook and that they're so much smarter than us, like in the way that, like like when you play a poker machine, it they make certain sounds that are harmonically pleasing to like this.
Speaker 2:it's the same for instagram they have, like it's all the algorithm mate they feed you what you want to see.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, then, to keep you there, because then they can. Then they can charge your shop an extra 50 bucks on an ad because they'll go look a million people like people, like when you're swallowing through. That's what they'll slip that in.
Speaker 2:You know that's a whole other podcast man?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, for sure. But what I'm saying is I don't not that I don't care what other people are doing, but I don't waste my life.
Speaker 2:It's all right to say that, mate. I say that Camille gets the shits with me, but I don't care. I do not care what other people are doing. I don't care what's happening in the world. All I care about is I need to run my own race and look after my family.
Speaker 1:And that's where I'm at. Like I need to be more present in my relationships and I can give more time to staff. Like you know what I mean. Like I'll be on my phone at the office and I'll go oh it's nine o'clock, like that's two's an hour. I could have been walking my dog, bro. Like I'm I'm not that thing's whole life, you know. Like, like I literally licks the windows when I come home, you know you know, you know, you know what I mean and it's like I'm everything to him.
Speaker 2:I know I think that's awesome because my dog brings me back to reality. I look at my dog, Walter, and there's not a care in the world, Literally Like he just gives Camille and I talk about it all the time, like he just loves us.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean, you know, and it's unconditional. No matter how shit your day has been, no matter how you could come in that gate, so grumpy that dog loves you. You know what I mean come in that gate so grumpy that dog loves you.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. But how good is it like spending time out in the yard throwing a ball or patting the dog, rather than sitting and flicking social media on your phone?
Speaker 1:You're doing him a disservice if you're sitting there. I know it was like a reality check for me. One day. I was like I can't remember what I was doing. I was real sick or for whatever reason. I was just sitting on the couch. I think it might have been. It might have actually been.
Speaker 1:After one of my fights my shins were busted as but like. I looked over at my dog after like being on my phone for three hours and I was like fuck this man, like let's go for a walk, bro. And it hurt me to go for a walk because my buck always saw, but he's like sniffing everything. But he's like sniffing everything, like it was just like just being present around, like. You know what I mean. That's something I've always struggled with is, and especially like your generation actually existed before. Social media, like Instagram, was like it was a big thing when I was like 12, 13. I feel bad for people moving forward from here, because my generation, I'm the last person, the last age group, to ever truly be bored. You know, when you're like in your room and like there's literally nothing to do, you know what I mean, whereas now there's so much like-.
Speaker 2:Mate. I was driving home from work yesterday and I'm driving down the road and there's this kid riding a flash mountain bike. He would have been 8 or 10 years old and he had a phone holder on his handlebars and one hand on the handlebars and like one hand flicking. So no way, yeah, he would have been on instagram. And then I got a red light and he he was like I passed him and then I got up to a red light and then he's come past me like no hands, and then as I took off from the got the line turned green. I took off again. He's running around no hands. But then his hands keep touching the screen.
Speaker 2:yeah, right, and I'm like holy fuck like that like not only is it super dangerous because you're riding along the road where the speed limit's 70 k's an hour, but you're more focused on your phone than where you're, what you're doing and where you're going or even just taking it in and that's and that's what I thought to myself. Fuck, when I was your age, mate, I, mate. I was out on my BMX, we had shovels, we were making mounds of dirt, we were fucking laying down on the ground, jumping each other.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean, like crushing Coke cans, so it sounded like a motorbike.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like that's and I genuinely I feel like people talk about how younger generations have it easier or in some ways they do, but in other ways, like I feel bad from they're exposed to that. You know, like I got picked on a bit in high school but up until high school it was like it never was a thing. Do you know what I mean? Now kids are like they've got social media, you know, and you got little girls like and that's a dangerous thing in a eight, 10 year old kid's- mind it's insane, and so probably that's the that's the biggest thing I want my kids to just be like when, when I talk about having kids and and, and I want to have something to share with them.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like like me and my old man like never had anything that in common. You know what I mean. And then my poor mom, single mom, and then obviously got my stepdad a bit later on, but like had had to run the business, my, my, my two uncles and my grandparents my grandparents had come from housing commission, had no money. Then they they got money. Like they spent their whole lives just trying to. And same with my mum and her two brothers, they've spent their whole lives just trying to get to a point where they can live. And you know it's so funny.
Speaker 1:Like my, my uncle, like he's a man of very few words but like he got some old recycled like railway sleepers but like bridge beams, railway bridge beams and made like at his house. He's got a few acres made like a mongere, it's called like it's an Irish term, it's a place in Ireland and my nan used to call his place that and so like. And it's funny, I look, I catch him just looking at it in his yard. You know what I mean. And then I think about my granddad. I went up there not too long ago and he's got like a vineyard, like he's made a vineyard, you know, and like you never realize that these people had dreams and aspirations and that they had to put on a shelf in order to, in order to.
Speaker 1:I think about how, how, what a weapon my granddad would have been at kickboxing if he had the opportunities that I have. You know what I mean and that's why that's why I want to do that for my kids, to have something to to share with them and then to to make them confident in themselves so that, like, when those things do happen in life and chip you down, it's okay because I'm better than that, I'm stronger than that. This is what's meant for me and my path has been chosen, it's okay, it's going to be all right. You know what I mean. Whereas, like, a lot of kids don't have that, they don't have that, and then you fall into those things of like drugs and gambling, because you're chasing a bit of a-.
Speaker 2:Well, with social media, mate, you're always just chasing what other people have.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean.
Speaker 2:You're not living your own-.
Speaker 1:When even people that's not even real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's all bullshit, it's all bullshit.
Speaker 1:My social media is pretty real. I am working in the shed at 7 o'clock on a Saturday night, but I genuinely enjoy the life I live and I don't try and project anything. I don't try and be something I'm not, because you always get found out around the traps you know 100%.
Speaker 2:But, mate, look, really appreciate you coming back having another chat today. I think it's been fantastic Lots of bombs dropped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, you'll have to edit those out.
Speaker 2:No, mate, it is what it is. This is a real podcast. So, look, if anyone yeah, check Shane Steele out house raising on Instagram. They do incredible work. Go and check these trusses out. You'll see the videos I've done about it. It's frigging awesome. I definitely think it's a huge accomplishment, mate, to be doing what you're doing. But, look, we want to continue to make this podcast Australia's number one construction podcast. So, like, share, comment, all those types of things. If there is a particular thing you want us to talk about or guess you want us to get on, then let us know. But, yeah, keep listening and hopefully this one's been a cracker and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. Are you ready to build smarter, live better?
Speaker 2:and enjoy life, then head over to live like buildcom forward slash elevate to get started everything discussed during the level up podcast with me, duane pierce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at information only and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.